The Gogga in the Overberg.

[tok-tokkie]

I spent 3 days riding in the Overberg, came home for a day then went back for 2 days with my son Anton. I call my bike the gogga.  When I refer to Slingsby I am referring to â??Overberg Whale Coast.  The Mapâ?? by Peter Slingsby.

Day 1  Tuesday    Cape Town to Napier  260km  5h30m

Tuesday I left about midday going down the Highlands road from Grabouw to Arabella for the first time.  A better alternative to the Houw Hoek pass if you have the time.  I have also been down the railway service road which is another pleasant alternative.

Highlands road

There were lots of these yellow flowers around (protea?)

I cut through on the gravel road past the Karwederskraal landfill to the Hemel en Aarde road which I followed towards Caledon but turned east to get to Tesselaarsdal and stay on the gravel.

This is at the turn off to Tesserlaarsdal just before Shawâ??s Pass.

Just before Tesserlaarsdal with Stanford directly behind the mountains.

Tesserlaarsdal is an unusual village for two reasons.  It is not a mission village such as Elim, Genadendal, Mamre, Wuppertal, Goedverwacht, Suurbraak, Haarlem, Pacaltsdorp, Clarkson, Zoar and Amalienstein but instead it was granted in about 1840 by local farmer JJ Tesselaar to freed slaves (many of whom are believed to have been his children).  Since there was no church hierarchy to impose residential hierarchy Tesserlaarsdal is not a compact well disciplined village with a strict social order, instead the cottages are scattered around over quite a wide area & there is no imposing church as the focus.  It is in two parts with a figure of 8 road network.

Green house

White house

Lads posing at swimming hole.

I noticed a road going over the mountain towards Hermanus.  The Slingsby map does not show this road but I found a signpost pointing that way which said Hermanus..  I followed the road which took me past a farm and up into the lands where I asked a tractor driver about the road up the mountain.  He said it is a private road used to pick wild flowers.  So I had to retrace my path and headed to Napier.

Road to Hermanus?  Can also be seen in the photo of the road leading into the village.

I still had time so went over the Akkedisberg Pass but it is a good fast tar road and the pass is not much.

View from Akkedisbergpas towards Stanford.

Then cut through to the Elim road on nice gravel roads and through to Napier on more good gravel.  Slingsby puts a smiley face next to scenic roads and a growly face next to the ones he rates as boring.  Only one of the roads I had ridden had a growly face.

I liked this violet house in the onderdorp of Napier with the matching flowers along the fence.  I have been to Mexico & there they are even more adventurous with colour on the outside of their houses.

You may notice that I like humble houses.

Spent the night at Gunners B&B & pub/restaurant. Run by Niel & Rose.  Nice room and I particularly liked the menu â?? simple supper food such as sausage and mashed potato & everyday stuff I would normally have at home.  There was also a choice of venison and some other more restaurant style food but I was happy with the simple home cooking part of the menu and nice red house wine.

 

[Joyride]

Lekker informative and nice piccies as always,TT.

I just love the Overberg, no matter what time of the year it is.

Always beautifull.

 

[Uiltjie]

TT, you know where I live, and you passed my farm.......ek het koffie ook!

 

[Kev]

Very nice TT. I enjoyed this one.  :thumleft:

 

[edgy]

Cool to see a different part of the world-nice

 

[letsgofishing]

Nice pics and report Toktokkie!

 

[Operator]

Nice Toktokkie.

The Overberg-area is always a favourite. 

 

[tok-tokkie]

Day 2  Wednesday  Napier to Malgas  351km  8h09m

Wednesday I rode along the coast road ducking down at each opportunity.

I started at Danger Point by going along the smiley road past Sandyâ??s Glenn.  Slingsby puts a camera icon along this road & labels the hills as â??Unspoiled Fynbosâ?? and they really are unspoiled, just as they must have been when Vasco da Gama sailed past in 1497.

Fynbos road.

Further down the road this bulldozer was parked close by.  It has Bucyrus-Erie cast onto the blade.  I have Googled it to try and determine a date for this machine & find that Bucyrus only made the hydraulic blade & that the â??dozer may be International.  I found a picture of the blade on a similar (but slightly more modern looking) â??dozer made in 1954.  This machine is still working â?? look at the shiny hydraulic ram and there are no weeds growing over the blade or tracks.  Pretty good for about 50 years old.

Further down the fynbos road.

Danger Point lighthouse.  The Birkenhead sank just off the point here.

Along the road to Franskraal, Pearly Beach, Buffeljags & Die Dam most of which I had never been to before.  The houses we build at the coast really are a blot on the landscape.

Franskraal

Cottage, now a museum in Franskraal.

Jessieâ??s Bay at Buffeljags.

From Buffeljags there is this track which leads to a fishing settlement.

A cottage in the fishermanâ??s village at Buffeljags.  The green roof plus the blue sea & sky give the picture the three primary colours.

Beach at Die Dam.

Then a big arc around away from the coast to get to Struisbaai & Cape Agulhas and on to Suiderstrand.

Beach at Struisbaai.  Slingsby says it is the longest white sand beach in the southern hemisphere.

Lighthouse at Lâ??Agulhas

Then to Arniston (I did not go down to Die Mond so will have to do another trip to tick that off).  Strangely I have never been to Arniston before.  Here there are still some of the older seaside homes which have merit but there have been the most insensitive developments.  Just before the village is a big cluster housing development & in the village itself are new gauche houses and an hotel my wife has stayed in & says is to be avoided.  The â??colouredâ?? community of Markusbaai I had heard about but I had not realised it was so big.  I had expected it to be just a row of fishermanâ??s cottages.

The awful hotel at Arniston with the fishermanâ??s cottages above the cliffs beyond.

Swing the camera slightly and you have this pristine beach.  Because the Overberg Missile Test Range lies behind the coast here it is protected from imminent development.

One of the many St. Markus Bay Cottages.

Just before Malgas

Then I went up to Bredasdorp & decided to push on to Malgas for the night.  I was looking forward to a beer so pushed on quite fast.  I stayed in the hotel there which is a dinner bed & breakfast affair.  Quite a long dinner menu but I skipped several courses, nice mushroom soup, very nice small portion of bobotie & then the chicken instead of the lamb.  House wine was passable.  What did surprise me was they played Leonard Cohen â??Bird on a Wireâ?? CD as background music.  Pretty mournful music so I was surprised.  This is a record my wife introduced to me long ago & I really liked it.  At my dental hygienist I find KFM more uncomfortable than what she does to me â?? I detest muzak.

 

[Kamanya]

Great ride!

That road you were wondering about near Tesslersdal...

You can go up that road...

And it leads onto this;

It summits and you can look out over Stanford;

...But, it is private and crosses three farms.

The owner of the first farm will just be purple/red in the face with a few bulging veins in his neck when he stops you with his bakkie across the road. The Owner of the other two farms doesn't bother with such social niceties and just opens up with bird shot.

Ask me how I know.

Your experience may vary.

 

[IceCreamMan]

excellent , u capies is very very lucky

 

[tok-tokkie]

Day 3  Thursday  Malgas to Cape Town  347km  8h13m

Next day over the pont & up the east side of the Breede to Swellendam, along the N2 and back down the west side of the Breede but then I angled across to Protem, Klipdale & Rietpoel on minor roads heading for Caledon & home.

The pont coming over to get me.

There is a steel cable strung across the river.  There are guide pulleys at both ends of the pont so it travels along the cable but the cable does not move.  In the picture the two pont operators are in blue overalls & the other person is a local who has to help pull the pont across the river in exchange for a free ride.  Each operator has a sling over his shoulder with a short length of chain (you can see it in the photo).  He swings the chain against the cable so it wraps itself around the cable then he walks down the length of the pont pulling against the sling.  R10 for a motorcycle, R30 for a car.

The damn heated handlebars switched themselves on & I could not switch them off â?? it had rained a bit during the night & I think that was the cause of the problem.  I didnâ??t know which fuse to remove so stripped off the plastics to get at the relays on the Gogga which are just behind the headstock.  There were 2 yellow relays which I guessed were for the heaters so I pulled them out & the bike worked fine so put the plastics back on & my discomfort was over.  Since then I have identified each of the fuses & found that those 2 relays are for the high & low beam so it was just co-incidence that the heaters turned off.  A squirt of WD40 into the switch has probably sorted out the switch problem.

Wheatfields near the R326

The old station at Klipdale.  This has made me aware of how dignified was the old SAR architecture.  I am going to look out for it in my travels.

Went to the pub at the botanical gardens in Caledon for beer & a toasted cheese & tomato sandwich.  When the sandwich had not arrived by the time I finished my beer I asked for another beer & that my sandwich be chased up.  I had finished the second beer before the sandwich pitched so I paid & left.  My message was simply that the kitchen staff could eat the sandwich.  Management were surprised & the kitchen staff seemed perplexed.  Give the place a miss if you are looking for food along the road, I had not rushed my beers at all â?? they are simply bloody slow.

I had programmed my Zumo while waiting for my sandwich to take me along a gravel road south of the N2 and on to Bot River.  I was a bit pissed off about the lousy service and could hardly see the Zumo because it was in the sun.  I followed the bigger of the roads but these led to Black Eagle Lodge which I missed but ended up in a farmyard where there was a farm bike parked so I went into the shed to ask directions.  He asked where I was headed & said I could take a short cut through his lands to join the Hermanus/Bot River road.  Turns out I had come along the little very minor roads Slingsby marks but which donâ??t join up so you canâ??t get through â?? I had now stumbled upon the missing bit so I got through where I really had wished to go.

Perdekloof (?) farm road connecting though to the Hermanus/Bot River road.

Swartrivier on Perdekloof farm.

Up here & you are soon on the tar road.  I was fortunate.

Iron bridge over the Bot River.  The new road does not go through here.

On to Bot River & through the gravel Van der Stelâ??s Pass road to Theewaterskloof. Grabouw & home with the south-easter really howling as I went down Sir Lowryâ??s Pass yet there had not been much wind in the Overberg at all.  Two days before I had bypassed Houw Hoek by going over the gravel Highlands road; today I took a longer alternative via Van der Stelâ??s Pass road and there is the third alternative of the railway service road which I have also done.  All are nice.

Eerstehoop on the Van der Stelâ??s Pass road.

 

[bobnob]

nice one tok-tokkie!!!

 

[Stofstreep]

Sjoe, there are some awesome pics in this report!!!!
A lekker solo trip you did!

Nice!

 

[growweblaar]

Awesome, Tokkie - the Overberg is so nice 

I did not go down to Die Mond so will have to do another trip to tick that off

Also on my list: let me know when...

 

[tok-tokkie]

Day 4    Friday    Fitting new tyre & other minor events.

Friday I had to fit a new front tyre as the old was almost slick and put the headlight relays back and find out which fuse does what (I have the wiring diagrams).

My first grandchild also arrived gracefully this day.

 

[tok-tokkie]

Day 5  Saturday    Cape Town to Swellendam    277km  5h52m

My son, Anton, also has a Dakkie & we wanted to do Gysmanshoek pass.  We were only able to get away at 13h00.  He has not had the bike for long & has only ridden in the Swartland & Cederberg so the Overberg was all new to him.

Over Sir Lowryâ??s, down the first bit of the Van der Stelâ??s pass road to show him where it is but cutting off to go around the back of Theewaterskloof and on to Villiersdorp then we took the gravel road towards Eketoknbikeâ??s area going to his farm where you can take a gravel road to Robertson.

This old & small Caterpillar stands outside a farm in Aan de Doorns

After the crawler you go up a hill and see this view of the Breerivier valley with Robertson at the far end.

Anton coming over the iron bridge at Robertson

On to Swellendam via Bonnievale.  That road with the cannas in bloom and the attractive palms (not the hideous Canary Island palms which are being planted all over Cape Town) and vineyards really made an impression on Anton yet he has been through there by car; somehow it is different on a bike.

Part of the road alongside the Bree River between Bonnievale & Swellendam is gravel.

The Langeberg in evening light just before we got to Swellendam

We spent the night at Moolmanshof  which is the oldest residential building in the town (1798).  We had a very nice room in the stable at R225 per head.  Self catering so there was a fridge to cool the Camelbak in and a really nice bathroom (big basin, big mirror & big shower).  We were booked for supper at the Mill something or other but we just had some beer & left when we saw the prices on the menu (R80 for a bowl of soup if I remember correctly).  Right over the road was Woodpeckers pizza & pasta place with lots of local bakkies parked outside & families to be seen having a good time â?? obviously local knowledge.  We wanted supper not a fancy dinner.  Really nice pizza (only R45) and decent house wine.

End gables of Moolmanshof.  Originally just the left hand section was built in 1798.  The back part was added by JZ Moolman who owned it from  1830 to 1847 so it is now an H shaped house.

The front of the house does not have a gable.  The original casement (hinged) windows were replaced by sash windows in about 1870 â?? but they are oversized so the front looks a bit peculiar.  The thatch roof has been replaced by corrugated iron but it has not been lowered as is so often the case when doing this.

Lizette Hendry bought the house about 3 years ago and has re-decorated it.  My wife is British & they have no fear for using strong colours like this in old houses.  Our last house was a grand Edwardian double story with a deep red hall and tennis court green dining room so this was very familiar and comfortable to me.  Notice the heavy yellowwood ceiling beams.

Antonâ??s godmother is Caroline Swellengrebel.  Governor Hendrik Swellengrebel (after whom the town is named) is a direct forefather of her husband Niels & they still have a dinner service of his.

 

[JonW]

Great Report and some stunning pics Tokkie.

 

[Briekmerk]

Old KLR? ;D ;D ;D

 

[Uiltjie]

Old KLR? ;D ;D ;D

;D ;D ;D

I stand to be corrected, but its an International (IHC) BTD 6.

The Caterpillar he had a pic of, is an old D4.  We had a few, gave the last one away about a year ago.

 

[tok-tokkie]

Day 6  Sunday  Swellendam to Cape Town via Gysmanskloof Pass & Malgas
465km  9h16m

We were away at 8h30 next morning through Suurbraak and lovely country roads through meadows and paddocks towards Gysmanshoek.

Eau-de-neil house in Suurbraak

Grootvadersbosch area.

Langeberg around Heidelberg

This area was affected by the floods of November and we were diverted from our route because a whole bridge had been taken away.  The replacement was a work in progress but we could not sneak past anywhere.

This driffie survived but the water took a massive amount of ground away on the far bank; all the new yellow gravel can be seen showing just how much was taken away.

Karin Garmin got totally confused here and besides saying we were not on any known road when, in fact, we were on a fairly important tarred road but she balked at Gysmanshoek and just changed the route to close in on itself this side of the mountains & ignored everything from Gysmanshoek onwards when I had given her a Mapsource route going all the way to Barrydale.

Luckily the start of Gysmans is signposted so we found it.  I had not brought my 1:250 000 along & the Slingsby map stops just short of here.

Soon after the sign.

A bit further along.

Much further along.  Looking back the way we have come.  You can see the road all along the left side of the valley as we look at it here.  This is the best part; not a sign of man except for the gravel road.

We have come right through into the Little Karoo.  There is an abandoned farmhouse here.  We had a bite to eat then went back over Gysmans without stopping & it seemed to only take about a third of the time.

On to Heidelberg.  From there a straight line to Napier going over the pont again at Malgas then the same  road through the unspoiled fynbos to Stanford.  Light rain had started soon after Malgas.  From Stanford tar all the way back home over Houw Hoek Pass.  It was a long day.

Fynbos road looking back towards Napier in drizzly weather.

Gysmanshoek Pass was the only entry to the Little Karoo (then called Kannaland) between Kogmans Kloof (between Ashton & Montague) and Attaquaskloof way to the east between Mossel Bay & Oudtshoorn.  It was opened by the local farmers about 1740.  Originally it was called Plattekloof Pass.  It became redundant 100 years later when Tradouw (1873) & Garciaâ??s (1877) Passes were built. To me it would seem to be a much easier line than Tradouw so why it was not upgraded rather than building a new pass there I don't understand.  It is a joy to ride.  I am particularly lucky in being able to do it with my son and introduce him to new horizons.