---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Adri Van der Westhuyzen <[email protected]> Date: Fri, 26 Feb 2010 02:24:46 +0200 Subject: www.darkndirty.co.za >>> We like it fresh To: [email protected]
We either insist on the newspaper being delivered to our homes before we leave for work or we buy it on the way to work and scan through the headlines whilst in traffic. There is something about news, the latest news, smell of printer's ink, a have-to-have, an ASAP. It’s the same with fresh bread or donuts, we insist on it. No one likes old bread, no one buys old bread, no one pays for yesterday’s paper either. And the coffee has to be fresh too, and the 2 go together. Paper and coffee… and donut if you’re lucky. We want the latest stuff and we want it first thing in the morning… so we know what others are talking about or be the first to talk about it and send everyone else to scurrying to their computers for a News24 update. In the same way I trust last night’s race report is met by your fresh coffee. Both fresh, ready for you, first thing Friday morning. It didn’t rain in Joburg all week. Things were pretty dry and dusty everywhere. Come Wednesday morning, early clouds confused a few people’s dress code as the familiar scorching sun was with us by lunchtime again. Thursday morning the clouds were no longer threatening and the first drizzle started around 6am. The drizzle developed into a decent downpour by 10am and a steady drizzle contributed to a steady appetite for most of the day. Its good its raining now I thought, coz then the DarknDirty ride tonight will be fresh, dry, dust-free, dark and dirty. How we like it. A quick email to Donald on the other side of the boerewors-gordyn to confirm the weather and his reply: “blue skies” set an expectation for a good evening. Arriving early at the Moo-Mall, I paid a regular visit to Mugg & Bean, this time a chai latte to set the stomach for a good dose of Synap Forte to silence the 2-week old coccyx injury. I bought the new March issue of RIDE magazine and read the articles on pain killers & exercise and the one Milk. Read it, and you’ll understand that my milky-painkiller cocktail is a nice summary of what I fed my mind earlier in the day. Saw Donald and he was sipping on a drinking yoghurt… mmmilky again. Soon more bikes arrived and totaling 10 riders. Nico as trailmeister, Donald sweeper, myself, Oupa Gert, Mike, Chris, Brendan, Hennie & his 2 first-time-DnD-rider colleagues. Hardy paid a quick visit and also told us about the week’s scouting they did for the upcoming Tswane-AR race. We set off with the usual start through the veld, fresh bossies clearing the airways for most people. Left turn onto tar road and down the side of Cornwall Hill. Rain has sculpted some more interesting ruts and keeping left at the bottom we turn up to the tar road again. Here Donald hands out a banana to some guys stranded with their car on the side of the road, we remount Oupa Gert’s spotlight with cable ties and then head up to the shebeen for the first speed zone. At the top we turn right over the highway and further down left into some single track. The single track was mostly “half track” (a term I picked up from MTB glossary) meaning rather overgrown and therefore not really single track anymore. Braving a ghost ride on a familiar section I loose my shoe due to some grass stuck to the Velcro strap, and the very long grass made it almost impossible to make any calculated decisions. I remember only the shebeen-queen declared a speed zone, but if your trailmeister is often the queen himself, most parts of the evening was at an above-average pace. We soon covered a good distance and even got to name a section as “The Road Less Traveled” as 3 people were down, in a row because of respectable rocks hidden in the tall grass of the unfamiliar track. Not sure where this was, but remember Mike showing me Eric-se-klip just before that. Loose & find shoe again, a few more turns later and we’re at the bottom of the MineShaft going up….oe eina I was thinking. But to my surprise the mineshaft was no longer my enemy; we have befriended each other second time round. At the top we turn left to do the-ride-to-the-light in reverse which provided for a refreshing whiz to the bottom. In the last hundred meters our surroundings got ‘milky’ as mist have now moved into the valley. Left again into thicker mist that added another impressive dimension to the usual DnD ride. Sharp left again up past the chicken farm the thrill of the mist continues until we pop over the top down to the shebeen-queen again. Fly down, sho’t left onto the tar and up the side just after the stream, Oupa Gert’s bike is trying to beat something soon identified as about 2 meters of wire. Undoing the metal knot we head back up home. A quick confrontation with taller-than-the-trailmeister (TTTT) grass and we meet the last turn-off home. Thankyou’s to the Weather Man for perfect evening, Nico and Donald, the regulars, the newbies, Spur, fresh burgers, the mmmmilky magic sauce and Synap Forte (And a Thankyou billboard from SARS as I crossed the boerwors-gordyn to arrive home just before 12 with both shoes.) ------------------------------------ ********* "Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful." -Herman Cain ********* www.darkndirty.co.za To subscribe to this group, send a mail to: [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/advracegn/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/advracegn/join (Yahoo! 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