- Joined
- Feb 6, 2006
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- Location
- Cape Town, deep in the lentils
- Bike
- KTM 990 Adventure
Day 3 Palmwag to Opuwo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mx78tUar04k
Lying in bed early that morning listening to the hyena announcing his presence as first light was breaking was a bit special. Even more so, whilst lying there, was my first fart with no consequence! What a relief! I think more relieved than me was the medic Ockie! He’d given me some industrial grade Imodium that had sorted whatever was wrong out.
On Ockie, he’s clearly been around the block a few times. He had a quick smile or chirp and an easy going nature, but every morning he’d make a round of the camp asking specifically after any issues that had cropped up or needed to be seen to. He took a proactive attitude to expedition medicine. It was made specifically clear on more than one occasion that getting hurt or ill was not going to score any points, but, trying to tough it out or ignore it would attract big penalties.
I wear wicking longjohns under my braces. It seems counter intuitive when riding in 40 degree heat, but it’s layers that keep one dry and cool and also prevent chafe. Gerrit and I do it.
Sunrise spoilt by these two uglies
Ok, now it’s 4 and mal Johannes has photo bombed too.
Mornings were a bit hectic; there wasn’t much time to faf and still make the timings for the day. But the rhythm had started to settle in. Most of what goes where had now become easy to remember. I know my own personal systems take a few days to settle.
Breakfast
With briefing
That morning, after Phil and I had chatted a little more about us working together and replayed a few moments from the day before. We’d had a few good conversations and were gelling nicely. But, in the spirit of collaboration, we agreed that sharing the personality insights with the group could be helpful. Now tactically this is, on the face of it, not very bright as it seems to remove an advantage our team would have. But, this was a flipping long event and it was impossible to finish well without the help of others. There were multiple times a day where small and large favours were required to be given, sometimes at great cost, to get through. An example and one of many was our first puncture, Barbara and Charl stopped and without their help, we would have been there in the hot sun and dust a LOT longer. I am certain it was the right thing to do. There were some less obvious reasons;
Even during Bootcamp, I’d been peppered the whole time with comments about my profession. (I work with teams and people and use a variety of psychometrics) They were mostly the innocent kind along the lines of, “yeah well, this should be easy for you because this is what you do”, but some were a little more pointed, “I bet you’re analysing everyone?” type comments. So by sharing a bit of what I do in service of the group, it would hopefully reduce the mild sense that somehow I was advantaged.
It would be helpful for me to use that knowledge to best navigate some of the dynamics with others. I suppose I could use it to push buttons in a negative way but that’s not that helpful because no matter how skilled at getting an advantage one may be, it will cause relationship issues when used with bad intent. It was very helpful later when I was helping others get through some tough times.
Lastly, it could help me with a dynamic that I often experience in groups that I am a part of and especially ones that know me from the forum. It happened again just yesterday at Willem and Donavan’s fund raising – “Oh, so you’re Kamanya! I expected a wild, much bigger guy.” It sometimes takes a while for people to get past an initial perception which leaves them a little distanced. For example, just one vignette (of many) from a blind spot that comes from my type; You don’t conform to rules and hate any attempts at being controlled. At the same time your tendency to take control assumes that others will comply and conform to you. This can create tension in relationships. So, the point was to disarm this perception by owning up to it.
Of course, there’s another one too; I can’t help myself sometimes!
Of course, it could have backfired as people could seriously doubt our intentions and in particular begin to undermine us if they perceived us to be exploiting it.
I floated the idea at breakfast and seemed to get a positive response.
The mornings ride was brilliant with the group riding with better rhythm and pace. Also the roads were better groomed and the scenery spectacular. I was having fun.
Dust art
A key moment that I knew Phillip and I had become a bit more of a team was in a series of twisty gravel canyon road. It was dangerous because of the dust and the possibility of oncoming cars. Peppered in too were these big trucks that from time to time came thundering past. For a good few seconds life is blotted out and it’s nearly impossible to even see your partner. In one blind rise with a left corner behind it and a little hanging dust, me sitting just back from his wheel, we both miscalculated the bend. In that moment, we both hit the brakes at exactly the same time, took exactly the same avoiding action and both then recalibrated and power slid around in tandem. It was glorious to watch. At the next break he commented on that corner, laughing that he cocked it up and that he thought I would be laughing at his mistake. “No! you should have seen it, I did exactly the same thing, it was superb!” was my reply.
At a stop just after that I launched into the Enneagram. For a quick 10 minute introduction, I wondered how much they had absorbed and would they find it useful.
About half the group took me up seriously in having me give more info on specifics about what would work well between the two of them and what wouldn’t. Interestingly every team I did do a little work with had a high degree of a trait called agreeability. No wonder as a group, we all got on rather well. Later, it was fun to spend just a little time with each team subsequently to go into dynamics and some solutions to their unique combination.
We had very little time for stopping to sightsee. It was a risk to stop at all because the team in front if we so much as dallied more than 2 or 3 minutes would invariably turn around and come look for us. This would trigger the same behaviour all the way to the front. Grant and Glen of team 5, were ahead of us and on the ball and over the next 10 days not once missed coming back for us if we had an issue.
Here, we risked a photo of our first sighting of elephant
Then, not far from there, Marcel and SP were not behind us. We waited for 30 seconds and then turned. We felt quite smug as we rode up to them that we’d picked this up so quickly and found them only about 2 kilometres back already with the front wheel off and going about starting to fix the tyre. We stopped and high 5’d as John was there so that would be points for us surely. Phillip went over to see if he could help but John said to carry on so as to prevent the whole column coming back, but he was asked, “what took so long it’s been at least 18 minutes?”
Phillip and I knew this was impossible and he contested this knowing that this was not going to look good on the days scoreboard. We stated our case and left it, arguing in the hot sun wasn’t fun. As we were about to get going again, Glen and Grants lights were coming over the rise. They too had done their job. We asked how far had they ridden to get to us, they confirmed only 4 or so k’s, so we weren’t imagining things. It left a bit of a sour note especially as this had been stressed that these types of mistakes would be heavily penalised.
Barbara and Charl, the next pair up the road, had not been so alert and had let a gap of 20 or 30k’s form before turning back. As they got to us, Phil got a puncture. Bugger! It was midday now, no shade and proper hot. They stayed to help us. Barbara then pulled one out of the hat – we’d been told that to change the front, the one brake calliper needed to be removed. This is a pain as it’s an extra chore and the bolts are 14’s as opposed to the 12mm pinch bolts that free the axle. She managed to get the wheel out without removing the calliper. I should’ve know better, on the KTM’s that have exactly the same system, it’s not necessary. She’s not just a pretty face!
We were not far from Opuwo when I could see that Phils front was still leaking. It was now a slow pukcture. As we were literally a few k’s from the camp, we just kept stopping and hand pumping it.
Then, paradise!
Shade,
Ice cold Beer,
a pool (no swimming unless we showered first!)
and most importantly
Wifi!
Johannes friends had been busy
Barbara was being flirted with
He was impressive, none of us dared intervene
But, all good things come to an end, apparently it was time for Suiker Kaskenades. The competition was to remove and replace the rear wheel. Whilst the one bike had to be put into a line,
we headed off to the other bike to do a quick practice. Hennie and Charl were with us when we were doing this. They ride BM’s and said they weren’t used to dealing with a chain. I couldn’t see that being a problem as there’s not much that can go wrong… or so I thought. We came second with a time of just over 2 minutes. We were happy with that.
Some made that mistake mentioned above of taking the DCT with the extra brake calliper issue, we asked if we were allowed to help but they had to struggle through on their own. We could only stand in the shade and cheer them on.
We still had to fix our slow flat
Then an hour of relax and get clean
Before the presentations
That night, I ate 2 and half full plates of pasta, I was ravenous! Eating was now a matter of survival rather than pleasure. There was a shortage of chairs for some reason. No matter
Then for the second time, I crashed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mx78tUar04k
Lying in bed early that morning listening to the hyena announcing his presence as first light was breaking was a bit special. Even more so, whilst lying there, was my first fart with no consequence! What a relief! I think more relieved than me was the medic Ockie! He’d given me some industrial grade Imodium that had sorted whatever was wrong out.
On Ockie, he’s clearly been around the block a few times. He had a quick smile or chirp and an easy going nature, but every morning he’d make a round of the camp asking specifically after any issues that had cropped up or needed to be seen to. He took a proactive attitude to expedition medicine. It was made specifically clear on more than one occasion that getting hurt or ill was not going to score any points, but, trying to tough it out or ignore it would attract big penalties.
I wear wicking longjohns under my braces. It seems counter intuitive when riding in 40 degree heat, but it’s layers that keep one dry and cool and also prevent chafe. Gerrit and I do it.
Sunrise spoilt by these two uglies
Ok, now it’s 4 and mal Johannes has photo bombed too.
Mornings were a bit hectic; there wasn’t much time to faf and still make the timings for the day. But the rhythm had started to settle in. Most of what goes where had now become easy to remember. I know my own personal systems take a few days to settle.
Breakfast
With briefing
That morning, after Phil and I had chatted a little more about us working together and replayed a few moments from the day before. We’d had a few good conversations and were gelling nicely. But, in the spirit of collaboration, we agreed that sharing the personality insights with the group could be helpful. Now tactically this is, on the face of it, not very bright as it seems to remove an advantage our team would have. But, this was a flipping long event and it was impossible to finish well without the help of others. There were multiple times a day where small and large favours were required to be given, sometimes at great cost, to get through. An example and one of many was our first puncture, Barbara and Charl stopped and without their help, we would have been there in the hot sun and dust a LOT longer. I am certain it was the right thing to do. There were some less obvious reasons;
Even during Bootcamp, I’d been peppered the whole time with comments about my profession. (I work with teams and people and use a variety of psychometrics) They were mostly the innocent kind along the lines of, “yeah well, this should be easy for you because this is what you do”, but some were a little more pointed, “I bet you’re analysing everyone?” type comments. So by sharing a bit of what I do in service of the group, it would hopefully reduce the mild sense that somehow I was advantaged.
It would be helpful for me to use that knowledge to best navigate some of the dynamics with others. I suppose I could use it to push buttons in a negative way but that’s not that helpful because no matter how skilled at getting an advantage one may be, it will cause relationship issues when used with bad intent. It was very helpful later when I was helping others get through some tough times.
Lastly, it could help me with a dynamic that I often experience in groups that I am a part of and especially ones that know me from the forum. It happened again just yesterday at Willem and Donavan’s fund raising – “Oh, so you’re Kamanya! I expected a wild, much bigger guy.” It sometimes takes a while for people to get past an initial perception which leaves them a little distanced. For example, just one vignette (of many) from a blind spot that comes from my type; You don’t conform to rules and hate any attempts at being controlled. At the same time your tendency to take control assumes that others will comply and conform to you. This can create tension in relationships. So, the point was to disarm this perception by owning up to it.
Of course, there’s another one too; I can’t help myself sometimes!
Of course, it could have backfired as people could seriously doubt our intentions and in particular begin to undermine us if they perceived us to be exploiting it.
I floated the idea at breakfast and seemed to get a positive response.
The mornings ride was brilliant with the group riding with better rhythm and pace. Also the roads were better groomed and the scenery spectacular. I was having fun.
Dust art
A key moment that I knew Phillip and I had become a bit more of a team was in a series of twisty gravel canyon road. It was dangerous because of the dust and the possibility of oncoming cars. Peppered in too were these big trucks that from time to time came thundering past. For a good few seconds life is blotted out and it’s nearly impossible to even see your partner. In one blind rise with a left corner behind it and a little hanging dust, me sitting just back from his wheel, we both miscalculated the bend. In that moment, we both hit the brakes at exactly the same time, took exactly the same avoiding action and both then recalibrated and power slid around in tandem. It was glorious to watch. At the next break he commented on that corner, laughing that he cocked it up and that he thought I would be laughing at his mistake. “No! you should have seen it, I did exactly the same thing, it was superb!” was my reply.
At a stop just after that I launched into the Enneagram. For a quick 10 minute introduction, I wondered how much they had absorbed and would they find it useful.
About half the group took me up seriously in having me give more info on specifics about what would work well between the two of them and what wouldn’t. Interestingly every team I did do a little work with had a high degree of a trait called agreeability. No wonder as a group, we all got on rather well. Later, it was fun to spend just a little time with each team subsequently to go into dynamics and some solutions to their unique combination.
We had very little time for stopping to sightsee. It was a risk to stop at all because the team in front if we so much as dallied more than 2 or 3 minutes would invariably turn around and come look for us. This would trigger the same behaviour all the way to the front. Grant and Glen of team 5, were ahead of us and on the ball and over the next 10 days not once missed coming back for us if we had an issue.
Here, we risked a photo of our first sighting of elephant
Then, not far from there, Marcel and SP were not behind us. We waited for 30 seconds and then turned. We felt quite smug as we rode up to them that we’d picked this up so quickly and found them only about 2 kilometres back already with the front wheel off and going about starting to fix the tyre. We stopped and high 5’d as John was there so that would be points for us surely. Phillip went over to see if he could help but John said to carry on so as to prevent the whole column coming back, but he was asked, “what took so long it’s been at least 18 minutes?”
Phillip and I knew this was impossible and he contested this knowing that this was not going to look good on the days scoreboard. We stated our case and left it, arguing in the hot sun wasn’t fun. As we were about to get going again, Glen and Grants lights were coming over the rise. They too had done their job. We asked how far had they ridden to get to us, they confirmed only 4 or so k’s, so we weren’t imagining things. It left a bit of a sour note especially as this had been stressed that these types of mistakes would be heavily penalised.
Barbara and Charl, the next pair up the road, had not been so alert and had let a gap of 20 or 30k’s form before turning back. As they got to us, Phil got a puncture. Bugger! It was midday now, no shade and proper hot. They stayed to help us. Barbara then pulled one out of the hat – we’d been told that to change the front, the one brake calliper needed to be removed. This is a pain as it’s an extra chore and the bolts are 14’s as opposed to the 12mm pinch bolts that free the axle. She managed to get the wheel out without removing the calliper. I should’ve know better, on the KTM’s that have exactly the same system, it’s not necessary. She’s not just a pretty face!
We were not far from Opuwo when I could see that Phils front was still leaking. It was now a slow pukcture. As we were literally a few k’s from the camp, we just kept stopping and hand pumping it.
Then, paradise!
Shade,
Ice cold Beer,
a pool (no swimming unless we showered first!)
and most importantly
Wifi!
Johannes friends had been busy
Barbara was being flirted with
He was impressive, none of us dared intervene
But, all good things come to an end, apparently it was time for Suiker Kaskenades. The competition was to remove and replace the rear wheel. Whilst the one bike had to be put into a line,
we headed off to the other bike to do a quick practice. Hennie and Charl were with us when we were doing this. They ride BM’s and said they weren’t used to dealing with a chain. I couldn’t see that being a problem as there’s not much that can go wrong… or so I thought. We came second with a time of just over 2 minutes. We were happy with that.
Some made that mistake mentioned above of taking the DCT with the extra brake calliper issue, we asked if we were allowed to help but they had to struggle through on their own. We could only stand in the shade and cheer them on.
We still had to fix our slow flat
Then an hour of relax and get clean
Before the presentations
That night, I ate 2 and half full plates of pasta, I was ravenous! Eating was now a matter of survival rather than pleasure. There was a shortage of chairs for some reason. No matter
Then for the second time, I crashed.
