Freedom

Late autumn, a perfect day for playing in the Spruit. The muddy patches are mostly dried up, the winter dust hasn't dusted yet, and brown and yellow leaves all over the singletrack.

Sunday morning was a most beautiful day in Jozi. It was a windless day with clear blue skies and a few irresponsible mountain biker buddies that know where to find all the juicy technical bits. And know how to ride them.

'twas a ride to celebrate freedom - Freedom of the Spruit, Freedom to ride Mellville-koppies, Freedom to be outside in winter, to ride proper offroad right in the middle of Jozi. Freedom to start the ride only at 8:30 - and not the ridiculous early hours that the freedom challengers seem to think is appropiate to start a ride :)

And Freedom to play rather than train, because it was only a week to go to r2r, and finally - finally - it was too late; training would not make any difference any more.

A late long lazy brunch afterwards.

THIS is why I mountain bike.




On the academic side:

• found a map board, hoping to fit it tonight
• finally we have some bad weather here - may test some of the winter-gear tomorrow morning on my commute to work
• finally downloaded the maps and instructions
• capestorm stuff is on it's way
• camera is still at customs - hope it gets released on time
• bike needs a wash after sunday's ride only a pleasure to wash the bike after a ride like sunday's :D
• top up the stan's in the tubes
  

Results of the accidental front-brake-experiment:

Accidently used the hardtail's front wheel on the Trance yesterday.
Juicy five brakes are compatible with hayes disks :)

Filling a 100 litre tub

It's so much easier, doing the r2r.

You can, for instance, pack a clean set of cycling clothes for every day.
Warm (clean) clothes for the evenings.
A full-sized toothbrush :)
Big towel and soap.
Shampoo.
Living up to the RASA expectations of looking like a tourist in the evenings, all clean and dry and smelling of soap.

You have, after all, 100 litres' worth of space.
Which is about double what the Freedom Challengers have, at 26*2 litre ... for about a quarter of the distance. Yes, lots of space.

With the Freedom Challengers' boxes already on its way to Capetown, and with all the talking and blogging about what they packed, and how, and how to get everything else in the 30-litre-backpacks, you feel a little left out. So you decide to go find a 100 litre box (to get an estimate of quantities) and put your stuffs together.
Just in case you have to go to the capestorm shoppie once more.

'If in doubt, take it with', one of the freedom challengers said, 'you can always leave it in the box if you don't need it.'
'I'll carry your fruitcake', you replied. 'I've got planty of space. Need me to carry some coke for you as well?'

100 litres. LOTS of space. Clean clothes for the evenings, warm stuffs, pretty pink fleeces and cute beanies with hair. Polar buffs. Gloves from the last time you climbed a real mountain.

Throw everything out in the spare room, box goes in the corner.

Big box. Lots of space.

Start packing.

In the box:

• a few spare tubes
• a chain
• a tyre
  
• half a bottle of stan's (cos you have it)
  
• lube - wet and dry
• a front derailleur (because you have it)
• 2 skewers - front and back (because they were lying around in the house)
• 2 of those little wheel-thingies that goes onto the derailleur
• some tools
• 6 sets of cycling clothing - shorts, shirts, long- and shortsleeved
• a fleece or 2
• fleece pants for the nights
  
• 2 sets of legwarmers
• 1 set of armwarmers
• a fleece headband
  
• 2 buffs
• civvies for day after the ride
• full sized toothbrush
• sunscreen
• odds & ends
• rain jacket & pants
• make-up and unmentionables, as suggested by Gadget and his buddies and buddettes
  
• you're sure you read somewhere that someone recommended you take a sleepingbag with
  

100 litres. errrrrmm ... not that much space after all.

You'll have to rethink the game plan, then.
Back to the drawing board.

Packing

There.
Gadget for you, you wanted pictures: Bike is packed and ready to go.

Cycling with FreedomChallengers

So.
I signed up for Ride 2 Rhodes.

The kindergarten-version of the Freedom Challenge, complete with a guardian to look after us :)

Gotta do a bit of training. Even though this is the novice-version, there would still be hills to climb. But when Dave suggested on Saturday that we go for a ride with Fiona and the Freedom Challengers, I was a bit wary ... these people are going all the way to Cape Town, and they probably trained accordingly - if their blogs were to be believed. Intimidating!

But I allowed myself to be talked into riding with them ... they would be cycling with full kit and apparently were tapering, and who could resist a ride in the Magaliesberg area anyway?

An early start on a coldish morning.
Dave lead us down a tar-hill to test the buff's ability to keep the ears warm, and to find out where toe-freezing-point is. Then up again, through the gate, and heaven. This is why i cycle. For dirt and pretty views and rocky climbs with gnarly downhills. On towards the dam, then down, another little singletrackie through grass, and coffee.

Then a portage - 'cos the Queen Bee said so, and even though i was gonna do the kindergarten-ride, i, too, will have to go over Lehanna. That's what they said, so I went with them.

'they' also confirmed a few other things for me:

• the ride 2 rhodes is 6 days, not 7 - so i have enough cycling kit (the luxury of not having to carry everything, therefore being able to take clean kit for every day)
  
• the 20 litre bag will be big enough, even with travel-size makeup and other unmentionables in the bag
  
• thank you Fiona for all the tips on navigating! i'll see how much i can remember
  
• apparenlty my pet cat looks more like a dog, but in the end they admitted that maybe it could pass for a lion-cub, which is feline, which makes it a cat.
• my lift back from rhodes was in fact riding with us in the group (i only had email contact up till then)
• blue is a very good colour for a camera - now it must just arrive in time, otherwise i'll have to take the SLR
  

There was a race at van Gaalens, so we couldn't ride my alltime favourite singletrack :(

The Freedom Challengers quickly replanned the route, and we went up the vegetable farm, a short climb, a nice downhill (the bike loved it!) then up some gravelroad, and then up a stunning little rocky climb. heart rate monitor's battery is flat, but i'm sure with the last remnants of last week's cold it would have been a ne max heartrate. All of them with backpacks approaching 40 kg's, way up ahead on the climb, and me trailing a km or 2 behind them with my 2 litres of water in my bag. (That's why I do the novice ride.)

Did I ever feel left out of all their talk about ice-cream boxes that had to be packed and sent down to capetown, or about their final preparations, or about parts of the route that i wouldn't do? Not at all. Just very thankful for a few things:

• i didn't have to climb that rocky bit with a backpack almost as heavy as fiona herself.
• i know people who know how to connect all the juicy bits in the mountain in the best possible way, creating a stunning ride :)
  
• happy to be on my bicycle -the bike absolutely loved the ride

And mostly a little bit sad that the preparations are nearing it's end, and that their may not be repeats of a ride like this one :(

thank you, Gadget, for the entertainment provided :)

Good luck, all ye Freedom Challengers! Two weeks to go!

Sani2C nonstop

We left Joburg early, to do the REAL sani2c - No riding up there, we had the bakkie with us.

Was cold at the top, the hot chocolate went down well with the views.



There was some good tracks up there. Dodgy at times, to try miss the 4x4s, hikers, donkeys and other traffic. Contrary to popular belief, it's not all the way downhill from Sanitop to Underberg. We arrived just in time for race briefing ... then off to bed in a tent just outside the hostel - getting up at 11, cos the race started at 12. What an uncivilised time to start a race - pablo and gerard had their hands full to keep me awake. A coffee-stop and some red bull at the Mackenzie-club did the trick.



No singletrack at night - partly to make the ride more doable. So no Nic's pass, we took the district road all the way to the bottom of the umkomaas valley - and out on the other side.



We defrostd a little when the sun came up. And slightly overheated when Gerard put Pablo on a tow, had to work hard to keep up with them!



Each team has it's own backup driver. Hein cooked up a wonderful breakfast - he even put out chairs for all of us, lubed the bikes, and he makes excellent coffee.

Waterval Boven

Glenn has been busy in Boven. The Forest Track, Rim Trail and Contour Path will stay favourites - but he added a playstation and fourcrosstrack, extended the Contour Path, added a few bridges to the Forest Track, and extended the Rimtrail till right in town - it's rough in sections, and big fun!

Here's Paul on the playstation:


more playstation-madness. there is a chicken-run for the less adventurous.


Swampdog Grant on the fourcross-track:



the masterbuilder and some swampdogs on the top part of the Rimtrail.


a bridge at the bottom of the RimTrail



The fun part of the Contour Path (everything of this path is the fun part, actually)


A rivercrossing just before the exit of the Contour Path



A bridge over a fence as you exit the Forest Trail (wheely strictly optional)

Extreme Dinner - new years 2009

We were 3000 metres above sea level. It was cold and wet and misty and miserable and none of us were in the mood for celebrating anything, let alone getting into formal gowns and partying the night away. It was four hours after we left the car park on what was supposed to be a 2-hour hike. It was pitch dark long before we reached the chain ladders, and even though we knew we were only 300 metres from the hut, we couldn’t find it due to low visibility.

We pitched the tents and Gerard started making butternut soup. We were hungry and cold and wet. The walk up here was slippery and dangerous at places, the packs heavy with all kinds of nonnecessities. We huddled around a tuna-salad and washed it down with big gulps of Roberto’s sherry. The soup took forever, but finally it was kind of ready – we declared it 2009 and went to bed. It was cold and wet and miserable, but at least we weren’t that hungry any more. We would have the dinner in the morning.

1 January 2009 broke clear and crispy with the majesty of a drakensberg morning. We were 3000 metres above sea level and right next to the mighty tugela, a few metres from where it tumbles 900 metres to the valley far below. One by one people crawled out of their tents … and then 2009’s cork popped exuberantly and joyfully like a drakensburg-morning:

Jacques ironed his shirt.

The girls got dressed

Then we took some pictures

Had a bite to eat – a few bites, actually – the menu included, but was not limited to, a fish-dish, salad, lasagna, grilled chicken, couscous with balsamic vinegar and grilled veggies, tiramisu, cheese & biscuits, and chocolates and coffee … washed down with liberal amounts of sherry, bubbly and red wine.

And finally the dancing bagan (it's the speakers here in the foreground, living next door to alice)

The vitalstatistix for the midweek-weekend:

Carrying non-necessities up the mountain: 5000 kiloCalories

Shivering from cold and wet while pitching tents: 2000 Calories

Ironing shirt for early-morning dinner-party: 1000 Calories

5-course dinner for breakfast: -7000 gigaCalories

Extra portion of Tiramisu: -1000 gigaCalories

Memories: calorie-less :)