Steyn farm - Aranos - Halfway to Gobasis - back to Aranos - Bosduin farm
The travelling today was very cautious after our newfound respect for the Kalahari gravel/sand, Flippie's leg was even trapped by his won bike deciding to rest on top of it. With about an hour left before sunset we made it to Aranos with only the 40km out to the farm left, which we even described with confidence to be great timing. I even discovered here in Aranos that my starter was working again although it was at the expense of my headlight.
Now to put this next piece into perspective I need to tell you that I had been doing all the navigation so far, which wasn't something to brag about until today.. We were visiting a friend of Flippie's so obviously he contacted him to ask which road we should be taking to get to his farm, after the quick phone call we saddled up and were on our way, at 47km into the supposed to be 40km ride(which you must note is about 45min on the scoots) we stopped at a farm house to ask if they could give us directions, at which point we realised we were wrong, see in Nam everyone knows everyone, and when the girl failed to recognise their 20thousand hectare farm name we knew we had to be way off. Thanks Flippie!
This would not have been such a big problem with 20mins of daylight left but with no light this night might still get very long seeing that we now didn't know where the farm was. With 20kms left to Aranos darkness struck but we also witnessed the most beautiful sunset I had ever seen. Somewhere along the road we found cellphone signal and the ever-kind Kobus de Jager(our host for the next two days) offered/agreed to come and fetch us in Aranos. But this still left us with 20km's of gravel at night. We managed to reach a speed of 40km/h with Flippie riding 45degrees behind me in the lane on my right, the system was working beautifully although after about 20mins I realised my eyes were getting very dry and with the slight burn we decided that we weren't blinking from pure concentration.
That was one of the most rewarding rides of the trip for me as it was such a challenge so we rewarded ourselves with a tall brandy at the Aranos hotel while waiting for Kobus(we later realised his mother had phoned the whole town asking whether someone had seen two crazy kids on scooters passing by).
We loaded the scooters onto the bakkie and in our excitement of finally reaching the farm we even managed to break Flippie's key off in the ignition.
That night we spent laughing at the navigational mastermind Flip had turned out to be on the three roads that Aranos posesses.
Monday, July 30, 2012
The Tumble
All was going well, we had planned a long day to Aranos and things were going well, we fueled in Gochas and planned a short route. I was confident that we would now be able to conquer any roads as the biggest challenge would lie ahead of Gochas, o how wrong I would be..
We stopped kilometers short of the the crash site, I wanted to turn off and take a different route to Aranos but Flippie insisted we continued straight so off we went. It was only a couple of minutes down the road that the action began.
I came over the hill and saw the sandy patch, tried to change lanes but to cross lanes on scooter isnt as easy as it sounds and so I was comitted. As I entered the sand patch the rear started to wiggle as it had done many a time but soon I realised this was getting out of hand and this is where I should have saved it, the moment I thought about that it was too late, the final swerve to the right was when I realised this might be it, and as soon as that thought crossed my mind I knew it was about to get fun. Next momnet I was over the ridge on the left of the road which the grader had made and I gave in to the fact of falling(which I had been trying to avoid for a week and a half seeing that we had a massive rivalry to not fall first). Next thing I remember was opening my eyes and only seeing gravel flash past my helmet at what must have been close on 60kmph, so I closed my eyes again. Next thing I remember was cuddling the bike, which according to Flippie had done a majestic somersault behind me.
I stood up and Flip was running towards me at his top speed which reminded me a lot of walking. He asked me whether I was alright and I responded that he should wait for the adrenaline to wear off before we could make that call, I walked around for a bit and then my vision became blurred and I was light headed, so I sat down in the middle of the road until it wore off. And basically that was it, except for the Flip's constant laughing for the next 20mins at least.
All is well that ends well I guess.
We stopped kilometers short of the the crash site, I wanted to turn off and take a different route to Aranos but Flippie insisted we continued straight so off we went. It was only a couple of minutes down the road that the action began.
I came over the hill and saw the sandy patch, tried to change lanes but to cross lanes on scooter isnt as easy as it sounds and so I was comitted. As I entered the sand patch the rear started to wiggle as it had done many a time but soon I realised this was getting out of hand and this is where I should have saved it, the moment I thought about that it was too late, the final swerve to the right was when I realised this might be it, and as soon as that thought crossed my mind I knew it was about to get fun. Next momnet I was over the ridge on the left of the road which the grader had made and I gave in to the fact of falling(which I had been trying to avoid for a week and a half seeing that we had a massive rivalry to not fall first). Next thing I remember was opening my eyes and only seeing gravel flash past my helmet at what must have been close on 60kmph, so I closed my eyes again. Next thing I remember was cuddling the bike, which according to Flippie had done a majestic somersault behind me.
I stood up and Flip was running towards me at his top speed which reminded me a lot of walking. He asked me whether I was alright and I responded that he should wait for the adrenaline to wear off before we could make that call, I walked around for a bit and then my vision became blurred and I was light headed, so I sat down in the middle of the road until it wore off. And basically that was it, except for the Flip's constant laughing for the next 20mins at least.
All is well that ends well I guess.
Friday, July 27, 2012
Gallery
What goes up must come down
After a way ahead of schedule stop at Koës we head to Aranos via Gochas planning on a pretty decent looking 280km which should take us round about 4 hours. We were making plans to go to Swakop, Windhoek and even go and watch the Newlands Test, I mean we had time to do all that! that changed...
5km outside of Koës my air filter got blocked which was fine because it should be cleaned every 1000 miles but it took us 2hours to clean the thing, that's where Big Boy kinda let it slip, you need to take the whole bike apart to get to the filter! With that done and dusted we discovered that not all the gravel roads in Namibia are like the tar roads of South Africa. Now there are two type of roads that the scooter don't perform too well on, one is corrugated road and the main one is sand roads, now that is imposseble to drive on! It's all fun and games to make sports and play the fool until someone gets hurt, then it gets hilarious!
Du Toit and I love the Kalahari, it's a place for the sole and it gives birth to loving and caring people with true goodness in them, luckily, otherwise we would have been screwed.
What happened was this, we were driving at a leisurely 60km/hour when Du Toit claims he just could not contain himself any longer and jumped off his bike at full pace to hug and kiss the earth. or that's what he claims to have happened, to me it looked like he helped himself to a quite spectacular fall and in the process finding a much quicker way of dissembling the bike...jip that's where it got hilarious, I had a laugh and then laughed some more, it was classic!
But then reality struck we were faced with the very real possibility that we would not be able to continue our trip. We could not get the engine going and the whole front part of the bodywork was lying in pieces in the sand.
Our first real introduction of the goodness of the Kalahari people
The Strauss family of Liberty farms came to our rescue loading the bike and taking it to their farm and then offering us accommodation and a meal, now folks a meal in this part of the world aint what you might find at your normal house or preferred place of dining, two casseroles of meat, sausages(cause that doesn't count as meat in these part of the world) bread and little or no salad, which in my mind is as good as a meal can get.
So the next morning we got the bike "fixed" using alot of ductape and very little skill on Toit or my own part, the starter wasn't working but the rest of the electronics were tip top! Du Toit claimed an injured ankle and said I should kickstart his bike for him...tjik tjik pilots I tell you. So off we were going to Etosha come hell or high water...or sand for that matter.
Well not quite, my airfilter got blocked again! So it was fixing time again but this time a giant came to our rescue. Pieter Steyn was that giant he played rugby for namibia for 13 years, 2 worldcups and all of that in the lock jumper! He gave us the use off his compressor and his wife tried to get us even fatter!
Clicè time... this one is for Toit, "its not about how many times you fall but rather how many times you stand up that matters..." just don't make a habit out of it buddy, these Kalahari people are gonna fatten us up if we don't stay clear.
The sand was winning the battle but we're not prepared to consede the war just yet.
5km outside of Koës my air filter got blocked which was fine because it should be cleaned every 1000 miles but it took us 2hours to clean the thing, that's where Big Boy kinda let it slip, you need to take the whole bike apart to get to the filter! With that done and dusted we discovered that not all the gravel roads in Namibia are like the tar roads of South Africa. Now there are two type of roads that the scooter don't perform too well on, one is corrugated road and the main one is sand roads, now that is imposseble to drive on! It's all fun and games to make sports and play the fool until someone gets hurt, then it gets hilarious!
Du Toit and I love the Kalahari, it's a place for the sole and it gives birth to loving and caring people with true goodness in them, luckily, otherwise we would have been screwed.
What happened was this, we were driving at a leisurely 60km/hour when Du Toit claims he just could not contain himself any longer and jumped off his bike at full pace to hug and kiss the earth. or that's what he claims to have happened, to me it looked like he helped himself to a quite spectacular fall and in the process finding a much quicker way of dissembling the bike...jip that's where it got hilarious, I had a laugh and then laughed some more, it was classic!
But then reality struck we were faced with the very real possibility that we would not be able to continue our trip. We could not get the engine going and the whole front part of the bodywork was lying in pieces in the sand.
Our first real introduction of the goodness of the Kalahari people
The Strauss family of Liberty farms came to our rescue loading the bike and taking it to their farm and then offering us accommodation and a meal, now folks a meal in this part of the world aint what you might find at your normal house or preferred place of dining, two casseroles of meat, sausages(cause that doesn't count as meat in these part of the world) bread and little or no salad, which in my mind is as good as a meal can get.
So the next morning we got the bike "fixed" using alot of ductape and very little skill on Toit or my own part, the starter wasn't working but the rest of the electronics were tip top! Du Toit claimed an injured ankle and said I should kickstart his bike for him...tjik tjik pilots I tell you. So off we were going to Etosha come hell or high water...or sand for that matter.
Well not quite, my airfilter got blocked again! So it was fixing time again but this time a giant came to our rescue. Pieter Steyn was that giant he played rugby for namibia for 13 years, 2 worldcups and all of that in the lock jumper! He gave us the use off his compressor and his wife tried to get us even fatter!
Clicè time... this one is for Toit, "its not about how many times you fall but rather how many times you stand up that matters..." just don't make a habit out of it buddy, these Kalahari people are gonna fatten us up if we don't stay clear.
The sand was winning the battle but we're not prepared to consede the war just yet.
First and so far only flat tyre
Flippie sporting his mechanical skills to the hundreds of Calvinia girls
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)