Soweto GS Ride - 7 February 2010

Well, well well. Like they say - all is well that ends well. And we ended well.

But let me start at the beginning. A most unfortunate incident on the way to the Atterbury Shell rendered my 1200 useless for any further riding. Let's just say an uncovered manhole does not treat your forks kindly (18SVN pictures of those forks on request). Such a thing would normally ruin a great club ride, but Marius was kind enough to lend me his bike - knowing well what I just did with mine. Thank you Marius, your trust in me is greatly appreciated. After my kind wife did the recovery vehicle thing, we could get going at last. Thanks for the guys that helped!

We hit the N14 towards Krugersdorp and met up with Mario, Jaco and Allun. It was not long before we took a turn towards Randfontein and onto the gravel. The tracks were much drier than when we did the recce ride a week before (Drix, you may post those pictures now ), but we were presented with three water crossings (on of them making short work of a 1150A) and two or three impressive mud pools (one of them promptly swallowed a GSA, but we manged to wrestle it free!).

The route we took included some awesome varied terrain that gave all of us a great learning opportunity. The little patches of sand, rocks, mud and woops required concentration throughout and it was so great to see how the group made short work of it. It was however hot and somehow I managed to pick rest spots where there were no trees around. Next time I'll be more thoughtful.

After the dirt section, we drove through Slovoville and what a bunch of friendly people they are. A lot of waving later we took the bigger roads towards Lebo's. There we had the remnants of what the S's left us (just kidding - more than enough to feed a small army!) and a couple of Zamalek's later we headed home.

Our group went via Northcliff and Kayalami back towards Pretoria and got rained on a lot. In Centurion we even got hailed on a lot. This was by far the worst weather I've ever ridden in and hats off to everyone for keeping it together.

Pieter, thank you for your diligent sweeping work that didn't leave anyone behind. And two thumbs up for everyone that joined in the ride. You were OSSUM!
And Marius, once again thank you for letting me use your bike.

I did not take any pictures - I'm sure that there are plenty to follow. Here is a view of what we did today:

Thanks for all the pics, looks like another great ride thanks to the efforts by the ride leaders - great job Marnus. Glad I could help to rescue the ride. Perhaps you can send admin the track for posting on the website so that I can eventually get the opportunity to do the trip.

Ek hoop my koffie was ook lekker jy is enige tyd welkom en ja soos wat Maruis se great job Marnus.

Koekels, die koffie was great!!! Ek was papnat en yskoud toe ons daar stop, maar het weer lekker gery na die koppie boeretroos!

PS - Koffie by Koekels is nie koffie soos jy gewoond is nie! Koffie beteken: koffie, 2 soorte koekies vir doop in die koffie, vrugte, neute, biltong en chips!!!

Pieter, tel jou seeninge ou pel!

Marnus

Dankie vir 'n baie goeie roete. Dit is ideaal om die tegniek te verbeter. Daar was bitter min hoe spoed dele.

Dit was weer een om te onthou.

PS Hael slaan seer op 120!!!

Thanks Marnus for a great ride! I also caught the back end of that storm in Centurion. The roads were flooded and it was in my opinion very dangerous. The engineering companies didn’t take stormwater in mind when they put all those barriers alongside the highway.

But anyway the ride was great and a perfect way to spend a Sunday! I was quite impressed with Lebo’s backpackers. Here are the few photos I took…

Thanks for a great outing Marnus! I had lots of fun! Even started to enjoy the mud. And I am happy to report..... Daleen - 6; Water/mud - 0!

Had a great time, lots of places to play. thanks Marnus, a well chosen route and a great day out with all the other riders.

Yes a very special thanx to Marius for allowing Marnus to use his bike, to allow the FANTASTIC ride to happen.

The four in my group, just manage to avoid the bulk of the storms, only getting a light hit by Roodepoort.

Can everyone made it home safe.

Thanks to the "guides" for a fantastic route - who'd have figured getting around Gauteng would be so scenic & such fun? - Awesome!
Thanks for all the great advice in helping me conquer "new" obstacles and to all the sweepers for patiently waiting for me - i really do appreciate.
And cheers to the rain/hail for cleaning bikes & kit alike :-) Mahala!

OliveOil wrote:
And cheers to the rain/hail for cleaning bikes & kit alike :-) Mahala!

See, the Club tries to cater for all members needs!

And I forgot! Thank you Christo for going to fetch the tie downs for the bike!

Seems as though you had a good run...

Thank you for sharing your photo's... (although it's not nice to see exactly what I missed out on)