Ysterman
Race Dog
We covered a long distance for this ride, therefore not really time to stop and enjoy the scenery as you will notice from the lack of photos. But it was an awesome ride & come highly recommended (from me) and thought it?s worth that I share the route with the forum.
The tracks for the day:
Leg 1 Length 330km Time 2hr50min
Leg 2 Length 425km Time 8hr25min
We left Jburg just after 5 on Sunday morning. The plan was to meet up with GG in Van Reenen around 8 for a breakfast before we take the scenic dirt roads back. I certainly underestimated the chill factor in the air and didn?t have enough warm gear with me ? froze my but off because we wanted to get to Van Reenen as quickly as possible and decided to let the GSA?s run freely - had to stop for coffee in Villiers to warm up again.
Filled up the 3 GSA?s and sat down for a nice breakfast (the only meal for the day) in Van Reenen. PierreR found a road on T4A that?s not on Garmap and this was our first dirt road for the day. Took a couple of minutes to ?find? the start and once we did, it wasn?t a proper road anymore, not even a rough tweespoor paadjie, no, the only road that was left was a voetpaadjie used by the locals to walk to town. Maybe once upon a time it was a road when it was logged for T4A ? Anyway, the A in GSA doesn?t stand for Adventure for nothing and down we went. Man was this hard work, it was only a single track scattered with big rocks, extremely narrow gaps to pass thru and steep drops ? luckily it was only a couple of hundred meters. But it was good fun & lekker - glad we discovered did it.
This is the track of the road that is not on Garmap ? from Van Reenen going to the right until it turns sharply left in the bottom right hand corner.
Halfway down one of the locals stopped us and told us there?s now way down this path and that we will not make kit. Bliksem, knowing what we went thru to this point the only thing that was for certain is that there was now way I am going back up this single track. We would rather try our luck with the obstacles ahead. So we continued and took a break here.
An old lady (in the picture below showing where we came from) stopped and showed us a single track that she said we must rather take ? we thought the track was going thru the trees to the left in the picture above. Turned out we were just so tired we didn?t notice that T4A actually showed that we should have taken the track indicated by the old lady.
If you don?t want to mission thru the first hundred meters of the ?single track?, you can go round it. The rest of the road is very good - normal dirt road with beautiful surroundings. After turning left to De Beers Pass, we stopped for a breather.
The next stretch took us over De Beers Pass to Verkykerskop. Well what more can I say than absolutely beautiful area this with good dirt roads. Have to mention that there was a lot of loose gravel on the roads, therefore got to concentrate because losing your concentration and balance ?could? (100% chance) mean that you will go do some ?farming?. Very interesting on this stretch was what appears to be new roads that are being build before (or was it after) De Beers Pass. More than one road and big ? Anybody knows what?s happening here? Anyway next stop was Verkykerskop. The shop we stopped for a coke.
The antique shop - they are still busy getting it in order.
What a stunning place ? I past Verkykerskop before and never even thought of stopping. Luckily PierreR planned this stop. I just love it and took some photo?s to show you. Their lunch menu looked so delicious that it was tough leaving ? Took some photos of the shop.
At the back of the shop they have backpackers rooms. Me in an old dentist/barber chair ? very comfortable. They are also busy with other developments.
The backpacker rooms.
Their sign post next to the road.
And then we left without lunch on the next stretch to Vrede. Again, what more can I say - just awesome scenery ? beautiful stunning scenery, very nice dirt roads (again with loose gravel, but nothing that will break your spirit ? just power up thru it). Would definitely do this trip again in more than 1 day to stop and just stare at beautiful SA mountains, valleys, old farm buildings, implements, silo?s ? just everything. Anyway, had a quick stop just before Vrede.
In Vrede we stopped to inflate GGs rear tyre ? Anakee. This tyre, fairly new already had a couple of punctures and had to be ?fixed? in Verkykerskop for the first time that day, but had a number of plugs already from previous punctures. So we left for the last stretch of dirt roads to Standerton area before taking tar roads home.
Once on the tar, we started with some low flying manoeuvres back home and GGs rear Anakee goes flat at high speed. Stopped to plug it.
Me playing photographer while GG is at work.
Couple of kilometres further we had to stop again.
And thru Heidelberg on the highway again. This time we decide that we will call for a trailer. In the mean time PierreR goes into town to find some slime (we are gatvol by now )and can you believe Shoprite is open. So we try the slime before plugging the hole, but it is too big and have to throw in another plug ? and then we sped off.
Stopped at the Total outside Heidelberg and pumped the tyre ? the slime is still seeping out of the Anakee?s wound, but decided to try and make home. Stopping after Giloolly?s to check the damage ? it is still leaking, but GG is able to make it home.
A long day, but worth every minute and every kilometre. Bought the Thor kidney belt (felt better than the Fox) on Saturday to test on the long ride and not sure if it helped, but I wasn?t tired or sore, so maybe it did.
This should definitely be a trip on your list ? and don?t forget to stop at Verkykerskop.
Cheers
The tracks for the day:
Leg 1 Length 330km Time 2hr50min
Leg 2 Length 425km Time 8hr25min
We left Jburg just after 5 on Sunday morning. The plan was to meet up with GG in Van Reenen around 8 for a breakfast before we take the scenic dirt roads back. I certainly underestimated the chill factor in the air and didn?t have enough warm gear with me ? froze my but off because we wanted to get to Van Reenen as quickly as possible and decided to let the GSA?s run freely - had to stop for coffee in Villiers to warm up again.
Filled up the 3 GSA?s and sat down for a nice breakfast (the only meal for the day) in Van Reenen. PierreR found a road on T4A that?s not on Garmap and this was our first dirt road for the day. Took a couple of minutes to ?find? the start and once we did, it wasn?t a proper road anymore, not even a rough tweespoor paadjie, no, the only road that was left was a voetpaadjie used by the locals to walk to town. Maybe once upon a time it was a road when it was logged for T4A ? Anyway, the A in GSA doesn?t stand for Adventure for nothing and down we went. Man was this hard work, it was only a single track scattered with big rocks, extremely narrow gaps to pass thru and steep drops ? luckily it was only a couple of hundred meters. But it was good fun & lekker - glad we discovered did it.
This is the track of the road that is not on Garmap ? from Van Reenen going to the right until it turns sharply left in the bottom right hand corner.
Halfway down one of the locals stopped us and told us there?s now way down this path and that we will not make kit. Bliksem, knowing what we went thru to this point the only thing that was for certain is that there was now way I am going back up this single track. We would rather try our luck with the obstacles ahead. So we continued and took a break here.
An old lady (in the picture below showing where we came from) stopped and showed us a single track that she said we must rather take ? we thought the track was going thru the trees to the left in the picture above. Turned out we were just so tired we didn?t notice that T4A actually showed that we should have taken the track indicated by the old lady.
If you don?t want to mission thru the first hundred meters of the ?single track?, you can go round it. The rest of the road is very good - normal dirt road with beautiful surroundings. After turning left to De Beers Pass, we stopped for a breather.
The next stretch took us over De Beers Pass to Verkykerskop. Well what more can I say than absolutely beautiful area this with good dirt roads. Have to mention that there was a lot of loose gravel on the roads, therefore got to concentrate because losing your concentration and balance ?could? (100% chance) mean that you will go do some ?farming?. Very interesting on this stretch was what appears to be new roads that are being build before (or was it after) De Beers Pass. More than one road and big ? Anybody knows what?s happening here? Anyway next stop was Verkykerskop. The shop we stopped for a coke.
The antique shop - they are still busy getting it in order.
What a stunning place ? I past Verkykerskop before and never even thought of stopping. Luckily PierreR planned this stop. I just love it and took some photo?s to show you. Their lunch menu looked so delicious that it was tough leaving ? Took some photos of the shop.
At the back of the shop they have backpackers rooms. Me in an old dentist/barber chair ? very comfortable. They are also busy with other developments.
The backpacker rooms.
Their sign post next to the road.
And then we left without lunch on the next stretch to Vrede. Again, what more can I say - just awesome scenery ? beautiful stunning scenery, very nice dirt roads (again with loose gravel, but nothing that will break your spirit ? just power up thru it). Would definitely do this trip again in more than 1 day to stop and just stare at beautiful SA mountains, valleys, old farm buildings, implements, silo?s ? just everything. Anyway, had a quick stop just before Vrede.
In Vrede we stopped to inflate GGs rear tyre ? Anakee. This tyre, fairly new already had a couple of punctures and had to be ?fixed? in Verkykerskop for the first time that day, but had a number of plugs already from previous punctures. So we left for the last stretch of dirt roads to Standerton area before taking tar roads home.
Once on the tar, we started with some low flying manoeuvres back home and GGs rear Anakee goes flat at high speed. Stopped to plug it.
Me playing photographer while GG is at work.
Couple of kilometres further we had to stop again.
And thru Heidelberg on the highway again. This time we decide that we will call for a trailer. In the mean time PierreR goes into town to find some slime (we are gatvol by now )and can you believe Shoprite is open. So we try the slime before plugging the hole, but it is too big and have to throw in another plug ? and then we sped off.
Stopped at the Total outside Heidelberg and pumped the tyre ? the slime is still seeping out of the Anakee?s wound, but decided to try and make home. Stopping after Giloolly?s to check the damage ? it is still leaking, but GG is able to make it home.
A long day, but worth every minute and every kilometre. Bought the Thor kidney belt (felt better than the Fox) on Saturday to test on the long ride and not sure if it helped, but I wasn?t tired or sore, so maybe it did.
This should definitely be a trip on your list ? and don?t forget to stop at Verkykerskop.
Cheers
