TG Newsletter: MARICO OOG

Groot Marico Oog

(22 - 23 June 2024)

Oog = Eye

What is the eye of a river?

It is where Mother Earth gives birth to lots of river babies. These crystal clear, innocent, young water droplets squirt out of her vagEYEna and puddle around until they grow up to become rebellious liquid teenagers and start flowing to the big ocean lights…

*Listen, most of you don’t pay me. So, I can tell my story the way I want*

The end of a river is called the ‘mouth’, where all the vulgar, foul, filth gets spewed out. Talking about a dirty mouth…

Evil-eyed Conrad, with the angry eyebrows and eyewatering vocabulary, from Off Road Cycles, blindly offered us his Kove 450 Rally to use and abuse for the weekend!

Off Road Cycles

www.offroadcycles.co.za

I could scribble down all of the bike’s bacon (specs), but best would be to go take it for a spin. Eye it, try it, buy it! No words on paper could ever describe how lekker this bike rides. It’s an eye-catching, power-punching, mud-muncher (puns-puns-puns). I only had a few small issues with it, but that doesn’t mean I wanted to give it back.

For our ever-wandering eyes, it is about a day’s ride out to the Marico Oog.

In 2018 Marico’s freshwater ecosystem was designated a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. Which is almost like giving an eight-year-old pupil an Eisteddfod certificate for reading the best poem… under water! Gurgle

We left early-ish on the Saturday morning, taking the occasional 2-spoor gravel road, and stopped for a quick breakfast on a deserted soccer field, imagining we were watching Mess-eye take a chip shot to a goal without a net.

From there, we navigated all the dirt roads on the wrong side of the Magaliesberg mountains to the little cowboy town of Derby which you might miss if you blink! And even though the quaint hotel bar boasts a friendly bar lady, it’s better to have eyes in the back of your head for a python carrying, revolver slinging, juvenile delinquent. In Derby… you won’t believe your googley eyes!

Hanging cable through the blind corners on this nippy Kove Rally, I struggled to shake off Chikita & Olive Oil on the Suzuki DR650’s. Out of the corner of my eye I could see their 21”s pushing me faster. And even though Olive Oil claimed she hadn’t ridden a bike in yonks, there was no holding her back. I had to focus on my hand eye coordination, negotiating sand pits and rocky-climbs on a bike that did not want to slow down, chased by PopEye’s girlfriend!

Lunch was served at a slate quarry with lots of curious eyewitnesses peeping out at us from the zinc shacks.

MARICO OOG!

A dive spot with lily-pad-hopping crakes, darting guppies and the very real probability of encountering a rare freshwater eel. The main eye is about 14m deep while most of the rest of the swamp varies between 3 to 4m. A float takes you to the centre of the abyss, where the sparkling clear water makes you believe you are teetering over a cliff.

A small cemetery to remind us that life is the longest thing we will ever do; sometimes you must waste time. Eye-Eye Captain! And as we left the graveyard, an Alanis song got stuck in my head…

♫ Isn’t it Eye-ronic! ♫

Just in case you can’t get enough of the blue-eyed Kove – here’s a bird’s eye view (wink-wink)

…as far as the eye can see!

We made it just in time to the recently reopened Marico Hotel to see 15 guys in green jerseys keeping their eyes on the ball.

We were told to keep our eyes peeled for two other bikers at the guest farm, and cheeky as we are, we rode right up to their chalet, bright-eyed and batting our lashes. Blinded by the eye candy before them, they invited us in for a drink (and a chuck-eye steak on the braai). Prik and Faul even tasted some of our camping couscous dessert.

Long stories of the shaait we’ve seen and the adventures we’ve ridden.

Riverstill Guest Farm

https://riverstill.co.za/

Four hours of shut-eye and we were awoken the next morning by the best Vizsla in the whole world (you can try and argue with me – you will lose) and his gang. Aero took us for an early morning stroll.

This farm, this valley, this river – it is eyepoppingly beautiful.

Walking through a labyrinth can sometimes be a real eye opener. What looks like an end point can also be a beginning. Such is life…

We had our one night in heaven and it was time to turn back. Breakfast consisted of figs, cheese and crackers. Some people’s eyes were bigger than their stomach. Hypnotizing us with his golden eyes, Aero made the crackers drift spontaneously towards his schnoz.

With a pair of freshly fed eyes, Chikita noticed a few odd cords hanging from the Kove’s back brake?!? At our last stop, I did not fasten my Oxford Aqua T-30 Roll bag properly and it got gnawed on by the back tyre. In the process, the cargo net had wound around the brake disc (explaining the lack of back brakes), snapping the sensor cable clean off. With some nail clippers we pulled most of the filaments out and restored the brakes, but as for the rest of the sensors we reverted to a more traditional, techno-deprived DR mode.

Drinking and riding; it’s all fun and games until someone loses an eye!

Just on the outskirts of town is a retina-burning memorial. It’s the spot where Zuma was first arrested way back in the sixties. I wonder if JZ even gave them a hairy eyeball when he found out it was called the Zuma Capture Site… as his name would later become synonymous with the word ‘capture’.

A sight for sore eyes was the old SAPS van standing derelict in the corner, coat of arms painted on the door by hand.

Roadside snacks in bottled form. Beauty is in the eye of the beerholder.

Maybe you should turn a blind eye at this point, as these are neither green nor blue…

I don’t think we could get any more cornea… Oh… wait…

Last stop at our favorite local pozzy.

Jomp Brewing Company

www.jomp.co.za

Chikita hit a bullseye, while I imbeyebed a Bloody Mary (cocktail stick complete with gurkin, tomato, olive and a whole chicken wing)!

“I have seen meaning in opinions I did not want to hear.

I have seen the impossible in goals I did not want to achieve.

I have seen wisdom from people I did not want to meet.

I have seen pain from a life I did not want to live.

I have seen beauty on journeys I did not want to take.

If I closed my eyes, my life would be comfortingly content.

If I closed my eyes, my life would be beyond bleak.”

CHIKITA PRODUCTIONS PRESENT:

Taking a Kove 450 Rally bike on the back roads to Groot Marico and finding the eye of the Marico river. Feast your eyes on this magnificent bike in his natural habitat. Go on - cry your eyes out because you don't have one... YET! Contact Off Road Cycles: www.offroadcycles.co.za

Video produced by Jolandi Mentz (22 Jun 2024)

https://youtu.be/1S-upagggV8

SPONSORS & SPECIALS:

Sponsored by Daniel Mulder Distributors (DMD) www.dmd.co.za

Forma Boots (www.formaboots.com)

Caberg Helmets (www.caberg.it)

Oxford Products (www.oxfordproducts.com)

Givi (www.givi.ite)

Answer Racing (www.answerracing.com)

Off Road Cycles (www.offroadcycles.co.za)

2M Lazy Lowder (www.2mtrailers.co.za)

PaintAbike by Phil Privett (www.instagram.com/paintabikesa)

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