Eselfontein report.

I am a broken man. Well not broken, but definately hurting.

We've just returned from Eselfontein, a farm outside Ceres that has a longtime reputation under mountainbikers as a bit of a mecca. Well it is true.

I did about 8hrs of riding, covering 67km in two days and still I didnt ride every trail.

We were a group of 19 riders that made the eco hut camp our home. The eco huts are thatch and reed walled huts that are built using trees as corner poles. There is a huge communal braai and kitchen kuier area, and 2 bath rooms. For hot water there is a wood fired donkey.

We were the last too arrive so we quickly setup our tents and joined the others around the fire. It was a jol. Wine, beer, braaivleis and mountainbike stories were shared and set the tone for the weekend.

The routes at Eselfontein are mostly singletrack with only a few gravel road sections. The singletracks vary from technical and rocky to fast and flowy.

The saturday ride was quite an adventure. We got lost, I punctured twice, cramped and Clive bonked and I bonked. Freddie broke a spoke and Dick fell. Dick's fall was quite serious and we were scared that he was concussed. This was a turning point of the ride for me and a couple of us separated from the group and focussed on getting him home safely.

It was after this that i decided I have to come back to Eselfontein. I have to ride it when my bike that is hundreds and when I am prepared. I won't let the mountain hurt me like that again.

The ride ended up being about 48kms and 5h30 long. Dick was concussed and my legs were toast. Even with all the misfortune I had a great ride. A hot shower and a shovelfull of food and I felt like a new man again.

The other groups also had great rides, the girls had technical difficulties but still soldiered on for a second loop and also did a 5hr ride.

For supper Ulandi and Reenen made potjiekos and we helped ourself to some more of wine, braai and beer action. We swapped some war stories from our ride.

A couple of diehards went for a night ride, but the majority felt to spent for that and it turned into an early night compared to the previous night.

Sunday was real slow, but after a monster breakfast was built by John and his team we were all up for a ride again.

Some more epic singletrack followed albeit at a slower overall pace and with more stops. We managed to get lost again and had to bundu bash our way a bit to get home. Gabri put his derailleur through his spokes and we had to do a singlespeed conversion to get him home. We rode some more singletrack back to the dam at our camp. Everyone got into the dam in our cycling clothes. On this ride we did 18km in 30c heat so the dam was just what we needed.

We didnt really have any food left, so we broke up camp and headed to the Spur in Ceres.

Overall we had a couple of mechanicals, William, Nadia, Charl and myself punctured, Freddie broke a spoke, Hanri had gear issues, Marikes hub bearings gave up the ghost, Charl's shifter fell apart, JJ bent his derailleur hanger and Gabri and Clive ripped their derailleurs of. Notable falls were John down Shapiro's drop, and Dick getting concussed. Almost everyone had scratches and bruises.

All in all it was a great weekend, and I can't wait to gou back and do it all again. But only after my legs have recovered.

Happy trails
Phlippie