Dirty Dozen tour -2

Day one

The riders for this trip were (in no particular order)

Angus,CRF250,  Antony, XR650L, Phillip (senior) CRF 230, Phillip (Junior) DRZ 400, Peter,XR250, Marcus GS800, Eckehard GS650, Grant DRZ400, Gino KTM 690, George GS800, Tony XT660 Z

The day started off fine a sunny, (oops wrong ride report)

The day started of wet miserable and cold , Angus who was the organiser of this trip could not have picked a worse weekend for a bike trip, but because we are all wanabe hard core adventure riders we all (well most of us) agreed that it was a good idea to go.

Grant and Antony were coming from Langebaan and the rest from  Cape Town surrounding areas , The Cape Town boys were all going to meet up at Zone 7 on the N7 and the Langebaan boys would meet up with the rest at the first fuel stop in Ceres,

Marcus missed the Zone 7 meet up and went on alone to Ceres with Angus and the rest following on shortly, the first casualty of the day was Tony`s XT that decided to rather not run than go on a ride in the wet, However it is of my opinion that Tony got wise to what was ahead and pulled a fuse so that the bike would not run, no matter what Angus and the crew tried to do, it rebelled like a hedgehog and refused to go anywhere.

As good riding mates Angus and the boys abandoned Tony to his own devises and left him sitting on the side of the road half way up the Bainskloof Pass, (Nice friends you have there Tony).

After eventually meeting up at Ceres and regrouping , and then ungrouping because the younger crowd had to still feed their growing bodies, Angus, Antony, Grant,  Marcus, and Peter, headed out towards the Tankwa Padstaal  with the younger crowd to follow after a Breakfast at Steers.

We passed some lovely friendly people ( about 30 people ) that were out of their minds walking along the R355 in the rain, cold and the mud, (you can’t educate these foreign people about Africa)

Antony and Grant found the going very tedious, because of the head wind, with the little 250`s only making about 75km/h and this is way too slow for the DRZ and the XR, we eventually arrived at the Tankwa Padstaal with the rest of the crew arriving about 20 minutes later, Gino with all his young enthusiasm missed the turnoff all together, even though you can’t really miss the Padstal as it’s the only piece of civilisation for miles around.

After much banter and chirping and some beers ,we left for Middlepos through the Tankwa national park with not much to see other than it is now very  green with all the rain that has been around, and has amazing flowers of all colours. The locals say this is the best ‘ rain year’ for a long time.

We headed towards the Ganagga Pass over some wash- aways and up the pass with no incidents to report up to this stage, (Boy but was this going to change at the top of the pass),

The first casualty of the day was Marcus who hit the mud/clay at the top of the pass and got totally out of control. He headed off the road, aiming at a local mountain where he thought the road should go, and into a ditch with his beautifully turned out GS 800 breaking his screen off the bike and skinning his nose.  The next casualty was Eckehard who took a hard fall in the mud and started to slowly strip his GS65 of all it external bits, mirrors, flickers, etc.  Eckehard’s crash at this point also proved that all your luggage and extra fuel needs to be securely strapped to your bike and a cargo net on its own is not the ideal solution.

The next casualty was Grant , Having done a bit of dirt riding and riding in the mud,he was getting wind gat, well the moral of the story is ‘ get windgat , will fall ‘, Grant threw it away at speed however only damage to the DRZ was a clutch lever and a screen , no injuries so far and all was good.

We eventually reached Middlepos and Koos and his family once again treated us very well with good food and a warm bed, there was a lot of raging in the bar that evening. Gino got the brunt of the slagging because he had’ accidently’ brought his daughters clothes with, instead of his own. To give him credit he did tell us that he had washed his clothes the night before and had put them in the tumble dryer and they had shrunk over night, (Good story Gino but we still don’t believe you).

Day 2

After a hearty breakfast and a night that the Youngsters in the crowd, namely Gino and Young Phillip, misbehaved with some elderly lady that was also staying in the hotel, we all left in good spirits.

The conditions were very wet and slippery and cold as we headed out towards the Ouberg Pass. After Eckehard crashed some more , some river crossings where Phillip Senior’s CRF230 made like a steam train after he went off the low level bridge and into the deep water.

 As punishment for this lapse in his riding skills , we all stood around and watched him recover his bike by himself with us scoring him out of 10 for his efforts, ( Phillip we gave you a 9).  After a few more heart stopping moments we stopped for a breather at the top of the Ouberg Pass for a quick snack & drink. We all then moved down the pass with no incidents, passing the section of the pass where Tony De rode off the edge, and disappeared off in the direction of the Tankwa once again heading for the Tankwa Padstaal and Katbakkies Pass then towards the Cedarburg Oasis .

We grumbled up to the Tankwa river a little way from the bottom of the Ouberg Pass where to our dismay we found it flooded and flowing rather quickly. We had to dismount and push the bikes through the river as it was flowing too fast & high to ride through.  

We put 4 guys to a bike, two to push the bike upriver and one to guide it straight at the far bank.  After we got through the river we made a dash for the Tankwa Padstaal where coffee was the order of the day and no Beer was consumed , the Tankwa had tamed the youngsters,

From the Patstaal we headed up Katbakkies Pass and on to The Oasis where of course Gerrit laid on his usual brilliant sumptuous service, with to my limited knowledge, where  the best spare ribs in the country are obtained. A good night sleep was had by all.

Day 3

After a hearty breakfast  from Gerrit and crew we headed in the direction of Clanwillam , only to find the river 3km down the road flooded, of course Angus in his usual enthusiasm decided we need to cross this river in the spirit of adventure.

 This did not go down to well with Antony and Phillip Senior leading the chorus of “are you mad its early in the morning and how many more rivers do you need to wade through”, of course young Phillip always the optimist decided to ride the DRZ through the river to prove it can be done.

 Unfortunately for Angus this is a semi Democratic organisation and majority rule won in the end, we went over the mountain through the national park.

We headed into some famers yard who was very distressed that we had disturbed his Sunday morning, after requesting to use “his private road” on condition that we don’t make a noise and ride like hooligans like some quad bikers had done, we were granted permission. 

We later worked out that this was not a private road and he had no right to stop us, However people it proves a point, behave yourselves travelling through the farmers  lands and house area so that we can do it again.

We then proceeded to move off to the Uitkyk Pass and then up and down the Nieuwoudt  Pass and on to Algeria to cross the Oliphant’s River,  As you can see in the pic below this was not going to happen, we took the back road through to Citrusdal had some lunch there and re fuelled and then moved off to our separate homes.  Antony and Grant back to Langebaan via Paleisheuwel,  the Sandvlei bungalows and the rail road and Angus and his crew off to Cape Town via the back roads and some more flooded rivers.

3 Days of great fun, thrills and spills, cold and wet.

The man of the trip must awarded to Eckehard for perseverance and not complaining even after 6 off`s Eckehard, you are the man, you can ride with me any time.

Phillip Junior, Watch your back boet, I may appear out of the blue when you are least expecting it and will get you back for the graffiti on my bike.

Easy Rider Tour 2013

The Easy Rider Tour 2013

Harry, Grant & myself have just got back from our motorcycle tour of our beautiful country. We left Langebaan on the 24th June travelling via Ceres in the rain and temps of 5 degrees Celsius - not too cold as we dressed well.

We headed in the direction of Touwsriver but ran the Montague road down the Keisie Pass. Here the sun came out which was an absolute blessing. Unfortunately the wind picked up to near gale force and it blew us all over the road. Via Ladismith ,Oudtshoorn to Wilderness (650 km) where we stayed with Harrry's brother Johnny & Bee.

Next day it was on the road again to Port Elizabeth with a short day of 350km via the beautiful Tsitsikamma Forests and Natures Valley roads. We stayed in an old area of PE in a renovated youth hostel, very comfortable, and walked down to the local pub near the harbour called the Phoenix Hotel. A very interesting place as it is the oldest pub in PE and as soon as we phoned the PE boys, Donovan, Eugene, and Ade they questioned our choice of pubs. The youth hostel owner, Brian, informed us that it would be advisable to take a taxi home to the hostel, but being real brave boys we dashed back with looks over our shoulders every few seconds. Needless to say we made it back safely as who would tackle bar fighters like Harry & Grant.

The next morning we left for East London where Jamie's folks very kindly put us up for the night. We had supper with one of Harry's mates Carl, who he had not seen for a long time - a great evening where the guys ordered bottomless pizza and they had already stuffed themselves by the time I got my grub, needless to say I was very grumpy by then and could have eaten the plate by then. 

Day 4 was on the road through the Transkei's cattle, black pigs and crowds in the towns. It took us 30 minutes to get through Umtata on Friday with the town crammed full of people, trucks, cars & chaos. We made good time to Kokstad ( there was snow on the mountain above the town ) as we were there by 1pm so we decided to head on to Winklespruit ( another 200km odd ) where Coral & Greg had very kindly let us use their flat on the beach.

We had 2 days rest here although we met Harry & Grants friends & family, saw uShaka Village, tried to get a brake light switch for the V-Strom, so we got around quite a bit on the bikes in nice warm weather.

Day 7 we headed via the Umlaas Road tar road up to Pietermaritzburg where we met at Coffeeberry with Con, Peter & Con's sons for a coffee and a catch-up. The next road was via Lions River. Lidgeton, Michael House, Nottingham Road, Mooi River, Estcourt ( where we met Eddie the Chemist ) Colenso and then on to Ladysmith where we spent the night with Rich Cameron & Marion who spoilt us rotten. This was a tremendous summers day all the way up the road and a great evening of much laughter with stories told of days gone by.

Day 8 was via Vryheid, Paulpietersburg, Piet Retief, Barberton, Nelspruit to Aubrey & Zelda in Hazyview. Again another warm day where the temp was 30 degrees Celsius in Nelspruit with us dressed for winter. We all bailed in to their huge farmhouse where we were looked after like film stars.

 The next day Aubrey took us for a ride to Graskop, Blyde River Canyon, Ohrigstad, Pilgrims Rest, Sabie and home to ‘Ons Plek'. What an incredible ride on the tarred twisty roads where I learnt a lot about riding on the tar. Aubrey is a crazy fast rider over these roads and had Harry scratching his head trying to keep up. Grant & I got ‘left in the dust' as we were trying to stay upright and on two wheels with the black side down.

Day 10 saw us heading via Sabie, Lydenburg ( up Long Tom Pass ) in the rain and 4 degrees C. Grant had decided it was a summers day so wore his summer gloves, needless to say he was swearing the whole way to Lydenburg where we stopped to warm up. I was in trouble for not stopping in Sabie for a break although it was only a few minutes outside Hazyview. He then proceeded to re- dress himself with a lot more clothing, grumbling all the time, in the main road through the town to suspicious stares from the residents. Onwards to JHB and to warmer weather. We spent the night and the next rest day with Harry's aunt Avril and uncle Omri. 

Day 12 saw us travelling past Harry's aunts old house in Vereeniging, Kroonstad, Excelsior, Tweespruit to Black Mountain resort where Grant's mate Peter put us up for 2 days. What a beautiful hotel ( the old Taba nChu Sun ) set between Bloemfontein and Maseru where they are busy re-furbishing all the rooms. The food was also very sumptuous and the breakfast spread something to write home about. We stuffed ourselves soo much with this huge breakfast spread that we had no space to eat lunch. The evening meal was with Peter and his good lady Karen and crazy dogs.

Day 14 dawned as our longest day on the road with us doing 800km plus down to Laingsburg where we over-nighted trying to make our final day's distance a bit shorter. I have a hazy recollection of the road from Beaufort West to Laingsburg.

Day 15 we had a shorter day home via Ceres in the sunshine and much warmer conditions arriving safely at 1pm. There is already talk by Grant of next years trip but Harry is silent while his butt repairs itself. I am also looking forward to next winters tour where we will again ride roads that we have never ridden in the past and explore new areas of our beautiful country.

5 grumpy old men and one Pisha take on the Old Postal Route .

Pisha is a very dialectal word similar to "guy/brother/friend/dude..or small child."

Riders: 
Antony, Tony, Harold, Grant, Andy and Greg
The day dawned bright and early on Friday the 10 of May, Not a Cloud in the sky and the birds singing, (oops sorry wrong report), let’s start over.

Day 1

We all met up at Antony’s circle except for Andy who lives at Langebaan Weg so we collected him on the way out,

the day was fresh and no wind to contend with , we left through sheep’s paddocks and then on to ‘Ooooh Shit road’ through Kaptain’s Kloof which is a small pass, everyone was in good spirits and were getting into the feel of the ride, A quick pee stop at the top of the pass and then a uneventful ride up the Pikeniers Kloof pass where the boys stretched their legs a bit with a bit of speed up the pass and on to Citrusdal for Lunch.
We all stopped at the Sitrus winkel and coffee shop for lunch and the banter then began, Harold had left his glasses behind so could not read the menu and Antony decided much to everyone’s amusement to park his bike in the garden instead of like the others in the street,

Andy rode around a lot looking for a good parking space but decided that the one we had chosen was the best.
We had a great lunch and lots of coffee and Tea for Tony as he does not drink coffee.
From here we headed out the back way towards Ceres over a pass that Antony did not get the name of until we found a interesting looking Dam Wall that the navigator decided we should go look at , I was the first to run up the track with Antony close behind and then the rest of the boys ,I road over a concrete bridge thing and up the road to the dam only to find that the road in fact turned out to be very soft sand, and I got stuck half way up, something about road tyres on the bike,

Tony tried to follow and got stuck a little further down the pass, no problems small man , small bike , big men we got his bike unstuck, after this it was an uneventful ride Down the Gydo pass into Price Alfred’s Hamlet and then on into Ceres where we would stay the night at the Porter House nommer 11 B&B , we were met here by Elsa , a lovely lady but a bit deaf , her and Ant got on very well, we had dinner at the Village Restaurant and B&B, that is run by 2 guys , here they tried to charge us R 10 for walking into the restaurant with two empty beer cans ( something about corkage charge) , rather throw your empties into the bush there to save garbage charges.

                                                                    Day 2

After a good night sleep at the Porterhouse B&B (we can recommend)

and after a hearty breakfast and hugs all round from Elsa and a special one for Elsa`s new best deaf friend Antony we headed to the local Pick and Pay for snacks and food as we would not be near any town today on the way to Sutherland, Andy’s Bike had now developed a Battery problem and was now pushed to get started, this would continue throughout the trip. We refuelled at Prince Alfred’s Hamlet and then up the Gydo pass and onto the road towards the Katbakkies pass, We did get a bit lost on this leg and had to sneak through a pedestrian gate on some commercial fruit farm , No shot gun rounds were heard so all was good,

we climbed up the Katbakkies pass over the top and stopped at the deserted building towards the bottom of the pass, while resting we were passed by a big contingent of BMW riders and two lonely KTM boys, From the rest stop we headed towards the Tankwa Padstal for lunch this place is a bar in the middle of nowhere that is making a roaring trade out of the bikers and the 4X4 crowd and not to mention the local population that arrive on their Donkey carts, here we met the first village

Burgermeester (drunk).
After lunch we headed out towards the Ouberg pass and here is where all the action for the trip started, Tony in a moment of concentration failure forgot to straighten out after a 90deg bend and went downhill off the road and landed about 5 m below the road in the ditch,

No damage to Tony and only minor damage to the bike, With Team work we recovered the bike with a very long tow rope and Tony who at this time was still a bit shaky, fell off the bike again as we were about to leave the accident scene, ( the Ouberg pass will in future be referred to as Tony`s Pass),
No further events and we made it to our night stop in Sutherland, first we all went to Fuel up and then on to the

White House lodge for the night, Adrian and Joe-Maree were our hosts for the night and were very hospitable hosts, we had a good dinner and a few to many drinks and all went to bed feeling as though we had all done a good days work,, Electric blankets all-round ( a big thumbs up for this small luxury )
as it was going to be cold in the night.

Day 3

With an early start and a fragile head we had a good breakfast sorted the bikes out ( Greg’s temp was reading  – 4,5deg, due to the problem with Andy’s bike and because it was so cold we had to pull start his bike,  we stopped at the local OK for some snacks for the road, Harold and Andy headed off first,  we followed and sped past some BMW riders that were negotiating the road to Sutherland slowly , they must have got a big surprise when these 5 grumpy old men and one Pisha went screaming past creating a dust storm of note and just smiled and waved as they went by.

We topped up with Fuel at Middelpos and topped up with Caffeine as well, ‘Tony had Tea’. from here we headed down the Gannaga Pass and onto Stonehenge where a week before they had had Burn Africa,hereAnt had a mad max experience with some of the artwork on exhibition,
after lunch we headed out to the old postal route and the fun began, Firstly Tony wanted to see what his speed was like in the 100m breast stroke, and drowned himself but not the bike in the river,

he then tried to do a 360 in the sand and fell off ,then Ant had the red mist descend over his eyes and got ‘windgat ‘ and fell off trying to pass Andy and Grant in the soft sand, he got himself trapped under his bike and had to be rescued,
After a breather stop we were informed by our Navigator that the part we had just been through was the worst and it only got better from here, ( boy was he wrong) let me explain to you about the old postal route, it is a donkey path that goes up the side of a mountain with very loose stones and some very sharp corners ,we all had scary moment on this road and Harold especially , Harold went off the road and hit a rock disguised as a bush, he went over the handlebars and injured his arm and knocked a hole into the left hand crank case of his bike , and to add insult to injury Tony thought Harold  had gone through a gate , closed the gate and followed everyone, leaving Harold on the path on his own, with a damaged bike and a closed gate, Greg and Grant realising that Harold was missing went back to find him, by this time he had recovered his bike opened and closed the gate and was moving again be it with an oil trail following, ( Harold had lost his smile by this time),

We eventually got off this “Short road” and headed down to Wuppertal where once again the red mist descended over Ants eyes and he was riding like a man possessed , he covered us all in dust that we were trying to stay out of , ( humour was now very short), We headed up the old Jeep track that would have been a great ride if it was not for the Setting sun and the dust , but still a great road , we finally arrived at the

 Cederberg Oasis and were met by Gerrit the proprietor of this little bit of paradise in the middle of nowhere.  

   The best steak and ribs that most of us have ever had and a great atmosphere, Grant who is 6 foot short had to lend Tony who is 3 foot 3, some clothes as his where all still wet from his 100 m swimming dash in the river, Ant who now was totally exhausted after the red mist had descended was in bed by 8pm and the rest of us disappeared at about 10pm except for Greg and Andy who decided to continue discussing the ways of the world.
                                                                      Day 4

Up bright and early with everyone smiling , after a great breakfast we headed off towards Algeria over the

Uitkyk and Nieuwoudt`s Pass.(Now these two passes are must for any one that wants to ride a bike in the back country, we live in the most amazing and beautiful place in the world, and I forgot to take photos of these two passes) where Greg decided to take on a Bee that had got into his crash helmet , unfortunately for Greg the bee won the fight and Greg came out with a swollen and very red ear. From here we headed towards Orange trees and then once again Ant led us up the garden path, much to Harold’s disgust as he was in

pain from the previous day’s crash and he was nursing a bike that was bleeding oil. We headed into a 100m of sand that turned out to be about 3 KM of sand, we will have to make sure the navigators GPS is set to kilometres and not nautical miles next time.
From here we headed over some old and familiar roads back to langebaan.

A great ride some fun, some anger, good food, good company, until next time. Now I need to clean my bike.

we are off today

Well the day has come, we will be leaving langebaan at 9 am today destination Ceres, the long way round, we have a full complement of riders to day bar any unforeseen circumstances like mumps, measles, the dog had kittens wives that are grumpy (a definite excuse to go) etc.etc, watch this space for a running update of the ride and to knight I will edit any posts that don’t make sense,

My bike was so happy to be going, it rode off the lift stand on its own when no one was looking, no damage accept a broken number plate thank goodness.

Baviaans trip not on until August

Just a quick note to let all our followers know, we are not going to the baviaanskloof
Until August, we had some complications with something and we have had to postpone the trip, however we will be doing a round trip from langebaan to Ceres then on to Sutherland, to the Cedarburg oasis and back to langebaan, watch this space for more details on this trip.

The negotiator

We went for a training ride

The boys went for a ride to Piketburg for lunch.

We all met up outside Antony’s house at 8:15, Harold Arrived on the Vuka this could only mean 3 things ...1. His bike would not start because of lack of use, ...2. He had a hangover and would not be capable of riding, ...or 3. the dreaded flu that had been doing the rounds had kicked in, it turned out to be the latter and harry had just come to wish us  safe travels (Thanks harry)J.

we then proceeded to Langebaanweg to meet up with Andy, who we met on the road because he forgot to put fuel in the night before, some excuse of his jerry can being a bit small, Andy, the jerry can takes 5 l of fuel and your bike tank takes 10l of fuel do the sum :)

After meeting Andy we proceeded past the Air force base and through  Sheep paddocks towards the Moorreesburg, Veldriff road, from there we ran a little rail way service road towards some farm area., by this time Tony had found that old groove again and was riding his bike as though he had never stopped some 30 years ago,

We proceeded on to Bitterwater and then up the jeep track towards Piketburg, after dodging some of the

local population that had taken the “spirit” of Easter a bit far, and had passed out on the side of the road.

We road down the tar pass (very nice road with some great 90deg corners into Piketburg where we stopped for lunch,

From here we did some “geotracking with Ant leading the way” (“geotracking” will now be the term used by this group when we get lost), Andy and Greg decided that all this “Geotracking” was a bit time consuming  and they headed for home before their pink slips were revoked. Greg on the Tar and Andy on the dirt.

By this time it was just Antony, Tony and yours truly that were still out there playing in the dirt,

Ant eventually found his way and we headed up some familiar roads on our way back to Langebaan,

We stopped at the turn off toward s the Sheep paddocks for a pee break and whilst doing our business another biker was seen coming our way from a distance, It turned out to be Andy who had been doing some “geotracking” of his own and had done some 90 Km to our 50 Km, In other words he had got hopelessly lost and it took some time to find his way.

Any way he stopped for some encouragement and directions and then headed on his way home, we found some more interesting roads, I went and had a closer look at a ditch at the side of the road due to a laps in concentration, and we did some field ploughing so as not to spook a horse and her foal.

Tony had an incident with a tortoise that spooked him in to nearly becoming a train driver,

We hit the rain on the Moorreesburg Veldriff road had it all the way back to langebaan,

I good days ride, fun was had by all and once again we got lost. (Sorry I mean we did some “Geotracked”)

Thanks Boys see you on the road next time.

The Baviaans kloof Tour Riders

So the planning is under way.

Riders for this trip will be.

Antony (to get out of his wife’s hair),XR650L

Harold (hopefully he won’t be grumpy), DL1000

Greg (if his wife does not have other plans for him).GS800

Grant (because he is still grumpy from the last trip), DRZ400

Andy (he just like to have fun). DRZ400

Tony (if he is not playing golf), DRZ400

Jerry (we need him for our luggage and our lunch) Land Rover

Jerry’s partner (still to be introduced) Seat in said Land Rover

Jonny (we will find him on the way) GS800

So that 8 of us most of the way and one more on the way.

Accommodation is getting booked, lunch lists are being made, bikes are getting serviced, and permission slips filled in.

The Baviaans kloof Tour

the planing has begun, the navigator is down loading his maps, the negotiator is booking the accommodation,
We are off to the baviaanskloof for a bit of R & R.
The trip will take us from Langebaan to Sutherland for day 1,then on to Price Albert for day 2, then on to the Wilderness vie the swartburgh pass for day 3, then into the baviaans for days 4 and 5 , back to the wilderness for day 6, then on to Cape Agaulas for day 7 , and then on home from there on day 8.

you will be ableto follow us on our new website all the way visit www.dirtbikeafrica.com for mor info about us and our team.

THREE GRUMPY OLD MEN GO FOR A RIDE.

Sorry no Photos ,old timers kicked in and forgot the camera.

So it was decided that on Tuesday the 27 November that we would go for a ride.

Reasons for the ride.

1 Ant had to get out of his staffs hair (he tells us it was to test his new second-hand transalp) Honda Transalp

2Harry to have something to do as watching judge Judy all day id getting boring.( Suzuki Dl1000 V-Strom)

3 Grant (also Known as Grumpelton) just needed to get away.(Suzuki DRZ400)

Planning started some time ago with the tree of us wanting to go do 3 passes in one day.

leving from langebaan and returning back to langebaan.

Day -1 as I was going to be in Cape town all day on Monday I asked my co conspirators to please go and change the tyres on my bike from Off-road to road, because a DRZ400 on knobblies tyres on the road is very uncomfortable, as per normal with Ant, Work got in the way and with a lack of communication nothing was don about my tyres.

The day. Bright and early I contacted Ant, his wife answered and informed us he was ready with all gear attached to the bike and waiting for us to arrive, (I must stress we had not all agreed to ride as yet) Harry was still in bed, and I was still grumpy because my tyres had not been changed, we agreed to go any way.

We left langebaan at about 8:30 with Ant in his usual position at the lead with the GPS on (more about the GPS to come) myself then Harry.

We headed to Malmesbury and ten on to Gordon’s bay and went around the point on our way to Kleinmond, I have never ridden this road and this for me was the highlight of the day, what an outstanding bit of tar to ride.

At Kleinmont we stopped for a bite to eat where harry had the last hamburger made with love by the friendly lady behind the counter at the Sasol garage, the snacks on offer at this bakery were very good for a convenience store.

From here we headed out towards Arabella and the Highlands Pass, ant started on the dirt very slowly as he has never ridden the new (second-hand) transalp on the dirt, as he got the feel of the bike he started to speed up and left harry and myself in the dust.

 Now this is where the GPS went all wrong and we ended up going around in circles (I must stress this happens on a regular occurrence when we all ride together we spend a lot of time turning around). eventually Harry took over the lead and took us to the Viljoens Pass near Grabouw, by this time the temp had got up and we were all feeling the heat, the navigator more so as he was now lost without that confused GPS.

We stopped for a bit on the bridge over the Theewaterskloof dam and then headed for the Franschhoek Pass

Wow what a lovely pass to ride, Harry was in his element and at a pit stop in Franschhoek he explained how in his younger days he would scrape his foot pegs around the corners , I was a little unsure on the corners as the knobblies on my bike were not the great for these corners.

So there we did 3 passes in one day, from there we headed through Paarl to Riebeek Kasteel and then on home to Langebaan arriving safely but tired after having done approximately 550 km I was still vibrating at about 8:30 last night from those knobblies tyres.

Lesson learnt don’t rely on your friends to prepare your bike, rather do it yourself and then you know it’s done. There are some great tar roads in the Western Cape but I still prefer the dirt roads

Day 5 and Day 6

Day 5 was a quick breakfast and we were on the road by about half past eight. After a quick stop at the Hand of God, the gravel road soon became a decent track with rocky climbs, decents, sandy river stretches and great views. It all kind of blurs into a fantastic days riding. We followed the Akkadis Pass and Helskloof route, even if we were very tempted to head right down to the river. It was actually a good choice as on those roads travel was slow – partly because of the stops to see the scenery and partly because the bikes traveled much faster than the Landy.

Along this stretch those who had not as yet dropped their bikes did so. Greg even managed to do it standing still.

 After exiting the park the bikes headed towards Eksteenfontein on the side tracks while the Landy stayed on the main track. On the first side track detour Harry got grumpy and Grant was finding his bike very difficult to ride so when it came to the second detour Harry, Grant and Andy stayed on the main track while Ant, Jaco, Greg and I took the mountain route.

 It was a really interesting route with technical climbs, sand, rivers and fesh-fesh. I had come across this in Namibia but the first stretch in a corner caught me off guard and I overran into the shrubs rather than drop the bike. I caught up to Greg just as he hit a long deep stretch and all I saw was a sudden dust explosion. I stopped next to him as he was getting up and I at least had the decency to ask him if I could take a pic before I helped him up. Ant must have seen something in his mirrors because he came back as well and helped Greg to get going again. If you check the picture you will see why I could not stop laughing. There and then we renamed him “Dusty”. When he got going he just took off and we could not keep up, And when he arrived at the house in Eksteenfontein the rest who were already there could not believe it and he really came in for some comments. It took him about 2 hours to get himself “undusted” and we were amazed where the dust had got to. It was even inside his helmet and clothes.


We were lazy that evening and the ladies of Eksteenfontein made food for us. It was nice to have home-cooked style food again and it was followed by the fines evening. Greg, Tony and Grant were found guilty of many offences and drank often, Jaco got off lightly, and Jeremy even put himself forward for a fine. Based on some of the slow travel we had been doing we discussed the long day for the following day and decided that if it looked like we would not reach Kammieskroon before dark following the tracks we had planned then we would get onto the N7 and open up. 

Day 6: Things heat up. Greg was heading directly back to Langebaan so he packed his bike (looked like an Ovambo taxi) and set off early. The Eksteenfontein ladies served us a good breakfast and we then set out. Being thoughtful in planning for a change of lunch, 12 hard boiled eggs were prepared but when they were packed no-one (except the perpetrator) noticed that there were 13 eggs and one had a small cross on one end. We got off the main track fairly soon and headed up a mountain track which once again provided some excellent technical riding which most of us enjoyed. However Grant on his troublesome bike was battling and Harry was getting hot (in more ways than one). Once we had crossed the R328 we headed down some farm tracks and hit a track with lots of sandy river 

beds and about 1000 gates which eventually came out at Nigramoep from where we headed to the old O’kiep mine for lunch. Lunch once again was rolls, and cans and some nice hard boiled eggs. Except, that is, for the one that Tony cracked and wound up with raw egg all over his hand. I had to go for a leak I was laughing so much as the debate raged as to how it could have happened. Just after leaving the mine on a really decent gravel road we had planned to take a left down a farm track and Jaco was adamant we should. As we had passed it the Landy had to turn – which it could not do without unhitching the trailer. However some others with heat and problem bike felt that the gravel road to Springbok was the wise choice.

 To make matters worse a local stopped and told Grant that the farm road had been washed out and was passable but difficult, and this was not passed on to Ant or Jaco. 

As Grant’s bike was now also refusing to rev cleanly he had had enough of tracks and headed down the gravel road toward Springbok with Harry and Andy after him. I was ready for some easier riding and followed with Ant and Jaco behind. At Nababeep we reached tar and I must admit it was great to ride the tar to O’kiep and hit the N7 towards Kammieskroon. 

 Grant’s bike however had had enough and was backfiring as soon as he tried to rev, so it was hitched to the mighty V-Strom for a tow. Grant was not too happy about it but with Andy and I riding shotgun all went well as we protected him from traffic from the rear. At Kammieskroon I again had a go at sorting out Grants bike but as it appeared electrical there was not much I could do.

 We even disconnected his Vapor unit in case that was the problem. Here I found out what a wonderful wife I have. When I told her of the problem she offered to bring my DRZ up on the trailer from Saldanha and to take Grant’s bike back. Grant eventually decided to use his AA membership to see what they would do and after much frustration organized a car to be brought to him in the morning. The Verbe campsite may be all sand but it has the best ablutions I have seen for a long time. When I pitched my tent I was worried about all the ants but pouring a bit of coke on the ground a distance away soon distracted them from my dirty socks and back-pack. When I looked later the ants were like a Zion Easter assembly at Moria.