Solo trip: Eastern, Northern and Western Cape

[Difflock]

Lekker een Ant en sterkte met die pad voorentoe.  :thumleft:

 

[DikZol]

Been waiting for this one after our chat in Brandvlei...sub

 

[Dirtcopper]

:sip:

 

[goingnowhereslowly]

Eish, those pictures bring back memories! Keep em coming :thumleft:

 

[Ant]

OK, Im back. Just went for a quick overnight ride to Baviaanskloof where Tiger8 and Tiger's m8 (Schaun & Des) were camping.
Thanks for all the support messages, by the way...
Jupiter, on your own its either selfies, or the bike. Or where I was riding, lots of nothing. If you want lots of nothing, well I didn't take many pics of that, so, sorry for you  ;D
Next I headed off towards Carnarvon, via Beaufort West (Brekkie at the Spur... don't bother in holiday season, nightmare!) and  Loxton.
At Cararvon I asked the petrol jockeys about fuel at VanWyksvlei. I had tried to find out about availability before I left on the trip, but couldn't really find out for sure. At Carnarvon the guys said there is fuel, but the pumps close at 12h30 on a Saturday and open again on Monday   :eek7: But no problem, they said, just find the lady who runs the Co-op (Corrine), and she would help. It was already 14h00 on Saturday, by the way....
So off I set for VanWyksvlei. The road is long, straight, and it was really hot. The surface was hard (very), with lots of ridges of loose gravel. So I stayed on the car tracks. However, at one point I was going about 80kph, and the front wheel found its way into a patch of loose stuff (about 40cm wide and 3 -4 cm deep). The back wheel completely broke away, and swung wildly from side to side. Not just a wobble, but almost broadsiding. Never experienced anything like this before, and cr@pped myself. I knew not to brake, and kept the throttle open. Problem was the edge of the road dropped off about 2.5m, and I knew if the bike didn't come under control, it was off the edge. Had visions of lying in a ditch, broken bike and me in the middle of nowhere. This was all in an instant, but the bike swung from side to side for what seemed like ages. Fortunately she straightened up. Came to a stop and pulled my self towards myself, deflated the tyres, and went on my way again. With softer tyres, the bike went like a dream. So what if I picked up another puncture or two.    
 

 

[Ant]

Got to VanWyksvlei and found the "petrol station" Lots of barbed wire and locks, and not a soul in sight.  I didn't have enough fuel to make the next leg of my trip to Verneukpan, so I needed to find Corrine.  Asked some guys sheltering in the shade, who showed me where her house was. After finding her (really nice lady by the way), she said she would love to help, but actually the tanks were dry, and the fuel tanker wasn't expected till Monday. She only had diesel in her bakkie, so she couldn't help with a few litres. But no way in hell was I not going to verneukpan or was I planning on staying here for the weekend. I rode into town and found a couple of guys drinking under a tree and asked if they knew someone with a car who could spare a couple of litres.  They had a Golf, but said it had run out and they were also waiting for fuel.  :-\ . So I headed to the outskirts where there was a hotel. If anyone ever has a notion of staying over in VanWyksvlei, at the hotel, well don't. Unless you like loud music, no glass in the windows and what looked like puke on the outside walls. After being harassed by some seriously under the weather locals one of the under-the-tree guys came across and suggested I try a house just outside town, cause the guy had a kombi and he could probably help. the guy offered to show me the way, so off we went.
Turns out there was a kombi, and the guy was willing to help, but he had no siphon hose. I had a shorter one on the bike, but it was no good for the Kombi. It ended up with him climbing under the car and disconnecting the fuel line at the pump, and draining into an Oros bottle.   In the pics the guy under the tree is wearing a blue shirt, and the guy who helped with fuel is in the stripy shirt. Really nice guys, went completely out of their way to help, and without them I would have been in the dwang. He didn't even ask for payment, but i rewarded him handsomely, of course. The other pic is his family..

 

[Ant]

After leaving VanWyksvlei I headed off towards Kenhardt. Did I mention that it was hot? Extremely barren and no shade whatsoever.  Eventually reached the Verneukpan turnoff. The road here was a little worse, with lots of reddish sand "driffies" along the way. But quite a nice road apart from that.
At last reached the pan, after stopping at Louis's farmhouse and collecting the keys. Really nice guys (him and his wife). Then after about six gates (stop, neutral, get off, undo gate catch, open gate, get on bike, drive through, stop, get off, close gate, back on bike x6) I finally reached the pan. 

 

[Ant]

Verneukpan will really blow your mind. Theres nothing there, except, well, nothing.
In the last two pics above you can see a vehicle in the distance. Turns out that was Ernie and his family (Slaaiblaar on the Forum). They were on a 4x4 trip from Pretoria to the West Coast, then up to Namibia. Probably won't see a RR here, cause they were in 4x4's, but still be great to hear how the trip went. Great family!
Whilst riding across the pan I hit a small ridge (not too many of them there), didn't think much of it until I actually hit it because it felt like hitting concrete. Bike flew just over 7m (for me thats a lot). In the one pic below you can see the impact and landing points. 

 

[Hotwire]

Cool Report Ant!!! Keep it going!!!

 

[Keith Barbier]

Shot Ant - enjoying your RR  :thumleft:

Post more please  :sip:

 

[BMBob]

Really good RR so far.

 

[Knucklhead/knuckey]

Nice ant

 

[Smuggy]

Sub.. :sip:

 

[Ant]

Having checked with Louis (Verneukpan's farmer) if it was ok if I camped on the pan itself (i.e not at the lapa), I set out and pitched my tent, no flysheet, roughly in the middle of nowhere. But because Slaaiblaar etc were camping at the lapa I headed there for a bit of kuiering just after the sun went down. Thing is, when I headed off again it was really dark. After about 200m I was a bit disorientated, to say the least. So I turned around and headed back to the Lapa, till I found the vehicle tracks that run from the lapa to the bell, and then followed the tracks to the bell. I knew my tent was south of there, so then I did these really wide sweeps in a southerly direction till I eventually found the tent. Must have been really funny to anyone watching. Which there wasn't.

Next morning I headed back to the farmhouse where Louis showed me the car used in the last abortive land speed record. Poor guy died. I work in the automotive industry, and was amazed at how rustic the build of the vehicle was that they wanted to achieve the land speed record in  :eek7:

I then headed off towards Brandvlei via an alternative route to my plan, suggested by Louis.

At the petrol station in Brandvlei I met another dog, Dikzol. He was on his way from CT to Upington on his 1150. Had a good chat, before he went on his way. Good to meet you, and hope your rear tyre held out  ;D

 

[Keith Barbier]

Enjoying the ride with you Ant  :thumleft:

 

[Ant]

At Middelpos I again needed fuel. Being Sunday afternoon everything was closed, so I headed to the local hotel. This time it was clean (almost polished); very much the way these dorpie establishments used to be. Spoke to a lady there (manager?) who said the Oompie from the petrol station had passed out, but no problem, if I was prepared to wait she would make a plan. I went to the hotel lounge and found an oldish guy with white hair sitting enjoying a beer. Thought he was a local, till we got chatting. Turns out he is also a biker, on a trip of his own. Was on a KLR 650. Very old school, no GPS but a photostatted black and white map. On it he had every rideable road, mountain pass (including gradients) written in in pen. Told me which routes and passes "I just had to do". Had a great time chatting till the hotel lady arrived and said the Oompie was ready for me at the pump. Unfortunately I didn't take pics, not sure why?

I then left lateish in the afternoon towards the Tankwa Karoo and the Gannaga pass.

 

[Ant]

The road at the top of the pass wasn't in good condition, baked hard mud ruts, making it a bit tricky to keep a line. But I preferred this to what it must have been like in the wet.

Down in the park I had booked a campsite, which I had all to myself. Really magnificent scenery all round, although some air-conditioning may have helped.

Just before nightfall I moved my campsite a bit because of very strong winds and having not much shelter. My "stealth camp" was much better, protected and soon the wind died down. I decided not to pitch the tent but to sleep under the stars. Great idea.  

Next morning I was sitting on my sleeping bag in my jocks and slops, watching the sun rise and waiting for my coffee to boil. Next thing I heard a grunt just behind me. Was a troop of baboons. Don't know who got a bigger fright, them or me. But I yelled and they they ran away.

The road out the southern side of the park is TERRIBLE. Never experienced such bad corrugations. Passed two 4 x 4's repairing punctures/ replacing wheels. Stopped and spoke to some park officials who said "the grader has a puncture and no spare tyres, they were waiting for a replacement to arrive" They said I was lucky to only have two wheels. I said, ja, but that's all I had  ;D

Between there and the end of the park I picked up two more punctures. One was pretty bad because the cut in the rubber was "z" shaped. But two plugs filled the gap, and I was on my way again.  

 

[Ian in Great Brak River]

Wow, this just gets better and better.

:thumleft:

 

[Slaaiblaar]

Hi Ant, was a pleasure meeting you. Glad you enjoyed the trip and returned safe. We did pass you again in Paternoster. Our trip was awesome.

 

[DikZol]

Really enjoying your RR with some really cool pics!

...and yes it was bloody hot!!!