Magaliesburg to Cape Town Solo, Pics included.....

[DeepBass9]

I think the highlight of the trip was managing to do hundreds of km through the desert, finding the only river with any water in it, and managing to dump the bike right there!  :imaposer: Believe it or don't.

Here's the bits of the track when I had my GPS on.

 

[IDR]

To take you on about T4A...

Looking at it in Mapsource, you really should be able to tell tha tyou can't rely on T4A by itself for nav - it has big gaping holes of missing information throughout.  When travelling in South Africa itself, T4A is nigh on useless, really, except that it is more detailed on road conditions, if it has any information at all.  In other words, nav via SA Topo n Rec, and if you want to find out if a road is tar or gravel, perhaps T4A would have that info.  For travel OUTSIDE SA though, T4A is invaluable.

This looks like a great trip though.  I LOVE those WFO roads in the Karoo - and that's a mighty fine lookin' Suzuki, even if I say so myself ;D

 

[SuperDave]

What a lekker trip DeepBass!!   :thumleft:

Those are flippen excellent gravel roads you had there!  
I did some of the roads on my Karoo trip in December...along Carnarvon, Fraserburg and
Sutherland parts...

Excellent riding!  

Some great pics you have there as well!   :mwink:  
Glad you didn't break more in that river!  

How was the Jazz fest so by the way?   O0

 

[DeepBass9]

The Jazz fest was great. Lots of cool music, and cold beer. Simpiwe Dana was very impressive, and I never though I would see Earth Wind and Fire doing Boogie Wonderland live  :laughing4:, somethings should stay in the 70's. Some of the stuff way waaay over my head. As far as I am concerned, after you have changed key, time signature and tempo, its a new song, not a continuation of the old one, and if you do that every 7 and a half bars, then I am completely lost.

Good fun though, also did the obligatory lunch at the brass bell, of course.

 

[DeepBass9]

To take you on about T4A...

Looking at it in Mapsource, you really should be able to tell tha tyou can't rely on T4A by itself for nav - it has big gaping holes of missing information throughout.  When travelling in South Africa itself, T4A is nigh on useless, really, except that it is more detailed on road conditions, if it has any information at all.  In other words, nav via SA Topo n Rec, and if you want to find out if a road is tar or gravel, perhaps T4A would have that info.  For travel OUTSIDE SA though, T4A is invaluable.

So WTF is it for then? "If you intend to travel in Africa you have come to the right place. We offer great GPS maps that will navigate you from Cape Town to Cairo. Our map of Africa reflects where people travel and is packed with detail for the self drive traveller...." blah blah blah?  ???

 

[Rooies]

Nice pics, DB9 :thumleft:

 

[IDR]

I can't speak for their marketing, really.  And to be fair, I suspect they might be able to route you along the N1 from Cape Town to Beit Birdge (MIGHT!) - if the maps overlap correctly.  South Africa is covered very well by GIS companies and surveyors and whoever, who all give their information to Garmap.  There are some interesting extra tidbits on T4A like 4x4 trails, POI, etc., but also not everywhere.

But as I said, in the rest of Africa it is invaluable.

But I don't want to mess up your thread.... start another one! ;D

 

[Walkaway]

Lekker trip - thanks for sharing.

As far a T4A is concerned it is OK for doing 4x4 routes etc.

I never road navigate with it. For that I use Garmaps. The T4A is used once reaching your off road destination and to follow that particular off road route.

I do understand your frustration. You will have to get some garmaps.

 

[Ama ride ride]

Lekker DB

Would like to chat with you about some of the routes you took.  :thumleft:

 

[DeepBass9]

I think I just assumed too much from T4A.

It still makes no sense though, the dataset with all public roads is freely available? By didn't they start with that and then add 4x4 routes and POIs to it? There marketing leads you to believe that their maps have something in ADDITION to what you would normally expect to find on a road map, not less.

 

[Malibu]

Super lekker ride!    

 

[APO]

Enjoyed reading your RR, nice one.

 

[DeepBass9]

Lekker DB

Would like to chat with you about some of the routes you took.  :thumleft:

No probs, are you planning on heading that way soon?

 

[Ama ride ride]

Lekker DB

Would like to chat with you about some of the routes you took.  :thumleft:

No probs, are you planning on heading that way soon?

Second half of year. With 4x4. Want to go down, through Sederberg mountains and up the Westcoast, Richtersveld and next to Orange river etc back.

 

[DeepBass9]

Lekker DB

Would like to chat with you about some of the routes you took.  :thumleft:

No probs, are you planning on heading that way soon?

Second half of year. With 4x4. Want to go down, through Sederberg mountains and up the Westcoast, Richtersveld and next to Orange river etc back.

Ending up at the National Bash?  :mwink:

 

[SuperDave]

Lekker DB

Would like to chat with you about some of the routes you took.  :thumleft:

No probs, are you planning on heading that way soon?

Second half of year. With 4x4. Want to go down, through Sederberg mountains and up the Westcoast, Richtersveld and next to Orange river etc back.

...make Wupperthal part of your Cederberg tour....just try not to be there on a Sunday!  :thumleft:

And of course the Cederberg Oasis....  ;D

 

[Would I?]

Nice Report. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Dustdevil]

Awesome :thumleft: I love long solo rides.
That luggage of yours looks really neat and tight  :mwink: How did it handle the fall?

It's gonna even look smarter in yellow on that DR of yours: eepwall:

 

[rcerrie]

Nice Ride :thumleft:

 

[DeepBass9]

Awesome :thumleft: I love long solo rides.
That luggage of yours looks really neat and tight  :mwink: How did it handle the fall?

It's gonna even look smarter in yellow on that DR of yours: eepwall:

The bag didn't even notice the fall, you can see where it slid along the slime in the picture below.

After this trip I would recommend the giant loop luggage for the DR, it sits very securely on the bike, nice and low (I put the tools and heavy stuff in the side parts) You don't notice it at all. I packed clothes and sleeping bag in the middle on top so when my arse gor really sore I could perch on top of there for a while. Consider the difference in expense after this little prang if I had hard luggage that had broken in the fall, or pannier brackets that had bent or broken.  Also It just unstraps and I can put it on my Strom without having an entire other set of brackets etc etc. Its a bit on the expensive side, but well worth it. Thanks for lending me the demo bag DD, while the yeller one is in the post.