Dads & Lads: Namaqualand & Karoo 2019 (Complete / Volledig)

[MellowJo]

And so the three remaining discoverers rode the few kilos south to look at the shipwreck of the Aristea .......

"Aristea shipwreck, Hondeklipbaai. The Aristea was a fishing trawler for I&J until she was called into duty in WWII as a minesweeper. The Aristea met her unfortunate end on the rocks outside Hondeklipbaai after her captain drunkenly neglected his duties.

The Aristea was built in 1934 in Scotland and she ran aground on 4 July 1945 just south of Hondeklipbaai."
https://hondeklip.com/aristea-shipwreck/

 

[MellowJo]

It was interesting to see the amount of concrete, used as ballast  in the keel of the ship  (pic above)  .....

........ and to see that the crank shaft only needed a little polish to power the next ship ...... 

 

[MellowJo]

It was spring low tide and we doodled around on the rocks and in the rock pools ...

 

[MellowJo]

And took a few samples from the sea in case of we could not scrape together enough money for fish from the boats ......

We trundled back towards town and later bought snoek from the returning ski-boats ..... this would become dinner

...... so for lunch we each had a few mussels, and toasted samis with peanut butter and bully beef from the local spaza shop ...

 

[MellowJo]

After lunch and a bit of rest from the heavy morning, .......

............ we went for a ride to the light house and the so-called Copper Bay ....
.... here the sand is copper coloured and quite dense (heavy/volume) ....
.

 

[MellowJo]

We had some very fresh crawfish (still crawling), and the snoek  to prepare for dinner ....

 

[MellowJo]

...and so with the crayfish starter and snoek on the fire ......

.... we had yet another stunning sunset to enjoy .....

 

[MellowJo]

And we had no punctures on this day  .....  :deal:

 

[Archangel]

And so, with another sunset and we slumbered in, ready to take on the dirt again after our "rest day"  :

Before sunrise on the 20th (Day 6), we were up and packing. Brent had his posse in the back of the Tuareg sorted, ready for the long "hol" back to Cape Town with Fried sacrificing the remainder of his trip to aid and abet the criminal in our midst.

Hondeklipbaai... So long, and thanks for all the fish.

The plan for the remaining musketeers was to fill up at Garies, head towards the Knersvlakte, then over Helsekloofpas to Nieuwoudtville (thanks to Oom Chris en sy travante) and finally end up in Calvinia.

They day started just peachy.  :thumleft:

The slightly smaller group of riders meant that the traveling went a bit quicker. We concluded that 4 people is the optimal group size, even though we had to open and close many, many gates...  :bueller:

Spiekman almost took a tumble quite early on. Actually twice. I took over Brent's headset and was connected to Spiekman and Sid for the first time. I was just behind Jo coming up to a deep and steep concrete low water bridge and saw him just making it while bouncing around. I waited for Spiekman to warn him and calmly told him all about this bad boy, without realising that I wasn't connected at the time. Spiekman thought I wanted to take a photo, so he sped up and before it was too late, he bottom'ed out his front and back on the XT, but managed to keep it all together. Lesson learnt. Next, (not too much further) he went through a  badly eroded river bed with some thick sand and steep middelmannetjie. This time he was properly warned and he talked me through his tank slapping over the SENNA. My French isn't quite what it used to be, but I got the picture...  :biggrin:

 

[Archangel]

In order to enter the Helsekloofpas from the West, we had to take a stretch of gravel going South along the railway line. We could see the mountain range and road that we had to cross on the other side of the spoor. The train passed while were were riding along this stretch and I felt like a cowboy in a Western movie. Until my steed was once again wounded in the hind leg...  :dousing:

Yeah, that's not going to keep any plugs. We tried, but the tire itself was too soft and flexible and the plugs just popped back out with inflation. R2500 se tire in sy moer!

Ah, the familiar sign of my bike without a rear wheel. It's been too long.  ;D

At this point, nobody was stressed and the team was well equipped in dealing "events". Off came the rear and it was loaded onto Sid's bike for attempted repairs with Vanrhynsdorp or Vredendal in mind, accompanied by Spiekman.

Jo and I was to take shelter under the railway, out of the sun for the time being.

We had a quick pot of tea before making ourselves comfortable, as we estimated that the crew would be back at around 4pm.

Apparently I was asleep first?  :

And there in the distance on the other side of the railway line is the little path over the Helskloof that so dearly wanted to take...

But with light quickly fading and not knowing in what condition the wheel will be when they get back, I accepted that this little gem would once again probably stay on the "To do" list...  :'(

I'll let Sid & Spiekman tell their story of the tire repair endeavors.

 

[Sidpitt]

We kicked up some good dirt along the railway line to the N7 and onto Vanrhynsdorp where we met the most helpful oake ever!
"Jan Tyre" is a man you can bet your bike on.    He had one look at the pulugged Anakee and raised his eyebrows!
Without hesitation he stared calling just about everyone on his phones contact list and eventually found a brand new tyre for us in Vredendal.

Daar gat ek en 15 mins later staan ek by die eienaar van die Delta handelaar oppie dorp. Hy phone a friend en ons bevestig dat daai tyre slegs op 'n nuwe 1250 sal pas.  :xxbah:
Maar, sy planne nie op nie en hy stuur my na die eienaar van die Continental plek toe waar 'n (omtrent splinter nuwe) Heidenhau in my hand gedruk word met 'n "Daar gaat jy my maat"
Wat skuld ek jou?
"Niks, daai ding het 'n gater in en ek verkoop nie k@k uit die winkel nie! Ek soek nie comebacks nie"

So bek moet jam kry en verseker meer ondersteuning. (Ek beloof om daar 'n "pompie" te gaan kry elke keer as ek daar verby ry) Thanks!


Terug in Vanrhynsdorp sit Jan Tyre vir ons die "nuwe" tyre op ons rimm en toets hom. Hys reg!
Jan Tyre se verder dat hy in Calvinia (waar ons vanaand nog moet gaan slaap) met sy broer daar gereel het om vir ons 'n 2de handse tyre te gaan koop en vir ons gastehuis toe bring.

Blixen Jan, baie dankie!    Wat skuld ons jou vir al jou moeite ?

"Niks man! Ry net lekker en geniet dit" (met die mees opregte smile op sy gesig wat jy aan kan dink)


Daar is min dinge wat my meer impress as 'n man wat sonder moeite iemand anders bystaan in sy tyd van nood nie!  (Heeltemal 'n ander ondervinding as met die Oom in Carnavon)

Die son begin vlou (flou?)word en ek en Spiekman jaag daar uit terug na ons gestrande makkers toe.

 

[GravelPitt]

Finally getting a gap to fall into the RR. Thanx you Jo, Arch and Sid, the read is so good that even I can't wait to see what happens next.

I'd like to add that while waiting at Jan Tyre with Jan  ;D he continued to work his way down his contacts list to find another back tyre, while doing so one of the contacts mentioned that he just saw a post on a Garries Facebook group that a lady picked up a wallet dropped close to the road by bikers... Jan immediately put me in contact with the friendly lady from Garries and she confirmed my suspicions that it must have been Gabriel's (arch)... even though he had no idea that he had lost it.

Sid then phoned and said he found an almost new tyre (with a gator) that he was forced to take without any form of payment,  Jan then got off the phone and mentioned that his brother found another used tyre for us and will give it to us when we get to Calvinia that evening (it proved to come in handy later... yes there is more). It was at that moment when all these selfless acts made me think of a discussion that took place earlier on in the trip regarding emigration and what type of future lays in wait for South Africa. Although the debate had many sides, one thing was made clear to me in this moment... there is nowhere in the World where you can find people as Lekker as South Africans! Yes sure not all South Africans (Carnavon oopmie) but the lekke people are the ones that keep me here.

Anyways myself and Sid planned to take another route (turned out to be quite nice) back to the railside campers. When we arrived they emerged from their "bende huisie" under the railway with puffy eyes from their maddig slaapie. The wheel was back on in no time and we hit it back to Calvinia. First a little gravel and then tar via Van Rhyns pass (WOW) due to fading light.

 

[eberhard]

:thumleft: :thumleft: :thumleft:

 

[Oubones]

Nice trip and proves that there are still some really good people in this great country of ours!  :thumleft:

 

[Black_Hawk]

Always nice to see/hear that there are still good people willing to help total strangers.

You guys had a awesome trip  :thumleft:

 

[Plaasseun]

Dankie manne vir 'n lekker lees.

Kon nie glo daai Carnavon oom vat julle so vir 'n ride nie, het nie daardie gedrag van 'n fellow biker verwag nie, nou kan die oom ten minste vir hom 'n nuwe jean gaan koop ot:

 

[Archangel]

So we rolled into Nieuwoudtville bang on sunset and slabbed it to Calvinia arriving in last light.

Shortly after our arrival, Jan Tyre's brother rocked up with another tire that we could take with as spare. We invited him to ride with the next day, but he'd just arrived back from a week long rugby tour in Kimberley, so his family wasn't too keen. Next time...  :thumleft:

We checked in with the family with the latest update that we're all safe at our stay-over spot for the night and after a quick shower, we walked next door to DieBlou Nartjie for dinner.

 

[Archangel]

Day 7 (21 June) would be the shortest day of the trip for Spiekman & Sid.

Somehow Jo got his dates and days wrong. He had to be back in Melkbos by Saturday night and therefore planned to give Sutherland a skip and ride back through Tankwa and home instead of sleeping over at Sutherland. Even after realising that there was an extra day available to ride, we committed to his initial plan which meant that we had longer day ahead.

The plan was to go down Gannaga Pass into Tankwa from where Sid and Spiekman would turn East and go over Ouberg to Sutherland (same road we did on Day 1) while we headed straight to Ceres.

As we sat down at our breakfast table, discussing the ride ahead, Spiekman came in with this little wheel he picked up... "Guys, our luck is changing. There's even tires lying in the road now!"

I wasn't convinced and packed the extra tire anyways.

We stopped at the big red postbox for quick pick and were on our way...

Jo overshot this corner and by the looks of the sign and the open gate, he wasn't the first...

 

[Archangel]

We stopped at the lodge for a quick beer, as we thought we had time on our side.

Heading down Gannaga

 

[Matewis]

In order to enter the Helsekloofpas from the West, we had to take a stretch of gravel going South along the railway line. We could see the mountain range and road that we had to cross on the other side of the spoor. The train passed while were were riding along this stretch and I felt like a cowboy in a Western movie. Until my steed was once again wounded in the hind leg...  :dousing:

Yeah, that's not going to keep any plugs. We tried, but the tire itself was too soft and flexible and the plugs just popped back out with inflation. R2500 se tire in sy moer!

Ah, the familiar sign of my bike without a rear wheel. It's been too long.  ;D

At this point, nobody was stressed and the team was well equipped in dealing "events". Off came the rear and it was loaded onto Sid's bike for attempted repairs with Vanrhynsdorp or Vredendal in mind, accompanied by Spiekman.

Jo and I was to take shelter under the railway, out of the sun for the time being.

We had a quick pot of tea before making ourselves comfortable, as we estimated that the crew would be back at around 4pm.

Apparently I was asleep first?  :

And there in the distance on the other side of the railway line is the little path over the Helskloof that so dearly wanted to take...

But with light quickly fading and not knowing in what condition the wheel will be when they get back, I accepted that this little gem would once again probably stay on the "To do" list...  :'(

I'll let Sid & Spiekman tell their story of the tire repair endeavors.

Would like to know where this Helsekloof pass is. Traveling to a farm close to the treinspoorpad in September