ESELFONTEIN OFF-ROAD EXTREME & FUNDURO
The Drainmen Franchisor, David Olivier and the Drainmen Head Office Project Manager James Rauch headed off to the "Eselfontein Outdoor Festival" the past weekend (21-22 October 2011) to participate in the 'Eselfontein Extreme &Funduro Event', one of the most challenging mountain courses around the Western Cape for both Mountain Bike Riders and Moto Cross Riders alike. In fact many attend this once a year event to train for the well known "Roof Of Africa" race. - many trails and sections of the circuit are likened to the Roof !
The event is held over two very large farms called Eselfontein and the owner, whom is an off-road enthusiast himself, very kindly opens his land specifically for this event once a year along with his neighbouring farmer. There are two main events, the first is an MTB Race (mountain bike) the other is a Moto Cross Enduro Event. The Moto Cross Enduro event is categorized as Bronze, Silver and Gold routes, the latter being the most grueling of all. The Drainmen guys registered for the Silver route.
David & James arrived at the farm late Friday night (Drainmen work takes preference before play!) and camped out on the open field on the farm made available for all participants. The Saturday morning was broken by roosters crowing and beautiful crisp farm fresh air... The sunrise was spectacular as the sun crept over the local mountain ranges with a showy display of light blues meshed with velvet satin pink sheets.
With only a few white clouds in the sky, this promised to be a great day for riding all round. After a campers dream breakfast comprised of bacon, eggs and mushroom on the skottel, it was time to take to the road through to the neighbouring farm land where the Moto Cross Enduro was to begin @ 8:30am. The trip was + - 70km to the next farm where the Enduro would begin and all along the way the riders were spoilt by the beautiful picturesque farm lands with the array of greens and golden yellows of both vineyards, fruit trees and hayfields. Upon arrival it was clear that there were both riders from the camp and others who merely came through for the day from surrounding areas wanting to join in on the fun.
A race meeting was called and the rules explained. After that, final preparations were conducted and in no time the event began. David & James signed up for the Silver Route (Medium-Difficult riding) whilst others followed either the Bronze route (Easy riding) or the Gold route (Difficult-No Way) Although it was told that the paths were "clearly marked" this was certainly not the case.
David & James followed suite of the riding group Silver & Gold - it was stated at the race meeting that the Gold group would branch off from the Silver group and that this would be evident by markers.
Well there were no markers to be seen that split up the two groups along the way which led to quite a few Silver riders joining the Gold riders for some time. After a while it was clear what separated the Gold from the Silver (Roof Of Africa stuff!) however David & James were proud to note that they didn't do too bad on the Gold course considering the type of terrain deep into the 'Gold Territory'. One specific highlight along the Gold route was about a kilometer into a certain deep and dry river bed, which began with medium size rocks to overcome which later became huge boulders to overcome, matters became quite serious although the 2 Drainmen managers always have time for a spot of laugh, shaking their heads in amazement of the difficulty of the course.....As they approach their day to day work, it seems that they too attack the outdoors with the same amount of enthusiasm. 
After turning around to try to locate the Silver route they eventually hooked up with another 4 riders which along the way became a total of 8. Still with no Silver route to be found, James took the lead in suggesting certain 'other' routes, one involving going straight up a mountain without a track to be seen (this is typical of James BTW) All 8 managed to successfully get to the top, all took a few pic's of the beautiful surroundings which encapsulates an awesome display of fynbos as far as the eye can see from the top of the hill to the horizon. Thereafter all 8 came down - some chose the difficult, whilst others took the less bumpier route.
Part of the Silver route was discovered by two friendly riders who showed the way and the Drainmen chaps were at full taps once again. Large rocks were the order of the day which saw 1or2 fall outs but nothing serious. The rest of the day was enjoined by easy riding, packing up camp, enjoying a short 4x4 route and relaxing by one of the most beautiful man made dams to which a 3 meter waterfall creates a river that fills this dam.
The dam is nestled amongst the mountains on the same farm where the camp is situated. David & James found a spot right on the waters edge with a fire whistling it's way out. After some encouragement the fire was again going and it was decided that it was time to cook lunch with whatever was left. Here was the idea : 'lets through whatever is left to eat in the skottel' - now called an "Eselfontein lunch" (it comprised of : olive oi
l. onions, tomato, Amstel beer, (half) boerewors, 2 eggs, cheese,1x tin of tomato and garlic;salt & pepper; salted butter..) and here's how it's done : Heat the olive oil on the skottel, cut and fry the diced onion, wait till the onions go transparent gold, pour 200ml of Amstel over the onions, add the tomato to the onions, thereafter add boerewors on the outside of the mix for approximately 10min on either side, and a can of tomato and garlic to the inside mix, add a good douse of salt and pepper, add 2x eggs to the mix stirring occasionally. Add the cheese last and a table spoon of salted butter) Perhaps they were just hungry but believe it or not it apparently tasted great ! So that is now the 'Eselfontein Lunch'.
Thereafter a swim in the stunning mountain river was the order for the day which water was crisp and clear and relaxing beside it thereafter and having a couple of klippies en coke....
EVENT :Eselfontein Extreme &Funduro
EVENT ORGANISERS: Dryland Event Organiser
DATE : 21 & 22 OCTOBER 2011
