Sunday morning dawned, my head feeling a little sensitive from the previous night, as I may have consumed 1 G&T toooooo many.
Our old friend and guide Carl arrived at 07h00 on the dot, we were ready for this epic day, we knew it was going to be a big day, although I never did it last year, I had listened to the war stories from others. I had packed minimal food, as I knew we would be stopping at the Cheese and Biltong shop at the bottom of Van Reneens so I would buy as needed.
A quick photo shoot by the photographers and we began our epic journey, we wound our way past Montrose station and then into the farmers field following cattle track paths and climbing the odd fence here and there, glad I had practiced doing this at the DOC vaal rides.
We had a very tattered horse running next to us for a while before he lost interest and continued to graze. We passed the little church and then the Green Lantern, Carl taking the lead as he lead us through the village to the old pass the took you from JHB to Durbs and this is where all the kak started.
We were cruising at 35km/h when Rob and Quinton came to the front, the pace picked up and soon there were 7 off us wanabe Burry Standers. The track is slightly wider than a jeep track and a little ruttered in places but not that bad that we held back, the pace picked up to 50km/h plus until!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yes you guessed it, we entered a tunnel that was pitch black for a couple of seconds and Jock decided he would stop to turn his light on which he was having problems doing. Its kaked to get old Jock J until someone mentioned that he should take off his glasses and it was a miracle he could see again.
The group had split and the race snakes had got away, we did our best to reel them in but they were just too strong, eventually they had to stop as we needed to regroup as we were now scattered over a few kms. Everyone had a smile on his or her faces that would be difficult to wipe off and only a MTB knows that feeling.
Once the group had recovered, we moved on our merry way so I thought, the decent had just intensified with large bumps, jumps, and some of our younger and a few older but stupider members started doing tail whips and looking for airtime. Pushing the limits as the gravel was lose in places and I was a little cautious but sort of kept up trying not to get too much air as you had no option, eventually getting the hang of this I sort of joined in doing my tail whip 2 inches above the ground feeling like Nino. More smiles and more stories to be told back at camp later that night.
We eventually get to the Biltong shop and it was closed, we had been so fast that we were 2 hours earlyL; Wayne went to fill his bottle at the tap outside but that smelt like raw sewerageL L, so yes our plans had not worked out as planned………
The route back is 30kms, riding next to the N3 highway, 800m of climbing, 30+ degrees at 09h30 and 50km/h head winds; this was going to be character building uphill ride.
We agreed that we would stop at the Pyramid hotel, as we were sure that we could get something to drink and eat there, that was 12kms from where we were starting our climb.
The climb next to the N3 is majestic and the truckers would blow their horns, which gave us more motivation to conquer this climb, we had two very close encounters with duikers that just rocketed out the bush and disappeared further up the track.
We shared our water and drinks until we reached the Pyramid hotel, it looked closed, the gates looked locked but someone spotted and intercom and we pushed the buzzer hoping that someone would open for us.
The intercom was answered and the voice on the other side welcomed us in and opened the gate, we made our way up to reception where a very friendly barman with a glint in his eyes as he could see that these folks were going to pay big tips.
The water was ice cold the drinks were awesome and one very thirsty gentle man even consumed three beers while waiting for the rest of the crowd to arrive. We tipped generously and were grateful; I do not think he had ever entertained such a raucous crowd so early in the morning.
Taking our life into our own hands, as we needed to cross the N3, trucks come flying down, I’m sure they supposed to be restricted to some speed limit, oh well we used crossing the road from Rietvlei into the farm lands so this was actually a breeze. Talking of breezes……. the wind had had just moved up two notches.
Quinton had a sidewall cut and our infield mechanic Glen rushed to the rescue and eventually got Spiderman back on track, duct tape is an awesome invention and has so many uses J.
The next time you drive up Van Reneens just look up and see how far you actually climb, we eventually reached the top, passing through 2 cattle tunnels that pass under the N3 before arriving at the garage to refill bottles etc before completing our final 13kms. 30kms took 4h30min with 800m of ascent and 50km/h headwind, all I can say is that this bunch of Dilapidated Old Cronies are a special breed, an incredible journey with good friends.
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