Christian Kuun
Race Dog
I decided I felt like a refreshing swim, and because I will be on nappy duty in a weeks time, thought that it would be a good exscuse for a quick bike outing. Called up a mate of mine and suggested we go take a dip in the Oudebaskraaldam, and while we are at it, have a lunch and beer at the Sutherland Hotel.
We met at the Klampmuts BP at 6am, had a nice warm cuppa and filled up. From there we ducked a few raindrops into Ceres for a lekker Wimpie brêkkie of note. The darn Wimpie does not serve beers before 10am and I had to settle for a cup of coffee....who the hell still drinks coffee at 8:30 in the morning. Anyway, although I was cheesesd off for not being given a beer, rules is rules I suppose, and we klapped the gravel road towards Calvinia in search of that brew. There is a newish Farmstall just before the Tankwa turnoff- they are still waiting for a liquor license but I can see that it is going to be a definite stop when they have cold beers to offer. It is also the type of place that you can haak vas!
We took the Tankwa National Park road towards the Oudebaskraaldam and on the short section, just off the main road and 3k's before the dam, there is a m@erse sandy patch on the otherwise lank fast road- BEWARE- I caught a m@erse skrik as this little bit of unexpected excitement jumped infront of me. Henning (my buddy) had to do a quick undy change too. At the dam I wasted no time in jumping in and having a kief goef in the muddy waters of the Karoo. For what it is worth, the max temp for the day was 12 degrees!!! Henning was not so keen- he was more concerned about how it would look, with two adult men swimming kaalgat together in a desolate place, if someone pitched up there unexpectedly. I wasnt too bugged because it was Leeu Koud and there was not much to be seen anyway.
After my goef, we had a beer (which I had aquired a little earlier and had kept in the topbox) before hitting the road to Sutherland via Ouberg Pass. When we got to Oubergpas there was a farmer, his family and their workers chasing sheep up the snaking pass. It must be a moeviese thing chasing sheep between camps in those parts because the laaitjie at the bottom had a caravan hitched to the rammelkas bakkie, and after us waiting 15min before wedging our way through the flock and finally heading up the pass, we found the Pa, Ma, baby sussie and Oupa all at the top with water, braai grids and a tent. Looks like it is a huge weekend family uitstappie.....almost like a mini "Groot Trek". We stopped at the top of the pass to admire the view and to have another beer as the road was very dusty and dodging all those Tjoppies-on-the-hoof was kwaai hard work. I took this opportunity to remove the wool from my footpeg and to admire my shiny boots, that the sheep had kindly polished, too.
The cruising into Sutherland was good going and we got there at about 13:30 with dry throats and n lekker skraal. 3 vehicles seen the whole day....now thats my kind of riding. The Hotel was getting 30 guests and they are obviously not used to having so many people in town at once because we were told that they could only maybe help us with a burger or toasted sandwitch as the kitchen was preparing for the guests and didnt have tim to make us anything else. We had a burger, sucked on a few beers and buggerd off on our way to the Lord Milner at Matjiesfontein.
The friendly barman at the Lord Milner promptly whipped out a couple of frosties and we made light work of them. By now, the wives were wondering if we were all done swimming and they were nagging for us to get home, so we mounted the boneys and gooi'ed in the direction of Stellies. We finally hit home at about 19:00 and managed to clock up 761km for the day.
Back home we lit a fire and reminiced with a good dose of beer and vino. The swim was lekker refreshing and it is hard to believe that just a day ago I was having the time of my life, out in the middle of nowhere, and now it is back to the SOS of everyday work.......
Here are just a few squizzers of the day- Henning on the Kawa and yours truly om the Beemer:
We met at the Klampmuts BP at 6am, had a nice warm cuppa and filled up. From there we ducked a few raindrops into Ceres for a lekker Wimpie brêkkie of note. The darn Wimpie does not serve beers before 10am and I had to settle for a cup of coffee....who the hell still drinks coffee at 8:30 in the morning. Anyway, although I was cheesesd off for not being given a beer, rules is rules I suppose, and we klapped the gravel road towards Calvinia in search of that brew. There is a newish Farmstall just before the Tankwa turnoff- they are still waiting for a liquor license but I can see that it is going to be a definite stop when they have cold beers to offer. It is also the type of place that you can haak vas!
We took the Tankwa National Park road towards the Oudebaskraaldam and on the short section, just off the main road and 3k's before the dam, there is a m@erse sandy patch on the otherwise lank fast road- BEWARE- I caught a m@erse skrik as this little bit of unexpected excitement jumped infront of me. Henning (my buddy) had to do a quick undy change too. At the dam I wasted no time in jumping in and having a kief goef in the muddy waters of the Karoo. For what it is worth, the max temp for the day was 12 degrees!!! Henning was not so keen- he was more concerned about how it would look, with two adult men swimming kaalgat together in a desolate place, if someone pitched up there unexpectedly. I wasnt too bugged because it was Leeu Koud and there was not much to be seen anyway.
After my goef, we had a beer (which I had aquired a little earlier and had kept in the topbox) before hitting the road to Sutherland via Ouberg Pass. When we got to Oubergpas there was a farmer, his family and their workers chasing sheep up the snaking pass. It must be a moeviese thing chasing sheep between camps in those parts because the laaitjie at the bottom had a caravan hitched to the rammelkas bakkie, and after us waiting 15min before wedging our way through the flock and finally heading up the pass, we found the Pa, Ma, baby sussie and Oupa all at the top with water, braai grids and a tent. Looks like it is a huge weekend family uitstappie.....almost like a mini "Groot Trek". We stopped at the top of the pass to admire the view and to have another beer as the road was very dusty and dodging all those Tjoppies-on-the-hoof was kwaai hard work. I took this opportunity to remove the wool from my footpeg and to admire my shiny boots, that the sheep had kindly polished, too.
The cruising into Sutherland was good going and we got there at about 13:30 with dry throats and n lekker skraal. 3 vehicles seen the whole day....now thats my kind of riding. The Hotel was getting 30 guests and they are obviously not used to having so many people in town at once because we were told that they could only maybe help us with a burger or toasted sandwitch as the kitchen was preparing for the guests and didnt have tim to make us anything else. We had a burger, sucked on a few beers and buggerd off on our way to the Lord Milner at Matjiesfontein.
The friendly barman at the Lord Milner promptly whipped out a couple of frosties and we made light work of them. By now, the wives were wondering if we were all done swimming and they were nagging for us to get home, so we mounted the boneys and gooi'ed in the direction of Stellies. We finally hit home at about 19:00 and managed to clock up 761km for the day.
Back home we lit a fire and reminiced with a good dose of beer and vino. The swim was lekker refreshing and it is hard to believe that just a day ago I was having the time of my life, out in the middle of nowhere, and now it is back to the SOS of everyday work.......
Here are just a few squizzers of the day- Henning on the Kawa and yours truly om the Beemer:
