Doringboom
Race Dog
Hallo everybody :salut:
Jaycee and I have been watching all the ride activities in the direction of Groot-Marico on this Forum for quite a while now. So the past Sunday we came to the point of seeing for ourselves what all the talking is about. Beforehand I did a little map research and a Forum ride report by Kykdaar also helped a lot to give our plans the green light. (Thanks Kykdaar :thumright
I invited Coreen, my niece, to join us on the trip as I knew this would be her kind of thing for a Sunday.
We departed from Onderstepoort in Pretoria just after 07:00.
Our first stop was for breakfast at the Engen garage Wimpy in Harties. From here the road took us further westwards, past the Buffelspoort Dam Resort to our next stop at the lookout point across the Olifantsnek dam, where the Hex River cuts through the Magaliesberge.
We continued past some lush green maize fields, through Derby, to Koster. A short distance outside of Koster, on the R509 to Swartruggens, we turned left at the Rosmincol road sign for our first gravel road for the day. (See the route maps at the end of the report.)
We crossed the R53 tar road and continued further westwards on the gravel road leading to Zeerust. On the farm Rietspruit we made another stop. The road so far was dry and in a generally fine condition, permitting a comfortable 80 km/h here and there.
Jaycee was leading the way on his Transalp and almost by pure luck saw the road sign for the turnoff to the Marico Oog (“eye”). We followed the 2-spoor road leading to the farmstead, where we stopped. Nobody was at home though.
We rode through to the Oog where we found the farm owner to whom we paid our R10 per person visitor’s fee. It is beautiful here, with a few chalets, clean ablutions, green lawns, big willow trees, a small super tube and a ferry to float you through the lilies on the crystal clear water :kermit:
“Don’t pay the ferrywoman until she gets you to the other side”
From the Oog we rode further in the direction of Zeerust on a tar road until we got to a 4-way crossing. Here we turned right on a gravel road leading to Groot-Marico. Alongside this road I noticed a few slate (“leiklip”) mining / excavating activities. So, my advice to you would be not to be too reckless in the way you treat the outcrop of stone layers in the road, as slate is a known enemy of any vehicle tyre. The road joins the N4 a few kilo’s west of the town. We refueled the bikes and then followed a gravel road along the eastern bank of the Groot-Marico River in the direction of the Marico-Bosveld Dam.
After enquiring at the entrance to the camping resort next to the dam and also at a party / function venue on the other side of the road, we got directions from the friendly caretaker to another party facility (still under renovation) on top of a small hill overlooking the dam.
The view over the dam from here was worth the little bit of walking we did to get here. Apparently the sunsets from here are of the most scenic you can get!
It was lunchtime and the caretaker advised us to go for a pub lunch at a crocodile breeding farm roughly 10 km northwards on the tar road on the opposite (western) side of the dam.
On our arrival here we were met by the friendly owner and his family, who had a lot to tell about the business of breeding and farming with crocodiles. We enjoyed some T-bones with chips and ice cold beers while sitting on the sheltered wooden deck, overlooking the croc dam.
Ha-ha-ha-ha :laughing7:
Every now and then the surface of the water got (slightly) disturbed by a croc making its way to a new resting place, which was about the only way we were able to notice their presence. Otherwise they are lying so still and are so well camouflaged in the shallow water that it is almost unbelievable.
No, this dam is croc free ;D
After lunch it was time to return home. We followed the Lindleyspoort tar road through the settlement of Pella and later turned right on the Roodewal gravel road that linked us up with the N4 toll road again. In the process we gave the very expensive (R55 per bike if I remember correctly) toll gate outside of Groot-Marico a miss. At one point Jaycee came across a large troop of baboons in the road, but, unfortunately, by the time I had my camera ready they had all vanished into the dense bush already.
The rest of the way back to Pretoria was a tar road affair. At Rustenburg the heavens opened on us and closer to Pretoria the returning weekend traffic was not much of a joy either.
Thanks for reading! Goodbye until next time
PS. Our route for the day (except for the roads closer to Pretoria) is indicated in blue and our main stops are indicated with red stars. I hope it gives you an idea. The much clearer, original Pdf files are too big, so I converted them to Jpeg's in order to resize them a bit.
Jaycee and I have been watching all the ride activities in the direction of Groot-Marico on this Forum for quite a while now. So the past Sunday we came to the point of seeing for ourselves what all the talking is about. Beforehand I did a little map research and a Forum ride report by Kykdaar also helped a lot to give our plans the green light. (Thanks Kykdaar :thumright
I invited Coreen, my niece, to join us on the trip as I knew this would be her kind of thing for a Sunday.We departed from Onderstepoort in Pretoria just after 07:00.
Our first stop was for breakfast at the Engen garage Wimpy in Harties. From here the road took us further westwards, past the Buffelspoort Dam Resort to our next stop at the lookout point across the Olifantsnek dam, where the Hex River cuts through the Magaliesberge.
We continued past some lush green maize fields, through Derby, to Koster. A short distance outside of Koster, on the R509 to Swartruggens, we turned left at the Rosmincol road sign for our first gravel road for the day. (See the route maps at the end of the report.)
We crossed the R53 tar road and continued further westwards on the gravel road leading to Zeerust. On the farm Rietspruit we made another stop. The road so far was dry and in a generally fine condition, permitting a comfortable 80 km/h here and there.
Jaycee was leading the way on his Transalp and almost by pure luck saw the road sign for the turnoff to the Marico Oog (“eye”). We followed the 2-spoor road leading to the farmstead, where we stopped. Nobody was at home though.
We rode through to the Oog where we found the farm owner to whom we paid our R10 per person visitor’s fee. It is beautiful here, with a few chalets, clean ablutions, green lawns, big willow trees, a small super tube and a ferry to float you through the lilies on the crystal clear water :kermit:
“Don’t pay the ferrywoman until she gets you to the other side
”
From the Oog we rode further in the direction of Zeerust on a tar road until we got to a 4-way crossing. Here we turned right on a gravel road leading to Groot-Marico. Alongside this road I noticed a few slate (“leiklip”) mining / excavating activities. So, my advice to you would be not to be too reckless in the way you treat the outcrop of stone layers in the road, as slate is a known enemy of any vehicle tyre. The road joins the N4 a few kilo’s west of the town. We refueled the bikes and then followed a gravel road along the eastern bank of the Groot-Marico River in the direction of the Marico-Bosveld Dam.
After enquiring at the entrance to the camping resort next to the dam and also at a party / function venue on the other side of the road, we got directions from the friendly caretaker to another party facility (still under renovation) on top of a small hill overlooking the dam.
The view over the dam from here was worth the little bit of walking we did to get here. Apparently the sunsets from here are of the most scenic you can get!
It was lunchtime and the caretaker advised us to go for a pub lunch at a crocodile breeding farm roughly 10 km northwards on the tar road on the opposite (western) side of the dam.
On our arrival here we were met by the friendly owner and his family, who had a lot to tell about the business of breeding and farming with crocodiles. We enjoyed some T-bones with chips and ice cold beers while sitting on the sheltered wooden deck, overlooking the croc dam.
Ha-ha-ha-ha :laughing7:
Every now and then the surface of the water got (slightly) disturbed by a croc making its way to a new resting place, which was about the only way we were able to notice their presence. Otherwise they are lying so still and are so well camouflaged in the shallow water that it is almost unbelievable.
No, this dam is croc free ;D
After lunch it was time to return home. We followed the Lindleyspoort tar road through the settlement of Pella and later turned right on the Roodewal gravel road that linked us up with the N4 toll road again. In the process we gave the very expensive (R55 per bike if I remember correctly) toll gate outside of Groot-Marico a miss. At one point Jaycee came across a large troop of baboons in the road, but, unfortunately, by the time I had my camera ready they had all vanished into the dense bush already.
The rest of the way back to Pretoria was a tar road affair. At Rustenburg the heavens opened on us and closer to Pretoria the returning weekend traffic was not much of a joy either.
Thanks for reading! Goodbye until next time
PS. Our route for the day (except for the roads closer to Pretoria) is indicated in blue and our main stops are indicated with red stars. I hope it gives you an idea. The much clearer, original Pdf files are too big, so I converted them to Jpeg's in order to resize them a bit.
