1511 DT Q4Q 2015

The ride continued in a blur – we went through a quaint
old town, crossed dams, rode through a flooded bridge
– met farmers who had come out to watch the fun… the
whole vibe and spirit of the ride was incredible – like
nothing I had experienced before. The guys and ladies
who came along were smiling and happy… really cool.
In Standerton we were greeted with a great braai at the
local school, we pitched tents on the field, and spent
the evening telling war stories about the day. Bench
racers extraordinary…
Day 2:
Having grown up near Standerton, I was very sad to
see what is happening – now it’s not my intention to be
negative, but I remember as a kid camping next to the
Vaal River and spending endless holidays playing in the
park along the river. We rode out along the river – and
the amount of trash that has been dumped there is
shameful… very sad.
We were in for the first section of gravel roads. Gravel
is tedious, so you open that throttle wide, we nailed
it quickly and crossed back on to the farms… this felt
like a long day and I was grateful to be on a big fourstroke,
despite Glenn’s regular Yamaha quips (more
about that later).
There is a great big muddy field that everyone needs
to get across, I believe that this year was not nearly as
muddy as previous years because of the drought, but
there were bikes, quads and Karretjies stuck all over
the place. Entertainment value 100 percent! Being the
superior KTM riders that we are, we aced it and parked
in the shade to watch the fun. The techniques were
mind boggling… incredible to see how stuck some
people can get. From there – back on to the roads up
into the mountains, the views are great and it was the
first time we came across an accident.
Some poor lady took a corner with her quad and
crashed into a fence. We initially thought that speed
was the cause but on closer inspection, it was
discovered that her tyre had come off the rim. Shame
she was sore, the medics arrived fairly quickly with a
backup vehicle in hot pursuit. Broken collar bone – the
lady was loaded up, the bike straightened out. Here is
something I’d not seen before – we had to re-seat the
tyre. The pump could not do it. One of the marshals
took a small capful of fuel, poured it into the wheel and
lit it…. POP, the wheel seated. Don’t try this at home.
We were soon back on the farms – great routes that
took us past an interesting grave – I can’t remember
exactly who, one of the generals from the Boer war,
we were one of the few groups stopped to have a look,
interesting place. Chatting to the organisers that
evening, we were told that the farm still belongs to that
generals direct descendants. Interesting.
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