Like a bat out of Pilas

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what happened? ran out of time and space in Creel...and nervously anticipating the run down to Batopilas...next morning early start...sort of quiet nervousness but a beautiful smooth run down to Samariche...some of you would have read my mail from here 3 years ago about the horror and the splendour of this road to Batopilas...dropping nearly 2000metres in 140 kms...most of the drop is on the last 70 kms of unmade road from Samariche to Batopilas...slipping and sliding over the most unmade of unmade roads you could imagine...it was pretty scary on the bus but this was to be something else again...to put it into perspective, well, my perspective anyway...since I first cnsidered doing this trip and the inclusion of Copper Canyon on the itinerary I have suffered serios sleeping disorders and drop off nearly every night with visions of dropping the bike somewhere on this road and-or going over the edge...this really has been the nemesis of my whole journey...life even...so here we were at the turn off...the first bit of the dirt is a steep incline of gravel, rocks and exposed boulders...turning of the ABS...the red light on the dash lights up to remind me that everything will now lock up if-when I grab a handful and panic...certain death....the road is fairly straightforward with just a few suicidal corners , patches of bulldust, still very tentative...after about 10 kms I{ve almost drained the camelback...constantly reminding myself to relax...tension equals death...we start the main descent...almost indescribable.....the vista expands to mind-numbing proportions...its vertigo inducing views, kilometres across the canyons, kilometres to bottom almost vertically below....you can see the ribbon of road crisscrossing down into the depths...the extent of this pnorama takes your breath away....it is truly majestic...and on one rare, short straight before heading into the next guaranteed'fatality corner, a couple of long bushy-eyebrowed goats are perched precariously (altho not for them obviously)right on the edge of a thousand metre drop...right on the edge of the road in fact...looking like disdainful professors arrogantly or nonchalantly peering over their glasses at some lesser life form.....looking back, wide-eyed and manic from within my armpour plating, heart-in-mouth. white knuckled (remember to relax...its sort of a use-the-force-Luke sort of thing)....I now see goats, in general, in a different light...I mean ..out of the two of us, who is the fcuking idiot!
and sometimes the bike just wants to go straight across the corner....heading up the near-vertical face of the corner she wants to go into the wall....or the void....sheee it...whole body tensing, trying to wrench the bars around...almost stalling...half my brain staring at the ground ahead....equals instant death...but its natural...you can't get out of this its saying to me...its all loose gravel...you can't do it...the other half (hopefully the stronger) is saying...remember the training day...just look to where you want to go, point the wheel there, gently on the throttle and she'll go there....trying to relax, trying to wrench the eyes off the rock in front and look to the next strainght, whole body urging the bike to come around...finally it works, slight slide of the arse and she pulls out of the ditch and back on course....crikey...there goes 10 years life expectancy, a litre or two of sweat and various other bodily functions...deep breath. and straightaway in to same thing again...but only 30 kms to go....I{m knackered, soaked in sweat, feeting aching from hours standing on the pegs...desperately trying to grab the camelbacktube and get it into my mouth before the next handlebar'wrenching , jarring, sliding, slipping, scrabbling corner...just soo many near-death experiences, missed by a hairs breadth....now thats a funny expression to translate..maybe hare's breath would be easier...so, to digress as .I can hardly tell you the sense of achievement I felt...probablty not too serious a ride for many, but for me this was truly a life defining moment.....after the build up, the preparation and the execution...to have done this...sorry if I{m going on but it was this big for me........and we all agreed that what with the first days of Baja and coming up from Guyamas and this extraordinary run......if by some misfortune the trip ended here we have had a seriously fantastic experience.
So, all a bit of an anti-clime after that?..no way...back on the bitumed, finally out of 1st gear...thrashing the dust off the bikes..back to the unexpected fantasticness of these Mexicana roads...well engineered, great surface, sort of well'signed...and still taking care as every corner could be the one that starts tightening up halfway thru...or theres a fcuking great truck coming at you, or cattle on the road....even saw a cow sleeping on the road yesterday...oblivious to the traffic having to swerve around it...and ibnto oncoming traffic....or rocks, anything from as few stones and gravel to half the road blosked with massive boulders...and always discomfortingly fresh-looking falls!!!...Ted stopped by a rockfall across half the road to take some shots of us coming into the corner....then he noticed a few pebbles continuing to fall....looked up and theres a gigantic, overhanging rock face sort of quyivering...being the dedicated photgrapher he is, he stayed to get the shots....praying the trucks rumbling pst wouldn{t dislodge more of the rockface until he was done....
We stayed in Hidalgo del Parral...and chrmingly beautiful old town centre surrounded by the crappiet shit industrial, slummy, crapola..you wouldn{t want to know...then to Durango...and a >BIG HI to John Wayne and all that era of yesteryears westerns that we grew up on...well, some of us did....
And yesterday the fang down from Durango to my favouritest city I reckon anywhere (apart from Melbourne) Mazatlan....the ride down here is renowned as one of the picturesquest routes of anywhere...and it was...we keep thinking we've seen it all but things just get bigger and more spekky...this run includes the Devils Spine and we seemed to ride right down it...another day of fantastic curvery, dropping into 2nd gear corners really excessively tight, again the rocks and the cattle and today thousands of trucks and cars...its sunday!...glimpsing clear road thru the corner, dropping down and passing these behemoths on the inside, praying something quick doesn't come round the next bend, cranking it to get past then jumping on everything before chucking it into the next hairpin...god bless these bikes...absolutely amazing ......
and into Mazatlan, found the way to the hotel I stayed at last time...checked in and got rooms on the first floor...with balcony...exy but we deserve it..escaped death and serious injury, rest day...todo es bueno...and ask about parking...just ride on in thru the foyer...park in the courtyard...too easy...and this is right on the beach front...the guy even brings out little ramps so we can ride right in...unbelievable!!
This place does have a bit more personality...not so much as Batoplas but certainly more than the run-of-the-mill shit motels in Parral and Durango that have that universal impartiality of big city motels...you could be aywhere in the world....and here..bonus..el Shrimp Bucket (I kid you not) restaurant and bar as part of the building...fabulous sunset from the balcony..a few celebratory cervezas...up to the old square for some tucker...all very up-market now...seriosly renno-ed and many more restaurants...lots more english spoken here...big mob of americans and canadians have been buying up down here altho the crowd now is mainly mexicanas on school hols.
Tuned on the TV as we have heard some news of bombs in London_....but alls we get is fcuking, mind-numbing CNN...spending all day and night on some wannabe hurricane...such crapola coverage..can{t believe it!
anyway, now all thats off my chest...thanks to all for your comments etc...hope this doesn{t wear you out...I will definitely get some pics up later today and send you the links to Ted and Grant's sites where theres more to see.
Also Grant has the more accurate picture of whats actually happened, with real details of facts ...and all that sort of stuff that I tend to get carried away with...so for the real story...http;homepage,mac.com/gforbes3 and if you go to ripcurl.com.au you will sooner or later get led to Ted{s photos...the really good ones!....

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