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:thumleft:
THE ROAD TO HELL ..... and back (part 8 THE FINAL CHAPTER now up)
- Thread starter JustBendIt
- Start date
Lekker kêrels, ons wag in spanning vir die res!!
:drif:
:drif:
XTJoe
Race Dog
Cheers for Justin to check on the wellbeing of the animal while he was still in pain :thumleft:
I dont think i would have been that good, the least would be some serious swearing :laughing4:
Super Trip
I dont think i would have been that good, the least would be some serious swearing :laughing4:
Super Trip
Malibu
Bachelor Dog
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sub... ;D
DirtyHarry
Race Dog
Nice one guys. How many parts does this RR have?
Why do I ride all the way into the Kalahari to find sand when you can have it so much closer?
I might have to pay Hondeklip Bay a visit :biggrin:
Why do I ride all the way into the Kalahari to find sand when you can have it so much closer?
I might have to pay Hondeklip Bay a visit :biggrin:
JustBendIt
Grey Hound
DirtyHarry said:
dunno yet - I am just getting started
So carry on then please - we are waiting !!
Brilliant stuff so far
Brilliant stuff so far
MX Junkie
Pack Dog
Beserker said:
What........................ NOOooooo!!!!! You can't be se-ri-ous!
JustBendIt
Grey Hound
PART 3
Saturday morning dawns – very misty and very cold.
Heddles and I have had a good night’s sleep. Beserker and See Duiwel stayed up for some kakpraat into the wee hours.
We were all up by 7 AM – eager to get kitted and riding again but first we had to attend to 2 small problems
The bikes.
My bike needed some running repairs – my contact with the sheep had caused the handlebars to move in their mounts and bent the left handguard when I went down
Berserker’s XR had no lights
See Duiwel’s braai grid was a bit loose and needed more “bloudraad” to tie it “vas”
The other guys
We needed to find them – or at least their remains so we could ship them back home to loved ones and the like
For the bikes we had tools and they were quickly put to work – everything was sorted except for Berserker’s light – he could find no obvious problem with the wiring so we had to presume the bulb was shot – nobody had a spare bulb for this vintage Honda
I fired up my cellphone and tried calling Michiel – no answer – left a message.
For breakfast I had 2 small bank bags of muesli with a liquid milky stuff called Up ‘N Go in a Mango & Peach flavour – YUK! Heddles ate the leftovers of last night’s rump steak. Berserker had 2 litres of coffee and a pack of Marlboros and See Duiwel was seen taking large mouthfuls of fresh West Coast mist.
It was now 8:30 AM – I tried calling Michiel again and he answered – I told him where we were and minutes later the roar of the 4 other bikes filled the air. They had arrived in Hondeklipbaai about 90 minutes before us last night and went to the campsite and pitched tents – I think they must have got quite wet during the night because the sea mist here is really thick and heavy. While we were chowing rump steak and crayfish in the restaurant next door they were huddled around a Bic lighter singing Kumbaya.
We quickly saddled up the horses and were off again. First call would be petrol. Berserker led us to Koingnaas for fuel – about 20 km outside Hondeklipbaai.
This was a tiny fuel station – 3 pumps – 1 diesel, 1 ULP and 1 LRP and a fridge with a few Cokes – that’s it. We all juiced up at R13 a litre and were off like a Jewish foreskin.
We were now riding inland – away from the sea – diagonally towards Springbok. The Namakwa National Park threw open her gates for us.
What a beautiful place – awesome roads – some wide fast stuff and some equally tight and technical little tweespoor tracks – it was great to be moving again and out of the sand – everyone was enjoying themselves and revelling in these surroundings.
The dreaded N7 appeared before us and we stopped to regroup. It was now 11 AM on Saturday – Berserker had to be home tomorrow night to attend to work matter early Monday morning – he made the sad decision to leave the posse and hit the road back to Stellenbosch
He told me later that he rode about 30 km and stopped, thinking “FFFFUUUUUCCCKKKK – north or south? – if I turn back now I can still catch them !”. Sadly his head overruled his heart and he continued homeward while we pressed on to Springbok for lunch and some supplies.
Fast forward 2 and a bit hours after a long lazy lunch stop and we were lined up at the last available petrol before Namibia in the sprawling metropolis of Steinkopf. We filled up again – our next available fuel would be Pofadder – about 380 km away – but we would be riding the Namakwa Eco Trail – very sandy in parts and a fuel guzzling stretch on a big bike.
45 km northwards after Steinkopf we turned off the N7 – we were here! The Road to Hell was a mere 25 km away – we were all trembling like schoolboys who were about to see their first Scope magazine.
I blew my wheels off (deflated my tires) to 1,5 bar front and back. I had been here before – there was a fair bit of sand in this area.
I had pumped the tyres quite hard in Springbok for this last stretch of tar – there is nothing worse for a knobbly with thick enduro tubes inside than to run at 140 kph plus on the tar with low pressures – I got lazy once, about 2 years ago, and had a rear tube melt on me and suddenly deflate at about 150 kph – very scary - am still trying to get the skidmarks out of those undies.
I led the way this sometime. The Namakwa Eco Trail is a vast area with hundreds of little paths criss crossing the landscape – only 1 path is the right path – it is very easy to get lost here and is critical that the group stays together and within sight of one another – it is a very beautiful but very harsh area – I really think that silly people can die here. I told the guys to stick close and make sure they keep the rider behind them in their mirrors.
I switched on my GPS to follow the breadcrumb trail. I was back in my all time favourite riding place – life was good
The other guys followed me and we stuck close together – for the first 5 minutes. The problem was that Heddles was very sore – what took us 2 min to cover took him 5 minutes – he was losing ground every second. I stopped regularly to let him catch up – the others were getting restless, especially Rovrat and See Duiwel – they were like racehorses in the starting gates – eyes wide, nostrils flaring and pawing at the ground, waiting for the start gun.
The group started to split up again – I was following my crumb trail while others were following the “official” T4A track – I was getting annoyed – they had asked me to lead and now they were riding off on a different track. Did they realise the stakes involved here ?
I waved my arms to stop the freight train. I rode over to Rovrat and See Duiwel to politely enquire what the fuck they thought they were doing. They protested a bit but after a bit of “Have you been there ? NO ! – well then fuck what your GPS says and follow me because I have !” they gave in and accepted it. Excuse my language but desperate times called for desperate measures.
We rode off again – this time in close convoy – stopping every 2 minutes for the group to close up again. The trail is awesome – some open and flowing tweespoor which quickly turns into rocky little drifts and even more rocky and tight little passes over and in between koppies – sadly there are no pics of this – it was now 5 PM and we were desperate to get to the ROAD.
A hard turn left and down the flood plain and we were there. Before us lay the ROAD TO HELL.
I was fizzing at the bum to ride the ROAD and set up camp at the bottom next to the river.
Nismark wisely suggested that we should camp right here – it was late, the sun was setting and we were tired – let’s tackle the ROAD in the morning. I was gutted but saw the wisdom in his argument and agreed. The ROAD would have to wait for the next sunrise.
We all found our own lekker spot and set up camp.
There was no chance of rain so I decided not to pitch my tent and sleep under the stars.
The sun soon set and a small fire was lit. I warmed up my tin of chicken curry while Heddles and I opened a bottle of Tassies I had stuck away.
The other okes soon joined us and we spoke shit while gazing at the stars.
To be continued ...
Saturday morning dawns – very misty and very cold.
Heddles and I have had a good night’s sleep. Beserker and See Duiwel stayed up for some kakpraat into the wee hours.
We were all up by 7 AM – eager to get kitted and riding again but first we had to attend to 2 small problems
The bikes.
My bike needed some running repairs – my contact with the sheep had caused the handlebars to move in their mounts and bent the left handguard when I went down
Berserker’s XR had no lights
See Duiwel’s braai grid was a bit loose and needed more “bloudraad” to tie it “vas”
The other guys
We needed to find them – or at least their remains so we could ship them back home to loved ones and the like
For the bikes we had tools and they were quickly put to work – everything was sorted except for Berserker’s light – he could find no obvious problem with the wiring so we had to presume the bulb was shot – nobody had a spare bulb for this vintage Honda
I fired up my cellphone and tried calling Michiel – no answer – left a message.
For breakfast I had 2 small bank bags of muesli with a liquid milky stuff called Up ‘N Go in a Mango & Peach flavour – YUK! Heddles ate the leftovers of last night’s rump steak. Berserker had 2 litres of coffee and a pack of Marlboros and See Duiwel was seen taking large mouthfuls of fresh West Coast mist.
It was now 8:30 AM – I tried calling Michiel again and he answered – I told him where we were and minutes later the roar of the 4 other bikes filled the air. They had arrived in Hondeklipbaai about 90 minutes before us last night and went to the campsite and pitched tents – I think they must have got quite wet during the night because the sea mist here is really thick and heavy. While we were chowing rump steak and crayfish in the restaurant next door they were huddled around a Bic lighter singing Kumbaya.
We quickly saddled up the horses and were off again. First call would be petrol. Berserker led us to Koingnaas for fuel – about 20 km outside Hondeklipbaai.
This was a tiny fuel station – 3 pumps – 1 diesel, 1 ULP and 1 LRP and a fridge with a few Cokes – that’s it. We all juiced up at R13 a litre and were off like a Jewish foreskin.
We were now riding inland – away from the sea – diagonally towards Springbok. The Namakwa National Park threw open her gates for us.
What a beautiful place – awesome roads – some wide fast stuff and some equally tight and technical little tweespoor tracks – it was great to be moving again and out of the sand – everyone was enjoying themselves and revelling in these surroundings.
The dreaded N7 appeared before us and we stopped to regroup. It was now 11 AM on Saturday – Berserker had to be home tomorrow night to attend to work matter early Monday morning – he made the sad decision to leave the posse and hit the road back to Stellenbosch
He told me later that he rode about 30 km and stopped, thinking “FFFFUUUUUCCCKKKK – north or south? – if I turn back now I can still catch them !”. Sadly his head overruled his heart and he continued homeward while we pressed on to Springbok for lunch and some supplies.
Fast forward 2 and a bit hours after a long lazy lunch stop and we were lined up at the last available petrol before Namibia in the sprawling metropolis of Steinkopf. We filled up again – our next available fuel would be Pofadder – about 380 km away – but we would be riding the Namakwa Eco Trail – very sandy in parts and a fuel guzzling stretch on a big bike.
45 km northwards after Steinkopf we turned off the N7 – we were here! The Road to Hell was a mere 25 km away – we were all trembling like schoolboys who were about to see their first Scope magazine.
I blew my wheels off (deflated my tires) to 1,5 bar front and back. I had been here before – there was a fair bit of sand in this area.
I had pumped the tyres quite hard in Springbok for this last stretch of tar – there is nothing worse for a knobbly with thick enduro tubes inside than to run at 140 kph plus on the tar with low pressures – I got lazy once, about 2 years ago, and had a rear tube melt on me and suddenly deflate at about 150 kph – very scary - am still trying to get the skidmarks out of those undies.
I led the way this sometime. The Namakwa Eco Trail is a vast area with hundreds of little paths criss crossing the landscape – only 1 path is the right path – it is very easy to get lost here and is critical that the group stays together and within sight of one another – it is a very beautiful but very harsh area – I really think that silly people can die here. I told the guys to stick close and make sure they keep the rider behind them in their mirrors.
I switched on my GPS to follow the breadcrumb trail. I was back in my all time favourite riding place – life was good
The other guys followed me and we stuck close together – for the first 5 minutes. The problem was that Heddles was very sore – what took us 2 min to cover took him 5 minutes – he was losing ground every second. I stopped regularly to let him catch up – the others were getting restless, especially Rovrat and See Duiwel – they were like racehorses in the starting gates – eyes wide, nostrils flaring and pawing at the ground, waiting for the start gun.
The group started to split up again – I was following my crumb trail while others were following the “official” T4A track – I was getting annoyed – they had asked me to lead and now they were riding off on a different track. Did they realise the stakes involved here ?
I waved my arms to stop the freight train. I rode over to Rovrat and See Duiwel to politely enquire what the fuck they thought they were doing. They protested a bit but after a bit of “Have you been there ? NO ! – well then fuck what your GPS says and follow me because I have !” they gave in and accepted it. Excuse my language but desperate times called for desperate measures.
We rode off again – this time in close convoy – stopping every 2 minutes for the group to close up again. The trail is awesome – some open and flowing tweespoor which quickly turns into rocky little drifts and even more rocky and tight little passes over and in between koppies – sadly there are no pics of this – it was now 5 PM and we were desperate to get to the ROAD.
A hard turn left and down the flood plain and we were there. Before us lay the ROAD TO HELL.
I was fizzing at the bum to ride the ROAD and set up camp at the bottom next to the river.
Nismark wisely suggested that we should camp right here – it was late, the sun was setting and we were tired – let’s tackle the ROAD in the morning. I was gutted but saw the wisdom in his argument and agreed. The ROAD would have to wait for the next sunrise.
We all found our own lekker spot and set up camp.
There was no chance of rain so I decided not to pitch my tent and sleep under the stars.
The sun soon set and a small fire was lit. I warmed up my tin of chicken curry while Heddles and I opened a bottle of Tassies I had stuck away.
The other okes soon joined us and we spoke shit while gazing at the stars.
To be continued ...
Crossed-up
Pangaman
Great stuff, Justin. I always enjoy your writing and this is vintage!
Pietcoke
Race Dog
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Excellent writing PFJ
I do enjoy this............keep it coming :thumleft:
I do enjoy this............keep it coming :thumleft:
Dusty Rusty
Grey Hound
Good stuff!
:thumleft:
:thumleft:
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Yeah man... It's a pity that it started to get so fast.. I believe that a lot is to be appreciated while we are out there. It can't be done at a fast rate.. Admittedly, I was a lot slower and this, combined with the frustration of knowing that I was slowing the pack down, made this part of the ride miserable for me.
I hope to go back to this beautiful place some day and explore it at a slower pace and with a decent camera.
I hope to go back to this beautiful place some day and explore it at a slower pace and with a decent camera.
