sunday ride, melkboom, clanwilliam

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Tlr and myself decided on a nice casual ride, from Vredendal to Clanwilliam on the melkboom road. A nice round trip of 160km.

A started off a bit late ( he partied to much last night)

From Vredendal to klawe tar road, on the N7 to Melkboom turnoff (just before the bridge) . On to the gravel road til we crossed the doringrivier.

First stop and a beer to take of the "edge"

 

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from here we carried on along the oliphants river to the Bulshoek dam.

Photo of the river below, with a fisheagle flying around

 

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more of the river and he irrigation canal in the background that runs all the way to the sea

 

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a truck on the n7 across the river.

From the doring river bridge to here we had a cross wind from the left and I felt uncomfortable riding with the bike at an angle on loose gravel

 

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More scenery and the first of the bulshoek dam wall

 

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waiting for SUV to come past

 

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the dam and road condition

 

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Here we stopped at TLR,s neighbour's campsite for some refreshments. Now he is known as nico "waarheid" everybody in Vredendal knows about the time he fixed a Boeing on the N7 with a 13 spanner, the passengers all cheered him and the aircraft did a roll to thank him when it took off.

We had to hear about the time he took his boat upstream all the way to the clanwilliam dam, carrying it over weirs, when he got to the dam he put the boat engine on his back and hiked into clanwilliam, where the hotel owners gave him free booze for his endeavours

 

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next stop clanwilliam for a light snack

 

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cows living on an island

 

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luckily we were late and missed the happening ,  his tracks were all over the road and would have been difficult to avoid

 

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Nearing clanwilliam and the coffee shop, they don,t sell beer so I had iced rooibos tea (in a tin from Cape Town)

 

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From here it got a bit hot, so much for the weather forecast

 

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From Here we raced (ok we are on Klr's ) rode sedately on the N7 to the Trawal winecellar turnoff for a short cut home

 

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a bit cooler here, but the wind even blows the trees to grow in another direction

 

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Klawer in the valley and some flowers

 

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Vredendal and Oliphants river valley, all hazy because of the wind

 

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Farmers must not put gates on hills

 

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From here straight home and a few ice cold beers as we were both drenched in sweat.

It was hot and the ride to the bash is still coming, we ended up standing alot , for no other reason but airflow through the clothes and helmet

 

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forgot the map