New Year's Day and a hook up with some of my River Friends

New Years Day 2011 Daniel is a bike addict – whether it’s road or mtb whether it’s race or chill as long as he can ride each day it seems he’s happy. So we made a plan to ride on New Years day .. in the end only Linda joined the two of us and we met at Mugg&Bean Paulshof.  Both Daniel and Gerhard had assured me that there were no technical bits on the route .. pfft – not for them maybe. There weren’t really, but as I’m a newbie, anything that’s not flat tar could be considered technical.  It was a lovely ride.  One of the most challenging things for me is to not look at the view as I ride.  Mountain biking requires you to look ahead at the path – and not just in front of my front wheel but 3m ahead (thanks for that Daniel).  There’d been some rain and there were muddy patches on the way.  But some sections it was like a river flowing on the track so we had to find alternative routes – twice going out on the tar. 

One of the highlights for me was seeing 2 of the Spruit Residents, as Daniel calls them, - the homeless guys who come to get food packs from me at work. I stopped and wished them a happy new year – they were a little bit surprised to see me.

The other highlight was the second skill I acquired today – riding off a pavement.  Daniel taught me how to do it and I practiced a few times.  How cool.  Feel like a real mountain biker now. LOL.  Something else I realized is how much leeway there is on a mountain bike – the tyres being wider and fatter means you’ve got a bit more ‘security’ underneath like when going around corners.  Also the bike really can do anything – as long as I keep pedaling, keep the momentum the bike can pretty much go over or through anything. 

We stopped at the new shopping center on Wiliam Nicol but only the PnP was open so we turned around and headed for the Woolies at Bryanston Shopping Centre as it has a coffee shop.  After filling up on caffeine and yummy toasted sarmies we headed back to Paulshof.   

What a fun day.  

Would loved to have spent more time on the trails and less on the road, but that couldn’t really be helped.  

PS - Daniel is apparently still in shock that I personally know the Spruit Residents.