Tankwa Trek (16 - 30 Sept 2019): Oh I don't know where I'm going

[Ri]

Day 7 (cont'd)

Arlene making announcements, Robert (in the cap) handing out prizes








Taye Perry had given Clive this helmet, signed by racing heroes, when she came back from Erzberg or Romaniacs. He however felt that really it belongs to Taye, and gave it back to her.












Hanli Zondagh gets 2nd place. She was the one who rolled into camp after 10:00 the previous evening, accompanied by three Hondas and a sweeper. She had no headlight on her bike, and was trying to navigate with her cell phone light. Her GPS had by that time died. I really take my hat off to this woman!!






She had special thanks for the team




This man had to receive his 3rd place win the second time, as the first time he disputed that the results could be correct. However the times were checked again and to his great surprise, he was indeed 3rd in the Gold Class (I think)




Second place winner had already left, as had many participants who had to work the next day, but David Ellis was there to accept his well-deserved win in this category




Accepting everyone's trophies...




Our young lady who participated with a quad. The only one not to come into a DSP with a million punctures




Her dad also participated on a quad.






Dirk, Nadine and Nr 3




Taye and her dad in the foreground. Unknown glowering gentleman in the background




Tankwa King, David Ellis

[Ri]

Day 7 (cont'd)

Special (inpromptu) prizes speech




Hanli for her "vasbyt" on the long ride the previous night, for hanging in there and completing it




Team Honda for their wonderful spirit and their "No one left behind" attitude.








Dirk for attempting, and finishing, this rally on an oil tanker




Robert Gibbon also gets a bottle of wine but I'm not sure what for. I don't think he was supposed to participate due to injury, but came anyway.




Appreciative crowds




No I did NOT scare them...




Raffle ticket prize winner

[Ri]

Day 7 (cont'd)

Speeching and prizes finally over, we can grab dinner, drinks, and generally let our hair down.




... until Robert realises that one division was inexplicably left out, and he checks and announces the winner for it






@Crossed-up, relaxing. Can you tell the difference between his worried face and his relaxed face? Me neither. But he is an absolute sweetie, and I look forward to engineering our next meeting




Along with a few rally racers, Robert, John, Nicol and I party deep into the night. Earlier in the day I'd offered up my bite size Snickers to the enervated rally racers, and now I hand round my last Smarties. When the bar closes at 10 pm, Robert sends me to his top box. John and @Scrat make an early getaway, but Claude and Charl still hang around, waiting for the showers to heat up, and join in the merriment. At some point, it transpires that Charl has lost his wallet, and they start looking for it. Everyone remembers that Charl had indeed pulled his wallet from his rally pants and flashed it around to everyone. Claude pats Charl down, but can't find anything. I also pat Charl down carefully, but indeed there is no wallet in his pants.

Charl and Claude carefully retrace their steps, and eventually they're back, Charl triumphantly holding a mud-splattered wallet aloft. He found it lying by the fence. Unthinkingly I take it, wipe it clean and hand it back to him. When I muse about the splatters later, I realise Charl must have gone to pee against the fence, and dropped (and inadvertently splattered) his wallet. And I wiped it clean for him...with my thumb 

Soon Charl and Claude say their good byes and head for the showers.

Robert tells us he had thought I was someone important, and I spent all the time in the car chatting to John about people Robert didn't know, and that now he knows a everything about people he's never heard of. Also that he'd bought the Peroni to taste them, and that I'd drunk everything and he hasn't even had a single one. A little stung, I dive into the cooler box again and unearth one last Peroni, which I triumphantly hand to him.

Robert however is having none of that, he's on his Klippies and Coke now, and gives the opened Peroni to poor Nicol, after he takes a sip to taste it. He admits that he hadn't actually wanted Peroni. He had sent his daughter to buy him Stella Artois for the trip and she had returned with the Peroni

I head to my tent in the early morning hours. I'm sad it's over. I've developed a little crush on Claude, he's such a honey, with piercing blue eyes and a ready smile... Oh well, best get over it quick. Bet he's dating a supermodel back home I fall into uneasy sleep and wake up much too early, unrefreshed but at least not babelas, and start packing up.

[Kaboef]

Great report, and excellent writing.

Thank you

 

[Ri]

Day 8

I pack my bike slowly and say good bye and give hugs to all the lovely people I got to know the past few days. Robert seems a bit peaky, and looks relieved when Clive tells him he doesn't have to help pull up flags and sign posts. It is strange not to hop in the bakkie alongside him and head out on that horrible R355 with John giving running comment from the back.

Every one is in a hurry to pull up their tents and head for home, and a line of bakkies and trailers depart from Rooiputs in lazy dust clouds.

Everyone wishes me a safe journey, and Clive very generously fills up my tank, which means I can continue to avoid the R355 and head back on Soutpan Road again. I warm up Panther, kick up the side stand and I'm off. It feels good to be on a motorbike again.

I'm not exactly sure where I'm going to sleep tonight. Both @the ruffian and @Crossed-up urged me to ride the Moedverloor Road, and John even draws me a little not-to-scale map, showing where the roads lie. I decide that I'll do that today. I don't check out the actual distances on any map, and the skewed image imprinted in John's handwriting embeds in my brain in all its inaccurate glory.

About 17km from Rooiputs I reach a fork in the road. I try to remember where I came from 3 days ago on the flat tyre, and look at MapOut, and guess that I should take the right fork. I continue for a while, but the road seems rough and very unfamiliar. I start to second-guess myself and eventually turn around. At one point Panther backfires, and a lone springbuck bounds across the road, and then prances and bucks on the other side with its tail up, a show of strength and fitness to deter any predator. I smile at the proud display.

I head back to the fork and hang right. This road is wide and smooth, and I carry on until I come upon a gate that says Dassiekloof. I rack my brains - I know there were gates here, but they were unnamed? I go through the gate and soon reach a farm yard I don't recall ever seeing. However checking MapOut, I can see that I'm on someone's track, so this might just be the right way after all. All I know is I need to reach the R354 at some point, and the track I'm on has a line connecting with the R354.

Not thinking about it too much, I forge ahead, onto a road the becomes more and more challenging.




The reason this gate is closed?




It's holding back this lovely sand monster




The sand is deep and rutted, but not too long a stretch and I make it through comfortably. Next up is a rutted and marbly steep hill climb, marked with rally markers. I'm riding a rally route!




The other side of that board on the left, I notice later, carries a "!!!!" warning for the rally racers.

[Ri]

Day 8 (cont'd)

It is beautiful up here






... Still on the rally route, it would appear from all the skidmarks






Road ahead




The way I've just come




The track I'm following, shows I must go this way. OK.....




Things don't really improve from here






I head over the hill down a steep downhill where there is not really a road, but more a series of rock slabs that I crawl down in first gear, behind in the air. I pass 2 deserted and locked up farm houses and the track peters out. I wonder whether I inadvertently attempted to ride one of Losper's find-a-way-or-die-trying tracks. Deep down in the valley that looks as if it ends in a river, I stop to look at MapOut again and notice that I've wandered off the track. I realise I won't find a way through to the R354 so far off track. I wrestle Panther around and start climbing the faint track out of the valley.

It is surreal. Strangely, I don't feel worried about the rough terrain; I'm calm and in control as I judder down into and then carefully clamber out of this lonely valley, Ps 18:29 replaying in my mind: Want met U loop ek 'n bende storm, en met my God spring ek oor 'n muur..

Looking back at the my turning point, far beyond the second gate.




Finding my way out of here again




One day, I'd love to try ride that track again, after I figure out who created it, and whether they successfully completed it

As I've noted before, conquered terrain is quick and easy to retrace. This time I barely notice the sand monster, and soon I'm back at the fork where I took my wrong turn.






I take stock. It's taken me 4 hours to ride/crawl 66km up and down that deserted valley. In all, I've travelled almost 100km to end up about 17km away from Rooiputs again. I don't think I'll make a good roadbook or GPS navigator. I also need to get going if I still want to ride the Moedverloor road.

Back on Soutpan Road again, as straight and boring as ever

[Ri]

Day 8 (cont'd)

The R354 towards Clanwilliam / Biedouw Valley is more scenic, but also a long, loooooong road.








When I eventually reach the Moedverloor Road, it is late in the afternoon, and I'm knackered from both lack of sleep and the extraordinary detour I've taken.  I carry on to Doringbosch, and turn towards a sign showing a guesthouse. There is no further indication of where the guesthouse is, though, and I carry on along the Doring River until I reach what seems to be the end of the road. To the right is a big house with a huge garden, and two farm workers having a discussion. I pull my bike to just inside the gate, and get off and take off my helmet.

One farm worker immediately walks towards me, but the next moment the door opens and a teenage boy approaches me. I ask him where the guesthouse is, and he says it is the first house on the right after the turn-off, and also that it is their guesthouse but that his mom, who runs the guesthouse, isn't at home at the moment.

My heart sinks to my feet. I tell him I just need a place to stay for the night, and he hops on a quad and goes looking for his dad. The Dad soon comes home and after phoning his wife, tells me it's fine, I can stay in the house for the night, and he gives me the keys. He also comes around later to see that I'm fine, and we have a long chat on the stoep, discussing farming, dogs that bite sheep, sharp shooting (his child is a champion) and a few other topics. He gives me his bank details and bids me good night.

The house is huge and sparsely but tastefully furnished. There is no food but that's not a problem - I have Provitas and a tin of smoked mussels for dinner, and raisins, dried cranberries and rolled oats soaked in water overnight for breakfast. I also have my cappucino packets. The geyser is on, thankfully, and I enjoy a hot shower. The unaccustomed noises in the house keep me awake for a little while, but soon I sleep the sleep of the dead.




A swallow nests at the front of the garage, and dive bombs me every time I go into the garage.

[Rynet]

Thanks Ri Ri , I really enjoyed your Ride Report , excellent and detailed and just so well-written 

And funny too 

Look forward to the rest. And I admire you for just carrying on with your ride as cool as a cucumber no matter what happens.   

Very interesting to get inside information about the Rally,  I enjoyed seeing photos of friends and legends like Dave Ellis,  Taye , Claude and Scrat , Buff etc and loved your Peroni story. 

[Ri]

Thanks Ri Ri , I really enjoyed your Ride Report , excellent and detailed and just so well-written 

And funny too 

Look forward to the rest. And I admire you for just carrying on with your ride as cool as a cucumber no matter what happens.   

Very interesting to get inside information about the Rally,  I enjoyed seeing photos of friends and legends like Dave Ellis,  Taye , Claude and Scrat , Buff etc and loved your Peroni story. 

 

Those guys are all great guys. Dave Ellis' brother was there and took some photo's, absolutely stunning!

[Ian in Great Brak River]

Another excellent ride with such entertaining commentary, thanks Ri.

As ever, I learn something new.

 

[billy-joe]

thanks for that Ri, i think a few of us here admire your courage of riding alone.  keep it up!

[stcomza]

Thank you very much for sharing Ri - I thoroughly enjoyed it 

[Ri]

thanks for that Ri, i think a few of us here admire your courage of riding alone.  keep it up!

Thank you for the encouragement. What with everything happening in my life lately, if I didn't grab opportunities to ride, I'd never ride. My confidence has improved these last few months, but until that deserted valley ride, I didn't realise how much.

I don't do well in groups, or riding with anyone on a bigger/faster bike. I feel pressure to try and keep up, and to up my "game". You know, "Be a man!"

Maybe also the "safety" of having someone to pick up the pieces if I fell? Dunno, but I can't seem to help it. By myself I trust the bullet-proof bike to not break down, and ride at a sedate pace - unless it's a really boring road..

I hope I never become too ambitious in my solo riding

[roxenz]

Aah, that was glorious reading! And some dessert still to come...   
Thanks Ri.

[woody1]

Ek ry saam.
Ek dink ek weet wat jou probleem is met die oepsies.....vrouens se hulle KAN multitask.....ek dink jy moet konsentreer op die pad 

[Crossed-up]

Hello Ri - such slander cannot go unrewarded ...   

Thanks for the Great report, and thanks for your excellent help and support at the rally.

[Ri]

Hello Ri - such slander cannot go unrewarded ...   

Thanks for the Great report, and thanks for your excellent help and support at the rally.

   @woody1 is just jealous he's getting too old to ride much

I'm relieved I could add some value - eish, that your ears didn't burn off from all my talking

Thank you for putting up with me for the 3 days. It was very informative, and I really enjoyed your company, and Robert's too.

Robert said on the last day, people usually think he is mean because that's just how he looks, but actually he's quite a friendly guy. Don't tell him, but I thought he was just there to drive you around, so even though he looked mean as a rattlesnake, I didn't pay him any mind. You can imagine my surprise when Clive asked him to present prizes

I'd be the worst diplomat ever...

[punisher]

wow
great RR thus far






uhmmm will you marry me ? 

Wait.... whut?! Why? 

_{umm also flattered thanks} 

 

[Offroad2]

Thank you - great RR & pics Ri   - haha like the humour, you talk of Robert, John etc... we have the Best Team which is so dependable, driven by passion, there are many, but the main Stream Guys, John, Anton, Robert &  Hendrie without them it is not possible let alone the amount of weekends Cornie has given us.

[Ri]

Thank you - great RR & pics Ri   - haha like the humour, you talk of Robert, John etc... we have the Best Team which is so dependable, driven by passion, there are many, but the main Stream Guys, John, Anton, Robert &  Hendrie without them it is not possible let alone the amount of weekends Cornie has given us.

Your team is the best, and they say the same about you

Cornie is the Rally Godfather