Beer at the Dros Sunday

We all met at the wimpy at the Engen 7am, Blouvark was there, then D7 joined us along with the MOTHER of hangovers…I’m sure he needed another helmet for his head….than Stephan and Red arrived. We had breakfast, D7 had two, some coffe in the system, and off we went. We were equipped with printed maps with shark’s route on, and my very vague memory of the route I took more than a year ago. Stephan was there with a camera and took some photo’s. (but not a lot, as we rode a lot more than we stopped)

We encountered the first stretch of dirt, it was very sandy, and kept every one well awake. This was the first time I bothered to deflate my tyres when riding dirt, and I was really glad I did, it makes quite a large difference, a lot more than I expected. We stopped for a smoke break before we proceeded on the next stretch of dirt. The route passes a lot of private game reserves, and I saw Buffalo, Impala’s, Zebra and Spirngbuck (neither the losing ones, nor the ones that make you drunk and puke..)

Got to a shop in the middle of no-where had some refreshments, as by this time poor D7 was dying of thirst…He noted, that he will opt to take the highway back, once we reached our destination….All this time, Red rode an awesome ride, handled the sandy patches like a pro…quietly confident.

We got back on our horsies ( and one donkey) and made our merry way towards Bela-Bela. We got to a stretch (the last 10km) of dirt which they are busy tarring (will there be any dirt left) Made for really fun and interesting 2-spoor riding.

We hit the last 40 kays of tar into Bela-Bela, I noticed cages approaching from the front, all flashing their headlights at us, so I thought they are probably warning us of imminent KK’s (they are incidentally also the fire-brigade in Bela-bela) but alas, after almost obeying the speed limit I saw nothing.

Once reaching our destination, I saw tha restaurant we intended on visitng for cold beer and lunch, has burnt down….so upon re-routing we stumbled on the DROS….like and oasis in the desert. 5 dusty, weary travellers parked their trusty steeds at the entrance (luckily no-one left their “in-jun” running). We ordered some Cold beer, had lunch and shot the breeze.

After lunch we reluctantly made our way home, as every-one had a belly-full of lunch, and a head full of lazy-ness. Armed with Blouvarks printed maps.. and some fakawe.. we followed a looooong loop home. It was tricky reading the map on my tankbag, some names all looked the same and to even try and pronounce them was something else. At this stage, we were all extremely hot, and tired, the wind that gusted burned our faces and offered no relief. We reached our last indicated stretch of dirt, and we unanimously decided to fore-go the dirt and carry on straight into Jericho (I had more-or less an idea where we were..) Once in Jericho, I followed the sighs that indicated the road towards Brits….little did I know that the last 30 or so km’s was to be dirt, with some of the sandiest patches we encountered on the whole trip. Once we cleared that, we reached Brits. Bloues left us after riding sweeper (thanx dude) and we proceeded to the dam, where Red and Stephan went on their way back to Petoors. D7 stopped with me in Harties while I inflated my tyres, and we said our good-byes. Made my way home, quickly had a shower and off I went to cake and tea with my family.

Thanx to Blouvark for providing maps, and riding sweeper…in really dusty conditions) Thanx Dave for entertaining us…Thanx to Stephan and Red for great company. Like I said, Red is a really solid rider….”let’s hear it for the girls”…
Thanx to Shark for the route…it really was an awesome one…

What a way to celebrate a birthday. Sorry about the lack of pictures… I know people don’t really read all this writing hogwash…Next time you have to join us to experience it…