MTB ride 22.9.2011 Yitti/Wadi Mae/Lehloo loop - Story

We had 14-ish riders (Bert, Sarath, Claire, Mike, Andrew, Ingmar, Michel, Alex, Malcolm, Biagio, Daniel, Sami, Joe + few others my forgetful memory just could not take in in spite of asking zillion times).

Start/finish point

We set off into scorching sun but temperature was OK. After kilometer on tarmac we turned to graded road going thru gardens (now poetically called “Galfar camp”, some lucky bugger rented his garden to accommodate all labor power building roads around), regrouped in the end and passed the village in one pack and rode into Wadi Lehloo taking the right fork on Y junction. As group had different levels of riders we stretched, Bert, Mike, Alex leading, then “healthy core” in the middle with trailing but steady riding newbies (Sami). We stop from time to time to regroup but group was quite eager so we reached “the hill” in quite short time.

1 of several regrouping stops on flat boring graded road

As time was after 4, tall jabals along the valley provided pleasant shade. However, in spite the surrounding is quite beautiful, this ride on flat graded roads is dull and boring as sh#t (rode ride done off-road really). We had short break before “the hill”, at least some fun and then grinded on granny rings up 22% steep ascend, however it is just 100m short, but only few managed to ride to the top (Bert and Mike I think). On top we quickly regrouped and because of no shade we pressed on, enjoyed the downhill and stop for half-a-nanna stop in the shade of fence. Ingmar kindly created pool for local children (as Michel pointed out – needed just lil’ bit of chlorine) and because lack of bananas we went on. As this part is slightly downhill we rode quite fast and almost in no time reached village and enjoyed cold soft drinks, watching locals to play cards in peaceful sunset time. Then just quick spin back to cars, Galfar gardens and bit of black top; 26 km fulfilled in exceptionally fast average around 19 km/h, good excersize. We had few newbies (or at least people I never met on our rides before) – Claire, Malcolm, Daniel and Sami (renting bike from Frans) – all managed to keep comfortably with group, good effort indeed, keep it up.

Cold softdrinks, mountainbikers and locals playing cards – clash of cultures

(l-r) Biagio (the 1 with white T’shirt and yellow helmet, not the man sitting on stairs, that’s Babu!) , Bert, Claire,

wasted Andrew and Ingmar in the back, (french clique) Alex, Michel and Sarath