Bikes, battles and blomme!

[DD650]

What do cosmos, easter eggs, canons, wagons and dirt have in common? A bike trip over Easter weekend to the Battle fields of the Free State and Natal!

Our first stop was the Memel hotel, arriving at last light after a boring, busy ride on tar roads. But the next day was a day for passes! Memel is really dirt bike ‘hemel’. The first dirt road, and first cosmos sighting, started right outside of Memel where we turned towards Normandien pass. But we first made a turn pass Muller’s pass.

First cosmos of the trip.

Stunning scenery and roads.

Top of Muller’s pass.

From Muller’s pass we turned towards Normandien pass. We were riding with this mountain next to us when we spotted a little road way up on top of the mountain. We both hoped that we would get to ride that little road.

And low and behold, that is Normandien pass! What a stunning road, nothing technical, but going quite high up and with breath-taking views from the top!

Going down we saw a sign to ‘Die Ark’ and turned in to see what it is about. We did’nt see ‘Die Ark’ but the views were stunning!

After Normandien pass we turned towards Collin’s pass. The road going up Collin’s pass wasn’t the nicest road, quite rocky and we had to take it slower, but the views more than made up for that!

At the top of Collin’s pass.

We found this tiny butterfly on a cosmos.

The road going down Collin’s pass was some of the best roads of the weekend – very scenic, lined with cosmos and smoother than the best tar roads! It made for some great high speed riding!

 

[Topie]

Thanks for the R&R and pics.....really nice.

 

[DD650]

The last pass for the day was to be De Beer’s pass. At first we were quite disappointed to find it being tarred, but what a great pass! Really nice long sweeping bends and twisties – lots of fun!

The road was dirt again just after the pass and provided some more beautiful scenery and roads.

We got onto the tar again to Verkykerskop, which by the way I always though was a mountain with a lookout point. It turned out it is an actual little town – very quaint and interesting and surrounded by mountains. If in the area again, we will make sure to make this an overnight stay. We stopped for a quick lunch at the only open restaurant. Being Good Friday everything else was closed. The place still plays old vinyl records which creates a great atmosphere! Best of all was the food – freshly baked pizza with fresh ingredients and lots of topping. A large pizza and two drinks for only R65! What a bargain!  :ricky:

Some pics in Verkykerskop.

We were finally on our way again… “Die son trek al water”

Our overnight place – Memel and final photo of the day.

 

[Wild Blue]

Awesome scenery and route.  My kind of roads!  Any chance you have the route mapped on GPS?

WB

 

[RobCrouch]

Lekker! :thumleft:

 

[Malibu]

Lekker RR!  Thanks for sharing... brought back some super memories too... Thank you!  ;D

 

[Chrisl]

Stunning!! :thumleft:

 

[JACOVV]

Baie nice  :thumleft:

Lyk nie asof daar reen was nie - as ek dit geweet het, het ek eerder daardie kant toe gery . . . .  , maar als noord vd Oranje Rivier is onbekend vir my.

Sal nou eers moet gaan opsoek waar die plekke is waarvan jy gepraat het  :deal: 

 

[DD650]

Baie nice   :thumleft:

Lyk nie asof daar reen was nie - as ek dit geweet het, het ek eerder daardie kant toe gery . . . .  , maar als noord vd Oranje Rivier is onbekend vir my.

Sal nou eers moet gaan opsoek waar die plekke is waarvan jy gepraat het  :deal:   

Jmol, kom net volgende keer saam!  :thumleft:

 

[Man On Fire!]

Fantastic!  :thumleft:

please share your route map.

 

[DD650]

We stayed at the Memel hotel, a nice and friendly place and favoured by bikers. We met 6 other bikers (2 other couples) and had a nice chat with them. The place is also frequented by Mel Botes (guitar player) who has a farm in the area. Very friendly chap. We also met the farmer with the ‘kwaai’ dog that picked up Bok van Blerk in the movie Platteland. Quite a buzzing little place.    We planned to leave early, but as is with bikers we started chatting to Tina and James, one of the couples also staying there. By that time the kitchen was already open and we thought we might as well stay for breakfast. 

It was a nice overcast morning and perfect for riding. We took the tar road out of Memel and turned onto Botha’s pass, another great twisty pass to ride. I really wanted to go and see Amajuba Mountain, but when we got there, the very friendly caretaker told us it is an hour’s hike to the top. We weren’t in the mood to do that in bike gear or to change into something more comfortable as we still had quite a long route planned for the day. This will have to wait for a next trip and then we will do the camping thing at the bottom of the mountain, making sure we take enough blankets because according to the caretaker, it gets -4 even in summer!

We turned onto gravel again just after Volksrust.

Immediately after turning onto the gravel, it was cosmos again everywhere! We found this ruin and I couldn’t resist the urge to play around with the camera a bit.

The road was beckoning again and we were rewarded with the best scenery!

This little house tried to fit in with all the cosmos colours! 

As we came over a little hill, we could see the Zaaihoek dam wall and then the Zaaihoek dam.

The light was just perfect for photos and I wished I had more time to just stop and play around with my camera!

The clouds looked very threatening, but we were lucky with ust a few drops hitting us before we rode out from under the clouds.

Stunning, stunning, stunning roads!  :ricky:

 

[RobCrouch]

That makes me want to go Cosmos hunting too! :thumleft:

 

[DD650]

That makes me want to go Cosmos hunting too! :thumleft:

It is definitely worth it, but you will have to hurry. I don't think they will last much longer.  :thumleft:

 

[DD650]

We were slowly making our way towards the Blood River battle site, when we saw a sign showing the way to Blood River Poort and thought we are here, why not go and check it out? It is a very small site that is obviously not visited very often, if one looks at the almost invisible tracks leading to the site. But it is really very scenic. Some background on the battle fought here, with compliments to Wikipedia.

In the Battle of Blood River Poort or Scheeper's Nek on 17 September 1901, a Boer commando led by Louis Botha crushed a British force commanded by Major Hubert Gough during the Second Boer War.

In August 1901, the Boer leaders decided to send forces south into Natal and the Cape Colony hoping to cause an uprising in the Dutch-majority Cape Colony or at least to gain recruits for their armies. Accordingly, a commando under Botha moved southeast toward Natal while another commando under Jan Smuts raided south into the Cape Colony.

British Intelligence detected the plan, but Botha evaded the British intercepting columns. The cold spring rains made the march especially difficult for the Boers' horses. On 14 September, Botha let his 1,000-man commando camp near Utrecht to permit the horses to recover. Meanwhile, Gough's 24th Mounted Infantry (MI) made a 800 km move by train from Kroonstad in the Orange Free State to Dundee in Natal. Gough received intelligence that Botha and 700 Boers were nearby.

Gough led his MI from Dundee to De Jaeger's Drift, a ford on the Buffalo River. Dismissing the intelligence report as exaggerated he led three companies on a reconnaissance across the river. Through his field glasses, he spotted 300 Boers who dismounted at a farm near Blood River Poort. Leaving his colleague Lieutenant-Colonel H. K. Stewart with 450 MI in the rear, Gough moved forward into a plain in the early afternoon, planning to surprise the Boers at the farm. Unknown to Gough, Botha was moving around his right flank with 700 men.

Botha's mounted attack completely swamped Gough's outnumbered force. Lieutenant Llewellyn Price-Davies of the King's Royal Rifle Corps won the Victoria Cross for valiantly defending the field guns. Gough was captured, escaped, captured again and finally escaped on foot in the darkness. On the British side, four officers and 19 other ranks were killed or mortally wounded, 2 officers and 19 men wounded, and 6 officers and 235 men captured. According to Boer policy, the captured were stripped of their weapons and any useful gear, and most of their clothing, and were allowed to walk to the nearest British post. The Boers seized two field guns, 180 rifles and a large quantity of small arms ammunition. The 200 captured horses turned out to be in poor condition and of little use to the raiders. Boer losses were light.

Botha was unable to exploit his victory because he found all the crossings of the Buffalo River blocked by the British. The Boers moved to the southeast, hoping to find a place to cross into Natal. On the Zululand border, Botha attacked a British camp named Fort Itala, believing it to be weakly defended. Instead, the Boers received a bloody nose when 56 of their men were killed or wounded. When Botha realized that British forces were approaching in overwhelming strength, he turned back into the Transvaal, his raid a failure.

We turned onto the road taking us to the Blood River battle site and the vegetation turned to almost bushveld. It was quite easy to imagine all the wars fought in the hills around the area.

 

[MINZI]

Very nice. We were also there that weekend but did not see as much as you. Whe did however met Mel Botes at the co-op. Please post your route, I need to go back there soon. :thumleft:

 

[Marnus]

Lekker double-d!!! Pragtige fotos  :thumleft:

 

[stan1975]

Awesome RR thanks for sharing

 

[cheesy]

What a fantastic ride report, I was born and bred in J H B and travelled a lot in my younger days. One of the things that always stood out is the sheer beauty of the cosmos flowers (GOD'S own) along the road verges and your photographs certainly highlighted them.
GOD bless our riders/reporters and our beautiful country.
It is also wonderful to see most photos are without bikes in them eepwall:
Tx for sharing DD. It is fun to ride with one's spouse, just so lekke.

 

[DD650]

As a child the Battle of Blood River has been one of my favourite pieces of history and it was quite special and very interesting visiting the site. The betrayal murder of Piet Retief and his people by the Zulu King Dingane when negotiating for land in Natal, and then subsequent follow-up massacres of hundreds of Voortrekkers and their servants at Bloukrans and Weenen, were the prelude to the Battle of Blood River.

The newly elected Voortrekker leader Andries Pretorius organized a punitive commando consisting of approximately 64 wagons and 464 Voortrekkers (all male) accompanied by the same number of servants and wagon attendants. On 9 December 1838 the Voortrekkers made a covenant with God that should He grant them victory over the overwhelming Zulu force, they would commemorate that day as a Sabbath and build a church in His name. The covenant was repeated until the evening of 15 December 1838.

On 15 December a scouting party informed Pretorius that the Zulu forces were nearby and they made camp on the banks of the Ncome River. The wagons were drawn into a laager with the river on one side and a deep donga protecting one of the other flanks. A deep mist settled over the site that evening, which possibly led to the Zulus only attacking at dawn the next morning. Between 12,000 and 15,000 Zulu warriors started the attack on the Sunday morning of 16 December. They launched attack after attack but to no avail and started retreating by 11h00. Pretorius immediately sent a mounted force in pursuit. Many Zulu warriors were killed in their attempt to cross the river, hence the name Blood River. The pursuit lasted 3 hours and the Zulu force was defeated. An estimated 3,000 Zulu warriors were killed. Only 3 Voortrekkers, including Pretorius, were wounded. (History taken from the Blood River heritage site).

The Blood River Heritage Site is a declared national monument and consists of a few different monuments/sites to visit. The oldest commemorative monument on site is the stone pile that was erected on 16 December 1866 when 40-50 wagons gathered to commemorate the battle. The rock pile is placed in more or less the centre of the original wagon laager. The words of the covenant have been placed in Afrikaans and English on either side of the pile.

A jaw-bone wagon (Kakebeenwa) monument in granite at the entrance to the visitor centre was completed in 1938 already, but was only inaugurated in 1947, due to the onset of World War II. The wagon symbolizes the Voortrekkers’ home, stronghold and church.

The highlight of the site is of course the Bronze wagon laager. The wagon laager was erected and inaugurated in 1971 as a replica of the original laager on the same site as the original laager of 1838.

The cast iron wagons are covered with a thin coating of bronze. Each wagon is identical and is modelled on the example of the Johanna van der Merwe Centenary wagon.

The gap in the northern side of the laager served as a “door” through which the mounted Voortrekkers could exit in pursuit of the Zulus. The ship’s gun ‘Grietjie’ was mounted on a chassis of plough wheels and had a range of 300-400 metres. The original gun is on display in the Voortrekker Monument in Pretoria. Grietjie had the bad habit of flipping over backwards when fired.   

This site is a must visit and very interesting. From here we went straight to Dundee, our next stop, but I got one last opportunity to race a bakkie and VW Polo on some more great dirt roads! Another excellent day of riding.  :ricky:

 

[Sprocketbek]

Great RR and lovely pics  ;D

I last visited the Blood River site with my parents when I was a small kid!

Love all the other roads you travelled  :thumleft: