SGB
Race Dog
Last year at the KTM RR I won a voucher for 2 nights at a place called Misty Valley Lodge. First time I hear of the existence of this place, and after some creative diary shuffling, the trip is on. And it is a solo ride, wifey on the back, just the 2 of us. And I needed to check that those spanners in Matighoven tightened evrything up properly on the new bike, so I am grateful for the opportunity.
We left on Monday afternoon, with just enough time to get to Fouriesburg via Verkeerdevlei, Clocolan, Ficksburg before dark, and slept over at the Country Inn.
Fueling in Ficksburg, as the sun starts setting
The net morning we are up early, and I decide to test the "shorter distance" faeture of the GPS. I help the Zumo a little to set the scene, and head for Harrismith via Clarens and around the back of Golden Gate. The sun rises, and we see some mist in the valleys - bit early - Misty Valley is still 500 km away....
The flowers are all over the place - someone must have known about this honeymoon trip and lined the entire road with flowers, just for us. Great thinking!
Stopped for fuel and breakfast in Harrismith. Then off to Normandien pass, my wife has never been.
We head for Newcastle from here. My local knowledge also ends about here, so now the GPS takes over. The mix of gravel and tar is just great and the Zumo comes up with some amazing ideas. We have an absolute ball all the way there.
We arrive at Misty Valley late afternoon. It is situated on the road to the Nkomati mine, not far from Waterval Boven. See www.mistyvalleylodge.co.za if you need. The owner is called Philip Vosloo, nice guy, of course he rides a 950 SE so we we were friends immediately. I can recommend the establishment, great accommodation, excellent food and just a nice place with nice people if a relaxing outing is what you need.
We had dinner and were asleep early, tomorrow is another day!
Up early, and after breakfast we are off with a lighter bike, only some essentials in the topbox.
Sortcut to Waterval Boven, GPS takes us through the township where the dogs are big and not bike friendly. I have never seen such big boerboele in a township.... So the "shorther distance" is not always a good option. Test my u-turn-with-pillion-in-narrow-road-with-boerboel-chasing skills and get away with it. We figure that this place has it's name for a reason, but not sure where the waterval is..... We get onto the N4 and head for Waterval onder, hoping that the fall should be somewhere in between. We find a tunnel, ride through and notice an old tunnel next to it. There is a huge speed hump before the entrance bit the bike clears it and in we go - darkness becomes light again and we find the waterval!
The new one
I did not like the N4 - this is why...
I can see why these sign are up there. Like the dude with the KZ-TE Hilux who thinks his turbo diesel will out run a 990 and also thinks that his Hilux will get past a truck on an uphill faster than a 990 and just refuses to make some space. And another one who sits in the fast lane at 80 km/h with his Isuzu 250D and refuses to pull over. Makes me smile, shame.
We head for Graskop, and try some detours to get off this N4 thing. Oh yes there is this nice old bridge there too.
The detour is fun, but suddenly this....
Try another - works better! Eventually we arrive in Sabie and stop at this pancake place. Impressive - they see we arrived on the bike and bring a bottle of windowlene and paper towel to the table for us to clean the helmets. Nice..... But there is always a catch. Most expensive bottled water I have ever had - R 14.50 for a 500 ml bottle. And the pancake was not cheap either. But at least our helmets are clean
From here we head for Graskop, look at the map, find the Mac Mac pools, falls, Pinnacle, God's window, Lisbon falls and back to Graskop. Also see some fancy "High speed Testing Cars". And those tar roads are good - nice corners great scenery.
Next we head for Pilgrims Rest, we have heard of the place, never been. Great little place with amazing history. Spend some time there. The cake is good and the water cheap(er)....
Robbers pass is another nice twisty tar road, with the odd "shortcut". We came up here.
I wanted to ride Long Tom pass too, great one! The TKC's not the best but stilll fun!
Heading back to Misty Valley we find some great shortcuts - this place can keep me riding for a lot more time than we had!
Arrive back at Misty Valley late afternoon, have dinner again and up early again - 700 odd km to go for the day.
Again choose the "Shorter Distance" option. And again not disappointed. We had a great ride! And those flowers....
Arrived in Bloem just before 3 pm. We really had a great time together for 3 days of magnificent riding, really felt like honeymoon all over again, just the 2 of us. The country looks great after all the good rains, pity that all the green will be gone in a month's time.
2100 km total, moving average 95 km/h. Thanks to my honey for sticking to the back and surviving the landings. I can just imagine what would have happened if it was a Buell..... >
And the Austrians did a good job, I have bonded with this machine now. Hola 7!
Thank you to Philip and everyone at Misty Valley for making our stay memorable. And thank you to the RR organisation for the opportunity. And to the normal suspects at my favourite KTM dealer (Richard, Alfie) and Gear-up (John Briscoe) for all your effort in getting the bike to my liking. Job well done.
We left on Monday afternoon, with just enough time to get to Fouriesburg via Verkeerdevlei, Clocolan, Ficksburg before dark, and slept over at the Country Inn.
Fueling in Ficksburg, as the sun starts setting
The net morning we are up early, and I decide to test the "shorter distance" faeture of the GPS. I help the Zumo a little to set the scene, and head for Harrismith via Clarens and around the back of Golden Gate. The sun rises, and we see some mist in the valleys - bit early - Misty Valley is still 500 km away....
The flowers are all over the place - someone must have known about this honeymoon trip and lined the entire road with flowers, just for us. Great thinking!
Stopped for fuel and breakfast in Harrismith. Then off to Normandien pass, my wife has never been.
We head for Newcastle from here. My local knowledge also ends about here, so now the GPS takes over. The mix of gravel and tar is just great and the Zumo comes up with some amazing ideas. We have an absolute ball all the way there.
We arrive at Misty Valley late afternoon. It is situated on the road to the Nkomati mine, not far from Waterval Boven. See www.mistyvalleylodge.co.za if you need. The owner is called Philip Vosloo, nice guy, of course he rides a 950 SE so we we were friends immediately. I can recommend the establishment, great accommodation, excellent food and just a nice place with nice people if a relaxing outing is what you need.
We had dinner and were asleep early, tomorrow is another day!
Up early, and after breakfast we are off with a lighter bike, only some essentials in the topbox.
Sortcut to Waterval Boven, GPS takes us through the township where the dogs are big and not bike friendly. I have never seen such big boerboele in a township.... So the "shorther distance" is not always a good option. Test my u-turn-with-pillion-in-narrow-road-with-boerboel-chasing skills and get away with it. We figure that this place has it's name for a reason, but not sure where the waterval is..... We get onto the N4 and head for Waterval onder, hoping that the fall should be somewhere in between. We find a tunnel, ride through and notice an old tunnel next to it. There is a huge speed hump before the entrance bit the bike clears it and in we go - darkness becomes light again and we find the waterval!
The new one
I did not like the N4 - this is why...
I can see why these sign are up there. Like the dude with the KZ-TE Hilux who thinks his turbo diesel will out run a 990 and also thinks that his Hilux will get past a truck on an uphill faster than a 990 and just refuses to make some space. And another one who sits in the fast lane at 80 km/h with his Isuzu 250D and refuses to pull over. Makes me smile, shame.
We head for Graskop, and try some detours to get off this N4 thing. Oh yes there is this nice old bridge there too.
The detour is fun, but suddenly this....
Try another - works better! Eventually we arrive in Sabie and stop at this pancake place. Impressive - they see we arrived on the bike and bring a bottle of windowlene and paper towel to the table for us to clean the helmets. Nice..... But there is always a catch. Most expensive bottled water I have ever had - R 14.50 for a 500 ml bottle. And the pancake was not cheap either. But at least our helmets are clean
From here we head for Graskop, look at the map, find the Mac Mac pools, falls, Pinnacle, God's window, Lisbon falls and back to Graskop. Also see some fancy "High speed Testing Cars". And those tar roads are good - nice corners great scenery.
Next we head for Pilgrims Rest, we have heard of the place, never been. Great little place with amazing history. Spend some time there. The cake is good and the water cheap(er)....
Robbers pass is another nice twisty tar road, with the odd "shortcut". We came up here.
I wanted to ride Long Tom pass too, great one! The TKC's not the best but stilll fun!
Heading back to Misty Valley we find some great shortcuts - this place can keep me riding for a lot more time than we had!
Arrive back at Misty Valley late afternoon, have dinner again and up early again - 700 odd km to go for the day.
Again choose the "Shorter Distance" option. And again not disappointed. We had a great ride! And those flowers....
Arrived in Bloem just before 3 pm. We really had a great time together for 3 days of magnificent riding, really felt like honeymoon all over again, just the 2 of us. The country looks great after all the good rains, pity that all the green will be gone in a month's time.
2100 km total, moving average 95 km/h. Thanks to my honey for sticking to the back and surviving the landings. I can just imagine what would have happened if it was a Buell..... >
And the Austrians did a good job, I have bonded with this machine now. Hola 7!Thank you to Philip and everyone at Misty Valley for making our stay memorable. And thank you to the RR organisation for the opportunity. And to the normal suspects at my favourite KTM dealer (Richard, Alfie) and Gear-up (John Briscoe) for all your effort in getting the bike to my liking. Job well done.
