JERINOMO
Race Dog
And I’m referring to the Grootrivier Poort (GRP).
Rocstompa initiated and organised the trip MO but I received a phone call on the morning of the ride where he told me he hurt his back and neck during a hunting trip. Fortunately I worked out a route on Mapsource the previous night in case there was some sort of problem with RS’s GPS.
I never did the GRP route and it was no. 1 on my “to do” list. We’ve decided to go ahead with the ride without RS. I really did not know who was going to pitch up for the ride, but the agreement was that we’ll all meet up at Hunters retreat Hotel at 07:30.
We were five bikes. Three Dakar’s, one KLR and the GSA. It was 07:50 already and off we went, straight to the Cockscomb turnoff.
The route is mostly tackled from the Patensie side, doing the Elandsrivier route and then the GRP route. The idea with our ride was to do the easy stuff first, going through Uitenhage on to the Cockscomb road toward Steytlerville. From Steytlerville we will move toward the GRP saving the “best” for last.
Since I never had the full picture of the GRP route, I had the picture in my mind that it was a river crossing with a 200m rough stretch into the river valley and a 200m rough stretch out of the river valley. I was not worried at all to be the only one in the group with a GSA while the rest were on 650’s. How wrong was I!!! We ended up almost 7km rough stretch in and 18km rough stretch out of the Grootrivier poort.
The road was fairly dry but there were definite signs of a big downpour recently creating slippery mud pools in the road ever so often. It turned out to be one of the toughest routes I’ve tackled so far, and that includes the “rus en vrede” route over the mountains into the Baviaans. To make it even more interesting was the fact that the road “fill in” to and from the Grootrivier were washed out due to heavy rain, leaving bare rock with lots of loose, rocky gravel. The river itself was at a higher than normal level with mud everywhere, making the whole trip a real adventure.
Let’s start off with the RR. The route distance was approx. 390km and it took us more than eight hours to complete. That included a smoke break every 20minutes and our one hour Brunch at the Royal Hotel in Steytlerville. The tar to the Cockscomb road was not interesting, so I’m going to start where the tar met the gravel.
We were five okes of which four were dogs and one “dog to be soon”. The dogs were Garthvader(GV), Dirtdix(DD), Kawasaki Monster(KM) and myself. The “soon to be” was Willem.
On arriving at the gathering place, DD was there already puffing on his third smoke.
From L 2 R
KM, GV, Willem and DD
I was outnumbered four to one by the light bikes, but did not mind as this was a Sunday Morning stroll in the park. Since I was the only one with the route loaded on to my GPS, I found myself in front of the pack most of the time, all alone with just the silhouette of my shadow and the reflection of the headlights in the mirror to keep me company.
Our first smoke break after 20minutes of riding.
Willem’s Dakar.
GV’s Dakar. Must add that the paint job on this Dakar were awesome. Most of it in Matt black.
Dd’s fugly in the foreground, KM’s Dakar in front of the Fugly and the GSA on the right.
DD showing some affection.
Always wondered how an Alien on a Fugly would look like.
KM passing with the beautiful “green” Klein Karoo in the background
GV passing with lots of space between us. It’s always a pleasure to ride with someone that’s safety conscious.
Willem passing with one of many water features in the background.
It was nice to see that the rain did its bit. The area were green with water everywhere.
Must admit, the Cockscomb road is not the most exiting road to ride but in its own way is still beautiful.
After 60km’s of cockscomb, it was time to take the exit. The Cockscomb road takes you straight to Steytlerville, so I planned a diversion into my route planner to break the boredom. There was no chance that I will sit on another 40km’s of cockscomb road while there is a alternative more scenic route to Steytlerville. It was 10km’s longer but worth it.
The rest of the gang arrives.
At first it looked no different, but as they say: “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”.
A red duiker accompanies us for a while before it dashed into the bushes.
Two bikers came from the front, a KTM and what looks like a S10.
The road took us to a couple of Koppies in the far distant.
A Farm yard on the right.
You’ve got to love this area.
After 175km we saw a glimpse of Steytlerville.
The old steel bridge over the Grootrivier into Steytlerville.
The “well known” Royal hotel on the right.
Us in front of the Royal Hotel
Me and GV having a deep conversation
Us five thawing with a hot cuppa Coffee.
After the Brunch we were off to the GRP.
Rocstompa initiated and organised the trip MO but I received a phone call on the morning of the ride where he told me he hurt his back and neck during a hunting trip. Fortunately I worked out a route on Mapsource the previous night in case there was some sort of problem with RS’s GPS.
I never did the GRP route and it was no. 1 on my “to do” list. We’ve decided to go ahead with the ride without RS. I really did not know who was going to pitch up for the ride, but the agreement was that we’ll all meet up at Hunters retreat Hotel at 07:30.
We were five bikes. Three Dakar’s, one KLR and the GSA. It was 07:50 already and off we went, straight to the Cockscomb turnoff.
The route is mostly tackled from the Patensie side, doing the Elandsrivier route and then the GRP route. The idea with our ride was to do the easy stuff first, going through Uitenhage on to the Cockscomb road toward Steytlerville. From Steytlerville we will move toward the GRP saving the “best” for last.
Since I never had the full picture of the GRP route, I had the picture in my mind that it was a river crossing with a 200m rough stretch into the river valley and a 200m rough stretch out of the river valley. I was not worried at all to be the only one in the group with a GSA while the rest were on 650’s. How wrong was I!!! We ended up almost 7km rough stretch in and 18km rough stretch out of the Grootrivier poort.
The road was fairly dry but there were definite signs of a big downpour recently creating slippery mud pools in the road ever so often. It turned out to be one of the toughest routes I’ve tackled so far, and that includes the “rus en vrede” route over the mountains into the Baviaans. To make it even more interesting was the fact that the road “fill in” to and from the Grootrivier were washed out due to heavy rain, leaving bare rock with lots of loose, rocky gravel. The river itself was at a higher than normal level with mud everywhere, making the whole trip a real adventure.
Let’s start off with the RR. The route distance was approx. 390km and it took us more than eight hours to complete. That included a smoke break every 20minutes and our one hour Brunch at the Royal Hotel in Steytlerville. The tar to the Cockscomb road was not interesting, so I’m going to start where the tar met the gravel.
We were five okes of which four were dogs and one “dog to be soon”. The dogs were Garthvader(GV), Dirtdix(DD), Kawasaki Monster(KM) and myself. The “soon to be” was Willem.
On arriving at the gathering place, DD was there already puffing on his third smoke.
From L 2 R
KM, GV, Willem and DD
I was outnumbered four to one by the light bikes, but did not mind as this was a Sunday Morning stroll in the park. Since I was the only one with the route loaded on to my GPS, I found myself in front of the pack most of the time, all alone with just the silhouette of my shadow and the reflection of the headlights in the mirror to keep me company.
Our first smoke break after 20minutes of riding.
Willem’s Dakar.
GV’s Dakar. Must add that the paint job on this Dakar were awesome. Most of it in Matt black.
Dd’s fugly in the foreground, KM’s Dakar in front of the Fugly and the GSA on the right.
DD showing some affection.
Always wondered how an Alien on a Fugly would look like.
KM passing with the beautiful “green” Klein Karoo in the background
GV passing with lots of space between us. It’s always a pleasure to ride with someone that’s safety conscious.
Willem passing with one of many water features in the background.
It was nice to see that the rain did its bit. The area were green with water everywhere.
Must admit, the Cockscomb road is not the most exiting road to ride but in its own way is still beautiful.
After 60km’s of cockscomb, it was time to take the exit. The Cockscomb road takes you straight to Steytlerville, so I planned a diversion into my route planner to break the boredom. There was no chance that I will sit on another 40km’s of cockscomb road while there is a alternative more scenic route to Steytlerville. It was 10km’s longer but worth it.
The rest of the gang arrives.
At first it looked no different, but as they say: “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”.
A red duiker accompanies us for a while before it dashed into the bushes.
Two bikers came from the front, a KTM and what looks like a S10.
The road took us to a couple of Koppies in the far distant.
A Farm yard on the right.
You’ve got to love this area.
After 175km we saw a glimpse of Steytlerville.
The old steel bridge over the Grootrivier into Steytlerville.
The “well known” Royal hotel on the right.
Us in front of the Royal Hotel
Me and GV having a deep conversation
Us five thawing with a hot cuppa Coffee.
After the Brunch we were off to the GRP.
