Byrne Valley to Merrivale/Hilton

[JonW]

After my slightly hectic trip up to Sehlabathebe and back two weeks ago I felt like going for a more relaxed type of ride over slightly less challenging terrain.

I have often been on rides through Byrne Valley in the Natal Midlands, it's an awesome little place, but I've always been intrigued with the idea of finding a route back from Byrne Valley to Hilton that stays off the tar.

So onto my favorite pastime, plotting a track on Google Earth for me to follow, and so after a bit of work I came up with a route that looked very do-able.

 

[JonW]

Gave my good mate Outthere a call and asked if he was keen to go for a ride Saturday morning, he said he was and his wife Sarah would join as pillion. I sent him my route to load on his GPS and the plan was to meet in Hilton at 08h00.

The weather in KZN is quite awesome for riding at the moment, cool in the early mornings, warm later and brilliant blue cloudless skies. We set off through Hilton, hit the dirt quite soon and went out towards Taylor's Halt past the Hilton OffRoad Club.

From Taylor's halt went past Elandskop and along one of my favorite pieces of dirt road down into Byrne Valley.

 

[JonW]

Some more pics coming into Byrne. Normally the veld round here is green, you can tell winter is on it's way.

 

[JonW]

After reaching Byrne we hit an immediate left and followed a narrow road that twisted and turned up the side of a mountain, going through some indigenous forest and offering spectacular views.

 

[Rhino2]

Awesome photo's John. Can u post the route also. Would like to do it myself.

 

[JonW]

At the top of the mountain is a really interesting place, the Minerva Motor Museum.

https://www.minervareserve.co.za/

It is owned and run by Malcolm Anderson and a few friends, a museum dedicated to engines and machinery of every conceivable type, the older the better. I had phoned ahead to let Malcolm know we were coming, and he was very happy to give up some time to show us around.

The warehouse is crammed full of engines and machinery, from sowing machines to valveless engines to a  full size jet engine. Malcolm scours the countryside for any type of old engine that anyone might have, then brings it back to his workshop on top of the mountain where he and his mates strip it and then attempt to get it running again. Malcolm welcomes visitors and is very happy to hear of old broken machinery anyone might have lying around.

 

[JonW]

Some more pics of the museum:

 

[JonW]

We then left the museum and headed off on a nice rough track into the hills, roughly in the direction of Baynesfield.

 

[JonW]

After quite a few plantation roads and tracks through the Baynesfield Estate we came out overlooking Esinyaneni where we had a nice path to follow down the side of the mountain back to the dirt road. From there it was a short hop on tar to Taylor's Halt and then back into the plantations to the hills above Mpopomeni and Midmar Dam.

 

[JonW]

Here we were following a very narrow foot path up the hillside, littered with rocks. I was more or less ok on the XR, riding over them or dodging them, but for Kevin on the big GS with Sarah on the back it wasn't easy at all. After a little while we realized that this was not GS country and a hole in the sump was looking likely. So Kevin and Sarah decided to turn back and take dirt and tar roads back to Merrivale and I would continue on my own as far as I could.

The riding was pretty rough, once or twice I ha to get off my bike to get over particularly big rocks, but no real problems

 

[wilddoc]

Lekker Jonw
Ask kevin to send us the route for GPS.
Would love to do it some time.
Leon

 

[JonW]

Shortly after leaving Kevin and Sarah I was joined by 2 guys on what looked like KDX's, far more suited to riding this type of terrain than my XR.

Before long we got to the hill above the Mondi forests above Hilton where the other 2 left me, and I continued down a nice track to the Birnam Wood Road.

 

[JonW]

Unbeknown to me, Kevin and Sarah had made good time to Merrivale and had come looking for me along the Birnam Wood Road, but not seeing me had turned to go home. As I was going along the Birnam Wood Road I saw a bike in the distance, which unbeknown to me was kevin and Sarah. Anyway, i set off in pursuit of unknown bike, and was catching them quite easily, when I came around a bend and saw the very good dirt road that we were on was wet. Suddenly I saw the bike in front of me go into a slide and both rider and pillion sliding across the road. I felt the road under me was slippery as ice so I couldnt touch the brakes. I felt my bike sliding from side to side, and for a moment I was certain I was going to come off and go crashing into Kevin and Sarah who were still lying in the road in front of me. Luckily I managed to stay upright and avoided Kevin and Sarah.

I immediately turned around and checked my mates, but they were completely unscathed, the slippery mud of the road combined with their Atgatt had done the trick. I'm sure though they will be a bit sore in the morning. While we were busy picking the GS up, a guy coming past stopped and told us that the townhouse complex watered the road to prevent dust from passing traffic and he had heard of a number of vehicles leaving the road because the water made the surface so slippery.

Farking assholes, luckily we got off lightly, but the next biker coming past might not be so lucky.

Anyway, besides this little incident at the end, it was really an awesome trip.

 

[Bacchus2]

Nice photos  :thumleft:

 

[KTMRICK]

Nice ride. Like your definition of a track???? How on earth do you spot this on GE?? :ricky:

 

[philemon]

One day is  . . . . . . . . . . . one day .

As usual - a lekker RR.

:thumleft:

 

[JonW]

Nice ride. Like your definition of a track???? How on earth do you spot this on GE?? :ricky:

Hi KTMRICK

Some paths or tracks are quite easy to spot on Google Earth

An example,  in the first GE screen shot the track is quite obvious and easy to spot. See the corresponding photos for that section of track.

In the second GE screen shot the track is not that easy to spot, but it is definitely there and it goes somewhere, turned out to be pretty rough though.

 

[ianhogg]

Feeling at one with your kickstart again Jon?

 

[BatmanGS]

Looks like a great ride, thanks for the pics

 

[wooly bugger]

Nice!