DeonS
Pack Dog
Saturday morning, 7 March, 7am. 6 guys hit the road, most of us did not know each other, just met up via word of mouth via friends of friends, etc…
Pat (Africa Twin), Jaco (F800GS), Jason (KLR), Johan (XT660), Rodney (F650GS) and myself on a borrowed Yamaha TTR250 Raid.
Very loose plan – Ride from East London, have breakfast at Old Thomas River North of Stutterheim and back, doing as much dirt as possible. In the end I rode exactly 300km from my house and back again, 215km of which was dirt. Not many photos taken, as our leader, the mad Irishman loves riding his bike too much to stop! :ricky:
So we meet up at 7am, and hit the road, aiming for the Komga dirt road. Jaco’s 800GS was a week old, so he was careful and slow with it. The road was like a tar road and we just cruised on until we hit the Komga tar road. 5km further we turn off onto the next piece of gravel towards Mgwali. Here Jaco leaves us as he has another appointment, and then there were 5.
Crossing the Kubusie river
Nice scenery!
And a good surface on the road as well!
Towards Mgwali the road now starts to feel like a dirt road, nothing technical, just interesting riding. I had the only GPS in the group, with a tentative route on it, but near Qwanti SOMEONE summerly ignores the GPS and we ride on until we hit a deadend – locked farmer’s gate. This slight excursion was in the end actually one of the most technical pieces of road, with nice rock steps to ride up (and typically – nobody took photos of it!). From there we took the Henderson road to the N6, crossed it and had a nice brunch at old Thomas River. Planned to do the loop in the mountain, but family & work responsibilities meant that some of the guys had to head straight back to EL. Anyway, after a beaut of a breakfast, we see that Jason’s front tyre is flat with a nice smiley on the rim (Wonder if it had something to do with his habit of ramping the biggest en all the rocks he could find!
ot: ) Out comes the can of Tyreweld – will this work now??? Wonder of wonders, it worked! :thumleft: And Jason is gone like a bat out of hell to get to a garage in Stutterheim. And then we were 4.
The wall in the Old Thomas River Pub - P@RN!
Rode the 250 as hard as she could go (137km/h on a downhill) to Stutterheim. Filled up with fuel, and here Johan and Rodney left us to go and attend to their various responsibilities. And then we were 2!
Rode out of Stutterheim past the Bethel Mission, where a large part of the Bible was translated into Xhosa. Then on with our next stop at a Gangers Cottage
https://stutterheim.eci.co.za/gangers.htm : “When the railway line between East London and Queenstown was first built it bypassed Stutterheim by several kilometers. It was built during the Frontier War of 1877-1878 when the gangers (railway workers) were in danger of attack by Xhosa tribes. To protect the gangers, fortified "gangers cottages" were built. Cottage No. 17 is situated on the Komga road which brances off the main road at Dohne Station.
The cottage was declared a National monument on 3 December 1976. There are four tambours one on each corner, with slits so that the gangers could defend themselves against attack.”
Gangers Cottage, Africa Twin and Yamaha TTR250 Raid in front
Followed a beautiful and scenic gravel road past the back of the Wriggleswade dam, until we hit the Komga tar road again. 5km of tar later we turn off onto the Macleantown gravel road. Now this road hasn’t seen a grader for MANY years – definitely DS bike heaven! Had quite a few mudholes to content with – and they ALWAYS look easier and smaller on photos compared to from a bike’s seat!
Rode through a beautiful gorge where the Gonubie river flows, crossing it about 4 times. Here the flu started to really get hold of Pat and we rested a while in the shade, Once we hit the N6 at Macleantown it was all over, just a straight cruise back home.
A really enjoyable day with great guys! :thumleft: When’s the next one?
Pat (Africa Twin), Jaco (F800GS), Jason (KLR), Johan (XT660), Rodney (F650GS) and myself on a borrowed Yamaha TTR250 Raid.
Very loose plan – Ride from East London, have breakfast at Old Thomas River North of Stutterheim and back, doing as much dirt as possible. In the end I rode exactly 300km from my house and back again, 215km of which was dirt. Not many photos taken, as our leader, the mad Irishman loves riding his bike too much to stop! :ricky:
So we meet up at 7am, and hit the road, aiming for the Komga dirt road. Jaco’s 800GS was a week old, so he was careful and slow with it. The road was like a tar road and we just cruised on until we hit the Komga tar road. 5km further we turn off onto the next piece of gravel towards Mgwali. Here Jaco leaves us as he has another appointment, and then there were 5.
Crossing the Kubusie river
Nice scenery!
And a good surface on the road as well!
Towards Mgwali the road now starts to feel like a dirt road, nothing technical, just interesting riding. I had the only GPS in the group, with a tentative route on it, but near Qwanti SOMEONE summerly ignores the GPS and we ride on until we hit a deadend – locked farmer’s gate. This slight excursion was in the end actually one of the most technical pieces of road, with nice rock steps to ride up (and typically – nobody took photos of it!). From there we took the Henderson road to the N6, crossed it and had a nice brunch at old Thomas River. Planned to do the loop in the mountain, but family & work responsibilities meant that some of the guys had to head straight back to EL. Anyway, after a beaut of a breakfast, we see that Jason’s front tyre is flat with a nice smiley on the rim (Wonder if it had something to do with his habit of ramping the biggest en all the rocks he could find!
ot: ) Out comes the can of Tyreweld – will this work now??? Wonder of wonders, it worked! :thumleft: And Jason is gone like a bat out of hell to get to a garage in Stutterheim. And then we were 4.
The wall in the Old Thomas River Pub - P@RN!
Rode the 250 as hard as she could go (137km/h on a downhill) to Stutterheim. Filled up with fuel, and here Johan and Rodney left us to go and attend to their various responsibilities. And then we were 2!
Rode out of Stutterheim past the Bethel Mission, where a large part of the Bible was translated into Xhosa. Then on with our next stop at a Gangers Cottage
https://stutterheim.eci.co.za/gangers.htm : “When the railway line between East London and Queenstown was first built it bypassed Stutterheim by several kilometers. It was built during the Frontier War of 1877-1878 when the gangers (railway workers) were in danger of attack by Xhosa tribes. To protect the gangers, fortified "gangers cottages" were built. Cottage No. 17 is situated on the Komga road which brances off the main road at Dohne Station.
The cottage was declared a National monument on 3 December 1976. There are four tambours one on each corner, with slits so that the gangers could defend themselves against attack.”
Gangers Cottage, Africa Twin and Yamaha TTR250 Raid in front
Followed a beautiful and scenic gravel road past the back of the Wriggleswade dam, until we hit the Komga tar road again. 5km of tar later we turn off onto the Macleantown gravel road. Now this road hasn’t seen a grader for MANY years – definitely DS bike heaven! Had quite a few mudholes to content with – and they ALWAYS look easier and smaller on photos compared to from a bike’s seat!
Rode through a beautiful gorge where the Gonubie river flows, crossing it about 4 times. Here the flu started to really get hold of Pat and we rested a while in the shade, Once we hit the N6 at Macleantown it was all over, just a straight cruise back home.
A really enjoyable day with great guys! :thumleft: When’s the next one?
