trevorwb
Race Dog
I arranged to meet JonW on Sat morning at Craigeburn dam 7am.I set off from Durban at 04.45 and made my way to Ballito to pick up Ryan a non WD member who rides a 690.Still dark we hit the dirt near the Sinembe/ R614 intersection .The dark was ok but the mud patches in the dark were difficult.I came close to seeing my poopall when the front washed out in a muddy truck tyre rut.Before it got light we were engulfed in a thick mist and light rain.....This wasn't fun anymore.... But we soldiered on and popped out on the R 614 at Appelsbosch.The offroad helmet goggles were now useless and the rain had increased .To make things worse I received a call from JohnW that he was stuck in Howick with a flat .We agreed we would wait while he repaired it.So we pulled in at the 7 Oaks garage and had a coffee.John phoned back to say that he had issues with the tyre and that we should go on.The rain was now coming down properly and this was by no means fun so we pulled the plug and decided to head for home.
I decided it would be best if we followed the Umvoti river home .So we ducked and dived district roads all the way to Nadi.The cloud and rain lifted as we entered the Umvoti valley area down a concrete strip road.The valley below is consumed by a ginormous flood plain that has been catching my eye for quite a while now.So we left the dirt road and followed a snake trail down to the river.We rode down river but ran out of terrain where rocks river and a bend met so we turned around went upriver to where one could see a path entering and exiting the river .I walked the river and it seemed ok so we crossed.we followed the river and in the end we crossed the river again and back tracked on the opposite bank to follow a steep zig zag dirt road up to Chibini.From here we made our way to Bamshela where we met the 614 .We turned off back onto dirt almost immediately where we made our way towards Glendale Heights direction.
By this stage we were feeling good so I left the road remembering the area from my dirt bike days and slithered down to the river .We managed a tricky slippery river crossing only to find that the bush had closed the path.I dismounted and made my way into the tunnel of bush clearing as not wanting to tackle the river again.The floor of the path was ok but around chest height it was matted. I started pulling at the bushes and clearing a path.As I reached out to grab the next branch I stopped ,the next branch was in fact an almost perfectly camouflaged Boom Snake stretched out.That was close...he wasn't in the least worried.-Seriously he was the branch I was going to grab.
That river valley turned out to be a no go so we hauled ass back up the slippery track and found our way back to a dirt road.We ended up seeing a magnificent legavaan on the way back.We took single track from below Glendale heights where we finished up and hit the tar.
What started out as a miserable ride ended as a memorable one
I decided it would be best if we followed the Umvoti river home .So we ducked and dived district roads all the way to Nadi.The cloud and rain lifted as we entered the Umvoti valley area down a concrete strip road.The valley below is consumed by a ginormous flood plain that has been catching my eye for quite a while now.So we left the dirt road and followed a snake trail down to the river.We rode down river but ran out of terrain where rocks river and a bend met so we turned around went upriver to where one could see a path entering and exiting the river .I walked the river and it seemed ok so we crossed.we followed the river and in the end we crossed the river again and back tracked on the opposite bank to follow a steep zig zag dirt road up to Chibini.From here we made our way to Bamshela where we met the 614 .We turned off back onto dirt almost immediately where we made our way towards Glendale Heights direction.
By this stage we were feeling good so I left the road remembering the area from my dirt bike days and slithered down to the river .We managed a tricky slippery river crossing only to find that the bush had closed the path.I dismounted and made my way into the tunnel of bush clearing as not wanting to tackle the river again.The floor of the path was ok but around chest height it was matted. I started pulling at the bushes and clearing a path.As I reached out to grab the next branch I stopped ,the next branch was in fact an almost perfectly camouflaged Boom Snake stretched out.That was close...he wasn't in the least worried.-Seriously he was the branch I was going to grab.
That river valley turned out to be a no go so we hauled ass back up the slippery track and found our way back to a dirt road.We ended up seeing a magnificent legavaan on the way back.We took single track from below Glendale heights where we finished up and hit the tar.
What started out as a miserable ride ended as a memorable one
