BARN OWL Tour

NICK YELL TOUR

- Nick Yell

Swaddled in our multilayered outfits, Annette and I mount our respective steeds and head off into a bone-chilling Overberg winter day. Our destination is a shabby-chic-cumboho barn on a Klein Karoo farm outside Ladismith. In theory, the 300km ride on the back roads should only take us five hours, but the effects of the recent heavy rains could waylay us.

Riding the coltish Blouperd (DR650) after the recent long journey on the mighty V-Strom 1050XT Adventure, is certainly different. Gone is the planted feel and back is the roguish agility of my pumper-carb driven thumper. Different as it is, I’m certainly not complaining; particularly that I’ve now had its old rock-hard saddle softened with plusher foam. Only a sheepskin-covered saddle would be better; but I’ll leave that until my backside turns 70.

Also recently fixed is the starter motor whose brushes decided to give in, but I suppose this was bound to happen on a bike that stood around for a long time and wasn’t started regularly. With all the bits and pieces I’ve now replaced and added I’m hoping Blouperd will see me over many a new horizon for years to come. “How’s Yeeha handling the mud?” I ask Annette as she ploughs through another patch of gruel on the Tractionator Adventure tyres fitted to the KLR.

“Fine,” she replies a little curtly, “but you said we’d miss the mud coming this way today.” Okay, so what I actually said is we should avoid the rain by going the southern route today and taking the northern route on the way back. But, as I heard a comedian say the other day, when God made woman from man’s seventh rib, it clearly was the one that would’ve given us males a sense of prescience and greater levels of emotional intelligence which women now seem to have in our stead.