Sand, donga's, crashes and alot of fun !

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sidetrack

Grumpy Mutt
Joined
Jan 30, 2006
Messages
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Location
Pretoria
So it began, my first ride with the guys from the forum and what a great ride it was ! Also thanks for allowing me to tag along, great bunch of guys ! I left Pretoria at around 6 am which for me is damn early for a weekend. I arrived at Wimpey just after 7 am and met Jorneyman who was busy having a coffee to combat the feezing early morning chill. Unfortunetly Journeyman had other arrangements so he left early. I met the other guys (Shark, Louis, Welsman) and soon we were ready to roll.

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Luckily the canal was less muddy than before. First dirt pic of the ride.

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Two KLR's leading the pack as we head up the canal.

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Nice landscape pic.

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I must be honest I have no clue where we were riding, this stretch was before the klip and consisted of some nice open fast dirtroads. LouisZander pulled to the side and found his speedo cable was loose, luckily Welshman had a Leatherman at hand and Louis was back on the road in no time.

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Shark said he found a new route on the GPS to the rock which meant we had to go through this gate .....

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which led to this nice stretch of dirt .....

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Welshman made the comment that the big GS and DRZ were complete opposites as ds bikes and he is right, the DRZ looks like a muskiet next to the big BM :lol: The trail became tighter almost into a singletrack as it ran into the local village. Thorny branches meant you had to duck every now and then.

Then I saw it, the rock. We rode up to the steap climb and I could not believe it. That face was steap :shock: I looked at a photo of it and thought "yeah I can do that" but being face to face with it was another story. It looked like a near vertical climb, I don't think so. We rode around the klip and went up the "easiest" climb whick in itself was "not so easy". My bike was like a bucking horse but I made it to the top following the "klip regulars". Welshman's GS bottomed out but that did not faze him as he went up and down the klip. Much respect to do that on the big BM, I don't know if I will be able to do that :notworthy:

Couple of pics on the klip's summit.

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Back down and we followed Shark around the klip, it was a nice shady trail. Welshman's GS.

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And my DRZ in front of a funky tree growing on a rock.

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Now I have to apologise for the following pics as the exposure on my camera was crap. Shark guided us along a route that led to about 2 - 3 km of pure trail riding Nirvana. Suddenly we were in a Riverbed with super soft sand, it's the first time I ever rode something like this and it just felt wrong. Shark speeded ahead while Louis, Welshman and myself paddled through the section going from left to right. We saw Shark up ahead and pulled over for a well deserved break.

Shark giving Welshman some support.

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Believe me it looks easier on the pic.

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I jokingly said that if a bike had trouble here you would be in deep sh&%t, so just when Welshman thumbed his starter the GS was a no go ! The battery did not have enough juice so Louis and I helped to push start, luckily this happened on a harder patch of dirt.

The DRZ in the bed.

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Shark told us to stay on the pegs and it worked, for me it was easier as we wen't along. Also found second gear to work better as first just dug in and spun.

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If the sand was not enough the trail also had tricky little ups and downs with dongas everywhere. A few times I found myself riding near vertical drop offs. I was lucky to be on a lighter bike. Welshman had a get off and suffered a sctratched cylinder head, broken indicator and a bashplate that came right off the bike. The GS did not like this stretch ! I also had my fun in the trees trying a "shortcut", Shark has the evidence. Luckily he gave me a hand after taking some pics :lol:

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After this tough section it was back onto good dirtroads in the bushveld. We then came across a flooded Pienaars river and I followed Shark into the crossing. Welshman and Louis were smarter and waited to see what would happen. Well we almost drowned the bikes ! It was deep, when the water neared my seat and the bike started to splutter I decided to turn around asap. I think Welshman has a pic.

Shark checking out the river. The one chevron board was almost completely covered so I guess the level was about 1m ? Shark suggested we can try and push the bikes across but this was met by deafening silence and the shake of the head.

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We had to go back via Brits on the tar, it was about a 50km stretch which made the DRZ's seat harder with each km that passed.

At Brits we parted ways after a great days ride, when I got back to Pretoria my odo showed 296 km for the day.

Thanks guys.
 
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