Flies at Hillcrest & Contermans

[dirtman]

Start your ride at 5.15 am - flies are all still sleeping at that time!!

[drugslinger]

never mind the flies, watch out for the snakes...was there 2 weeks back and they were all over the place at about 8:30am already.

[covie]

New Science magazine had an article/question some time back, about the speed at which flies can fly... One of the answers came from a roadie, who claimed that at about 8km/h(??), he would always "lose" the flies, presumably because they couldn't fly fast enough to keep up with him...

 

This had me thinking all sorts of silly things on my way up to the Cement Path on Paarl Rock the other day... i.e:

 

1.) Do African flies fly faster?;

2.) What about the effects of my slipstream - for something as small as a fly, does me moving through the air result in mini-slipstream currents that make it easier for them to tag along?;

3.) How is it possible that, on the top of a mountain, with not a soul in sight, and presumably, no unnatural sources to attract flies, I could have +/- 30 of the buggers, buzzing around my head?;

4.) How do flies communicate - since it's not as if all 30 showed up at once - started with a few, and then others just seemed to appear out of nowehere??;

and lastly

5.) I really should stop riding alone - so as to a.) share the load i.r.o flies, and b.) stop having such pointless conversations in my head!

 

In spite of all the aforesaid waffling - I think the lesson to be taken from this, is that flies come with the territory and the season - and somewhere along the line, if you ride fast enough, you will drop them!

 

Moral of the story - if you don't like flies: HTFU!

 

Our flies are on steroids at 30kmh they not just keep up going forward they circle me while they at it. Though the flies dont bug me all that much, Did hillcrest the other day and had 4 ticks on my leg, that was a bit of a bummer

[Scooterza]

what happend/side effects ? did the doom hurt their feelings ?

 

In case your enquiry was not 100% tongue in cheek, they felt really ill and had to have a bath to wash off the doom asap. I don't think they tossed cookies but I remember them feeling very green. Their feelings were fine though!

[reteid]

also have the same problem with the flies.they seem to sit together(big green ones) from time to time and i had nightmares about a movie of a few years ago"the fly"i hope it is just seasonal.i follow dirtman's advice and it seems to be better early morning.