Scariest Moment of My Life!

I was out yesterday night on a local route by Captain Cooks Monument. Everything was nice, bike was feeling good, trails were dry, had some good music in my ears! Me and a Friend were riding down a motocross track towards 'Red Hill', a large natural hill which has it's name for obvious reasons. We blasted down it at a fair speed with me in front. At the bottom we discussed various routes to take us down to the car park. I decided to take a route which I've not ridden in a while. It's a flowing piece of single track with lots of steep downs and a few climbs. My Friend decided to take the wider straight path to the bottom. I usually take this path but I'm a bit bored of it just because it is straight, rocky and a bit dull. I was on my way along the trail, there was quite a lot of debris on the trail due to strong winds the night before. I was enjoying dodging all of the fallen branches but then I had something a bit more angry to dodge....

As I got to an uphill section I started to slow down and get into a climbing pace when out of nowhere, an owl tried to take me out! It flew so close to my head that the feathers wiped across my face. For anyone who wants to know what type of owl it was, I don't know. I didn't think it was an appropriate time to stop and do and do a spot of birdwatching. I was out of their like a shot! I guess I must have entered it's territory. I heard somewhere that they can get very protective over their area but I've got to be honest, I wasn't thinking of that at the time. What made it worse was that you know owls can turn their head all the way round? When it flew past it was giving me an evil stare even though it was flying in the opposite direction. I don't think I'll ever see owls in the same light again. I don't think I'll ever ride that trail again either. I'm just glad it didn't hit me and knock me unconscious then get it's friends round and feast on my body. That would have been disappointing.

To summarize.....

Beware when riding your bike at night, you could get taken down by an owl.