McSack & Psycho Porra's excursion over the border into the Cape

[Psycho Porra]

how many punctures in total

5

 

[skydiver]

I read somewhere once that the Karoo 3 punctured very easily

 

[Psycho Porra]

I read somewhere once that the Karoo 3 punctured very easily

I totally agree with this but the sidewall is a bitch to get off the rim

 

[Abre]

Thank you for sharing Porra.

Next ride you fix the punctures

 

[Psycho Porra]

Thank you for sharing Porra.

Next ride you fix the punctures

Grapgat, ek kan mos nie jou job nie oor vat nie

 

[Psycho Porra]

Day 6

Early on Tuesday morning we were up as we still need to slab it to Hogsback as we had no spare tubes or a working compressor. We did pop in at the local hardware to see if we would be lucky, but they only had those big 4x4 compressors and no tubes only patches for MTB's.

We headed out of town and turned right onto the R329 towards Steytlerville, where we stopped at the Royal hotel to get some breakfast and maybe try the BKB store for tubes or a compressor, but they too only had the 4x4 bulky compressor. McSack popped in to the local Foreigner general dealer to try his luck but they only had Tyre weld, which at this point was our only option. As we exited the local dealer we spotted some "Fongkong" bikes at a shop and outside on a dstv dish was a sing Bike X, so off we went to see what they had to offer. Turns out the owner Shaun is a biker and owns a few new bikes that he keeps on the farm and only the "cheapies" are kept in town.

Fortunately for us he happens to have a spare 18" tube which is bought at a premium, but at least we have a spare tube now. We tell him about the little desert fox compressor that is not working and he offers to look at it for us while we have breakfast. Breakfast done and dusted, Grant heads over to Shaun's shop and I can see by the smile on his face that Shaun managed to get the compressor working again.

So now that we have a working compressor and a spare tube we quickly check the garmin for any lekker dirt roads heading out and decide to head north out of town and turn right onto a dirt road that goes through Mount FLethcer's pass towards Jansenville. it is a lekker dirt highway most of the way which beats the tar road anyday and we ride side by side for kilometres on end just enjoying "being". We end up coming to a big 4 way stop in the road (R338) and stop to take some pics of the quint little Mount Nelson Anglican Church.

From there we head north and turn right onto the R339 and on into Jansenville. Now normally I would insist we stop to see if the "local" stocked my brands but we were presooed for time so carried on straight through town and turned right onto Primrose street, through the township and pop up on a "lekker" little twee spoor road heading East. (we were not supposed to turn off as our original route would make us turn much later onto the R337 and then again past Magic Hills Private game reserve) but I am chuffed that we did because it was great riding that twee spoor which had alot of sand, washaways and just generally nice adventure riding surface.

After around 50 klicks we turned left towards Pearston and enjoyed the passes and meandering road. About 15km from Pearston, JB started feeling lethargic and was not pulling as he should and I knew what that meant, JB had decided that he would provide me with my 1st puncture in 13 years of Adventure biking, so I stopped to change the puncture. McSack had not seen me stop and I think did about 6km's before realizing I was no longer behind him and turned around to come look for me. Once he arrived, we removed the back wheel and inspected it to see what happened. I noticed a little slit vertical slit between 2 of the knobblies of the D606 caused by a sharp rock somewhere on the last section from Jansenville.

We quickly removed the tube from the rim and it had a huge gash in it, so we put in the last spare tube only to find that when we pumped it up, it was bulging out of the gash in the tyre. Not much else to do except secure the tyre with some cable ties and slowly make our way towards Pearston. We had asked our call centre backup (Mandy) to book us a room in Pearston for the night as JB had come to the end of his trip as we did not know where we would get a new tyre and we both needed to be back on Wednesday due to work commitments.

A decision had been made that we would leave JB and our kit at the Pearston Hotel and would slab it on tar (2 up) on Beastie through to Hogsback, load Beastie onto the trailer and head back to Pearston. So on arrival at the Pearston Hotel we parked JB, put our kit in the room and started out towards Hogsback. It was getting late and we were treated to the orange lunar moon which eventually turned a bright white and passed through Somerset East, Cookhouse, Bedford, Adelaide, Fort Beaufort (where we nearly got taken out by a polo), Alice and eventually arrived in Hogsback a little after 20h30.

We quickly got out of our riding clobber and put on clothes that we had left in the Fortuner, loaded Beastie onto the trailer and headed out back towards Pearston. We arrived in Pearston just after midnight, had supper (Jorrie and his wife had waited up for us), chugged down a Soweto Pepsi and went to bed as we were way past tired.

Day 7
After a good few hours of sleep we got up, got our things together, had some breakfast and loaded JB onot the trailer. Thereafter we made our way back north, stopping at that place in Graaf Reinet with all the old cars and bikes (McSack should have some photos). i dropped McSack and Beastie off in Clarens and made my way home to the big smoke, tired but oh so happy about my ride the last couple of days.

Thanks to all for reading my long winded ride report and a special thanks to my riding buddy, McSack for an awesome trip and I cannot wait for the next one

Fluit, fluit, my storie is uit

 

[Grunder]

Lekker man. Klink rof lekker!

 

[ETS]

Fantastic RR thank you!!

 

[Psycho Porra]

Lekker man. Klink rof lekker!

Baie lekker gewees en moet terug gaan om nog paaie in daai deel van die wereld te ry

 

[Psycho Porra]

Fantastic RR thank you!!

Thanks ETS

 

[roxenz]

Geesh Porra and McSack, that was one HELLuva trip! Thanks for sharing. Ek voel sommer moeg vir julle part met al die papwiele en laat nagte!

 

[McSack]

It is certainly a trip we will cherish for a long time.
Porra forgot mention how we nearly had a little drizz together after the 3 punctures leading to Die Hel. It was already dark and we were proper tired when a momentary lapse in concentration on my part had me park my bike in a rocky drainage sloot next to the badly eroded switchback.
In his haste to stop and assist me before I moered over, Norbs managed a little "sidestand incident" of his own and then JB wouldn't start. Really thought we were going to have to sleep right there.
Then a big fat moon rose over the mountains behind us and with a bit of jiggling of the clutch switch cable that little DRZ fired up with the sweetest braaap I have ever heard in my life.
Moments like that bond us in some unexplainable way. It is a moment I will never forget.

 

[Peter Vee]

"Hunnert Pasent" lekka RR Norbes & Grantus... thanks for sharing.. reminds me a similar jaunt to Eaton's place

 

[Tony the Boney]

Good going guys

 

[LouisXander]

Remind me to never go on a far trip wiff youse twoose.

Dis omlat jy my kark gegee het oor my cdi Norberto, kry vir jou

 

[woody1]

Lekker. Thanks for sharing

 

[DirtyTeNeReLess]

Fantastic report! Well done.

 

[genie]

Great trip report!

 

[Dutchman81]

Porra jy se daar ry n polo jou amper "porra in jou moer" hier in Fort Beaufort waar ek bly.... Welkom to dark afrika my vriend

 

[BuRP]

Day 6
I noticed a little slit vertical slit...

View attachment 776153

Dankie, lekker story Porra ..... but geewiz boet, not 'what' but 'how much' were you guys drinking?
Look above - that's a horizontal slit pal, come high or low water!