Record Ride Musings #1

I wrestle my cell phone out of my raincoat jacket pocket. Even without gloves it still presents a bit of a challenge.

05h47.

Must have been close to the time that cell phones first made their appearance, that I stopped wearing a wristwatch, but the exact timing escapes me. It’s at times like this, that I miss its convenience.

I’m at the 6.00am start and it's deserted. Am I at the right place? The signboard to the Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow b&b is no longer bolted to the top of the signpost, but I’ve been past there twice already and this is the next little jeep track along. Must be right. If anyone should be familiar with the start of this route, then surely that would be me.

Decision made, then. I’ll push on to The Steeple Chase and await their arrival. Hopefully, someone will get a photo of them at the start.

All the while, on my way to Heidelberg, I felt unsettled. My thoughts are clouded with the start sequence. Should I attempt to take footage at the start? Will there be enough time?

Its only about 5 or so km’s to The Steeple Chase from the trails head. They’ll be there in about 10min. If I were to leave the same time as them and then having to travel slightly longer, I’d be cutting it fine to get the drone in the air in order to film them near the approach to 5 Arches bridge. For whatever reason, I love the sight of that bridge across the river. I have to get footage of them with the bridge as a backdrop.

I drop the visor, wipe off a few obstinate raindrops with the back of my hand and push the starter button. This might get interesting.

“Hi Mike

Niven here.

I understand that you are going to have another bash at the HeidelBay Ride.

I was hoping to take some video footage of your attempt to post to a blog.

I will be on a motorcycle and the idea is to intersect your ride at various points. Other than that, there will be no interference.

Let me know your thoughts and whether Merak would be open to the idea.

I won’t take offense if you don’t fancy the idea.

Regards”

…a while later…

“ Hi Niven. We are starting at 6am on Friday morning. Weather looks like it might be miserable. You are welcome to intersect as you want. We have 2 spot trackers so it’ll be easy to find us.

Hope to see you.”

There is a little know social convention, known as the Machinists Oath. It dictates that you on a bicycle, riding along a railway service road, will be greeted with an obnoxious blast of an engines horn, at even the merest thought of offering your hand up as a greeting.

The blast of the trains horn signalled the end of my piloting session. They had been greeted.

I sighed deeply, cast a hopeful glance at the concrete giant as it lorded over the river and finally managed to land the drone on an exposed portion of the ruins of the submerged bridge.

That brought the sum total of my drone flying experience to 35min. It better be enough to keep this cookie from being dunked into that cup of Twinings.

I saw the train seconds later and knew they were close.

The Steeple Chase is a tricky, multi-disciplined part of the course. It involves a rickety farm gate which has to be negotiated in either the closed or open position, a gentle downhill Nguni legged sweep to the right, the submerged bridge water crossing, vaulting of no.2 gate, avoidance of concealed sinkhole-with-ambition on the left, the 100 acre wood dash and the Robbers Dog Slide to the left of gate 3.

Those yellow windbreakers sure do stand out. Carlo seemed a little more prepared to take risks. He hustled past the other 2 uttering a cheeky dare as he approached the stream and then made his way boldly across. M&M followed.  

We greet briefly, but I am aware that I am not my usual carefree self. The artistic pressure was getting to me. I’m a rank amateur at this filming lark. I felt self-conscious.

In the meantime, I had managed to get the drone back in the sky. It felt surprisingly easy, now, to manoeuvre and rather easy to follow them. I could view their goings on from quite a way away. Magic!

They cross quickly and without malady.

Now they can open up and stride out.

And I got my footage.