Day 4:
The plan was to get from the farm past Loeriesfontein, Calvinia and then onto Cederberg Oasis via the SAS Willehond and Doringrivier - we got derailed a little, but more on that later.
I must say it was awesome to wake during the night and see the typical rural area clear stars above you.
They don't make them like that in the city.
;D
Again - for an IT geek like I am it felt real 'camel-manly' to see the stars above you and to see the shadow of your bike right next to you.
:biggrin:
We were again up and about early (some earlier than others) - CJ did the rounds with his camera.
Just to give you an idea of the sleeping arrangements - this is some of the photo's he snapped.
Not all of us seem to be at our best early in the morning
;D ;D
Drifter:
Biesie:
Operator and me:
No comment:
CJ packing up:
Right where I left him the previous night:
We were obviously looking forward to the day and chirps were again at the order of the day.
To Operator's dismay one of the zips on his 'combo short/long' riding pants gave the ghost.
For a while, while getting something to make a plan with, he was walking around with one leg exposed from mid thigh to the ankle, with the bottom of the pant leg sitting like an 80's style legwarmer around his ankle.
This obviously gave the rest of us carte blanch to comments like 'Hy lyk beenaf' and 'When we get back he'll have a bone to pick with the manufacturer'.
Just as it started dying down CJ warned us that it is bad form to pull a friend's leg when he is in distress. ;D ;D
We told him under normal circumstances it would be so, but in this case he really didn't have a leg to stand on. :biggrin:
You get the idea.
I think it was Biesie who ended up giving him his rain riding pants to put on over the regular riding gear - that seemed to have helped.
I was still packing when some of the others were ready to leave, so they went ahead to a leisurely start of the way back to the main farm house complex.
As Biesie and I finished and pulled off we saw their lights coming over some little foreign hill - turns out they took the wrong road and went about a kilometer in the wrong direction before realizing.
So much for having a head start ;D ;D ;D
To be fair if Biesie wasn't with me I would probably have taken the wrong path as well.
Before long we were out of the farm driveway and on our way towards Loeriesfontein.
We did some readjustments to the luggage and Biesie decided to take some of the cold weather riding gear off, so I told the others to hit the road so long and that we will catch up.
We fell into a very cool 'road rhythm, so it wasn't long before we saw the dust trails of the other three ahead of us.
I decided seeing that I am in 'catch up mode' anyway I might as well use it, so I gunned it past Operator and Drifter to set up a photo.
Drifter came past:
And then Operator:
Biesie didn't.
I gave it a couple of minutes, but then realized something must have been wrong as he was directly behind me when I caught up with Operator.
I went back about 5 k's and found this:
(I did mention that I had a flat the previous day ? ;D )
Still life: Ring-spanners, sprocket and some TT bling
I gave a hand as far as I was able to be helpful with tubed tyres and about 40 minutes later we were on our way again.
We were met by CJ who came from the front - he was waiting at an intersection which was about 5 km's down the road from where his GPS wanted to turn off - this road would eventually diverge with the one at the intersection, but he didn't know if we would follow our guts or if my GPS would do the same thing, so he was afraid that if he came down the one road we might go 'round on the other and hence miss each other.
Meantime Operator and Drifter continued to Loeriesfontein (we were about 30k's from it by that time).
Operator had issues with the welding on his screen as well (this time the whole bracket collapsed, so he had to make a road side plan with cable ties).
They eventually figured that something was wrong, so between him and Drifter they organized a bakkie to be on standby just in case and Operator started heading back to us.
In the meantime about 10 kilometers after the previous one Biesie had another flat on the rear. Don't know if it was pinched or what happened, but by this time CJ was with so another tube was put in. Road side repairs with time not on your side hardly ever ends well and this time wasn't an exception - the air didn't want to stay in.
Just at that time the bakkie arrived with Drifter, so we loaded the bike on the bakkie and headed for Loeriesfontein.
My previous day's 'lack of self-control hyperactive charging around' on the pan didn't do me any favours and I barely made Loeriesfontein with the fuel I still had.
Looking back there's a couple of things that could have been done differently during all of this, the least of which isn't that I should have made the travel arrangement clearer in the beginning
In all honesty it probably isn't the best thing when there's only five in the party to say things like:'Go ahead - we'll catch up'.
Ah well. Doesn't matter now - time was wasted and we had two flats in a row. Can't plan for that and stressing about it wasn't going to change the fact.
There was a good backup plan in the form of the bakkie though
That helped a lot
Again - we were overwhelmed by these people's generosity. This guy just arrived on a week day to help out, helped with loading/ unloading the bike, took it to Loeries and then stayed around until he was satisfied that we were sorted.
He wanted no compensation of any sort - was just glad he could help.
In Loeriesfontein we ended up at a tyre repair place where they fixed Biesie's rear tyre properly - they were concerned though, as it was a cut and not a regular hole.
We phoned ahead to Calvinia - the Supa Quick there have a biker in their midst who have been known to have a limited but adequate selection of dual sport tyres.
Yes - he have the right size and tubes - we can just arrive.
So we decided that if we anyway need to spend time in Calvinia at a tyre shop again that we could just as well postpone lunch plans until then.
We arrived at Supa Quick in Calvinia and as it turns out CJ knew the guy there - HJ Visagie - very cool oke and very very helpful.
He said he's helped a couple of people in their areas already. He really goes the extra mile.
And as far as tyre shops go you will search far to get the excellent service we got at Supa Quick in Calvinia.
As far as CJ knowing the guy - we have come to not be surprised. There was a couple of people in Koiingnaas on a bakkie and CJ knew one of 'em.
Same thing in Springbok.
Drifter is a partner in a transport business that is big enough to get the job done and small enough to care, with them as management/owners being rather hands on.
This made him also encountering people he knows from basically everywhere.
;D ;D
I swear if you take Ektoknbike, CJ and Drifter on a trip to basically everywhere, between the three of them they would probably know everybody they encounter.
;D ;D ;D
As we were busy sorting out options for Biesie's Dakar I heard this hissing sound coming from my bike.
I picked up one of two things - it was either a snake, or I got another leak.
Walking round the bike I saw the little tyre weld foam 'cloud' forming on the front of the rear.
Damn.
So I took the wheel off to have them look at it and fix it properly.
HJ had some concerns as it didn't look like the tyre was happy to be fixed in this way on a tubeless.
User/tyre/fitment error I can't say for sure, but HJ didn't seem happy with the result...
We were anyway screwed with regards to our schedule at this stage, so we decided to find some local accommodation while keeping an eye on the rear wheel.
Drifter was from the beginning considering if he shouldn't go and visit his folks in Langebaan, so with these new developments and delays he decided that it probably wouldn't be a bad idea.
So we said our good-bye's and he were off.
'What a lekker oke to do a trip like this with' was the thoughts that went through my mind as I watched his 800 disappear around the last visible bend. He really stretched his own and his bike's abilities to far beyond where he was comfortable with (especially with a loaded bike) and never once did we hear a peep of negativity from his side. In fact - he was always upbeat and chirpy no matter how difficult things became or how tired he was.
We went for lunch in a nursery and restaurant operated by the owner from his house (was actually a pleasant experience) - he also gave us options for finding some place to stay.
Before long we were settled, got our supplies for the evening and had the fire going.
This day didn't end up as planned, but we still had Wuppertal and Eselbank to look forward to and we had lots about the trip up to here that made us smile as we brought it up again.
This was outside our digs for the night:
I must say - this was a very shrill contrast from the previous night.
The flat was on the main road that comes from Brandvlei's side so instead of hearing nothing other than natural rural night sounds the previous night this night was filled with exhaust brakes and trucks.
Operator doing his 'The Mummy' impersonation.
The next morning I indeed had a flat rear tyre again, so I pumped it just enough to get me to the Supa Quick where HJ just happen to have my tyre of choice - Anakee ;D
He mentioned the previous day that they would be there at 7:45 just in case (normally open at 8 ).
When we arrived at 7:30 he was already there and ready to help.
We were sorted and on our way at just after 8.
As we waited we noticed this advert on the Supa Quick's window:
Well, I actually tried to ignore it, but CJ took a photo.
I went a whole trip without being reminded of this stupid song and then it had to happen here
:bluduh:
This day's road would take us to Botterkloof pass, Biedouw, Wuppertal, Eselbank, Cederberg Oasis and then through Ceres and Bainskloof home - to be continued...
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