Cederberg - Tankwa Karoo: A Minion, Marbles and Mountains

[MarioF650GS]

Awesome RR! Would love to do this route very soon!

 

[Dux]

For me the Biedouw valley is one of those magical places , varied terrain around almost every turn and over every rise , so not unusual to ride along in an area resembling the surface of the moon and around the next corner there are fields of beautiful green plantations . But there are also really quiet and peaceful places to really just sit back and relax . Of course this trip was different to my previous rides through here in a number of ways , having great company was one , having to cross the Doring river on Willehond II was another new experience .

 

[Ri]

Doring River to Tankwa Tented Camp
Lovely little marbles waiting for us up ahead  >

Looking back over the valley.

More gates to open and close 

There seems to be more loose stones in the road than in the veld ???

Did I mention there were a few gates?

Black Widow mentions that there is a slightly shorter route to the R355. On the right there is a house with quite a number of big green water tanks, hard to miss. If you turn right at the road that passes right next to the house, the distance is slightly shorter than when carrying straight on. I heard Black Widow mention the house, so when I pass by the house I stopped, while Dux chases down Lance, who is up ahead. He asks Lance to wait while he goes to look whether there is another turn-off.

They soon turn back and we hesitantly follow Black Widow's instructions, but his information is good, and the road was indeed shorter than the one Dux knows :deal:

Finally we reach the R355. From here it's straight highway gravel for about 40 kms to the Tankwa Tented Camp.

I jokingly tell Lance, "Race you to Tankwa Tented Camp" and open my throttle, but no matter what I do, the Gentleman doesn't exceed 95 - 100 kph. What the... what? No matter how I twist, the Gentleman goois me a big ignore and maintains this geriatric speed  :xxbah:  I can only imagine Lance laughing in his helmet. Finally we reach Tankwa Tented Camp turn-off and my humiliation is over.

I've never been to the Tankwa Tented Camp before, and I'm amazed at the caravans, tents, chalets and other wooden structures that have sprung up in the dry and dusty desert.  Instead of bushes, shrubs and trees, here metal structures spike the horizon.

Cool old bus converted to accommodation in the background

I want to go see the Africa Burn site, which is about 3km beyond Tankwa Tented Campe, and Lance and June wants to see it as well. After registering and unloading, we head out to fetch them, but they had the foresight to book a Wendy house chalet. Once June hits the showers, it's [wo]man down and she's not getting onto a dusty motorbike again today.

The Africa Burn site is a wide pan, a circle of barren earth with a few left over wooden structures waiting for next year's Burn.

Then it's dinner time, followed by a few drinks and a lekker kuier with Lance and June by the fire. Then off to sleep in this strange, strange place, where you hear jackal and neighbours howl at the sliver of moon.

 

[Dux]

Quote from Ri 
" I jokingly tell Lance, "Race you to Tankwa Tented Camp" and open my throttle, but no matter what I do, the Gentleman doesn't exceed 95 - 100 kph. What the... what? No matter how I twist, the Gentleman goois me a big ignore and maintains this geriatric speed  :xxbah:  I can only imagine Lance laughing in his helmet. Finally we reach Tankwa Tented Camp turn-off and my humiliation is over. "

And all of this due to a twig jammed in the throttle assembly on the carburettor , thankfully it was a quick fix , needless to say that this was the only technical issue over the whole weekend .

An aside though , after Ri had a shower I had a look at her foot , and it was extensively bruised and swollen , partly from lying down outside Wupperthal and then slipping on a rock during the Doring river crossing . And it looked sore , so I rubbed it in with vast quantities of Moov and bandaged up said foot , this girl has bigger balls than most guys I have met , no complaints ( well not much ) from her  :thumleft: .

Something which I couldn't fathom , there were a group of guys there , they go to different places and get horribly drunk , then have that place added to their t-shirts , and they were getting very well lubricated that night , I dread to think what some of them felt like the next morning .

Laugh of the weekend goes to Ri , she had switched on her heated underblanket in the tented camp's bed and forgot to switch it off , sometime during the night she jumped out of bed cursing like an old sailor and proceeding to rip her bed apart to remove the heated item , after that she was fast asleep again . 

 

[Ri]

Tankwa Tented Camp
I'm up early as the drunk brigade from the night before loudly pack up their tents and their headaches and head home. Breakfast is served between 08:00 and 10:00 so we mosey on over.  We find Lance and June up and ready to roll, but the Minion is minion down. She's had a rough few days, and Dux decides to let her sleep. We say our good byes to our great traveling companions, confident that we'll do a trip with them in future.

Dux takes some breakfast for the Minion, and she wakes up and starts to get ready, moving like a sloth in treacle. I decide to go take a look at some of the interesting sculptures but the Minion turns a sulky eye on me, arresting my step. "Do you want to come along?" She nods. I wait while she finishes putting on her shoes, folds her egg and toast into an egg sandwich, and presents herself ready with the speed of a sloth on a sugar rush.

We wander up the flat koppie behind the tents and towards the shiny ship on the horizon.

The Minion shares her dad's interest in geography and rocks, and invariably carries home a rock garden from hikes and trips, says Dux

The schoolbus-turned-camo-camper takes off into the distance

We also get ready for the dusty, boring, loooooooooong road home.

Leaving Las Tankwas

And whaddayaknow, more gates...

 

[Ri]

Tankwa Padstal
About 40 kms away from Tankwa Tented Camp is the Tankwa Padstal. I'm already bored stiff with the monotonous dusty riding, and turn in at the Padstal on the excuse that the Minion would enjoy it. She loves it, almost as much as I do  :biggrin:  The Minion covets and gets a plaster egg that she can excavate to get at the dinosaur within. I like the cheap thrills, and buy exploding ginger beer and my favourite, sparklers, that I push into the sandy ashtray and set alight. The Minion's eyes light up - she is also a pyromaniac, like me - and lights up the other sparklers under Dux' watchful eye.

Other visitors to the Padstal

Friendly and curious emu at the back, guarding the 2nd hand tire stack where you can replace a damaged tire with one that has just enough thread to get home :thumleft: Andy660 will soon be taking through another load of donated 2nd hand tires to place on the heap of so-called "get-me-homes" (if I recall correctly) (https://wilddog.net.za/forum/index.php?topic=215364.msg3919098#msg3919098)

Ooooh there are those sexy DRs again  :drif:

More of my hoofed friends.

Looks like a jackal but acts like a dog...?

Looks like Tankwa Padstal is going into the cemetery business  ???

More Padstal visitors

Dux mounts the Hooligan "Karate Kid"-style, as any other way would have taken the Minion's head off.

Another 40 kms and we ride through Karoopoort, then it's another 40 kms to Ceres, where we fill up and take a quick comfort break. We head over Mitchell's Pass again, then turn towards Worcester, but instead of riding the Bainskloof Pass, we take the next turn-off through Slanghoek Pass. It is a beautiful winding tar road through winelands between the mountains, which passes beneath the N1 and joins the Rawsonville road. From there we turn onto the N1 and take Du Toitskloof Pass over the mountains, where we take a last comfort break.

We finally come to a stop at Dux' workshop, where he quickly pressure washes the Karoo dust off the two trusty DRs. The weekend well and truly over, I head home to collect my thoughts, still scattered all over the Tankwa Karoo.

 

[Dux]

A special thank you to Ri , you are a great riding companion and a very good friend  :thumleft: , Kayleigh ( Minion ) my beautiful daughter for being such a good and patient pillion , the poor child was in adult company the whole weekend except for about half an hour of kiddie playtime at the Padstal , and to Lance and June for being such wonderful company , I look forward to more rides together with all four of you .
And lest I forget , Kyle and Matt at the Doring river crossing , Gerrit and Wayne at Oasis and the staff at Tankwa tent camp , it was very interesting talking to Gray from Malawi who refuelled our bikes at the tent camp .
For anyone interested in doing the ride , the total distance from Brackenfell was 740km , consumption on the two DR's was about 21 km/lt and 18 km/lt with the latter bike being equipped with a pumper carb and my bulk , so not bad going at all . Terrain is a mixture of mostly good condition gravel roads , the section between Oasis and Wupperthal being fairly rocky , and then a few sections in the Biedouw valley being a bit rocky , but quite rideable .
If anyone is interested in the route they can PM me , and please support SAS Willehond 3  :thumleft:

 

[Rouxman]

Brilliant! ! Thanks for sharing!! On the list.

Sent from my GT-I9305 using Tapatalk

 

[TVB]

I have spent a long time refreshing here tonight to see all the pics (slow internet) but it was worth it!

Brilliant RR - Now the Karoo is solid on the bucket list!!  :thumleft:

 

[Dorsland]

Nice route within easy reach of Cape Town. I wonder how Gray the Malawian is acclimatising to the Tankwa desert?

 

[Dux]

Doersland , I had a lekker chat with him , what a nice guy and very level headed  :thumleft:

 

[Slim Jim]

Awsome , thanx for sharing , with all these RR's I'm getting no work done . one thing that I fined very interesting is how people make a living out there? there is NOTHING out there! It's on my bucket list for next year . :thumleft:

 

[Dux]

Awsome , thanx for sharing , with all these RR's I'm getting no work done . one thing that I fined very interesting is how people make a living out there? there is NOTHING out there! It's on my bucket list for next year . :thumleft:

I recall riding the area about 30 years ago , and then there was nothing , if you needed fuel you had to arrange in advance with the church in Wupperthal for the exact amount required , the majority of camping / accomodation places did not exist as such then and it really was a piece of desolation .
But it is still a good place for the soul  :thumleft:

 

[2StrokeDan]

How's that YAMAHA gate!!!

Love it!

 

[Ri]

How's that YAMAHA gate!!!

Love it!

So disappointed they didn't have a SUZUKI gate  :-\

 

[Dux]

They had a BMW gate  :biggrin: It was broken  >

 

[NoRush]

Thanks Ri for the RR, wish i lived closer to the Cape and surrounds. Who knows somewhere, sometime in the future  :ricky: Respect to you handling that ball bearing type terrain.  :thumleft:

 

[eikeboom]

'n Baie lekker RR van 'n ongelooflike area!