Picked up
@Grunder in Bloem on Friday morning and we drove further South, and the further we got the warmer it got!
Roan & me had met before, and just about disagreed on anything we chatted about during the trip - which made the trip gesellig, lekker and interesting, dankie meneer
He was going to play GPS once Beaufort West was behind us, and he led us - by this time
@ETS had joined us - without fail to Oukloof. Poor Kobus had to dodge our dust in the scorching heat, and also his car showed 40C on the dash ...
View attachment 882379
That bode well for Saturday's riding then!
We turned out to have stopped at the house we were allocated sleeping in also (there were 3 houses for this, not really close to each other) so that was lucky.
Offloaded the bikes and got to socialize with all & sundry, and drinking beer - of course, it was downright hot, also in the evening and even at night
View attachment 882380
View attachment 882381
View attachment 882382
View attachment 882383
I actually do not drink beer normally, only if I'm riding, sweating and when it's hot, to serve as a rehydrate... but it was really hot enough - I didn't even touch the wine
@NIMMO had brought for me (dankie vir dit
) because I forgot to load mine - plus my camping chair but this luckily wasn't a problem, plenty of seating available.
Anyway, a great braai followed with lekker socializing, it was a way bigger group than I'd expected, with many new2me faces.
Then off to bed,
on the bed that is.... too hot, and the fan in the room brought us some relief
Coffee & brekfis the next morning, and then we rode to Middleplaas (I think the name was?) some 10km's further, where others of the group slept also. Here the various groups left for their different rides, and I opted to join some big bikes on route 4 instead of riding the allegedly more-technical 2 as this was to come thereafter, and riding the same route twice is not for me. I'd brought my 300stroker for this occasion, so it felt a bit like cheating to join the bigger bikes.
That one a bit tricky uphill I thought some guys would struggle with, but as an old African Twin 750 was burbling on my *** (I forgot your name bru, pls tell me again?) I could not stop to look back down and enjoy the spectacle but had to carry on... this dude rides VERY well, we eventually only stopped at the gate at the top - where we saw a lone Oryx trotting along the fence, a beautiful animal indeed!
If someone has a few photos of that uphill where some dudes parked their bikes horizontally, please post them here?
We decided to go to the brick house being built and wait for the others to arrive - which they did, some quite knacked
The water tap there was a welcome cooling off aid, I hope we left enough to continue building that house - in a very special spot, next to a river when it rains there, and with a gorgeous view, situated a bit in a neck of the hills.
View attachment 882393
View attachment 882394
View attachment 882395
View attachment 882396
Due to time constraints it was decided to not do the rest of the (all flat now) route but backtrack to Middleplaas - which meant going down that same uphill some had found their nemesis on
Oh well, as the saying goes it was all downhill from there, so we got back to the plaashuis...
View attachment 882397
View attachment 882399
Here we had something to drink and left for the second route/loop of the morning, I choose route 2 with a few others.
Dave led on his KDX, and on a bit of an uphill I think he must have spotted an attractive mermaid because he came off, and rolled down
further than his bike - Well Done!!!!
I, very reluctantly of course, decided to stop (we're friends, I normally carry on pretending to see zilch), and
only did this because the whole group following us would see this of course, and I may just get a bad reputation then... anyway, I stopped.
Dave got to his feet but his one pinky stood out proud, a bit odd, and urgently (read: shouted, army style!) asked me to yank it back into a more acceptable alignment. As said we're friends, good friends actually, so I did... therefore I will remember this trip as the only time I've fingered a friend!
I hope noone has got a photo of this, and
if you do, please delete it?
Anyway, all good so we continued, and a nice route it was - with even a bit of riverbed at the end!
View attachment 882404
View attachment 882405
Back to the house for lunch now, some really splendid sandwiches with also some crisp salad in them - so I had two of them, with plenty Oros also of course
In the afternoon anyone could do what they wanted to, so Craig & me decided to find that sandy river to go play a bit.
We did too, initially to find quite a bit of small buck with long elongated ears, no horns and quite a dark skin (no, not duikers), and later Dave mentioned there were probably some 'Kaapse...' forgotthename.
The sandy river bit was a lil short however, so we tried to find more by traversing a rocky bit initially, then veering onto the shore to see what lied next... only to find an even shorter sandy stretch.
Oh well, we had fun, did a few up&down screaming rides and went back to the plaashuis.
View attachment 882409
View attachment 882410
View attachment 882411
Back at the middleplaas huis we decided to go back to our pozzie in Oukloof to rid ourselves of our warm, cumbersome kit ..... and there we found many thinking the same and taking the rest of the afternoon off, kuiering
Saturday eve a welcome cooling breeze came up, and we had a superb dinner then, an oxtail pot - awesome!!
A good social developed, and I'm sure I speak for anyone that a good time was had by all!
Thank you to Hardy & Team (too many too mention, and I'll probably forget a few...) for organizing this excellent weekend - but in the same breath also thank you to anyone else attending, I will do this again in a heartbeat!
I hope this get-together will repeat, at least once a year but maybe twice - Autumn AND Spring?
Cheers!
>
not true!!
Hy moet n moeilike lewe hê!! 
