It was a dark and stormy night... and I found myself wondering why I had travelled from Weltevreden Park to Waterkloof in Pretoria to ride... in the dark... offroad.. in the rain! <?:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /> Well, any plan that gets made at the last minute has a high potential for things to go wrong. Mine started when I left the house far too late to reach Waterkloof Ridge by 7pm for the Dark 'n Dirty ride. With some low level flying and some frantic calls to Dirt Rider, I managed to delay the kickoff of the ride until I got there. And when I screeched into the parking lot sideways (!), my eyes were assaulted by the sight of 35 riders, all kitted out in lights and stupid grins! This must be a new record for turnout at a D n D?! So with such large numbers, we had to split into two groups. I was in the first group (not necessarily the fast group!), and we set off. We bombed down to the singletrack and quickly worked our way up to the paths running next to the airbase. It was about here that I realised how menacing the sky was looking? True to it?s word, those menacing clouds promptly started raining on us! Not to be outdone, or accused of being roadie cissies, we carried on. But shortly after passing through the tunnel, the sky gods started throwing lightning at us! After a quick pow-wow, where we all agreed that avoiding being struck by lightning wasn?t cissy behaviour, we retreated to under the bridge? or should I say storm water drain! We hid out in the tunnel for a while, trying not to notice the ?present? that had been left by the previous occupant. We were all nervously reminiscing all those storm water drowning stories as the water level (not so) slowly rose. Like people running for our lives, we reached a point of mass hysteria and bolted back to the garage where the marginally dryer second group awaited! We again had a group discussion and talk of turning back for hot pizza and fortified hot chocolate was quickly squashed. We?re mountain bikers remember, nothing stops us from riding! So in an effort to drag some fun out of this evening, we set off on a round trip of the airforce base. Amazingly, we only had one puncture, and despite swimming through sections of the path (!), we arrived back at Waterkloof with a full complement of riders, no-one lost. Only 6 intrepid riders stayed for the promised pizza and hot chocolate (made the old way?). Amazingly, all 3 men had packed dry clothes and none of the women! Has the Age of Enlightenment happened? Jan kindly brought his blankie and showed remarkable restraint when he was mobbed by Cat-i and myself! There was talk of three dirty women jumping the men and stripping off their clothes (in a public place nogal!) but this never materialised (although we may have fueled the dreams of many a young man!). At a respectful hour, we all said our goodbyes and drove off into the darkness, knowing that we had just spent our evening having the most fun that it is possible to have on a Thursday night in <?:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Pretoria!
