Outside the Box: July 2008

It’s funny…I waited so long to get my boxes from Canada yet 5 months later I still have some that aren’t unpacked. I did however rip apart my bike boxes the first chance I got to head out for a ride!! I have to say that the mountain biking in this country is much like the rock climbing: stunning, challenging, amazing, and definitely breathtaking (literally)!! Beth, Derek – this one is for you guys!! Thanks for the find - I LOVE MY MTB!!

I have my road bike out here as well, but it’s a bit more daunting to go for a road ride. I thought the drivers in Toronto were a bit crazy compared to where I grew up in Alberta, but crazy is a very understated word to describe many drivers here in sunny South Africa. You see, here, the shoulder is a very important lane – it’s actually one of the main driving lanes in many areas and the main lane is actually the overtaking lane. Not much hope for road bikers unless you (1) you have a serious set of balls or (2) you get up in the wee hours. So far I am still ball-less and the morning thing is still not my thing. They actually open up of the formula 1 race tracks for riders in the morning, but that falls under (2) and although some of you back home may laugh, it is winter here and with it comes an entirely new level of morning cold. I’ll make it out one of these days though and until then, there’s always the mountain bike.

I haven’t been riding as much as I would like to be, but I think I have managed to get all the Canadian goose poop out of the tire treads as they are now surely filled with South African Zebra poop. It’s amazing biking out here. You actually ride through nature reserves and sometimes have to stop to let the pack of wildebeest or zebra pass by, AND heaven forbid you cross a giraffe half-way through your single track section, but I can tell you first hand – WOW!! Below is a picture of my friend Jen (also an expat from Canada) and I admiring some zebras in the background… tough to see, but they’re there. It was taken on Mother’s day where I think I managed to get rid of the last of the goose poop from the tire treads.

Mountain bike racing has a massive following out here. In the winter there is a race pretty much every weekend including a regular schedule of hectic 3 day races and partner races where you can never be more than 1-2 minutes from each other. I’m sure I’ll get to those one of these days, but having spent enough time out of the gym and in the work, I like to stick to the less daunting 15-20km races, unless I get lost on the course of course…

Now, one would think that the average person should be able to manage a marked 20km course without getting lost, but apparently my friend Jen and I are not so average – sorry Jen – had to take you down with me!!

Usually the races are split into events on the day. There will be a short ride for the likes of me called the amateurs and kids group (you can decide which of the two categories I actually fall under if not both), a medium ride for those a bit more hardcore, and then what I like to call the insane category. On this one particular day the insane category was a 75km ride that included a “hill”, if you will, that they term the Magaliesberg Monster.

If you’ve read the previous posting “Climbing the Cliffs of SA” you’ll see more of the terrain of the Magaliesberg as we often go climbing there. I’ll be sure to take more pictures of the Magaliesberg landscape for future postings to give you an idea. It is by far one of the most amazing areas in SA.

Anyway, back to the monster. So Jen and I are on our merry way when we come across the following sign:

I suppose if you look at the sign in the picture it would seem that perhaps you should go to the left. However, as an amateur rider riding along merrily, at the time we passed the sign, the larger path to the right was the obvious choice. Little did we know that that was the path up the “Monster”.

I have to side track for a minute now…you see, people always ask me if SA is safe and if I’ve had any “experiences” where I’ve been close to death or witnessed anything extreme and I must say that although SA has it’s problems all my near death experiences have been self-induced. You’ll read about the near death experiences by hypothermia and jumping off bridges in the next few postings, but this one is all about cardiac arrest.

So about 3km up the “Monster” I stopped for the third time I think it was, got off my bike, turned around to look at Jen, trying not to pass out, and said “are you f***ing kidding me?” (a phrase you will soon see I use a lot here in sunny South Africa) She was feeling a bit like me at that time and replied, “I don’t know man”. I gotta say, I know I’m out of shape, but holy shit, AND Jen is in pretty decent shape so we figured that perhaps we were on the wrong path. Aside from pending cardiac arrest, we hadn’t seen anyone in ages except for one other guy who also seemed to be lost. It was a tough call after doing what we had just done, but all I could think about was another 40km of that as it just kept going up. So we turned around and headed back down, which was a chore in itself. I suppose I can, at the very least, now say that I know what a technical ride entails. We headed back to the sign and veered to the left this time thinking that we had smooth sailing from here on out. Silly us…

Now back on the right track, well behind everyone else, we decided to book it a bit to see if we couldn’t salvage some of the race when much to our surprise part of the course that was used to get to the half way point was also used for the return trip AND a majority of the riders happened to be on that same section as Jen and I. The only difference is that they were coming in the opposite direction. For some reason, Jen and I decided to keep trekking ahead and were determined to finish this race. I have to say that choosing to ride a 2 km long single track section with riders coming head on isn’t one of the smarter moves I’ve made in life. There was one point where the path opened up and I thought that our luck was turning, when wouldn’t you know it? The riders coming head on decided to “take the jump” as I was just about to head over it. Needless to say I swerved to the left to avoid being landed on by a MTB.

Now this daring swerve to the left conveniently landed me in a pile of barbed wire, which, to make a long story short, landed me a flat tire 2km down the path with no spares and no equipment to fix it, which landed Jen and I to walk about 2km more to the turn around point where they also had nothing to fix the flat, which landed us with a truck ride back to the start of the race where we arrived at the same time as those who rode the 40km race. Oh yeah, and by same time, I mean after.

End of Story…

So it turns out the last blogging day was also a short one. Hopefully today will be better. It's hard to go back and post about what's happened when so much is still on the go and happening. The last month has been mostly work, but still an amazing adventure.

Again, I'm not sure where to start so I suppose I'll just start rambling and see where it takes me. If you've ever received an email from me you'll quickly realize that rambling is what I do best. There won't be too much thought provoking reading going on, but hopefully once I catch up with what I've done and where I've been I can get into the details of what South Africa is all about (through my eyes at least) because it really is something to tell.

South Africa is stunning to say the least and I know that my pictures won't do it justice, but one has to try. I suppose pictures are next best to the real thing!! These first few pictures are for all those climbers back home. This is my attempt to try and entice you to come out for a visit - Glen? Denise? Don't think I have forgotten!!

I have also decided that I am going to try and dedicate as many of my postings to the people who mean so much to me - family, friends, those strangers that you meet that touch your life in ways you never knew existed. So, on that note, Glen, Denise - this one is for you guys!! I’ve included two spots where I’ve been climbing so there’s one in there for each of you, both from the Magaliesberg area. Thanks for getting me back onto the real stuff before I left Canada!!

All I really have to say is that the rock out here is absolutely amazing. Climbing out here is so much the same yet so different to back home. The hikes out to the rock, being on the rock, and the best part of course - never forgetting to look back and see where it is you are on this planet. The feel is similar to back home, but different and the views similar in that they are breathtaking, but again different in that it's like nothing I've ever seem before. Ok - rambling - let's have the pictures do some talking.