SGB
Race Dog
We were at Sierra Ranch this weekend, and we decide to go for a little ride around the area on Saturday morning. A little bit of drizzle around, but nothing serious. Looks like it's clearing up I say to Bruce as we leave the gate.
The riding is great, good traction, no dust, nice and cool weather.
Along the way, we decide to pop in at Imbabala to see how things are going. All good, and the drizzle is still around. They had lots of rain during the week and the soil is wet, a lillte bit of rain now causes things to get messy quickly. But we are still happy.
We have a chat to the management at Imbabla, and decide to carry on from there to Weenen via Darkest Africa. Not raining, but some low cloud around.
We get to some mud here and there, nothing too serious enjoying the outing.
Some game viewing along the way.
Nice riding, keeps the senses alert, there is all kinds of stuff hiding under the grass - rocks, holes (erdvark) and spider webs sticky enough to take you off the bike. You only see the thing when its too late and that big yellow spider in the middle looks serious. I must have ripped 10 of them, and wondering where they went.
Darkest Africa is named that way because you can get very lost in there. We did not have previous tracks on the GPS, just following general direction. And found that the tracks all looked the same and it was difficult to keep direction. Took a wrong turn or 2, but not worried, all good riding. It started raining again, a bit harder now. And than we came along a little track, less than 500 m this particular stretch, but the most sticky clay I have ever seen. Amazing stuff, it just feels like glue and sticks very well to everyting. I realized this whem my front wheel got stuck! The bigger gap in the 990 mudguard is still too small for this stuff.
We took the mudguard off, cleaned and repalced, carried on. 20 metres later - same thing. Repeat process. I decide to go a little faster - see, the mud will get thrown off the wheel if you go faster I reasoned. Well, all that was thrown off was the whole mudguard, in several pieces. The mud built up, not chucked off as I hoped and just took the plastic with it. Amazing.....
I even sticks to boots well, just from walking around the bike....
In the mean time, Bruce on the did not have much trouble with the front wheel and high fender, but the back wheel got stuck - figure that....
We had to dig all of that out of there too! What a mission to do this short little stretch.
Once on the way again, some nice technical track with some wet grass and rocks kept us awake, and the rain was keeping it that way.
Arrived at the campsite and things are nice and slippery by now.
I learned that a front fender is quite a useful piece of kit. Without it, the mud goes everywhere. In your face, on the GPS screen, on the headlight, on the seat, everywhere. Serious mess - I ended up riding with an open visor with the mud coming from the front all the time - battling to see, but half managed. At the Weenen fuelstation, I admitted defeat - the mud monster won.
We filled up and took the tar back to Sierra Ranch - at least it is cleaner water and I could wash my face a bit.
250 km for the day, and freezing cold, soaking wet and muddy to the skin, we arrived back - life is great! We'll be back....
The riding is great, good traction, no dust, nice and cool weather.
Along the way, we decide to pop in at Imbabala to see how things are going. All good, and the drizzle is still around. They had lots of rain during the week and the soil is wet, a lillte bit of rain now causes things to get messy quickly. But we are still happy.
We have a chat to the management at Imbabla, and decide to carry on from there to Weenen via Darkest Africa. Not raining, but some low cloud around.
We get to some mud here and there, nothing too serious enjoying the outing.
Some game viewing along the way.
Nice riding, keeps the senses alert, there is all kinds of stuff hiding under the grass - rocks, holes (erdvark) and spider webs sticky enough to take you off the bike. You only see the thing when its too late and that big yellow spider in the middle looks serious. I must have ripped 10 of them, and wondering where they went.
Darkest Africa is named that way because you can get very lost in there. We did not have previous tracks on the GPS, just following general direction. And found that the tracks all looked the same and it was difficult to keep direction. Took a wrong turn or 2, but not worried, all good riding. It started raining again, a bit harder now. And than we came along a little track, less than 500 m this particular stretch, but the most sticky clay I have ever seen. Amazing stuff, it just feels like glue and sticks very well to everyting. I realized this whem my front wheel got stuck! The bigger gap in the 990 mudguard is still too small for this stuff.
We took the mudguard off, cleaned and repalced, carried on. 20 metres later - same thing. Repeat process. I decide to go a little faster - see, the mud will get thrown off the wheel if you go faster I reasoned. Well, all that was thrown off was the whole mudguard, in several pieces. The mud built up, not chucked off as I hoped and just took the plastic with it. Amazing.....
I even sticks to boots well, just from walking around the bike....
In the mean time, Bruce on the did not have much trouble with the front wheel and high fender, but the back wheel got stuck - figure that....
We had to dig all of that out of there too! What a mission to do this short little stretch.
Once on the way again, some nice technical track with some wet grass and rocks kept us awake, and the rain was keeping it that way.
Arrived at the campsite and things are nice and slippery by now.
I learned that a front fender is quite a useful piece of kit. Without it, the mud goes everywhere. In your face, on the GPS screen, on the headlight, on the seat, everywhere. Serious mess - I ended up riding with an open visor with the mud coming from the front all the time - battling to see, but half managed. At the Weenen fuelstation, I admitted defeat - the mud monster won.
We filled up and took the tar back to Sierra Ranch - at least it is cleaner water and I could wash my face a bit.
250 km for the day, and freezing cold, soaking wet and muddy to the skin, we arrived back - life is great! We'll be back....
