hennielowe
Race Dog
CABC 1st “reccie” Weekend – 29 June 09
The weekend of 29 May saw Hennie and Johan with their wives head out to the CABC venue wanting to find some of the routes for CABC. They were also joined by friends for the weekend and were very ably assisted by Rony Desodt and his wife both members of the BMW Motorcycle Club Cape, Rony is also known as “die Malletjie”.
“Generaal from Wild Dogs and a registered member of CABC, together with Chris & Suzaan Alheit, our wine maker friends and 4 x 4 experts, joined us for the weekend. It was a weekend of finding routes and having a great time with family and friends” – Johan de Jager
Normally Hennie and Johan ride their R1200GSA’s but it was decided to use 2 x CRF230 Honda’s for the scouting, later on Rony (who joined us on Friday night after work) on his R1200GSA was asked to ride parts of the route on his BMW.
Friday night was spent around the fire, we looked at the maps and made some plans for the next day.
Saturday morning and it was raining and cold, while Hennie was setting up his GPS Rony and I started riding on the farm, we quickly went up a 4 x 4 uphill very close to the campsite (not 3 minutes away), we quickly found out why it is 4 x 4 and realised that this has potential for the red route. Once done with the uphill route we took another route on the farm, we agreed that this is also red and that we will have Hennie join us in his 4 x 4 the next morning, so back to camp we went.
On our arrival Hennie informed us that he was ready and the GPS knows where we need to go and “check out” the road. It was amazing, it was raining and cold and Rony and I were having a ball on the smaller bikes. The road was very tricky some very steal downhill’s and uphill’s and loose rock everywhere. The route we were scouting took us close to 5 hours, this due to the 4 x 4’s taking a bit longer than us on the bikes.
The route took us into Wupperthal and on our decent into town a local confirmed to us that he has never seen people coming out of that route after not having entered from the same side, he has only seen people entering from Wupperthal and then shortly turning around……needless to say his mouth was hanging open!
Rony and Johan on the smaller bikes.One of the uphill’s.
The last downhill just before we got into Wupperthal was very interesting and beautiful.
The last bit into Wupperthal
Saturday afternoon we again relaxed around the fire, having some cold refreshments whilst listening to the rugby on the radio, at the CABC venue there is no “close by” television to watch the rugby or even phone a friend for the score as there is no cell reception – like in the old days before electricity we all huddled around the radio.
Sunday morning and the weather looked a bit better but it was still cold and wet. Rony and I first did the little red route close to the camp and after that went to find some more routes linking up with the red route we found into Wupperthal the day before.
The piece being part of the campsite which we did is very interesting, it consists of thick sand, loose rock as well as one very steep downhill – according to Rony this reminds him of Van Zyl’s pass in Namibia. There is escape routes for all the very difficult parts of the route, it was decided that Generaal and Johan will ride the smaller bikes and Rony will take his R1200GSA on the same route, hereby hoping to get an idea of the “gap” when doing the same route on different bikes.
WOW it was confusing, Johan managed to do the entire downhill standing up, hereby trying to better his balance and handling of the bike, Generaal on the other small bike sat all the way down the hill and did not enjoy it…….Rony on the adventure with all his experience decided to turn the motor off and use it as his brakes – he needed all the assistance he could get, some pics:
Rony in the sandy bit
The downhill…..
Rony making his way down
We returned to the campsite for breakfast and after that had to go and find a route that links the bit we did on Saturday as well as the short section of Sunday morning, what a task it turned out to be. 4 Hours later and after having had to “circumvent” some gates we made it!! What a ride this is going to be, on top of the mountains looking down you are reminded of Transkei, it is beautifull. Johan was in the 4 x 4 this time and Generaal and Rony got on the small bikes. The 1 small bike gave us some problems right as we was about to find point where the 2 routes join, we fixed it and off we went back to the campsite.
We are not going to say too much about the route just that there is escape routes at all the real hard sections, the views is out of this world and you will be very satisfied once you have done this red route at ABC, some more pics with short descriptions:
Once we found the joining point we headed back to the campsite, we decided to get some more action as the guys came through the water crossing as you enter the venue, you can see the tent already pitched for CABC 2009.
It was a very successful weekend and we are already looking forward to the next one.
Thank you to our lovely wives and friends who joined us, hopefully you will be available next time as well.
Watch this space as more reports and news to follow.
Johan & Hennie and Rony.
veiw the whole album at:
https://s616.photobucket.com/albums/tt249/hennielowe/Rekkie%201%20Cederberg/?albumview=slideshow
The weekend of 29 May saw Hennie and Johan with their wives head out to the CABC venue wanting to find some of the routes for CABC. They were also joined by friends for the weekend and were very ably assisted by Rony Desodt and his wife both members of the BMW Motorcycle Club Cape, Rony is also known as “die Malletjie”.
“Generaal from Wild Dogs and a registered member of CABC, together with Chris & Suzaan Alheit, our wine maker friends and 4 x 4 experts, joined us for the weekend. It was a weekend of finding routes and having a great time with family and friends” – Johan de Jager
Normally Hennie and Johan ride their R1200GSA’s but it was decided to use 2 x CRF230 Honda’s for the scouting, later on Rony (who joined us on Friday night after work) on his R1200GSA was asked to ride parts of the route on his BMW.
Friday night was spent around the fire, we looked at the maps and made some plans for the next day.
Saturday morning and it was raining and cold, while Hennie was setting up his GPS Rony and I started riding on the farm, we quickly went up a 4 x 4 uphill very close to the campsite (not 3 minutes away), we quickly found out why it is 4 x 4 and realised that this has potential for the red route. Once done with the uphill route we took another route on the farm, we agreed that this is also red and that we will have Hennie join us in his 4 x 4 the next morning, so back to camp we went.
On our arrival Hennie informed us that he was ready and the GPS knows where we need to go and “check out” the road. It was amazing, it was raining and cold and Rony and I were having a ball on the smaller bikes. The road was very tricky some very steal downhill’s and uphill’s and loose rock everywhere. The route we were scouting took us close to 5 hours, this due to the 4 x 4’s taking a bit longer than us on the bikes.
The route took us into Wupperthal and on our decent into town a local confirmed to us that he has never seen people coming out of that route after not having entered from the same side, he has only seen people entering from Wupperthal and then shortly turning around……needless to say his mouth was hanging open!
Rony and Johan on the smaller bikes.One of the uphill’s.
The last downhill just before we got into Wupperthal was very interesting and beautiful.
The last bit into Wupperthal
Saturday afternoon we again relaxed around the fire, having some cold refreshments whilst listening to the rugby on the radio, at the CABC venue there is no “close by” television to watch the rugby or even phone a friend for the score as there is no cell reception – like in the old days before electricity we all huddled around the radio.
Sunday morning and the weather looked a bit better but it was still cold and wet. Rony and I first did the little red route close to the camp and after that went to find some more routes linking up with the red route we found into Wupperthal the day before.
The piece being part of the campsite which we did is very interesting, it consists of thick sand, loose rock as well as one very steep downhill – according to Rony this reminds him of Van Zyl’s pass in Namibia. There is escape routes for all the very difficult parts of the route, it was decided that Generaal and Johan will ride the smaller bikes and Rony will take his R1200GSA on the same route, hereby hoping to get an idea of the “gap” when doing the same route on different bikes.
WOW it was confusing, Johan managed to do the entire downhill standing up, hereby trying to better his balance and handling of the bike, Generaal on the other small bike sat all the way down the hill and did not enjoy it…….Rony on the adventure with all his experience decided to turn the motor off and use it as his brakes – he needed all the assistance he could get, some pics:
Rony in the sandy bit
The downhill…..
Rony making his way down
We returned to the campsite for breakfast and after that had to go and find a route that links the bit we did on Saturday as well as the short section of Sunday morning, what a task it turned out to be. 4 Hours later and after having had to “circumvent” some gates we made it!! What a ride this is going to be, on top of the mountains looking down you are reminded of Transkei, it is beautifull. Johan was in the 4 x 4 this time and Generaal and Rony got on the small bikes. The 1 small bike gave us some problems right as we was about to find point where the 2 routes join, we fixed it and off we went back to the campsite.
We are not going to say too much about the route just that there is escape routes at all the real hard sections, the views is out of this world and you will be very satisfied once you have done this red route at ABC, some more pics with short descriptions:
Once we found the joining point we headed back to the campsite, we decided to get some more action as the guys came through the water crossing as you enter the venue, you can see the tent already pitched for CABC 2009.
It was a very successful weekend and we are already looking forward to the next one.
Thank you to our lovely wives and friends who joined us, hopefully you will be available next time as well.
Watch this space as more reports and news to follow.
Johan & Hennie and Rony.
veiw the whole album at:
https://s616.photobucket.com/albums/tt249/hennielowe/Rekkie%201%20Cederberg/?albumview=slideshow
