6 Dogs in Swazi Land
The preparation for this particular trip started early this year, as it was almost a year since our last trip to Lesotho. The guys where excited and shared their enthusiasm with anyone who would listen.
All the excitement rubbed off and soon we had three new additions to our usual three man wolf pack.
The old dogs:
Myself(Danie) on a 1200 GS, Andre on a KTM 990 and Flip on a 660 Tenere, had to stand ready to advise and guide our new recruits in to making the best possible choices when purchasing bikes.
Jaco – was new to biking and settled for a BMW F800GS (This bike was bought 4 weeks before the trip)
Anton – Comes from a off-road back ground and bought a KTM 690 (bought the bike 3 weeks before the trip)
Mack – Has lot’s of endeuro experience and bought a GS 1200 (bought his bike 2 weeks before the trip)
After spending a small fortune on accessories and camping goods, we were all ready for the trip that started on 16 October 2014.
Day 1 ( Pretoria/Brakpan, Delmas, Kriel, Bethal, Ermelo, Piet Retief – 315km, 11h00 – 16h00)
We all met up in Delmas at 12:00 on Thursday afternoon. The excitement was high when we met the guys at the garage, and could not wait to get back on the road again. The wind was really bad and I knew we had a tough time ahead of us. The guys on the smaller bikes had it bad, and the wind pushed them around, so we had to travel between 80 km/h and 100 km/h.
The road between Delmas and Ermelo was boring, windy and full of trucks, possibly the worst part of the entire trip. The wind was so bad, I was at one point overtaken by birds....I think they must have done about 140 Km/h…. :ricky:
But we were on our bikes and not in the office so we did not complain too much.
In Ermelo we stopped for a Pizza and a beer at the Dross and soon we had energy, and strength, to battle the torrential winds.
Just before Piet Retief it started getting dark (this was at 15:00). We stopped to put on some rain suits.
Not long after we have left it started pouring down with rain and hail. The guys got separated and everyone was concentrating just to stay alive, and not to be run over by a truck or some out of control car.
Luckily we made it all through this storm that we later learned caused extensive damage to buildings, and blew off the roofs of over 200 houses and schools in Swaziland just down the road.
We were all exhausted, and some emotionally drained, so we decided not to cary on into Swaziland and just stay over in Piet Retief for the night.
We found a place called (Holme lea Manor). The place was very well run with friendly staff and management team. They helped us out and even organized pizzas for us from their restaurant down the road. That night we all slept like Kings.
It cost us R350 per person including breakfast which I think was great value for money.
During the night the downpour of rain continued. When I woke at 3:00 am, because of the heavy rain, I made peace with the fact that our trip might be over....
The preparation for this particular trip started early this year, as it was almost a year since our last trip to Lesotho. The guys where excited and shared their enthusiasm with anyone who would listen.
All the excitement rubbed off and soon we had three new additions to our usual three man wolf pack.
The old dogs:
Myself(Danie) on a 1200 GS, Andre on a KTM 990 and Flip on a 660 Tenere, had to stand ready to advise and guide our new recruits in to making the best possible choices when purchasing bikes.
Jaco – was new to biking and settled for a BMW F800GS (This bike was bought 4 weeks before the trip)
Anton – Comes from a off-road back ground and bought a KTM 690 (bought the bike 3 weeks before the trip)
Mack – Has lot’s of endeuro experience and bought a GS 1200 (bought his bike 2 weeks before the trip)
After spending a small fortune on accessories and camping goods, we were all ready for the trip that started on 16 October 2014.
Day 1 ( Pretoria/Brakpan, Delmas, Kriel, Bethal, Ermelo, Piet Retief – 315km, 11h00 – 16h00)
We all met up in Delmas at 12:00 on Thursday afternoon. The excitement was high when we met the guys at the garage, and could not wait to get back on the road again. The wind was really bad and I knew we had a tough time ahead of us. The guys on the smaller bikes had it bad, and the wind pushed them around, so we had to travel between 80 km/h and 100 km/h.
The road between Delmas and Ermelo was boring, windy and full of trucks, possibly the worst part of the entire trip. The wind was so bad, I was at one point overtaken by birds....I think they must have done about 140 Km/h…. :ricky:
But we were on our bikes and not in the office so we did not complain too much.
In Ermelo we stopped for a Pizza and a beer at the Dross and soon we had energy, and strength, to battle the torrential winds.
Just before Piet Retief it started getting dark (this was at 15:00). We stopped to put on some rain suits.
Not long after we have left it started pouring down with rain and hail. The guys got separated and everyone was concentrating just to stay alive, and not to be run over by a truck or some out of control car.
Luckily we made it all through this storm that we later learned caused extensive damage to buildings, and blew off the roofs of over 200 houses and schools in Swaziland just down the road.
We were all exhausted, and some emotionally drained, so we decided not to cary on into Swaziland and just stay over in Piet Retief for the night.
We found a place called (Holme lea Manor). The place was very well run with friendly staff and management team. They helped us out and even organized pizzas for us from their restaurant down the road. That night we all slept like Kings.
It cost us R350 per person including breakfast which I think was great value for money.
During the night the downpour of rain continued. When I woke at 3:00 am, because of the heavy rain, I made peace with the fact that our trip might be over....
