JIMBO'S HARDCORE VOLCANO RUN 2012

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Stevie

Race Dog
Joined
Sep 11, 2009
Messages
1,135
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Location
Fourways - Gauteng
Bike
Suzuki DR350
...AND SO IT BEGAN....

Jimbo's Summary:

This is a 7 day, pretty much flat out full alert ride.  It cannot be described as a tour.  The aim is to experience a good variety of unrestricted gravel roads and tracks, at speeds as fast as the terrain and other unforeseen obstacles allow. 

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By obstacles, I mean overhanging bushes, ditches, wash-a-ways, mud-holes, animal holes and of course wild and domestic animals of which there are plenty. It is done with minimum of equipment, and of course no vehicular back-up.  The focus is on sufficient fuel, oil and water. Night time warmth can be a consideration, but fortunately not this time.  This is not to say we can not take advantage of friendly farmer’s offers of camping spots, warm beds and braais etc. 

Actually the last week in October was slightly too late, because it was starting to get unpleasantly hot, and early rains had created areas of mud in the flood-plains.  Up to the first week in October would be good.  Best time is September.

A very chilly, wet and windy ride to Mafikeng - 300km

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Day 1 Thursday: 
Left Fourways at 07h30 expecting a pleasant, no hurry 300km ride to Mafikeng.  We had packed frozen chops and wors, so no need to stop for anything.  Well it was anything but pleasant – cold, overcast, a little bit of rain and a terrible head wind. 

The head wind was so strong and constant that the pressure on our off-road goggles on nose and cheeks became quite painful. 
The cold had sharpened the appetite, so decided to top up with a Nandos in Mafikeng before heading out to the border fence.

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The 157km from Ramatlabama to the Bray farms has 100s of gravelly/sandy power slide bends and corners, and 4 or 5 gnarly rocky ridges to cross over.  The remaining 100km into Bray is mostly soft cohesionless sand where speed and concentration is your friend.
  This section of the ride is almost too good to be true, with mud-holes from recent storms hampering us only slightly.  A series of interesting challenges one after the other.

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We had a short break at the beginning of the Bray farms (100km to Bray) and then tackled the soft sand. The sand this day was softer than I ever remembered.  We normally like to keep at around 90 – 95km/h in this sand, but the motor was taking strain, and getting very hot with some pinking and clatter (we were running on unleaded 93).  I could actually smell the motor cooking.  To save the motor I decided to drop to 5th gear and reduce speed to 75 – 80km/h.  This had very little effect on stability, and the motor ran better.  Also being in a lower gear gave a bit more acceleration when needed.  A little lesson learned.  Arrived in Bray in time to fuel-up, and set up camp at Dr.Rex’s farm before dark.  Rex had kindly put some water in the tank, and left some firewood.  The frozen wors and chops had thawed, so all was well in the world.  Except I had a flattish rear tire that needed to be fixed in the morning. I got out the tools and propped up the bike in preparation for this.

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