With the Plett Adventure Bike Week in full swing this past month and after riding Swartberg Pass the day before, a ride was planned to Angie’s G-Spot for breakfast, then to the R62, Montagu Pass and then back to Plett. So it was 5 bikes and one pillion that left for the day’s ride. With Anthony being new to gravel road riding, his fiancé, Elmari pillioned with Johan to gain gravel road pillion experience with someone used to pillioning on gravel roads. This also gave Anthony a chance to familiarise himself with his bikes behaviour on gravel roads without the additional complications of a pillion.
Arriving at Angie’s G-Spot and their “promise” to all customers – now that is real South African humour :)
This is a very scenic spot for a quiet relaxing stop
With breakfast done it was time to move on. As we left, members of the Africa Twin Club arrived and we said quick “hellos” and “goodbyes”.
There had been some rain earlier in the week and in some places there was a bit of mud. In one of these muddy spots, where some roadworks were taking place, and moving at walking pace – Trudie ‘twitched’ the throttle a bit and the back wheel slid out and down she went! In the usual spirit of Adventure Bike riders – as it wasn’t a serious fall – out came the cameras!
With a sore ankle, but still full of smiles – the bike was moved and a damage assessment was done.
Trudie’s ankle was a bit too sore to ride out the remaining +-10km to the tar road of the R62 and we were debating what to do when help arrived in the form of the Africa Twin Club! Klaus Pille would ride Trudie’s bike back to Plett and his wife would ride his bike. Trudie would pillion with me to the R62 as her husband, Johan, was pillioning Elmari.
Once at the R62 riders were again shuffled and Elmari was back on Anthony’s bike and Johan took Trudie to the hospital in George for x-rays. There is never a dull moment for Adventure Bikers!
The ride back to Plett was uneventful and later we learnt that when the bike fell, Trudie’s ankle had been trapped under the bike and the weight of the bike had broken a bone in the ankle.
This cut short Johan and Trudie’s Adventure Bike Week, as they decided to fly home to Johannesburg. Luckily, all were in good spirits to enjoy the evening braai festivities.
The next day Johan loaded the bike for the trip to PE airport. Here they are on the bike – Trudie with her ‘moonboot’ on her broken ankle – still smiling :)
Another stroke of luck and, in typical biker fashion, Ken Thresh from Africa Twin Club had space for Trudie’s bike on his trailer and offered to take the bike back to Johannesburg with him – Thanks so much to the guys at Africa Twin Club for their help!
While this particular ride did not turn out as we had anticipated, we are thankful that the consequences of Trudie’s fall were not too serious. It also reminded us that anything can happen at any time and no journey is guaranteed to be completed without incident.
More than this however, it demonstrated the camaraderie and trust that exists between bikers in that a perfect stranger was willing to change his ride plans for the day and help get the bike back to Plett, and another was prepared to go out of his way to collect the bike and transport it back to Johannesburg. It also showed the trust that we place in one another that Trudie and her husband, Johan were trusting enough, without question, to allow what were complete strangers to ride and transport Trudie’s bike. This is an unseen side of bikers that most people are unaware of – an unwritten bikers code to help a biker in trouble. Ride safe!
Report back from Trudie’s visit to a specialist in Johannesburg was positive. No operation necessary and 6 weeks of ‘moonbooting’.