Frigid Digits 4-6 Aug 2006

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U

Uncle Bob

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So for anybody who didn?t read, I must be frekkin insane, here?s the breakdown. I had a last minute inspiration to ride down to Clarens in the foothills of the Drakensberg this past weekend to go looking for some snow :scratch: .

Weather forecast Sat. min -10 :shock: max 12. Sun min -5 max 12. so I was in for a pretty cold weekend.

Left Friday afternoon at 13:00 after stopping quickly to buy one of those buff thermal neckwarmer things( worth every cent ).

N1 south, turned off just after the one stop to Heilbron. Dirt from there.
These clouds looked very ominous
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Hit a hail storm just outside Petrus Steyn then cleared, then rain, then hail again!

It started getting extremely cold outside Bethlehem and dark, it was getting very difficult to distinguish between rain patches and ice on the road.

First sight of snow covered mountains

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Not sure if it?s ice or rain.
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Eventually found my hotel checked in and went to town for pub dinner. While inside it started raining hard and the road had formed big patches of ice, I had to idle back in 2nd gear to the hotel with the big girl sliding in any which direction.

Saturday.

The sight outside my hotel room.
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Time to play !
Rode into the Golden gate National park. Met a guy there who came up to me and asked me if I was riding outside of Bethlehem last night following a BMW 3 series. Yeah it was me, so the dude tunes he?s very glad to see I?m still alive, says he was doing 140 in the rain with the car showing ice warning and -3 on the temp gauge, and I was sitting right behind him. So I tell him it?s because I wanted to make use of his light, he says it?s a good idea cause ? did you see all the deer next to the road ? ? I think I left a skiddie just then.

Snow

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Very Slippery to ride
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This guy got stuck so i coudn't ride up this hill.
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Just had to - Here's Bob's yer icycle

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Snow was pretty deep.

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Sunday : Rode back, pretty uneventful except for hitting a pothole wrong on the gravel and got tank slap at about 90kph ? standing up!! Luckily(amazingly/surprisingly) didn?t fall!

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Finally home and the Big Girl getting a well deserved shower.

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Total trip was about 800km, best consumption was 4,7L / 100 km (very relaxed, ice snow etc.) worst consumption, well I still need to fill up again but was doing about 180 for the last 100km on highway so?

Sorry about the big pics, will learn how to make 'em even smaller.
 
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