To the Bash and back. No dogs were harmed in this story.

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Trailrider

Bachelor Dog
Joined
Dec 10, 2006
Messages
11,238
Reaction score
3
Location
George
Bike
Honda TransAlp XL700V
Friday morning and the wait is over! Ready or not, EC bash here we come!

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I met up with Mr & Mrs Tok-tokkie and we promptly proceeded to Montagu Pass.

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A few photo stops here and there. It was a crisp winters day.

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While taking these photos at Amandaâ??s Grave a bakkie pulled up and said our friendâ??s suspension broke. Damn :-\ We thought Tok-tokkie stopped for a photo. It didnâ??t look goodâ?¦ :eek:

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The bolt holding the back suspension up had snapped. I rode back to George to get new bolts and phoned LGF to tell him that we wont make the rendezvous point at Avontuur at 10 'o clock.

The bolts were cheap so I took 4. You never know â?? it might snap again. This is not the first Bee-Em I've ridden with that had rear suspension problems (hey Eisbein ;)). R10 and some bush repairs and we were on our way again.

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I had to stop every so often to warm my hands on the exhaust and warm up with some OBS. Heated grips seemed like a mighty fine idea right about here.

Eventually we caught up with LGF in Kareedouw.

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LGF had plotted a gravel route through the mountains that would take us all the way to the bash. Surely between his map and Tok-tokkieâ??s GPS nothing could go wrong?

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EC has some scenic routes!

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Every so often LGF and Tok-tokkie would stop and make sure we were still on the right road (or so I thought). Mrs. Tok-tokkie and I were just along for the ride.

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The gate had LGF a little perplexed. Out came the map again. Straight ahead! (Tannie Karin van Garmin agreed according to Tok-tokkie)

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The road deteriorated and deteriorated. Surely a â??roadâ? or â??routeâ? that had black wattle trees growing in it is not used often?

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Out came the maps againâ?¦

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Hey! Where did the road go?

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Trees growing in a road is one thing, but fences across it? Tannie Karin van Garmin doesnâ??t know what sheâ??s talking about! To this date every ride Iâ??ve been on that had a GPS in the group we got lost on.

Turn around. Letâ??s go ask a farmer somewhere.

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Eventually we made it to Patensieâ?¦

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and the bash campsite.

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And so festivities commenced ;D

If I may concentrate on the bikes for a while: I liked the mix of bikes on this bash. Apart from the normal bikes you always see there were some interesting specimens. The Verseys in the photo above even rode into Baviaans all the way to Smitskraal. Well done!

The Tiger ridden by Kampies:

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New KLR

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One lucky bugger had this fantastic TransAlp 700 â?? with knobblies nogal! ;D Also notice the X-Country ridden by my neighbor â?? N[]va.

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Suzuki Freewind:

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Suzuki was very well represented with lots of DRZâ??s (5 I think?), the freewind, a 1000cc Strom and two DR Bigâ??s.

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This one had a mishap on the way here. Check out the damage on the tank. Eish. :-\

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The magnificent XR650 of Runner (and he can ride it too!).

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Funduro:

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Sidetrack (it was great to finally meet you guys).

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Runner, Sidetrack and SharkZA-se-Baas (;D) rode all the way from Gauteng.

I also spotted a TransAlp 400 and a R80GS but somehow never photographed them.

The camp setup was nice. Watty â?? you did great! We had very late nights and very cold mornings, but we enjoyed every moment of it.

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One of those KLRâ??s belong to Rone. Thanks for bringing me an extra blanket mate! :thumleft:

Go-girl:

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Watty and Metaljocky solving the mysteries of the universe.

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Watty and Mountainboy during the lucky draw. Even Captain Slow won something ;D

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And so did this crazy guy. He bombed quite a few photoâ??s during the weekend. :biggrin:

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Hoe later hoe kwaterâ?¦ (What happens in the Kloof stays in the Kloof ;))

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And of course the group shot. This was quite impressive. I have some video footage too which I will upload later (and yes, Bus bombed that too :biggrin:)

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When we woke this morning everything was full of ice. Some rumours had the minimum temp during the night pegged at â??4 and â??5 respectively.

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I woke up feeling really ill. I must have picked up some bug or something. I was feeling really pap and my concentration levels were way down so I decided to just hit the tar and get home. Still took some photos though.

The sundial in Hankey:

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Saartjie Baardmanâ??s grave:

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Scenery one the way home:

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On the way back I was becoming a danger to myself. I would ride and suddenly â??come toâ? not knowing how I covered x amount of kmâ??s. Or I would suddenly realize that I was going excessively fast or slow, having ridden like that for a while without realizing it.

I bumped into Bobnob at Stormsrivier and he rode with me all the way to George. Thanks mate! Also thanks to Beagle Boy who phoned a couple of times to make sure Iâ??m still alright.

I got home at three, had a bath and got into bed. Hopefully this report doesnâ??t have too many grammar and spelling mistakes. Iâ??ll check again tomorrow when the medication has worn off.

Thanks again Watty. The Bash was great. It was cool the meet al the new people and put some faces to the names. When is the next one? ;D
 
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