Oribi Gorge, Natal. The way of the wimp

[ianhogg]

Oribi Gorge, Natal. The way of the wimp

This long weekend the hard men of the wild dog forum were tearing down to the Eastern Cape into a 25 knot south westerly with horizontal rain finding a way into the most waterproof of gear, only to have to negotiate a muddy track to pitch their bivouac on a cold wet field and lie shivering in their sleeping bag with only their teddy bear to keep them company. This is not one of those stories.

This is the story of a wimp who loaded two light motorcycles onto the back of his bakkie, hitched the caravan behind and spent a pleasant weekend with his wife riding, walking and sightseeing from the Oribi gorge Parks Board camp site and chalets. There was a bit of drinking involved too.

Ride report to follow

 

[Malibu]

Hahahahaa, ok, come now, let's read and make our own judgement!

 

[wooly bugger]

sub.

 

[HB 9]

:sip:

 

[ianhogg]

If you had mentioned Oribi Gorge and riding to me a couple of months ago the first thing I would have thought of is the Paddock enduros that we used to have right next door. After all this is the happy hunting ground of Denzil Torlage, the Milton brothers, Classens & Alan Theron.  Ride with any of these gentlemen and you’d better be sure your balls are as big as your bluster. The first time I saw Jade Gutzeit was at a Paddock National, a pensive and hunted looking teenager who skulked in behind his dad. His dad proceeded to tell all and sundry that his child would be the greatest of all riders and then had a good whine about the cost of a one day license. I don’t think we placed him at this event but in retrospect his dad was right!

Anyway, this is not about hard core riding. Oribi Gorge has turned into quite a tourist destination. There are places to stay for all budgets and even Paddock boasts two restaurants. There are hotels and B&B around the gorge and for the thrill seekers there is a suspension bridge and an awesome zip line running across Hell’s Gate at Elands Valley. They do no NOT WELCOME BIKERS but as they didn’t chase us old folk out my guess is that they are just not very keen on snotty nosed little shits who haven’t learnt to wipe their bottoms’ properly. Why do they always have to be bikers though? The major source of visitors is undoubtedly the twitchers . If you want to tick off a narina trogan in your Newmans field guide this is probably the easiest place to do it. Riding south of St Faiths a bird of prey, probably a cape vulture, threw a shadow from its wings over the dirt road that we were riding on that was as wide as the road itself! The gorge itself has some very nice walks; my favourite is to hoopoe falls.

We camped at the Ezemvelo camp a couple of hundred meters off the N2.

https://www.kznwildlife.com/index.php/oribi-gorge-contacts.html

It is a good jumping off point for the gorge being the Umzimkulwana, The Umzimkhulu  valley and the Transkei being mainly Izingolweni through gun drift.

On the Sunday we rode out to Hellsgate on the Umzimkulwana and had a look around. The road is good and there’s not much traffic around. On Monday we tackled the Umzimkhulu. This is a bit more of a challenge because it is a big river and once you have crossed it at the Umzimkhulu mill in Port Shepstone you are stuck on that side until Highflats. I had plotted a place that I thought I could ford the bikes but after the last river I dragged her & Gunda through Swambo put her foot down quite firmly on that idea. I have left it in the planning file. The road that you really HAVE to do is the D859 which drops down to the river opposite Gibraltar Rock and then climbs up to St Faiths. We made a round trip out of it.

Attached GPS file, walks in red, planning in grey, tracks in blue

 

[Mr Zog]

I was going to give some witty and slightly derogatory comment about being a softy; taking the plastics on the bakkie and a moerofa big caravan to boot. But then I realised that if I was able to do it that way, then I would too  :thumleft: