Eselfontein - The Very First Official Team CounterBalance Training Ride

Wed

Jul

2010

Written by Johnny Cronje

The things we do. Is it really worth waking up at 5am to travel 2 hours to a farm to have a cycle? On a Saturday? One should always wait until after the 2nd cup of coffee before answering this type of question.

Eselfontein is a farm just out of ceres, and is rated as one of the best mountainbiking areas in the Country. Part of the ABSA Cape Epic snakes through her singletracks. We thought that this would be an appropriate place to have our first training ride in preparation for the end of year tour. Camelbaks were filled, lunch was made and uni’s were serviced the night before to allow for a 6am departure from Cape Town. Being Slaapstadions, we left somewhat later than 6:30 in the Oddwheel Van, excited to ride. A very scenic route over Bains Kloof took us to Eselfontein. Frost on the grass outside, with an ambient temperature of 1.5 degrees Celsius made us again question our decision to be there.

Eselfontain has several looping colourcoded routes. We did not have a map, so we decided to wing it. Not the best way to go about a training schedule, but the other option was to go home. Turns out we didn’t need a map after meeting up with Woahman and Boyhemeth. But I digress. So, off we went in the direction that we thought we should go. It was very cold in spite of a beautiful sunny morning. The snow on the surrounding mountains was making itself felt. We approached a guest cottage that the jeep track we were riding took us past. Anticipating reactions from people on the stoep drinking coffe and eating Ouma Rusks (Buttermilk), we prepared to dismount and talk. This is when we shat ourselves as Boyhemeth came to greet us.

Boyhemeth is the largest Great Dane I have ever seen. His sister/lover/daughter, Woahman, seem to be a cross between a Dane and a collie. She is a bit smaller, but still a large animal. Both of these guys, intimidating in size, became our friends for the next 4 hours. We don’t know their actual names (farm dogs don’t need collars), so we named them appropriately (If you pronounce BOYhemeth and WOah-MAN aloud, you’ll get the puns. You might not laugh though. That’s understandable).

Boyhemeth and Woahman became our, well, guide dogs. Really, they did. They were bowled over by the uniqueness of our vehicles and wanted to contribute in the best way they could. So they led us. I say again, we had no map, and there was very little in the way of route markings. Our new K9 friends bounded ahead of us, excited as a vuvuzelas in Soccer City, and showed us the singletracks. At times, the singletracks forked, and we just followed the dogs. At the end of one of the singletrack loops, we couldn’t find the next trail. Again the dogs led us to it, shooting ahead of us and coming back when they realised we were a bit slow.

Speaking of the singletrack, I think that I have found Heaven. This is certainly an instant favourite for big-wheel offroad unicycling. The tracks are mainly long and flowing, curvy but not sharp, with some technical challenges such as river crossings scattered around. The terrain takes us through forests of proteas, veld, grassland, thick green pastures, thick brown leaf-covered enclaves. Perhaps it is best to look at some of the photos. Perhaps it is actually best to join us on a 2-wheeled machine to experience one of the prettiest pats of our country that I have seen.

But a bit more about how the riders faired. Alan was riding strong. Technically sound, stable, and the fittest of the trio that day. Donna impressed herself by managing to stay ahead of the boys (who have more years and muscles unicycling compared to the lady) on several occasions. Fitness will come with time. The same can be said for Johnny (the fitness part, not the "impressing even herself" part). He was once again self-nominated as Mr Snap-Happy, and did well on a number of the more technical, trials like sections.

Enough talk. Here are some photos. You’ll notice that a pair of Staffies joined the trio of wheelers and the duo of enourmous-houndnessers along the way, making us undoubtedly an impressive site (3 big-wheeled unicyclists, 2 horse-sized canines and 2 hyperactive asthmatic sounding tail-waggers.

So enjoy the pics. Next time round we’ll have computers on the unis so we can send you some ride statistics (distances, averages etc.). I also think that these reports will be getting shorter as varsity pressure kicks in.

There are also plenty more photos, but we have tried to give you only the best. If you are looking for any shots in particular (more riding, more non-riding, more serious, more playful, more landscape etc), let us know.

Johnny