schalk vd merwe
Race Dog
Left at 9.40 am on Friday from jhb for the Wilddog Bash. Thought I had everything packed but discovered that I have left my trusty sleeping bag at home (remember my sleeping bag and I travelled through great parts of Africa together). So instead of traveling the 80 k’s back to jhb making it a 160 km round trip I decided to go through Parys and buy a new unwanted sleeping bag at R375-00. In the end it was money well spent for things to come. Traveling towards Kroonstad I hit a stop and go and decided that I don't like unwanted stops and rather went for the go next to the road works in progress. I travelled on the section where the road was under construction and my bike was painted white from the cement that was applied on the compacted soil. Stopped at Jakkalsdrift just before Winburg for a brekkie. At Winburg I turned off the N 1 after setting the GPS on the shortest route to the bash hoping to hit some gravel roads. It did not take long before I hit a good gravel road for the next 80km. From there I hit some pot hole roads and found that at 130kmh the XT would just go across them with no problem. From Tele Bridge it was one exciting dirt road all the way to the bash with no incident and arriving just before sun set and having just enough time to unload the bike and pitching the tent. At dinner we received a monster braai pack that no single person can consume in a whole weekend never mind in one evening. Met up with Kingsley and wife Karen who did the Africa trip under the RR “Riding the Rift” Interesting people and having done an Africa trip myself we clicked immediately. While having dinner a monster rain shower came down proving that my trusty 1 man tent which I bought in Australia in 1997 to travel the 6000 km east coast of Aus is not so water proof any more. Then it is going to bed in a wet brand new sleeping bag with water covering the floor of my tent. The next morning it was hanging out all the wet stuff on the fence but a true biker don't complain. The next day was spent on meeting all the true great adventure riders, In the afternoon it was a solo ride to Rhodes and from there over the mountains to Tiffendell sky resort and back. Saturday evening it was party time and I sat watching all Wdogs partying till I hit the sack at 12.40am. Sunday it was back to JHB on a solo ride, what a great weekend (see photos). You guys are welcome to load pictures here.
