Bat Walk

Friday night we went to the Pretoria National Botanical Garden to learn a bit about Bats. The event was organized by the Gauteng Northern Regions Bat Interest Group (GnoR BIG). The aim of the meeting was to introduce some information on bats to the public. Strategicly placed mist nets were used to capture free flying bats, dont worry the bats was released afterwards.

Some of us were given bat detectors to identify the free flying bats in the garden. The echolocation sounds from the bat is picked up and transformed to audio frequency that can be herd when the bat flies over. The GnoR BIG website is very informative and if you are a bit squeamish about bats read this and get over it!

The Flikr page with of the photos of one of the demonstration bats.

Robbie Wessels at Firkin

There is a pattern starting to emerge on Thursday nights, happened last week and it happened last night again. The Firkin pub in Centurion has some great entertainment lined up and for a small cover charge it is a great way to spend your evening.





The first band that performed was a bit rough as it was the first time they did a live performance, and as luck would have it they also had to battle technical problems. If you asked me the mic was not plugged in.

We were standing about 10 meters from the stage and my small Minolta G400 can't zoom any more than this. You get the idea, live band, loud music, smoke, sweat...
Robbie Wessels is releasing his new CD soon and I even got him to sign mine, at that stage of the night I don't think he remembered it.
At stages everyone in the pub were singing along to the well known songs. There are great songs on his CD that got me singing along in an instant, today the throat is a bit sore but I'm not complaining.
We had a real good time, as can be seen from the smiles. Our friend at the next table took the photo even offered us some of the snacks. Gert, Rudie, Ursula and Me.

Gert and his friend the knight.

Sun-day Cycling

Sunday was Cape Augus day! No, we did not cycle in Cape Town unfortunately…or maybe fortunately. I've herd that it was raining and can just imagine that it is not a lot of fun on a bicycle in the wet. For everyone that does not know the Cape Augus Cycle Race is a race around the Cape peninsular, depending on the route around 109km. Have a look at the official web site, next year we are there!


So Sunday morning Ursula and I took a leisurely cycle to new stands that are set out close to Artur's Place on the picture. When we arrived at the stands we thought of going a bit further. We went on to a filling station about 25km from home. The "Route 25 Filling Station" is a good place to buy a Coke or a Powerade, neither of us are cycle fit so it is much needed at this stage.
This tuck shop is heavily fortified and you place your order through a bullet proof window, the goods are placed in a steel drawer, quite strange to buy cool drink this way.

We filled up water bottles and pressed on toward Kempton Park on the R25, only to get the wind slightly from the front. Pedaling is not so easy any more and most of the sunblock sweated off already.

We reached the Delmas road crossing and turned back to Pretoria, not fun any more. The wind was really pushing us back at this stage; fortunately there were other things to distract us a bit. A motor club held a meeting and every couple of minutes a classic sports car passed us, looked like a rally of some sort. We passed "Microland" a small airfield for micro light airplanes. A friend of mine has his plain hangered there.

A traffic sign next to the road indicates that Pretoria is 37km further; at this stage I did not want to think about the distance, just keep going. We were both tired but we had to keep peddling, hunger was also settling in. The Delmas road is actually not bad to cycle on thanks to the hard shoulder with the yellow line; the traffic is also very light especially on Sundays.

Suddenly my rear tyre was flat, nearly a disaster cause I left my cycling bag with spare tube and patch kit at home. Don't want to point fingers but someone was chasing me when we left home. Ursula was not feeling well at this stage and rested, while it took a couple of minutes to replace the tube with a spare that was in Ursula's bag.

We set off again trying to encourage each other. My legs were soft and I had no power left. We passed Rietvlei Nature reserve and the wind was still not letting up, water bottles were empty at this stage. The sun was beating down relentlessly and I was just looking forward to the first shop where I could buy something to eat.

At the first garage shop my left calf muscle cramped up as I tried to get off my bike. I unceremoniously fell on the floor with my bike on top of me, should have drunk more water, Ursula was so tired she did not even laugh at me. We stocked up on chocolate and cool drink that barely touched sides, but we immediately felt much better. We were no longer shaky with hunger, just tired….. Well finally we made it home.

We did 70km on Ursula's cycle computer; next time we choose a less windy day, take food and drinks along, but most importantly SUNBLOCK. Three hours in the African sun with only factor 30 sunblock on your legs is not a pretty sight.

"The Monster"

Die artiekel is ook op http://www.spoor-loos.blogspot.com/ in Afrikaans

The Route

• 16 Feb Leave Boksburg to Standerton
• 17 Feb Standerton to Newcastle
• 18 Feb Newcastle to Vryheid
• 19 Feb Vryheid to St. Lucia
• 20 Feb Around St.Lucia (rest day)
• 21 Feb The drive back home

Ten teams with 3 riders most with a backup vehicle and driver assembled 07h00 at the Spur in Boksburg. Everybody was exited and clean; think nobody was prepared for the trip that lay ahead. I was driving a Toyota Z-Ace (Condor in South Africa) with a heavy trailer as a backup for team One.
Click on the map to see a bigger picture. The route was mostly on dirt tracks and service roads next to railway lines. The guys logged 40km short of 1000km for this trip.

Every body smile for the newspaper camera man.

Peter was ready to do recovery already. His toolbox had tools but also two stroke oil and cold Beer!

View from the top of a bridge close to Grylingstad. We had to wait for a Yamaha Banshee that broke along the route. I was able to photograph most of the riders here.

The first evening in Standerton. Riders are punished with shooters for transgressions such as coming late, using a hairdryer or running out of fuel.

One lady made the trip with us, she did it in style, Ronel’s hair were combed, hails done, and clothing match the quad bike. She looks 100% better than most of the guys, for their protection I don’t include some of the early morning pictures.The pack sets off from Standerton

Where possible the backup convoy stopped next to the tar road and I was able to catch the riders on the dirt.

These guys tried to pass as close as possible to the camera, and nearly run me over.

Assembly point in small town Perdekop’s (Horse head) main road. We had lunch next to the road at a bush pub. Gerhard arrives sideways, think he was very hungry!

I sat under a train bridge waiting for the riders, and it felt like it was an eternity. The riders was slow through the mountains and the Amajuba pass.

Majuba Lodge in Newcastle. This guy is sitting on a brand new spotlessly clean bike. The Banshee he borrowed for the trip broke the previous day and he quickly went out and bought his own new one just to finish the trip. Panorama before Blood River (Blood River is the site of a battle that took place against the Voortrekkers and the native Zulu people.) The wagons are made from cast bronze and the placed as the original lager was arranged the day of the battle.

On our way again, one of the few opportunities where the bikes pass me.

Always more fun on the back wheels. The children next to the road were yelling and screaming at Piet, they have never seen such a monster on a quad! The only incident during our trip was a goat that did not get out of the way fast enough. The goats roam freely next to the roads. John swerved and lost his balance on the quad and ended up hitting the goat in any case. He was badly hurt and he was not able to ride any more during the trip, the goat also did not make it. The fall was a shock for all of us, fortunately the river provided just the kind of action we needed to relax. After playing in the water we had lunch under the trees on the river bank.

The Nissan Sani developed a problem with its petrol pump and had to be towed by one of the recovery vehicles. I ended up towing my own trailer as well as the recovery vehicles trailer. The dirt roads were quite bad and most of the glass beer bottles we had in the blue boxed on the trailer were broken when we arrived in St. Lucia.

That evening we had a celebration dinner and prizes were awarded by the organizers (Eric) for any unfortunate thing that happened, Wilhelm gets a extra bottle to fill with petrol for his thirsty Banshee.

The last day was supposed to be a rest day, but there was a 2x 37km trip to the beach. By now everyone’s butt was sore and muscles weak. The sea water was just the right medicine.

We planned to do 80km max for the day, but the guide misunderstood something, and at the coat we already did 75km. The guys were upset because we did not make provision for fuel.

We had a beer at the local shebeen while we waited for fuel, or someone that could tell us what is going on. Bundu bashing back to St. Lucia.

We trusted John’s GPS, it showed that we were on a road, although it does not always look that way. We even ended up building our own bridges to get across ditches.

Hennie the guy in bleu shirt will tell you that he was nearly run over by the quad…but I thin he was safe. We struggled to get everyone through this mud ditch but it was a lot of fun. I took more than 2000 photos and it was a lot of fun! Unfortunately we had to leave for home the next day.

A CD is available with photos of the "The Monster" email Helgard Ross at helgard999@gmail.com or phone me +27 83 459 4052.

Candle Holder

A few weeks ago we started making stepping stones, but one thing always leads to another. Soon we moved from making stepping stones to mosaic glass work.

Being a candle and moonlight girl I decided last Friday afternoon that I want to use mosaic glass piece to brighten up a clear glass candle holder.

With a hobby shop shopping bag filled with colorful off-cut-glass pieces and tools of the trade, I couldn't wait to get home.


Helgard used the glass cutter (green object) to cut and the tile nipper (black object) to brake the glass. Small colorful cut glass pieces were glued onto the glass candleholder and left for approximately 2 hours for the glue to set.



I thought that the shop assistant put all the tools that we needed in my shopping bag, but I had nothing to mix and apply the grout with.



Kitchen tools were used to mix and apply the grout, everything is clean again and food is grout free.





Excess grout was removed with a sponge in the basin.



I was so excited and could not wait to light a candle.

Mosaic

During the festive season we went shopping in Merlyn Shopping centre, and found ourselves in a bookshop. Ursula picked up a book about mosaic and showed me some designs; we were both impressed with it, but put it back…..
The next day surprised Ursula by going back and buying the book. (Easy Mosaics for your home and garden, Sarah Donnelly). Ursula is a slow reader so I decided to go to a local arts and crafts shop and buy what we needed to get started. With some help and advice from the shop assistant I walk out with a mould, tile nipper, glass cutter and an assortment of small glass tiles. We were both very exited to get started on the first stepping stone.

The instructions in the book was not followed completely, our version of the stepping stone is made by placing the design upside down inside the mould on top of sticky plastic film that lies on the paper design.

Cut glass and beads is placed on the design, sticking to the bottom of the mould. The paper design is removed and can be reused after the glass is packed and stuck to the plastic film.

Unfortunately it was trail and error affair with the concrete mixture. One week our dustbin was unusually heavy, with all the concrete that was thrown away. It turns out that normal concrete ready mix is not strong enough. In desperation a bag of cement was bought minutes before the hardware shop closed. The cement content in the ready-mix is doubled to get the correct hardness of the stepping stone.



Colored oxide is added to the dry cement mixture to give the stones a bit more natural color. Due to our lack of space, the cement mixture has to be mixed in a bucket in the kitchen. I found that placing a plastic bag in the bucket saves a lot of cleaning up afterwards.

The cement mixture is carefully pored inside the mould on top of the design. After 24 hours the stepping stone is ready to come out of the mould. The sticky plastic film is peeled off and the stone is brushed with a hard brush to get rid of all unwanted cement on the tiles.

Santa’s big red bag was heavy with stepping stones this year.