Two days after Xmas 2014 I had the opportunity to take the Sertao out exploring in the High country of Victoria with an intention to cross the Murray River at Tom Groggin into New South Wales before heading North into northern New South Wales.
After an exciting ride on Day 1 through the Toolangi State Forest, across the top of Lake Mountain and up Mount Terrible and down into the Howqua Valley (where I camped for the evening), I headed up to Mt Stirling for the descent into the King Valley via Lake Cobbler. The route from there would be up to Abbeyard and on to Bright for the evening.
Well, I made it to Bright, but not quite in the way I intended. Coming down the Lake Cobbler track I managed to lock my front brake on a slow steep descent with a drop off to my left. Unfortunately, the Sertao is a VERY tall bike and when I went to put my foot down the ground just wasn't there and I ended up laying the Sertao down gently on top of my leg. As I swivelled to dismount I twisted my leg, felt a pain in my ankle and knew something was amiss but wasn't too perturbed as the pain wasn't too great and there wasn't even a scratch on the bike. I continued the journey to Bright but next day had to call the journey off and return to Melbourne as my ankle was swelling badly. As it turned out I had exacerbated an old ankle injury and fractured my left fibula so that was the end of the journey for a couple of months before I could complete the NSW trip to Menindee in March .
They say that every cloud has a silver lining and the good that came out of this incident is that I grudgingly accepted that the Sertao was way too tall for me, and subsequently installed a set of lowering links which made a WORLD of difference to my ability to manage the bike.
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