H
H8rlequin
Guest
Ok, so I do not have any pictures in this RR since my phone was stolen along the way but I will do a RR none the less.
So Friday morning I had a itch to set off towards Musiena in Limpopo. This was a very "spur of the moment" type of thing and I had only given it 3 hour's of thought before I hit the road. I also had a friend who wanted me to come visit and stay at his place for 2 days.
The google maps link is bellow... all I can say is DO NOT follow this route unless you have a death wish. I wanted to avoid tar roads as much as possible although in hindsight this was stupid. I knew the trip should take around 6 hours and was surprised to see google's time of 12 hours... strange, I thought it must have been wrong... I was wrong.
Since I had left at around 2 in the afternoon I knew there was going to be some night riding involved but figured it would be around a hours worth of driving which would not be so bad... Boy was I wrong. The first 350km was fine, although on tar but I made good progress. Just after I left this kak little town called Rotin I was pulled off the road by metro's finest. The customary R150 bribe was payed for not having a license and I was free to go. Google maps then told me to turn left onto unknown road... YAY dirt at last I thought... 300km of some of the worst roads I have ever been on lay ahead. It was around 5 but already dark due to cloud cover that obscured the sun. In my hurry to get away I also forgot to fit the non-tinted visor to my lid which did not help driving in the dark along one bit. Google maps also meant that I had to follow distances very precisely to not miss a turn.. since there were no road signs. The speed limit signs read 80 although the only thing I could imagine possibly doing that types of speed on this road was a fully blown rally car... and a taxi.
I had just passed threw a little town when I was attacked by a bunch of bee's.. Got stung around 7 times... This really pissed me off. About 30 mins later I got pelted with stones from kids along the road. Just before I reached a brief section of tar at the R71 I was forced off the road by a white BMW 320i and 2 young guys jumped out with guns in hand.. One was a 9mm and the other a assault rifle of some sort. They said they were not going to shoot me they just wanted my money... I gave them the R200 that was in my wallet and they set off( LUCKY ME!) After I left the R71 on the section of dirt road again I was immediately shot at... I could see the muzzle flashes coming from a bush next to the road.. I gave the bike gas and went flying threw here. I now have a very neat bullet hole threw my numberplate. This peace of road turned into a stretch of hell... Some very steep drop off's threw some mountain passes that were narrow and hard to pass at night... not to mention taxi's flying threw here coming from the front. After about 150km of dirt I went threw a little informal settlement and was again stopped by 4 black blokes standing in the road pointing guns at me and wielding a machete...I was then relived of my wallet ( with no money in it ) backpack ( which had my ID and passport in it ) and my tent and sleeping bag and my cellphone(That's why there are no photos).
Thankfully I had the piece of mind to leave my uber expensive Iphone at home and just take a cheapie along.
I eventually got to a stretch that connected back up with the highway and I drove until the bike was almost out of petrol and stopped at a petrol garage. So to summarize... I had no sleeping equipment, it's 11:30 at night, it's -4C, I have no money, no way of withdrawing money, No way of getting new cards the next day since I had no ID, I have flue, I had no petrol, and no way to phone some one to ask for help. I WAS F*CKED!!!
I eventually decided to sleep underneath a small overpass underneath the N1 which was close to this garage, crawled up next to the bike. If I slept for 1 hour it was allot.
So the next morning in very heavy fog I begged R10 off a bloke at the petrol station ( Never thought I would have to beg for money ) and I called one of my friends who thankfully was able to send R2000 via cash send at the FNB atm inside the garage. Money in pocket I set off again still about 200km from where I wanted to be but determent to get there.
I eventually got to Thsikondeni and I set off on some dirt roads in this area which soon got me lust and stuck inside a dry river bed... I also dropped the bike....twice...
When I was done I started to head back home at around 1pm. There is a toll gate just outside Tshipese with no boom's on them... I "skipped" this toll gate only to be stopped by metro on the other side. So now without a license and any way of proving who I was ( and the fact that I was only 20 KM away from the zim border) They arrested me until I could prove who I was at the police station. I refused to leave the bike next to the highway and asked them if I could not buy them a "cold drink" to get the problems sorted. After paying a "spot fine" of R400 I was let go and on my way again. I set off along the N1 until I switched to the R101 in Pietersburg. I was gatvol at this point and just wanted to get home... I was then for the last time arrested again just outside of Neilstroom for not stopping at a stop sign ( BS!!!) and the same problem presented itself in terms of I.D. This took ALLOT of negotiating but eventually I was let go after I got one of the officers a bottle of whiskey for the Saturday night party he was going to. They escorted me to the bottle store and then out of town.
The rest of the trip was boring and I wanted to join up with the guys who were doing the Bosvark bash and do the sunday run with them.. unfortunately I did not have anyone's cell no: to find out if this would be OK and to check where exactly they were etc... So instead I just headed home for a good night's rest and a bottle of schnapps.
I cheated this road a little, but had too in order to not be stuck in the middle of nowhere. Google maps says 12 hours drive... BELIEVE IT!!!
Despite all the shit I think it's a nice peace of road... But I would not recommend it since you are bound to end up driving in the dark and get robbed at some point.
Cheers!
So Friday morning I had a itch to set off towards Musiena in Limpopo. This was a very "spur of the moment" type of thing and I had only given it 3 hour's of thought before I hit the road. I also had a friend who wanted me to come visit and stay at his place for 2 days.
The google maps link is bellow... all I can say is DO NOT follow this route unless you have a death wish. I wanted to avoid tar roads as much as possible although in hindsight this was stupid. I knew the trip should take around 6 hours and was surprised to see google's time of 12 hours... strange, I thought it must have been wrong... I was wrong.
Since I had left at around 2 in the afternoon I knew there was going to be some night riding involved but figured it would be around a hours worth of driving which would not be so bad... Boy was I wrong. The first 350km was fine, although on tar but I made good progress. Just after I left this kak little town called Rotin I was pulled off the road by metro's finest. The customary R150 bribe was payed for not having a license and I was free to go. Google maps then told me to turn left onto unknown road... YAY dirt at last I thought... 300km of some of the worst roads I have ever been on lay ahead. It was around 5 but already dark due to cloud cover that obscured the sun. In my hurry to get away I also forgot to fit the non-tinted visor to my lid which did not help driving in the dark along one bit. Google maps also meant that I had to follow distances very precisely to not miss a turn.. since there were no road signs. The speed limit signs read 80 although the only thing I could imagine possibly doing that types of speed on this road was a fully blown rally car... and a taxi.
I had just passed threw a little town when I was attacked by a bunch of bee's.. Got stung around 7 times... This really pissed me off. About 30 mins later I got pelted with stones from kids along the road. Just before I reached a brief section of tar at the R71 I was forced off the road by a white BMW 320i and 2 young guys jumped out with guns in hand.. One was a 9mm and the other a assault rifle of some sort. They said they were not going to shoot me they just wanted my money... I gave them the R200 that was in my wallet and they set off( LUCKY ME!) After I left the R71 on the section of dirt road again I was immediately shot at... I could see the muzzle flashes coming from a bush next to the road.. I gave the bike gas and went flying threw here. I now have a very neat bullet hole threw my numberplate. This peace of road turned into a stretch of hell... Some very steep drop off's threw some mountain passes that were narrow and hard to pass at night... not to mention taxi's flying threw here coming from the front. After about 150km of dirt I went threw a little informal settlement and was again stopped by 4 black blokes standing in the road pointing guns at me and wielding a machete...I was then relived of my wallet ( with no money in it ) backpack ( which had my ID and passport in it ) and my tent and sleeping bag and my cellphone(That's why there are no photos).
Thankfully I had the piece of mind to leave my uber expensive Iphone at home and just take a cheapie along.
I eventually got to a stretch that connected back up with the highway and I drove until the bike was almost out of petrol and stopped at a petrol garage. So to summarize... I had no sleeping equipment, it's 11:30 at night, it's -4C, I have no money, no way of withdrawing money, No way of getting new cards the next day since I had no ID, I have flue, I had no petrol, and no way to phone some one to ask for help. I WAS F*CKED!!!
I eventually decided to sleep underneath a small overpass underneath the N1 which was close to this garage, crawled up next to the bike. If I slept for 1 hour it was allot.
So the next morning in very heavy fog I begged R10 off a bloke at the petrol station ( Never thought I would have to beg for money ) and I called one of my friends who thankfully was able to send R2000 via cash send at the FNB atm inside the garage. Money in pocket I set off again still about 200km from where I wanted to be but determent to get there.
I eventually got to Thsikondeni and I set off on some dirt roads in this area which soon got me lust and stuck inside a dry river bed... I also dropped the bike....twice...
When I was done I started to head back home at around 1pm. There is a toll gate just outside Tshipese with no boom's on them... I "skipped" this toll gate only to be stopped by metro on the other side. So now without a license and any way of proving who I was ( and the fact that I was only 20 KM away from the zim border) They arrested me until I could prove who I was at the police station. I refused to leave the bike next to the highway and asked them if I could not buy them a "cold drink" to get the problems sorted. After paying a "spot fine" of R400 I was let go and on my way again. I set off along the N1 until I switched to the R101 in Pietersburg. I was gatvol at this point and just wanted to get home... I was then for the last time arrested again just outside of Neilstroom for not stopping at a stop sign ( BS!!!) and the same problem presented itself in terms of I.D. This took ALLOT of negotiating but eventually I was let go after I got one of the officers a bottle of whiskey for the Saturday night party he was going to. They escorted me to the bottle store and then out of town.
The rest of the trip was boring and I wanted to join up with the guys who were doing the Bosvark bash and do the sunday run with them.. unfortunately I did not have anyone's cell no: to find out if this would be OK and to check where exactly they were etc... So instead I just headed home for a good night's rest and a bottle of schnapps.
I cheated this road a little, but had too in order to not be stuck in the middle of nowhere. Google maps says 12 hours drive... BELIEVE IT!!!
Despite all the shit I think it's a nice peace of road... But I would not recommend it since you are bound to end up driving in the dark and get robbed at some point.
Cheers!
