Some ramblings from my side.
Let me say the following before I go on with anything else:
If you ever see a thread on 'Planning a ride' with the word 'Attakwas' in it, just click 'reply' and say you'll go.
It is worth it.
Our trip started with riding to Caledon on Thursday night to spend the night at the Uilties' place.
We had the most amazing snoek I had in a long time. Canz and Betsie knows how to make people feel welcome.
Uiltjie I just want to say 'thank you' again for you guys' hospitality.
It was also cool to look around in the workshop with all those model aircraft spares lying around.
Then up and ready at 8 the next morning where Phillip joined us for morning coffee and off we went.
The road (and Tannie Karen) led us past Bredasdorp and out the side towards Malgas and the ferry.
The little town of Malgas really is beautiful as you turn the corner to start your decent towards the ferry.
The ferry in itself is very cool. The guys said that on a busy day in the summer season they can 'walk' the ferry across a 150 times ...
So it was out the other side towards Buffeljags. Trailrider isn't the only one that lives in a beautiful area. The Overberg is very green this time of year.
Had a nice breakfast at Buffeljags and then shot across past Suurbraak and Gysmanshoek. We took the roads that spat us out at the back of Riversdale. What a beautiful road that was. You have to do that route if you are in the area.
From Riversdale Uiltjie and Phillip went ahead as their 15:00 in George deadline was looming.
So we stopped off at Albertinia to have some biltong, and we headed out to our 1st George drinks Friday after which we parted ways to meet up at Honda wing the next morning.
That 1st 10 km on the gravel/mud/clay was officially the scariest s..t I've done two up on my bike.
We would be traveling at about 70/80 when all of a sudden you'll see the guys ahead start snaking about. You end up (at about 70) on a piece of clay (that's been cut into a thousand little furrows) with the bike doing what it wants. At one point I was looking to my left and saw Vicky overtaking me.
It was kinda strange as she was sitting on the back seat of my bike.
Surf was just ahead of us and there was this one time were he was sure (as we were) that he was going down. He was riding a little more towards the left edge of the road than we were and he started sliding (backwheel 1st) down the slope towards the edge.
The problem was that he was now sliding sideways towards a couple of mansized potholes on the side of the road. He hit one of them with his back wheel, just before his front went over some nasty bumps.
I've never seen a 1150 GSA snake and shake that violently under a rider (disregarding the fact that it was on mud) and not deposit the rider onto the side of the road.
I was already stressing as to how I'm going to be able to steer clear of where he's going to hit the deck when he just came out the other side. Upright.
Fist of victory in the air and 'Surf was still up' (a slightly modified Trailrider pun...).
A couple of close calls for ourselves later we ended up at the little bridge for our 1st stop.
I'm ashamed to admit that at this stage I was (for a little while anyway) thinking about bailing out.
I got mixed reports about what was still lying ahead. I (later) came to the conclusion that the worst was indeed behind us.
Just to put it into perspective, the bike, a full tank, our luggage and the two of us creates a footprint on the two wheels that is closer to 500kg's than what I would like to admit. Having that sliding about out of control on some snot and clay at 60 km/h isn't that much fun. I always joke and say that you don't steer a big GS with a pillion on - you send in requests...
So on we went onto some marvelous road (after getting petrol and brushing up on KTM picking up skills).
There was a couple of very cool steep ups and downs (that was still slippery at times), but the turns were so tight that I hardly let the bike go out of 1st and just let it run against compression.
At the quick lunch stop I was smiling broadly again, very glad that my 'Momentary lapse of reason' of earlier didn't let me end up to 'wish you were here' (10 points extra for spotting something extra in the prior sentence...)
There was a couple of close calls again, but it was slower and more controlled (all mud/clay related).
The only thing that still caught me unawares was 'normal looking' gravel that turned out to be a thin layer of dry dust on wet mud underneath, but like I said before, the road was twisty and technical enough to let you not go too fast.
Beautiful forestry, occasional stops for some general silliness and laughter and some very cool road later we came 'round a corner over a little hill to see the 1200GSA being driven from out of where he went off the road.
If I arrived with him still laying on the ground it would have been more scary, but seeing him drive his bike out of there made me only realize the seriousness a little later.
His bike rolled over sideways and the topbox stayed on. Looking at the bike there probably would have been lots of damage (money wise), but truth be told that that GSA is well built (and so is Gavin!).
Like Uiltjie and Topbox said, I don't even want to start thinking about what could have happened if the GSA rolled over him, or if it happened at one of the high pass turns (next to some serious steep heights)
So then we settled in at the camp site.
The next day was marvelous! No mud and lots of ups and downs, climbing through some dry river rockery, amazing scenery. All and all a very enjoyable route.
We went from leaving the pack through Herbersdale and then on to Riversdale and then N2/Swellendam/Ashton/Worcester and home...
In closing I just want to say thank you for all that was there.
Every single person that was there is someone that I not only enjoyed riding with, but also enjoyed getting silly (and more philosophical at times) with around the fireplace and a couple of drinks.
You guys rock.
Thanks one and all for making it a ride that I will remember for a hellova long time.
Thanks also for not making it feel like a problem for being slower due to being two up and falling behind a little here and there...
Thanks TR for organising it all.
Bonniedale and Attakwas officially also gets my vote for a 'Western Cape Wilddogs bash' venue, should there ever be one.
Eisbein oor en uit ...
