I missed a couple of updates, sorry about that, but hearings, appeals and reading legalese tends to slow a man down a bit.
This weekend was a busy one. On Saturday I was a GoPro cameraman. And what a good time was had by all.
I went out with a production crew to Leewenkloof just outside of Harties in the North West Province. I was to cover the first day of the 2015 Bridgestone Club Challenge. It’s an amazing event where normal people bring their own 4×4 vehicles to an event and put them through some of the toughest challenges you can imagine. Drivers range from 25 to 65 and the cars are just as diverse. Big Toyota Lancruisers to little Suzuki Jimnys were all on the start line doing their thing doing up mountains and down gullies.
My job was to put a GoPro camera inside the vehicle before the drivers tackled the 10 different obstacles that were given to them to drive. It sounded like a great job until I got to the venue. You will not believe the inclines that these cars can drive up and down. I use the word “mountain” quite literally in this case. So once I have put the camera on the windscreen, inside the car, I would have to get to the top, or the bottom, of the mountain to retrieve it. I would then go down the mountain to put the camera into the next vehicle to take on the obstacle.
We started off slowly at obstacle one, which was an easily looking donga that the drivers had to traverse. It was easy for me, but the drivers had to fit their vehicles between narrow gates and the bigger cars struggled. But then it was on to the tougher, more hilly obstacles. This is when I earned my paycheque. I was dripping with sweat, breathing like I was climbing Chappies and loving every minute of it. At one point, I thought to myself whether I would rather have been there, hot, tired, bleeding and falling, or in an office. Then I looked around, saw where I was and took in the sounds and smells and the office was not appealing at all.
Every now and again, one has to stop, look and realise what you are doing. Take it in, and decide. One day I will win an award, Brittany Clamp reminded me of this a while ago. When I win that award, I won’t thank the people that made it easy for me. I will thank the people that made it difficult, as it is them that made me a stronger person.
The morning of day two of the weekend was at the Carnival City Macsteel National Classic Cycle Race.
There, we filmed the finish and spoke to the winners of the men’s and women’s races. Quick, easy and lots of fun to see my cycling buddies again, even if I am a little on the large side. The videos and audio are up and if you are a keen cyclist, then take a look.
While there, I also had a chat with some team managers on the UCI Ruling preventing licensed riders from taking part in this years CT Cycle Tour. I feel it’s really sad, but take a listen on my SoundCloud channel to see what they think. Also, please post comments there as Cycling SA need to know what you think.
It was a weekend of ups and this morning hit me with a big down, but I am not going to let little people get in my way. BBJ is back baby!
