Knopkop & Marnus's AWESOME Eastern Cape....and a bit of Lesotho..****RR DONE****

[KnopKop]

Earlier this year, in March, I did a solo trip through Lesotho after the Wilddog Freestate Bash in Fouriesburg. I absolutely loved the solo ride and really wanted to do another one. I prefer to work over December and try and take leave during the year so that I do not have to spend my off time with thousands of other people taking leave over December. I wanted to do this trip earlier during November, but work complicated things by sending me to London and messing up my plans to do the ride before the hectic silly season in December, so I had to postpone it all by two weeks.

Chatting to my mate Marnus about my plans and route a while ago, the idea came up of him joining me on the ride. I have ridden with Marnus many times and was very happy for him to join me on this trippie I had planned out. As the time came closer we were both very excited to go and ride some routes we have read about so many times in ride reports, but never had the privilege of riding.

I am not the greatest writer in the world, so this ride report will have lots and lots of pics and some crappy writing in between, but I will do my best, so please hang in there and bear with me.

Day 1
Pretoria to Kenton-on-Sea  = 1,091km

So I was not that stupid to ride over a 1000kms on tar on my X-Challenge on the first day of a trip and waste riding time on the good stuff, so we put the bikes on the trailer and hit the road to Kenton at 03:30am. We hit the N1 all the way to Gariep Dam, and then went via Steynsburg, Hofmeyer, Cradock, Bedford and Grahamstown. My mom lives in Kenton-on-Sea and I have been going there every holiday until matric, but have not been there for a couple of years and was really looking forward to the little old place. We arrived, had a good couple of Captain Morgans and had a wonderful braai, all while prepping the bikes and making sure every thing is a-okay. And this is where the first issues started to rear its ugly head.

The day before we left I sent my bike to my local BMW dealer to give it a good once over to ease my mind that the bike is 100% for a good trip. I am not technical minded at all, but I try and learn as much as I can, but before a big trip I like to let the professionals do a check over for me, I know I should do this myself, and I am getting better at it all the time.

While I was looking over the bike while enjoying my Captain Morgan I noticed that the foot-peg bolt and side stand bolt was completely loose and it almost fell out, this should not be and I made sure I tightened it properly. I also noted that one bolt on the side panels was missing and that the bolt they gave me to re-fit my mirror was the wrong size as well. I was a bit miffed at this. It should have been done properly and checked. But more on this later.


Busy setting my bike on fire.......  :biggrin:

 

[KnopKop]

Day 2
Kenton-on-Sea to Steytlerville = 359km

We were on the road nice and early on a beautiful, wind still, cool crisp morning. Man I love this area between the Kariega and Bushmans rivers so much. We were heading towards the little town of Salem where the dirt would start, I could not wait to get going on the dirt.

The first dirt of the trip starting at Salem, two happy chappies

We took some of the back roads through the dairy farms towards Alexandria, and had some good fun on the smooth dirt, traction was no problem, and there was no dust because of the moist weather conditions.

Marnus  on his way to crossing the Bushmans River

Happy biker in riding heaven

I plotted the route on Mapsource but it seems that some farmers decided that they do not want people crossing their land, and we ran into a couple of closed gates. This forced us to back-track quite a bit in order to get back to the main road.

We then managed to emerge somewhere between Alexandria and Ncanaha, so we hit the tar from there, past Ncanaha, to Sundays River. The heavens started to open and we rode in the rain all the way to Sundays River.

Slabbing it in the rain a bit

Getting out of the rain and having a smoke break under the N2 bridge at Ncanaha.

We filled up at Sundays River and met up with two other Wilddogs, LanceSA and Michael (not sure of his forum name), they were on their way from East London to Cape Town. After chatting to them it turned out that they were sleeping in Patensie that night and taking the Elandriver road to get there. This is the same road I planned to take to Steytlerville, but we would go via Grootriver poort. So we decided to ride together until they have to branch off to Patensie at the top where the road slpits.

Lance wanted to take some pics at the old bridge over the Sundays River so we all went there for some pics, what a cool old unused bridge this is, a real gem!

Lance, myself and Michael on the bridge

Some of the tools used, KTM950SE, XT660R, X-Challenge and 1200Adv.

After the pics, we headed for Uitenhage past the massive wind turbine, man this thing is HUUGE!
Lance on the 950SE

And Marnus’s 1200Adv

We slabbed it to Uitenhage where we had some lunch and theN we took on Elandsriver, in the pouring rain with some very strong winds.........lots of fun to follow....

 

[KnopKop]

After a re-fuel and a King Steer Burger at Uitenhage, we were ready to tackle the Elandsriver Road. I was really looking forward to this road as I have seen it in so many ride reports and always wanted to do this road. But today we were out of luck, we could not see 20m in front of us because of the heavy rain and the strong winds. The mist was also really thick and this made riding very interesting. I was riding in front and took the approach, that it cannot be raining everywhere, and as we cannot see anything in any case we might as well get it over as soon as possible to get out of the rain and onto some roads where we can see what the hell is going on. So we were riding this road VERY fast in the pouring rain. It made for some fun and interesting moments with all those potholes!

The weirdest thing to me was the way the weather would change, it would be pouring one minute and around the next bend it would be clear sunshine, then 200m later, it would be pissing down again with visibility back to 20m again....really weird......

We only stopped once on this road in a patch that looked pretty dry, but you cannot tell from the pic that it was actually raining while we stood here, that is why Michael and I did not remove our helmets. Lance needed to drop his tyre pressure a bit and Marnus had a quick smoke.

It only started clearing up a bit as we approached the turn-off to Grootrivier poort at the top of the mountain. Marnus and I arrived up the slippery pass in the rain without hassle and as we waited for Lance and Michael we saw that they were not coming. After a good few minutes I decided to ride back to see if everything was still ok. It turned out that Michael had a small spill in a snotty slippery rut on the way up and bent his gear-lever and handlebars a bit. After a bit of bending and pushing we got it back, and Lance, myself and Michael made our way to the split where Marnus was waiting in the rain.

Some piccies at the top:

Marnus and me having rest

It was freaking cold up here with the wind pumping and us being soaking wet!

Looking towards Patensie

Marnus waiting at the Grootriver poort turn off

 

[KnopKop]

We said our goodbyes to Lance and Michael as they headed down the mountain to Patensie as they will be doing Baviaans the next day.

Now it was me and Marnus and the Grootriver Poort all the way to Steytlerville. We had no idea what the road condition would be like, we had no idea if it should be done in the rain, and we had no idea how long it will take. Perfect. We could not wait to get cracking.

This is the road in the distance that we would be tackling in the rain

I just love this pic, Marnus just sitting in the rain wondering what the rest of the day will bring while admiring the spectacular views

It was not long before the muddy slippery loose rocky surface would become interesting on the downhills. I was loving life on the BMX, and Marnus had his hands full on the 1200Adv, but old Marnus is a champ, and he handled that behemoth down like a bloody expert!

A muddy TKC on loose, muddly, slippery rocks

As we got lower and lower towards the river the weather became clearer and much warmer and the sun was starting to show itself again. The road however was still very slippery and rutted in some places.

Marnus heading down towards the river

The Adv taking a rest on the edge of the cliff, the river is still waaaay down there

Me having lots of fun coming down the mountain

Here the sun was out and it was actually quite warm as we got lower and lower

We crossed the Grootrivier at the bottom and by now it was very hot down in the valley. The river was flowing and the loose rocks on the bottom of this crossing did not gave us any problems at all.

Me

Marnus

As we went up the other side of the poort, it got incredibly cold, rainy and windy again. This luckily did not last very long as this side was much drier as the Baviaans side of the poort.

Marnus on his way on the north side of the poort

The fun riding was now over for the day and we were now giving it stick all the way to Steytlerville with some really smooth and open dirt highways where we could get some good speed up again.
We arrived at the Royal Hotel, booked rooms and stared throwing the first of many Captain Morgans!

This is how bikes are suppose to look after a good ride

We had a great evening at the Royal Hotel in Steylerville, will stay there again for sure!!!

Day 3 to follow.......

 

[blazes]

Mooi man  :thumleft: keep it coming --E--

 

[Marnus]

Nee wat KK... die skryf is nie sleg nie  Maak vinnig - ek verlang al terug :-\

 

[edgy]

Nice guys - looks like you had fun on our turf! :thumleft:

 

[sef156]

Lekker tjomma, dis flippen mooi daar!!
Great pics!  :thumleft:

 

[letsgofishing]

Nice ride and pics - keep it coming!

 

[Jacoboos]

Respek menere...

ek was daar twee weke terug met die forbyfor en gedink... net 'n mal ou ry hier af op sy fiets.. maar nou ja, jy kry mal ouens en dan kry jy Wilde Honde.

Wel gedaan!

 

[tankgirl]

moerse thanks vir die invite by the way

nogal 'n heel cool report sover baie nice.

 

[KnopKop]

Nice guys - looks like you had fun on our turf! :thumleft:

Sorry we missed riding with the greyhounds, but I saw your roof pics........... :drif: :drif:  that road is next on my list!!

You guys sure live in a beautiful part of our country, will be back riding there for sure!!

 

[Carrots]

Lekker man...en nie so lekker om terug by die office te wee nie ne Marnus?

 

[GlenInk (R.I.P)]

eepwall:

 

[TerrorSA]

Awesome riding, thanks for sharing  :thumleft:

 

[The Badger]

Fliippen great riding there......Thanks for sharing.

 

[KnopKop]

Day 3
Steytlerville to Makkedaat Caves, Baviaanskloof – 261km


After a very good night’s sleep in the Royal Hotel we woke up ready for day two of riding. I expected today to me a little boring compared to Grootrivier Poort as we were planning to ride some of the Karoo dirt Highways to the north of Steytlerville towards Mount Steward, Kamferspoort, Heuningklip and on to Willowmore, then we would head into the Baviaans.

Some pics of the dust gathered on the previous day:

My cool KTM sticker on my BMW, it always draws lots of comments........

Just after Mount Steward we turned west and stopped for the most beautiful Karoo Sky in the morning. I don’t think I will ever fit in in any other country than South Africa, man this place is just so beautiful, a complete different beauty than Grootrivier Poort.

My bike “grinning” back at me......must be that sticker.....

Marnus took this cool pic of a “shongololo” in the road

We headed west and opened and closed I don’t know how many farm gates, but the scenery was just stunning and the riding was fast and good. The absolute highlight of totday’s ride was the Kamferspoort, what a great little poort this is to ride! We saw some Kudu and plenty of buck on this road winding its way through the mountains next to the little river.
You can see Marnus was having fun, just look at his brake slide to come to a stop

The entrance to Kamferspoort

Me fiddling with the GPS

Entering the poort

I stopped at the exit of the poort to drink some water and take in some of the beauty of this place, and waited a bit for Marnus to exit as well. I think they mine rocks in this area!!

After the Kamferspoort we took another road through a small little poort of which i do not know the name, but it very pretty as well

We carried on with this road and it was a beaut! But we ran into a dead end because of a closed gate with no way through, so we had to turn around and hit the road all the way back again. Along this road we saw these very weird mountain cliffs, it looks like someone used one moer of a knife to just slice part of the mountain off......really freaky......

This is the road where we had to turn around at the locked gate.

We carried on for a short stretch on the tar road and then onto this piece of cement paved road, this road was also a first for me, these people in the karoo are a weird bunch for building roads like this... We then took another dirt detour just as the paved road became a bit much after 20km.

This was another gem of a dirt road with long sweeping bends and corners, perfect for some hard riding, it was just great fun! We then ended up in Willowmore and we were immediately struck by how clean the town is, they are obviously doing something right. The towns in the Eastern Cape can learn a thing or two from these towns. We settled in for some Cheese Burgers and Beer.

After lunch we took the road into Baviaans, we were both very excited as none of us had been here before

We booked accommodation in Makkedaat Caves, what a great place this is! They booked “Dassie Bak” for us. It is not really a cave, but an overhang that they covered up to make it into a cool little chalet type thing. The only downside was all the bloody steps we had to climb!!!

The view from our “deck” with a cold Captain Morgan – what a hard life!!

We had a great braai of 1kg skaap tjops for the two of us and a loaf of home made bread that the tannie at the reception made for us, just brilliant!!

Our accommodation for the night

Tomorrow Baviaanskloof and bike problems..........

 

[roxenz]

Excellent so far KnopKop!  Looking forward to tomorrow!  :thumleft: :thumleft: :thumleft:

 

[Walkaway]

Great one guys. It is an awesome part of the world is'nt it.

 

[sef156]

Is jy nie bekommerd oor jou bike se reliability met daai sticker op nie? :deal:  Lyk my jou indicator is klaar besig om te verloor, dit begin so met die parte naaste aan die sticker...  :imaposer: