KZN - MadDog's amble up the South side of the Thukela to Shu Shu hot springs

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Another lovely day messing about with bikes.  Thanks to MadDog for putting such a nice track together, and to Haplo and the Very Dirty Boy – It was dusty !!

I phoned MadDog to demand he post some pics I saw him take, but he is up to his ears in wek, and although “Wild Dog Etiquette and Best practise” says that the person who started the planning thread must  start the Ride Report, he said I may  go ahead and start the Report.

I can do that. I have just a couple of pics form my helmet – my mik-en-druk never seemed to get back from Clarens – dunno where it is.  

A few bits of sand to keep us on our toes.

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Haplo’s bike taking a wee rest.  The problem is Haplo’s feet are just a little too close to her saddle, and when she brings the bike in for a landing she has to find a flat runway, and that’s not always easy in KZN.  

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Trying to, and failing at, finding a way down to the river for coffee.

Amused the locals greatly !!

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This one was a bit easier, although quite gnarly, but brought us down to a nice step above the river.

The reason I say a nice step, was our local consultant assured us there were many big and vicious crocodiles in the river – not to mention very large pythons.  

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Back on the road.

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At Jan se Gat – apparently a good place to catch barbell.

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Thanks again to MadDog for the planning and Haplo and Dirty Boy for the company.
 
Thanks to Gunda, Haplo and Dirty Boy for the fantastic ride and company. It was great to experience some new gravel roads and even better that we had them almost exclusively to ourselves. I'm really pleased that the route turned out to be so scenic as it made the very long tar sections to get there and back well worth it.

We never did get to explore the alternate route I had planned as time was short but thats just an excuse to go back again and try harder :)

I took a few pics with my phone, nothing spectacular as I was way too busy having fun. Riding in that riverbed sand was absolutely fantastic and I really feel like my riding is improving significantly. The XT is just fantastic in sand now and made me look semi competent. Surprisingly we had no punctures although I am still pulling some serious looking thorns out of strange places on the bike. Some cactus parts even made it back home with me :)

Route Info:
361 kms covered for the day with 7800m elevation variance. start time 07:45, end time 15:35

For anyone that is interested I do have the entire GPS track recorded, including the bit of hooliganism in the Riverbed.

Thanks to GundaGunda for starting this thread and for the photos.

Here are my meager contributions:
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LEKKER....julle moes geswem het.....
 

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Some of my pics...


 

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GundaGunda said:
chicco said:
LEKKER....julle moes geswem het.....

We were poop-scared of the flat-dogs !

Looking further at the pics the Ngunis arent scared of the flat dogs!!!!...... :biggrin:

Looks like a great trip with a bit of everything..... :thumleft:
 
GO GIRL said:
. . . .

Looking further at the pics the Ngunis arent scared of the flat dogs!!!!...... :biggrin:

. . .

Not true. The brown one at the back looking at the water is the flat-dog watch-ox. One bellow from him and we would have been squashed in the stampede.  
 
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