fat b
Race Dog
Finally I think I might be capable of doing my first RR , please bear with all the mistakes and remember that I am trying my best , and that computers are not my strong point !!! Burping , farting , snoring and consuming whiskey are !!! But unfortunatly those talents have proved to be useless in the writing of RR's ! So here goes !!
It all started off as all good adventures do , where do we go this weekend ? I had a vague idea after coming across an obscure reference to Toorwater in Leon nell's book "THE GARDEN ROUTE AND KAROO BETWEEN THE DESERT AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA" he tells of ghostly apparitions , exploding gaseous clouds and of haunting beauty , also a railway line which when followed connects the Klein Karoo to the Great karoo through a majestic poort similar to Meiringspoort.It is also the spot where the Groot Swartberg mountain range ends and the Snyberg begins.
As far as I could make out no-one had rode through this particular poort before on big DS bikes ... but I may be wrong. So I called my buddies Grootvoet , Tagsy and Pyp and Richi Rich and we hatched a plan to have a fantastic adventure filled weekend away !
The boys would go the scenic route and meet up with the girls later that afternoon at De Rust,and proceed from there to Toorwater,as things turned out , it was to be wishfull thinking , because as all good adventures go this plan was to fall apart horribly and threaten to spoil the whole weekend.
We were to leave Mossel Bay at 06H00 and proceed along the r328 over the Robinson pass towards Oudtshoorn , once over the pass we would take the volmoed turnoff and ride to route 62 turn left go a small way down the road and take the second turnoff to the right and then ride the dirt past matjies rivier and Kruis rivier then when we hit tar turn right at the r328 and have a lekker breakfast at Wilgewandel guest Farm.
petrol and stop just over the Rpbinson Pass
near Matjiesrivier
checking out the wildlife.
Wilgevandel , Pyp doing the foefi slide thing , me and Richi Rich were taking no chances !
Breakfast finished , we drove approx 2km towards Oudtshoorn and turned left at oude muragie , to eventually lead us to De Rust ... easy ! or so we thought !
On the way we stopped off at an old favorite place of mine Rust en Vrede
What a magic place , with it's crystal clear water and refreshing waterfalls ,
Richi , Grootvoet and kleinvoet having a dip!
Very rare lesser greater snow white Cape River Whale !!! A cery rere find indeed !!! We were very lucky !
After the refreshing swim it was great to get going again for all of about 6 km , thats when Richies Gay t em had it's nightmare puncture !And Richies onboard airbag also deployed !! Ha ha !
We thought we were prepared , but in 15 years of biking I have never had a puncture , so our repair techniques were a bit rusty ... the 35degree heat also was not helping !Luckily a guy on an Africa Twin from PE Gerhard came along and gave us some good advice , before long he and Pyp had the puncture sorted !
It must also be said that those little gas cylinders we had were shit !!! The tyre weld did the trick after 3 hours of puting the wheel on and taking it off again , by this time we had missed our deadline to meet the girls in de Rust and some Pals of Tagsy were getting quite paranoid about panicky about where they were going to sleep that night . Me and grootvoet went ahead to De Rust to phone Irma from Toorwater to tell her we were going to be late.
What a disaster , the backup vehicle also had a puncture and we would have to put off sleeping at Toorwater , so we booked into a cheap self catering unit do do some tyre repairs , fighting with our wives ..... tagsy got his fortune told to him , his little girlfriend really opened up a can of whipass on him !!!!!!!! It was hilerious .... he was like a little lamb afterwards ....just as I was killing myself laughing at him my wife opened up the floodgates as well !!! What a fuckup !!!
After all the excitement we settled down to some serious braaing and kuiring and all was forgotten ! We all awoke the next morning in high spirits and left a bit late on the r341 ,we turned left at vlakteplaas end enjoyed all the lovely views and vistas that the Karoo had to offer.
Main Manne !
We rode through vlakteplaas , Rooiloop Scholts and snyberg sidings until
we stopped for breakfast at a deserted train station called Barandas and enjoyed ourselves a little bit to long , because when we left the sun was already quite high!
https://http:/
[IMG]https://i557.photobucket.com/albums/ss12/pictures_028/toor/DSCF3490.jpg
We took the r341 just outside of barandas towards willowmore , and then turned left to Toorwater.
We were to spend the previous night at nietgenaamt near Toorwaterpoort but due to the previous days fun and games never did ... I promised to come back soonest and stay there , that's what we di and that is why I am going to ad it to this RR.
Toorwaterpoort from a distance ... Quite intimidating in the midday heat !
This is truly one of the most awe inspiring places I have ever rode a bike through , if the heat does not get you , you may ride off a cliff , and did I mention how shit it is to ride 10 km's on a trainline , over little bridges with no railing and spaces in between that would swallow your whole front tyre ! But it is all worth it because this place was just made to explore !
[
IMG]https://i557.photobucket.com/albums/ss12/pictures_028/DSC04750.jpg[/img]
I must admit that the heat was my undoing , I really thought I was going to die and I was hyperventilating , but we eventually made it through to the next station called Vondeling , Tagst's KTM 990 almost did not make it because it overheated so badly , it litrally started bon the last volts of the battery , he would have been stuffed if it would not start!
VONDELING
Me chatting up a sexy lokal lass .... just jokes my wife!
After resting and recovering at Vondeling we would tackle the brilliant road to Klaarstroom , it follows between the back of the Groot Swartberge and the Droekloofberge and really is a must to ride !
This road almost caused my undoing , because unknown to me I had picked up a puncture and it was having a major negative effect on my riding ... I could not stop because rather hileriously I had ridden over a cobra , I thought it was a stick in the road and when I was on top of it the fucking thing reared up !!! I did not know if it was on the bike no I just nailed it flat wheel and all for the next 30 odd km , that was really scary ! I made it to the first rest rooms in meiringspoort when I saw my tyre was completly caput !!! My friends were at the waterfall and I thought I could nake it but all I ended up doing was holding up all the traffic in Meiringspoort , eventually I had to stop , luckily I managed to get hold of PYP on my cell and he came back and after one tyre weld I was back on the road again ! Richi's Ktm's wheel was also caput so he got his old man to come fetch him .....being such a good friend I opted to wait with him and drink all the whiskey in De rust .We went home in style after a really great weekend !
This is the end of part one , in part two we actually make it to the magical hot springs...Stay tuned !
It all started off as all good adventures do , where do we go this weekend ? I had a vague idea after coming across an obscure reference to Toorwater in Leon nell's book "THE GARDEN ROUTE AND KAROO BETWEEN THE DESERT AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA" he tells of ghostly apparitions , exploding gaseous clouds and of haunting beauty , also a railway line which when followed connects the Klein Karoo to the Great karoo through a majestic poort similar to Meiringspoort.It is also the spot where the Groot Swartberg mountain range ends and the Snyberg begins.
As far as I could make out no-one had rode through this particular poort before on big DS bikes ... but I may be wrong. So I called my buddies Grootvoet , Tagsy and Pyp and Richi Rich and we hatched a plan to have a fantastic adventure filled weekend away !
The boys would go the scenic route and meet up with the girls later that afternoon at De Rust,and proceed from there to Toorwater,as things turned out , it was to be wishfull thinking , because as all good adventures go this plan was to fall apart horribly and threaten to spoil the whole weekend.
We were to leave Mossel Bay at 06H00 and proceed along the r328 over the Robinson pass towards Oudtshoorn , once over the pass we would take the volmoed turnoff and ride to route 62 turn left go a small way down the road and take the second turnoff to the right and then ride the dirt past matjies rivier and Kruis rivier then when we hit tar turn right at the r328 and have a lekker breakfast at Wilgewandel guest Farm.
petrol and stop just over the Rpbinson Pass
near Matjiesrivier
Wilgevandel , Pyp doing the foefi slide thing , me and Richi Rich were taking no chances !
Breakfast finished , we drove approx 2km towards Oudtshoorn and turned left at oude muragie , to eventually lead us to De Rust ... easy ! or so we thought !
On the way we stopped off at an old favorite place of mine Rust en Vrede
What a magic place , with it's crystal clear water and refreshing waterfalls ,
Richi , Grootvoet and kleinvoet having a dip!
Very rare lesser greater snow white Cape River Whale !!! A cery rere find indeed !!! We were very lucky !
After the refreshing swim it was great to get going again for all of about 6 km , thats when Richies Gay t em had it's nightmare puncture !And Richies onboard airbag also deployed !! Ha ha !
We thought we were prepared , but in 15 years of biking I have never had a puncture , so our repair techniques were a bit rusty ... the 35degree heat also was not helping !Luckily a guy on an Africa Twin from PE Gerhard came along and gave us some good advice , before long he and Pyp had the puncture sorted !
It must also be said that those little gas cylinders we had were shit !!! The tyre weld did the trick after 3 hours of puting the wheel on and taking it off again , by this time we had missed our deadline to meet the girls in de Rust and some Pals of Tagsy were getting quite paranoid about panicky about where they were going to sleep that night . Me and grootvoet went ahead to De Rust to phone Irma from Toorwater to tell her we were going to be late.
What a disaster , the backup vehicle also had a puncture and we would have to put off sleeping at Toorwater , so we booked into a cheap self catering unit do do some tyre repairs , fighting with our wives ..... tagsy got his fortune told to him , his little girlfriend really opened up a can of whipass on him !!!!!!!! It was hilerious .... he was like a little lamb afterwards ....just as I was killing myself laughing at him my wife opened up the floodgates as well !!! What a fuckup !!!
After all the excitement we settled down to some serious braaing and kuiring and all was forgotten ! We all awoke the next morning in high spirits and left a bit late on the r341 ,we turned left at vlakteplaas end enjoyed all the lovely views and vistas that the Karoo had to offer.
Main Manne !
We rode through vlakteplaas , Rooiloop Scholts and snyberg sidings until
we stopped for breakfast at a deserted train station called Barandas and enjoyed ourselves a little bit to long , because when we left the sun was already quite high!
https://http:/
[IMG]https://i557.photobucket.com/albums/ss12/pictures_028/toor/DSCF3490.jpg
We took the r341 just outside of barandas towards willowmore , and then turned left to Toorwater.
We were to spend the previous night at nietgenaamt near Toorwaterpoort but due to the previous days fun and games never did ... I promised to come back soonest and stay there , that's what we di and that is why I am going to ad it to this RR.
Toorwaterpoort from a distance ... Quite intimidating in the midday heat !
This is truly one of the most awe inspiring places I have ever rode a bike through , if the heat does not get you , you may ride off a cliff , and did I mention how shit it is to ride 10 km's on a trainline , over little bridges with no railing and spaces in between that would swallow your whole front tyre ! But it is all worth it because this place was just made to explore !
IMG]https://i557.photobucket.com/albums/ss12/pictures_028/DSC04750.jpg[/img]
I must admit that the heat was my undoing , I really thought I was going to die and I was hyperventilating , but we eventually made it through to the next station called Vondeling , Tagst's KTM 990 almost did not make it because it overheated so badly , it litrally started bon the last volts of the battery , he would have been stuffed if it would not start!
VONDELING
Me chatting up a sexy lokal lass .... just jokes my wife!
After resting and recovering at Vondeling we would tackle the brilliant road to Klaarstroom , it follows between the back of the Groot Swartberge and the Droekloofberge and really is a must to ride !
This road almost caused my undoing , because unknown to me I had picked up a puncture and it was having a major negative effect on my riding ... I could not stop because rather hileriously I had ridden over a cobra , I thought it was a stick in the road and when I was on top of it the fucking thing reared up !!! I did not know if it was on the bike no I just nailed it flat wheel and all for the next 30 odd km , that was really scary ! I made it to the first rest rooms in meiringspoort when I saw my tyre was completly caput !!! My friends were at the waterfall and I thought I could nake it but all I ended up doing was holding up all the traffic in Meiringspoort , eventually I had to stop , luckily I managed to get hold of PYP on my cell and he came back and after one tyre weld I was back on the road again ! Richi's Ktm's wheel was also caput so he got his old man to come fetch him .....being such a good friend I opted to wait with him and drink all the whiskey in De rust .We went home in style after a really great weekend !
This is the end of part one , in part two we actually make it to the magical hot springs...Stay tuned !
eepwall:
