Tuesday, 31 March 2015

Stormberg to Romansfontein.

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Although the wind was strong and icy we were counting on it pushing us toward Romansfontein. Exiting the blockhouse we would for the first t...

Cold, dark, wet and windy.

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Over the years Brosterlea has come to represent an oasis, a happy place in a challenging section of the race. I sort refuge from a snowstorm...
Monday, 30 March 2015

Headlong into the storm.

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When we arrived at Kranskop at 9pm stars sparkled in the moonless sky. When we came out an hour later with Casper having added sealant to hi...
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Easy night riding.

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Out of Moordenaarspoort we had a gentle breeze that while neither hindering nor helping our headway had a pleasant cooling effect that allow...

Hunting trip out of Moordenaarspoort.

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Since leaving The Bonthoek farmhouse Casper had been having problems with his back wheel. He would stop every so often and pump it up. Just ...
Saturday, 28 March 2015

Slaapkranz to Moordenaarspoort

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The trip from Slaapkranz to the Moordenaarspoort emergency support station is only 57 km's but straight out the door you have to take on...
Friday, 27 March 2015

On to Slaapkrans

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It had taken us   4h15   to get to Chesney Wold. Refreshed with tea and a selection of fine nibbles we were back on the road 11 minutes late...

Rhodes to Chesney Wold

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Leaving The Rubicon it was apparent that the three big guns were intent on getting on with the show. As we rounded the first turn down the d...

Race start

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Race to Cradock As I sit at my desk back in my Johannesburg office I am not sure how to blog the 63 hour adventure I shared with Casper Vent...
Saturday, 21 March 2015

Arrived at the start

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In Rhodes. As I lie here up to my neck   in a bath of hot water I can hear the steady rhythm of rain on the roof.  I departed Johannesburg e...
Friday, 20 March 2015

Almost ready for Race to Cradock

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Friday morning. Tomorrow I load my bike into the car and drive down to the sleepy hamlet of Rhodes in the Eastern Cape. From there I will jo...
Sunday, 23 November 2014

So hard to start a new chapter

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The novel wordometer clicks over slowly. I am now just a few keystrokes shy of 36k.  Every thousand words or so I start a new scene (a chapt...
Thursday, 6 November 2014

Riding Through Sand

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Writing a novel is a bit like riding a mountain bike through sand. Not the small patches, but rather the long and unavoidable stretches you ...

Writing is easy.

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"There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed." Ernest Hemingway Oh the imagery that quote evokes...
Monday, 3 November 2014

NaNoWriMo Day 3 Update

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Day 3 of NaNoWriMo finds my main character (MC) in the company of his annoying albeit faithful friend. A rising desperation to locate a char...
Friday, 31 October 2014

Show don't tell

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Apparently I am the last wannabe writer on the planet to hear about the maxim "show don't tell".  It's a real gem. Without...
Thursday, 30 October 2014

Creating a main Character

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Two more big sleeps before the word nerds (yup, that includes me) start banging away on their keyboards in the quest to drop 50000 words on ...
Wednesday, 29 October 2014

Write what you know

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As I contemplate and plan my first novel I have found the process thoroughly absorbing. While a novel is the goal, I am currently more intri...
Tuesday, 28 October 2014

Strawberry Jam and Novel Writing

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Fiona Coward put a post on our Weekend Rides Whatsapp Group a month ago asking if anyone had any spare lever-lock keys. I had a whole bunch ...
Tuesday, 14 October 2014

Munga race postponed until Dec 2015

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Press release this morning saying that owing to the key sponsor pulling out the inaugural running of The Munga will be postponed for a year....
Sunday, 12 October 2014

Preparation/Trepidation

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My race partner Sean Badenhorst used the word combination preparation/trepidation to describe his activities and mindset leading up to The M...
Friday, 10 October 2014

Slow progress

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This past weekend I rode the 3 day Mankele 3 Towers Race with Gavin George. Firstly let me say what an amazing race. It's tough with 2 s...
Sunday, 21 September 2014

Water affairs

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I have started weighing myself before and after my hour long lunch rides to get a sense of how much weigh I lose through sweat and respirati...

Training observations

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In the last 8 days I have cycled 430 Km's on my MTB over 7 rides. That's 23 hours of riding. On the face of it it's a reasonable...
Saturday, 6 September 2014

Let The Munga show begin.

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The Munga, a non-stop race from Bloemfontein to Stellenbosch approx 1000km, through the Karoo mid summer. Teams of 2. Daily cut offs and US$...
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Wednesday, 18 June 2014

Prequel to "The Mountain Roared"

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The last 20 hours of the race for me were rather dramatic but it occurred to me that the first part of the race never got a mention so here ...