One of my favorite weekend activities is exploring the desert surrounding Arandis. For most recent weeks, this has been on foot–but now that I have a working bike, I’m able to cover much more ground and go further into the bush. Yesterday, while clocking about 30km off-road, I found ancient riverbeds, an endemic Quiver Tree and several herd of wandering Springbok.
The Springbok always saw or heard or smelled me before I saw them. They were pretty easily spooked and wouldn’t let me anywhere close. This video clip shows several of the 6 herd I came across. Note that the sound you hear is not their thundering stampede but rather the wind blowing across my microphone, and the distant patch of green at 0:54 are trees in Arandis, about 5km away.
Other wild animals in the area that I keep watching for: zebra, kudu, hyena, warthog and ostrich. Interesting checklist, huh?
Love seeing your post! You are truly “being the change”, so proud of your life choice. Keep the pics and stories coming.
All the best,
Kristi Theone
Thanks, Kristi – and I always appreciate your reading and commenting on my posts!
Chris – very interesting. Your bikes tires must be pretty tough to withstand riding in the desert. Are the rocks sharp or are there thorns? Or is it more like find sand? I just replaced a bike tire
this weekend and I ride on roads!
The Earthquakes fired John Doyle – their general manager – to try to shake up the organization a bit.
They have new players but are not playing as a team right now.
Thanks,
Rick
Hey, Rick! Yea, I’ve been following the Quakes (and the Reds) pretty closely…
Here, it’s a used mountain bike with used tires, but I swapped out for slime self-repair tubes and carry two spares, a pump & patch kit so feel pretty good that I won’t ever have to walk my bike back home with a flat. New tires are on the wish list!
The ground is varied: fine, powdery sand in the streambeds (which _can’t_ be traversed), coarse sand (very doable), crushed gravel (the best), razor-sharp quartz (have to avoid!) and every plant seems to have thorns of one size or another. Not much elevation change, even up the rock piles, so nothing too technical. All in all, the beauty of the terrain distracts me from all obstacles!
They make plastic barrier strips you can put between your tire and tubes and almost never get a flat. For years, I was getting thorns, etc in my tires and since I put the shields in, no flats for 2 years.
Thanks, Jeff! I’ve heard about those shields but haven’t seen them over here (yet). I’ll keep my eyes open or, if need be, order them to be included in my next care package.