Day 4

Day 4

It was a peaceful night at Spogplaas for some. Unfortunately for Jaco he shared a room with Andy and at 05H30 Andy’s alarm went off because he had been to dof to realize that he was on leave for the week. By the time he had silenced it Jaco was threatening him with grievous bodily harm for disturbing his dreams and Andy was lucky to escape alive.

Because it was a short 90kays to Sendelingsdrif there was no hurry and a number of punctured tubes were repaired, bikes were checked and chains adjusted, and tents given a chance to dry. It also gave us a chance to wander around and look at all the home made statues made from an assortment of discarded items, pick pick-up trucks, and old washing machines strategically placed in the rock garden.

Grant said he was not too dirty so he decided to take half a bath! (To go with his half working bike!)

GRANT TAKING HALF A BATH

I also discovered that most of my patches were useless because I had just packed them together in a pouch of my tool-kit, and all the silver backing was worn off. Lesson learnt – pack the patches with some tissue paper between them!

Just after leaving Spogplaas we stopped at what used to be one of the best campsites in the area the Beauvallon Camp Site that used to belong to the mines. Apparently it was part of a land claim and is not a desolate patch of sand with most of the facilities falling to pieces or knocked down. Land redistribution just does not work!!!

ONE RUINED CAMP SITE

The road running next to the river was open in some areas it was amazing to see how high the river gets during floods.

NOW WHERE DID I PARK MY CAR??

I had often read about the “Wondergat” that appeared in a few places on the maps so a few of us took a detour to see one. The only thing I can say is I “wonder” why so much fuss is made of a “gat” in the ground. It looked like a big rat hole with a sign next to it. No actually it was interesting to read about it and to think about the explorers who had wandered through and climbed into these caves.

THE STORY OF A WONDERGAT

ENTERING THE PARK

Along the road there were a number of small mining operations and I wondered how I would cope being in this isolated environment day after day, although I think I would enjoy it for a while.

BETWEEN SOMEWHERE AND NOWHERE

The Sendelingsdrif camp site was fairly basic but we were surprised that there was not a single blade of grass to be seen. We thought that being close to the river there would be ample water to use for irrigation but the parks people obviously felt differently. Still it was level and there was some shade so we got our tents set up. There was also plenty of hot water for showers and I decided to treat my buddies by washing my stinky T-shirts.

KENS TENT AND WASHING

When checking in at the office we were told that we were not allowed to ride bikes in the park. Despite much discussion we were told that only the head ranger could change the decision, and we would have to wait for him to come back to the office. We wandered away and tried to rationalize why they would let us in and now tell us we could not ride there, and what they would do if we just set off the next morning along our planned route. Eventually we decided to let Jaco and Ant do the talking when the head ranger arrived, and set up a tea-party to impress him with out hospitality and to impress him with what nice guys we are.

We did not have to worry. Mr. Nic de Goede was very reasonable and explained that he was concerned as the track next to the river was very fine deep dust (like fesh-fesh) for long sections and the bikes would battle to get through. We therefore decided to shorten our route which in hindsight was a very good decision.

I decided that Grant’s bike had been stuffing around for long enough as it was now very difficult for him to ride, so stripped the carb off again. I was surprised to see more bits in the bowl but again the jets were all clear. The gauze filter for the needle and seat was also blocked with what looked like bits of silicon, so we also took the tap off the recently fitted long-range tank. Aha! The tap had been sealed with a silicon sealer which was breaking off at the edges, so was cleaned and reassembled with just the gasket. The inside of the tap was also cleaned out and I was now convinced that the bike would run OK.

Curses! After putting everything back together it still would not idle below 2400 rpm and desperation fault finding set in by taking the carb off the other DRZ and fitting it. But still not idling and with the sudden cut out at 2400 rpm our thoughts turned to electrical. We swopped the CDI – no success. We swopped the coil – no success. We were going to swop the stator coils but decided against it and that Grant would just have to ride fast without slowing down. Somewhere along the line we even checked the valve clearance which was OK.

But there was no peace for the wicked, and after a long afternoon playing mechanic I had to play apprentice chef again. I am sure they did it to keep me out of mischief. That night I had nightmares where I kept looking through a main jet and the devil was looking through the other way laughing at me.

Next day: The passes to Eksteenfontein.