Cape Town to Brandvlei and back - solo, DIY

[Jacko]

Ja, so I ended up doing it solo.

Turned out to have been one of the best trips ever. I decide to ride up to Ceres, turn right at Op die Berg and then proceed to Wupperthal. After Wupperthal I turned right on small road with LOTS of farm gates.

Then I joined the R355 and headed north to Calvinia and then off to Brandvlei to drink at the Windpomp bar. Got a room and crashed early.

Got up and rode back early on Sunday morning, straight down on R355 to Ceres. Magic. Was in Cape Town at 13:00. Poured a stiff B&C. Lekker.

Here are the photies and short captions:

https://i179.photobucket.com/albums/w317/jkirsten_2007/MGL023.jpg

I always stop here in Ceres for some, er, refreshments if I head that way.

https://i179.photobucket.com/albums/w317/jkirsten_2007/MGL025.jpg

At the top of Gydo Pass. Can't think of anything clever to say.

https://i179.photobucket.com/albums/w317/jkirsten_2007/MGL027.jpg

The dirt has started. Mount Ceder is a few kays away. So are the cold beers...

https://i179.photobucket.com/albums/w317/jkirsten_2007/MGL028.jpg

But first I have to stop for some coffee I bought at the shop in Ceres! :wink:

https://i179.photobucket.com/albums/w317/jkirsten_2007/MGL029.jpg

Mount Ceder is in the distance...

https://i179.photobucket.com/albums/w317/jkirsten_2007/MGL030.jpg

...but if you carry on past it, you reach the Cederberg Oasis. Then you have a quick B&C and laugh at the sweating mountain bikers. :twisted:

https://i179.photobucket.com/albums/w317/jkirsten_2007/MGL032.jpg

Past Truitjieskraal, on my way to Wupperthal

https://i179.photobucket.com/albums/w317/jkirsten_2007/MGL037.jpg

Above Eselsbank, where one very shitfaced local just wanted to talk. His name was Jerome or Elroy or Leroy or Jermaine or whatever. Had me laughing :lol:

https://i179.photobucket.com/albums/w317/jkirsten_2007/MGL038.jpg

Approaching Wupperthal

https://i179.photobucket.com/albums/w317/jkirsten_2007/MGL040.jpg

Filling up in Wupperthal. Or rather, trying to. After 14:00 it's a mission. But just as any local where "Aunty Soph" is. She's in charge of the pump. So I gooied 7 litres of LRP and hoped it would mix with the unleaded and not fry my catalytic converter... :?

https://i179.photobucket.com/albums/w317/jkirsten_2007/MGL044.jpg

17 kms after Wupperthal I turned right on this amazing road along the Biedouwrivier. But be warned, in winter flooded rivers will make it impassaable. Awesome, except for the shitload of gates. Only because I'm a Boerseun did I close every single one of them

https://i179.photobucket.com/albums/w317/jkirsten_2007/MGL046.jpg

NOG 'n hek...

https://i179.photobucket.com/albums/w317/jkirsten_2007/MGL047.jpg

Winter rain = no thoroughfare. You can't get a nice perspective from the photo. Sand was very tricky, interspersed with rond, uncooperative rocks. Worked up quite a sweat to get through in one piece

https://i179.photobucket.com/albums/w317/jkirsten_2007/MGL048.jpg

Another frikking gate

https://i179.photobucket.com/albums/w317/jkirsten_2007/MGL050.jpg

Stopping for some much needed 'coffee' :twisted:

https://i179.photobucket.com/albums/w317/jkirsten_2007/MGL053.jpg

Die Windpomp kroeg in Brandvlei. Quite an anticlimax. According to Dana Snyman the bars in the platteland only rock on Fridays. "Saterdae is hulle moeggedrink," sez he...

https://i179.photobucket.com/albums/w317/jkirsten_2007/MGL054.jpg

Sunday morning in Calvinia. Did the 150 km from Brandvlei in just under an hour. Hehehehehe :lol:

https://i179.photobucket.com/albums/w317/jkirsten_2007/MGL055.jpg

Ooh, yeah. The awesome R355 - 252 uninterrupted kms of which 200 is gravel.

https://i179.photobucket.com/albums/w317/jkirsten_2007/MGL056.jpg

150 - 160 km/h no problems. SITTING DOWN you Lifestyle morons!

https://i179.photobucket.com/albums/w317/jkirsten_2007/MGL057.jpg

Look carefully and check my dust. Had to brake quickly, demount, whip out camera, by which time most of it was skoonveld. After this I proceeded to do some SERIOUS steeking home.

I left Brandvlei 08:15 and reached home @ 13:00. Just over 550 kms. Rear knobbly needs replacement - will be doing advanced sand riding course at Klipbokkop soon.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it :wink:

 

[Jacko]

(This time WITH photos...)

Ja, so I ended up doing it solo.

Turned out to have been one of the best trips ever. I decide to ride up to Ceres, turn right at Op die Berg and then proceed to Wupperthal. After Wupperthal I turned right on small road with LOTS of farm gates.

Then I joined the R355 and headed north to Calvinia and then off to Brandvlei to drink at the Windpomp bar. Got a room and crashed early.

Got up and rode back early on Sunday morning, straight down on R355 to Ceres. Magic. Was in Cape Town at 13:00. Poured a stiff B&C. Lekker.

Here are the photies and short captions:

I always stop here in Ceres for some, er, refreshments if I head that way.

At the top of Gydo Pass. Can't think of anything clever to say.

The dirt has started. Mount Ceder is a few kays away. So are the cold beers...

But first I have to stop for some coffee I bought at the shop in Ceres!

Mount Ceder is in the distance...

...but if you carry on past it, you reach the Cederberg Oasis. Then you have a quick B&C and laugh at the sweating mountain bikers.

Past Truitjieskraal, on my way to Wupperthal

Above Eselsbank, where one very shitfaced local just wanted to talk. His name was Jerome or Elroy or Leroy or Jermaine or whatever. Had me laughing

Approaching Wupperthal

Filling up in Wupperthal. Or rather, trying to. After 14:00 it's a mission. But just as any local where "Aunty Soph" is. She's in charge of the pump. So I gooied 7 litres of LRP and hoped it would mix with the unleaded and not fry my catalytic converter...

17 kms after Wupperthal I turned right on this amazing road along the Biedouwrivier. But be warned, in winter flooded rivers will make it impassaable. Awesome, except for the shitload of gates. Only because I'm a Boerseun did I close every single one of them

NOG 'n hek...

Winter rain = no thoroughfare. You can't get a nice perspective from the photo. Sand was very tricky, interspersed with rond, uncooperative rocks. Worked up quite a sweat to get through in one piece

Another frikking gate

Stopping for some much needed 'coffee'

Die Windpomp kroeg in Brandvlei. Quite an anticlimax. According to Dana Snyman the bars in the platteland only rock on Fridays. "Saterdae is hulle moeggedrink," sez he...

Sunday morning in Calvinia. Did the 150 km from Brandvlei in just under an hour. Hehehehehe

Ooh, yeah. The awesome R355 - 252 uninterrupted kms of which 200 is gravel.

150 - 160 km/h no problems. SITTING DOWN you Lifestyle morons!

Look carefully and check my dust. Had to brake quickly, demount, whip out camera, by which time most of it was skoonveld. After this I proceeded to do some SERIOUS steeking home.

I left Brandvlei 08:15 and reached home @ 13:00. Just over 550 kms. Rear knobbly needs replacement - will be doing advanced sand riding course at Klipbokkop soon.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it

 

[Oppad]

Mooi Jacko! Lekker trip. Next time maybe but solo is good.

 

[wino]

great solo ride in awesome country 8)

 

[Trailrider]

Lekker trip!

 

[growweblaar]

Sand was very tricky, interspersed with rond, uncooperative rocks. Worked up quite a sweat to get through in one piece

It helps if you stand :lol:

 

[MuttsNutts]

Nice!!!!!!

 

[JourneyMan]

Good one!

Your pics are excellent. Shows the riding conditions perfectly. 8)

 

[Leo]

Nice report Jacko. :wink:

Thanks for sharing.

Yes "steeking" it with nobblies will surely fry those knobblies. :wink:

You "coffee" looks like serious kopseer :roll:

 

[bmad]

Very nice ride Jacko!

Great pictures there too.

 

[masehare]

Lekkerrrr! Bly om te sien jy het darem meer hare as in jou avatar.

 

[Excalibur]

Nice one Jacko. They can tune what they want, the 1200 stays a beautiful bike, especially when she's dirty wiff the nobbs on. Nout ek sommer weer n semmi vir die hele dag!

 

[LuckyStriker]

Great stuff Jacko!
I'm planning to spend a week in the Agter Pakhuis and Biedouw valley in a month or so.
I'm looking forward to seeing some of the things you saw

150 - 160 km/h no problems. SITTING DOWN you Lifestyle morons!

Nice outfit :twisted: :twisted:
It's even colour coded to the bike

 

[Jacko]

Nice outfit
It's even colour coded to the bike

Ja, my outfit IS terribly colour coded, isn't it?!!! :lol:

Just a few observations:

1. The 1200GS is an awesome bike for steeking dirt highways, certain Lifestylers notwithstanding.

2. I rode the longest road between two points in SA (252km) and the tank range is sufficient. Now, the 1200GSA looks mighty fine, but unless you're a big, fat oke who likes to pack everything and the kitchen sink AND regularly goes moer and gone into, say, Zambia, it might by overkill. At 1.72 m I'm a short shit and the GSA is a tad too high for my bum. I rode it on the SA launch in Nam (they organised me a lower seat :wink: ) and believe that my standard 1200GS is beter in the technical stuff because of its slightly lower seat height and obviously lower weight.

But I understand that a purchase is an emotional thing and therefore when a lot of 1200GS owners saw the GSA, they went gaga. Like I do in Maverick's. :lol:

3. I did stand a lot, because some of the terrain necessitated it. (for those who don't know - I have done Jan's course) But I found that it is uncomfortable and dangerous to stand on the really fast stuff. The wind resistance above 130 km/h is so much you have to lean forward - which, surprise, surprise alters your weigh distribution all wrong. You want the front fairly light, especially on the loose stuff.

4. I saw a Ducati Multistrada in Calvinia. What the....?!! :shock:

5. Leo is right, steeking on tar gobbles up TKC80's.

6. I use a RAM mount for my Garmin 276C. Poephol that I was, I forgot to pack my little shifting spannertjie. So between Matjiesrivier and Wupperthal the U-bolt came loose. So I had to stop and gyppo it with some strong cable ties (fortunately there are always cable ties in my hydration pack) :lol:

I had to do almost 600kms that day of wich 300 was dirt and some quite technical. It was almost a race against time. I challenge anyone to have done it on some of the unfamiliar tracks I have - at that speed - without a GPS. If it's good for pilots and yachtsmen, it's good enough for me.

Without giving my game away, I know a bit about GPS's and it amazes me how some people scoff at the. "The take the fun away," etc. Listen, if getting lost without fuel is your idea of fun, then please, by all means.

But to me it is an indespensible tool. I plan my routes beforehand and then use the GPS as a reference. I don't always stick to it slavishly, but when you're in rough country, it's good to have a very good map (which a GPS receiver is - with the right mapware) and it is even better to hava a map that tells you exactly where you are on AND how much kms to the next town/fuel stop.

The last oke I met who "hated" GPS's is a smoker who refuses to wear seatbelts. He also told me of how he and the wife (and young kid) have run out of fuel in Namibia/kombi broken down, etc. He thought is was moer of a funny.

To me funny is when Bolla Conradie gets a poesklap or if Thabo Mbeki becomes the victim of some really violent criminal attack. Steve Hofmeyr's dress sense is bordering on funny (some say ridiculous).

"I didn't do it. Nobody saw me do it. You can't prove anything..." Bartholomew J. Simpson, Springfield, USA

 

[MrBig]

Aah Mokador..

Didn't know they still made that stuff.
Last time I had it was in '88.
16 years old - sitting behind the municipal building with my tjommies.
Gooi-ing the Mokador and smoking ourselves into a stuper. Paul Revere nogal.
Those were the days..

That night I thought I was dying.
It was nothing compared to what greeted me the next morning.. eish.


Anyway - nice report and +1 on the GPS comments.
You absolutely HAVE to know where you are in relation to a map.

 

[chris g]

150 - 160 km/h no problems. SITTING DOWN you Lifestyle morons!
It is because of comments like this that you end up doing solo trips

 

[Oppad]

To me funny is when Bolla Conradie gets a poesklap

Some profound thoughts and observations there, Jacko. See you around!

 

[Jacko]

Mr. Big wrote

Aah Mokador..

Didn't know they still made that stuff.
Last time I had it was in '88.
16 years old - sitting behind the municipal building with my tjommies.
Gooi-ing the Mokador and smoking ourselves into a stuper. Paul Revere nogal.
Those were the days..

I can also add Vin Coco (to this day I want to chuck if I smell Coco Rico, etc, even coconut flavoured suntan lotion. Other traumas include Claymore whisky, Diplomat brandy, Tassies (repeat to fade) and cheap cane and Lemon Twist.

But Chris G probably grew up with Oros :wink: that's why he's so sour. Remember to LOCK to knees and elbows, especially if you're going over a yump. I promise it does the trick. Then, afterwards, you can all drink Coke, hug one another and admire one anothers BMW's :wink:

Bwhaaaahahahahah!!!

 

[marco polo]

1. The 1200GS is an awesome bike for steeking dirt highways, certain Lifestylers notwithstanding.

Aren't you wearing a BMW Lifestyle jacket?

2. (...) and believe that my standard 1200GS is beter in the technical stuff because of its slightly lower seat height and obviously lower weight.

Please check the following article: https://www.bmwmotorrad.co.za/lifestyle/articles/display.asp?Id=475

3. The wind resistance above 130 km/h is so much you have to lean forward - which, surprise, surprise alters your weigh distribution all wrong. You want the front fairly light, especially on the loose stuff.

You should be very relaxed on your handlebars even while standing forward, when loosing traction: move your weight backward. I think... :roll:

4. I saw a Ducati Multistrada in Calvinia.

I once met a guy who did the Sani pass on a Multistrada. Why not?

GPSs are great, but I believe that navigation is way older that this new born electronic tool.

 

[marco polo]

3. The wind resistance above 130 km/h is so much you have to lean forward - which, surprise, surprise alters your weigh distribution all wrong. You want the front fairly light, especially on the loose stuff.

To end my comments, if you cruise at 130 km/h while maintaining your throttle open, your weight distribution should be very far behind your butt. Isn't it?