SoleSearcher
Puppy
I want to share this most amazing experience I had in January with you guys. Some of you may think yah yah this guy was smoking some funny stuff. But even if its the case just be careful when you pass that spot.
My story starts at the petrol station in Burgersdorp. It was the last stop for the day and in the middle of my up trip from Stillbaai to Gauteng (full RR soon). I planned to sleep in Burgersdorp for the night but the petrol attendant said the camp site I am looking for is under reparations and closed. It was getting dark but I decided to push through to Alliwal North. I programmed my new destination in the GPS (Riverside Lodge), filled up and at 18h07 I hit the road to Alliwal, pushing hard to get there before dark.
The last part of the road to Alliwal is in particularly good condition and I did not pass a single car, animal or living soul along the route, so I pushed my Ruby as fast as she can go with 3 panniers and a tog bag, all packed to the brim with stuff for a month long trip. I remember noticing the edge of town approaching. It was almost dark now. Then suddenly something exploded around my head with a massive bang... then nothing...
When I came to my senses again, I was standing next to my bike, which was parked neatly in the parkinglot in front of a building, facing uphill out of the parking bay! As my mind started piercing through the mists of confusion, the first questions started popping into my head: Who are you? Where are you and what the hell are you doing here? I raised my eyes and could vaguely read the big panel in front of me saying "Riverside Lodge". That started ringing bells of recognition inside my slowly recovering head. As I reached up to remove the thing on my head, the fingers of my left hand touched right into my eye. Now that was not normal because I wear glasses. When I finally managed to remove everything from my head, I looked at the stuff in my hands and thoughts slowly started to make sense. What I saw in front of me was my system V helmet (flipup) without a visor and the left side totally stuffed. In my other hand I saw my glasses with the left lens gone! From there the finger in the eye. (Check out the pics below). I now realized that something bad happened to me and that I now need a place to rest and recover for the night. I saw reception but the first fearful thoughts popped up : will I be able to remember my name, my telephone numbers and those of my family, my pin code to get cash to pay the bill. Before entering the building I tried to answer all these questions and after a few scary minutes I could recall most of the necessary stuff, so I checked in. I was floating like a zombie and finally in the shelter of the room I started to try and put the puzzle together. All I could remember (and to this day) was the beautiful peaceful road, fast ride, explosion, --nothing--, then parked at my destination. Up to now I constantly try to think of different scenario's of these few moments in my life. Now strengthened by the witness of my GPS saved tracks, this is the facts of what happened:
From the GPS tracks I saw that at 6:25:38 PM on 5 January 2009, I was doing 146 km/h at position S30 43.071 E26 36.800. About 20 seconds later I was standing still for about a minute. Then took off and in a seemingly normal manner to cover the last 8kms or so to town. The road led over a few speed bumps (from T4A map, I cant remember), a few turns in town and the the amazingly perfect parking maneuvre, where you have to reverse the heavy beast into the downhill parking. In daylight the next day, I saw a sharp ding on the left side of my helmet, just above where the visor ends.
Now in putting together the full picture of HOW this last part could have happened, this is the only conclusion that I could come up with:-
(this is now where some of you may say the wheels came off in my head)
As I was flying along, a malicious minded soul (bored, bad or both) took the rock in his hands and carefully timed my approach. He hit the left side of my helmet spot on. The force of the blow (at 146 kmh plus) shattered my visor and took out the left lens of my glasses. I pretty much passed out and somehow came to a stop a couple of seconds later. There my guardian angel took over and rode the both of us to our destination, where she did a super parking maneuvre, helped me off the bike, and handed my life back into my hands. I know this may sound crazy and far fetched but just think of everything that could have gone wrong from that first moment the rock hit home, and which did not. I am sure any of you can come up with at least ten things that would have taken my life during those moments from the hit to the parking.
In conclusion I want to say that I am not a church person and I am not trying to promote anything of that nature, but I firmly believe that my guardin angel is looking out for me and she rides well! And so does all of ours'.
So even if you guys dont believe a whisper of what I am saying and are ready to send the men in white coats to my door, please just be warned: rock throwers are active at the entrance of Alliwal North!
Any thoughts / suggestions / theories / criticism / abuse are welcome. Let me have it...
P.S. Here is the helmet evidence. I can also post the GPS tracks if anybody would be interested.
My story starts at the petrol station in Burgersdorp. It was the last stop for the day and in the middle of my up trip from Stillbaai to Gauteng (full RR soon). I planned to sleep in Burgersdorp for the night but the petrol attendant said the camp site I am looking for is under reparations and closed. It was getting dark but I decided to push through to Alliwal North. I programmed my new destination in the GPS (Riverside Lodge), filled up and at 18h07 I hit the road to Alliwal, pushing hard to get there before dark.
The last part of the road to Alliwal is in particularly good condition and I did not pass a single car, animal or living soul along the route, so I pushed my Ruby as fast as she can go with 3 panniers and a tog bag, all packed to the brim with stuff for a month long trip. I remember noticing the edge of town approaching. It was almost dark now. Then suddenly something exploded around my head with a massive bang... then nothing...
When I came to my senses again, I was standing next to my bike, which was parked neatly in the parkinglot in front of a building, facing uphill out of the parking bay! As my mind started piercing through the mists of confusion, the first questions started popping into my head: Who are you? Where are you and what the hell are you doing here? I raised my eyes and could vaguely read the big panel in front of me saying "Riverside Lodge". That started ringing bells of recognition inside my slowly recovering head. As I reached up to remove the thing on my head, the fingers of my left hand touched right into my eye. Now that was not normal because I wear glasses. When I finally managed to remove everything from my head, I looked at the stuff in my hands and thoughts slowly started to make sense. What I saw in front of me was my system V helmet (flipup) without a visor and the left side totally stuffed. In my other hand I saw my glasses with the left lens gone! From there the finger in the eye. (Check out the pics below). I now realized that something bad happened to me and that I now need a place to rest and recover for the night. I saw reception but the first fearful thoughts popped up : will I be able to remember my name, my telephone numbers and those of my family, my pin code to get cash to pay the bill. Before entering the building I tried to answer all these questions and after a few scary minutes I could recall most of the necessary stuff, so I checked in. I was floating like a zombie and finally in the shelter of the room I started to try and put the puzzle together. All I could remember (and to this day) was the beautiful peaceful road, fast ride, explosion, --nothing--, then parked at my destination. Up to now I constantly try to think of different scenario's of these few moments in my life. Now strengthened by the witness of my GPS saved tracks, this is the facts of what happened:
From the GPS tracks I saw that at 6:25:38 PM on 5 January 2009, I was doing 146 km/h at position S30 43.071 E26 36.800. About 20 seconds later I was standing still for about a minute. Then took off and in a seemingly normal manner to cover the last 8kms or so to town. The road led over a few speed bumps (from T4A map, I cant remember), a few turns in town and the the amazingly perfect parking maneuvre, where you have to reverse the heavy beast into the downhill parking. In daylight the next day, I saw a sharp ding on the left side of my helmet, just above where the visor ends.
Now in putting together the full picture of HOW this last part could have happened, this is the only conclusion that I could come up with:-
(this is now where some of you may say the wheels came off in my head)
As I was flying along, a malicious minded soul (bored, bad or both) took the rock in his hands and carefully timed my approach. He hit the left side of my helmet spot on. The force of the blow (at 146 kmh plus) shattered my visor and took out the left lens of my glasses. I pretty much passed out and somehow came to a stop a couple of seconds later. There my guardian angel took over and rode the both of us to our destination, where she did a super parking maneuvre, helped me off the bike, and handed my life back into my hands. I know this may sound crazy and far fetched but just think of everything that could have gone wrong from that first moment the rock hit home, and which did not. I am sure any of you can come up with at least ten things that would have taken my life during those moments from the hit to the parking.
In conclusion I want to say that I am not a church person and I am not trying to promote anything of that nature, but I firmly believe that my guardin angel is looking out for me and she rides well! And so does all of ours'.
So even if you guys dont believe a whisper of what I am saying and are ready to send the men in white coats to my door, please just be warned: rock throwers are active at the entrance of Alliwal North!
Any thoughts / suggestions / theories / criticism / abuse are welcome. Let me have it...
P.S. Here is the helmet evidence. I can also post the GPS tracks if anybody would be interested.
