@Hollywood’s Quest 2018…
Day 2It was an early morning on that bloody windy, yet breathtakingly beautiful sandy monster of a dune. You couldn’t lie inn, there was just too much sand in the sleeping bag.
Team 1 & 7 had kitchen duty that morning, so we quickly prepped all the riding gear that we could and made our way to the Kitchen-Cruiser, snuggled up against the side of the big Iveco Logistics Truck. The wind had subsided a little from the previous night’s howling pelter to a gentle push. Just enough to kill the flame of the gas cooker on which the Specialised Adventure team prepared our “slap-pap” for the morning… So, into the back of the Iveco I went, to stir the pot and eventually dish up for the hungry mass of adventure maniacs. As the Afrikaans saying goes: “die pap was dik aangemaak”. Like semi-dried tile glue, actually. Ag well.
It filled the gut really well, and we appreciated all the trouble the Specialised Adventure staff went through to help make this an unforgettable experience. As I told my teammate earlier that morning when we (rather grudgingly) rouse from our cocooned sandy sleeping bag tombs…
“Hey, just look around at all these vehicles and people! All of them are going through trials and hardship, just so 14 of us can go on a moerse nice bike trip!! How lucky are we…?!”
“Ja, wragtag” Rickus replied in a heartfelt positive tone. A tone that would later be slightly subdued to a diplomatic grunt, after he spent an hour scrubbing the burnt pap pot.
Chores done, Pre-Ride Inspection ticked off, and the last of the mornings fresh water rationed between all the contestant’s hydration packs, we set off into the hills. It took us all of 2 kilometres to realise that today was going to be a sandy day. No problem. It was better than another sandy night. We couldn’t wash up that morning so, a heavy fall in the sand would be like last night’s nap in the Nubian desert.
On que, guys started dropping in the deep sandy spoor. This was the trend that the rest of the day would follow. Especially during the mid-day Sand Test. Eish. It caught me out, badly.
The DCT has a setting that changes the gearchange ratio of the Africa Twin. There’s the normal DRIVE, and then there are 3 different levels of SPORT. Poepol, chose the normal smooth DRIVE option when I headed into the testy riverbed winding through the canyon! Too smooth!!! Thus, 2nd gear (the ideal gear for this spell of sand riding) took ages to kick in, and when it did, it almost immediately handed the work over to 3rd gear, causing a low revving constant acceleration. Now, many of you would say… what’s the problem with accelerating? Well… nothing if there weren’t any rhythm-breaking 60degree turns in the 2-spoor riverbed with a hell of a lot of diagonal razor sharp lurkers and variety of huge boulders spread around for fun!! Hanging in 1st gear kept my front wheel digging inn, and 3rd gear was way to fast, forcing me to brake or gear down manually in the tight turns, and dig the front inn, again. It wasn’t pretty. Rather disappointing.
Later, during the day I found that SPORT2 was a great setting for sand, as it quickly shifted to 2nd gear, and held it there at revs. Making it easier to manage that shovel of a front wheel. Too late. The sand test was done.
Life-lesson for the day… In life, you can’t always choose how and where you get into trouble, but you can choose how you get out of it.
The rest of the day was picture perfect. Beautiful Richtersveld vistas. Climbing hills with challenging rocky single-track. The only Halfmensboom/Elephants Trunk tree that I spotted throughout the trip, and some thick sand at the end of the day, giving me the opportunity to prove to myself that I wasn’t a total sand-poepol after all. Even, if it was just for my own benefit.
We arrived at our overnight spot. Oewerbos, near Vioolsdrift, on the banks off the Orange river. Rickus told us that they make great Pizzas there. This caused
@JesseH to drool, intensely. A drool that he had for the rest off the trip, as we all felt dipping into the delicacies at the restaurant would be disrespectful towards the wonderful Specialised Adventure staff, going out of their way to cook our lovely meals every day.
Case in Point: they served tasty jaffles on our arrival at Oewerbos. It went down swimmingly with an ice-cold cooldrink.
Speaking of swimmingly…
On arrival, Hardy announced that he had planned a special canoe ride for us all, but decided to cancel it, due to the strenuous day we had in the oven-like Richtersveld canyons.
WHAT!?!?! A canoe trip?!? Off course we all want to go!!
And so, the Quest2018 masochist’s river paddle event started. We were all in high spirits and insisted that everyone go for a paddle. Off we went on the back of the Cruisers, 7 km’s up-stream. We had a quick health and safety briefing, and as The Boss put it so eloquently in his 1980 album: “…and into the river we’d dive….”
Team 7 was first to push their way onto the water, off course. Bullies.
During the last couple of days we heard the following statement over, and over again… “Remember, Quest is NOT a race!” So, the paddling quickly turned into a series of sporadic dices between teams. Some had a little less weight to float than others, which I believe, was hugely unfair, but nonetheless, all raced to their hearts content. Some cramped up. Some dried up. Some gave up. But all made it back home to Oewerbos in the dark off night, to a welcome cold beverage!
…team 7 finished in an admirable 3rd position…
3 Mentionable events happened later that night, just before we all started our nightly symphony of snoring.
1. 3 Participants regaled us with lovely presentations about Namaqualand, the Quiver Tree, and The Orange River. Our lives were all a little richer for it.
2. I accidentally spilled my late evening bederfie-koffie at the foot of my stretcher (picture attached) …Bliksem…
3. I realised that I neglected to assign the wooden spoon to a worthy contestant the previous evening! Before we fell asleep, we needed to remedy this grave oversight as soon as humanly possible…or at least, right after the teams finished up with kitchen duty.
While waiting, my team mate perused his Facebook page using his Namibian SIM card and reported that we had a Birthday boy in our midst! The perfect candidate as first recipient. So, it came that Stephan van der Merwe (very Afrikaans name for a very English gentleman) became the inaugural holder of THE SPOON. A trophy too which he would add much more meaning and value over the following 24 hours. More than I could ever have hoped for.
Speaking of hours… by this time it was close to midnight, and we all turned in for the night. Being up since 5am was taking its toll. The Quest organiser’s route would surely be a little easier on our tired bones tomorrow. Surely?
…wishfull thinking…