Archive of BMW Motorrad Club Cape (2006 - 2019)

“You’ve already told me that,” my husband said.

 “!!!…!!…!!! ..!!”. “Yes, that as well.”

 “!!!!!..!!!!!..!!!!!..!!!!”  “That too.”

 I then poured myself a large Jamesons and went to soak in the bath, dreaming of flying over the sand dunes in the Dakar.

* * * * * ** * ** * *

Since I started riding about a year and a bit ago, I’ve skillfully managed to avoid meeting the Sand Monster. Sure, one does catch a glimpse here and there, but nothing serious.

Eventually the desire to be able to simply follow the nose of the bike wherever it is pointed (perhaps even to Jurg se Kaia?) overcame my distrust of the Sand Monster, and when Gav went off to do the GS800 workshop, I signed up for Rony’s ‘Intro to Sand’ course – and got three very different Sand Monsters for the price of one.

Saturday dawned bright and breezy, with the emphasis on breezy. As in ‘gale-force’ breezy. I got to Wellington with eyes a bit bigger than usual, having nearly been blown off the road a few times.

It was great to find two familiar faces when I arrived at the farm, having met Graham and David on a club outride. The other three (Rony only takes 6 per course, so as to ensure enough personal attention) did not turn up – the wind possibly playing a major role here. More lunch for us!

We sat down at the boma for out briefing. “The sand is looking fantastic,” Rony beamed.

David, Graham and I looked at one another somewhat perplexed – we would not necessarily put “sand” and “fantastic” in the same sentence, unless you were maybe talking about Clifton.

We then heard that the wind was so strong that it had completely flattened all previous tracks. We weren’t too sure if that was a good or a bad thing.

Rony started the course by asking us a bit about how much and what kind of riding we’d been doing. The next minute some papers went flying past.  “Hmm, there go the indemnity forms.” We solemnly raised our right hands and promised not to hold Rony responsible for any and all of the stupidities that we would commit that day.

We went through the theory of riding in sand, including the need to “make like a meerkat” and stand up; steering through weight distribution on your foot pegs; and so on. We agreed that ‘Centre of Gravity’ was a topic best left to rocket scientists and engineers, and discussed the balance point of a bike instead, especially the way it changes when you have a pillion onboard (as David would often have).

Soon it was time to go on a little outride to get comfortable on our bikes before meeting the Sand Monster.

“Ermm, there’s just one more thing I have to tell you,” Rony grinned just before we set off. “There’s another Monster on the farm.”

The Wind Monster? We’ve already met him.  “No, the Clover Monster.”

This was a new one. We then heard that there were two sections where this Clover Monster waited in its lair beneath the succulent grass, hiding in-between ruts and corrugations. Incidentally, Graham found the Monster, in both places.

The ride around the farm was great. I discovered that my bike is perfectly capable of riding over bushes after getting blown off the track; we saw some lovely game and even successfully negotiated some stony riverbed crossings.

River bed crossing: You know there's trouble ahead when people stop and get their cameras ready

Game drive

At this point I suggested that I should quit while ahead and go home, but Rony would have none of it. So tyre pressure was dropped to around 1.5 and we were taken to be introduced to Baby Sand Monster.

At first glance, Baby didn’t look that bad. Smooth, flat, virgin sand with a few tufts of grass on the side closest to us, which I thought would nicely aid traction if you could get onto it. I got a bit more concerned when we then walked the section and we discovered that Baby’s bottom was a different story (isn’t it usually?) with much softer, deeper sand and a gnarly bush just where you did not want one. Apparently the bush was recently modified by some riders a group or two earlier and was substantially less intrusive than it used to be – thanks guys!

Rony vroomed off to demonstrate what to do, and soon Baby was a virgin no more. He made it look so easy that I could not wait to get going.

Much to my complete astonishment, I loved Baby. Just when we thought we had it sussed, the cones came out.  

By now the sand was nicely churned up, and at first we ignored the cones, leaving the bikes to do pretty much what they wanted as long as we could get to the other side intact. But, after a while the confidence levels grew again, and we stopped riding over the cones and managed to make it around most of them.

Cones in the sand: (Baby Sand Monster)

Even I managed to stay upright: The play-date with Baby was getting to be fun

We were as chuffed with ourselves as innocent babes in the woods can only be.

Then the command came: Turn around.

We now rode the loop dropping off the track onto Baby’s bottom end, doing the soft stuff first and exiting through the harder section. This turned out to be even more fun!

Soon the energy levels started flagging, and we stopped for lunch. Due to the wind we could not braai at the boma, and went back to the farmer’s house to braai in a sheltered spot next to the dam.

Off we went to lunch...: David tackling the dry river crossing in style...

Lunch spot next to the dam, out of the wind

Daniel came to join us. “I nearly got blown off the road!” he exclaimed as he stopped. Yeah, I know just what you mean, Danny.

Rony and Daniel getting the braai ready

Lunch over; we went back to the sand, using a different route – mostly footpath and tweespoor through the veld and taking in another river crossing. At the river crossing, Graham went off the path by a mm or two – and the Clover Monster pounced.  In his defense, I have to say that he fought valiantly – if it was not for the few wheel-sized holes and ruts obscured by the long grass, he would have made it.

Back at the sand, we parked, and Rony took us to meet Mommy Sand Monster. There is no other description for it: Mommy was a b****.

En route to meet Mommy Sand Monster: (We got a bit nervous when we saw this)

Deep, soft sand; a corner or two in the really soft stuff; a little dune where you learnt that what went up came down again; a bush just in the wrong place, and a tricky exit onto a soft foot path. Fun… right. 

Nervously approaching the top of Mommy Sand Monster...

Made it!

Well, actually it was a lot of fun; some brief forays into the real estate game or not.

Ooops

If at first you don't succeed...

Yeee-haaa: I made that... and stayed upright!!!

But – just when we thought it was safe to relax again, we were introduced to Daddy Sand Monster. Well, let’s just say that we decided that a sharp U-turn in deep sand after having wrestled with Mommy was something best left for another day when the energy levels were higher.

Daniel made Daddy Sand Monster look easy...: Coming round the U-turn

Rony having fun...

Errnmmm

David had the courage to try...

But the Sand Monster said: No further!

Back at the boma, we received our ‘stiff cats’ and did a quick re-run of the theory of sand-riding and major learnings.

I was bubbling over with sheer delight at having conquered my initial fear of the Sand Monster. Perhaps what I enjoyed most was that I never really felt too far away from my comfort zone – the pace was perfect; the level of difficulty was increased as fast or as slowly as you wanted, and there was plenty of time to bed down a particular skill before moving onto the next one, returning to earlier skills every now and again to cement them.

We pumped the tyres (thanks for hauling a compressor along, Rony!) and bravely set off to tackle the Wind Monster which, if anything, had grown bigger during the day.

I got home, and Gavin wandered out of the house to meet me at the garage. I was already talking about all the fantastic things I had learnt and experienced, even before the side stand was down or the helmet off.

“!!!!!..!!!!!..!!!!!..!!!!”