GS Trophy update 3

After a two hour delay at the border, we crossed from South Africa into Swaziland today (Monday). Most of the roads in this country are dirt covered and rough, so the riding today has been fantastic.

Team members push an F800GS out of the mud bog in a special test.

While riding to our camp, school children lined the roads and were high-fiving us as we rode by.

Pat Horan went down on a dirt road today after he had a momentary lapse in memory and forgot he had to ride on the left side of the road. He narrowly escaped a collision with an oncoming car, but unfortunately crashed his bike in doing so. He was unhurt and the bike undamaged, and continued on to ride in the two special riding stages.

In all there were four timed special tests for the day and Team Canada did extremely well in all of them.

There were two Iron Man type special stages, one that required the team to pull a tractor around a course and one where the team rolled a huge tractor tire through a slalom course.

The riding special stages included a mud bog, and a rocky water crossing in which the bikes were walked across.

Team Canada placed second for the day, gaining them one position overall to fourth place.

Tomorrow we cross into Mozambique, and the ride will include 30 km of deep sand.  Temperatures are reported to reach the low 40s C.

Off to bed to get some rest, tomorrow’s going to be a long day. Stay tuned.