Eisbein
Bachelor Dog
Day 4 - the day things got 'interesting'
On any trip there is a day when the routine and 'rhythm' seems to come together.
For me this was the day.
We were in high spirits and so ready for today's stretch.
Coffee and jokes early morning and we were ready to roll.
The issue with getting out of this spot was that we needed to try and build up speed before we hit the soft riverbed sand.
Not easy with a heavy bike.
Granted - some of the guys made it look easy!
Topbox was out of there like a bat out of hell on his XR, but then gunned it so much that he missed the exit spot, so he made a huge circle across the river bed and went for the exit.
Pity I didn't know he was going to do that as I didn't have my camera ready.
It did look cool though
;D
I managed to get the speed up (eventually) and was gunning it for the exit point at about 60 when I realised (as I tried to apply the brakes) that I didn't switch the ABS off.
So I parked it IN a sand speed bump ;D
Wasn't too difficult to get it out though.
Surf got dug in in almost the same spot I was stuck the previous night, but in no time he was out and going as well.
It looks hellova cool to see that GSA gliding over the sand.
Operator and CJ lending a helping hand
This was the 1st regroup of the morning.
It might be old and outdated with a less than favorable power to weight ratio (at least on paper), but damn - there are not many bike shapes and images that says 'Adventure touring' quite as well as an Africa Twin.
AT in its element
And on the other end of the scale of 'Old and outdated'. KTM knew what they were doing when they designed this
Piksteel coming past.
Again - there's that moon landscape scenery that I (against my 'normal' taste) enjoyed so much.
This country must be a geologist's geomorphology dream...
;D ;D
Take a look at the rock formations and layers
This was close to the Ai-Ais turn off.
The 1200 didn't look too out of place either.
;D ;D
This is the type of environment where you need to trust your bike...
We had lunch and filled up at Noordoewer.
Awesome place (makes good milkshakes as well ;D ).
My camera acted up a little, so I couldn't take photos everywhere I wanted (that is why you'll see 'photo by CJ' every now and then - CJ let me use his photos to fill in the blanks in the story)
We did a little bit of Eco trail (was very cool and interesting) - Klaing took a video of one of the sandy spots and there's a very cool clip of Surf gliding his GSA over it - will see if I can get it up on Youtube.
We also did a lot of k's on corrugated sand covered roads. It caused the bike to be a handful if you were trying to ride it under 50km/h, but as soon as you went over 60 the bike got surefooted and although still twitchy, it made for a very enjoyable ride.
I was enjoying all of this (with the Orange river and its green effect weaving in and out of sight) when we came to a halt due to a perished front tube on Piksteel's bike.
Ektoknbike got it sorted and all of us went down to the river do wet our t-shirts and cool down a little before moving on.
Putting the wheel back
Unfortunately this put a little bit of time constraint on our day and we had to cut out a part of the eco trail that we were planning on doing.
That was a disappointment, but there are things that you would want to do and then there is that nagging thing called common sense.
We went past the turn-off for the eco trail at about 16:30. My GPS said that sunset was at 18:15.
The part of the eco trail we were planning on doing was also about 70km long.
From what we heard it wasn't going to be undo-able, but also not a walk in the park. And even if we attempted it I am pretty sure that we wouldn't have been able to do it within the amount of light the sun was still planning on giving us for that day.
So we went on towards Klein Pella.
Not much further this was what greeted us - turns out Ektoknbike got a flat on his front as well.
It wasn't long before Ektoknbike started reaching for the spanners to put the front wheel back.
We were 30km from the camp site and it was getting late, so we decided that CJ, Klaing, Topbox and Operator would go ahead so long and sort out the camping arrangements.
Ektoknbike, Piksteel, Biesie, me and Surf would bring up the rear.
I was in the groove that day so they said that I should go ahead as well.
As much as I love sweeping - it is always cool at least once in a trip to not have to sit in other people's dust and stretch the legs at your own pace.
So I was off.
I passed Operator and Topbox shortly and cought up with Klaing and CJ at the t-junction that turned off to Klein Pella.
What a ride.
;D
I told them that they could go ahead as I would stay at the t-junction to wait for the others.
This was while I was sitting there.
Peace and quiet
While sitting there I was making some calculations and realized that the guys should have been coming over that hill any minute if all went well.
I was growing slightly uneasy, but still in high spirits.
10 minutes later I figured that something wasn't right and started to head back the way I came.
2 km's later I see Topbox coming from the front. He looked a little shaken.
Suddenly that icy hand gripped my spine as I got closer and saw his expression.
And the dreaded words that I so didn't want to hear on this trip:
'Biesie had a bad fall'
It is weird what goes through your head when you hear something like that.
Suffice to say that amongst all the useless things that went through mine the one thing that I kept coming back to (maybe in trying to sooth myself) was that if Topbox was ahead of the others that it couldn't have been that bad.
That thought eased my mind.
But not by much.
I told him where to go to to get to the camp (2 kilometers to the turn-off and then 8 km down to Klein Pella).
Even though there was nothing I could have done, I wanted to go back and greet the guys making their way slowly towards the camp site.
Just for a quick 'thumbsup' or moral support that Biesie would need.
Or that was what I was telling myself.
I now know that I just wanted to see for myself that Biesie was O.K.
2 k's later I met Operator coming from the front.
He reassured me that Biesie was OK and that they were coming.
Even so it was with great relief that I saw the Tenere with Biesie on it leading the two KTM's and the GSA.
I could breathe normally again, turned around and joined the precession.
Topbox have more info (1st on the scene) and him and the other guys can obviously fill in the details (if they think it necessary) as I wasn't there at all.
Just this one photo that Topbox took the next day of how the proud Tenere now looked.
Respect for this bike. All the electrics still worked. Biesie for some reason thought it a good idea to bring a spare key with. Good thing as the key that was in the ignition was broken beyond use.
We arrived at the camp site (homing in on the beacon of Operator's bike's HUGE orange headlight ;D )
Just busy unpacking and chatting to Biesie when someone asks another uncomfortable question:
'Where's TopBox ?'
'What ?!?!'
'Bliksem!!'
He wasn't in our immediate vicinity.
A quick scout around confirmed what we reluctantly had to acknowledge - Topbox wasn't at the camp site.
You remembered in episode one that I was going to come back to Ektoknbike and having him on the trip ?
Today was the day that he showed what type of steel them 'boere' from the Robertson district is made of.
Today he already fixed two tires and then arrived at Biesie's scene.
The guys that were there said that he basicly jerked the Tenere out of the fence where it was on his own.
Got bits and bobs either removed, bent to where they should be or cable-tied, sorted it and got the bike started.
And then after all of this - without a moment's hesitation he offloaded his bike and rode into the night to go and look for Topbox.
I offered some company, but he politely declined. In retrospect I know I would have been a liability - far more than what I would have been able to contribute anything. He knows the areas there (I don't) and he is one of the best riders that I know of.
If I ended up going with he would have been slowed down by me.
An hour later we were very pleased to hear the KTM's sweet sound with the distinctive thumper purring in close pursuit.
What a relief. After this day it was close on a miracle that all of us were there at the same place.
Relatively OK, a little worse for wear, but safe.
Afterwards Ektoknbike said that some of these roads were of the worst that he's ridden.
He needed to keep the speed up on tweespoor sand to still have control, while trying to follow the XR's trail and keep track of where he himself was going.
All of this in pitch dark.
Later that evening he also said that you can't get more lost than what Topbox was. ;D
'Respect'.
's all I'm sayin'
Somehow in Topbox's state of mind after the off and me leaving to meet up with the others he must have misheard my directions.
He was also thinking that he was on his way to 'Pella' and not 'Klein Pella'.
In retrospect we could have made sure that he knew the right name of the place, or I should have gone with him, but then all the other stuff could have been avoided as well.
But hindsight is a bitch.
It can make you stay up at night with the "what if's" and "I should have's", but in the end this is how it happened and this is how the day played out and nothing can be done about it. What's done is done.
We decided to camp right next to the tennis court, which gave us the fringe benefit of having a flood light to be able to pitch our tents.
That night, although Biesie had an unfortunate fall and he was out for the remainder of the trip I was still high on life.
Even maybe more so than if nothing would have happened that day.
Sounds weird, but then again- things could have been far worse for us.
It is amazing how something as unfortunate as this comes and reminds us again of how lucky we actually are.
That night there was a couple of well deserved drinks and although the mood was (for a little while at least) a little more serious, we were still a couple of good friends together and we were still looking up at the clean Northern Cape skies instead of past a lampost and over the roofs of the houses in the suburb.
As I got ready to go to sleep that night I couldn't help but think about Biesie's fall again and how quickly things can go wrong.
Doesn't matter how careful you plan or how good of a rider you are.
It could have been anyone of us overcooking that corner.
Hell - we all had some of those 'O sh....' moments where you look at the mirror for a fraction too long searching for the lights of the bike behind you, or you spend a moment too long looking at the scenery, or you go into a corner that you think might have been gentle and then it tightens on you.
A moment where it feels like a roll of the dice was in your favour and just luck and grace caused you to not go down.
I had one of those moments just earlier that day.
Just my luck that the dice rolled in my favor. Biesie's bad luck that it didn't for him.
And in the blink of an eye all can change.
At the risk of sounding too philosophical - I guess in the end it comes down to this simple thing: Life is too short not to live and appreciate it to the max.
On any trip there is a day when the routine and 'rhythm' seems to come together.
For me this was the day.
We were in high spirits and so ready for today's stretch.
Coffee and jokes early morning and we were ready to roll.
The issue with getting out of this spot was that we needed to try and build up speed before we hit the soft riverbed sand.
Not easy with a heavy bike.
Granted - some of the guys made it look easy!
Topbox was out of there like a bat out of hell on his XR, but then gunned it so much that he missed the exit spot, so he made a huge circle across the river bed and went for the exit.
Pity I didn't know he was going to do that as I didn't have my camera ready.
It did look cool though
;D
I managed to get the speed up (eventually) and was gunning it for the exit point at about 60 when I realised (as I tried to apply the brakes) that I didn't switch the ABS off.
So I parked it IN a sand speed bump ;D
Wasn't too difficult to get it out though.
Surf got dug in in almost the same spot I was stuck the previous night, but in no time he was out and going as well.
It looks hellova cool to see that GSA gliding over the sand.
Operator and CJ lending a helping hand
This was the 1st regroup of the morning.
It might be old and outdated with a less than favorable power to weight ratio (at least on paper), but damn - there are not many bike shapes and images that says 'Adventure touring' quite as well as an Africa Twin.
AT in its element
And on the other end of the scale of 'Old and outdated'. KTM knew what they were doing when they designed this
Piksteel coming past.
Again - there's that moon landscape scenery that I (against my 'normal' taste) enjoyed so much.
This country must be a geologist's geomorphology dream...
;D ;D
Take a look at the rock formations and layers
This was close to the Ai-Ais turn off.
The 1200 didn't look too out of place either.
;D ;D
This is the type of environment where you need to trust your bike...
We had lunch and filled up at Noordoewer.
Awesome place (makes good milkshakes as well ;D ).
My camera acted up a little, so I couldn't take photos everywhere I wanted (that is why you'll see 'photo by CJ' every now and then - CJ let me use his photos to fill in the blanks in the story)
We did a little bit of Eco trail (was very cool and interesting) - Klaing took a video of one of the sandy spots and there's a very cool clip of Surf gliding his GSA over it - will see if I can get it up on Youtube.
We also did a lot of k's on corrugated sand covered roads. It caused the bike to be a handful if you were trying to ride it under 50km/h, but as soon as you went over 60 the bike got surefooted and although still twitchy, it made for a very enjoyable ride.
I was enjoying all of this (with the Orange river and its green effect weaving in and out of sight) when we came to a halt due to a perished front tube on Piksteel's bike.
Ektoknbike got it sorted and all of us went down to the river do wet our t-shirts and cool down a little before moving on.
Putting the wheel back
Unfortunately this put a little bit of time constraint on our day and we had to cut out a part of the eco trail that we were planning on doing.
That was a disappointment, but there are things that you would want to do and then there is that nagging thing called common sense.
We went past the turn-off for the eco trail at about 16:30. My GPS said that sunset was at 18:15.
The part of the eco trail we were planning on doing was also about 70km long.
From what we heard it wasn't going to be undo-able, but also not a walk in the park. And even if we attempted it I am pretty sure that we wouldn't have been able to do it within the amount of light the sun was still planning on giving us for that day.
So we went on towards Klein Pella.
Not much further this was what greeted us - turns out Ektoknbike got a flat on his front as well.
It wasn't long before Ektoknbike started reaching for the spanners to put the front wheel back.
We were 30km from the camp site and it was getting late, so we decided that CJ, Klaing, Topbox and Operator would go ahead so long and sort out the camping arrangements.
Ektoknbike, Piksteel, Biesie, me and Surf would bring up the rear.
I was in the groove that day so they said that I should go ahead as well.
As much as I love sweeping - it is always cool at least once in a trip to not have to sit in other people's dust and stretch the legs at your own pace.
So I was off.
I passed Operator and Topbox shortly and cought up with Klaing and CJ at the t-junction that turned off to Klein Pella.
What a ride.
;D
I told them that they could go ahead as I would stay at the t-junction to wait for the others.
This was while I was sitting there.
Peace and quiet
While sitting there I was making some calculations and realized that the guys should have been coming over that hill any minute if all went well.
I was growing slightly uneasy, but still in high spirits.
10 minutes later I figured that something wasn't right and started to head back the way I came.
2 km's later I see Topbox coming from the front. He looked a little shaken.
Suddenly that icy hand gripped my spine as I got closer and saw his expression.
And the dreaded words that I so didn't want to hear on this trip:
'Biesie had a bad fall'
It is weird what goes through your head when you hear something like that.
Suffice to say that amongst all the useless things that went through mine the one thing that I kept coming back to (maybe in trying to sooth myself) was that if Topbox was ahead of the others that it couldn't have been that bad.
That thought eased my mind.
But not by much.
I told him where to go to to get to the camp (2 kilometers to the turn-off and then 8 km down to Klein Pella).
Even though there was nothing I could have done, I wanted to go back and greet the guys making their way slowly towards the camp site.
Just for a quick 'thumbsup' or moral support that Biesie would need.
Or that was what I was telling myself.
I now know that I just wanted to see for myself that Biesie was O.K.
2 k's later I met Operator coming from the front.
He reassured me that Biesie was OK and that they were coming.
Even so it was with great relief that I saw the Tenere with Biesie on it leading the two KTM's and the GSA.
I could breathe normally again, turned around and joined the precession.
Topbox have more info (1st on the scene) and him and the other guys can obviously fill in the details (if they think it necessary) as I wasn't there at all.
Just this one photo that Topbox took the next day of how the proud Tenere now looked.
Respect for this bike. All the electrics still worked. Biesie for some reason thought it a good idea to bring a spare key with. Good thing as the key that was in the ignition was broken beyond use.
We arrived at the camp site (homing in on the beacon of Operator's bike's HUGE orange headlight ;D )
Just busy unpacking and chatting to Biesie when someone asks another uncomfortable question:
'Where's TopBox ?'
'What ?!?!'
'Bliksem!!'
He wasn't in our immediate vicinity.
A quick scout around confirmed what we reluctantly had to acknowledge - Topbox wasn't at the camp site.
You remembered in episode one that I was going to come back to Ektoknbike and having him on the trip ?
Today was the day that he showed what type of steel them 'boere' from the Robertson district is made of.
Today he already fixed two tires and then arrived at Biesie's scene.
The guys that were there said that he basicly jerked the Tenere out of the fence where it was on his own.
Got bits and bobs either removed, bent to where they should be or cable-tied, sorted it and got the bike started.
And then after all of this - without a moment's hesitation he offloaded his bike and rode into the night to go and look for Topbox.
I offered some company, but he politely declined. In retrospect I know I would have been a liability - far more than what I would have been able to contribute anything. He knows the areas there (I don't) and he is one of the best riders that I know of.
If I ended up going with he would have been slowed down by me.
An hour later we were very pleased to hear the KTM's sweet sound with the distinctive thumper purring in close pursuit.
What a relief. After this day it was close on a miracle that all of us were there at the same place.
Relatively OK, a little worse for wear, but safe.
Afterwards Ektoknbike said that some of these roads were of the worst that he's ridden.
He needed to keep the speed up on tweespoor sand to still have control, while trying to follow the XR's trail and keep track of where he himself was going.
All of this in pitch dark.
Later that evening he also said that you can't get more lost than what Topbox was. ;D
'Respect'.
's all I'm sayin'
Somehow in Topbox's state of mind after the off and me leaving to meet up with the others he must have misheard my directions.
He was also thinking that he was on his way to 'Pella' and not 'Klein Pella'.
In retrospect we could have made sure that he knew the right name of the place, or I should have gone with him, but then all the other stuff could have been avoided as well.
But hindsight is a bitch.
It can make you stay up at night with the "what if's" and "I should have's", but in the end this is how it happened and this is how the day played out and nothing can be done about it. What's done is done.
We decided to camp right next to the tennis court, which gave us the fringe benefit of having a flood light to be able to pitch our tents.
That night, although Biesie had an unfortunate fall and he was out for the remainder of the trip I was still high on life.
Even maybe more so than if nothing would have happened that day.
Sounds weird, but then again- things could have been far worse for us.
It is amazing how something as unfortunate as this comes and reminds us again of how lucky we actually are.
That night there was a couple of well deserved drinks and although the mood was (for a little while at least) a little more serious, we were still a couple of good friends together and we were still looking up at the clean Northern Cape skies instead of past a lampost and over the roofs of the houses in the suburb.
As I got ready to go to sleep that night I couldn't help but think about Biesie's fall again and how quickly things can go wrong.
Doesn't matter how careful you plan or how good of a rider you are.
It could have been anyone of us overcooking that corner.
Hell - we all had some of those 'O sh....' moments where you look at the mirror for a fraction too long searching for the lights of the bike behind you, or you spend a moment too long looking at the scenery, or you go into a corner that you think might have been gentle and then it tightens on you.
A moment where it feels like a roll of the dice was in your favour and just luck and grace caused you to not go down.
I had one of those moments just earlier that day.
Just my luck that the dice rolled in my favor. Biesie's bad luck that it didn't for him.
And in the blink of an eye all can change.
At the risk of sounding too philosophical - I guess in the end it comes down to this simple thing: Life is too short not to live and appreciate it to the max.
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