This ride report will be more of a flash report than a detailed ride report… Im gonna make it a quickie, cause it was a quickie… :deal:
Here goes.
Saterday morning (11 o clock) we leave this town and hit Breedsnek, quick and easy, heading for Vaalwater area (460kms mostly off road). With no idea of what laid ahead, we were like two eager beavers.
The first long piece of nice dirt road with an occasional donkey sleeping in the road. I had a great smile on my face…not knowing what lay ahead…
Passing a few small villages, we get on to, what must be the coolest little road as far as our trip was concerned, the first real "off road". Little sharp corners with allot of sand, and riding in the middle of nowhere on a jeep track. Don't know who's land this is, but its fuuu%%ing awesome! I did not take photos of the road, because I thought i would later...
Seeing this river, I had to ride in it. The river sort of went parallel to the road, so I was like "Ja kom ons vat die rivier!". Then 50 meters in we realise we are not getting anywhere in the LOOSE sand. So we turn around, pushing/walking the bikes out. First the KTM, the the PappaGaai. The KTM fell over at some stage, but with cat like reflexes we had it on its two wheels again and then went back for my KLR. Much easier to push the KLR out, that few kg's made a hell of a difference! And doing it with MX boots, eish.
Now at this stage it was all funny and lekker! I was joking, "lets camp in the river, then just ride up and down it". Hahah, maybe next time. But still, a great idea!
Anywhoo, coming back to the bikes, ready to devour more of this awesome road, we realize that there is petrol leaking out of Alberts tank! Geez, not cool! He phones a mechanic ( we are utter nubes ) and the mechanic says the tank might not be breathing. At this point the left tank was completely empty, and the right tank was squirting out petrol like a … uhm yea.quick.
The the best line of the weekend came out of Alberts mouth: "Maybe I must just buy a KLR". HAHAHA, I am not letting that one go!
We decided to find the nearest garage and see if we can sort out the problem there. So we rode on, Albert in front with his fuel caps open, so it could breath. Stoping at a garage in Tshutong, we removed the left fearing from the tank, and there is was, the little breather pipe stuck between the plastics. We removed it, filled up the tanks, and all sorted! We left that town, to head strait to the dirt again!
Yea, we felt good, we learnt something new about the bike and we could once again return to the off-roads, until 1 minute later, Albert had a flat!! I would not repeat his words…
So we went back to the garage, and with high hopes, we started the patching job. We parked under a tree with some shade and took of the back wheel. Soon we realized we were not nubes, but idiots, and we had a lot to learn! We took bout 30 minutes to take of the tyre and get the tube out. Speed was not our strong point…
Revealing the tube, ready to patch that bitch, we were bitch slapped by the tyre! The valve was broken off! And we had no spare tubes or valve patch thing. Right there we gained experience! We did as all men would do, and tried to fix the valve. This took about an hour. It was now about 14:00 and I decided to make us some coffee and heat out tinned food for lunch. In the mean while the village woman gathered under the tree. They were about the have a meeting around us! I loved it!! They all greeted us and started with their meeting. We were basically sitting in the boardroom, fixing a tyre. you gotta love africa.
After a few tests, we decided that Albert's patch job was the work of a surgeon, and it was sealed. We proceeded with putting back the tube, trying very hard to get the valve in the hole…like a lighty. This took some time with sweat and creative words been used inappropriately. We eventually got the little thing in.
Now, putting back the tyre on the rim. Im not proud to say this, but this took us about 2 hours. In this time we broke of the valve again and again creative words were used. We lost a some humor. And we could actually not get the tyre on the rim. We learnt something new, we have never changed a tyre on a bike before, and we didnt know how. This is how experience is acquired i guess.
Then Jonas showed his face. An EXTREMELY drunk man who seemed to love me. He said the same words over and over, I could not understand. The sun was starting to leave this town, and we had to leave it to. I actually asked one of the woman in the "meeting" if we could sleep there. She must have thought I was joking.
Then I phoned FNB road side assist. The first question was "Are you safe", to which I replied, "Uhm, not really, i don't know…". She said the nearest truck was in Randfontuin, so that option was out. We did not want to sit there until 10 at night…
At this point we still had 350 kms of mostly off road and sand left…just so you know, we missed it.
Then Albert got the owner of the garage to take us to Rustenburg for a "fair" price. But anything was better than camping on Tshutong next to the road. I road to Rustenburg and waited for them there. We ended up in Rustenburg Kloof at 8 o clock that night. Shaking hands with Gert, out new friend who dropped us, we started pitching out tents. Luckily I made mielie pap at home that morning that I vacuum packed. We ate mielie pap with spaghetti and meatballs tinned food, and curried beans. It was actually very nice.
Rustenburg Kloof is not a happy place…The campers next to us started fighting and then later packed up and left. We decided to join the way of the "Kloof" and drank all the wine we had with us. We ended up in the swimming pool and passed out in our tents by 3 in the morning.
Next day we hang around, hung over and not really worried about how to get home. Eventually we got a trailer in Rustenburg and my brother came to fetch Albert. I rode back on my own on mostly dirt roads.
We then had to take the trailer back to Rustenburg and were back by 10 o clock that night. What an adventure! And we obviously slept after that.!!!
In conclusion:
We learnt allot. We were totally naive and unprepared. We learnt that you get experience by doing the trips and making the mistakes. And yes, they can go wrong. But I believe they were a blessing in disguise. After all this is my first trip, and my second month of owning a bike.
With all this bad luck, we had a great time. The best thing of this trip was the learning.
Now, were are doing the same trip soon, this time we will complete it and do it with more know how…like changing a tyre…idiots!
Here goes.
Saterday morning (11 o clock) we leave this town and hit Breedsnek, quick and easy, heading for Vaalwater area (460kms mostly off road). With no idea of what laid ahead, we were like two eager beavers.
The first long piece of nice dirt road with an occasional donkey sleeping in the road. I had a great smile on my face…not knowing what lay ahead…
Passing a few small villages, we get on to, what must be the coolest little road as far as our trip was concerned, the first real "off road". Little sharp corners with allot of sand, and riding in the middle of nowhere on a jeep track. Don't know who's land this is, but its fuuu%%ing awesome! I did not take photos of the road, because I thought i would later...
Seeing this river, I had to ride in it. The river sort of went parallel to the road, so I was like "Ja kom ons vat die rivier!". Then 50 meters in we realise we are not getting anywhere in the LOOSE sand. So we turn around, pushing/walking the bikes out. First the KTM, the the PappaGaai. The KTM fell over at some stage, but with cat like reflexes we had it on its two wheels again and then went back for my KLR. Much easier to push the KLR out, that few kg's made a hell of a difference! And doing it with MX boots, eish.
Now at this stage it was all funny and lekker! I was joking, "lets camp in the river, then just ride up and down it". Hahah, maybe next time. But still, a great idea!
Anywhoo, coming back to the bikes, ready to devour more of this awesome road, we realize that there is petrol leaking out of Alberts tank! Geez, not cool! He phones a mechanic ( we are utter nubes ) and the mechanic says the tank might not be breathing. At this point the left tank was completely empty, and the right tank was squirting out petrol like a … uhm yea.quick.
The the best line of the weekend came out of Alberts mouth: "Maybe I must just buy a KLR". HAHAHA, I am not letting that one go!
We decided to find the nearest garage and see if we can sort out the problem there. So we rode on, Albert in front with his fuel caps open, so it could breath. Stoping at a garage in Tshutong, we removed the left fearing from the tank, and there is was, the little breather pipe stuck between the plastics. We removed it, filled up the tanks, and all sorted! We left that town, to head strait to the dirt again!
Yea, we felt good, we learnt something new about the bike and we could once again return to the off-roads, until 1 minute later, Albert had a flat!! I would not repeat his words…
So we went back to the garage, and with high hopes, we started the patching job. We parked under a tree with some shade and took of the back wheel. Soon we realized we were not nubes, but idiots, and we had a lot to learn! We took bout 30 minutes to take of the tyre and get the tube out. Speed was not our strong point…
Revealing the tube, ready to patch that bitch, we were bitch slapped by the tyre! The valve was broken off! And we had no spare tubes or valve patch thing. Right there we gained experience! We did as all men would do, and tried to fix the valve. This took about an hour. It was now about 14:00 and I decided to make us some coffee and heat out tinned food for lunch. In the mean while the village woman gathered under the tree. They were about the have a meeting around us! I loved it!! They all greeted us and started with their meeting. We were basically sitting in the boardroom, fixing a tyre. you gotta love africa.
After a few tests, we decided that Albert's patch job was the work of a surgeon, and it was sealed. We proceeded with putting back the tube, trying very hard to get the valve in the hole…like a lighty. This took some time with sweat and creative words been used inappropriately. We eventually got the little thing in.
Now, putting back the tyre on the rim. Im not proud to say this, but this took us about 2 hours. In this time we broke of the valve again and again creative words were used. We lost a some humor. And we could actually not get the tyre on the rim. We learnt something new, we have never changed a tyre on a bike before, and we didnt know how. This is how experience is acquired i guess.
Then Jonas showed his face. An EXTREMELY drunk man who seemed to love me. He said the same words over and over, I could not understand. The sun was starting to leave this town, and we had to leave it to. I actually asked one of the woman in the "meeting" if we could sleep there. She must have thought I was joking.
Then I phoned FNB road side assist. The first question was "Are you safe", to which I replied, "Uhm, not really, i don't know…". She said the nearest truck was in Randfontuin, so that option was out. We did not want to sit there until 10 at night…
At this point we still had 350 kms of mostly off road and sand left…just so you know, we missed it.
Then Albert got the owner of the garage to take us to Rustenburg for a "fair" price. But anything was better than camping on Tshutong next to the road. I road to Rustenburg and waited for them there. We ended up in Rustenburg Kloof at 8 o clock that night. Shaking hands with Gert, out new friend who dropped us, we started pitching out tents. Luckily I made mielie pap at home that morning that I vacuum packed. We ate mielie pap with spaghetti and meatballs tinned food, and curried beans. It was actually very nice.
Rustenburg Kloof is not a happy place…The campers next to us started fighting and then later packed up and left. We decided to join the way of the "Kloof" and drank all the wine we had with us. We ended up in the swimming pool and passed out in our tents by 3 in the morning.
Next day we hang around, hung over and not really worried about how to get home. Eventually we got a trailer in Rustenburg and my brother came to fetch Albert. I rode back on my own on mostly dirt roads.
We then had to take the trailer back to Rustenburg and were back by 10 o clock that night. What an adventure! And we obviously slept after that.!!!
In conclusion:
We learnt allot. We were totally naive and unprepared. We learnt that you get experience by doing the trips and making the mistakes. And yes, they can go wrong. But I believe they were a blessing in disguise. After all this is my first trip, and my second month of owning a bike.
With all this bad luck, we had a great time. The best thing of this trip was the learning.
Now, were are doing the same trip soon, this time we will complete it and do it with more know how…like changing a tyre…idiots!
