Photo: Todd Sutherland
Taking a moment to re-group with riding mates
doesn’ t really need to be done – it’ s just ready to go. Wearing courier bags rammed with tape, pigtails, standards and arrows, we rode some of the weekend’ s trails, adjusting markers, adding more arrows, taping off tracks and routes to make sure the routes were obvious and nobody would take a wrong turn that might lead off a cliff or, heaven forbid, into the live firing area where unexploded ordnance is left exactly as it is – unexploded. Every rider has a ride safety briefing which shows them what they might see, and not to touch anything no matter how shiny or interesting it is. Four hours of riding and marking later we arrive back in camp and grab a volunteer’ s lunch pack each. We’ ve ridden some great trails and had them completely to ourselves as these tracks don’ t open until the Saturday. As I’ m tucking into my sandwich, Sam’ s dad, Dave Greenslade, who’ s been instrumental in keeping good relations with the Army, having served himself,( he knows these training grounds like the back of his hand) assigns us both to his crew for the afternoon. It turns out our‘ mission’ is going to be a long range one, I’ m told to take water, food and warm clothing – we’ ll be gone until early evening. We’ ll be checking tracks on the way out to the fuel dump, refilling
Army food to feed an army
Volunteers ready to go
KIWI RIDER 59