Remarkable achievement for Charles Oertel as he completes all the Country Trax courses in the book

You get the ouk who feels passionately about his bike, almost as passionately as about The Other One. Then you get the ouk who is so passionate about his biking that he starts doing courses to improve his bike riding. Then you get the ouk who feels so passionately about his bike, he does on-road and off-road courses, the better to ride with The Other One, no doubt. And then, way up there, you get the ouk who felt so passionately about his bike that he decided to do all the courses in the book. His name is Charles Oertel and he’s got something special, as his story reveals.

Paired with a BMW 1150 GS called Mr Badger (a namesake for his IT company), he started off by doing the Country Trax Introduction to Off-road riding course, when it was still hosted at Zevenwacht farm in Kuilsriver. After he learnt how to pick up his bike on his own – amongst other things, of course - he did the Country Trax Weekend Off-road course at Klipbokkop near Worcester. (He wanted wanted to do the Karoo to Coast with wife Julie, but she put a spoke in that wheel. So he did the course in spite, er... instead.) At this course he learnt a number of new skills and practised his new picking-up-your-bike skills. Although he also made use of his management skills by frequently delegating the latter task.

Not content, in May 2008 he attended the first Country Trax Advanced Off-road course to be held in the Western Cape, ‘by the grace of my wife’, as he puts it. Attended, mind you, not ‘successfully attended’. By this result hangs a longish tale, of course. It involves rash decisions to volunteer for technical races; varying abilities to do Elephant Turns; and doing a ramp, a turn and a brake all at the same time. And then picking up your bike.

After this, it was the turn of the Country Trax Sand (Monster) Course. After a first day in very wet and windy conditions, only his fear of the ire of his chick if he chickened out, kept him on the course. But his persistence paid off, and eventually he looked back on his most difficult but most fun course to date.

Next was the turn of the Atlantis Dune Riding Course, where he learnt that it is in order to weelie up a dune but not to wee on it. Amongst other things, of course. Other things, such as the fact that riding in the dunes you make you ‘quite extremely very tired’ even before lunch. And other things, like being overwhelmed by the stark beauty of the place.

In case you’re wondering, he also squeezed in Country Trax’ pillion rider course somewhere. One wonders who was sitting in front, and how much lip she got from the back…

Finally, just for the heck of it, he took a Honda 230 to the Country Trax Dirtbike Fundamentals Course. About dirt biking and the course he says that he was utterly surprised by how much fun it was, coming as he does from an adventure bike background. Of course, by this time the course itself was a breeze!

Late in 2010 Charles was awarded a special certificate by Country Trax’s Leon Kroucamp for the remarkable achievement of having done all the courses which Country Trax has on offer. Remarkable, until you realise that this man is a holder of qualifications as a Linux professional, Competent Toastmaster, Neurolinguistic Programming Master Practitioner, and in Mountain Leadership, Presentation Skills, Surf Lifesaving, Fire-fighting and First Aid – the list goes on and on. So one could be excused for saying ‘remarkable achievement’ instead of ‘remarkable ouk’. For Charles is clearly a man for whom picking up the proverbial bike is simply one step on the way to the next success. And a man who is constantly surprised by how much fun challenges can be!