South Africa

The second Bulwer training camp Will and I ran went well, we had a great group of guys and a fast girl too. It was an easier camp for me as I now know where I am going around the mountains and we got to do some amazing riding. We threw the guys into some real roof of Africa type of terrain and they came out all in one piece. We even made it back before dark this time!

Hmmm I have gotten better at these since I started practicing over here!!

We had a good training camp at Nip Inn, Bulwer, on Wednesday and Thursday this week. We had a group of about 15 students, and we spent the first half of Wednesday making sure all the proper techniques were in place. Then they went for an outride (NZers - trail ride) while I rested my wrist. I took Mon for a bit of a ride that afternoon - she was a bit tired and managed a few good crashes before mastering some sections on the mighty DR.

Well it was a very busy weekend, with a race and coaching rolled into one. We arrived home tonight, lots for Mon to do tomorrow, I have 8 days of coaching in a row starting tomorrow. So it's going to be full on for a bit, then a few weeks rest before the next National Enduro - means I can get my wrist sussed and race fit!

After the national race on Saturday, I had a coaching day at the same venue - there were about 17 riders so it kept me pretty busy. Was great to see lots of the guys listening and taking what I had to say on board, I could really notice the difference in their riding at the end of the day.

On the video, Brita (sorry if spelling is wrong) DID master the uphill after a few very good attempts - very impressive.

end of day one involved hooning around the motocross track ... then re-reminding them to SIT FORWARD, stop riding like clubmen :) they picked it up and rode well today.

Had first day of kids coaching camp today and was pretty shattered afterwards! Was great to run the session with Will, he has run lots of kids camps before and he really is great with the kids.

The kids were all riding better by the end of the day but still need to remember to sit forward! Finished the day with Red Bull Romaniacs DVD from last year and a few trials DVDs at the hotel. Hope they slept well and are ready for day 2!!

On Sunday after the WFO, Will, Mon, me and 4 other guys took off on a nice sunny Sunday trail ride - I mean, a drizzly, grey, cold, wet trail ride. Mon really wanted to go she was so keen to get out on her bike, and where we stay it didn't look too bad... we got to Will's and it was rainy and cold, and it stayed like that all day. Luckily we're not made of sugar and took Chopper's advice on ... toughening up ... so we had a good day out.

We got Mon's bike and she is ready to go! I gave her a very brief lesson before I set off on a ride with Mike Morris and Altus, she looked very kitted up in her awesome Airoh helmet, her Hyde shirt, and MY Thor pants!!

She was very excited and managed to start the bike herself (on the list of things to check off) and when I came back from my ride she was very keen to show me how she can zoom up to 4th gear around the paddock, do a firgure of 8 using the clutch, and even ride over a rock about a foot and a half high, standing up!

well have not got much better, god knows how we even get up and down the stairs. we are both still really sick, on more meds, have been to hospital on a drip, feel just purely evilly awful! so there was no way that I could drive to Jo'burg yesterday to get to the Enduro World Cross Country opening round. Pretty gutted, but I woulda crashed my brains out before I even started.

looking forward to Turkey next week to do some coaching and meet Red Bull Turkey guys, should be fun.