Franschoek and the Berg River Dam - Only Mad Dogs and an Englishman

Wes's text interrupted private little moment with Penelope Cruz as I was dragged from my slumber.  My reluctance to rise (and leave Penny) was answered with another text with words which included Shrimp Sh1t when the Sarge exerted his authority. 

At 8,30 I slide into Engen Winelands to meet and greet Chris (also on a Wee Strom) and then we sit and wai for Wes! Hell, had I known about his tardiness, I'm sure I would've got lucky with Penny.  :-[ But alas, soon Wes hove into view, blocking daylight as he arrived, as he dwarfes his 650 Dakar.

Our plan was to visit some trails we had seen from the R45. The trails cut into the forests above Franshoek and the Berg River dam just looked too much like adventure which needed to be visited.

AS we found the entrance to the trail, we parked up to softe our rubbers a bit and give us an ounce of hope for where we wre going. The first trail looked OK and started with a 40 meter sandy bit followed by a water splash about 40 meters as well. The Stroms made it safely through and then I nearly dropped my bike as I saw Wes pushing his Dakar out of the bush. He'd, sort of, lost things and been catapulted off into the greenery. 

The Dog Tools

Gingerly, we made our way up the trail. The gradient was reasonable but the running streams cutting deep furrows made for extremely treacherous and technical riding. At one point, the track had half been washed away, leaving us with a narrow piece on which to ride, all of us wondering how much of the under-pinning was washed away as well. 

A little further on and, having got my Strom into a gulley which had the bike bouncing off the bash plate as I drove it out, I was thinking twice about this malarky. The heavy rains of the past few days had made things almost impassable. My colleagues arrived, panting withthe exertion of muscling the bikes up the track. Wes will post some video of the decision making process, suffice to say we headed back down to the start to find another trail.

Going down was even more hairy than going up as the loose rocks kept depositingthe bike into the gulleys and furrows which meant we really had to work hard on shifting weight aross the pegs.

We all made it back down, but without a puckering moment or two.  ??? As we ended the stage, you recall I mentioned a sand trap and water feature. Look at Chris in pic 1, starting to get it all wrong, pic 2 shows him saving it and, hat's off, he saved it. I never got another pic as I was rolling around laughing y ass off!  ;D

More to come folks, gotta take Flower of the North to the mall.

Lawrence 

Nice one Lawrence!
Good writing.

Was wondering whether you crazy mofo's were going out yesterday.
I'm almost certain I told Wes the going's gonna be super tough if the rain persists.
We were pretty washed out here the last couple of days.
Clearly more balls than brains.

WEll next, we headed in the direction of Franschoek and shortly, found a trail with a white arrow on the ground, unlike the previous trail's white CROSS! 

WE headed up on a steadily worsening trail, a trail which eventually had us shifting weight acros the pegs to change tracks. The occassional enthusiastic gassing had the tail squirming like a tickled teenager. At one point, the trees closed in completely making for a gloomy few minutes, all the while the sound of cascading water grew louder and louder. Crossing another slippery water hazard, we came upon the source of the noise and were grateful to fnd that the forestry chaps had fitted a storm water drain which was gushing like a fire hose.

Caution got the better of valour and we got to test the integrity of the BMW Santiago boots walking thrugh the streams to see what was around the corner.  The switchbacks we found would have a snake doing a three-point turn which put all the theory into practice of slow speed, tight  formation riding. Weighting the outside peg and then leaning the bike against the inside knee of the opposite leg had me, more than anybody, very surprised at the agility of the Strom in such challenging enviornment.

The road became the water course and much of the descent of the mountain was done with the flow of the stream. An occassional moment where soft sand, underwater, sent the bike scurrying across the lane to leae you peering over the edge of a drop I wouldn't even walk down.

Suffice to say, I arrived at the bottom grinning like a schoolboy. Mud, water, bikes and mates, what could be better?

A few more at the bottom of the mountain...

The next sequence brings to a close our day's exploration of the hill whose paths had always intrigued us as we flew past. Per chance, we found ourselves in a place, familiar from our little excursion last week.
The difference, this time, was that the trickle by comparison, was now a raging torrent almost knee deep. Again, discretion took the better part of valour and we chose to explore the crossing on foot before taking the bikes through - well that's what sensble Strom riders do!

Wes, however, sat to the side with the Dakar burbling beneath him. What he through was one signal was in fact the exact opposite. Next thing, Chris and I are standing knee deep in a 15 knot current and hee comes Wes. With ears pinned back and assertive body position he hits the water at pace, drenching poor Chris. Fortunately I had a rain suit on so was able to protect myself from the deluge. well, this wouldn't be the last time tha Wes got is glasses drenched through an open visor. In case you're wondering, Wes made it through unscathed and proceeded to taunt us from the seat of the Dakar.  O0

I was next through, almost unceremoniously depositing my bike off the shelf as I hit a pot hole at the entrance. Didn't do that again! Cris was next through and would you believe it, he hits the SAME hole as I did, also nearly depositing his bike further upsteam. The resultant water deluge (see below) had water engulfing his open visor and I swear, I thought he was going to wear his glasses as contacts. He got to the other side and I think he was so enamered with himself, he forgot to put his feet down and promptly deposited his Strom on the ground. The second time in one day where I was rolling around with laughter. 

Wes took another flight at the crossing (for photo's, of course - and vanity!)  :-*

Here's the shots.... (p.s. note Wes when Chris' bike is on its side, his pose is for laughter, nt coming to help!  >)

The day ended with us going to Franschoek for breakfast followed by a scenic ride home via Stellenbosch, guided by the GPS (which I'm sure is programmed by a taxi-driver  ).

I had a great time and felt accomplished as I, with two good friends, conquered some fears and overcame some challenges I've been looking forward to facing.

Thanks guys, I had a great day and look forward to the next ride!

Cheers

Lawrence

That's the spirit man!  You have a way with words and the V-Storm alike, great to see the enjoyment both bring to your life!  Don't stop, more next weekend please.  And take some of those Cape posers with you!  >

Good fun had by all three.
When was that - today, Sunday?  No rain during the ride?

Oh, this was Saturday. We had drizzling rain pretty much all the time, made all the more bearable by my Frank Thomas Aqua suit. I'll open the session now, this was worn over my BMW suit.

SGB, thanks for the kind words, we had a great time and I'm really enjoying the Strom. Yesterday though, the thought of a new 650 Cross Challenge entered my thoughts several times.  :

WE called it quits and went for breakfast as the rain started coming down quite heavily by then which could make things even more dangerous. If it had stayed drizzly, I was onsidering leading the trio to Wellington and then to Ceres to try and get the bikes up to the snow line. Being cold and wet can be quite exhausting and I think too much could have forced bad decisions.

Cheers

Lawrence

MrBig said:

Nice one Lawrence!
Good writing.

Was wondering whether you crazy mofo's were going out yesterday.
I'm almost certain I told Wes the going's gonna be super tough if the rain persists.
We were pretty washed out here the last couple of days.
Clearly more balls than brains.

Click to expand...

Mr Big,

We hoped you would join us. Hope you can make it next time.

Regards

Lawrence

Wooow, looks like you guys had a lot of fun!  O0 Nice report

You guys sure had fun! :thumbsup:

Thanks Lawrence, I mean "Shrimp Sh1t", for posting a terrific report. Yes it was up to me to play weather man and to make sure everyone knew whether we were riding or not. I already had the espresso brewing so there was no complaining from me.

2 important things to note please:

1. Lawrence and Chris were early, I was not late.

2. When I went into the bushes, I was still on the bike and on 2 wheels

That said, here are a couple of video clips Chris and I took (the ones with the poor cellphone quality are mine):
https://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=ABF67F631BD507E4

All in all a fantastic day's riding, with wonderful company!!

Chris also asked me to upload some of his pics for him, so here they are...

...and some more...

The first 4 (previous post) and the 1st one in this bunch are all of the trail that we decided to turn around half way and head back on.

(I took some pics as well, but it's nothing that Chris and Lawrence's great cameras haven't already captured  ;D)

You should sell the pictures and story to suzook's marketing guys.. i am sure they dont even know that their bikes are capable of this...

Let's hear it for the under-rated so-called softroaders from Suzuki!!!

Well done all..

True adventrure...

You guys are crazy!
I'd hate to go out in weather like that
nice one

thanks for the terrific report