Rain rain rain - Tues 26th Jan

As if we did not have enough rain this month, there was a down pour last night and some of the roads we encountered on the morning ride were flooded.

 

Sunday Ride 17th Jan 2010

We had an awesome ride today, Stand, Greg and me were fortunate to be joined by a friend of Stan's - Ed and his son Jarred (pictured below).

The route that we took was along Homestead Dam towards Atlasville and the out towards the plots. At the bottem of Brentwood stables Greg opted to to go through the wet grass track towards Great North road and shouted out the challenge, Jarred and Richard accepted the challenge but the older wiser men Stan and Ed stuck to the tar.

Greg's enthusiasm was soon dampened when he hit a hole covered in water and took a tumble, shaving off some skin off his shin - real man does not cry.  Greg was 1-0 up in the fall department, Richard soon overtook with 2 tumbles in the mud near the model power boat dam.

We then went out passed Senringeti golf estate (carefully navigating the small bridge over the river) and then into the open veld. Seen below are the boys having a halftime energy snack and chat.

A few more tackles with mud and portage crossing over small stream (a real man rode through it) and then our route was blocked by a huge trench that was dug during the week for a gas pipe. A bit of portage to get around this obsticle. Stan the man shown below (after ramping the trench).

Don't wait for us boys!!!!!

We ventured home via the Sandpan and the small climb to Linmed hospital (very tempted to check in) and then back to our starting point at the Wimpy in Lakefield - 50km ride that will be remembered for a long time. Thanks boys.

Back home to clean the bike - good as new, the legs give away that there was a bit of mud....

Saturday 16th Jan

Ratty and Lion went for a early ride - short but hard. Awesome to see the sunrise.

Sunday 10th Jan

At last the rain has laid up and we were greeted with a beautiful sunny day.

We did the same route as last Sunday - still quite muddy but well worth it. Cellphone was now placed in a zip locked bag in case Lion went swimming once again (Ratty did not bring the snorkel with that he had previously flashed around).

Greg has now got a can of pepper spray on his bike in case the criminals attack us - or we need to ward off those swarms of horse flies :)

Wet Wet Wet

No not the rock band but the ride today.

Whilst Ratty was slaving away at work Richard and Greg went out to play in the mud (and water). After a few days of rain, the conditions were almost too difficult to ride in. We did another +55km ride and had lots of tumbles in the mud. Our bikes were really caked in mud but we came to a small bridge that crossed last week that was now completely flooded (as pictured below) and managed to wash off our bikes.

Awesome experience..last of the long weekday rides as I am back to work soon :(

Richard goes Snorkelling

Sunday swim

Lion went for a great MTB ride this morning with Ratty, Greg and Joan 50km+. Lots of rain the night before so there was plenty of mud. Greg had 2 falls and I took the mickey out of him....but then I took a tumble off the bridge staight into the stream (totally submerged) - who has the last laugh?

First ride of 2010

What a better way then to spend the first day of 2010 with a nice ride on the dirt. Lion was fortunate enough to ride past an old school mate Greg Heunis a couple of weeks ago and have had a few memorable rides with him since then.

Today we did a 50+ km ride past Senengeti golf estate and then back via the Sandpan. A bit of mud in places but we went on new routes that we learnt from seasoned bikers that we rode with last week - Willie and Frikke and avoided getting the feet wet.

Ratty was pushing some zzzzz after New Year's eve and couldn't make the morning ride, but he will be nagged to join us for Sunday.

Here is a picture of Greg riding on the single track near the Sandpan.

Family ride Suikerbosrand 31-12-09

Lion's family are venturing out on their bikes nowdays, here are some photo's of the Lioness and the cubs at Suikerbosrand. It was a hot day and after a ride for 45min we had a picnic under a tree.  Ratty made a cool seat so the yougest can ride with dad.