Up the Downs

After listening to the rain the entire night I lay in bed and my head said Iâ??d be crazy to go riding but my heart got the better of me and I set off to meet 6 strangers in Bronkhorstspruit.

We headed north in cold and miserable conditions with the dirt rather treacherous in patches â?? Fortunately mostly sandy roads with good traction.
The skies lifted after â??Albaster Gatâ? and soon the northern Drakensburg beckoned.

Superb riding through villages with friendly kids and beautiful bushveld trees.
We climbed the range up towards the Downs and Wolkberg with mildly technical rocky tracks â?? My 950 felt superb as it dealt with this pass with ease and before we knew it we summitted and arrived at the â??Downsâ?.

The narrow tracks on top claimed numerous scalps with â??hardyâ? topping the list, fortunately nothing serious and we descended into the lowveld on the other side.

Our stop over for the night was the â??Leydsdorpâ? Lodge â?? Great venue and good value.

Sunday morning great riding between the baobabs and lots of game around. Sorry for you expats!

The inevitable â??flatâ? got dealt with promptly by â??Georgeâ? from Mean Machine Bicycles.  This dude is sixty something and rode a 650 XLR Honda on the trip â?? an inspiration.  Then the Dakar decided to blow out a bunch of oil â?? Pratleyâ??s steel to the rescue and on the way again.

Bikers are amazing dudes â?? we met as strangers on Saturday morning and had a blast with lots of laughs and jibing and ripping off of bikes â?? 5 brands out of 7 bikes.

For an overnighter this has got to be one of the best routes out of Gauteng.
Thanks to Mike and Enduro World for organizing and all the riders for a superb weekend â?? No cobwebs this week.

THIS THREAD DOES HAVE PICS!






































 

Nice report. That looks like a lovely route!

One of those Enduro World trips?

Where exactly was this???

Very nice scenery

runner said:

One of those Enduro World trips?

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Indeed

Ratel said:

Where exactly was this???

Very nice scenery

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Northern Drakensberg, between Burgers fort and Gravelot

Great riding! Looks good.

Thanks.

Damn Slick !!!

Lying in my bed early on a rainy Saturday morning and I hear you go past. Damn, again I say - you must be crazy on a morning like this, and yet, my heart was with you - DAMN !!!!

Anyhow, I missed out

... and hearing you return late this afternoon (you can hear those Stealth cans a mile away)
DAMN !!!  >

With my bike possibly on it's way to a new home next week, I did not want to take it out this weekend.

Looks like you had a lekker trip. Nice pics and great riding !!! 

I was on that trip and although it was my very first "Genuine off-road" experience, I can only say that I thoroughly enjoyed every minute.

The best part of this trip, was not just the incredible scenery, but the fact that we had one of the best groups of guys.

All 6 of you made my experience a one-of-lifetime.

PS The XT behaved magnificently - now I'm wondering whether I should actually sell it !!!

Very nice
Beautiful pics, respect.

Just  a quick question:
That Honda looks like a XR650R, not the XR650L?

Cool report and some great pics.

So you Gauteng dudes do have some great riding areas and scenery, why don't you share it with us more often?

Well done.

Man, that looks like an awesome area to ride in... stunning scenery... thanks for sharing!

Kaboef said:

Just  a quick question:
That Honda looks like a XR650R, not the XR650L?

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Could well be
I dont know my hondas from the keyboard my lighty is using to type this reply.
Techno dinosaur.

Hi SLick

Nice report.

Did the game rangers not give you trouble on entering the reserve? I heard they don't allow bikes through there any more, so one had to come from the other side, so by the time you get to the rangers, you have actually already ridden through the reserve?

Nice one... stunning route & pics..

Kaboef said:

Very nice
Beautiful pics, respect.

Just  a quick question:
That Honda looks like a XR650R, not the XR650L?

Click to expand...

Verseker 'n R nie'n L nie.

Leo said:

Did the game rangers not give you trouble on entering the reserve? I heard they don't allow bikes through there any more, so one had to come from the other side, so by the time you get to the rangers, you have actually already ridden through the reserve?

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Those dudes are so fast asleep that they let the entrance gate, lapa, office, and tractor burn down the other day, also when we entered from the back side (not greek) a bakkie with a load of wood and a whole bunch of hunting dog had just left the reserve via the gate.
So much for nature conservation.

Here are some more pics

Hardy after grabbing too much throttle on his Dakar

Bliksem!

That could have been nasty!


If all was OK, a very funny pic, though. :mrgreen:

Slick,

Nice report - grew up in that neck-of-the-woods.
If you can remember route, you could lead a couple of us out there sometime 

Dave