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“Flying the Fish”
Page III
After a precautionary flyby we landed about 5km outside of the town. Mounting the Goped, I drove into town to look for an electrician. There were no auto electricians. At the old hangar the townspeople had built at the airfield, I found Gerhard the local electrician. He agreed to help, (thankfully), so we loaded the Goped onto the back of his bakkie and drove off back to Tjeerd and the trikes.
Gerhard looked at my banana pod and as soon at it was opened, he smelt something had been burning. We had not previously spotted it but my voltage over-protection unit had burnt out and was completely black on the underside.
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Gerhard went to the mine workshop to look for another. He returned after a few hours saying that he was not able to locate one. The next best thing was to isolate the regulator from the trike and for me to run my radio and GPS from the remaining charge in the battery. I asked him what I owed him and he said it would insult him to take any money from us, as he knew what it was like to be stuck on the side of the road.
On the way back to camp Tjeerd’s engine gurgled ominously as we flew over some of the biggest rocks that I have ever seen. He nursed it back to life and we climbed to 8000 feet. On landing we went through his entire fuel system.
I was surprised to see how much dust had accumulated in our air filters. It is incredible to see how well they worked in a dusty environment. After going through every item I suspected that it had to be his paper based fuel filter. My trike was fitted with the glass type with the wire mesh. I had a spare, but not the connector so we had to make do with cleaning what we had for the mean time. I got on the Satellite phone and promptly ordered a new one. A friend of mine, Warren Johnson, was coming up by car to photograph the
canyon.
The heat was still intense… We mounted the Gopeds and went in search of another swimming hole. Fortunately we found easier access to the river and were able to cool our souls.
That afternoon the easterly picked up and we used every available piece of rope, tent peg and rock to fasten our trikes down to the earth. The dust storm was so intense that we had to resort to wearing our goggles late into the night. After the wind died, it drizzled and I thought that that was the end of the north and easterly winds and that the weather would finally return to normal.
The following morning we set off for Ai Ais, a short flight as the crow flies. I took the scenic route with Tjeerd climbing to 8000 feet and flying direct. The sunrise was incredible. The towering mountains glowing red and orange flanked the small Fish River below. I felt like I was flying over the surface of Mars.
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We arrived at Ai Ais to an absolutely perfect set of well maintained cross runways along with a windsock. That afternoon Warren arrived with Tjeerd’s fuel filter and a battery charger for me. I am not sure if we where happier to see him or the parts.
There was filming to be done, so we mounted the Gopeds for the 20-mile trip down to the Ai Ais hot springs. Yes, we had a car but the Gopeds are just so much more fun. Travelling at 25 miles per hour, we got there in about an hour.
The hot springs themselves remind you of a time past. The buildings look like they have not been touched for a decade and the design is reminiscent of the
Soviet minimalist practical approach, but the water itself is amazingly hot and refreshing. We felt like new men afterwards and set off back to the airfield.
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We set up camp and this night I planned to bake bread for our communal meal. Not
ever having baked bread before I had heard you could do it in the ground and
anticipated that it would take about 45 minutes. I dug it up 45 minutes later to
find it was still raw. By now the troops were starving and we went ahead and had
supper without the bread. We had become experts at eating with only one spoon
and used a black storage box as a table. We joked about whose turn it would be
to stack the dishwasher Afterwards I did a bread dance around the fire in the
hope that something would come of it. Over two hours later, once the others had
gone to sleep, I dug up my little loaves. They where delicious; only next time I
would foil them a bit better to keep a little more of the sand out.
Continued
on Page 4
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