Cold, Wet and Windy 4 Days ! RR completed !

[alienhost]

Right i finally got to do my first proper SA Adventure Ride , 4 days and 1635 KM ! My bike had been kitted with panniers which were from my bicycle and i modified them a bit to make them more rigid,i also managed to find another bag which fits perfectly on the back carrier. I added a White strip of LED lights to my hand gaurds which i had made up in Sham Shui Po ( Hong Kong) for a mere R45, i dropped from a 47 tooth rear sprocket to a 41 and inflated my tires to 2 Bars to also help with the speed issue, next my tank bag managed to work as the CTX has a metal tank and just incase i had a cigarrette socket installed and i strapped a 5L petrol can to the front carrier.  I was armed with 3 cameras. The new Drift 170 helmet cam, my Nikon digital camera and my Canon EOS 50D which i strapped to the seat behind me.
Joining me on this trip was my brother( Darryn) on his WR250F, now he has an 8L tank and mine is 8.5L so we had to plan our fuel stops.
DAY 1: We managed to depart Milnerton ( Cape Town) at about 9:30am and our route was Stellenbosch, Franshoek, Caledon, Riviersonderend,Swellendam, Riverdale and Mossel Bay.

Me all packed and ready to go.

We stopped at Riviersonderend for lunch and saw these old Ox Wagons out the back.

Going up Tradouw Pass the weather started to get worse, this was a really nice pass and will do it again when sunny.

Sure looks nice down there in the Valley.

Darryn found a water crossing to do, not having waterproof boots and being far away from our destination i skipped it.

Darryn used every stop to chat with the locals, he likes making new friends but seems to attract the Village Idiot all the time. ;D

It wasn't too long befor we had reached Ronnies, time for a quick drink and off again.

Just love the decoration in this place, judging by how much underwear is hanging in the pub i'm sure some wild parties must go on here. :drif:

I just love being able to park right outside a place and not having to pay a car gaurd.
It was now getting a bit late and we turned off the R62 onto a dirt road towards Gysmanshoek Pass, this road was busy being repaired and had lots of loose gravel on it plus the occassional hole.

Gysmanshoek Pass was a little wet, now remember i made sure my tires were rock hard, well i never deflated them and that made this section even more tricky for me. The mud wasn't deep but just enough to keep you very alert, truely enjoyable though  :ricky:
We filled up at Riversdale at 6pm and hit the N2 towards Mossle Bay, our bikes don't have great lights afterall !

On arriving at our Guest House i noticed just how dirty my pants were even with that huge mudflap on my bike  ???

My panniers seemed a bit muddy too, hope i can wash them somewhere.

I managed to wash everything in the sink  eepwall: next was to dry them next to the heater.

Avenues Guest house is pretty good and Biker Friendly.

Parked right outside our room and if you have more expensive bikes Mieke( Owner) was willing to park her car outside so we could use her garage  :thumleft:
So with the completion of todays ride we covered 536KM's and my fuel consumption average was 5.57L/100KM. Most of the ride was Tar but the next few days it will be gravel(dirt roads ) mostly.

 

[Malibu]

*subscribed*  ;D

 

[Oom Foe-rie]

eepwall:

 

[RobCrouch]

Man that looks really lekker! :thumleft:

 

[Swart Baard]

Lekke lekke  :thumleft:

 

[White Rhino]

Gooi mielies  :thumleft:

 

[Frannarossi]

Nice man,gooi die res :thumleft:

 

[Ian in Great Brak River]

Nice one guys.

 

[jimjim]

Nice. Have wheels, will travel. Tell more.

 

[Sm Art]

Goeie een kerels  :icescream:

 

[Mark Hardy]

So far so damn good  :thumleft:

I am in for the rest for sure

 

[alienhost]

After a great sleep that night we stuck around for the breakfast too which was more than enough. My boots had dried overnight so that was a bonuss, we left for George at 9am and the weather looked perfect, i had booked my CTX in for it's first service.

Darryn leading the way out of Mossel Bay and heading up the coast before doing a gravel detour.

We turned onto the R328 and took the first gravel road to our right and then came across this  ???
But as you know Africa is not for sissies (没用家伙) so we just went went over the bridge and some of the rocks on the other side, no problem. (没关系)

First service underway, 1000kM, next one at 3000KM.

Must say Honda has some nice bikes.
After an hour we were on our way again and heading to Montagu Pass, Paarde Poort and then lunch at De Rust.

Back on gravel roads which is a much better choice, no cars,trucks or taxis.

We stopped at Amanda’s Grave, an awe inspiring viewpoint alongside the road where a husband so in love with his wife buried her ashes where he had once proposed to her.

Darryn at Montagu Pass, forgot to ask how that seat was doing  ot:, the CTX has a great seat !

I just love these mountain passes.
The history for my overseas friends.
MONTAGU PASS  :
The historic Montagu Pass between George and Oudtshoorn was declared a National Monument in 1972.  It is open to traffic and is a good gravel road some 10km in length.  With many serpentine curves this magnificent pass gradually winds its way through the fynbos covered Cradock's Kloof until it reaches the summit.  Travelling along this fascinating breathtaking route, with its scenery, is an unforgetable experience.  The building of the Montagu Pass, during 1844-1847, was an important milestone in the history of South Afircan road communications.  The barrier between the central, the eastern and western districts of the colony had been overcome.    On average, 250 convicts were employed at any given time on the construction of the pass.COST OF BUILDING THE MONTAGU PASS
Total expenses for the construction of the Montagu Pass amounted to £35, 799

Entering De Rust, looks  a litle unique.

Once again Darryn tried to befriend the Village Idiot, think his name was Donald.

We decided to try another restaurant

After lunch we headed to Oudtshoorn to refuel, up Schoemans Poort and onto Die Hell. 2 HOURS that just can't be right   just how bad is this road?
The Gamkaskloof was presumably discovered in the early 19th century by farmers, but the first permanent settler was Peter Swanepoel, who settled in the valley during the 1830s. After him the Marais, Cordier and the Joubert Nel Mostert families also settled in the valley, growing to a community of a maximum size of around 160 individuals. The residents used horses to cross the Swartberg mountains to reach Prince Albert or Calitzdorp. Later a school was formed, with the teacher also leading the Sunday church.The residents had for many years been championing the government to build a road into the valley. Eventually in 1962 a road was completed which was probably the beginning of the end for the community. The children attended high schools in the nearby villages and most of them did not return to the subsistence life in the valley. The elderly retired to retirement villages outside the valley and the number of residents diminished until the last person (Piet Swanepoel) sold his home to Cape Nature Conservation in 1991.

I tried to follow the cars tracks as there seemed to be less loose stones on it.

There were a few small river crossings on the way down, happy but dissapointed too !

This is where things get interesting, jeez that road down looks pretty steep from here !!!

Ok it is pretty damn steep, this i wouldn't want to try do at night.

This is an impressive road, we were fortunate that the grader had just done some work on it after some heavy rains.

I had booked into the Swannepoel house which has no electricity, but it has a gas heater, fridge and stove and lots of candles, it was going to be a quiet and cold night.

Eh Vodacom you forgot about us down here !, yup no cell phone reception either.

The kitchen, might be a good time to mention that the original house was just a 1 bedroom and the kitchen is outside, 2 more bedrooms were built on as the family grew but there are no interleading doors to the main house.

We had orderd dinner and boy was it good, Kudu steak with rice and some vegies, i had bought some Brandy too, homemade though so it was a good time to try it . At 50% it sure worked well and we were in for another early night. We had only done 248KM for the day but it was fabulous riding  :ricky:

 

[White Rhino]

Very cool!

Amanda's grave: Unusual proposal spot, don't you think? Do you think he might have jumped had she said NO?

That Gamaskloof road looks daunting.

 

[user 5710]

Awesome man. I really dig those Honda CTX bikes. They might not be fast but hell they will go anywhere anytime  :thumleft:

 

[Roela]

Kewl!!

 

[Frannarossi]

Gooi die res

 

[Boer!]

Nice

 

[onderbroek]

:thumleft: :thumleft:

 

[alienhost]

Sorry for the delay but we having computer issues here.
DAY 3: Today we would do the Swartberg Pass, head into Prince Albert to refuel and then follow some gravel roads to Laingsburg, head up towards Sutherland and enjoy the Komsberg and Rooikloof Passes.
SUTHERLAND:  a town with about 2,840 inhabitants in the Northern Cape province of South Africa. It lies in the western Roggeveld Mountains in the Karoo.Sutherland's arid climate and remote location 1,450 metres above sea level make its night skies among the world's clearest and darkest. An NGK Dutch Reformed church in Sutherland was built before the Anglo Boer War.
I sure slept good last night, was only 10 degrees so it wasn't bad at all, weather looked a little overcast but not raining yet ! Breakfast at 8am and then we set off at 9am.

A wise old man once told me the secret to staying warm in winter was to go to bed with a hot woman, if none are avaliable grab the next best thing, SHERRY, this was home made and complimentry, not sure how much was in it when they gave it to us though , surely i didn't have that much 

Another thing to try while you are in The Hell is the Brandy, Witblitz, 50% proof and only R70 ( HK$80)

The water crossings are not deep here but still things can easily go wrong, would hate to have fallen off in the water when we have an 8 hour ride ahead of us.

This section of the road reminds me of a rollercoaster, just need to get the speed up a bit more to enjoy it properly.

The 27km Swartberg Pass is considered one of the finest mountain passes in the world: an untarred road that winds to the summit 1583 metres above sea level in steep zigzags and sudden switchbacks with breathtaking views at every turn.
The road is supported in places by hand-packed stone walls, a trademark of brilliant road engineer Thomas Charles Bain.
On arrival in Prince Albert to our horror we found the petrol station closed ( ok it was a sunday but still ) :'( and according to my gps the next one was 60km away, after another look Prince Albert wasn't even on my gps, this is what happens when you buy preloaded maps on an SD card. Asking a local he pointed me down the road and we found a BP garage 400m away  :thumleft:
It had now started to rain slightly and it was still 10 Degrees so we suited up, the gravel road was in the direction of Vervoed Farm ( i think) .

There are many gates along this road but it helps having someone to open them for you, thanks Darryn. Looking at the size of the gate we were a little concerned as to what was being fenced in !

Cold, wet, windy and getting grumpy Darryn wasn't looking too enthusiastic at this point.

The road out here was pretty good, some loose stuff here and there but nothing serious.

Laingsburg dam wall. The weather had now improved and we were getting hungry.

There wasn't a whole lot in town but were very happy when we saw this,  :drif: VIP parking ofcourse. (This burger place is equivalent to Triple O's or Burger King in HK )
Once we and our bikes were refuelled we hit the boring stuff, TAR, but were soon on lovely gravel roads again on our way to Komsberg Pass, but the wether was getting worse by the minute. Have you seen the movie "The Fog" well it just swept in in a few minutes, it was drizzling ( very light annoying rain) and our visors were misting up so we had to ride with them open. We didn't go much faster than 60km/h and having Darryn infront of me helped but i needed to stay within 15 metres of him or i would lose sight of his break light. It didn't help that i was trying to watch the bumps with my expensive camera strapped to the seat behind me, geez i just hope it isn't getting wet back there.

You can see it was KAK ( very bad) riding conditions, notice my LED lights came out pretty good. Will be adding some to my scooter when i get back to Hong Kong.
We were very relieved to be back on the Tar and approaching Sutherland the weather was getting better, ok still freekin cold and the wind was fierce but it was dry, we had planned to fill up the bikes and the 5L container and get an early start in the morning but the HUGE petrol station ( being sarcastic ) was closed so we turned down the next street, which was gravel, and found our guest house, Jupiter, right there.

Riding in the drizzle for over an hour had made our boots and my gloves wet so we needed to dry them. I don't want to ride home in my summer gloves and wet boots now do i !?

Managed to wash my panniers in the shower which i think was built with the intention of being used as a 5 person shower. Don't you just love cable ties, so many uses. Oh and i never cut mine, i simply use something sharp like my knife to open the locking mechanism and they slide open.
After a lovely hot shower we headed to the bar for a fesh refreshments and a lovely chicken pie.
340KM for the day and tomorrow was planned to be a 500KM plus ride, so the plan was to skip breakfast and head out as soon as we could get petrol.
To be continued...............

 

[Frannarossi]

:thumleft: