Amageza 2015 with Minxy and the Dirt Dogs

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Minxy

Race Dog
Joined
Jun 14, 2013
Messages
1,296
Reaction score
24
Location
Pretoria
Bike
KTM 690 Adventure
As some of you may already know, I took one of the most crazy decisions of my life and signed up for the Amageza rally this year.

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I've already made numerous posts under the racing section regarding my training and preparation. This part of the report is about my Amageza experience.

For previous posts referring to training and preparation I did during the year please refer to:

Amageza, a girls perspective:
https://wilddog.net.za/forum/index.php?topic=163994.0
I don't think all the picture links work anymore, but still a good read for those who are interested.

Before I start there are some people I would like to thank. Without you guys my journey would have never gotten this far:

- Bavarian Motorcycles Centurion, who put in tremendous effort to help me with the setup and preparation of my bike for this rally.

- Everyone from ADA and the Woman's Dual Purpose Rider Development Programme (WDP) 2015. The confidence in my riding abilities grew so much this year. I wouldn't have been able to tackle this great task if it wasn't for all of you guys and gals! Johan Gray, thank you for showing us how to approach Amageza training at the Mx track.

- Kilroy, who sponsored me a nice wilddogs riding shirt 8)

- Ian from the KTM, Ultimate Performance Racing team. Thank you for taking time off to show us some training techniques in the sand.
- Friends and family who helped support me and put up with me for never being available on weekends. I'll try be around a bit more now :peepwall:

- Members of the forum who helped me in terms of preparing for this rally.
Boetie (Sandrot), thank you for taking us riding in the Kalahari, those dunes were very intimidating before you showed us they can be ridden on a 950!
Bonova, thanks for putting up with me on the phone for hours when I had crisis's with the bike.
Bluebull, you pretty much saved me from a nervous breakdown before Amageza with some of your motivational write ups, I for one really appreciated that!
KevinZA, the DeWildt rides helped me a lot. I'm seeing a lot more of Dewildt in store for the near future. Also, it is always a pleasure riding with you!
Gser, Flying Brick, Rynet and others, thank you all for your positive inputs.

- My team, the Dirt Dogs. You guys rock! Everyone really pulled together to make it the best success they could.

- Last but definitely not least. Johan (HSK), you are the rock in my life! None of this would have been possible without you. Thank you for supporting my dreams. I love you so much! :love3:

*Edit* Just putting the video link to Day 1's Riverbed Special here:

[flash=800,600]https://www.youtube.com/v/eQAt9s0RINA[/flash]


Anyway :ricky:

Getting there :)

After a mad rush to get everything ready, we are finally on our way to Kimberley. Our team consists of HSK; our driver and team principle, Jan Sand; who volunteered literally on 1 days notice when our original assistance member Joe couldn't make it (we really appreciate you dropping everything and coming along Jan) and then Rolling Stone, GeeS and myself as riders.

Just making sure all the right things are packed and preparing everything for scrutineering was so stressful! I lost a lot of sleep thinking about everything that still had to get done. For the people who don't know rally lingo, scrutineering is where your documentation and equipment used for the race is thoroughly checked to make sure you have everything required and that everything is up to standard. Now, I got my bike back just a day before we left which meant a few things that I badly needed to do (like add a steering damper), unfortunately got neglected. Preparing for your first ever rally is proper hard work, there are just so many things to take into consideration! Just getting to the starting line is an achievement on its own.

(Left) Doing some last minute things on the bike at home, the night before departure. (Right) My bike and Eddie's bike at the Kimberley bivouac the night before scrutineering
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Johan (HSK) and Jan, our kick ass assistance crew!

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Saturday 29 August (Scrutineering)

Wow, this place had really come alive! So many professional teams setting up all over the Kimberley bivouac. People running around getting all their things ready for scrutineering time.

Amageza Kimberley.

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One of the pro teams :)

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Ooooh, it's Kobus Potgieters Dakar van! *Minxy is starstruck* :drif:

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Just our luck! We are one of the first teams up for scrutineering. I keep telling myself, the sooner we start, the sooner we can get this over and done with.
Some of the admin checks they did:
- All paperwork and licensing for the rider and the bike is up to date,
- Emergency medic kit has all the necessary items,
- 2-way radio is functioning and set to the right frequency,
- GPS is functioning and setup correctly,
- Satellite tracker is allocated and attached to riders bag,
- All riding kit is inspected (helmet, neckbrace, kneepads, body armor, pants, boots etc)

(Left) On our way to have our paperwork checked. ;D (Right) Receiving our tracking devices.

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The most stressful by far is when they check your bike to make sure it's up to rally standards. There's many regulations which it needs to adhere to. They even make you taste the 2L of water which must be carried in your bike! Dammit, no sneaking in vodka this time ::)

My bike looking sooo pwetty <3

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Checking that the new Rockfox unit is working.

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HSK applying my stickers. I don't know who organized the pink stickers for me, but that was really an awesome touch. I thought it's really something special. Thank you! :angel1:

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(Left) Last minute checks to see everything is working fine. (Right) I think I'm good to go :)

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Entering the Park Ferme. Once your bike is done with the final scrutineering, no further adjustments can be made before the time of the race as it gets to sleep inside a secure, controlled location for the night.

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All snug and cozy in the Park Ferme.

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I really gave a sigh of relief when I was given the thumbs up by the scrutineering officials. It felt like I passed some kind of seriously difficult exam I was studying all year for. Cool, we can all relax now until race time...

Except there's just 1 problem...
Eddie (Rolling Stone), from our team is running around trying to sort out an expired drivers license! Upon inspection, it turns out his license had expired 2 months ago already. With it being Saturday, there was no municipal place open where he could renew it either :(
It is a sad, sad moment when Alexander (the race director) has to announce that Eddie can't take part in the race unless his papers are sorted out. As that can only be done on Monday, Eddie can still join the race, but only at a later stage, thus not qualifying for a finishers medal :'(

All the crazy brave people participating in the Amageza 2015

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Later that evening we had a proper formal introduction and riders briefing where many things were presented and discussed. One of the comments which stuck was when Alexander mentioned he plans to make Amageza like the Dakar. Shjoe! That's really cool and really scary at the same time, especially for a beginner... And as a beginner I really am not bargaining on riding the Dakar any time soon haha :p
It looked to me like Amageza has really stepped it up a notch this year. One of the many thoughts going through my head was... "Now what have I gotten myself into :D"

Opening Ceremony

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Our friends from Team Vets for Change pose for a quick photo after the opening ceremony. With obligatory photobomb

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After the opening ceremony, with nothing else left for us to do. It was time to retire for the night and get as much sleep as possible.

Tomorrow, we race.
 
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