Our European motorcycling cousins hardly ever have the opportunity to travel beyond the prescribed motorway, B-roads or Autobahns in search of a bit of excitement. This is precisely why South Africa is such a haven for touring motorcyclists. We have miles of fantastic scenery just waiting to be discovered and why Charley, (Long Way everywhere), Boorman is back in town again.
Charley is here with his mate and British comedian, Ross Noble. They are headlining a trip organized by Motoadventures motorbike touring company, and traveling with a group of adventurous motorcyclists on a 5000km journey from Cape Town to Victoria Falls via Namibia. A short way up, if you will, and I’m tagging along for the ride.
This intrepid group of adventure bikers has had some excellent off-road training in the UK from Simon Pavey. Simon prepared Charley for his Paris-Daker adventure in 2006 and runs a BMW off road skills training course in Wales. Feeling the celebrity pressure, I called Country Tracks off road riding academy the Western Cape and spoke to Leon Kroucamp. He in turn mobilised instructor Lourens van Rensburg to put me through my paces for couple of days. Just to blow the cobwebs out.
My first phone conversation with Lourens went something like this. ‘…Sure Rob, no problem, we can do a one-on-one this weekend. No alcohol for the next few days, drink loads of liquid to hydrate properly, get some anti-cramping tablets, oh…, and load up on icotonic energy drinks and energy bars’. Sounded fabulous!
I followed Lourens and photographer Corne van Aswegen to the training facility at Klibokop while mist swirled round the roadside and long before the watery sun crept over the horizon. It was six degrees and I thanked the nameless technician who developed heated grips, probably by accidentally twisting the wrong wires together and making his eyes water, never mind Hans, it was a worthy discovery.
Settling in to a quarried landscape in the mountains the instructions began with basic but nonetheless, important information on process and theory. This progressed as the temperature rose to balancing the bike by walking around it keeping it upright and in its ‘sweet spot’ with two fingers on the bike and finally doing this with eyes closed. It’s all about balance you see.
The instruction was full of good-natured banter, which did its job by putting me more at ease because, frankly I was just a little nervous. Bad habits are quickly recognized and brought to your attention while the correct procedure is gently reinforced.
Body position followed next by mounting up while the motorbike was on the centre stand. Here you learn just how far your body can actually move on the bike to maximize your control over the bike rather than its control over you.
Time to fire up the bikes and make some noise. ‘Follow me and do what I do’ chirped Lourens, as Corn grabbed his camera. We looped slowly over the uneven ground in a figure 8 standing on the foot pegs. First it was left hand raised while we looped the track, then it was left leg raised, followed by right. Ok so far, then Lourens looked back and grinned. He got up kicked a leg over and rode sidesaddle. Bugger. I certainly didn’t look graceful but somehow managed the exercise to whoops of ‘well done’ and a high five once I’d safely remounted. Inspiring stuff.
The whole idea is to build confidence, and so the day progressed with a variety of skills designed to put you under some pressure and out of your comfort zone. Whenever I wobbled and almost came a cropper, Lourens was there with, ‘That’s great Rob – this is when you are learning’.
Outrides followed most of the quarry-based skill sessions; both to give a breather and to test-drive the skills just learned. The day progressed until we were onto hill climbs and descents. Potentially this was one of the more dangerous exercises but once the basics have been mastered it was fun, even using the rear wheel as a ruder to steer the bike when braking downhill was cool.
‘Come, lets go to the other quarry’, Lourens shot at Corn,
‘Watter een’, said Corn
‘Die groot een’, said Laurens with a big grin
The ‘big quarry’ looked a bit like Mars. It was in this surreal environment that we played out the remainder of the day by belting up and down tracks that previously I would have only considered possible on a smaller bike – handled by someone else!
Riding back I must confess I was relieved it was over, but at the same time looking forward to the next session – postponed for now due to Lourens knee not playing along. Importantly though, I was now quietly confident that I’d hold my own with Mr Boorman and his entourage shortly. That’s the whole point of the course. It helps adjust your mindset and push boundaries. You get more from your riding and, literally, open up new roads.
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