Day 5 continued
The group was starting to bunch together again, and we spotted some almost-forgotten faces. Today I gained new respect for Gordon and it only grew as the road conditions worsened. He was on the heaviest bike of the group, a 230-odd kg 750 Africa Twin, but he could ride!
Gordon disappearing into the distance:
The road was bad no matter if you picked the left or right line:
And it just got worse…
A moment of pause, to think about life and why the hell I’m here:
Once you hit the rocky slope, there’s no stopping until you get to the bottom, unless you want to risk a fall. I placed my trust in my bike and just clung on for dear life. I’m not good at choosing the best lines, but commitment seems to matter more than the line.
Obviously the strategy worked. I heard a worried Lance over the comms: “Hey! Why are you running away? Don’t go so fast!”
There was a scary, steep and rocky jumbled mess. I executed the whatever-line-goes-commitment strategy and survived. Next it was Lance’s turn.
Lance: “What the hell’s going on here?”
Me: “Any line!”
Lance: “Pick one? I don’t like these lines!”
It seems that guys have commitment issues.
A lot of three-dimensional data is lost on footage or photos…
Lance found his line:
The slightly-less-grand canyon:
Which side looks better? Left?
Nope. Left is bad too.
Most of us regrouped for a last breather before the big challenge of the day. You heard right. All the riding so far was a taster. We had this enigma dubbed “Heartbreak Hill” to look forward to. Most of the day Lance and I kept wondering “Is this Heartbreak Hill?” whenever we hit a particularly rough patch.
The fast guys (Henk, Hennie R, Brian and Duncan) were long gone. They’d arrived about two years earlier, with Brian riding up-and-down laps of Heartbreak Hill just for kicks and giggles….
Bertie was usually racing up-front with Henk, so that may be why he looks a bit awkward in the presence of the middle-to-back-group.
Left to right: Gordon, Craig, Lance, Bertie and Hardy. It looks like a Bikers Anonymous meeting.
Oubones (Hennie D) and Pete. Obviously no need for larger group counselling.
Abel joined us eventually; slow but steady.
I can only imagine what was going through his head. When you’ve had the most technical day’s riding ever, you don’t want to see this…Heartbreak Hill.
Abel is a triathlon athlete though, so he is used to switching between disciples. Mountain climbing and weight-lifting were also part of the skill-set. Translation: walking up Heartbreak Hill with all your biker kit. Lance, the eternal nutter, took Abel’s bike up the hill.
On a bike he’s never ridden before, tackling a hill he hasn’t scoped:
Apparently the larger Honda was also a lot taller than the Rally he was now used to.
The rocks appear to coalesce and grow the further you go:
The middle section looked bad…
…but it was the top that was the most problematic.
A last rocky ridge presented a final fall-inducing barrier.
Lance was not exempt from gravity.
Neither was Bertie.
Back up and ready to go, on the bump that caused many a mishap.
I stationed myself midway, yelling when the coast was clear for the next bike. You wanted an unobstructed run-up here!
Lance made his way down to offer assistance and to capture the moments of mishap by GoPro (the real reason of course).
Next up was Pete.
He made an impressive start, with dust flying.
Things unraveled at the three-quarter mark.
It looked like quite a hard fall!
It was a hard fall. Hard enough to wedge the front brake lever beneath the handguard. In this position, it could not be pulled in entirely. Pete had to tackle the rest of the hill minus a front brake…
It makes it extremely difficult, because your front brake is your “handbrake”, needed to keep you in one spot while you build up revs and nerves to tackle the next obstacle.
Pete made it near the top, before he bought the next plot.
How to get on without the bike rolling back?
Lance held the bike stationary while Pete got back on his steed. Note that all a biker needs to fix anything (in this case, a boot) is some cable ties and/or duct tape.
A rock blocked Pete’s back wheel…
…and the bike rolled the moment he left off the gas. (Note Abel making his way up the hard way!)
Anyone will be tired of falling at this point in time. There’s only so much punishment a human body and spirit can take. Lance tried his hand at moving the brakeless bike forward. He also had to sacrifice a bit of body/soul to the earth!
The lack of front brake really catches you unaware. I’ve ridden a bike with a snapped-off front brake and no matter how many times you try to remind yourself that you have no front brake, you’ll only really remember when you reach for it.
Case in point: Lance finally reaching the top on the DR and then trying to hit non-existent brakes before he hit Abel’s Honda! He had just enough time to change tack to the back. It was close.
Craig the Camelman was next. He stayed upright and threw rocks at anyone who dared to get close.
Then it was Gordon; the big guy on the big bike.
He got distracted by a rock.
Such a beautiful rock…
…from any angle.
No-nonsense pose reinstalled and back in business.
He rode this bike as if it was a much smaller object.
Nope. Not small. It also moved rocks.
Gordon got caught out at the top, as many did, but he was a dot on the footage, so there’s no picture. I think he planned it that way.
Hardy zipped past. I now know the secret to the ease of his riding. He doesn’t ride. He floats on a bike hovercraft. I kid you not. Do you see any tyres on the ground?
Oubones chugged past on the old KLR. No fanfare. No drama. That’s the older generation for you.
A vehicle not from our group headed through. Watching its tortuous journey reminded me just why I’d never want to drive a car here.
The clock was ticking. That 4x4 was one of a group – a group that was getting restless. We needed to move. Lance abandoned his filming post and rode the Rally up.
Ian was in such a hurry…
…that he almost went into a tree! He charted a completely new path to the top.
Now how to get out of this precarious situation?
Ian was there to undo all the grey hairs the rest of us gave Hardy, through comedic relief.
It was my turn. This is going to start sounding like a stuck record: but I was so very grateful I was on a miniature bike! I would have struggled even on the little Rally.
I even look like I may have skill if the video is paused at very strategic moments:
The same strategic pause strategy does reveal some epic failures, but (again) not as epic as the snapshot may have you believe!
I obviously don’t subscribe to Monopoly. No plots were bought, by miracle or fluke. I did need help though on that last stubborn rock bump.
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
Bounce:
Stall:
Kobus has a very tall bike, but his super-spidey long legs prevented a tip-over.
Is that smoke?
There was a last rocky section…
…before things turned sandy again. Did you know that sand can look welcoming?
Whenever the ground turned hard, it was easy to miss the main track, especially since there were a couple of tracks crisscrossing the landscape.
I’m sure these people know exactly where they are.
This is not working out. Lance instructs us to try another direction.
Now where is that road?
Bingo!
The last bit of variegated riding of the day:
The grand finale was a sandy riverbed crossing...
…that Lance was more than happy to extend…
…before ending at the big campsite tree…
…where the front-runners were waiting in their half-naked manliness.
Note an object of jealousy during this trip: Lance’s riding shorts. He bought them as mountain bike shorts, but they are made of tough biker-material stuff. He wore them along with soft knee guards and MX boots.
Lance was quick to de-kit. The men get all the perks. If you’re wondering why the men are trying to “cool down” at the fire: they were trying to hide from the muggies in the smoke.
It had been a long day…
…and riding kit was stiff from sweat…
…but now we were here; at the beautiful Van Zyl’s Campsite.
We watched the last couple of riders arrive. Gordon’s entrance was the most spectacular, with his big earth-moving machinery.
Abel’s bike was a bit worse for wear after the day. It picked up some relatively serious damage and was leaking oil.
The damage to the oil filter cover warped the metal in such a way that it did not seal properly. Hardy and Kobus did their best to wangle a temporary fix.
Aside: Sincere apologies to Abel if the damage was caused by Lance’s fall while taking the bike up Heartbreak Hill!
There were ablution facilities, but the toilets were no longer functional. You had to go for a bit of a hike to find a private spot for a veldtie. At least the “bathroom” had a beautiful setting!
The showers and taps were functional on arrival. I had a cold-water shower after the long hot day to refresh. Hot water was available though…until later that night, when all the water ran out. We suspect the water pumps were solar powered. No sun = no water.
Lance heading to the semi-functional ablution facilities:
Despite the lack of ablution facilities, this was still a gem of a spot. I really enjoyed these middle-of-nowhere places.
We feared mozzies, due to the earlier muggie invasion, so we pitched a tent. It turns out we needn’t have bothered. Unlike the muggies, the mozzies weren’t wild out here.
Our digs for the night:
Supper consisted of good old braai food: wors, chops and salad.
It had been a tough day: 7 hours to cover just over 140 km. Tomorrow’s distance was only 60-odd km. Using the distance-difficulty inverse law, tomorrow will be even harder…
If we thought today was difficult, we ain’t seen nuthin’ yet!