Feedback: Saturday 23 June:Tokai Levels

Dave Bywater reports as follows:

Are they discussing cocktail recipes or the route?

Herewith the report from Saturday past……hopefully nobody will be offended

Some 24 of us gathered in the Tokai mountain bike car on a misty morning, wondering whether the rain would hold off for the duration of our sortie. Whilst waiting for the usual pep talk from the boss man, Alex and Julian were heard discussing what they considered to be a rather interesting topic, the use of the word “sortie”, which, according to Alex, according to Wikipedia, is “a term for deployment or dispatch of one military unit, be it an aircraft, ship, or troops from a strongpoint. The sortie, whether by one or more aircraft or vessels, usually has a specific mission. Alex said that the  term has been adopted from the French past participle 3rd group verb, verbs ending in -ir, with the gerund ending in -ant, "sortir", "to leave" or "to go out" with a specific purpose.”……so now we know.

Wisely the group moved off the road to give him plenty of space

Peter then described the route that we were to take. One would have expected Julian to listen, because he was to be, as usual, our leader, and he was to be, as usual, taking the wrong route……this week sooner, rather than later. Be that as it may, the group split up, 19 of us chasing Julian and Alex to each regroup, with Peter and Fay (welcome back Fay) leading/sweeping the others. Having eventually reached Level 3, we were treated to words of wisdom by Jana, who informed those who cared to listen, that the best time to drink is “when you’re thirsty”!!!......a deathly silence followed, with a few of us thinking to ourselves “selves, but I only drink when I’m lonely”.
More uphill followed in the direction of the Elephants Eye cave (maybe we’ll go there next time?) and we eventually reached the Snake Trail, Cobra in brackets (which is a good place for a cobra), which we galloped across, without anyone giving so much as a thought to the cobras. A photo shoot followed, then we made our way along some single track, before hitting the jeep tracks back down to the parking area. It would be remiss of me not to mention Randolf covering the final 4km in a blistering 15 minutes 8 seconds flat, albeit downhill.
All in all, roughly 11kms in 2 hours. Some post-sortie chit chat followed, with the only “blood” being recorded by Gareth, who, when asked about his tumble, replied that he is a mathematician and had lived in the USA for the past eight years……we do have some strange people in our group. One of the men, who shall remain nameless, possibly because he wasn’t baptised, was heard to explain “I can’t wait to get home and rip my girlfriend’s knickers off”……apparently they were cutting into his thighs and were extremely uncomfortable on the downhill stretch just before the finish.

A mathematical unequal distribution of dirt and damage

Jackie spent a few minutes discussing her snapshots of the Leucadendron coniferum, otherwise known as dune yellowbush and the Erica viscaria, which will hopefully give the reader some insight into the intelligence within our group.
Lastly, I thought I’d mention that I couldn’t help noticing what I considered to be a rather amusing sign as I was on my way home past the Manor House. It reads “Horses Please Drive Carefully” and it conjured up thoughts, not only of horses that can drive, but can also read. A slow drive past a troop of baboons ended a glorious morning on the mountain with a good bunch of fellow runners.


With thanks to Jackie for the photos