Paddler
Puppy
In March 2008, my son bought an identical KLR Fugly to mine, from Green Mamba in PE. The only small problem was that my son lives in Cape Town and I live in PE!
What a great reason for an adventure ride to CT. Solo.
Departure date was Friday 7 March at about 07:00. Onto the N2 in a big westerly until the R62 turnoff, then the wind gradually dropped as Assegaaibos, Kareedouw, Kammiebos, Joubertina and Misgund rolled under the wheels.
The turnoff north-west to Uniondale, just outside Avontuur still had a great big â??ROAD CLOSEDâ? sign across it, with vehicles merrily bypassing it in either direction. Uniondale Poort looked as though nothing had been done to it since the flood in 2007.
After re-fuelling in Uniondale I went out on the N9 and R339, watching for the â??tweede gruispad na links meneerâ? link to the R341 to De Rust. It was nice to be on dirt after a boring first few hours.
Rooibos tea and koeksusters in De Rust, then north up Meiringspoort and west on the R407 toward Prince Albert, with a left just before the village, onto gravel and the northern approach to the Swartberg Pass.
This was my first time over the pass by bike and the best experience yet. Huge blue Karoo skies overhead, the temperature at 40C or more and the KLR thumping away around the curves. The photo-stops halfway up the hairpins, and at â??Die Topâ? promised thunderstorms, with mighty rumblings and towering cumulus anvils all around, but apart from a short, sharp shower there was no respite from the heat.
Descending the southern slopes of the pass I could see the road to Oudtshoorn stretching off to the south-east, but to the west I could see another dirt road, skirting the foothills of the Groot Swartberge, through Matjiesrivier, Kruisrivier and Grootfontein toward Calitzdorp, so I took it.
What a splendid afternoon! Without either a GPS or a large-scale map, I kept asking farm labourers where I was going and they all assured me that I would eventually reach Calitzdorp, which I did, after finding many a gem along the way.
There are tree-shaded low-level causeways with water trickling over them where one can wet tee-shirt and bandanna to cool down, then the sudden appearance of the large Calitzdorp dam with the late afternoon sun sparkling silver off this huge expanse of water and many, many guest farms and B&Bâ??s. All well worth another look later.
I reached Calitzdorp at 15:45, too early to rest, so pushed through to Ladismith, with some delays at Stop-Go sections in the Huisrivier Pass. It was great to be on a bike and creep up to the front of the queue, shelter in the shade of the control hut, then roar off as soon as the controller muttered â??Gaan meneerâ? (Iâ??m lucky I understood her, as my attempts at conversation revealed to me that there is a type of Afrikaans spoken in the Karoo which is totally un-intelligible to Rooinek ears).
The Mountain View guesthouse in Ladismith had rooms available, so thatâ??s where I overnighted, at R225 including Breakfast. Dinner at Kanna Kombuis was a delicious tamatie breedie. Kevin and Barbie Ellison serve very good food, especially Barbieâ??s salad, which is a meal in itself.
The next morning I bought an M8 nut and bolt from the local hardware shop to replace a capscrew which had detached from the rear carrier, (it is a true Fugly), then set out for Barrydale at about 08:00.
Barrydale, Montagu and Robertson were a bit of a tarred blur, with ever increasing traffic volumes, many with bicycles on their carriers. OK! The penny dropped! The Argus Cycle Tour was on the next day.
On the R60 west, about 32 kays outside Robertson, heading toward Worcester, I took a left onto a likely looking dirt road toward Moordskuil, the R43 and Villiersdorp, where we have an erf above the village with no house on it yet. There I picnicked on cakes and coke and dreamt of life after â??The Factory.â?
From Villiersdorp the R45 over the Franschoek Pass is a great piece of road for a bike ride, with magnificent views and really challenging hairpin bends.
After Franschoek, Hellshoogte Pass into Stellenbosch is wide and fast and was one of the sections of the trip where I would have liked to have had longer legs than the KLR offers, but these â??agricultural implementsâ? have a character of their own and 90 percent of the time they suit my needs just fine!
The rest of the journey into Cape Town was on the N2, probably the most dangerous part, dodging taxis and inattentive SUV drivers with bicycles on carriers, who must have been dreaming of the Argus Tour the next day.
I enjoy rides with my biking friends, but have to admit that solo adventure riding is a really satisfying pastime. Traveling on your own means having enough gear to be self-sufficient and being prepared for anything. You need to be alert and focused because there isnâ??t a string of other riders who will miss you after a while and come back to assist if you have an off, or a breakdown.
Thatâ??s why its called adventure riding!
PS: I think i've attached two photos, but they don't show up in the preview, so maybe someone will tell me how at Dagwoods on Friday
What a great reason for an adventure ride to CT. Solo.
Departure date was Friday 7 March at about 07:00. Onto the N2 in a big westerly until the R62 turnoff, then the wind gradually dropped as Assegaaibos, Kareedouw, Kammiebos, Joubertina and Misgund rolled under the wheels.
The turnoff north-west to Uniondale, just outside Avontuur still had a great big â??ROAD CLOSEDâ? sign across it, with vehicles merrily bypassing it in either direction. Uniondale Poort looked as though nothing had been done to it since the flood in 2007.
After re-fuelling in Uniondale I went out on the N9 and R339, watching for the â??tweede gruispad na links meneerâ? link to the R341 to De Rust. It was nice to be on dirt after a boring first few hours.
Rooibos tea and koeksusters in De Rust, then north up Meiringspoort and west on the R407 toward Prince Albert, with a left just before the village, onto gravel and the northern approach to the Swartberg Pass.
This was my first time over the pass by bike and the best experience yet. Huge blue Karoo skies overhead, the temperature at 40C or more and the KLR thumping away around the curves. The photo-stops halfway up the hairpins, and at â??Die Topâ? promised thunderstorms, with mighty rumblings and towering cumulus anvils all around, but apart from a short, sharp shower there was no respite from the heat.
Descending the southern slopes of the pass I could see the road to Oudtshoorn stretching off to the south-east, but to the west I could see another dirt road, skirting the foothills of the Groot Swartberge, through Matjiesrivier, Kruisrivier and Grootfontein toward Calitzdorp, so I took it.
What a splendid afternoon! Without either a GPS or a large-scale map, I kept asking farm labourers where I was going and they all assured me that I would eventually reach Calitzdorp, which I did, after finding many a gem along the way.
There are tree-shaded low-level causeways with water trickling over them where one can wet tee-shirt and bandanna to cool down, then the sudden appearance of the large Calitzdorp dam with the late afternoon sun sparkling silver off this huge expanse of water and many, many guest farms and B&Bâ??s. All well worth another look later.
I reached Calitzdorp at 15:45, too early to rest, so pushed through to Ladismith, with some delays at Stop-Go sections in the Huisrivier Pass. It was great to be on a bike and creep up to the front of the queue, shelter in the shade of the control hut, then roar off as soon as the controller muttered â??Gaan meneerâ? (Iâ??m lucky I understood her, as my attempts at conversation revealed to me that there is a type of Afrikaans spoken in the Karoo which is totally un-intelligible to Rooinek ears).
The Mountain View guesthouse in Ladismith had rooms available, so thatâ??s where I overnighted, at R225 including Breakfast. Dinner at Kanna Kombuis was a delicious tamatie breedie. Kevin and Barbie Ellison serve very good food, especially Barbieâ??s salad, which is a meal in itself.
The next morning I bought an M8 nut and bolt from the local hardware shop to replace a capscrew which had detached from the rear carrier, (it is a true Fugly), then set out for Barrydale at about 08:00.
Barrydale, Montagu and Robertson were a bit of a tarred blur, with ever increasing traffic volumes, many with bicycles on their carriers. OK! The penny dropped! The Argus Cycle Tour was on the next day.
On the R60 west, about 32 kays outside Robertson, heading toward Worcester, I took a left onto a likely looking dirt road toward Moordskuil, the R43 and Villiersdorp, where we have an erf above the village with no house on it yet. There I picnicked on cakes and coke and dreamt of life after â??The Factory.â?
From Villiersdorp the R45 over the Franschoek Pass is a great piece of road for a bike ride, with magnificent views and really challenging hairpin bends.
After Franschoek, Hellshoogte Pass into Stellenbosch is wide and fast and was one of the sections of the trip where I would have liked to have had longer legs than the KLR offers, but these â??agricultural implementsâ? have a character of their own and 90 percent of the time they suit my needs just fine!
The rest of the journey into Cape Town was on the N2, probably the most dangerous part, dodging taxis and inattentive SUV drivers with bicycles on carriers, who must have been dreaming of the Argus Tour the next day.
I enjoy rides with my biking friends, but have to admit that solo adventure riding is a really satisfying pastime. Traveling on your own means having enough gear to be self-sufficient and being prepared for anything. You need to be alert and focused because there isnâ??t a string of other riders who will miss you after a while and come back to assist if you have an off, or a breakdown.
Thatâ??s why its called adventure riding!
PS: I think i've attached two photos, but they don't show up in the preview, so maybe someone will tell me how at Dagwoods on Friday
