One of my favorite events – in the mountains and playing radio – is the Herald Mountain Bike Race. This year was even better than usual, with my friends from Bisho Hammies helping out.
Lunga (ZS2LN) and the Bisho Hammies assisted and made themselves (and me) very proud.
Raceday was Sunday 16 Feb, but you can’t miss out on a camping opportunity, so (as usual) a bunch of us made our way there on Saturday – ready for an early start on Sunday morning. Oh, and the evening braai, of course.
Lunga had organised a bunch of the Hammies from Bisho to come through and assist us (PEARS/Hamnet Eastern Cape) with the radio work. The group included a number of qualified ZU licence holders and one budding newbie hoping to be one on the next RAE.
I met up with Lunga and the lads at the Nanaga petrol station about 50Km north of Port Elizabeth. Lunga arrived with his vehicle showing all sorts of banners, flags, and stickers – as we have come to expect! The back of the bakkie full of Hammies and kit and a small “Venter” trailer for the additional kit.
After a brief stop over and leg stretching for the Hammies, we headed off towards Patterson and past the Addo Elephant Park.
Passing the Addo Elephant Park there is always a chance to see some game along the way. If you lucky, you can see a small herd of Elephant, but we hit the mother load – more Elephants than I have ever seen from outside the park. In fact, there is only one other time I can recall seeing more Elephants in a single herd and that was inside the park at a waterhole. Even that is not a very common sight!
We stopped on the side of the road (as did several other people) and the kids made their way across the road to the fence on the other side to get a look at these magnificent animals. A large herd, seeming untroubled by the traffic and spectators, slowly made its way through the thicket. We must have spent 20 minutes just watching the Elephants before getting back into the vehicles to complete our journey.
We travelled through to the Hayterdale farm where we setup camp. A few more of the local suspects pitched up through the afternoon, but the boss himself, Gert ZS2GS, only cam out in the early hours of the Sunday morning.
The evening, however, was spent in what is now a tradition – the braai under the big tree. It is a truly beautiful spot although we are starting to take it for granted going there several times a year! The Hammies, in true Scouting spirit, made the fire and cooked the food for us. We made some “Cape Sarmies” (toasted sandwiches) – another tradition and a few jokes later all drifted off to lalaland.
It was an early start, the Hammies and I were to man the steep path down from the top of the ridge into the back of the farm. It is a tricky piece of path following the power lines and descending rapidly in places. We were dropped off at the bridge at Camp Fig Tree and after a brief photo shoot we started the route down.
Hammies were paired off and left at various stages along the path. Each pair were given a tactical callsign indicating their position along the path. The plan was that each pair would do their own comms check with Tony at the VOC and where needed arrange a relay path to VOC if theis was needed. The teams were tasked with relaying any emergency traffic as well as logistical tracking such as race leaders, medical vehicles, and sweep.
After the sweep came through, the Hammies followed the sweep (a motor bike) out and all congregated back with yours truly at the bottom of the pass, from which we walked out to the farm and started to pack up.
The kids really enjoyed themselves as did Lunga and myself. The kids impressed several of the old timers and were invited back with resounding cheers!
