Hentie bm
Race Dog
:happy1: :hello2:
Amageza 2015 with Minxy and the Dirt Dogs
- Thread starter Minxy
- Start date
Misty
Race Dog
CorCorlia said:
+100 Well done Minxy - you did good! :thumleft: :ricky:
Mev Vis Arend
Race Dog
Hier wil ek ook inteken. :thumleft:
Minxy
Race Dog
Malibu said:SteveD said:Malibu said:
*sub* ??? Nope, that doesn't work for me, Ms Malibu.
Entered, Ingeskryf vir 2016, now that would work.ot:
Darn, and I thought I had managed to fly under the radar for the whole Amageza, while greedily reading everything...
Steve, I'd love to have my name there... one day maybe... imagine Mark and I together!
MissM said:Subscribed!
And entering next year
We need all the girls we can get! Woman rally riders are almost non existent here at this stage. Go go go!!!
Minxy
Race Dog
I just want to add, thank you everyone for the positive comments and remarks on this thread. It is such a pleasure to tell my story to people who enjoy reading it. Makes me so happy! :love5:
MayaTheBee
Puppy
- Joined
- Oct 1, 2014
- Messages
- 16
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- 0
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- Yamaha XT660
Minxy said:
Telling has slowed down considerably
ot:
Respect :thumleft:
Rhino2
Pack Dog
sub' ed
Minxy
Race Dog
Day 1 Continued:
On the road to salvation. (Nearly out the riverbed)
After that insanely crazy introduction to rally riding we get to exit the riverbed where a bridge crosses over it. Seeing that bridge was like seeing the light at the end of a tunnel haha! We than went through a little village. There was a bit of confusion as to which way to go, but the locals quickly pointed us in the right direction. These people just love the moto's. When you stop they want to take pictures with you. You feel like a real celebrity
After the village we did some proper high speed sandy roads. I've been fortunate enough to do quite a lot of sand riding on my adventure bike before, so this was awesome as it's something I'm a bit more familiar and mostly comfortable with.
The real highlight for me was the big pan we rode through. The roadbook said "HP" at one stage, which means "Off Piste"; which in normal people terms means: There is no actual road, follow your CAP (Compass) heading. It was so beautiful, white as far as you could see. I still thought, wow this is what it must feel like to ride the salt pans at the Dakar, it was something really special
We got the marshals in the village near the pan. They gave us some water and I asked the medic if they have anything for cramps. My fingers, specifically my middle fingers Were really starting to cramp up, I could barely bend them back. That riverbed was hard on my hands and arms, especially with no steering damper. They were kind enough to give me some Rennies, which I now learned are also a good cramp remedy.
I can't remember the line of events exactly for the next bit. I know we did a rocky, rutted road after we saw the marshals. Then more deep sandy roads. Somewhere along the way I read in the roadbook there is another riverbed. I just went OH MY... Gosh : if it's anything like the first one I'm dead meat lol, I can't possibly do any more of that. Thank the Pope it was not "that" bad. When we entered the 2nd river bed I was happy to see it was much more hard compacted. I actually had such an awesome time riding through there!
After this there was a big sandy dirt highway somewhere. Urgh, these things kinda become a blur after a while, you are putting in SO much kilometers you start to forget where the heck you were.
We turned right at a stage off of the main road and went into what looks like some kind of sand and thorn farm. I'm not even joking here...
First we went along kilometers and kilometers of fence line in THICK red two spoor tracks. Now I was trying to keep the best speed I could manage, I had the bike in 4th or so most of the way. You can't ride any slower or the front wheel will just keep digging in and you will never make it out. I just told myself I will not stop, because it will be impossible to get going again. The bike goes sideways, bucking, swaying in the sand if you just go literally an inch too much to the left or the right. It feels absolutely crazy, but you just can't let go of the throttle or you will wreck yourself.
I try to stay on the track furthest from the fence, but that means hitting the thorns. When I can risk it I hop over the sandy middleman to get away, but then I see out of the corner of my eye the wire fence flashing past. All the time I keep telling myself... THIS IS FINE, really, this is fine Rally riding is as much a mental game, as it is a physical one, that's for sure!
I open the gates and wait for my team mate to catch up. After about 25km or so? We run out of fence line to follow. It gets very thorn bushy and the sandy track twists and turns all the time. It is almost impossible to get up to speed in this mess.
The roadbook says there is another gate we need to pass. We ride on and on, the distances start to not make any sense. Nothing in the roadbook is adding up at all. There's tracks going in every direction. We figure we need to continue along the fence some more, I mean, surely that's where we'll find a gate?
We were up and down that farm, bundu bashing for what felt like ages. We hooked up with fellow rider Neil (Redrum on WD), who was also having a bad time.
It started to get dark very quickly, and we realized. We were completely lost.
On the road to salvation. (Nearly out the riverbed)
After that insanely crazy introduction to rally riding we get to exit the riverbed where a bridge crosses over it. Seeing that bridge was like seeing the light at the end of a tunnel haha! We than went through a little village. There was a bit of confusion as to which way to go, but the locals quickly pointed us in the right direction. These people just love the moto's. When you stop they want to take pictures with you. You feel like a real celebrity
After the village we did some proper high speed sandy roads. I've been fortunate enough to do quite a lot of sand riding on my adventure bike before, so this was awesome as it's something I'm a bit more familiar and mostly comfortable with.
The real highlight for me was the big pan we rode through. The roadbook said "HP" at one stage, which means "Off Piste"; which in normal people terms means: There is no actual road, follow your CAP (Compass) heading. It was so beautiful, white as far as you could see. I still thought, wow this is what it must feel like to ride the salt pans at the Dakar, it was something really special
We got the marshals in the village near the pan. They gave us some water and I asked the medic if they have anything for cramps. My fingers, specifically my middle fingers
Were really starting to cramp up, I could barely bend them back. That riverbed was hard on my hands and arms, especially with no steering damper. They were kind enough to give me some Rennies, which I now learned are also a good cramp remedy.I can't remember the line of events exactly for the next bit. I know we did a rocky, rutted road after we saw the marshals. Then more deep sandy roads. Somewhere along the way I read in the roadbook there is another riverbed. I just went OH MY... Gosh :
if it's anything like the first one I'm dead meat lol, I can't possibly do any more of that. Thank the Pope it was not "that" bad. When we entered the 2nd river bed I was happy to see it was much more hard compacted. I actually had such an awesome time riding through there!After this there was a big sandy dirt highway somewhere. Urgh, these things kinda become a blur after a while, you are putting in SO much kilometers you start to forget where the heck you were.
We turned right at a stage off of the main road and went into what looks like some kind of sand and thorn farm. I'm not even joking here...
First we went along kilometers and kilometers of fence line in THICK red two spoor tracks. Now I was trying to keep the best speed I could manage, I had the bike in 4th or so most of the way. You can't ride any slower or the front wheel will just keep digging in and you will never make it out. I just told myself I will not stop, because it will be impossible to get going again. The bike goes sideways, bucking, swaying in the sand if you just go literally an inch too much to the left or the right. It feels absolutely crazy, but you just can't let go of the throttle or you will wreck yourself.
I try to stay on the track furthest from the fence, but that means hitting the thorns. When I can risk it I hop over the sandy middleman to get away, but then I see out of the corner of my eye the wire fence flashing past. All the time I keep telling myself... THIS IS FINE, really, this is fine
Rally riding is as much a mental game, as it is a physical one, that's for sure!I open the gates and wait for my team mate to catch up. After about 25km or so? We run out of fence line to follow. It gets very thorn bushy and the sandy track twists and turns all the time. It is almost impossible to get up to speed in this mess.
The roadbook says there is another gate we need to pass. We ride on and on, the distances start to not make any sense. Nothing in the roadbook is adding up at all. There's tracks going in every direction. We figure we need to continue along the fence some more, I mean, surely that's where we'll find a gate?
We were up and down that farm, bundu bashing for what felt like ages. We hooked up with fellow rider Neil (Redrum on WD), who was also having a bad time.
It started to get dark very quickly, and we realized. We were completely lost.
Rough Rider
Grey Hound
- Joined
- Oct 17, 2009
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Sub :sip:
Snafu
Grey Hound
Hey, you were a lot quicker on the bike than posting this RR!!
Very proud of you!
Very proud of you!
MaxThePanda
Race Dog
Minxy said:
Yeah, you know the expression 'not all there'...? Well, this was the first of many Amageza 2015 roadbook MIA's. That gate didn't exist anywhere beyond the imagination of its creator, unfortunately.
gser
Race Dog
Thanks for the kind words Minxy, what a pleasure to have helped in a very small way.
You are the hero to many !
I'm looking forward to the rest of your report.
You are the hero to many !
I'm looking forward to the rest of your report.
TWE-TWE
Race Dog
- Joined
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:sip:
I am so proud of you Minxy... :thumleft:
I am so proud of you Minxy...
:thumleft:
Minxy said:
Know exactly what you mean here. :laughing7:
You did so well. :thumleft:
Awesome bit of video, you seemed to flying along just fine. BTW, the damper does help a lot!
Minxy
Race Dog
Day 1 Continued: (Sorry for the lack of photo's here)
Time to switch on the spotlights. When it gets dark here , it gets dark very quickly.
I come across a gate. Can this be the one from the roadbook? No can't be, it doesn't look right and there's no tracks there. I really start to despair now. GeeS and Neil stop next to me and we try figure out what to do next. We decide to try follow another track we came across. It didn't seem to be going the right way though so we turned around. I thought maybe we could just get back to where we lost the track originally. It could help to look around for more bike tracks there.
We bundu bashed through the sand in the dark, but it was tough to say the least. GeeS's front wheel nearly went into a warthog hole and we were really just battling through the thick thorn bushes. It was just impossible to make heads or tails of where we were. Now normally in this kind of situation you would just access your next waypoint on the gps and then try to make your way to it. In this case, we didn't have ANY coordinates, waypoints, NADA.
We decide to stop just where we were. By some crazy stroke of luck Neil had cellphone signal. He managed to call race control. We asked Alex if he could give us a coordinate or something, just so we could get out of this place and onto the liason route, if we just have some kind of idea as to where to go we can still finish this, even at night. We are basically 20km from the end of the special stage, so this is very depressing.
We give through our location on the gps and wait for a reply. The signal on the phone is coming and going at this stage. Evenutally we get an sms message with a coordinate. I load it into the gps... More despair... The coordinate shows us to go over 15km back on that awful fence line road we came in on. We really, really can't risk doing that at night.
Ok, we decide we'll stay put until morning and then try to get back on track again, as it's useless to try wander around any more at night. Neil leaves his radio on, just in case anyone is near enough to call in.
He also notifies race control of our decision.
There was quite a chill in the wind and I put on my thin windproof cycling jacket under my armour. We all just sat around and spoke for a bit. Everyone was quite pissed off that this had to happen literally right at the end of the special stage. What an epic bummer! Eventually I give in and dig into my medical supply bag and take out the emergency blanket. It helps quite a lot for the chill. We didn't make a fire or anything, just lay down behind one of the thorn bushes to get away from the wind. I tried to close my eyes for a bit, but I couldn't sleep a wink. I think I was too disappointed with everything.
At about 3am I suddenly hear a voice over the radio, and we see the lights of a car far away in the distance. It's the 2 recovery vehicles! It takes them a while to navigate through the bushes, but they eventually get to us. The medic checked me and was very concerned. Just a week before Amageza I came down with a very bad cold, so I was coughing quite a lot. All checked out fine though and we hitched a ride with the recovery team. There were two other guys we stopped past on the way, one of them Rikus, the guy who fixed his clutch in the riverbed. He had a nice fire going and looked all snug. Unfortunately they had to stay behind though and wait for the next sweep, as they didn't want to risk riding the sand behind the sweeper in the dark. There was a third guy who was stuck here as well which we couldn't locate, I am not 100% sure what happened to him?
It was tough going even on the recovery vehicle to get out of the farm. They had to keep dodging thorn bushes and trees, there was almost no proper track to follow. There were many times they had to back track and try find different ways to go. The vehicle was proper scratched from all the thorns!
I was just soooo tired I couldn't keep my eyes open anymore and I fell asleep, later waking up all snug in the back seat with the medic having given me his jacket to use as a pillow. It was really kind of him.
The sun was rising now and we were making our way towards the bivouac at Van Zyls Rus.
This was just the beginning of Day 2.
Time to switch on the spotlights. When it gets dark here , it gets dark very quickly.
I come across a gate. Can this be the one from the roadbook? No can't be, it doesn't look right and there's no tracks there. I really start to despair now. GeeS and Neil stop next to me and we try figure out what to do next. We decide to try follow another track we came across. It didn't seem to be going the right way though so we turned around. I thought maybe we could just get back to where we lost the track originally. It could help to look around for more bike tracks there.
We bundu bashed through the sand in the dark, but it was tough to say the least. GeeS's front wheel nearly went into a warthog hole and we were really just battling through the thick thorn bushes. It was just impossible to make heads or tails of where we were. Now normally in this kind of situation you would just access your next waypoint on the gps and then try to make your way to it. In this case, we didn't have ANY coordinates, waypoints, NADA.
We decide to stop just where we were. By some crazy stroke of luck Neil had cellphone signal. He managed to call race control. We asked Alex if he could give us a coordinate or something, just so we could get out of this place and onto the liason route, if we just have some kind of idea as to where to go we can still finish this, even at night. We are basically 20km from the end of the special stage, so this is very depressing.
We give through our location on the gps and wait for a reply. The signal on the phone is coming and going at this stage. Evenutally we get an sms message with a coordinate. I load it into the gps... More despair... The coordinate shows us to go over 15km back on that awful fence line road we came in on. We really, really can't risk doing that at night.
Ok, we decide we'll stay put until morning and then try to get back on track again, as it's useless to try wander around any more at night. Neil leaves his radio on, just in case anyone is near enough to call in.
He also notifies race control of our decision.
There was quite a chill in the wind and I put on my thin windproof cycling jacket under my armour. We all just sat around and spoke for a bit. Everyone was quite pissed off that this had to happen literally right at the end of the special stage. What an epic bummer! Eventually I give in and dig into my medical supply bag and take out the emergency blanket. It helps quite a lot for the chill. We didn't make a fire or anything, just lay down behind one of the thorn bushes to get away from the wind. I tried to close my eyes for a bit, but I couldn't sleep a wink. I think I was too disappointed with everything.
At about 3am I suddenly hear a voice over the radio, and we see the lights of a car far away in the distance. It's the 2 recovery vehicles! It takes them a while to navigate through the bushes, but they eventually get to us. The medic checked me and was very concerned. Just a week before Amageza I came down with a very bad cold, so I was coughing quite a lot. All checked out fine though and we hitched a ride with the recovery team. There were two other guys we stopped past on the way, one of them Rikus, the guy who fixed his clutch in the riverbed. He had a nice fire going and looked all snug. Unfortunately they had to stay behind though and wait for the next sweep, as they didn't want to risk riding the sand behind the sweeper in the dark. There was a third guy who was stuck here as well which we couldn't locate, I am not 100% sure what happened to him?
It was tough going even on the recovery vehicle to get out of the farm. They had to keep dodging thorn bushes and trees, there was almost no proper track to follow. There were many times they had to back track and try find different ways to go. The vehicle was proper scratched from all the thorns!
I was just soooo tired I couldn't keep my eyes open anymore and I fell asleep, later waking up all snug in the back seat with the medic having given me his jacket to use as a pillow. It was really kind of him.
The sun was rising now and we were making our way towards the bivouac at Van Zyls Rus.
This was just the beginning of Day 2.
