Kruger Fence Ride Hazyview to Nelspruit

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alanB

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I was quite disappointed that I couldn't do the Amageza this year and resolved to try and squeeze in a multiday ride away some time as a consolation.

But the year ground on relentlessly - and it was not a great year from a business perspective - things just never seemed to reach the point that you could take a breather.  Before I knew it, it ended!

People started asking me if I was going away, as people do at the end of the year, but I hadn't managed to really focus on that much.

My family usually spend Christmas down at the Vaal river.  Its very peaceful and enjoyable with many people usually turning up that you haven't seen for ages, many of whom have children (who are all growing up fast).  Watching all the excitement in the children as Christmas approaches seems to make all the adults feel younger as well, so its usually a very nice period of relaxing and socialising together for a few days.  

But in the weeks before Christmas, it struck me that I could maybe squeeze in a quick ride before we opened again on the 6th.

So I hastily made some plans to cut short the normal week long stay at the Vaal.

I cast around for a suitable ride objective - and found the Kruger Fence ride report of Jimbo and ThinkMike.  That always looked like an interesting ride.  

My brother in law seemed to be quite alarmed when he heard what I was planning and that I was going to be riding alone.  Although that's understandable I suppose, seeing as a few years earlier they had to come find me in a hospital in Ladysmith (I broke my femur, ankle and bones in both hands, while on a similar jaunt to the Drakensberg), and then after a month or so in hospital, I had to live at their place for another month, until I could get around on my own on crutches - he clearly didn't want a repeat performance  :biggrin:    

So I had to make very solemn promises to be careful and responsible to all and sundry.

So in the interests of responsibility, I decide to leave the top half of the ride for when I wasn't alone and just do a quick ride down the fence from Hazeyview to the N4 just after Nelspruit.  

So that was my objective.

I also decided that I was going to try stay off busy tar roads and rather do as much dirt, or failing that, secondary tar as possible.

A few other things also happened which made this ride a good choice.  

A couple of weeks or so before, I had tried to download my old Garmin Street Map 4 onto my newish eTrex 30 and couldn't.  So I called them and after many hours of frustration with their stupid unlock procedure they finally offered me the newest version instead - very kind of them.  :thumleft:

The newest Garmin map is actually very good!  Its got virtually all the roads (dirt especially) on it.  This helped me a lot when trying to work out a suitable route there and back.

I also had designed a prototype Giant Loop type bag to fit on my bike (for more details see www.africantechnical.co.za) and after a few short tests it was ready for a proper trip away. 

So on the Sunday morning before Christmas I sat in bed and mapped out some routes using the new Garmin map set, there and back again.  The route looked very interesting - I couldn't wait!  

The plan was to cut short the stay at the Vaal on the 30th and leave on the ride on the 31st, and be back before or on the weekend.

It was all systems go - albeit at quite short notice  :thumleft:
 
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