It was high time for another ride, my bike has been standing for three months and needed a good outing to get the juices flowing. Redrider and Dirtwarp signed in, we were ready to go. It was dry, I mean no rain in about 6 months dry. But the riding was great as ever, being out on the bike was a blessing.
All the bikes ran great, we had two punctures - a BRP ploughing some river sand and a 525 cart wheeling down a stoney track but all brushed those little incidents aside. No fences and tracks all over, live life and ride.
Even in the driest place you will find beauty, life goes on. Two of the bikes ran 25L tanks, I had a small stock one. Between us we had plenty of range.
First of many riverbeds, this particular one has become something of a tradition. It also signals the start of a thorny path ahead, luckily this day we navigated through most of them without being ripped up too bad - except Redrider who went tripping without a jacket .... eina
I stopped and snapped the scene, in the distance I could hear a jackal. On the other side a deserted farmhouse from yesteryear, irrigation canals ran into the nearby field. Some greenery here and there but nothing for the cattle to get exited about.
Lunch time, eggs with Aromat - I settled for some bananas and pilchards. The darn phone also got signal and offcourse multiple missed calls flooded through."I'm on leave today"
My bike was using gas at a rate of knots - 10km/l ! Finally figured out my fuel screw mixture was two and a half turns out instead of 1 and a half. As it was slow going the pilot circuit kept gulping all the fuel.
Redrider piloting the XR out the side of a riverbed, I took another line and ended up navigating some thorn bushes - darn ! Dirtwarp helped by pushing and pulling, pretty funny pic for some reason. Dirtwarp escaped unscathed without a face full of roost
Jissem dis lekker ryplek die manne
Checking the GPS, yes definetly that way.
Some way off the track into the veld I spotted this Baobab, what a beauty. I had to ride closer for a picture. Wish I could have stayed longer. I like taking in as much as I can , sitting down and watching the birds whatever it's great - saw plenty of hornbills. Doing over 300km's of fairly technical stuff in one day makes it hard. One section we did about 6km in two hours.
Our stop for the night would be stealth camping somewhere in the bush, pretty cool. Made sure we had plenty of beer, meat and water to last the night - in that order offcourse. Having to carry a six pack in his backpack did not deter Redrider one bit - good on ya mate !
What a bike, some say you can only race it. Well it took me with my limited skills and luggage over some testing stuff without breaking a sweat. We did close on a 1000km, 90% dirt.
Dirtwarp making short work of this riverbed, it's like Dewildt without all the other bikes
Redrider in hot pursuit.
Night was falling and the thorns from earlier made their appearance, flat wheel on the KTM. Redrider decided it was time for a beer. I joined in and snapped what looked like a lilly to me (well with the camera you see not literally ... fark it's late to post a meaningfull sentence). Beautifull.
Found a suitable spot to set up camp, it was a tough day but rewarding - some lekker riding. Time to chill, kick back and enjoy mother nature and the company of some good friends. Many tales followed from the days ride, does not get better than this.
Next day would take us north with some interesting bits to follow.
To continue
