gariep and back 2500km

[donovan paton]

a small RR on the recent KLR clan get together
left Mandini after dropping the kids of at school, took the R74 through Greytown, Weenen, Ladysmith. i think the dirt i did up Van-reenens is the original pass, the one that follows the train line. through to Harrismith and then through golden gate. stopped of at the ash river to see the Lesoto highlands water project. spent the night at a B&B in Ficksburg. very nice place, the Woodpecker.

wee stop just after grey town

 

[donovan paton]

the dirt road up Van-reenens after Ladysmith

 

[donovan paton]

the wind was insane on this pass, blew me of the road a few times.

there is only the one tunnel for us, but quite a few for the train, keen to see if there is space to do the tunnel with the bike along the train line

 

[donovan paton]

golden gate

 

[donovan paton]

ash river, 20km past clarens

 

[donovan paton]

met up with two felow claners at the woodpecker. the view from there deck

 

[donovan paton]

day 2 started off in the rain, was planing on following the dirt roads along the lesoto border to Gariep, but after last years experance on a muddy dirt road i decided to stick with the tar. Just after Hobhouse my new ridding buddies turned of to Alawal north to meet a felow clanner. the sun had dried the dirt a bit so i got to do a nice 80km stretch of dirt.

 

[donovan paton]

i got to gariep and road around the camp site, could not see a single bike, first thought was K@K, 900km and i am at the wrong place, found some shade and had a sleep. was pleasantly woken by the sound of bikes. spent the night chatting to felow claners, sleep was not fun, froze my butt off.

did not take photos of the campsite, if any fellow claners have some laying around please add them.

day 3 was a nice 380km round trip to Orania, just because i can  ;D a friend always talkes about Orania and i had to see the place for my self

 

[donovan paton]

the first section of dirt had a gate about every 1km, pain in the butt, did a short tar piece with long grass on the side and was taking in the senery when a small buck shot out from the grass and tried to catch a lift, not sure who got the bigger scrik, me or him, but did the rest of the tar at 80km/h

 

[donovan paton]

a few of the roads you could comfortably sit at 100 to 120km/h, not having the paniers on helped  :biggrin:

 

[donovan paton]

gariep dam wall

 

[donovan paton]

would love to go sail on this dam

 

[donovan paton]

day 4 started of just as the sun was coming out, since i stay on the north coast, we dont have any idea about cold weather, about 80km in i could not hold onto the bike any more, i was wearing MX gloves ??? got off the bike and tried to figer out how to keep my hands warm. i had spare black bags in my box. so i cut one in half and rapped my hands in them and tied duct tape around my wrist, did i mention i was on my own..... took some interesting tounge work to get that tape on. did the trick.  :imaposer:

i went from gariep to aliwal north then up to the lesoto border, followed the border to Rhodes, got to Rhodes just after lunch time. took me some time to find the petrol station owner so i could fill my bike. i was suposed to spend the night there but decided to push through and see how far i could get

 

[donovan paton]

left is SA, right of the river is lesoto. no wonder we have such border problems. just further down the road was a army camp

 

[donovan paton]

lovely views

 

[donovan paton]

this piece of road was unbelively buisy. got run of the road twice by 4x4.

 

[donovan paton]

lundeans neck, the guys on the KTM were heading the other way to bloem if i remember corectly

 

[donovan paton]

naudes pass

 

[donovan paton]

going down naudes pass i met up with a couple of guys coming the other way, the one on a klr forgot the golden rule, keep left. he took a car out, the bike took most of the impact and the rider walked away from it. i did not feel it right to take photos, so if it was a felow wild dog, post us the picks  ;D

stayed the night at resthaven guesthouse in Matatiele, very bike friendly, they offer weekend rates for bikes. they even let me park my bike out side my room. wich was a good thing, because i had a 2L sprite bottle in my top box that rubbed through and soaked every thing in my box

 

[nreyneke]

Lekker!!!  :thumleft: