I like those Arabs. They pump oil, we turn it into petrol, and I stick it into my bike and burn it up exploring KZN.
Yesterday’s objective was to see if we could ride the valley of the Mvoti river all the way from Stanger near the mouth up to Sevenoaks in the West. I have ridden bits of the planned route on various other rides but I have never connected the dots to complete the trip.
The team was MadDog and I. I enjoy riding with MadDog. He does not seem to object to my strange inconsistent riding speed and sudden lapses in confidence and concentration – or if he does he is too much a gentleman to say so.
And the fact that his wife mans the family shop on Saturdays is a great advantage. ;D
My first failure of the day was not to check the Drift cam strapped to my helmet. Early on the ride – before I had even switched in on – two big and ugly bugs smeared themselves to the lens, I never checked and have a great collection of almost four hundred picks of those two very dead critters.
The second fail, although not really of major consequence, was not to realize what the heavy overnight rains would do to the Mvoti. In Google earth you can clearly see that there is a bridge with what look like pipes running under it:-
After the overnight rains the water was running over the bridge quite strongly. I suspect we could have got through, but as there were just the two of us on the ride and it may have been a bit tricky for us to get a pair of 660s from the Umvoti river bed, so we decided to loop around via the R74.
A bit of mud giving me a chance to practise my velociraptor paddling riding technique – It’s slow, and not pretty, but I usually get through.
Some shots along the way.
From there we took a short side-track for me to show MadDog the falls the doctors – Ian(the Tooth) and WildDoc discovered on the way to Lilani.
MadDog was convinced there were Puff Adders and Mambas hiding in those cracks.
Towards the end of the trip, MadDog saw what he thought was a tractor stuck in mud. So we go to see if we can help and find that the tractor is trying to pull a bakkie from a very deep sloot, and the entire village are there to try and get it out with much camaraderie and great merriment.
It seems the driver had lost control trying to navigate the muddy road the previous evening and gone over the edge.
The Mvoti ladies Tug o’War team – we gave them a hand but I don’t think we made much difference.
There was really not much we could do to help with two 660s and a flimsy narrow tow strap, but we could offer a bit of empathy and moral support.
The problem was the steepness of the slope and trying to get the bakkie over the lip, but a few logs and some spade-work and it popped out.
You can see ole MadDog trying to analyze the force vectors in this pic :
(Or he may be wondering how well that tyre would work on his bike ;D )
Saying farewell to our new friends.
From there to Sevenoaks, New Hanover, lunch at the Wartburger Hof, and back via Nagle.
Nice way to spend a Saturday - Thanks MadDog :thumleft:
Yesterday’s objective was to see if we could ride the valley of the Mvoti river all the way from Stanger near the mouth up to Sevenoaks in the West. I have ridden bits of the planned route on various other rides but I have never connected the dots to complete the trip.
The team was MadDog and I. I enjoy riding with MadDog. He does not seem to object to my strange inconsistent riding speed and sudden lapses in confidence and concentration – or if he does he is too much a gentleman to say so.
And the fact that his wife mans the family shop on Saturdays is a great advantage. ;D
My first failure of the day was not to check the Drift cam strapped to my helmet. Early on the ride – before I had even switched in on – two big and ugly bugs smeared themselves to the lens, I never checked and have a great collection of almost four hundred picks of those two very dead critters.
The second fail, although not really of major consequence, was not to realize what the heavy overnight rains would do to the Mvoti. In Google earth you can clearly see that there is a bridge with what look like pipes running under it:-
After the overnight rains the water was running over the bridge quite strongly. I suspect we could have got through, but as there were just the two of us on the ride and it may have been a bit tricky for us to get a pair of 660s from the Umvoti river bed, so we decided to loop around via the R74.
A bit of mud giving me a chance to practise my velociraptor paddling riding technique – It’s slow, and not pretty, but I usually get through.
Some shots along the way.
From there we took a short side-track for me to show MadDog the falls the doctors – Ian(the Tooth) and WildDoc discovered on the way to Lilani.
MadDog was convinced there were Puff Adders and Mambas hiding in those cracks.
Towards the end of the trip, MadDog saw what he thought was a tractor stuck in mud. So we go to see if we can help and find that the tractor is trying to pull a bakkie from a very deep sloot, and the entire village are there to try and get it out with much camaraderie and great merriment.
It seems the driver had lost control trying to navigate the muddy road the previous evening and gone over the edge.
The Mvoti ladies Tug o’War team – we gave them a hand but I don’t think we made much difference.
There was really not much we could do to help with two 660s and a flimsy narrow tow strap, but we could offer a bit of empathy and moral support.
The problem was the steepness of the slope and trying to get the bakkie over the lip, but a few logs and some spade-work and it popped out.
You can see ole MadDog trying to analyze the force vectors in this pic :
(Or he may be wondering how well that tyre would work on his bike ;D )
Saying farewell to our new friends.
From there to Sevenoaks, New Hanover, lunch at the Wartburger Hof, and back via Nagle.
Nice way to spend a Saturday - Thanks MadDog :thumleft:
