The Big 5 Adventure Bike Ride

Yeeeeeha

2007-12-04T07:24:00.000-08:00

Not been on the keyboard for a quite some time. So what is new. Quite a lot actually. Finally managed to extract myself form my company and is slowly throttling the bastard to death. It is amazing how much time it takes to end something. Beware all of you out there who thinks that it is easy to end the life of a company. They suck it all out of you.Created the perfect complimentary partner for Steelmustang.com ( you will have to wait for it) and I am now in the process of exciting the necessary funding for it- 5 million should do it ( i kid you not). Went out and bought myself a shirt today because I am getting married on the 15th of Dec. I know she is going to look gorgeous so I though I could at least LOOK like someone that should be with her. Keeping this short I am working on the business plan
- Abundance is the law of the Universe,tap into it!) - My mantra

Nirvana

2007-11-13T22:01:00.000-08:00

It's Wednesday.Yeah,yeah I know, nothing to write about, nothing new. Here is the thing.It's Wednesday, I am still stuck in Monday. The reason for that being the fact that I am still doing things that was meant for Monday which means that I am waaaaaay behind in the having time account.The point is.
When you ride-long distance, and especially if you ride without a comms system, you will find yourself in a place where time actually start behaving at the allotted rate of seconds we are accustomed to. 10 minutes feels like 10 minutes and not like 2 seconds.Riding allows you that time to stop focusing on all the crap that means nothing.I think the big thing we travel bikers struggle to explain to non travel bikers is just that. That there is a time where you have nothing else to do but to get to the next destination. This allows for you to actually enjoy the journey. The feel of air against your skin, feeling the temperature drop when you go through a dip(specially mornings). The smells as you drive past a farm (cow dung can smell nice) The little dung beetle on the side of the road with his load ( heheheh..that just came to me).Birds.trees.Karoo bossie smells.Your breathing. The sound of your boney(bike for those not in the know.Smell of hot tar, smell of that same road after a thunderstorm.Man, I can go on and on.So .....after all that prose.Nirvana is being on the road.Safe in the knowing that there is nothing else for you to do at that particular time.
Update: I have the buy-in from all the Xtreme companies. We have a rental bike supplier. We have a plan for the first recce 2 January. Now we need the people to know.
Mustang Sally!

How to ride sand

2007-11-11T08:33:00.000-08:00

So my mate George and I went riding in the dunes today.I hope he will send me the pictures.The BMW GS 1200 Adventure is far more intimidating looking that what it really is. In real life(like my boy always say) this bike is surprisingly easy to take into the dunes. The secret to sand riding is...momentum,momentum,momentum.Kick the baby into second,pop the clutch,stand up and give it gas. Stay off the clutch or you will definitely get a very definitive clutch burning smell.That is it. Look where you want to go and NOT where you do not want to go. Kinda like life. If you focus on what you want you will get there. Keep your eyes on the place you do not want to end up and guess what. You find yourself stuck!
Anyway, the great news is that my friend George proclaimed him being very keen on joining me for the maiden run of the BIG FIVE.That should proof to be a whole bunch of fun...

Hanging on the cable!

2007-11-10T09:22:00.000-08:00

I AM STOKED!! Google has made it so easy to create a website anyone can do it. Go check this out http://www.steelmustang.com/ . How cool is that? OK Ok I know it still needs a LOT of work but dammit! this is like hitting sand for the first time and making it through. I will never forget the following . In 1995 me and a couple of mates did our very first tour through Southern Africa. The BMW F650 (Funduro) was brand new on the market so we decided to take the babies for a 10 000km trip doing Nam, Botswana, Zim(could still find petrol) Eastern Transvaal an Mozambique.Lord I have a bag full of goodies to tell...anyway I wander..Being new in the game of riding bikes and specially riding offroad we got some advice from "MIKE THE MANIAC" the then owner of the BMW Bike shop in Windhoek. He said that all you have to do when you hit the sand was to " HAng aan die kabel!" Loosely translated it means "Hang on the cable". Keep the throttle wide open. Doing some very interesting stages between Grootfonein and Tsumkwe one stumbled upon long stretches of sand and then:"we hanged on the cable!" One of my good friends-Langes-(Six foot seven, I kid you not,made a 650 look like a delivery bike)made the following comment. " Shazzie(story for another day)this hanging on the cable is fine,but what when the cable runs out and the sand not."

Anyway, I need to go hang on the cable.

Baviaanskloof!

2007-11-10T00:00:00.000-08:00

Brother!!! If you like motorcycles and dirt roads "float your boat" you wil love this!!! Jeez I just read the most awesome description of this part of the trip.I can feel the back of my teeth itching( generally a sign to myself from myself that I will like this. Here is the link http://www.flamesonmytank.co.za/TourReports/Baviaans1.htm

The trip takes shape

2007-11-09T22:47:00.000-08:00

There is nothing as exciting as a map. Endless possibilities and miles of beckoning road.Man! this is dream heaven! Stunningly exciting words like Elim, Baviaanskloof Wilderness Area,Bloukrans, Sutherland....just waiting to be picked.Reminds me of picking a team when we were kids.All the expectant faces looking at the Captain of the day....pick me! pick me!

Well, the trip looks like the following.....more or less. 14 Days of adrenalin.

Day 1- Cape Town to Gansbaai...White Shark Cage diving..( Come on! If you do not feel a slight tightening in your nether region you have not thought this through yet. 2-14m HUGE MOTHER MONSTERS WITH TEETH SWIMMING INCHES FROM YOU). Good. Now you have it

Day2 Ride to Malgas

Day 3 Malgas via Garden route to Bloukrans bridge

Day4. BUNGEE! Let me tell you something. There is a far greater fear content in jumping off a bridge compared to jumping out of a plane. I think it is because you KNOW how high it is. When you are in a plane the distance is slightly detached. Kinda surreal. OK . This is the highest commercial jump in the world. It is awesome. You always scream on the way down. You always whoop with joy once you do the second and third bounce.After bungee we drive to Patensie. Rolls of the tongue...that one

Day5 Baviaanskloof Wilderness Area. This is a winding track that cross about 7 rivers . I have to do a bit more research on how long this will take.

My mate Nathan just phoned. He wants us to go and do some enduro riding now. We are lucky enough to stay in an area that offers some interesting sandy tracks for playing. Maybe later in the week.

Anyway...let me get on the web and Google a bit...

O yeas. Day 5 -14 will include underground cave hiking. Tandem parachute and the highest commercial abseil.This all within some more fantastic off road riding.

The Start

2007-11-09T00:12:00.000-08:00

I am an adventure junkie. Wow, looking at those few words sure gives me a tinkling down my spine cause such vivid memories of fallinf, speed, chases, near misses and just the thrill of my heart in my throat juggles for space in my memory.I am not a writer and therefore excuse myself from the rules of spelling and syntax and whatever else I am suppose to be doing not do have had to do and so forth and so on. What I want to do is chronicle my epic journey in building a Google assisted website and launching my Ultimate adventure motorcycle trips...so today i signed up and became a blogger as well as a web page member. I am planning to project manage adventure biking tours in South Africa ( the land of open spaces and wild animals. gorgeous people and 9 official languages) oh...and Nelson Mandela. The trips will all have some awesome riding as well as.....wait..wait some extreme adventure sports thrown in. The ultimate one

THE BIG 5 . .....More later