wayneh
Race Dog
Besides the Canola Run, I've been spending my time doing a lot of short technical rides with XT660R and a few other Dawgs.
So when XT660R mentioned the option of going out to explore the Saron Canal - requiring the entire Sunday - I was at the Richwood garage bright & early.
It turned out to be the perfect number of riders for this kind of ride... four fearless Dawgs with no time commitents.
XT660R... On his XT660R (go figure)
Andy 950... On a 950 :
Snafu... On his Africa Twin (what a legend)
And myself... On my hybrate 525XC
I missed the obligatory 'meeting' pic... Too busy speak shit ;D ...So the pics (what little I took will just slot in where ever. (The other Dawgs, just add your pic).
We left along the usual route via Kipheuwel towards Perdeberg... But branched out on a newly discovered farm road (thanks Le Cap) till we hooked up with the Paarl - Malmesbury tar road.
We crossed this onto a lekker little trail (weaving through a farm) and T-ed with a dirt road highway running from Wellington area towards Hermon.
XT660R & I had previously riden passed this huge stone building/block on this road, and wondered what the hell it was. It looks like nothing recognizable but must have been something important purily from the size. ???
(Just got a message from XT660R... He's traced it's origins) - Please add to this post.
From here we stopped for a great breakfast at the converted restaurant/previously-church just inside Riebeek Kasteel. Good food, very friendly owner, huge (and I main HUGE) screen TV... Got to watch some GP-type race while chowing down.
Soon we were saddled up; slightly heavier; and enroute to Saron. I know a short cut from the back of Riebeek Wes, and in no time we hit the Gouda - Porterville road - just 14 kms south of Saron.
Crossed this old bridge just before the tar road... These old structure look great.
Suffering the short tar section, we turned into Saron and noticed the mountains were still dressed in a little snow, even after these last few days of bright sunshine.
Through this tiny village and onto the Canal.
This dirt road runs along the canal for about 50+kms. The water comes out of the mountains and runs quickly till it disappears near Gouda - probably into the Voelvlei Dam. Regrettably, there are sections we couldn't get to due to locked gates... And flooded bridges.
(From left to right: Andy 950, XT660R & Snafu)
The end of the canal road for us today. (Some of the Dawgs checking if the gate lock was pickable :mwink: But nope, not today. (Great view of Riebeek mountains on the horizon - I think)
So... Still wanting more, we crossed one of the many canal bridges and made our way towards the Saronsberg.
This trail did not disappoint. It had all the big five... Sand, mud, rocks, bush & water. +- 5 kms of 525 bliss.... Which ended in a tranquil stream running down a deep gulley.
Sand...
Rocks...
Bush...
My 525... perfect for this type of trail...
XT660R & I arrived and after 5 minutes started wondering where Andy 950 & Snafu were.
XT660R headed for the hills for a lookout and I made my way down the trail...
XT660R up the goat trail...
And... Andy coming around the corner, followed by Snafu (who had had a close up inspection of the sand density)
End of the road...
Someone had used this place for a lekker little campsite... Fire pit and a walkway near the stream.
After stretching the legs and sharing the odd war story, we saddled up and headed back agong the same gnarly trail.
Gravity must have had a unique effect near these mountains... We flown down this twisty track WAY faster than when we came up > > >
We ran back along the canal... There these seriously interesting cement ditches every hunderd odd meters, which make for some dizzy airtime jumps :mwink:
Back on the tar road, we headed towards Porterville for a further few kms before turning left back towards the Bergrivier. With huge smiles, we found this awesome dirt track running next to the railway line pointing back in the direction of Riebeek Wes. This trail is pure joy... Similar to the best of The Alternative Trail (the one to Piketberg).
Unfortunately our laughter died when we came to the railway bridge (back over the Bergrivier). There was a seriously rough trail disappearing into the long grass next to the river that looked like it might lead to something. XT660R & I got to a very wet section and briefly stopped... "You can flipping go up front, you're on the MX type bike anyway." XT660R says to me :imaposer:
Long story short... It soon became mud. Lots of it. And we weren't getting any closer to finding a river crossing.
Back to the railway line and back to the tar road towards Gouda, we reconnected with the section of dirt road we'd used from Riebeek Wes. But this time we didn't turn left, but carried on in the Mooreesburg direction.
Not much to say with the road but the strong North Westly Cape winds were blowing into our faces making this 40-odd km dirt road hard going.
Taking a short break...
We refueled... I think we were all running on fumes by now... And smashed a quick snack bar &/or cooly into our faces...
Dirt road back to Malmesbury... riden with 'homewood-bound' agression... saw a very hairy moments navigating the numerous tight, blind corners. Power sliding only gets you out of so much before turning a grin into a grimousatch:
Snafu said, "Ad-e-os." And Andy 950, XT660R & I headed along the Darling road to find the last few stretches of dirt before hometime.
Hooking a right onto Mamreweg satisfied our thirst... and after turning right onto a rarely used connecting track... We were soon drowning in tricky sand-filled corners and rutted out declines. Andy 950 had a lekker little sandfull zigzag corner... But held it together 8)
Another short section of tar (2 kms) and the fast and twisty dirt road on to Grotto Bay. This is a really great 10 kms of fun.
All that remained was the boring 30 km West Coast road back... But even this couldn't deflate my 'high'. The Cape has just so much to offer us Damgs :thumleft: :thumleft:
So when XT660R mentioned the option of going out to explore the Saron Canal - requiring the entire Sunday - I was at the Richwood garage bright & early.
It turned out to be the perfect number of riders for this kind of ride... four fearless Dawgs with no time commitents.
XT660R... On his XT660R (go figure)
Andy 950... On a 950 :
Snafu... On his Africa Twin (what a legend)
And myself... On my hybrate 525XC
I missed the obligatory 'meeting' pic... Too busy speak shit ;D ...So the pics (what little I took will just slot in where ever. (The other Dawgs, just add your pic).
We left along the usual route via Kipheuwel towards Perdeberg... But branched out on a newly discovered farm road (thanks Le Cap) till we hooked up with the Paarl - Malmesbury tar road.
We crossed this onto a lekker little trail (weaving through a farm) and T-ed with a dirt road highway running from Wellington area towards Hermon.
XT660R & I had previously riden passed this huge stone building/block on this road, and wondered what the hell it was. It looks like nothing recognizable but must have been something important purily from the size. ???
(Just got a message from XT660R... He's traced it's origins) - Please add to this post.
From here we stopped for a great breakfast at the converted restaurant/previously-church just inside Riebeek Kasteel. Good food, very friendly owner, huge (and I main HUGE) screen TV... Got to watch some GP-type race while chowing down.
Soon we were saddled up; slightly heavier; and enroute to Saron. I know a short cut from the back of Riebeek Wes, and in no time we hit the Gouda - Porterville road - just 14 kms south of Saron.
Crossed this old bridge just before the tar road... These old structure look great.
Suffering the short tar section, we turned into Saron and noticed the mountains were still dressed in a little snow, even after these last few days of bright sunshine.
Through this tiny village and onto the Canal.
This dirt road runs along the canal for about 50+kms. The water comes out of the mountains and runs quickly till it disappears near Gouda - probably into the Voelvlei Dam. Regrettably, there are sections we couldn't get to due to locked gates... And flooded bridges.
(From left to right: Andy 950, XT660R & Snafu)
The end of the canal road for us today. (Some of the Dawgs checking if the gate lock was pickable :mwink: But nope, not today. (Great view of Riebeek mountains on the horizon - I think)
So... Still wanting more, we crossed one of the many canal bridges and made our way towards the Saronsberg.
This trail did not disappoint. It had all the big five... Sand, mud, rocks, bush & water. +- 5 kms of 525 bliss.... Which ended in a tranquil stream running down a deep gulley.
Sand...
Rocks...
Bush...
My 525... perfect for this type of trail...
XT660R & I arrived and after 5 minutes started wondering where Andy 950 & Snafu were.
XT660R headed for the hills for a lookout and I made my way down the trail...
XT660R up the goat trail...
And... Andy coming around the corner, followed by Snafu (who had had a close up inspection of the sand density)
End of the road...
Someone had used this place for a lekker little campsite... Fire pit and a walkway near the stream.
After stretching the legs and sharing the odd war story, we saddled up and headed back agong the same gnarly trail.
Gravity must have had a unique effect near these mountains... We flown down this twisty track WAY faster than when we came up >
> > We ran back along the canal... There these seriously interesting cement ditches every hunderd odd meters, which make for some dizzy airtime jumps :mwink:
Back on the tar road, we headed towards Porterville for a further few kms before turning left back towards the Bergrivier. With huge smiles, we found this awesome dirt track running next to the railway line pointing back in the direction of Riebeek Wes. This trail is pure joy... Similar to the best of The Alternative Trail (the one to Piketberg).
Unfortunately our laughter died when we came to the railway bridge (back over the Bergrivier). There was a seriously rough trail disappearing into the long grass next to the river that looked like it might lead to something. XT660R & I got to a very wet section and briefly stopped... "You can flipping go up front, you're on the MX type bike anyway." XT660R says to me :imaposer:
Long story short... It soon became mud. Lots of it. And we weren't getting any closer to finding a river crossing.
Back to the railway line and back to the tar road towards Gouda, we reconnected with the section of dirt road we'd used from Riebeek Wes. But this time we didn't turn left, but carried on in the Mooreesburg direction.
Not much to say with the road but the strong North Westly Cape winds were blowing into our faces making this 40-odd km dirt road hard going.
Taking a short break...
We refueled... I think we were all running on fumes by now... And smashed a quick snack bar &/or cooly into our faces...
Dirt road back to Malmesbury... riden with 'homewood-bound' agression... saw a very hairy moments navigating the numerous tight, blind corners. Power sliding only gets you out of so much before turning a grin into a grimous
atch:Snafu said, "Ad-e-os." And Andy 950, XT660R & I headed along the Darling road to find the last few stretches of dirt before hometime.
Hooking a right onto Mamreweg satisfied our thirst... and after turning right onto a rarely used connecting track... We were soon drowning in tricky sand-filled corners and rutted out declines. Andy 950 had a lekker little sandfull zigzag corner... But held it together 8)
Another short section of tar (2 kms) and the fast and twisty dirt road on to Grotto Bay. This is a really great 10 kms of fun.
All that remained was the boring 30 km West Coast road back... But even this couldn't deflate my 'high'. The Cape has just so much to offer us Damgs :thumleft: :thumleft:
