It’s really REALLY nice to be back in the saddle and riding again, and I was delighted when my old friends and demon and injury support team MadDog and Wannies responded to my planning thread for a short Saturday ride.
I could think of no place I wanted to go to more than the Harburg area, and since neither MadDog or Wannies had been to the Mqeku Gorge, I phoned the farm and Eagle’s View caravan park owner, Ron, and got permission to visit again.
I still had a bit of exploring to do on the farm. Every time I visit I check my GPS track in Google Earth and find myself saying, “now why did we rather not try that track”, and that gives me an excuse to re-visit – not that you really need an excuse to visit a beautiful place do you?
The route to get there was up the North side of the Valley of 1000 hills this time. Up through Verulam, round the back of Hazelmere dam to Ndwedwe, down a beautiful long descent to the Mhloti river and westward to Montebelo Mission Hospital.
Local kids and dogs always come to investigate when you stop.
Microwave towers always have access roads, and good views so we headed up a short track for coffee and to check the lie of the land.
In the background is Nhlangakazi, which is a Shembe religious mountain. Just behind Wannies you can see a track making its way up the mountain. I was keen to find if we could ride up there, but a local Madala told me that it was “steppies” and put his hand up like the “Heil Hitler” salute to indicate that the steps are quite steep.
Every year the Shembe pilgrims walk barefoot from Matabatule next to Inanda Dam to Nhlangakazi to pray on the mountain.
From there we past Montebelo Hospital, and into the cane and timber farming area.
When I studied the GPS we were only about 3Km from the Mqeku Gorge, so we decided to see if we could cut out about 30Km of tar and find a back way to the gorge via the timber plantations and cane fields.
Well we got there, and it was fun but hard work. The overnight rains and lack of sun in the forests meant that Mr Mudmonster was wide awake, but we managed to get through to the gorge.
Wannies took this pic of me and you may notice a bit of sweat in the hair and a look of relief on my face.
MadDog hanging five on the edge.
On the top of the Mqeku waterfall, and some photo-ops of MadDog’s bike on the rocks.
This was the road I was keen to see. It is stunning, and probably one of the most beautiful 1km bits of rideable road I have ever had the pleasure of riding.
It brings you out here:-
From there on tar via Nagle and the Comrades route to Hillcrest to badger Mr Badger for a cup of coffee at Ryder Motorad.
I could think of no place I wanted to go to more than the Harburg area, and since neither MadDog or Wannies had been to the Mqeku Gorge, I phoned the farm and Eagle’s View caravan park owner, Ron, and got permission to visit again.
I still had a bit of exploring to do on the farm. Every time I visit I check my GPS track in Google Earth and find myself saying, “now why did we rather not try that track”, and that gives me an excuse to re-visit – not that you really need an excuse to visit a beautiful place do you?
The route to get there was up the North side of the Valley of 1000 hills this time. Up through Verulam, round the back of Hazelmere dam to Ndwedwe, down a beautiful long descent to the Mhloti river and westward to Montebelo Mission Hospital.
Local kids and dogs always come to investigate when you stop.
Microwave towers always have access roads, and good views so we headed up a short track for coffee and to check the lie of the land.
In the background is Nhlangakazi, which is a Shembe religious mountain. Just behind Wannies you can see a track making its way up the mountain. I was keen to find if we could ride up there, but a local Madala told me that it was “steppies” and put his hand up like the “Heil Hitler” salute to indicate that the steps are quite steep.
Every year the Shembe pilgrims walk barefoot from Matabatule next to Inanda Dam to Nhlangakazi to pray on the mountain.
From there we past Montebelo Hospital, and into the cane and timber farming area.
When I studied the GPS we were only about 3Km from the Mqeku Gorge, so we decided to see if we could cut out about 30Km of tar and find a back way to the gorge via the timber plantations and cane fields.
Well we got there, and it was fun but hard work. The overnight rains and lack of sun in the forests meant that Mr Mudmonster was wide awake, but we managed to get through to the gorge.
Wannies took this pic of me and you may notice a bit of sweat in the hair and a look of relief on my face.
MadDog hanging five on the edge.
On the top of the Mqeku waterfall, and some photo-ops of MadDog’s bike on the rocks.
This was the road I was keen to see. It is stunning, and probably one of the most beautiful 1km bits of rideable road I have ever had the pleasure of riding.
It brings you out here:-
From there on tar via Nagle and the Comrades route to Hillcrest to badger Mr Badger for a cup of coffee at Ryder Motorad.
