masehare
Race Dog
Deon scouted a possible route in De Doorns two weeks ago on his Varadero. The road became a bit hectic for the big bike, so he decided we should rather complete the trip with the smaller bikes. We left from Somerset West quite early with the bikes on a trailer and after two hours arrived in De Doorns. Deon's son came along as well, but forgot his DRZ's keys at home :dousing:. We were a bit pissed off with ourselves for not checking, but anyway... XR's don't need keys, so we left him to guard the bakkie and agreed to keep the route as short as possible.
The first part was lekker gravel and then it turned into a mountain bike track:
The drop to the left made me a bit nervous, so I took it slooowww. Those little bushes next to the pathway hide big white concrete stones:
The train track is not in operation any more. It led to this tunnel:
And right next to it is another tunnel. This tunnel has no track, but it was a train tunnel years ago.
Deon read up on it and this is the oldest train tunnel in South Africa. :deal:
View from the other side of the tunnel:
Dead end also on the other side. If you look at Google Earth, you'll notice quite a few tracks criss-crossed here:
Hiker's lodge at Tunnel Station:
Further on, two train bridges visible:
And then we came across the Kaffrarian Rifles monument. This was erected after a train derailed in 1914 at this spot and 10 men died. They were on their way to Namibia to fight Germans. Never knew this little snippet from history:
Sign at the monument:
From here we took the first road to the R318 and then the N1 back to base. Total km's about 52, total time about 2 hours.
The first part was lekker gravel and then it turned into a mountain bike track:
The drop to the left made me a bit nervous, so I took it slooowww. Those little bushes next to the pathway hide big white concrete stones:
The train track is not in operation any more. It led to this tunnel:
And right next to it is another tunnel. This tunnel has no track, but it was a train tunnel years ago.
Deon read up on it and this is the oldest train tunnel in South Africa. :deal:
View from the other side of the tunnel:
Dead end also on the other side. If you look at Google Earth, you'll notice quite a few tracks criss-crossed here:
Hiker's lodge at Tunnel Station:
Further on, two train bridges visible:
And then we came across the Kaffrarian Rifles monument. This was erected after a train derailed in 1914 at this spot and 10 men died. They were on their way to Namibia to fight Germans. Never knew this little snippet from history:
Sign at the monument:
From here we took the first road to the R318 and then the N1 back to base. Total km's about 52, total time about 2 hours.
ot:
