The Donkey Pass Mountain Challenge

It was a weekend of chaos, and therefor a weekend to be remembered…

Bruce picked me up from the office on Friday and we headed straight for Newcastle to run the Donkey Pass Mountain Challenge. The drive flew buy, and after a quick chocolate milkshake stop we were in our chalet at Chelmsford dam. Although we knew the fishing was kak we pulled out our fly sticks and flogged the water for a quick 20 minutes, just in case. Sadly nothing came of this so we whipped out a few cold beers and started a fire.

Chelmsford was mostly empty, except of course for the chalet next to ours, which was home for a large group of teenagers. If nothing else they provided us with some music and a lot of entertainment. Nothing is quite as funny as a guy wearing a mop chasing Springbok while trying to be a lion. Sadly they lost the mop.

After a good braai we hit the sack ready for the big race on Saturday.

We were up early on Saturday, and after a cup of coffee were on our way to Dunblane. This is when the fun started. Firstly we hit the dirt road, which Bruce didn’t look all to happy about in his Volvo. We cruised slowly holding up half the field, and then Murphy’s law, we got a puncture. It was 15 minutes to the start, and we were only a kilometer away, but we had to change a tyre. I got busy and soon we were back on the road.

When we arrived I shot up to register everyone, while Bruce taped the nipples, strapped the knee and vaselined the groin. Isn’t running a beautiful sport? By the time I got back to Bruce they were doing the pre-race briefing, so without stretching he was off. Lyndon arrived 5 minutes later and was playing catch-up from the start.

Once everyone was off I spent a few minutes sulking that I couldn’t run due to my knee, and then set about sorting out a new tyre for the car. I didn’t think Bruce would let me drive his car, so I organised a place to stay open late for us.

I then found out that there was a fly fishing competition on, and was about to get involved when the wind picked up and it started pissing with rain. For once I was glad I wasn’t on the top of the mountain, and instead sat down with a cup of coffee by the fire and did some reading. I couldn’t help but think that Bruce was going to kill me when he got back. In fact, things got so dire they sent out the chopper to look for lost people and to evacuate one person.

Three and a half hours later and Lyndon came in. It was a great time considering the weather and that he started 10 minutes late. Sadly I didn’t let him rest and sent him straight to town to pick up a new tyre for us. Fourty five minutes later Bruce strode in looking part like Rambo, and part like a drowned rat covered in mud. Sadly he couldn’t relax either and we got straight into what was a pristine car, and is now a sandpit, and headed for Newcastle to get the tyre. After having been to scarred to drive his car he made me drive anyway…irony.

After picking up the tyre we headed back to Chelmsford for a beer and a bath. I changed the tyre (yet again), putting on the new one, in the rain. Once I was done, and freezing cold, I discovered that Bruce had used up all the hot water. Bastard!! So it was a cold bath for me, and then we were back in the car and on our way to the Pint and Pigout to watch the Boks play New Zealand.

It was a fantastic game as I’m sure you all know. The forwards dominated (again), and my only complaint is that Pienaar should be at flyhalf instead of Morne Steyn. I can’t argue that Steyn is a superior kicker, but he has no control of the back line, and they never looked good. I will agree that we need to kicker to capitalise on the penalties created by our forwards pressure, but we still need somebody that controls the back line. Bring back Pienaar as soon as the injury is gone.

After the Boks victory we rushed home hoping that they Parks Board official we bribed would leave the gates open as promised (the gates close at 7). Luckily for us we had, and soon we’d started a fire inside and were enjoying dinner.

When we got up on Sunday it was still pissing with rain. This meant we had to forego our planned fly fishing. Instead we stopped at the Wimpy in Mooi River for breakfast, and another milkshake, and then continued on home.

The good news is that there was a lot of snow on the berg, and I heard on the radio that the people at Afriski were snowed in. This was great news for me, since I’m going there next weekend.

We got home just after lunch, and I shot down to the Pavilion to pick up the last few things for the upcoming skiing trip. Then I had a relaxing afternoon and evening with Sharon, before the weekend came to an end. Five more days until we going SKIING BABY!!