MTB Ghost Stories

Awe

A mate in my church, let's call him Bos, so that those who know him can know exactly who he is, posted this on thehub today. Now I didn’t change a thing (even the photo’s are his,) and this is all a true story. Read his story after my story.

To those who night ride regularly, I don’t know wether you’ve felt scared while riding before in a dark forest before. It has happened to me once and only once, on this old farm near Ceres called Eselfontein on a piece of trail called The Dark Forest (no jokes,) a piece of trail that I’m usually playing around on and love, except for that night. Whereas I usually ride in front, that night for the second run of the trail I rode behind Werner, now I’m not afraid of the dark, but that night I felt so freakin scared and aware of something in that trail that I hugged Werner’s wheel like a scared four year old hugs his mom in a shopping mall. I wanted out to get out of that forest. Fast .

We got out safely, and nothing jumped us or ate me, and i don’t know wether it was my imagination or a spirit or if it was a wild animal, but that night I prayed so fast that I must have sounded like a machine gun. And I haven’t ridden that section in the dark since. So with that in my memory I can really relate to Bos’s story

But ya, rather read Bos’s Knysna story below me, it is way more interesting, and the man know’s how to write a lekker story. And after reading Toorbos some people might agree that there are strange things in that forest.

Enjoy

-----Original Message-----
From:
Sent: 17 August 2012 04:11 PM
To:
Subject:

Your story reminded me of a ride I did with one of my school mates who now works at Ultimate cycling (morne) We started riding at 8pm.. and rode up the surrounding hills and out into the plantations..

We  got completely and utterly lost after 25 minutes of riding through dongas and shack singletrack..

So the suspence starts building as we ride through a quiet stinkwood plantation.. imagine rows of trees fading into the distance as you ride through a narrow avenue of jeeptrack between the trees. The jeeptrack is flooded 6 inches deep and the only sound you can hear is our wheels riding through the water and some branches cracking as the night time animals prowl around in the plantations around us..To make it worse, the jeeptrack is tightly lined with thorney berry bushes.. so much that one would be unable to get off that road if something came from the front.. which was very unlikely, but It had that Nightmare on Elm street feel...

Now put yourself in my shoes, As you were talking about the YETI and the Knysna Elephant.. Its scary out there.. Not so much the Yeti and the ellies but the people that live deep in that forest freaks me out most!

So the next thing we are going downhill.. the road gets narrower (by now gravel not wet jeeptrack) the bushes and plants on the side of the trail has overgrown the trail somewhat and I have to really concentrate not to get dropped by my mate (Im not even ashamed to say, I was soo scared and wanted my mommy haha)

Ok, So flying down this downhill ( I didnt even know we went up a hill ok) getting darker and deeper into this nightmare forrest and SUDDENLY..my nightmare comes allive.. In my peripheral view I notice something is running next to me in the forrest...no bull***t..middle of the blare witch forrest something is rinning next to me and this at 50km/h... think OH my FAAARK!!!!!

Now Im trying not to get dropped screaming down this overgrown twisty path/road so I can not really look around to see what it is but I can see bleddie well enough that these things are not only keeping up they are as tall as humans they are black and there are a few of them..Now my dear friend you have not understood the kind of trauma and plain bekakking myself and "not staying calm" I was going through.. these effing things were chasing us! keeping up, Because ones mind can not Identify or comprehend what this would be.. YETI see pictures below..

Now I know you are thinking this can not get worse.. wait for this..

As all of this is going through my very small feeling heart the unthinkable.. With a big skid and "OH FARK" 10m in front of me Morne comes to a stop but Im not focussing on Morne, Im focussing on what is standing 2.5m tall on 2 feet in front of him.. Holy crap this is it we are about to become the product of all our sins and going to pay for not believing in monsters.. This is reality and Its gone bad...

I'll give you time to read...

Images like the above drove fear into my mind that night.. but seriously, have you ever came across something that runs that fast through bush.. Is black (no not bushmen  ) lives deep in knysna forrest and then stands 2.5m tall on 2 legs?!

I was in disbelief I tell you..

So I had to dramatise that last bit but ones mind is incredibly fast and thoughts fly around in split seconds.. So the thing was a horse.. there was a pack of wild horses running next to us in the forest and then up ahead one of them lay dead, dont know why.. and the other horses standing around the dead horse obviously got the fright of their lives when we came flying down and locking our brakes which also masked the sound of the horses which might have given it away.. further Morne's lights only shone on the body of the horse and the head was kind of out of the beam shot..

You get the Idea, but It was by far the most scared I had ever been In my Life..

Edited by Bos, Today, 11:27.

Time for a change

After a pretty rough month I can finally write about what was going on in my life.

For the last month I have been looking for a new job. It was a myriad of reasons that helped me make the decision, but it had to be made.

I sent applications to a lot of places,everywhere from BAT to a motor parts company. 

My friend Heino told me to send my cv to his boss at WSquared cycling, and I duly did this.

Shortly afterwards Johann from WSquared replied saying he'd like to meet me when he get's back from Germany and will make contact with me. Great. In the meantime I went for more interviews, sent more applications and even progressed to a second round interview at a company that sells brakes and clutches for cars and trucks. I had a bit of interest shown in me by recruiters, but not a lot of fireworks. It was a nervous time. Faith building stuff.

So the day dawned for the interview with Johann. I was pretty nervous, but also had a church camp that I was organising with Alicia and another interview later that day on my mind. but in all honesty, the interview went pretty well. We talked about his plans for his business, the industry, where he saw me fit in with his business and what he needed. And we drank decent coffee. Bonus! I was really excited when I got to Alicia afterwards. 

Then it was church camp time. Epic weekend. In between amazing devotionals and a lot of good food we had time for a leisurely siesta in my hammock, watching the Stormers semi final heartbreak and even raided a neighbouring dorm room with crackers, pillows and some flour. At 2AM. good clean fun. All the while with thoughts in the back of my head that I wanted to work for WSquared cycling. 

But by sunday night I was paced. Tired to say the least. At one point in the evening church service I just told the Lord that I can't take the stress anymore. That He knew my heart, where I wanted to be and where He would have me in His calling and that I would submit and go wherever He wanted me to. And I left it there.

Directly after the service I got a sms from Johann saying that he is sending me an offer. Alicia and I freaked out. so we laughed, cried, prayed, phoned my parents and freaked out some more.

A bit later the offer came through. And it was the amount that I had in my head, and trusted the Lord for. I freaked out some more

The monday morning I accepted the offer. From 1 September I'll be a Business Developer at WSquared Cycling. WSquared imports BMC, Ellsworth, Catlike and Tune. 

So this has been a really blessed ending to a rough time. The Lord really pulled through, and I can't wait to embark on this journey.

In all this my parents and my girlfriend has been really amazing. Very supportive and I really want to honour them for that. Thanks guys. I love all of you.

Best of it all is not that I'll be working in the cycling industry, in a direction that really intrigues me. No, I'll swap that one time to ensure that my relationship with the Lord does not waver to below where it is at right now. You really grow faith when you trust the Lord for something crucial, and I had to walk on water a couple of times. But I am glad that I did.

See you on the trails everyone, my friend Werner just got himself a very pretty Ibis Mojo, the decent thing to do would be to join him for a ride.And who am I to disappoint a friend like him.

Peace love and understanding.

Philip