Apologies for the relatively few pics early on. I had'nt mastered the art of riding and photography at the same time yet. :biggrin:
We finally came to the decision to do this trip against rushing across to Namibia and back in the relatively short time frame we have available to us. There is so much to do in the short time while we are in SA, so unfortunately our grand plans to do a southern African tour will just have to wait till some other time. The main thing was to be able to ride the bikes in properly and sort out any technical gremlins before we ship them to South America, where there is no "BMW on call", computer and other fancy stuff that cost lots of money.
Instead we figured we would ride down to the Country-trax on our new bikes, do the course and then travel up the border of Mozambique and see how far we get. Well it turned out that we didnâ??t get all that far after all, to be perfectly honest we were severely fatigued after the three day intensive off-road course at Countrytrax. More on that later.
Day 1
We left Pretoria around 11 and did the toll road to Middleburg, and then down to Ermelo.
We stopped quite bit on the way, to adjust our bike to bike radios, fill up etcetera.
Stopping at Ermelo in the mid afternoon, we noticed to our horror that half our gear was gone off the back of D´s bike. The tie downs were clearly not enough.
Frantic I leapt on my bike and tore up the road all the way to Hendrina looking for gear. I then realized that if I didnâ??t turn back soon we would not make it to the course venue before dark. So we hope that some poor desperate individual enjoys and can make use of our great tent, spare tubes, BMW parts, some tools, tyres levers, puncture repair kit, braai grid and matrass. Perhaps even the bog pipe could come in handy, who knows. ;D
But by then I was hungry and seeing it was only 15h45, I had a quick burger and a cold drink. It was after four when we left and knowing it was only half an hour´s to Amersfoort, we would get there with plenty of time to spare. Hee hee Ha ha. No we did not. In my infinite wisdom, we decided to follow the dirt road 5km from Amersfoort as per instructions. Anyway it would be more fun, and get us ready for things to come on the course.
Well that it did. The road was freshly graded and the nice layer of gravel left behind made it character building for me. D never seemed to be bothered by it, except by the tractor and trailer parked across the road doing road works over a blind rise. That 650 decided to have a rest in the soft sand next to the tractor and it took us a while to get it up and on the road again. Before you ask me why, I never picked up and turned around a 200kg bike in sand before okay? Thatâ??s also one of the many reasons why we were going on the course.
Anyway it wasn´t long after that that I began to get really anxious because the sun was getting low and we still had to refuel in Amersfoort. We got to T junction and I knew we had to go left to the course, but we first had to go right into town. And that was nearly 30km away! We were both now really zipping along to beat the dark to Amersfoort. The problem was D has never been able to drive in the dark, never mind ride. Itâ??s a night blindness thing.
Along comes this bakkie with JJRed and his wife inside and towing a trailer with a beaut 990 on the back. How I wanted to get our bikes onto that trailer. I nearly lost it trying to wave him down and stop at the same time, but somehow kept things in the balance. JJ says â??Hey how was the course, did you just finish it?â?
â??No, listen. Were in trouble we still need to get fuel. We can't ride at night. Can you tell them at the course to send out a vehicle (read: Helicopters, rescue parties, trailers and large barrels of beer). We are not going to make it.â? I get this blank, stunned look. â??Heh? Ok then.â? And with a quick â??Thanksâ?, I was off in a cloud of dust, holding onto my noble yellow steed as it tried its best to toss me into the grass.
We eventually got to the little dump called Amersfoort, that used to the worlds biggest producer of wool. D filled up first and hit the road immediately, I would catch up and she was to stop when she could not see anymore. Anyway five minutes later I was also on my way, cruising at 120km/hr in the dark to catch up. And I really battled to too. Where was D? Had she taken the wrong road, was she in trouble? :-\
My heart was in my mouth as it was now completely dark and there was no sign of her. This is when I realized our bike to bike radios would probably work, and sure as eggs they did even though we were quite a few kilometers apart. I eventually caught up with her, it turned out that her new glasses made a huge difference. She had been cruising at 100! Soon we caught up with Byron who was also on his way to the course with his beaut 990 in tow too. We rode in a kind of convoy to the course venue from there, as he had the GPS and all I had was directions that confused me.
So we finally arrived tired and dusty around 7 pm just in time to catch the rescue party were setting out. no barrels of beer, no maidens dressed in nurses uniform. Only Jan 'Staal' and his pickup.
Day 2, 3 & 4 (the course)
Im not going to write about this other than to say that it was an EXCELLENT but intensive course that is a must for anyone riding dirt. We both learnt a lot and made a lot of good friends too. Thanks Jan, Elsie and JP for your fantastic hospitality, wonderful facilities and patient instruction. Thanks also to all who attended, we had a lot of fun.
Here is a group pic:
Posers on the left:
Posers on the right:
Okay, who wouldnt pose with such beautiful bikes??ot:
Our Countrytrax Instructors JP and Jan with Johan, our hero participant who turned out also to be an instructor!
Johan gassing it on the Oval track: Great fun
Eina, my hand is sore...maybe this coffee will help.
"Oom Staal, can ek nog n' Cookie kry asseblief?"
The lodge is all hand crafted cedar: Beautiful.
No one saw the lurking 1100 engine in the ceiling waiting to pounce on it next victims until it was too late...
The course finished us on our new bikes, unfit as we were. On the Sunday, so fatigued in fact that we were, we just rode to Paulpietersburg and crashed for two whole days in a semi-catatonic state at D´s ouma´s place. I have huge respect for those guys on the course with us who had to go to work the next day!
We finally came to the decision to do this trip against rushing across to Namibia and back in the relatively short time frame we have available to us. There is so much to do in the short time while we are in SA, so unfortunately our grand plans to do a southern African tour will just have to wait till some other time. The main thing was to be able to ride the bikes in properly and sort out any technical gremlins before we ship them to South America, where there is no "BMW on call", computer and other fancy stuff that cost lots of money.
Instead we figured we would ride down to the Country-trax on our new bikes, do the course and then travel up the border of Mozambique and see how far we get. Well it turned out that we didnâ??t get all that far after all, to be perfectly honest we were severely fatigued after the three day intensive off-road course at Countrytrax. More on that later.
Day 1
We left Pretoria around 11 and did the toll road to Middleburg, and then down to Ermelo.
We stopped quite bit on the way, to adjust our bike to bike radios, fill up etcetera.
Stopping at Ermelo in the mid afternoon, we noticed to our horror that half our gear was gone off the back of D´s bike. The tie downs were clearly not enough.
Frantic I leapt on my bike and tore up the road all the way to Hendrina looking for gear. I then realized that if I didnâ??t turn back soon we would not make it to the course venue before dark. So we hope that some poor desperate individual enjoys and can make use of our great tent, spare tubes, BMW parts, some tools, tyres levers, puncture repair kit, braai grid and matrass. Perhaps even the bog pipe could come in handy, who knows. ;D
But by then I was hungry and seeing it was only 15h45, I had a quick burger and a cold drink. It was after four when we left and knowing it was only half an hour´s to Amersfoort, we would get there with plenty of time to spare. Hee hee Ha ha. No we did not. In my infinite wisdom, we decided to follow the dirt road 5km from Amersfoort as per instructions. Anyway it would be more fun, and get us ready for things to come on the course.
Well that it did. The road was freshly graded and the nice layer of gravel left behind made it character building for me. D never seemed to be bothered by it, except by the tractor and trailer parked across the road doing road works over a blind rise. That 650 decided to have a rest in the soft sand next to the tractor and it took us a while to get it up and on the road again. Before you ask me why, I never picked up and turned around a 200kg bike in sand before okay? Thatâ??s also one of the many reasons why we were going on the course.
Anyway it wasn´t long after that that I began to get really anxious because the sun was getting low and we still had to refuel in Amersfoort. We got to T junction and I knew we had to go left to the course, but we first had to go right into town. And that was nearly 30km away! We were both now really zipping along to beat the dark to Amersfoort. The problem was D has never been able to drive in the dark, never mind ride. Itâ??s a night blindness thing.
Along comes this bakkie with JJRed and his wife inside and towing a trailer with a beaut 990 on the back. How I wanted to get our bikes onto that trailer. I nearly lost it trying to wave him down and stop at the same time, but somehow kept things in the balance. JJ says â??Hey how was the course, did you just finish it?â?
â??No, listen. Were in trouble we still need to get fuel. We can't ride at night. Can you tell them at the course to send out a vehicle (read: Helicopters, rescue parties, trailers and large barrels of beer). We are not going to make it.â? I get this blank, stunned look. â??Heh? Ok then.â? And with a quick â??Thanksâ?, I was off in a cloud of dust, holding onto my noble yellow steed as it tried its best to toss me into the grass.
We eventually got to the little dump called Amersfoort, that used to the worlds biggest producer of wool. D filled up first and hit the road immediately, I would catch up and she was to stop when she could not see anymore. Anyway five minutes later I was also on my way, cruising at 120km/hr in the dark to catch up. And I really battled to too. Where was D? Had she taken the wrong road, was she in trouble? :-\
My heart was in my mouth as it was now completely dark and there was no sign of her. This is when I realized our bike to bike radios would probably work, and sure as eggs they did even though we were quite a few kilometers apart. I eventually caught up with her, it turned out that her new glasses made a huge difference. She had been cruising at 100! Soon we caught up with Byron who was also on his way to the course with his beaut 990 in tow too. We rode in a kind of convoy to the course venue from there, as he had the GPS and all I had was directions that confused me.
So we finally arrived tired and dusty around 7 pm just in time to catch the rescue party were setting out. no barrels of beer, no maidens dressed in nurses uniform. Only Jan 'Staal' and his pickup.
Day 2, 3 & 4 (the course)
Im not going to write about this other than to say that it was an EXCELLENT but intensive course that is a must for anyone riding dirt. We both learnt a lot and made a lot of good friends too. Thanks Jan, Elsie and JP for your fantastic hospitality, wonderful facilities and patient instruction. Thanks also to all who attended, we had a lot of fun.
Here is a group pic:
Posers on the left:
Posers on the right:
Okay, who wouldnt pose with such beautiful bikes??
ot:Our Countrytrax Instructors JP and Jan with Johan, our hero participant who turned out also to be an instructor!
Johan gassing it on the Oval track: Great fun
Eina, my hand is sore...maybe this coffee will help.
"Oom Staal, can ek nog n' Cookie kry asseblief?"
The lodge is all hand crafted cedar: Beautiful.
No one saw the lurking 1100 engine in the ceiling waiting to pounce on it next victims until it was too late...
The course finished us on our new bikes, unfit as we were. On the Sunday, so fatigued in fact that we were, we just rode to Paulpietersburg and crashed for two whole days in a semi-catatonic state at D´s ouma´s place. I have huge respect for those guys on the course with us who had to go to work the next day!
