A short family adventure ride

It Saturday 9 Nov 2013
OK, so one kid was invited to a paintball party and that meant 3 people at home with 3 bikes in the garage. That would soon change to bikes on dirt roads.

So the kid (7 and his 2ND ride out of the little veld where he learned to ride) was on the PW80, the wife (not allowed to say she is 39 and only about her third ride outside the yard :biggrin on the TTR230 and me on the Dakkie. The little voetpaadjies start about a block from my home, over the little koppie and not to far from there we hit the backstreets of the previously disadvantaged neighbourhood. So we stick to the pavement for a couple of blocks before getting onto the longish dirt road of about 10km. (call this point A)

The are a few sandy patches and even a few places with some loose gravel but the kid and wife do well by not falling over. We stop a couple of times for the odd pic. The kid also notices that his bike is sounding strange. We stop and I see that the muffler pulled out of the exhaust pipe, I push it back in and everything is hunky dory. Back at home when cleaning the bike I saw the small pipe on the frame where the exhaust mount onto broke off and I had to weld it back into place. When we hit a dead end on the road we turn around to go back the way we came. Close to the point A previously mentioned we take another dirt road. It's not an official dump but by the looks of it quite popular place for building rubble to hang out.

Not to long before we get into the formal settlement again. Turn around to point A again...but wait here is a plan B...lets see where this little road leads to. The first km or so seems more like a dump again, but then it opens up. Not to long when it seems like the road is going towards a spruit of some kind. The sand gets thicker and I battle a couple of places, and have to keep balance with a quick foot down, but I mange not to fall. Again the wife and kid amaze me in the sand. The pecking / riding order was me in front, kid in the middle and wife at the back. The going was slow but its just a fun ride no hurry anywhere.

We stop for a bit of water and a rest. We see another path next to the spruit / sloot and decide we want to get to that side and follow it. There seems to be some river sand gathering (illegally???) in the spruit and there is much evidence of backactors working there too.

After the rest we get going again. I again battle quite a bit in the twisty very deepsand track but manage to keep up straight. The kid takes a tumble but he's ok . (Note to self : I need much more training and practise in the thick stuff ) We find a path over the sloot and follow that along  the spruit and around another koppie . It kinda sad to see the pollution in the spruit, plastic every where . Then we hit another dead in some kind of excavation. Time to turn around and head back home. Near the dump we came in the sand is thick again. I get through but have to wait for the wife and kid. I can see them getting up as the kid took another rather hard tumble but he's ok.

We get back to point A and before we hit the couple of blocks or backstreets of the previously disadvantaged neighbourhood there is a funeral procession which would prob mean speedcops. So we wait 5 min for them to clear before we take on the back streets. The is one main road to cross before the koppie on the way back home and I tell the kid to go across as fast as he can on the word GO. Well normally you would want them to cross at the shortest path (90deg to the road) and usually they cross the long way around. Well not this time. The doesn't go towards the footpath on the other side he goes straight over and up the embankment on the otherside and rolls back at the top. He lets to bike fall over and stall. It won't start and we battle for 5mins before getting it push started. The last little bit was uneventful but the kid was soaking wet and tired enough to take a nap after lunch. It was only about 30-35km ride but a whole lot of family fun and the kid and wife did very well.