4 Day Cape - Baviaans Blitz

[MildlyWild]

This might end up being a rather lengthy report, to be completed over a few days probably, considering our route, the scenery, our adventures and the amount of photos we took...
But bear with me - my writing skills are even more rusty than my riding skills

 

[MildlyWild]

So, my last report was after Easter last year, my last decent trip was August 2022 when I flew solo from CT to the depths of Die Hel and back in 2 days, with much roadside repairs, much rain and bitter cold. Maybe more on that one another time.
Shortly after that trip I managed to tear off 3 shoulder ligaments with a mtb fall, keeping me off all forms of 2 wheels completely until Dec and off gravel until Jan this year.
Everything healed up nicely, but serious withdrawal symptoms set in along the way and superficial talk of a trip started to float around between me and Tiaan
Tiaan had recently upgraded from his 700 TransAlp to an Africa Twin and was keen to put it through its paces properly.

Things came to a head rather suddenly when we decided on the Tuesday that we will be doing a 4 day trip to Baviaans, starting on the Saturday, with my rear pannier rack on Badger (BMW XChallenge) still buggered and indicators playing up after the Hel trip last year, and Bliksem (KTM 950) having a slight oil leak and dead battery syndrome, and most of my gear packed away in various boxes and cupboards after moving house.
Decisions, decisions...

 

[Black_Hawk]

Subscribed, the best trips are the "impulsive" and unplanned ones.

Looking forward reading about your adventure.

 

[MildlyWild]

Finally, on Thursday I decided that Badger would be the chosen one, which meant that Friday saw me welding and fitting the panniers, pumping tyres, frantically sorting out and packing kit for our intended camping trip.
Good weather was predicted for the Southern Cape, but Saturday arrived in Cape Town with a steady drizzle. Not feeling lus to start our ride in the rain we waited until 8:30 before we left, and then promptly got soaked on Du Toitskloof Pass anyway, all the way to Rawsonville. Not even having decided on a final route for our trip yet, we simply slabbed the 160km to Touwsriver where we started planning over breakfast

Anysberg Reserve, one of my go to routes, ended up being chosen as our entry point into our 4 day adventure, so off we went, heading southerly out of Touwsriver onto gravel. Easy gravel roads, washed out slightly here and there brought us to Anysberg's gate, with a pointed reminder that if sh*t hit the fan we should hopefully be able to catch some fresh dinner, which almost ended up a real possibility
The idea was that we would make our way all the way to the vicinity of Oudtshoorn that day. The original idea...

 

[MildlyWild]

Anysberg Reserve, and actually the entire region, is beautifully lush after some proper rain, with a fair bit of water still visible.
Although it is pretty much impossible to stick to the 40km/h speed limit we did keep our speed waaaay down and opted to enjoy the beauty of the surroundings rather than the actual riding.
* This a SanParks reserve guys, where we enjoy the absolute privelege of being able to ride through for free at the moment - let's all ensure we do not ruin this with hooliganism and disregard in future *

A few adolescent ostriches challenged us to a race at some point, but had to eventually bow out after realising that they were no match for the horses we had on our side.

And then disaster struck Tiaan's ego . Ok, his ego is not really thát fragile, but still.
I took a small detour to my usual coffee stop, which involved an uneven, rocky 2 spoor into and through the muddy stream crossing, stopped and waited for Tiaan. Who did not appear. So I walked back down, to find his Africa Twin lazily taking a very comfortable nap

 

[MildlyWild]

Just another ruin in the reserve

 

[MildlyWild]

After a bit of a rest and a good coffee we set off again, right into the sand monster's clutches
The recent heavy rains had left some proper deep loose sand on the road.
Now I dont like riding through sand and I am not good at it yet either, but this time I made it through.

Tiaan was not lucky this day, with his sense of humour eventually failing him after the 3rd sandy zigzaggy tumble. Mostly the damage was superficial, but the 2nd one had us doing some repairs while having lunch.
When he slid out on his side the bolts clamping the protector blocks protecting the lower crashbars, protecting the engine covers punched a neat hole in the latter
Luckily Pratley Steel came to the rescue and after a quick fix we were off again

With our original late start, planning in Touwsriver and all the delays the day was flying past fast so we cruised through the remaining joy of Anysberg carefully and headed for Koedoeskloof outside Ladismith.

 

[MildlyWild]

Eugene and Debi's hospitality at Koedoeskloof never disappoints, and we happily pitched our tents and had a shower before we ordered a burger and beers.
There were a few fellow adventurers that opted to forsake their normal rides for a multi day scooter trip - sounded like they were having insane fun
And a couple came through from Prins Albert on Die Hekke Pad (yes, there are more hekke per km than sheep) that day on a KTM 500 and CRF 250, testifying to some seriously gnarly terrain after the flooding 2 days prior.

 

[MildlyWild]

After some consideration we decided to enter Baviaans from the eastern side and opted to include some scenic passes on the way through the southern cape.
So at 9am, again, we headed to Calitzdorp on tar via the incredible Huisrivier Pass, then stayed south of the R62 on some gravel and concrete roads until we hit Oudtshoorn. A wrong turn in town had me heading for De Rust, so we swung a right at Dysselsdorp and rode a very nice flowing gravel road all the way to Herold, our entry point into the magnificent Montague Pass.

Normally a sedan can drive that road, but after some severe flooding the road is officially closed, awaiting repairs, with loose rocks and gulleys all over the place in certain sections. A novice rider on a big bike will struggle coming down there.

 

[MildlyWild]

After refuelling ourselves and the bikes in George we headed past Saasveld onto the superb Seven Passes Rd, which you would not believe includes no less than 7 passes . I cannot remember the names of all these, but it is a beautiful ride, coming out at Karatara. From there we took the short cut down Phantom Pass next to the Knysna lagoon.
There we decided to hit the tar again to Plettenberg Bay, where I did not enjoy a terribly slightly below average burger at the Spur opposite Beacon Isle. Our initial ideal was to ride up Prins Alfred Pass towards Uniondale past Angie's G-Spot, but time did not allow for that this time around, so we headed towards Humansdorp via Bloukrans Pass.
Here one can really see the difference between WC and EC - the road down the pass is beautifully restored and tarred, while the road on the EC side is slowly being taken over by the forest - nice for 2 wheels, but sad to see a road of this beauty not accessible to the general public.

With a quick top up and getting some provisions in Humansdorp we set off, in the dark already towards the Baviaanskloof, determined to get close and having found out that camping spots was available at Bruintjieskraal. Riding the X in the dark is not much fun - I really need to get some spots on

 

[MildlyWild]

Bruintjieskraal's camping spots is really neat, with a lot of space between sites, lots of grass and amazingly lush and green at the moment - and we got to see this only the next morning, with the grass quite wet from the dew. Needless to say, we took our time packing up and hit the road at around 9am again, heading into the actual Baviaanskloof Reserve, where a R59 permit at the gate allowed us in.

Wow!! Just wow!!! Having last been in Baviaans about 16 years ago I could not remember much of it all and was blown away by the incredible scenery and terrain on that side The mountains are majestic, the vegetation varies from Knysna forest-like sections in the valleys, to dense shrubbery on the mountains, then lowveld-like areas in the flat bits.. Really really amazing.

Pretty much all of the road is in really good condition and easy to ride, with the exception being 2 or 3 of the mountain passes that is REALLY washed out, loose, rocky, rutty - that is, FUN Even the part where my back wheel slid out around a slow rocky hairpin corner, at low speed - no real damage to the bike, apart from the fact that I had to bend the gear lever straight, pivot the handguard down and secure my screen again. Oh, and my wrist took a little knock, which felt fine until much later that day...

Pity that we did not take pics of the gnarly bits, having concentrated too much on getting (mostly down) through safely.
The infamous water crossing was disappointingly bone dry, but a deep hole in one of the river crossing later on did manage to get us wet to our knees - much unexpected fun

 

[MildlyWild]

Obviously we felt compelled to stop and make some coffee again about halfway through the reserve, with the entire reserve section being ridden at a very leisurely pace so that we could a) look around and enjoy the scenery, and b) keep to the speed limit and not tick off the 4x4 drivers.
At that speed Tiaan's plakkies reckoned that they could keep up on their own and tried their best to run next to his bike - but unfortunately for them I foiled their plans

Respect to the elderly couple on their hardtail e-bikes we encountered that were about to start the hardest part of the route

After exiting the reserve our pace picked up a bit, with the gravel roads being in good condition.
Willowmore was our next stop, and quite frankly, I could not wait to get there - my left wrist was now sore to the point where I wanted to let go of the handlebar every time I rode through a riverbed, pothole or rut in the road

Willowmore is a neat little town, but it was with very low expectations that I ordered a beer (they nogal had my favourite Castle Milk Stout) and a burger at the Royal Hotel. To my absolute surprise it was seriously the best burger I've had in a long time, anywhere, and I eat a lot of burgers Kudos to them!!!! The hotel and bar is really good looking and I can imagine that some really lekker kuiers have gone down there through the years...

After popping 2 Ibuprofens (and I did not even take pain medication after my shoulder op last year) with my beer, strapping my wrist and finding a nice back route to Prins Albert we hopped on and cruised out of town again at 4:15pm, thinking we would finish off the day with some easy gravel riding. Yeah right! The adventure gods had other plans for us

 

[MildlyWild]

The gravel road out of Willowmore took us past Vondeling station, one of hundreds of sadly deserted and pillaged railroad stations across the country, but with a certain allure remaining behind.
Shortly after I took a smaller turnoff to the north, which ended up being an awesome semi-2 spoor track that run almost straight next to the fence, but with ongoing little undulations that made one feel as if you were racing something like the Kalahari Rally or Dakar - incredible fun! And the strapping and Ibuprofen was definitely working because my wrist felt almost perfect

We crossed the same river 9 times,with wide, open, sometimes sandy crossings (would be amazing to be able to ride in that riverbed), and one or 2 that had some water. And then came the last one...
With Tiaan a little way behind I probably went in at 40-50km/h, with the concrete low level bridge covered with water. No problem, same as all other crossings. Not

 

[Vaufi]

Yeah, that's South Africa as I love it. These wide open spaces......

Great RR. Thx!

 

[MildlyWild]

A few metres after hitting the water I was sliding on my side across the cement, with the surface slick enough to take out my wheels from under me before I could even register what was happening. I slid about 10 or 15 metres, ending up facing back the way I came from, soaking wet and full of mud on my one side, but luckily with nothing hurt or busted on myself or Badger.
Grinning like an ***** I got up, almost falling again on the snotty surface just trying to walk further back to stop Tiaan. My attempt at imitating a traffic officer must have been lost in translation with my wrist still not being able to bend up sufficiently, because Tiaan thought I was just trying to slow him down, never mind the fact that Badger was lying flat on his side further on. So, at about jogging speed he rode onto the watery section, only for his front wheel to do a neat little sidestep that Cheslin Colbe would be proud of, and down he went into, or onto the water. I almost wet myself laughing, besides the fact that I was wet already.
Luckily Tiaan also suffered no real issues, apart from a double hand-size bruise on his hip.

Getting the bikes up and to solid ground was a bit of a mission - the surface was so slick that even walking on it was almost impossible, so picking up Tiaan's slightly heavier bike which lay more in the middle of the crossing proved a slightly less than simple exercise, but we eventually managed to get both bikes upright.

 

[petri oosthuizen]

Nice!!
Like daai Wit BMW

 

[MildlyWild]

By this time sunset was creeping up on us and although the narrow gravel road, and later on almost 2 spoor track was awesome to ride, the sun was setting directly in front of us and seeing the surface fat enough ahead to ride at a reasonable speed became almost impossible. To the point where I was hokding my left hand up in front of my face most of the time and only holding the bars when I had to change gears or were about to hit a rough spot, or a large tortoise.
Behind me Tiaan opted to ride blindly into or over whatever he encountered, so when we got to a crossing with the option of taking the tar to Prins Albert we took it gladly. As it was we rode the last 30min in the dark, so I was not too sad to have missed the last section of gravel into town.

Since we knew we were going to get in late we booked a guest house in Prins Albert while having lunch in Willowmore, and comfortable beds were very welcome that night.

With the town having experienced a mosquito plague of almost biblical proportions, and Tiaan being afraid that he might have no blood left to donate back home he chose the fairy bed. Well, that was his story anyway.
Luckily the strong wind outside blew all the mozzies out to sea so I was not bothered either.

 

[XRRX]

What an interesting ride, thx for sharing!!!

 

[firecoast]

LOVE LOVE LOVE!

 

[Chrisl]

Daai snotdriffie is baie naby aan die Willowmore-Klaarstroompad amper net daar waar julle regs gedraai het. Hy lyk omtrent altyd so morsig!!