Stage 1.
I had missed the roadbook marking from the night before. It is a pretty vital part of the what one has to do whilst rallying;
Justin had had more than enough of Upington, the mozzies, flies, septic tank and crappy toilets had spoilt his stay. He was up way before me and irritatingly woke me up before my alarm went off. I think he was just jealous!
It’s not complicated, get up, get dressed, pack shit,
eat breakfast,
Do hands,
one last check around the bike and gear, then head off to the start line….
We’re pro’s – rider and brolly dolly
Paddock Slut!
Not slow at all!
Nerves
Can I have your autograph?
At last, my time came – 6.52am.
Aaannd we’re off! My Amageza had started proper.
The liaison was about 80k’s of mostly gravel. The rain was coming and going.
I like riding with sun glasses and a visor. Part of the regulations forbid a visor so I just had my glasses and, if needed, my goggles. In that bit of rain, I sure missed my visor. Rain stings. I had to wait till the end of the Liaison to dig my goggles out.
Once at the start of the liaison, that was the last time I wore the glasses. I would just make do with the goggles.
We were shepherded into the starting gate. Again I resolved to just take it easy. No-one finishes a rally on the first day, unless he does something stupid.
As John said GO!
I lasted all of second gear, then saw my partners front wheel, changed to 3rd and decided dust was not going to be in my immediate future. We're Outta here.
[flash=700,500]https://www.youtube.com/v/I8bH8PLr8ko?version=3&hl=en_US[/flash]
That first bit was really, really fast. If you watch the video till the end, you’ll find out just how fast.
The first 80 or so k’s was stupid fast. Well over a hundred in most places. It then turned to very sandy tweespore and still it seemed a bit quick. There were a lot of gates, the navigation was easy and I only overcooked one corner – also on the video.
I was holding my own with maybe one or two people overtaking me. I passed quite a few.
Then the sand really started. It was very thick and I had to slow it. Still, only about 3 or 4 got past me.
At one point I got launched a bit over a dune where there were a bunch of spectators. This is the Kalahari. There are incredibly few people who are around if at all. When one sees 20 or so on a dune, it’s a bad sign. Aparently some guys did some serious air time there.
I realised that it would be a finely cut thing with about 40k’s to go to the finish. My fuel light normally comes on with about 80k’s to go. For some reason it didn’t and when I looked at my tanks I could see that the sand riding had just maxed out the fuel consumption.
With 8k’s to the finish I ran dry. Ahggg! The frustration!
Ian and Robert and Nick all stopped and put a few minutes into their time to give me a few hundred ml’s each when they were dangerously low themselves. It was a very selfless thing to do.
I took a wrong turn and after getting back on track ran dry again with 400m to go!
Kevin gave me a litre and that got me home.
There was a comedy still to play out though. The finish was on top of a really big dune. I’d tried to get some petrol from the bakkie up there. The anti-syphon prevented that, but down on the road about 500m away was another bakkie with some fuel. Once I got down there I realised that I hadn’t put the tank cap back on and had to walk back up the dune. That was really heavy going!
The scariest moment of the whole rally was when I hitched a lift back down with Gideon!
Making friends when wating for your rider
Justin was understandably a bit disappointed when I met him at the fuel station. I’d had 26 litres in for 180k’s. If I’d known how much sand there was to be, I would have slowed a little to stretch it out and not been so savage with the throttle.
Oh, well. With all the buggering about, I’d lost just under an hour.
Back to the lodge;
The Malle Moto pro’s doing their cleaning
The posers
Some had had a Really tough day
That sand wasn’t for sissies
Some had electrical issues. Kobie van Breda, the chap closest on the right was paired up with Gideon Joubert - GJ on here. they are both hugely fast and both ex multiple MX and enduro champions. Also good value for money for a laugh.
See! There he goes again, arse creeping and rock stars!
We jumped into the pool and faffed about cleaning air filters and putting in about 100ml of oil, lube the chain and that was it. The big LC8 can be beaten on and doesn’t become a maintenance pig.
The lodge was overwhelmed, had some attitude issues and was not some place that I’ll be back to soon, but the banter was excellent.
Entering the 30 or so waypoints into a GPS is a pain in the arse without a laptop. I’d learnt this from the last time. I had brought along my laptop. Justin can be taught new skills,
I had a reasonably early sleep.
Apparently, Stage 2 was going to be the big sand day. WTF?! I didn’t think there could be any more than today!
So be it!