Slim Jim time out time

Hey s
DAY 1
After a snow delay on the 22nd I met up with Riece and Kiyana I'm Mooi river and we headed out for our long awaited time out.
We followed the snow and back roads through winterton and up to van reenen via the train tunnels. It was super slippy and cold. From there we took to dirt to sterkfontain dam and headed for Clarence. We enquired at Golden gate for camping and at R600 not going to happen so we spoiled ourselves with a challet at the back packers R280pp. Warm bed and hot shower . Long an awsome ride . 10HRS on the road .

Ps , there was no plan or booking on this trip , work it out on the road

DAY 2
After a good night's sleep and a braai for supper (steak and bread rolls) we packed up and got ready to leave . We worked out our fuel consumption and it was standing at 26kmpl. Pretty good . We hit the road to head for Colesberg. We had a quick stop at the cherri farm were we got some meat marinade and had a chat with the manager. He recons this year's music for the cherri festival is a bar!
On route to Ladybrand the GS started to splutter and the rev counter was doing some strange stuff at the fuel stop in Ladybrand we went through the wiring and as we touched the kick stand switch it fell apart. So with some prattley steel and some cable ties that got fixed and we were on our way again.
We took the road to Hobhouse , ffffff potholes deluxe!! There the Gs chain came off , lucky it was slow going . Fixed that and set off. There we stopped for a toilet stop for Kiyana , R2 for the loo with no paper and no seat ! Ah well..... pressed on .
From there we hit the dirt to smithfield, wow an awsome sandy road . 120kmh all the way! Anything slower and the bike is all over the place . There a van hit a cape cobra that I swerved for and we turned back ( as thick as my arm !!! ) poor bugger didn't make it!
We took the long way round to River destiny were was home for the night and met a guy on a Gs 1200 from the Netherlands on his way to cape Town to ship his bike back , he had come from Namibia, Botswana and was finishing off south africa . Cool guy.
R720 for mutton chops , wood , rolls and camping for all of us. Nice ! Awsome hot shower and very clean .
I must say at 2 o'clock in the morning that place gets Fff cold !
All spirits were up and ready for day 3

DAY 3
After a cold start and breakfast and 2 cups of Jacob's it was time to hit the road , the aim was Rhodes....The start of the morning were dog straight roads........... every now the and then the road builder fell asleep and we had a corner !
We got to Venterstad to fill up, that's not a one horse town , even the donkey has has pissed off from that place .
Next stop was Burgersdorp , buitifull place , Aliwail north and onto Lady grey to fill up. By then we were gatfoll of straight Tarr roads and hit Jobers pass.... Stunning!
On the other side of the pass the Gs had a oops . Riece and Kiyana ended up under the bike in the mud and got stuck. With abit of heavy breathing we got the bike up and Kiyana had hurt here knee quite bad . We got here on the bike and pressed on . I thought the trip was over!
I stopped the about 5 km in and gave her 3 super dupper pain killers and we carried on. On the way to Barkley east there were massive runaway fires and rock fall stop and goes but we got there around 3.30 eventually and decided to press on as Kiyana was as high as a kite and the world was .
At the OK we met a couple that told us the mountain passes at Rhodes were impassable and said he came from there and took his bike places he never knew possible ( one fully loaded clean Gs 1200 mmmmmmmmm) F it let's go........
We got to Rhodes about 5.30 TIERD ! the road had been graded so it was bloody loose!
We set up at walk abouts and there was only a tap with water. All good ,that night we had Briyani for supper and bread rolls, drugged chicki up and slept dead . We paid R80 a person to camp . We didn't care there was no facilities we were just so tired. 11 hrs on the road.

DAY 4
We were in for a looooong day. Up early breakfast and discovered someone was in our camp that night and stole out juice that we left outside ( wankers) I still had a whole bottle of horse tranquizers so game on! We started the passes , stunning but the wind was giving it horns! At one stage on the way to Tenna head we had a meter wide track in the snow to ride and that's all ! No pics of that sorry , it was all hands on deck there.
We made it down Naudeers pass easy ( mmmmmm Mr Gs must have been on something ! ) and carried on to Mt Fletcher, by this time the wind was nuts! We were being blown all over the place .
Just before Matat there we kids throwing stones and running at us in the road by the speed bumps and Riece connected one with his bars . Iesh .... one spinning motion and all for down for that clown . Hand gaurd broken but brake lever still good , got the hell out of there and hit the dirt to swartberg. That road was rough and my screen broke in half from the vibration , poor Kiyana was in tears from the pain so we decided to stay at silverstreams camp near underburg. We were so tired it felt the 25km dirt road to the camp was 500 km long .
Once the we paid R100 each to sleep and R46 for a pice a worse ! Hell it was expensive food , at that stage who cares we were hungry and done riding for the day. 350km of shit dirt road 3 passes and gale force wind is enough to make anyone grumpy.
Once camp was set up, we drugged up chicki again and made a fire and ate our gold plated meat and bread rolls . There was no power because of the snow so no hot shower . F It , cold it is !!!! I must say when you get out the shower you instantly warm !
Had an awsome sleep that night and decided we need to head home the next day

DAY 5
It was lazy getting up and we took our time . We were feeling abit sad the ride was coming to an end and the bikes had really taken a beating ( more on that later ) we went past bussmans neck resort or what's left of it after the wild fire , shame I think it's not even worth trying to rebuild. So sad .
Did mostly dirt home at a nice pace and were home by 1 o'clock.

CONCLUSION
Total trip 1896km
I needed this , it was my last challange to getting to do things sober since I decided to face my demons.
Job done ! Living sober has so much more to give than a bottle!!!
The entire trip cost me R1400 all in , food fuel and camping . There memories were priceless. This was also the first time Riece and Kiyana have ever done something like this and the bug has bitten. We were discussing the next trip will be 10 days around the boarder of cape province next year.
The GS
Front fork seals both gone and the forks are pogo sticks now. The chain and sprockets are throw away. Tyres are done. The luggage system needs some propper upgrades.
The XT
One fork seal is leaking , chain is history , screen needs repair ( new one is R1500) tyres are game over . I must say the tidy tail worked well and the new pipes made a massive difference. Money well worth spending

That was an adventure for the sole . No planning , no booking and take it on the fly.

Till next time .
Later s

Epic man! Thanks for sharing - all the time typing and posting!
This is how we used to do trips many years ago!

Thanks for sharing, epic doing that area just after the snow.