LeonDude
Bachelor Dog
- Joined
- Sep 26, 2007
- Messages
- 10,495
- Reaction score
- 533
- Location
- Gauteng - Centurion
- Bike
- Suzuki DR650
Since hearing that Breedts neck had washed away several month ago, I’ve done the little pass twice with the KLR, both times solo. And of course every time I it, Cave Girl gets very upset with me for not taking her along. But the KLR is a big bike and it worried me that she wanted to ride over this neck with this bike, so I made her a deal. We could go and do the pass on condition that we took her two little plastic bikes, a 230 and a 250.
She agreed to this, and on Friday I found myself riding through the mother of all storms to get to CGs place for our ride on Saturday.
Because we had a bat outing after the ride we had to trailer the bikes through. But low and behold, there was cheating afoot. I loaded the 230 on the trailer, but then instead of the 250, I was told to load the DR 650. When I tried to explain the difference between 250 and 650, I was told that there was almost no weight difference, and the look I was given said that there was going to be negotiations on the issue.
Anyway, to make a long story short, I had a massive amount of fun on the 230, and CG just rode the 650 as if there was not one rock in the road. Admittedly the pass has been mostly fixed and only two of the technical sections remain, but there were still enough playing to be had on the 230 next to the road in the washed out gulley.
No photos of the riding, just a few of the now famous view.
On the way back we stopped for a quick break and these two guys came from ahead. Got a message from Malibu on Monday morning apologizing for not stopping, they had a long way to ride still. That’s alright Mal, you and Mark can buy us a cold one next time.
Happy riding times.
That was just about it for the ride, but the day was only starting. Back at the trailer we had a quick cold one to wash the dust down, then it was off to the old Kromdraai Gold mine to go and see what the bats were up to.
The entrance to the mine
This shot shows how fine the mist net is that they use to catch bats with.
This is a yellow house bat.
One of the kids in the group. It is great to see how open the kids are to bats, much more than grown – ups.
A bats’ wing, what a marvelous flying machine!
The guy in the front is Werner, he organized everything. In the background is Gavin our host, who told us a bit about the mine. There is also a small museum on the premises.
Here I have to explain something about the pictures. Inside the mine it is obviously pitch dark and most of the photos where you can see bats flying around were taken with luck. I just pointed the camera and clicked the button, and fortunately there were huge amounts of bats in the mine, so I got a few great shots of bats on the wing.
One of the bats hanging from the rocky wall.
This is a Horse Shoe bat, named for the shape of its nose. If you are wondering why bats have such strangely shaped noses, it is because they use the flaps for echo – location. And if you want to know more about these fabulous creatures, just let Cave Girl know and she’ll let you know when the next bat outing is.
The onlookers having a look at the bats.
The harp trap yielded dozens of bats and the bat group got some valuable information on the condition of the colony.
This last shot is my favorite. I asked Cave Girl to please let one bat go so that I could take a photograph as it leaves her hand. I pressed the button too early, but one of our winged friends swooped by and made it a great photo in any way!
Soon another wonderful day had come to an end, but no worries, there will be many more where that came from!
Thanks for reading.
She agreed to this, and on Friday I found myself riding through the mother of all storms to get to CGs place for our ride on Saturday.
Because we had a bat outing after the ride we had to trailer the bikes through. But low and behold, there was cheating afoot. I loaded the 230 on the trailer, but then instead of the 250, I was told to load the DR 650. When I tried to explain the difference between 250 and 650, I was told that there was almost no weight difference, and the look I was given said that there was going to be negotiations on the issue.
Anyway, to make a long story short, I had a massive amount of fun on the 230, and CG just rode the 650 as if there was not one rock in the road. Admittedly the pass has been mostly fixed and only two of the technical sections remain, but there were still enough playing to be had on the 230 next to the road in the washed out gulley.
No photos of the riding, just a few of the now famous view.
On the way back we stopped for a quick break and these two guys came from ahead. Got a message from Malibu on Monday morning apologizing for not stopping, they had a long way to ride still. That’s alright Mal, you and Mark can buy us a cold one next time.
Happy riding times.
That was just about it for the ride, but the day was only starting. Back at the trailer we had a quick cold one to wash the dust down, then it was off to the old Kromdraai Gold mine to go and see what the bats were up to.
The entrance to the mine
This shot shows how fine the mist net is that they use to catch bats with.
This is a yellow house bat.
One of the kids in the group. It is great to see how open the kids are to bats, much more than grown – ups.
A bats’ wing, what a marvelous flying machine!
The guy in the front is Werner, he organized everything. In the background is Gavin our host, who told us a bit about the mine. There is also a small museum on the premises.
Here I have to explain something about the pictures. Inside the mine it is obviously pitch dark and most of the photos where you can see bats flying around were taken with luck. I just pointed the camera and clicked the button, and fortunately there were huge amounts of bats in the mine, so I got a few great shots of bats on the wing.
One of the bats hanging from the rocky wall.
This is a Horse Shoe bat, named for the shape of its nose. If you are wondering why bats have such strangely shaped noses, it is because they use the flaps for echo – location. And if you want to know more about these fabulous creatures, just let Cave Girl know and she’ll let you know when the next bat outing is.
The onlookers having a look at the bats.
The harp trap yielded dozens of bats and the bat group got some valuable information on the condition of the colony.
This last shot is my favorite. I asked Cave Girl to please let one bat go so that I could take a photograph as it leaves her hand. I pressed the button too early, but one of our winged friends swooped by and made it a great photo in any way!
Soon another wonderful day had come to an end, but no worries, there will be many more where that came from!
Thanks for reading.
