Charlie Brown
Pack Dog
Hi there, totally new to this "adventure", aka shit yourself, riding lark.
I've been a road rider for +/-33 years, and last year a friend of mine managed to talk me into trying out this adventure riding stuff. We booked ourselves onto one of those Tankwa Karoo guided tours, offered by one of the WD members. Now, I have absolutely zero knowledge about riding on gravel, rocks, sand, etc, and was quite convinced that it was a case of "how often and how hard" I was going to come off...not IF! After a brief explanation of what to do and not do on gravel roads (when you get the wobblies...gas it.you've gotta be shitting me..ah well he seems to know what he's doing right??? I mean, he's still alive!! ), we set off on what turned out to be one of the best, most fun, most scariest and most crazy weekends that I have ever experienced on 2 wheels.
The fun (shit yourself moments ) started virtually from the beginning, with strong cross winds on the karoo vlaktes, the kind where you stick your knee out, towards the wind to try and stay upright and as a newbie, having to contend with the "middle mannetjie" of the dirt road. I was quite convinced that this was where my adventure would end, not too bad, at least the hospital is only about 50km's away. Then we stopped at the first "view point" and that's when I started to understand why you guys do this stuff, it was absolutely beautiful, peaceful and quiet, in the middle of nowhere, not a taxi or a robot beggar in sight...perfect bliss!
Later in the day, I had quite an interesting, and unexpected, water crossing ( didn't know that you get water crossings in the karoo?? ) that I took way too fast and ended up with water coming up the inside of my fullface helmet, even though the visor was closed. Amazingly, I managed to stay on the bike and not go farming...tahda..neat trick, but not one that I will try again! Unfortunately, the couple behind me were not so lucky and they both ended up in hospital. Hallo...wake up call.....you can get seriously hurt doing this stuff.....time to start taking things a little more seriously and stop trying to be Captain Fantastic!!! About an hour later, I had a seriously "oh shit" moment. Two jackals came running out of the scrub next to the road and were running next to the bike, when I tried to slow down so that they could get away, the bike started doing belly dancing underneath me and I nearly lost it on the small marble like "val op jou moer" road surface. That's when I remembered to gas it and , whalla, no more belly dancing. Fortunately, the jackals ran back into the veld and not in front of me. At our next stop I removed my boxer shorts from my butt crack!!
I have lived in Cape Town for most of my life and I saw and experienced things that I never even knew where there...........what an amazing weekend. A week before I went on this trip I took delivery of a brand new Suzuki DL, and now , 1 year later, I have just sold the DL with only 2300km's on the clock and bought myself a brand new Kawasaki KLR650, the same bike that I did my very first adventure ride on. I did not rush into this decision and spent the full year deciding if this is what I want to do, I even went on another short road trip to Lambertsbay (all tar ) and found it to be as boring as shit, compared to my Tankwa jaunt. I have lost all interest in road riding, every time I see a dirt road, I start wondering what's down there. I do not have the necessary skills to venture off into the wide blue yonder yet, and have booked myself onto one of those training courses. Once I have completed my training (my Tankwa luck can't last for ever ) I will be exploring and looking for those other hidden gems in the Western Cape.
I've been a road rider for +/-33 years, and last year a friend of mine managed to talk me into trying out this adventure riding stuff. We booked ourselves onto one of those Tankwa Karoo guided tours, offered by one of the WD members. Now, I have absolutely zero knowledge about riding on gravel, rocks, sand, etc, and was quite convinced that it was a case of "how often and how hard" I was going to come off...not IF! After a brief explanation of what to do and not do on gravel roads (when you get the wobblies...gas it.you've gotta be shitting me..ah well he seems to know what he's doing right??? I mean, he's still alive!! ), we set off on what turned out to be one of the best, most fun, most scariest and most crazy weekends that I have ever experienced on 2 wheels.
The fun (shit yourself moments ) started virtually from the beginning, with strong cross winds on the karoo vlaktes, the kind where you stick your knee out, towards the wind to try and stay upright and as a newbie, having to contend with the "middle mannetjie" of the dirt road. I was quite convinced that this was where my adventure would end, not too bad, at least the hospital is only about 50km's away. Then we stopped at the first "view point" and that's when I started to understand why you guys do this stuff, it was absolutely beautiful, peaceful and quiet, in the middle of nowhere, not a taxi or a robot beggar in sight...perfect bliss!
Later in the day, I had quite an interesting, and unexpected, water crossing ( didn't know that you get water crossings in the karoo?? ) that I took way too fast and ended up with water coming up the inside of my fullface helmet, even though the visor was closed. Amazingly, I managed to stay on the bike and not go farming...tahda..neat trick, but not one that I will try again! Unfortunately, the couple behind me were not so lucky and they both ended up in hospital. Hallo...wake up call.....you can get seriously hurt doing this stuff.....time to start taking things a little more seriously and stop trying to be Captain Fantastic!!! About an hour later, I had a seriously "oh shit" moment. Two jackals came running out of the scrub next to the road and were running next to the bike, when I tried to slow down so that they could get away, the bike started doing belly dancing underneath me and I nearly lost it on the small marble like "val op jou moer" road surface. That's when I remembered to gas it and , whalla, no more belly dancing. Fortunately, the jackals ran back into the veld and not in front of me. At our next stop I removed my boxer shorts from my butt crack!!
I have lived in Cape Town for most of my life and I saw and experienced things that I never even knew where there...........what an amazing weekend. A week before I went on this trip I took delivery of a brand new Suzuki DL, and now , 1 year later, I have just sold the DL with only 2300km's on the clock and bought myself a brand new Kawasaki KLR650, the same bike that I did my very first adventure ride on. I did not rush into this decision and spent the full year deciding if this is what I want to do, I even went on another short road trip to Lambertsbay (all tar ) and found it to be as boring as shit, compared to my Tankwa jaunt. I have lost all interest in road riding, every time I see a dirt road, I start wondering what's down there. I do not have the necessary skills to venture off into the wide blue yonder yet, and have booked myself onto one of those training courses. Once I have completed my training (my Tankwa luck can't last for ever ) I will be exploring and looking for those other hidden gems in the Western Cape.
