Grumpleton
Race Dog
Day one
The riders for this trip were (in no particular order)
Angus,CRF250, Antony, XR650L, Phillip (senior) CRF 230, Phillip (Junior) DRZ 400, Peter,XR250, Marcus GS800, Eckehard GS650, Grant DRZ400, Gino KTM 690, George GS800, Tony XT660 Z
The day started off fine a sunny, (oops wrong ride report)
The day started of wet miserable and cold , Angus who was the organiser of this trip could not have picked a worse weekend for a bike trip, but because we are all wanabe hard core adventure riders we all (well most of us) agreed that it was a good idea to go.
Grant and Antony were coming from Langebaan and the rest from Cape Town surrounding areas , The Cape Town boys were all going to meet up at Zone 7 on the N7 and the Langebaan boys would meet up with the rest at the first fuel stop in Ceres,
Marcus missed the Zone 7 meet up and went on alone to Ceres with Angus and the rest following on shortly, the first casualty of the day was Tony`s XT that decided to rather not run than go on a ride in the wet, However it is of my opinion that Tony got wise to what was ahead and pulled a fuse so that the bike would not run, no matter what Angus and the crew tried to do, it rebelled like a hedgehog and refused to go anywhere.
As good riding mates Angus and the boys abandoned Tony to his own devises and left him sitting on the side of the road half way up the Bainskloof Pass, (Nice friends you have there Tony).
After eventually meeting up at Ceres and regrouping , and then ungrouping because the younger crowd had to still feed their growing bodies, Angus, Antony, Grant, Marcus, and Peter, headed out towards the Tankwa Padstaal with the younger crowd to follow after a Breakfast at Steers.
We passed some lovely friendly people ( about 30 people ) that were out of their minds walking along the R355 in the rain, cold and the mud, (you can’t educate these foreign people about Africa)
Antony and Grant found the going very tedious, because of the head wind, with the little 250`s only making about 75km/h and this is way too slow for the DRZ and the XR, we eventually arrived at the Tankwa Padstaal with the rest of the crew arriving about 20 minutes later, Gino with all his young enthusiasm missed the turnoff all together, even though you can’t really miss the Padstal as it’s the only piece of civilisation for miles around.
After much banter and chirping and some beers ,we left for Middlepos through the Tankwa national park with not much to see other than it is now very green with all the rain that has been around, and has amazing flowers of all colours. The locals say this is the best ‘ rain year’ for a long time.
We headed towards the Ganagga Pass over some wash- aways and up the pass with no incidents to report up to this stage, (Boy but was this going to change at the top of the pass),
The first casualty of the day was Marcus who hit the mud/clay at the top of the pass and got totally out of control. He headed off the road, aiming at a local mountain where he thought the road should go, and into a ditch with his beautifully turned out GS 800 breaking his screen off the bike and skinning his nose.
The next casualty was Eckehard who took a hard fall in the mud and started to slowly strip his GS65 of all it external bits, mirrors, flickers, etc. Eckehard’s crash at this point also proved that all your luggage and extra fuel needs to be securely strapped to your bike and a cargo net on its own is not the ideal solution.
The next casualty was Grant , Having done a bit of dirt riding and riding in the mud,he was getting wind gat, well the moral of the story is ‘ get windgat , will fall ‘, Grant threw it away at speed however only damage to the DRZ was a clutch lever and a screen , no injuries so far and all was good.
We eventually reached Middlepos and Koos and his family once again treated us very well with good food and a warm bed, there was a lot of raging in the bar that evening. Gino got the brunt of the slagging because he had’ accidently’ brought his daughters clothes with, instead of his own.
To give him credit he did tell us that he had washed his clothes the night before and had put them in the tumble dryer and they had shrunk over night, (Good story Gino but we still don’t believe you).
Day 2
After a hearty breakfast and a night that the Youngsters in the crowd, namely Gino and Young Phillip, misbehaved with some elderly lady that was also staying in the hotel, we all left in good spirits.
The conditions were very wet and slippery and cold as we headed out towards the Ouberg Pass. After Eckehard crashed some more , some river crossings where Phillip Senior’s CRF230 made like a steam train after he went off the low level bridge and into the deep water. As punishment for this lapse in his riding skills , we all stood around and watched him recover his bike by himself with us scoring him out of 10 for his efforts, ( Phillip we gave you a 9).
After a few more heart stopping moments we stopped for a breather at the top of the Ouberg Pass for a quick snack & drink. We all then moved down the pass with no incidents, passing the section of the pass where Tony De rode off the edge, and disappeared off in the direction of the Tankwa once again heading for the Tankwa Padstaal and Katbakkies Pass then towards the Cedarburg Oasis .
We grumbled up to the Tankwa river a little way from the bottom of the Ouberg Pass where to our dismay we found it flooded and flowing rather quickly. We had to dismount and push the bikes through the river as it was flowing too fast & high to ride through. We put 4 guys to a bike, two to push the bike upriver and one to guide it straight at the far bank.
After we got through the river we made a dash for the Tankwa Padstaal where coffee was the order of the day and no Beer was consumed , the Tankwa had tamed the youngsters,
From the Patstaal we headed up Katbakkies Pass and on to The Oasis where of course Gerrit laid on his usual brilliant sumptuous service, with to my limited knowledge, where the best spare ribs in the country are obtained. A good night sleep was had by all.
Day 3
After a hearty breakfast from Gerrit and crew we headed in the direction of Clanwillam , only to find the river 3km down the road flooded, of course Angus in his usual enthusiasm decided we need to cross this river in the spirit of adventure. This did not go down to well with Antony and Phillip Senior leading the chorus of “are you mad its early in the morning and how many more rivers do you need to wade through”, of course young Phillip always the optimist decided to ride the DRZ through the river to prove it can be done. Unfortunately for Angus this is a semi Democratic organisation and majority rule won in the end, we went over the mountain through the national park.
We headed into some famers yard who was very distressed that we had disturbed his Sunday morning, after requesting to use “his private road” on condition that we don’t make a noise and ride like hooligans like some quad bikers had done, we were granted permission. We later worked out that this was not a private road and he had no right to stop us, However people it proves a point, behave yourselves travelling through the farmers lands and house area so that we can do it again.
We then proceeded to move off to the Uitkyk Pass and then up and down the Nieuwoudt Pass and on to Algeria to cross the Oliphant’s River, As you can see in the pic below this was not going to happen,
we took the back road through to Citrusdal had some lunch there and re fuelled and then moved off to our separate homes. Antony and Grant back to Langebaan via Paleisheuwel, the Sandvlei bungalows and the rail road and Angus and his crew off to Cape Town via the back roads and some more flooded rivers.
3 Days of great fun, thrills and spills, cold and wet.
The man of the trip must awarded to Eckehard for perseverance and not complaining even after 6 off`s Eckehard, you are the man, you can ride with me any time.
Phillip Junior, Watch your back boet, I may appear out of the blue when you are least expecting it and will get you back for the graffiti on my bike.
Some random picks
The riders for this trip were (in no particular order)
Angus,CRF250, Antony, XR650L, Phillip (senior) CRF 230, Phillip (Junior) DRZ 400, Peter,XR250, Marcus GS800, Eckehard GS650, Grant DRZ400, Gino KTM 690, George GS800, Tony XT660 Z
The day started off fine a sunny, (oops wrong ride report)
The day started of wet miserable and cold , Angus who was the organiser of this trip could not have picked a worse weekend for a bike trip, but because we are all wanabe hard core adventure riders we all (well most of us) agreed that it was a good idea to go.
Grant and Antony were coming from Langebaan and the rest from Cape Town surrounding areas , The Cape Town boys were all going to meet up at Zone 7 on the N7 and the Langebaan boys would meet up with the rest at the first fuel stop in Ceres,
Marcus missed the Zone 7 meet up and went on alone to Ceres with Angus and the rest following on shortly, the first casualty of the day was Tony`s XT that decided to rather not run than go on a ride in the wet, However it is of my opinion that Tony got wise to what was ahead and pulled a fuse so that the bike would not run, no matter what Angus and the crew tried to do, it rebelled like a hedgehog and refused to go anywhere.
As good riding mates Angus and the boys abandoned Tony to his own devises and left him sitting on the side of the road half way up the Bainskloof Pass, (Nice friends you have there Tony).
After eventually meeting up at Ceres and regrouping , and then ungrouping because the younger crowd had to still feed their growing bodies, Angus, Antony, Grant, Marcus, and Peter, headed out towards the Tankwa Padstaal with the younger crowd to follow after a Breakfast at Steers.
We passed some lovely friendly people ( about 30 people ) that were out of their minds walking along the R355 in the rain, cold and the mud, (you can’t educate these foreign people about Africa)
Antony and Grant found the going very tedious, because of the head wind, with the little 250`s only making about 75km/h and this is way too slow for the DRZ and the XR, we eventually arrived at the Tankwa Padstaal with the rest of the crew arriving about 20 minutes later, Gino with all his young enthusiasm missed the turnoff all together, even though you can’t really miss the Padstal as it’s the only piece of civilisation for miles around.
After much banter and chirping and some beers ,we left for Middlepos through the Tankwa national park with not much to see other than it is now very green with all the rain that has been around, and has amazing flowers of all colours. The locals say this is the best ‘ rain year’ for a long time.
We headed towards the Ganagga Pass over some wash- aways and up the pass with no incidents to report up to this stage, (Boy but was this going to change at the top of the pass),
The first casualty of the day was Marcus who hit the mud/clay at the top of the pass and got totally out of control. He headed off the road, aiming at a local mountain where he thought the road should go, and into a ditch with his beautifully turned out GS 800 breaking his screen off the bike and skinning his nose.
The next casualty was Eckehard who took a hard fall in the mud and started to slowly strip his GS65 of all it external bits, mirrors, flickers, etc. Eckehard’s crash at this point also proved that all your luggage and extra fuel needs to be securely strapped to your bike and a cargo net on its own is not the ideal solution.
The next casualty was Grant , Having done a bit of dirt riding and riding in the mud,he was getting wind gat, well the moral of the story is ‘ get windgat , will fall ‘, Grant threw it away at speed however only damage to the DRZ was a clutch lever and a screen , no injuries so far and all was good.
We eventually reached Middlepos and Koos and his family once again treated us very well with good food and a warm bed, there was a lot of raging in the bar that evening. Gino got the brunt of the slagging because he had’ accidently’ brought his daughters clothes with, instead of his own.
To give him credit he did tell us that he had washed his clothes the night before and had put them in the tumble dryer and they had shrunk over night, (Good story Gino but we still don’t believe you).
Day 2
After a hearty breakfast and a night that the Youngsters in the crowd, namely Gino and Young Phillip, misbehaved with some elderly lady that was also staying in the hotel, we all left in good spirits.
The conditions were very wet and slippery and cold as we headed out towards the Ouberg Pass. After Eckehard crashed some more , some river crossings where Phillip Senior’s CRF230 made like a steam train after he went off the low level bridge and into the deep water. As punishment for this lapse in his riding skills , we all stood around and watched him recover his bike by himself with us scoring him out of 10 for his efforts, ( Phillip we gave you a 9).
After a few more heart stopping moments we stopped for a breather at the top of the Ouberg Pass for a quick snack & drink. We all then moved down the pass with no incidents, passing the section of the pass where Tony De rode off the edge, and disappeared off in the direction of the Tankwa once again heading for the Tankwa Padstaal and Katbakkies Pass then towards the Cedarburg Oasis .
We grumbled up to the Tankwa river a little way from the bottom of the Ouberg Pass where to our dismay we found it flooded and flowing rather quickly. We had to dismount and push the bikes through the river as it was flowing too fast & high to ride through. We put 4 guys to a bike, two to push the bike upriver and one to guide it straight at the far bank.
After we got through the river we made a dash for the Tankwa Padstaal where coffee was the order of the day and no Beer was consumed , the Tankwa had tamed the youngsters,
From the Patstaal we headed up Katbakkies Pass and on to The Oasis where of course Gerrit laid on his usual brilliant sumptuous service, with to my limited knowledge, where the best spare ribs in the country are obtained. A good night sleep was had by all.
Day 3
After a hearty breakfast from Gerrit and crew we headed in the direction of Clanwillam , only to find the river 3km down the road flooded, of course Angus in his usual enthusiasm decided we need to cross this river in the spirit of adventure. This did not go down to well with Antony and Phillip Senior leading the chorus of “are you mad its early in the morning and how many more rivers do you need to wade through”, of course young Phillip always the optimist decided to ride the DRZ through the river to prove it can be done. Unfortunately for Angus this is a semi Democratic organisation and majority rule won in the end, we went over the mountain through the national park.
We headed into some famers yard who was very distressed that we had disturbed his Sunday morning, after requesting to use “his private road” on condition that we don’t make a noise and ride like hooligans like some quad bikers had done, we were granted permission. We later worked out that this was not a private road and he had no right to stop us, However people it proves a point, behave yourselves travelling through the farmers lands and house area so that we can do it again.
We then proceeded to move off to the Uitkyk Pass and then up and down the Nieuwoudt Pass and on to Algeria to cross the Oliphant’s River, As you can see in the pic below this was not going to happen,
we took the back road through to Citrusdal had some lunch there and re fuelled and then moved off to our separate homes. Antony and Grant back to Langebaan via Paleisheuwel, the Sandvlei bungalows and the rail road and Angus and his crew off to Cape Town via the back roads and some more flooded rivers.
3 Days of great fun, thrills and spills, cold and wet.
The man of the trip must awarded to Eckehard for perseverance and not complaining even after 6 off`s Eckehard, you are the man, you can ride with me any time.
Phillip Junior, Watch your back boet, I may appear out of the blue when you are least expecting it and will get you back for the graffiti on my bike.
Some random picks
