Kykdaar
Grey Hound
- Joined
- Sep 14, 2007
- Messages
- 7,610
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- 3
- Location
- Wingate Park - Pretoria
- Bike
- Zundapp (all models)
Very nice report and some great photos there :thumleft:
Of Hell, Whales, Sex and Baboons! Now complete
- Thread starter GG
- Start date
Watty
Race Dog
- Joined
- Jun 22, 2006
- Messages
- 3,954
- Reaction score
- 3
- Location
- Port Elizabeth
- Bike
- Suzuki Djebel 250XC
GG said:
Not wanting to be prejudice to an excellent RR, I would however like to make a little correction so as to perhaps enhance the report even more. With respect to the statement highlighted in the above quote, some information regarding the geology of the region:
Quartzitic sandstones of the Table Mountain Group dominate the Baviaanskloof region, and all formations belonging to this group can be found in the area, and of these, the Peninsula Sandstone Goudini Sandstones and Cedarberg shales are predominant.
A number of other, more recently deposited, formations are present, but are insubordinate in the landscape. Noteworthy ones include the Grahamstown Formation which can be found on the flat plateau surfaces (ie at Bergplaas) and has been termed the African Land surface, and the Enon Conglomerate Formation, a red formation which erodes into dramatic shapes. Thus all sedimentary rock formations, no granites, that is no igneous rocks to be found at surface level (the much older East Cape granites are present, but only from boreholes cores, thus not at the surface).
The "crumbling red 'granite' cliffs" being referred to in the RR, can only be reference to the characteristic red Enon conglomerates.
:mwink:
GG
Race Dog
Day 4: Montagu and Prince Alfred Passâ??s â?¦.. and finally a new sprocket!
We started the day in George, while we waited for the Dakar sprocket to be fitted, the mechanic showed us a bike which heâ??d just recovered from die Hel with a smashed cylinder head. Oh, oh we were going there!
But first the Montagu pass, the clouds were settling down on the hill tops, the temperature was dropping, but all it seemed to do was add a sense of atmosphere and mystery to the place.
The old pass has wonderful old stone walls on one side the drops dizzying down into the valley below. The fynbos was full of flowers and colour and the road twists endlessly up into what looks like the clouds!
The other side we hit the tar heading to another pass, The Dakar disappears in my mirror, so Sue and I stop and Seamus calls, the tightening bolt has come out of the newly fitted chain and sprocket. Heâ??s got a handful of them just in case! So we wait at the roadside watching the ostriches, thereâ??s hundreds on the farms around us!
He catches us and we head to Aventuur and the Prince Alfred Pass which descends back down to the coast and the huge forests which encircle Knysna. Another very beautiful pass with its stone walls and endless twists hugging the side of the stream, its gurgling little rapids chuckling along next to us.
Halfway we find a charming little shop and stop for coffee and very yummy melktert from the tannie there. The clouds are by now all around us, the temperature has dropped to 10 degrees and my hand warmers are on full.
The road now enters first commercial forest and then beautiful indigenous forest, snaking under huge yellowwood trees.
Each bike is now in its own world the drizzle and mist enveloping us.
Its cold but its beautiful, at one stage we find a fairytale house, it must have a story but for now its only sign of life is a tendril of smoke out the old chimney.
Day 5 & 6 A whale of a time
The weather now catches us, its freezing, the weather report is talking of snow on the mountains and rain. We hit our first bit near Swellendam.
[
Then we get to Gansbaai, a warm pub and luckily a warm house to stay in, as the rain pelts the windows and cleans Baviaans dust off our bikes. A few repairs are also in order!
We do the tourist thing in Hermanus, the whales flopping out of the water in huge splashes and resounding cannon shots, impossibly throwing tons of blubber out the water like a multi ton dolphin show!
Day 7.
We are heading to Calitzdorp, the port capital of the world via the R62 and sewe weeks poort. Stopping at Swellendam for breakfast Seamus announces that his clutch is going! FUCK this Dakar and Shameful!
After the regulation abuse of man and bike, he heads off alone to Stellenbosch to replace his clutch and meet us late that night. We climb another pass en route to our own R 62!
Then crazy Ronnies sex shop and road kill café in the middle of nowhere on the R 62. Lots of insinuation, but no sex tho!
The road less traveled!
We pull off the R 62 and head into Sewe weeks poort. Itâ??s a pass through the mountains, not climbing up and over but an amazing road through a crack in the earth. The rocks giving testament to the ripping and flowing of lava and the tectonic shifts of the earth.
The signs twisting and turning along with the rock!
Next episode Swartberg Pass and die Hel
We started the day in George, while we waited for the Dakar sprocket to be fitted, the mechanic showed us a bike which heâ??d just recovered from die Hel with a smashed cylinder head. Oh, oh we were going there!
But first the Montagu pass, the clouds were settling down on the hill tops, the temperature was dropping, but all it seemed to do was add a sense of atmosphere and mystery to the place.
The old pass has wonderful old stone walls on one side the drops dizzying down into the valley below. The fynbos was full of flowers and colour and the road twists endlessly up into what looks like the clouds!
The other side we hit the tar heading to another pass, The Dakar disappears in my mirror, so Sue and I stop and Seamus calls, the tightening bolt has come out of the newly fitted chain and sprocket. Heâ??s got a handful of them just in case! So we wait at the roadside watching the ostriches, thereâ??s hundreds on the farms around us!
He catches us and we head to Aventuur and the Prince Alfred Pass which descends back down to the coast and the huge forests which encircle Knysna. Another very beautiful pass with its stone walls and endless twists hugging the side of the stream, its gurgling little rapids chuckling along next to us.
Halfway we find a charming little shop and stop for coffee and very yummy melktert from the tannie there. The clouds are by now all around us, the temperature has dropped to 10 degrees and my hand warmers are on full.
The road now enters first commercial forest and then beautiful indigenous forest, snaking under huge yellowwood trees.
Each bike is now in its own world the drizzle and mist enveloping us.
Its cold but its beautiful, at one stage we find a fairytale house, it must have a story but for now its only sign of life is a tendril of smoke out the old chimney.
Day 5 & 6 A whale of a time
The weather now catches us, its freezing, the weather report is talking of snow on the mountains and rain. We hit our first bit near Swellendam.
[
Then we get to Gansbaai, a warm pub and luckily a warm house to stay in, as the rain pelts the windows and cleans Baviaans dust off our bikes. A few repairs are also in order!
We do the tourist thing in Hermanus, the whales flopping out of the water in huge splashes and resounding cannon shots, impossibly throwing tons of blubber out the water like a multi ton dolphin show!
Day 7.
We are heading to Calitzdorp, the port capital of the world via the R62 and sewe weeks poort. Stopping at Swellendam for breakfast Seamus announces that his clutch is going! FUCK this Dakar and Shameful!
After the regulation abuse of man and bike, he heads off alone to Stellenbosch to replace his clutch and meet us late that night. We climb another pass en route to our own R 62!
Then crazy Ronnies sex shop and road kill café in the middle of nowhere on the R 62. Lots of insinuation, but no sex tho!
The road less traveled!
We pull off the R 62 and head into Sewe weeks poort. Itâ??s a pass through the mountains, not climbing up and over but an amazing road through a crack in the earth. The rocks giving testament to the ripping and flowing of lava and the tectonic shifts of the earth.
The signs twisting and turning along with the rock!
Next episode Swartberg Pass and die Hel
Beagle Boy
Race Dog
:happy1:
P
Plore
Guest
Great man!!! :thumleft: :thumleft:
MrBig
Grey Hound
Fantastic! :thumleft:
GG
Race Dog
Day 7: Swartberg Pass and die Hel!
Seamus drove all the way to Stellenbosch from Swellendam to replace his clutch! Then turned around and rode to meet us in Calitzdorp arriving after 9. We were lekker gaar at this stage and so he arrived to a round of Calitzdorps best wine a steak and more abuseâ?¦. Shameful was earning his nickname!
We left Calitzdorp via a dirt road along the base of the Swartberg mountains heading for the pass. A pretty winding road through little farms and trotting ostriches!
Hein filing his truck with air!
Lush green farms and the jet trails giving a hint of how cold the high pass is going to be!
Then we climb the stunning Swartberg pass, my temperature gauge dropping faster than we are climbing and the wind trying to blow us back into the valley below!
Shameful of course is filming the whole trip with his new helmet cam��.Of course the only footage he got was his front wheel and a bit of the dash! Hmmm sprocket, clutch, camera �truly shameful!
We stop near the top for a very quick view before the cold chases us to Die Hel! If hell is still fire and brimstone then it will at least be warm!
Die Hel
We get to the turnoff with all its dire warnings! Pierre insists on a group photo and instructs his brother to move his bike! Brotherly love just got tested as Hein drops the bike in front of all of us!
The brothers finally lift the bike, and we get our group photo, the Radley boys grumbling at each other!
And we enter the road to Die Hel, the signs warning us of dire trouble! The road turns out to be extremely easy. The fynbos is in flower and apart from hectic twists and turns easy!
Then all of a sudden the road disappears into the void!
Its startling and stunning probably 20 odd turns into the valley below the waves of welcome heat radiating off the rocks below!
After Pierre is roundly crapped on for not phoning ahead for permission, something apparently bikers need to do, we are given the nod to proceed to the farm and â??coffee shopâ? where we get a delicious meal of Boer bread, chicken and a few welcome beers!
Then we head back, weâ??ve been good and they let us out of HELL!
A Cappies and Coke at very pretty Prince Albert and we head for our last night at the Karroo National Park!
The last night and a wonderful trip!
We live in an amazing country, we have fought our way through Bavians losing some expensive BMW bits and pieces, got drizzled on in the lovely forest of Knysna, watched whales frolicking at Hermanus and after a short stint in Hel, the Karroo waves us goodbye its carpets of flowers shining brightly in the sun! Truly a world in one country!
Seamus drove all the way to Stellenbosch from Swellendam to replace his clutch! Then turned around and rode to meet us in Calitzdorp arriving after 9. We were lekker gaar at this stage and so he arrived to a round of Calitzdorps best wine a steak and more abuseâ?¦. Shameful was earning his nickname!
We left Calitzdorp via a dirt road along the base of the Swartberg mountains heading for the pass. A pretty winding road through little farms and trotting ostriches!
Hein filing his truck with air!
Lush green farms and the jet trails giving a hint of how cold the high pass is going to be!
Then we climb the stunning Swartberg pass, my temperature gauge dropping faster than we are climbing and the wind trying to blow us back into the valley below!
Shameful of course is filming the whole trip with his new helmet cam��.Of course the only footage he got was his front wheel and a bit of the dash! Hmmm sprocket, clutch, camera �truly shameful!
We stop near the top for a very quick view before the cold chases us to Die Hel! If hell is still fire and brimstone then it will at least be warm!
Die Hel
We get to the turnoff with all its dire warnings! Pierre insists on a group photo and instructs his brother to move his bike! Brotherly love just got tested as Hein drops the bike in front of all of us!
The brothers finally lift the bike, and we get our group photo, the Radley boys grumbling at each other!
And we enter the road to Die Hel, the signs warning us of dire trouble! The road turns out to be extremely easy. The fynbos is in flower and apart from hectic twists and turns easy!
Then all of a sudden the road disappears into the void!
Its startling and stunning probably 20 odd turns into the valley below the waves of welcome heat radiating off the rocks below!
After Pierre is roundly crapped on for not phoning ahead for permission, something apparently bikers need to do, we are given the nod to proceed to the farm and â??coffee shopâ? where we get a delicious meal of Boer bread, chicken and a few welcome beers!
Then we head back, weâ??ve been good and they let us out of HELL!
A Cappies and Coke at very pretty Prince Albert and we head for our last night at the Karroo National Park!
The last night and a wonderful trip!
We live in an amazing country, we have fought our way through Bavians losing some expensive BMW bits and pieces, got drizzled on in the lovely forest of Knysna, watched whales frolicking at Hermanus and after a short stint in Hel, the Karroo waves us goodbye its carpets of flowers shining brightly in the sun! Truly a world in one country!
popipants
Race Dog
wow. Love your photo's!
:thumleft: :thumleft: :thumleft:
:thumleft: :thumleft: :thumleft:
Plothond
Race Dog
- Joined
- Sep 11, 2006
- Messages
- 4,929
- Reaction score
- 10
- Location
- Pretoria East - Home of Jameson
- Bike
- KTM 1090 Adventure R
Very Very friggen nice
I like the pics and this looks like an awesome route to follow
I like the pics and this looks like an awesome route to follow
C
Camelman
Guest
Lekker ride man. Smaak that pics of Die Hel! ;D
Sprocketbek
Race Dog
Lovely pics!
Swartberg pass can get very cold. Last time I went over it was with a completely wet jacket....... and then it started to snow......
Swartberg pass can get very cold. Last time I went over it was with a completely wet jacket....... and then it started to snow......
