Karnu Rally, Day 1 - Kaurna Country
The day finally arrives. My initial plan of riding into the city to stay with a friend the night before may not have paid off. An unfamiliar bed, city noises and anticipation offered very little sleep. Regardless I was up at 5:20am to eat, pack and get down to the start. 6:15am I was the first there. But only a couple of minutes later the other contenders began to roll in. Low key greetings, some chatter. Phones passed around for pre race photos. Yours Truly I cast a little side-eye at the minimal setup on Simon and David's bikes. Clearly their list of contingencies was much shorter than mine. April looked well prepared as well as my regular bikepacking buddy Andrew. Ollie turned up as a late entry and along with Carly and a few day ride groupies we had a good little crew setting off at 6:30 sharp. Out of the block the pace was faster than I thought necessary. The lightly loaded were leading out. We reached the base of the Black Hill climb in under an hour. Andrew and Othe