I'd never met Jon or Ian but had had some forum/phone interaction with them, so when they recently posted some pics of their latest ride (here: https://wilddog.net.za/forum/index.php?topic=263862.0 ) I was sommer lus to join them on their next.
As I have plenty friends in Pietermaritzburg this was arranged soon also, so East I drove.
In Hilton we met for a quick acquainting beer, and we agreed where we'd meet Saturday morning.
Ian then drove home, and it turned out he's practically a neighbour of the buddy I was staying at :thumleft:
Saturday Ian picked me up, we drove to some rural Polo club's venue and we rode off.
Look, no idea where exactly we've been to, but the furthest (I think!) point was Weenen - which if you look on the map (I just did) is quite some distance away!
More than my 12L tank's fuel worth was used so I reckon we did over 200 km's this day, and trust me I started to notice this toward the end.
34+C & humid too, but the general speed was decent with only a few stops, so it wasn't too bad.
Somewhere we dove into a gravelly riverbed set in Bushveld surrounds (it reminded me a bit of De Wildt actually), and the nice surprise was it had rocky ledges/steps in it - awesome! One could make good speed on the the open patches too so the inherent hooligan came out
Also some old - and disused - jeeptracks of varying quality were in the mix, ditto rocky and loose bouldery stuff (Ian's favourite when going down especially 8) ), and it was easy to see Jon had strung a great route together for us!
Very few river crossings though, and at the first one some local kids showed us that it wasn't deep at all - rocky yes but not that deep, and to my surprise the two Natalians were planning to
walk their bikes through, mutually aided nogals! Gents, a kind warning for when Noneking or Amsterdam comes to you, they'll hammer their bikes through there causing a wash of note! >
Anyway, I rode through and they followed, only some wet feet were had.
Near Weenen we had well deserved lunch at a resort set on the Tugela, very nice place. Finally a beer too - hey, it was really HOT, hydration was crucial
A set menu had me properly pigging in, some awesome bread, cold meats and salads vanished there.
This place is set in a game area, and when leaving we saw some giraffe somewhere quite close to the lodge itself.
I lost all track of time, and on our return leg Jon had some interesting however time consuming detour in mind. Fatigue was setting in for Ian & me so we suggested we perhaps take some quicker and less strenuous route. We did, and good that we did too - when we got back I found out it wasn't 3-ish but past 4 already then, we'd been home past 7 if we would have!
I told you Jon doesn't tire, he's fit as a fiddle due to his VERY regular riding! :thumleft:
My pics below only tell part of this trip, I hope Jon & Ian will add to them.
Oh, Amsterdam: better bet your bottom Gulden that I'll join you when you also make the trip up there for some rides! :thumleft:
And Noneking,
this day's ride is doable with your 890, it'll just wear you out more.
