Malibu
Bachelor Dog
- Joined
- Aug 23, 2007
- Messages
- 11,171
- Reaction score
- 64
- Bike
- NER-A-CAR
*sub*
Solo through the Karoo. 11 days of bliss. ** Done and dusted **
- Thread starter hando
- Start date
Day 3 to 7
My dad has a friend who runs a B&B on a farm called Rietpoort about 30 km from Victoria West towards Britstown. As kids we used to visit the farm quite a few times and when the planning for my trip started I thought that it would be a great idea if I could meet up with my dad on the farm and spend a few days just exploring the farm roads and dirt tracks in the area.
And so my dad left Bloemfontein on Friday morning with his newly acquired BMW K1300 S and met up with me on Rietpoort by Friday afternoon. Now some of you may think that a K1300 S is not the ideal bike to ride karoo dirt roads and you are right. Luckily my dad has an old Yamaha XT500 that stays on the farm permanently and it was with this old XT that he would join me and go and show me all the nice spots.
Early Saturday morning we took the bikes for a spin and dad led the way to show me some of the interesting site on the farm.
The Karoo has its own beauty to those who will look for it.
Later the afternoon we took the bikes up Bakenskop .
And then joined Dirk and Naomi to go and make some hotdogs out in the veld. This time we left the bikes and took the Uri
Best hotdogs I tasted in a long time.
The next morning I spent some time talking to my mom on the phone. With very sketchy cell phone reception on the farm this is done by standing at a very specific spot near the washing lines. While chatting to her I spotted some movement in the bushes close to me and managed to grab this pic of a one of a family of mice living in the bush .
Sunday morning saw us on the bikes again to go and visit another beautiful little valley on the farm.
Sunday afternoon we rode towards the Vosburg road and then went up the mountain towards the farm belonging to Jan-tieties. So called because his farm is situated on top of the Pram berge.
We rode to the top , turned around and headed back down again.
Then it was on to an old farm ash heap where lots of old goodies were lying around.
Like this old plough
Still made by the Eberhard brothers in Ulm Germany
I also came across this cylinder head and the engine case of an old single cylinder motor.
Of the engine block there was no sign.
Dad posed for a photo with an old car door
And then it was time to hit the road back home. We took the tweespoor track through ‘springbok kamp’
The following morning it was time to say goodbye to Rietpoort and head towards Bloemfontein.
I can seriously recommend Rietpoort to anyone who is looking for a place to sleep over in the Victoria West area.
With me in the lead (cause I can not go as fast as Dad ) we set off towards Bloem.
We stopped for some pics on the bridge over the Orange river.
Did I mention that Dad had a little conure (parrot) that joined him on the trip from Bloem and back again. The little guy would have gone off his rocker of he did not see my dad for the time that he was away. And so the only way was to have him travel along in a modified ice-cream tub.
We stopped near Fauresmith to let the little guy out and see if he wanted a drink.
And then it was back into the tub and we made speed to get to Bloem.
In Bloem I spent a few days having lekker long chats with my mother and visiting friends. My mom had her foot operated and so she was booked off from work for a few days. She wanted to go shopping , but with her car at the panel beaters , there was no other way but to give her a lift on my bike. Can you imagine the look on the face of the security guard at the Loch Logan waterfront when we rocked up on a motorcycle and then asked him to bring us a wheel chair for my mother ?!
It was great to spend time with both my mom and dad for a few days and I enjoyed it immensely. And so it was with a heavy heart that I said goodbye to them on Thursday morning, but I was also very excited for the next four days of riding that lay ahead.
My dad has a friend who runs a B&B on a farm called Rietpoort about 30 km from Victoria West towards Britstown. As kids we used to visit the farm quite a few times and when the planning for my trip started I thought that it would be a great idea if I could meet up with my dad on the farm and spend a few days just exploring the farm roads and dirt tracks in the area.
And so my dad left Bloemfontein on Friday morning with his newly acquired BMW K1300 S and met up with me on Rietpoort by Friday afternoon. Now some of you may think that a K1300 S is not the ideal bike to ride karoo dirt roads and you are right. Luckily my dad has an old Yamaha XT500 that stays on the farm permanently and it was with this old XT that he would join me and go and show me all the nice spots.
Early Saturday morning we took the bikes for a spin and dad led the way to show me some of the interesting site on the farm.
The Karoo has its own beauty to those who will look for it.
Later the afternoon we took the bikes up Bakenskop .
And then joined Dirk and Naomi to go and make some hotdogs out in the veld. This time we left the bikes and took the Uri
Best hotdogs I tasted in a long time.
The next morning I spent some time talking to my mom on the phone. With very sketchy cell phone reception on the farm this is done by standing at a very specific spot near the washing lines. While chatting to her I spotted some movement in the bushes close to me and managed to grab this pic of a one of a family of mice living in the bush .
Sunday morning saw us on the bikes again to go and visit another beautiful little valley on the farm.
Sunday afternoon we rode towards the Vosburg road and then went up the mountain towards the farm belonging to Jan-tieties. So called because his farm is situated on top of the Pram berge.
We rode to the top , turned around and headed back down again.
Then it was on to an old farm ash heap where lots of old goodies were lying around.
Like this old plough
Still made by the Eberhard brothers in Ulm Germany
I also came across this cylinder head and the engine case of an old single cylinder motor.
Of the engine block there was no sign.
Dad posed for a photo with an old car door
And then it was time to hit the road back home. We took the tweespoor track through ‘springbok kamp’
The following morning it was time to say goodbye to Rietpoort and head towards Bloemfontein.
I can seriously recommend Rietpoort to anyone who is looking for a place to sleep over in the Victoria West area.
With me in the lead (cause I can not go as fast as Dad ) we set off towards Bloem.
We stopped for some pics on the bridge over the Orange river.
Did I mention that Dad had a little conure (parrot) that joined him on the trip from Bloem and back again. The little guy would have gone off his rocker of he did not see my dad for the time that he was away. And so the only way was to have him travel along in a modified ice-cream tub.
We stopped near Fauresmith to let the little guy out and see if he wanted a drink.
And then it was back into the tub and we made speed to get to Bloem.
In Bloem I spent a few days having lekker long chats with my mother and visiting friends. My mom had her foot operated and so she was booked off from work for a few days. She wanted to go shopping , but with her car at the panel beaters , there was no other way but to give her a lift on my bike. Can you imagine the look on the face of the security guard at the Loch Logan waterfront when we rocked up on a motorcycle and then asked him to bring us a wheel chair for my mother ?!
It was great to spend time with both my mom and dad for a few days and I enjoyed it immensely. And so it was with a heavy heart that I said goodbye to them on Thursday morning, but I was also very excited for the next four days of riding that lay ahead.
cloudgazer
Grey Hound
- Joined
- Oct 9, 2007
- Messages
- 5,135
- Reaction score
- 7
- Bike
- BMW F650GS / Dakar
LOL, a road tripping parrot, who woulda thought of such a thing?
Veldbrand
Grey Hound
- Joined
- Oct 29, 2009
- Messages
- 5,691
- Reaction score
- 1
- Bike
- BMW R1150GS Adventure
A man needs company you know...cloudgazer said:
Does he have a Sena to talk back with?
Lekker trippie so ver Hando.
Gooi!
Sub.Baie lekker RR Hando :thumleft:
JACOVV
Race Dog
- Joined
- Aug 9, 2009
- Messages
- 4,628
- Reaction score
- 96
- Location
- East of London EC
- Bike
- BMW R1200GS Adventure
Baie mooi sover. Jy moet Rietpport se kontak besonderhede en die roete vir ons opsit.
ThomTom
Race Dog
Nice :ricky: report! :sip:
SwannieBraai
Grey Hound
Hanno, jou RR's is awesome, die pics, die skryfstyl, alles is najmmie!! :thumleft: :drif:
gwild
Race Dog
Awesome, awesome, awesome :thumleft: :thumleft: did i say awesome. Thx for sharing
Day 8
Thursday morning saw me anxious to get on the bike. Not because I wanted to get away from my family , but because I had a very long route of more than 800km ahead of me. I wanted to sleep in Prince Albert for the night and I did not want to do tar roads all the way there. I also did not want to sit at the stop and go controls on the N1 and thus chose to go to Colesberg via Jagersfontein and Fauresmith.
I stopped for a photo of the sunrise with Bloem already very far in the distance.
The road ahead was long and straight and had no traffic on it , so I actually chanced using the camera while on the move.
I saw this old building and actually made a u turn to get back to it in order to go and get my photos.
At Jagersfontein I turned right towards Phillipolis. And soon learnt that once you picked a track on the dirt road , you stayed in that track as far and as long as possible.
Crossing those huge middelmannetjies was just not fun at all.
In Phillipolis I saw a sign that said ‘Filter koffie’. That was enough to stop me quickly and make a u turn to go and get some coffee.
While waiting for the waitress to get my coffee ready , I walked around and took some pics of local buildings.
From Phillipstown I continued to Colesberg. A short distance from the orange river I was flagged down by car behind me with flashing lights. I pulled of the road to be greeted by an old oom and tannie whom I passed just outside of Phillipstown. It turns out that the Oom feared for my safety with the massive potholes in the road beyond the Orange river and so he chased me from behind to stop me and warn me of the dangers. I don’t think the oom quite understood what a dual sport bike is and that the potholes on that road did not bother me in the least.
I stopped for pics at the Orange river
And saw this sign painted on the one bridge wall.
I would love to see those sharks.
I carried on to Hanover and after filling up Jemima’s tank I turned off on the dirt roads towards Noupoort and Middelburg.
I came across this oke and a mate , but I only managed to photograph this one. The other one was too quick for me. Hahaha.
Just after my turtle encounter the road split and I turned right towards Middelburg.
I met up with a bunch of sheep and had to wait for all the stupid buggers to decide on what side of the road they wanted to be before I could continue.
This road had surprises around every turn.
I entered a private game reserve and slowed down just a bit because of all the little signs that asked so nicely.
I saw quite a lot of wildlife , but most of them were too far away for my little camera to make any decent photos of them .
I turned onto the road to Nieu Bethesda and was greeted by this magnificent mountain.
And a short distance later I rode in this tree lined lane.
Nieu Bethesda was a quaint little town , but I did not have much time to waste before hitting the road again.
I stopped at the local shop and while drinking a cold drink noticed that my orange headlight cover was lost. Somewhere on a dirt road in the Karoo a springbuck is looking at that orange cover and wondering what the hell kind of a strange flower that is.
All the while I was surrounded by the most beautiful vistas.
I got to the main road and decided to deviate from my original plan. Instead of going to Murraysburg I turned left and went down Ouberg pass (the other one) towards Graaff Reinet.
As I took the photo above I realized that I did not only loose my orange headlight cover , but also my tail light cover.
I stopped for a photo of the Graaff Reinet dam.
And having filled up with fuel I took the road to Aberdeen.
As I rolled into Aberdeen I heard a strange sound that I could not place at the time. A few km’s later I did figure it out and stopped to check. As I suspected the exhaust bracket rattled loose.
A few minutes worth of repairs later I was back on the road towards the turn off to Rietbron.
And what a lekker road it was.
With some nice scenes along the way.
I stopped to take a pic of the sprinbok atop the Rietbron church tower.
And then made haste towards Prince Albert. I still had about 160 km to go and the sun was steadily getting lower towards the horizon.
I did stop for this strange windmill.
The road to Prince Albert was recently graded after some earlier flood damage. I needed to get to Prince Albert before sunset and that meant that I had some hard riding to do for the next 55km..
The road surface was a very loose nightmare and I had to concentrate very hard to react to the loose sections in time.
About 8km before the town I ran into a long deep sandy section with a turn to the right. In the end I just could not get Jemima around the turn and I ended up overshooting the turn and riding through the erosion ditch on the side of the road. With a little bit of luck and at least some skill I managed to stay on the bike and keep her rubber side down until I could ride out of the ditch and back onto the road. I did not stop for pics as it was getting late and continued to town where I found a very nice camping spot to pitch my tent.
The local eatery called ‘Prickly pear ‘ supplied my supper for the night before I went to go and sleep in my tent.
This time around I slept like a log.
I was very tired after a long day in the saddle slept like a log knowing that the next day would include among other sights the famous Swart berg pass.
Thursday morning saw me anxious to get on the bike. Not because I wanted to get away from my family , but because I had a very long route of more than 800km ahead of me. I wanted to sleep in Prince Albert for the night and I did not want to do tar roads all the way there. I also did not want to sit at the stop and go controls on the N1 and thus chose to go to Colesberg via Jagersfontein and Fauresmith.
I stopped for a photo of the sunrise with Bloem already very far in the distance.
The road ahead was long and straight and had no traffic on it , so I actually chanced using the camera while on the move.
I saw this old building and actually made a u turn to get back to it in order to go and get my photos.
At Jagersfontein I turned right towards Phillipolis. And soon learnt that once you picked a track on the dirt road , you stayed in that track as far and as long as possible.
Crossing those huge middelmannetjies was just not fun at all.
In Phillipolis I saw a sign that said ‘Filter koffie’. That was enough to stop me quickly and make a u turn to go and get some coffee.
While waiting for the waitress to get my coffee ready , I walked around and took some pics of local buildings.
From Phillipstown I continued to Colesberg. A short distance from the orange river I was flagged down by car behind me with flashing lights. I pulled of the road to be greeted by an old oom and tannie whom I passed just outside of Phillipstown. It turns out that the Oom feared for my safety with the massive potholes in the road beyond the Orange river and so he chased me from behind to stop me and warn me of the dangers. I don’t think the oom quite understood what a dual sport bike is and that the potholes on that road did not bother me in the least.
I stopped for pics at the Orange river
And saw this sign painted on the one bridge wall.
I would love to see those sharks.
I carried on to Hanover and after filling up Jemima’s tank I turned off on the dirt roads towards Noupoort and Middelburg.
I came across this oke and a mate , but I only managed to photograph this one. The other one was too quick for me. Hahaha.
Just after my turtle encounter the road split and I turned right towards Middelburg.
I met up with a bunch of sheep and had to wait for all the stupid buggers to decide on what side of the road they wanted to be before I could continue.
This road had surprises around every turn.
I entered a private game reserve and slowed down just a bit because of all the little signs that asked so nicely.
I saw quite a lot of wildlife , but most of them were too far away for my little camera to make any decent photos of them .
I turned onto the road to Nieu Bethesda and was greeted by this magnificent mountain.
And a short distance later I rode in this tree lined lane.
Nieu Bethesda was a quaint little town , but I did not have much time to waste before hitting the road again.
I stopped at the local shop and while drinking a cold drink noticed that my orange headlight cover was lost. Somewhere on a dirt road in the Karoo a springbuck is looking at that orange cover and wondering what the hell kind of a strange flower that is.
All the while I was surrounded by the most beautiful vistas.
I got to the main road and decided to deviate from my original plan. Instead of going to Murraysburg I turned left and went down Ouberg pass (the other one) towards Graaff Reinet.
As I took the photo above I realized that I did not only loose my orange headlight cover , but also my tail light cover.
I stopped for a photo of the Graaff Reinet dam.
And having filled up with fuel I took the road to Aberdeen.
As I rolled into Aberdeen I heard a strange sound that I could not place at the time. A few km’s later I did figure it out and stopped to check. As I suspected the exhaust bracket rattled loose.
A few minutes worth of repairs later I was back on the road towards the turn off to Rietbron.
And what a lekker road it was.
With some nice scenes along the way.
I stopped to take a pic of the sprinbok atop the Rietbron church tower.
And then made haste towards Prince Albert. I still had about 160 km to go and the sun was steadily getting lower towards the horizon.
I did stop for this strange windmill.
The road to Prince Albert was recently graded after some earlier flood damage. I needed to get to Prince Albert before sunset and that meant that I had some hard riding to do for the next 55km..
The road surface was a very loose nightmare and I had to concentrate very hard to react to the loose sections in time.
About 8km before the town I ran into a long deep sandy section with a turn to the right. In the end I just could not get Jemima around the turn and I ended up overshooting the turn and riding through the erosion ditch on the side of the road. With a little bit of luck and at least some skill I managed to stay on the bike and keep her rubber side down until I could ride out of the ditch and back onto the road. I did not stop for pics as it was getting late and continued to town where I found a very nice camping spot to pitch my tent.
The local eatery called ‘Prickly pear ‘ supplied my supper for the night before I went to go and sleep in my tent.
This time around I slept like a log.
I was very tired after a long day in the saddle slept like a log knowing that the next day would include among other sights the famous Swart berg pass.
Vettie said:
:laughing4: :laughing4: :spitcoffee: :spitcoffee:
Dirtcopper
Race Dog
Lekker RR Hando, keep it coming :thumleft:
Buzzlightyear
Grey Hound
Baie nice Hando, sien uit na die res 8)
