Day Four:
Jimbo “ Another lively start. “ (he is referring to the ride once we were awake, not these lazy ass pics of a lekker lie-in)
2 Hour RuleJim has a great rule (well not a rule, more a guide), the ride generally starts 2 hours after sunrise. Must admit I didn’t quite understand it at first, but remember this has come from Jim’s years and years of experience on trips like these.
It removes any tendency to rush or overlook things and provides the opportunity for individuals to FIX whats broke without that worry about holding up the group.
Firing up the Suz routine.
PoachingJust near this spot where Jim took a rest, we saw a skinny dog on the inside of the fence. Dassie explained that these are commonly used by poachers. When I think poaching, I think of the Rhino debacle, but as Dassie explained, there are huge numbers of subsistence poachers who are out there day and night trapping / snaring smaller game for food.
These guys in turn become the eyes and ears for the Rhino type poachers passing on info about location and movement of rhino. So they know exactly where the rhino are all the time as well as the rangers etc. – very sad.
On Dassies farm he has deployed extremely pro-active poacher combatting activities which start with the elimination (almost) of the subsistence poachers. Anyway we hold thumbs that he can keep his record of not a single rhino loss. Good stuff boet!
Jimbo “Decided to go west to the Thohoyandou / Punda Maria road to re-fuel, and then back to the fence and on to Punda Maria. Unfortunately Dassie had to leave us at this point. “
We were sorry to see him go but there was an issue on the Farm that had to be taken care of. Dassie is not only a nice guy with a pretty face, but quietly instils an air of confidence in the group with that “BOER MAAK N PLAN” ability.
And he is a strong little bugger – we certainly could have used him later today as we would discover!!! But not to worry, he and Pillionbok would join us on Tuesday night at our last night on another friend of Jim’s Farm (Gees he has lots of friends despite himself).
Jimbo “ To get around the mountains to the north of Punda Maria required us to do a loop to the west, and then north again on homeland roads to meet up with the fence again. When approaching the fence the road became very sandy and winding, with no chance of getting up to proper sand speed. There were a few tumbles, but no real crashes or injuries. “
The good thing about being the one taking pics, is that there are no pics of you under your bike. I did first check if he was OK. A tougher bugger you won’t easily find.
Getting the Suzuki started in thick sand sometimes meant low speed padling for us both till firm ground was available.
Jimbo “On arrival at the fence we were confronted with loose boulders in very loose sand. The fence line was now quite steep. A few hundred meters of this proved very exhausting. I stalled once on down hill, and managed to get going again, but when I stalled again I had to call to Mike for assistance. “
The track was getting worse and worse, I hit a series of boulders that threw me off line and I fell against the fence. Picked up the now very heavy beast and left it and went to assist Jim.
Jimbo “ After three push-start attempts with beer crate size rocks to contend with I was fired up again, but further down the hill in hostile territory and nearing exhaustion. As luck would have it we found a game track going off on a contour which looked more promising than the way we had come. It was hot, and water was getting low. We decided to abandon this section or face complete exhaustion. “
No Pics for a while I am afraid – we were just too exhausted to even bother. It took us 2 hours to get out because it was such a bugger to start the flat battery bitch and we were going further into the valley with each attempt.
We had one or 2 spills on the way out back to the sand road, adding to the exhaustion when having to pick up bikes in the soft sand and heat, and then get the bitch started again.
The instant we reached the sand road, we parked under a shay tree, gulped down water and scoffed some of our huge reserves of the best tasting steak and chops.
Jimbo “ We were still determined to get to the Limpopo River one way or another. We headed to Masisi (Which is definitely the place to be seen), and then to the Northern Frontier (good gravel and sand roads). “
Jimbo “At the border fence we turned west (which is actually a military operational area) until we reached a point where we could get through the fence and ride down to the Limpopo River bed, a distance of about 2 km. “
Traveling West on the Northern frontier road, we reach a locked gate ahead of us. To our left, just off the road, we spotted a military base camp obscured by the bush. A few military men quickly came out on hearing the bikes, to see what was happening. We answered a couple of questions and told them about our quest to reach the Limpopo and then asked if they would let us through the gate.
No not an option but then they pointed to a foot path and said we could go down there, which they said leads to the river about 2 Kms away. So we said that cool but we wanna take the bikes. OK they said, we just had to make a plan getting them through the fence.
We asked if we could Camp there – We got these looks of astonishment -
NO absolutely not 3 main reasons.
1. Can’t have us caught in potential cross fire - This is an active operational area with frequent engagement with poachers and illegal border crossing attempts from Zim.
2. Direct threat from poachers / illegals stumbling across us at night.
3. But more important – they reckon that the buffalo and elephant in this No-man land area are extremely aggressive with humans, from the relentless contact with poachers, shooting, snaring etc.
So we agree that we will be an hour and we will be back.
Jimbo ” The elephant were in plain sight, but a bit away. This turned out to be a slight mistake, as on two occasions I was stalled in sand, and Mike was bogged down 50 meters away. However with some lifting, rock and stick carrying and pushing we were both fired up again and riding out of the river bed, whew!! Slept very tired in the bush near Masisi. “
Don’t you just love this view of an Ele? (Moving away from you that is)
We’ve made it, the foot path took us right to the banks of the Limpopo. Here the foot paths were those created by elephants and other animals. We were hoping that big herd we saw was not heading to the water. Everywhere you look their dung is scattered.
The SANDF guys told us whatever we do, don’t go across the river to ZIM (I am guessing they meant Swim – they do and will just shoot!! These guys appeared running down the far embankment from out of no-where the instant we stopped the bikes.
Happy to have spent some time at the river taking in the wonderful views we decide its time to fire up the Suzuki and head back. And that’s when we run into some sand issues after only a few hundred meters, starting with the Suzuki stalling and me bogging trying to tow start. This was easily sorted, just turned the bikes around and 15 meters back we were on hard ground.
While Jim was bogged I continue over a very sandy hillock which I made, but it took some riding effort .
So when I returned to Jim, I decided to do a little recce and try find us another way out and half way up a 15ft embankment I feel the bike sinking in. Throttle wide open I make it to the top but most of my momentum has left me and surprise surprise I make it another 10 meters on flat top before it’s on the bash plate.
Sorry – no pics for the next hour (funny how the last thing on your mind is taking pics, when your sense of humour fucked off into the distance to watch you kak-off, from atop a hard surface embankment!!!!!).
Then it was push her over, fill the hole, find sticks, rocks, pack, lift her up, get a meter and repeat. 1200 GS (Yes it does stand for Geen Sand) is just so freekin heavy, even when you’re not exhausted.
However the positive is I developed a very useful technique for us small guys with these huge bikes, when your ‘e on your own, stuck in proper sand. To give you an idea, I couldn’t even drag the back around once I had pushed her over to clear the hole from the back wheel.
If you are big and strong no need to read this – just use the sand recovery training they teach for normal people.. haha 1. As soon as she starts bogging proper close the fucking throttle! (promise no magic traction comes along from nowhere)
2. Go find smallish flat rocks – even if you gotta walk far
3. Dump the rocks on the left side of the bike
a. Position a rock for the side stand for when you lift her.
b. Position another on the right side at the back wheel
4. Unpack bags (don’t have to tell U this, do I – well fuck face here tried twice before taking the weight off)
5. Push the bike over onto the right side.
6. Fill the hole
7. Lift the bitch up (I can only use the “back to bike” method – cause I AM SO FUCKING SHORT)
8. Still on the right side, push the bike onto the side stand so it lifts the back wheel enough to slide the (well position) rock with your foot under the wheel.
9. Now pack rocks between from and back wheel, and one or 2 in front of the front wheel.
a. This will give you a runway to build momentum
10. I run the bike out until on firmer ground, then jump on and do the weight back, standing, open up blah blah blah (and no I don’t look up – TOO FUCKING Tired by now)
Last little stick in the sand , used the above method and out in a flash. The whole time I had the elephants in the back of my mind and with around an hour of light left, it probably incentivised us to get out.
Any way Jim and I were um.. really FUCKED by the time we got out onto firm track and we had used almost all our water for today and tomorrow.
So we followed the single track back out to the road and got through the fence and reported back to the SANDF guys. Sorry the 1 hour turned into around 3.
I ask the chap if they have water for us. We follow him to a water bladder strapped to a tree and I fill 2 x 2L coke bottles – I notice the brownie, greenie coloured water together with insects etc. –look at Jim glug down some pass it over and he glugs some. No position to be picky.
Snuck a quick pic of the base with Jim marching out…
Back to our bikes. You can see the fence we had to negotiate our bikes through in and out – SOOOO Worth it.
They wanted to know where we were sleeping so we said Masisi. Yeah Sure… we were gonna camp in the bush but couldn’t tell them that – they made it very clear this was an operational area. By now we were running outa light quick, so off we went. Stopping for a quick sunset pic on the Northern frontier road.
Man they were serious about the operational area – on hearing the bikes, we had a guy run out of the bush fully loaded with R1 (I guess) ready for action (or a lift haha). We just kep riding and the look of bewilderment of his face was quite amusing. (no shots fired)
Just after this pic, we met an army truck coming the other way - it was the big makulu baas we had originally spoken to about going down the track to the river. Eish it was a Cab filled with smiles – they seemed very happy to see us (surprised to see us make it out maybe haha). Had a quick chat, thanked them again and waved good bye – (lekker Guys).
Traveling south away from the border line we pulled into the bush about 10 Kms before Masisi to set up camp. Light was almost gone. Had enough time to pull the boots off, set out the mats and then take this pic.
Jim and I didn’t talk much for the first 30 minutes – just lay there staring at the stars and taking in one hellava days riding, while feeling the exhaustion easing off quietly into the dark as the weary muscles came back to life.
A bit later, I remember we ate some meat and chatted a bit (don’t recall about what) and next moment I think I hear rustling, walking other side Jim who is 8 meters from me. It stops, I sit up and ask Jim did you hear that? No nothing. There it is again crisp and clear – There Jim, hear? Nothing – WTF are U deaf it is so clear? but still he hears nothing. Its probably the bloody Hyena coming for my steak (or me – Jim is too old and tough for them), or maybe it’s a poacher wanting my horn?!
The moon has not yet risen so it is very dark and I had lost my head lamp 2 nights before at Dassie’s place. Jim is too tired to worry about noises I can hear and he can’t, so I’m on my own. I am peering into the dark past Jim, when I pick up summing black and small in my peripheral vision right in front of me on my ground sheet. I can see it cruising past me but cant see what it is.
So I grab the camera point and shoot, check the LCD – nothing. Third time lucky it was this little bugger – I was so relieved I wanted to kiss him and asked if he would like to share my sleeping bag for the night – no he just kept going.
Whoosh - Morning arrived so fast!
Topic: JIMBO'S FULL MOON KRUGER PARK FENCE RIDE (Read 11861 times)
