Hankeeb
Pack Dog
So being three off-road bike owners at our company we naturally talk about riding, trips, skills, bikes and anything related to twee wheels and dirt.
With all this talk going around a possible one day trip was mentioned.
With everyone having busy schedules we had to carefully plan something to accommodate all of us.
After plenty of discussions where to go, when to go and what roads to take we decided on leaving after work on a Friday afternoon, heading to the Overberg, with a route planned out about 70%.
With a last minute addition to the three man expedition we set off from Somerset West.
Wouter on his yellow R1200GS, Eric on his Green&Black Kawasaki KLR and Thedo and I on our F650GS Dakar’s.
Heading out to Sir Lowry’s pass we encountered the usual Friday afternoon traffic combined with the usual Friday afternoon past two South-Easter reminding us that we are still in the Western Cape.
Wouter on his Yellow monster did not wait for us on the pass, we only caught up to him again just outside Grabouw where he had to stop to fill up his tank.
From there we took the N2 towards the Old Houw Hoek pass.
This would be myself and Wouter’s second time riding it in two months, however this time it would be after the devastating Veld Fires that destroyed most of the vegetation.
A quick stop to let down the tire pressures just before we hit the first section of dirt and what an amazing piece of road.
The fires left it barren and dry. Exposing larger sand patches than normal, loose rocks and some eroded sections.
With Eric, the newest to riding on dirt, going first and Thedo following him left me with the GoPro in third catching all the action.
Wouter decided to go last and play the part of sweeper.
Here is a video of the pass: (At 2:25 you will see Eric nearly crashing out in a sandy patch)
[flash=480,385]https://www.youtube.com/v/8EWmgllsxbI[/flash]
This is by far one of the best pieces of road, both up or down, to drive when heading in an easterly direction from Grabouw.
Thedo had a few close calls paddling his bike through some sections.
I stopped to give Eric and Thedo a gap and waited for Wouter to catch up again.
When the road was clear I could use the right hand a bit more which in turn put a smile on my face.
I have this mental problem that I got from riding push bikes for years, it is called “always choose the hardest line”.
Not always the wise choice but always the fun choice!
After getting to the bottom of the Old Houw Hoek Pass we headed to a small cafe in Botrivier for our first drinks stop.
Yes at 18:00 it was still 30 degrees Celsius.
After that we took the Van der Stel Pass towards Greyton. Here we could make up some time to get to our camping spot before dark.
The roads were good and the smoke blowing over from a fire at Riviersonderend resulted in some pretty amazing sunset shots.
At one of our turn-off’s Thedo found a little dove that got hit by a car. He quickly stopped, jumped off his bike and helped the injured dove to the side of the road.
Then we pushed on the last bit to Greyton, hitting some of the dirt road sections at 110km/h+ and in no time we entered Greyton.
Quaint little town it is. Some good restaurants’ and interesting artistic little shops to visit, however we did not opt to do any window shopping or stocking up on something to fill the hole in our bellies.
We drove straight through town and stopped out on a backroad to call the wives and girlfriends letting them know we are safe.
For the last few km’s there was no cell phone reception.
Getting to our camping spot at Oewerzicht just before sunset left us with enough light to set up tent and still go for a quick dip in the river to cool down.
We got the fire going for the night’s braai and the discussions of the days ride started.
We laughed about the near falls, dodgy moments with feet dangling and the amazing views and scenery along the way.
With a good cold craft beer and a 1” thick piece of steak on the fire, there was little that could make the evening any better.
Here and there a shooting star with the Milky Way so bright you about don’t need a flashlight.
The Bikes rested for the night and a nice cold mist and dew covered everything that was left outside of the tents.
With the ripple of the river filling our ears we went to bed.
The next morning we got up early to the most amazing sunrise that I have seen in a long while.
The sun creeping over the mountains to the north and leaving long shadows over the camp site.
The grass covered in little drops of water and steam rising from the river but a few meters from our tents.
Here is a short clip of the river and sunrise.
[flash=480,385]https://www.youtube.com/v/NUWvliZB5lI[/flash]
We got going with a strong cup of coffee and some left over from the previous night’s braai.
The camping at Oewerzicht is just amazing. Everything is neat and clean and well maintained.
The ablution facilities are spotless and even has an outdoor shower. After taking an early morning shower the packing started.
All packed and ready we decided to take the back road out to Van Brakel Stoor where we would have a small breakfast.
None of us ever rode this section of road before so we had to ride on instinct and combined navigational efforts to get us to Van Brakel Stoor.
With a few sharp loose turns we got there at stopped for breakfast.
With all the hungry bears calmed down with some food we took the road again to Tesselaarsdal.
This section of road was new to three of us, Wouter has been there before.
The road was good with plenty of traction but that soon got snipped short.
Wouter was a bit like Gandalf in The lord of the rings, he forgot the way, but that was due to some road works, new sections of road and no road signs.
None of us rides with a GPS so we did not have the luxury to get pointed in the right direction from a British lady trapped in a small plastic computer.
We followed Wouter through a section of road that was like sand, except it was powder and it was like riding on ice.
Some very slippery stuff. And after that a right hand turn with a steep rocky uphill that led us to a backroad into a closed farm gate.
Yes we were properly lost.
Then we turned around and that’s when the first side stand incident occurred. Eric gently let his machine rest on the horizontal a bit.
Thedo and I was quick to jump off and help him get it upright.
On our way back we had to go through the “Ice dust” section again, where I nearly put my bike down after hitting a “hidden” rut under the soft powder a bit skew.
Lucky for me the training from a few months back kicked it, Stand up, Look up, Open up.
With a quick blip of the throttle I was through it like a seasoned Dakar rider.
Eric was behind me and he said that was the coolest wave of dirt he ever saw coming off a back tyre!
Wouters nose finally sniffed out the right way home and in no time we were back at doing a good pace again.
We passed some fellow adventurous riders on what looked like a day ride out. Greeted with a slight nod of the head to the right and on we went.
Soon we got back to the black stuff and headed to the Karwyderskraal road that will be our second last bit of dirt for the day.
This was a good stretch of road, plenty of soft gravel sections, fast and flowy and loads of dust.
We made a quick beer stop at Honingklip Breweries for a cold refreshing drink and a few bits of homemade bread!
If you ever find yourself on the way to Kleinmond, be sure to stop there for a drink and something to eat!
Truly some of the best you will find.
Then we headed for our last bit of dirt roads, Highlands Pass. Always a favourite and never disappoints! After the fires things looked pretty bad.
Hectares of burnt Pine forest, Fynbos and forest vegetation. Amazing how much damage these veld fires can cause in a small amount of time.
And so we came to the end of the road, the dirt road to be more specific.
We took the N2 home to Somerset West.
We all stopped at Wouter’s house greeted and took our separate ways home.
I stopped for a fill up on the way to Stellenbosch.
I realised I rode a bit hard after seeing my fuel consumption was at 23.5km/l
What a great little trip to start the weekend. 300km, plenty of dirt roads, great company, great food/drinks and plenty of good memories!
With all this talk going around a possible one day trip was mentioned.
With everyone having busy schedules we had to carefully plan something to accommodate all of us.
After plenty of discussions where to go, when to go and what roads to take we decided on leaving after work on a Friday afternoon, heading to the Overberg, with a route planned out about 70%.
With a last minute addition to the three man expedition we set off from Somerset West.
Wouter on his yellow R1200GS, Eric on his Green&Black Kawasaki KLR and Thedo and I on our F650GS Dakar’s.
Heading out to Sir Lowry’s pass we encountered the usual Friday afternoon traffic combined with the usual Friday afternoon past two South-Easter reminding us that we are still in the Western Cape.
Wouter on his Yellow monster did not wait for us on the pass, we only caught up to him again just outside Grabouw where he had to stop to fill up his tank.
From there we took the N2 towards the Old Houw Hoek pass.
This would be myself and Wouter’s second time riding it in two months, however this time it would be after the devastating Veld Fires that destroyed most of the vegetation.
A quick stop to let down the tire pressures just before we hit the first section of dirt and what an amazing piece of road.
The fires left it barren and dry. Exposing larger sand patches than normal, loose rocks and some eroded sections.
With Eric, the newest to riding on dirt, going first and Thedo following him left me with the GoPro in third catching all the action.
Wouter decided to go last and play the part of sweeper.
Here is a video of the pass: (At 2:25 you will see Eric nearly crashing out in a sandy patch)
[flash=480,385]https://www.youtube.com/v/8EWmgllsxbI[/flash]
This is by far one of the best pieces of road, both up or down, to drive when heading in an easterly direction from Grabouw.
Thedo had a few close calls paddling his bike through some sections.
I stopped to give Eric and Thedo a gap and waited for Wouter to catch up again.
When the road was clear I could use the right hand a bit more which in turn put a smile on my face.
I have this mental problem that I got from riding push bikes for years, it is called “always choose the hardest line”.
Not always the wise choice but always the fun choice!
After getting to the bottom of the Old Houw Hoek Pass we headed to a small cafe in Botrivier for our first drinks stop.
Yes at 18:00 it was still 30 degrees Celsius.
After that we took the Van der Stel Pass towards Greyton. Here we could make up some time to get to our camping spot before dark.
The roads were good and the smoke blowing over from a fire at Riviersonderend resulted in some pretty amazing sunset shots.
At one of our turn-off’s Thedo found a little dove that got hit by a car. He quickly stopped, jumped off his bike and helped the injured dove to the side of the road.
Then we pushed on the last bit to Greyton, hitting some of the dirt road sections at 110km/h+ and in no time we entered Greyton.
Quaint little town it is. Some good restaurants’ and interesting artistic little shops to visit, however we did not opt to do any window shopping or stocking up on something to fill the hole in our bellies.
We drove straight through town and stopped out on a backroad to call the wives and girlfriends letting them know we are safe.
For the last few km’s there was no cell phone reception.
Getting to our camping spot at Oewerzicht just before sunset left us with enough light to set up tent and still go for a quick dip in the river to cool down.
We got the fire going for the night’s braai and the discussions of the days ride started.
We laughed about the near falls, dodgy moments with feet dangling and the amazing views and scenery along the way.
With a good cold craft beer and a 1” thick piece of steak on the fire, there was little that could make the evening any better.
Here and there a shooting star with the Milky Way so bright you about don’t need a flashlight.
The Bikes rested for the night and a nice cold mist and dew covered everything that was left outside of the tents.
With the ripple of the river filling our ears we went to bed.
The next morning we got up early to the most amazing sunrise that I have seen in a long while.
The sun creeping over the mountains to the north and leaving long shadows over the camp site.
The grass covered in little drops of water and steam rising from the river but a few meters from our tents.
Here is a short clip of the river and sunrise.
[flash=480,385]https://www.youtube.com/v/NUWvliZB5lI[/flash]
We got going with a strong cup of coffee and some left over from the previous night’s braai.
The camping at Oewerzicht is just amazing. Everything is neat and clean and well maintained.
The ablution facilities are spotless and even has an outdoor shower. After taking an early morning shower the packing started.
All packed and ready we decided to take the back road out to Van Brakel Stoor where we would have a small breakfast.
None of us ever rode this section of road before so we had to ride on instinct and combined navigational efforts to get us to Van Brakel Stoor.
With a few sharp loose turns we got there at stopped for breakfast.
With all the hungry bears calmed down with some food we took the road again to Tesselaarsdal.
This section of road was new to three of us, Wouter has been there before.
The road was good with plenty of traction but that soon got snipped short.
Wouter was a bit like Gandalf in The lord of the rings, he forgot the way, but that was due to some road works, new sections of road and no road signs.
None of us rides with a GPS so we did not have the luxury to get pointed in the right direction from a British lady trapped in a small plastic computer.
We followed Wouter through a section of road that was like sand, except it was powder and it was like riding on ice.
Some very slippery stuff. And after that a right hand turn with a steep rocky uphill that led us to a backroad into a closed farm gate.
Yes we were properly lost.
Then we turned around and that’s when the first side stand incident occurred. Eric gently let his machine rest on the horizontal a bit.
Thedo and I was quick to jump off and help him get it upright.
On our way back we had to go through the “Ice dust” section again, where I nearly put my bike down after hitting a “hidden” rut under the soft powder a bit skew.
Lucky for me the training from a few months back kicked it, Stand up, Look up, Open up.
With a quick blip of the throttle I was through it like a seasoned Dakar rider.
Eric was behind me and he said that was the coolest wave of dirt he ever saw coming off a back tyre!
Wouters nose finally sniffed out the right way home and in no time we were back at doing a good pace again.
We passed some fellow adventurous riders on what looked like a day ride out. Greeted with a slight nod of the head to the right and on we went.
Soon we got back to the black stuff and headed to the Karwyderskraal road that will be our second last bit of dirt for the day.
This was a good stretch of road, plenty of soft gravel sections, fast and flowy and loads of dust.
We made a quick beer stop at Honingklip Breweries for a cold refreshing drink and a few bits of homemade bread!
If you ever find yourself on the way to Kleinmond, be sure to stop there for a drink and something to eat!
Truly some of the best you will find.
Then we headed for our last bit of dirt roads, Highlands Pass. Always a favourite and never disappoints! After the fires things looked pretty bad.
Hectares of burnt Pine forest, Fynbos and forest vegetation. Amazing how much damage these veld fires can cause in a small amount of time.
And so we came to the end of the road, the dirt road to be more specific.
We took the N2 home to Somerset West.
We all stopped at Wouter’s house greeted and took our separate ways home.
I stopped for a fill up on the way to Stellenbosch.
I realised I rode a bit hard after seeing my fuel consumption was at 23.5km/l
What a great little trip to start the weekend. 300km, plenty of dirt roads, great company, great food/drinks and plenty of good memories!
