Swearworthy Cold

Magda - The 24hrs before D-day held no promises-it was icy cold and sleeting.

Golden Gate Highlands National Park

Jerome - Magda and I wanted an early start as we were only halfway to Underburg but the two Posers as they were now called, Paulo and Martin wanted to have a lazy start with a good breakfast before they head back to Johannesburg. This is where the Bar One story was born as I said to them that just a Bar One chocolate bar would suffice as breakfast.

Jerome - The cold was setting in fast and through the Golden Gate Highlands National Park we came across a horrific accident due to black ice that we decided to contact the Support Team and meet them rather at Harrismith. Read my account here on Black Ice and Death

Thinus and Martin loading Magda and my Vespas onto the support trailers in Harrismith as sleet begins to fall.

Marlene and Magda supervise the loading of our Vespas

Magda - That night we trudged from eatery to eatery in the rain in Underberg looking for a place willing to feed 18 souls. Once inside the “The Grind Cafe” with its pub “The Woolly Bugger”, things started looking up and with good food, attentive staff and a few drinks to warm the vital organs and keep the cold at bay we all enjoyed a lovely evening.

Charlie

Colette showing us how to make 12 cups of coffee out of 1 liter kettle water

Dudley

Gys

Magda

Marlene

Matthew

Petro and Angie

Thinus

Tiffany

Magda - Climbing into bed that night at the backpackers lodge the admonishing warnings of family and friends ---don’t do it---crazy---dangerous---ran in ever faster circles inside my head, biting each others’ tails like serpents rolling down a hill. I pulled my buff up against them and the smoke filled room, popped a sleeping tablet and bunked down uncertain as to what the day would bring.

What Happens in Clarens?

Jerome - What happens in Clarens stays in Clarens as Day 1 of The Great Sani Pass Adventure begins with a long ride down to Clarens. Magda and I decided to ride down to Sani Pass while the others would leave the next day with the support vehicles. The plan was that we would meet up along the way to Underburg somewhere either at Escort or somewhere there abouts. You can read my full account of the day here.

Jerome, Paulo, Magda, Martin

Jerome - It is after this first leg that the name Posers was born. Paulo and Martin decided to join us for the down leg to Underburg but that night in Clarens they changed their minds and decided to turn back earlier. Now I wonder if it was the cold or the lack of balls, uhmmm.

Paulo with a device to measure uhmmm... 

Magda - The big balls story actually started off in Clarens on the way to Sani, but Paulo, myself, Martin and Jerome made a pact that what happens in Clarens stays in Clarens. All I can say is that Jerome nearly ended up with Elsa, the owner of the pub in Clarens, Paulo was laughing so much he was continually crying with tears streaming down his face and Martin had us all in stitches again as soon as we recovered and caught breath again.

Iron Butt Award on a Vespa

Finally, we have further proof that nothing is too difficult or beyond the reach of the humble Vespa. The idea of the 'Iron Butt Award' is, in principal, to cover a distance of 1000miles (or 1600km for us 'metric' bunch) within a 24 hour period. If you work that out, taking into account roads conditions, traffic, fuel stops and the like, you have to maintain a steady rate of knots in order to achieve it. In fact, without any stops, which would be impossible, you would still need to maintain an average of 66.66km/h!

The issue of 'saddle burn' or the numbness in your lower extremities is another chapter all on its own! Luckily... a soothing product is apparently available in the US market.

I'm happy to relay to you that this has been done, several times, on a Vespa! Take this chap below, in the United States, for instance. He set out on his GT200 one cold morning at 3.24am and returned 18hours and 40 minutes later, having covered a total distance of 1031.4miles (or 1650.24km)!

We congratulate the tenacity and will power of these 'hard core' Vespistas that set out to continuously push the limits of common perception of the humble Vespa. Yeah!

(Posted by Paulo)