Dual bike Adventures is the outfit run by Rika de Bruyn and Mark Taylor. To date they have run 20 DBA events. The last time we went along was to the CDBA which was hosted in the Cape. This one was a bit different. Living, as we do under a rock, our lot failed to realize that this ride was upon us… The day before the ride, we woke up, paid and loaded up our trusty Husqvarna Terra to join the fun.
Lesson 1: Don’t assume. Read the brief.
Lesson 2: Road tyres are a bad idea.
Lesson 3: It is 2024 –LEARN TO READ A GPS Or, don’t follow the FAST team.
Eswatini is such a lekker place. The people are friendly, the borders are a pleasure, the roads are in great nick – heck even the cattle and goats seem to be more polite than the SA variety.
The DBA crowd descended on Piggs Peak. The hotel is still really cool, comfortable rooms, friendly staff and they serve some of the greatest meals you’ll ever have. There was a sea of adventure machines present for duty, from little KTM 390’s, to a Kove 450, a pair of GS900’s and some big Dawgs like the KTM 1290 and the GS1250. There were KTM’s of all varieties from the 690, to an older 640, a few 990’s, 1090’s and 1190’s. The newer 790’s and 890’s were the most popular on the ride. The Blu Cru from Linex were out in force on their T7’s and we even saw a Suzuki DL800 and two Italian bikes, a Husqvarna Terra and a Ducati Desert X in the mix.
Friday dawned bright and breezy, clutches out at 8h30 for a decent long ride. You have a choice of three routes, Green (Easy) Red (Not as easy) Black (Easiest of all, Ok maybe not). That’s when things started going a bit pear shaped. Choose black, because you are tuff and simply follow this little purple line on your Garmin while trying not to crash. Ok, millions can do it, let’s see… it all went quite swimmingly until we crossed the beautiful Maguga dam and proceeded to go past the turn. Then we found this other mob who appeared to be quite knowledgeable, so we tagged along. Turns out that they were the crowd from FAST KTM.
“Don’t do the route backwards” Route captain Mark Taylors words rang in the ears. Hey, these guys are on the purple line, what could possibly go wrong?
What a ride that was! Eswatini is beautiful… and then we hit these seemingly endless hard packed slopes covered in slippery sand and fine stones. Traction…. ZERO. We were all on smaller bikes which had me wondering how the big dawgs would do it… Man we scrummed. It’s great being in the media sometimes. You can get properly stuck and just pretend to be shooting photos or videos while you make your bike someone else’s problem… thanks chaps!
All the way we climbed up into the clouds… and then, we met Mr Taylor on top. “Well done guys, but I need to tell you that you’ve just done Black, backwards.” OK. That explained a lot, we were meant to go down all of that. Ah well… All was well, we turned around, headed back to much laughter and joshing that evening. Fines were awarded, blame was apportioned, but all in good spirit. It had been a brilliant day of camaraderie and adventure.
Day two dawned. Saturday.
Right, THIS TIME, we’ll get this right!
Mid pack, follow the purple again, all good. What a day! Shorter distance, but maybe even trickier than Saturday’s route. Lots of sand, riverbeds, Dongas, steep climbs. Watching some of the exceptionally talented riders on their big ADV bikes, I was very grateful to be on a little 650 thumper. River crossings with steep muddy climbs where everyone stopped to shout advice and get photo’s of the often inevitable tumbles. Big smiles all around as everyone climbs in to help.
Lunch was under a huge shady tree on the banks of the Nkamanzi River. Happy faces all sprawling in the shade watching the fun as the riders hit the water to follow the river.
Act all main like, “Hey we’ve done this thousands of times” until… a big hole under the water in the river swallows the poor little Terra… Sheet. My posse is now ahead, no riders in sight. A pair of Swazi guys wander across. “Hello Sir. You are number four to do this. You need to look properly!” Man it was funny! The guys helped to muscle the bike out, posed for photos, took photos and sent me on my merry way with some words of wisdom. “Sir, you need to be alert and look nicely.”
At another spot, a Goggo is perched quite comfortably at the top of a climb watching the shenanigans. When domeone got it right, you’d hear her say – “That was very good!” When domeone did not however, she’d mutter, “Well you effed that one up!”
Man, Africa is a special place.
And so the day continued. We watched as man and machine took on seemingly insurmountable obstacles. We were not the only ones with GPS challenges, we saw a T7 take a wrong turn, down a steep mountain and into a great big ditch. Extricating him was fun. No injury, but it was pretty exhausting as the African sunshine started to take its toll. We hook up with a rider who has lost his riding buddy. Red route for me, the shadows are getting longer… He’s running low on fuel ( er… Briefing said to fill up… fine tonight for sure!) No worries, we find fuel and ice cold Coke at one of the little spaza shops. Amazingly, even out here, fuel costs less than in JHB. Someone will need to explain it all some time. We take off again.
You’ll find fuel and ice cold refreshments in the little shops dotted all across Eswatini.
My companion turns left. My purple line shows straight. UMMM, can’t leave a riding buddy all alone. Follow him deep into a valley all good. Then we start to climb. Tough, but brilliant. Lots of stops to check the best lines. Glad to have someone along just to help with the scrumming. We get to the top just for a little break and we hear another group of bikes coming up. Carnage as one of the guys slips and his fuel pipe comes adrift.
It’s getting on a bit in the afternoon, there are lots of hands, we leave some tools and things and make the decision to get going. It was a good call. We climbed for days, then, back down, across a stream where another rider has fallen and is simply too exhausted to pick his bike up. My riding buddy picks him up, he tries to climb out, falls over again. Everyones pretty knackered by now. His mates arrive and climb in, we push on into the dusk. The sun sets quite quickly as we wind our way along, headlight cutting a swathe into the Eswatini darkness. Only 20 KM’s to go. Rocky single spoor, thick bush tunnels, a suspended bridge, steep climb, winding forest roads… and then we hit the tar. A welcome sight after a tough day out.
There’s nothing more satisfying than arriving at your destination after a tough day out. Friendly faces, an ice cold Sibebe to wash down the dust. Just magic.That evening’s dinner was full of laughter and bench racing. Every story got taller in the re-telling. No injuries. Lots of adventure.
That’s what riding is all about…
Some wise words about getting older by DBA “old” friend, Mark Ongers:
Old age is a given and as everyone here will get to where we are I felt it was encumbant of me to help you prepare for the inevitable by giving you an insight into what it takes to still be riding LDBA events at my current age of 66.
We all know what to pack for our rides but packing for an DBA event for those of us in our twilight years is far different from our younger fellow entrants and if we are lucky our wives play a big part in ensuring that at least our medical needs are looked after.
Two days before my departure my wife gleefully heads off to Dischem where she purchase a long plastic box separated into the day’s of the week which she fills with the multitude of tablets I have to take…in my case, I have one to regulate my blood pressure, one to control cholesterol, one to deal with my gout and a blood thinner to ensure I don’t have a stroke when a girl on a Gs1250 rides past me because I’ve crashed attempting to ride up the same hill she doesn’t seem to have noticed. All these tablets apparently give me all the nutrition of a hearty breakfast and a false sense of belief that from a medical point of view I should be good for the days ride.
Deep Heat, Cataflam, Myprodol and other painkillers make up a large portion of our toiletries and Steredent to soak dentures is also a consideration by some of us and on this note, Canzius and Mike, we would appreciate a Bikers Pension rate for all dental work going forward please.
Bikes of all shapes and sizes. An immaculate KTM 640 and a Suzuki DL800 were both on black routes…
As we all know, sleep is an important part of the preparation for the ride and whilst I can’t speak for my other golden oldies, I must say that I definately get a good, full and uninterrupted nights sleep since I discovered the joy of wearing an adult nappy whilst on these trips. I’ve also found that apart from the Xtra padding they provide on the ride, I’m getting to the lunch stops around 25 minutes quicker now that I don’t have to stop for a pee break every 16.5 minutes.
Lastly one of the curses that nature brings us as we age are those delightful little things called haemorrhoids or as I like to call them “the grapes of wrath” which if they decide to appear during the DBA event, adds a brand new meaning to the term”The Red Route”
Taking all that into consideration, I’m sure my fellow golden oldies would agree that as long as we can swing our arthritic bodies over our bikes we will continue to ride these amazing events. The comradery and compassion for riders we haven’t even met, far outweighs our competitive nature as we ensure these fellow riders are helped at every opportunity so as to ensure we all finish and are kept safe.
Like all families we squabble and argue, mostly because we believe in our brand over theirs but I’m sure you will agree that when we stop to help a fallen rider, his wellbeing to us is paramount and the last thing we are interested in is the make of his bike…. having said that today we discovered that the Design team at BMW is headed up by a retired Uboat Commander as the one we were riding with did most of our river crossing today underwater rather than skimming over it like we saw some of the other bikes doing at lunch.
Our sport seems to have no age limit and I sincerely hope all of you get to ride as long as me and my fellow Golden oldies have and that one day you get the chance to ride at an event like this with your own children as there literally is nothing better..
Thank you for friendship, thank you for being there to help when I need it…
May you cheat the Devil and ride long into your twilight years!
Marc Ongers 66 years young.
Oh what fun we had! The video will be up shortly, keep an eye on the page…
