- Joined
- Sep 3, 2012
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- Bike
- Suzuki DR350
Jimbo: DAY 3. Thur. 09 Aug 2012. Fence Proper. Early “Full Alert” start to Kaarpmuiden, where we crossed the Crocodile River into the homelands of Matsulu to connect with the Kruger Park fence. An interesting riding feature here are the hundreds of drainage whoops to negotiate. You can experiment with all riding styles – Wheelieing over, jumping over or just riding gently over them. There was always one that could catch you out (but did not) and easily send you over the handlebars. This is the area of the slippery concrete water crossings, so we were most cautious. Andre decided he should muddy the right side of his riding gear on one muddy-bottomed crossing. Something to do with looking the part. We departed from the fence / rail line near Houtspruit and headed to Dassie’s game farm to spend the night.
Andre's Comments
Before setting off in search of the “fence” we did the daily routine of checking oil, tyres and chain etc, we also had to pack an extra 4 litres of petrol and at least another 3 litres of water into our backpacks. At first the mere thought of this sounds like hardships of all kinds, but I soon realised how this added weight up on your shoulders can really help when moving your weight around on the bike to influence the direction of your bike.
Following Jim blindly thru townships and homelands, out of the blue, the “fence” appeared. We followed what must be the service road, along with a railway on the left and river beyond the Kruger fence on the right.
Stevie had warned me about the hundreds of little “jumps”, sure there were thousands. Torn between trying to look for any game in the Kruger and having to pay attention to the road and these little jumps, meant you were going to get caught out every now and again, but luckily nothing serious.
We came across our first water crossing – a good thing I decided to wear my MX pants! Well I reckon it was only because I was last to go thru and owing to Jim and Leigh having thoroughly dug a massive hole in spinning their back tyres to get up onto the concrete lip; I gently plopped onto my right side in the water when I sank into this hole.
Leigh crossing with ease
Again out of nowhere a familiar road appeared, the Numbi Gate, but onwards we pushed. From icy snow just a few days ago to the extreme heat typical of the Kruger. By now we had already seen some giraffe, buffalo, and kudu. Jim claims to have seen fresh elephant droppings, quite frankly I was too busy concentrating on the road, not to fall off rather than pick up on that kind of detail.
Our rest spot where Jimbo informed us there was another 150km to go
Just as Numbi appeared, soon Phabeni Gate appeared. Been here many times but never under these circumstances – I was thrilled, this is perhaps better than what I was expecting.
At this stage the road had varied from all sorts: hard sand, small patches of soft sand, railway ballast, one or two short dry river crossings in deep sand, (at one point I found myself going nowhere very fast; I guess with all the weight, my back wheel just sank in), but nothing treacherous.
We had to move to the west eventually to avoid going thru all the private reserves and to find our next stop over: a wonderful game farm run by friends of Jim, - after a long and hard day it was even better than a five star hotel.
Leigh's Comments
After riding through some stunning country side out of Barberton, Jim puts his indicator on to turn left for what i thought may be another latte opportunity, it was not. Winding through homelands and dodging chickens and kids I thought he was lost. But we quickly found our way onto the KPF. the first 500 of whoops were fun, average speed for me was between 40kph - 60 kph standing up most of the time and peering over to the fence to spot game. Even when we stopped for a short time i could tell i was going to be stiff in the morning, my body was really feeling it… i promised myself i would wear 2 bra's the next day.
We arrived at Dassie's game farm at about 4.30pm that afternoon with the promise of hot showers and food. I indulged and had a bath with a glass of wine - Jim was disgusted having just bathed himself in a freezing cold pool.
Our Hosts - Dassie and Lienkie
The hospitality was wonderful, I knew i better enjoy it as it was our last night in a bed for a while.
My bruise developing nicely.
Jimbo: DAY 4. Fri 10 Aug 2012. A pretty lively, well refreshed start from the game farm. Although we had no destination for today, there were a lot of unknowns. Early mornings on the gravel roads between game farms is the favorite haunt of Warthog families, on the side of the road, and crossing these roads at high speed. “Full Alert”. Fuelled up at Gravelotte and took back-road to the Letaba River. Hit the fence again at the Letaba River. Very fresh (over all other tracks) elephant spoore between the Letaba River and the Klein Letaba River crossing. The Klein Letaba River crossing is about 200 meters of soft irregular sand. Challenging, but no real difficulty. Other stream crossings that were not easily doable near the fence could be crossed by looking up-stream for a more suitable crossing. Where the fence goes over rocky hills a track of some kind could usually be found around the hill. There are also some new fences that require searching for a detour. At about 1 hour before sunset we set up camp just off the fence. About 20 to 30 km south of Punda Maria.
Leigh's Comment's
Jim's hot tip before setting out for the day. "Leigh don't hit any warthogs, they are solid little buggers and you WILL come off second best" - noted.
This day was FULL of challenges, the terrain changes so quickly you really cannot afford to switch off for a second. Soft sand with loose grapefruit size rocks to negotiate, i felt like the bike could have come down about 100 times that day but we seemed to get through it.
my sleeping mat looking worse for wear, haven't even slept on it yet.
Andre's Comments
By now I would not even blink when seeing what looked like a tricky section to cross, I was kind of ok with my back wheel twitching about here and there. Then it came, the crossing of the Letaba – if there was anything that I was a little anxious about, this nonstop stand pit was it. After a short break, Jim took off and made it there first and to get the camera out – I wonder why.
Soon it was my turn, all my training at Daytona was about to come into play. Stand up, look up and open up – hey I made it. If it was not so hot, I would have gone back to fetch Jim’s bag that he had forgotten.
We had now also seen elephant; a pleasant surprise given that I thought most animals would run in fear when hearing the bikes. We found our next camp site in the middle of nowhere, Jim tells me it’s close to Punda Maria. The evenings got a way bit chilly, far more than what my measly little sleeping bag could accommodate, but after another hard days works, sleep came quickly.
Setting up camp
As you can see Jimbo decides to go without a tent
Andre's Comments
Before setting off in search of the “fence” we did the daily routine of checking oil, tyres and chain etc, we also had to pack an extra 4 litres of petrol and at least another 3 litres of water into our backpacks. At first the mere thought of this sounds like hardships of all kinds, but I soon realised how this added weight up on your shoulders can really help when moving your weight around on the bike to influence the direction of your bike.
Following Jim blindly thru townships and homelands, out of the blue, the “fence” appeared. We followed what must be the service road, along with a railway on the left and river beyond the Kruger fence on the right.
Stevie had warned me about the hundreds of little “jumps”, sure there were thousands. Torn between trying to look for any game in the Kruger and having to pay attention to the road and these little jumps, meant you were going to get caught out every now and again, but luckily nothing serious.
We came across our first water crossing – a good thing I decided to wear my MX pants! Well I reckon it was only because I was last to go thru and owing to Jim and Leigh having thoroughly dug a massive hole in spinning their back tyres to get up onto the concrete lip; I gently plopped onto my right side in the water when I sank into this hole.
Leigh crossing with ease
Again out of nowhere a familiar road appeared, the Numbi Gate, but onwards we pushed. From icy snow just a few days ago to the extreme heat typical of the Kruger. By now we had already seen some giraffe, buffalo, and kudu. Jim claims to have seen fresh elephant droppings, quite frankly I was too busy concentrating on the road, not to fall off rather than pick up on that kind of detail.
Our rest spot where Jimbo informed us there was another 150km to go
Just as Numbi appeared, soon Phabeni Gate appeared. Been here many times but never under these circumstances – I was thrilled, this is perhaps better than what I was expecting.
At this stage the road had varied from all sorts: hard sand, small patches of soft sand, railway ballast, one or two short dry river crossings in deep sand, (at one point I found myself going nowhere very fast; I guess with all the weight, my back wheel just sank in), but nothing treacherous.
We had to move to the west eventually to avoid going thru all the private reserves and to find our next stop over: a wonderful game farm run by friends of Jim, - after a long and hard day it was even better than a five star hotel.
Leigh's Comments
After riding through some stunning country side out of Barberton, Jim puts his indicator on to turn left for what i thought may be another latte opportunity, it was not. Winding through homelands and dodging chickens and kids I thought he was lost. But we quickly found our way onto the KPF. the first 500 of whoops were fun, average speed for me was between 40kph - 60 kph standing up most of the time and peering over to the fence to spot game. Even when we stopped for a short time i could tell i was going to be stiff in the morning, my body was really feeling it… i promised myself i would wear 2 bra's the next day.
We arrived at Dassie's game farm at about 4.30pm that afternoon with the promise of hot showers and food. I indulged and had a bath with a glass of wine - Jim was disgusted having just bathed himself in a freezing cold pool.
Our Hosts - Dassie and Lienkie
The hospitality was wonderful, I knew i better enjoy it as it was our last night in a bed for a while.
My bruise developing nicely.
Jimbo: DAY 4. Fri 10 Aug 2012. A pretty lively, well refreshed start from the game farm. Although we had no destination for today, there were a lot of unknowns. Early mornings on the gravel roads between game farms is the favorite haunt of Warthog families, on the side of the road, and crossing these roads at high speed. “Full Alert”. Fuelled up at Gravelotte and took back-road to the Letaba River. Hit the fence again at the Letaba River. Very fresh (over all other tracks) elephant spoore between the Letaba River and the Klein Letaba River crossing. The Klein Letaba River crossing is about 200 meters of soft irregular sand. Challenging, but no real difficulty. Other stream crossings that were not easily doable near the fence could be crossed by looking up-stream for a more suitable crossing. Where the fence goes over rocky hills a track of some kind could usually be found around the hill. There are also some new fences that require searching for a detour. At about 1 hour before sunset we set up camp just off the fence. About 20 to 30 km south of Punda Maria.
Leigh's Comment's
Jim's hot tip before setting out for the day. "Leigh don't hit any warthogs, they are solid little buggers and you WILL come off second best" - noted.
This day was FULL of challenges, the terrain changes so quickly you really cannot afford to switch off for a second. Soft sand with loose grapefruit size rocks to negotiate, i felt like the bike could have come down about 100 times that day but we seemed to get through it.
my sleeping mat looking worse for wear, haven't even slept on it yet.
Andre's Comments
By now I would not even blink when seeing what looked like a tricky section to cross, I was kind of ok with my back wheel twitching about here and there. Then it came, the crossing of the Letaba – if there was anything that I was a little anxious about, this nonstop stand pit was it. After a short break, Jim took off and made it there first and to get the camera out – I wonder why.
Soon it was my turn, all my training at Daytona was about to come into play. Stand up, look up and open up – hey I made it. If it was not so hot, I would have gone back to fetch Jim’s bag that he had forgotten.
We had now also seen elephant; a pleasant surprise given that I thought most animals would run in fear when hearing the bikes. We found our next camp site in the middle of nowhere, Jim tells me it’s close to Punda Maria. The evenings got a way bit chilly, far more than what my measly little sleeping bag could accommodate, but after another hard days works, sleep came quickly.
Setting up camp
As you can see Jimbo decides to go without a tent
