TransKite (Completed)

[Kreef]

Riders: Nico Loubser (BMW Dakar 2002 – Kreef) & Derick Le Roux (Honda XR650 2001 – Goonrider)
Later joined by a bakkie with 5 of our friends (2 guys, 3 girls)

Martin Luther King once said: “I have a dream”. Well, I’m one up on Martin Luther King, cause: “I have a bike”. And over this past holiday I realized that with a bike, you do not need to dream, because you will be living the dream!
It all started with a friend that was planning a 4x4 trip to the Transkei. Not wanting to be bored to death in a cage, we told him to fill the car with chicks… because we were going on our bikes!

GoonRider (Honda XR650 with “long distance tanks”  :imaposer and I (BMW Dakar) decided that we would leave a bit earlier than the bakkie so that we would have enough time to travel up the coast and to have some awesome rides along the way. With me being busy at work and Goon finishing up his Masters in Engineering, there really wasn’t any time for planning. So we just didn’t plan at all. No routes. No stop-over’s. No plans for food. No plans for accommodation. No budgeting… We were just going! (well, we tried the whole “planning a ride” thing… but nothing came of that…)

THE IDEA:
Goon aptly named our trip the Transkite trip as we were planning (this is how far the planning got) on taking our kitesurfing gear along to kite all along the coast whenever the wind was blowing. The problem for this was obviously that all the gear had to be carried on the bike  :eek7:. For those that are not in the know, the following minimum gear is required for kitesurfing: Kite (about the size of a very big backpack), Board (about 1,32m long and +- 35cm wide with fins on the bottom and footstraps on the top), a harnass and a pump (one of those yellow boat pumps)

THE “PREPARATIONS”
For preparation, I spend a lot of money. :'( Adding a centre stand (best purchase ever), tooltubes and some soft panniers and brackets made my bike “tour ready”. Maybe I should have done a bit more preparation… (more about that later)

Goon had to get a new back wheel, new sprockets and chain and a way to carry all his gear on the bike. Being a student and an engineer, he decided against buying a bracket, rather opting to build one himself. Day 1 of the trip moved out because the rack was still being built and painted.

DAY 1 (23 Dec 2009): CAPE TOWN TO WITSAND
Woke up at 04:45, loaded the bike and headed to Stellenbosch to meet up with Goon for the start of the trip only to arrive at a driveway looking more like a workshop… So while he completed his installation and loading, I was entertained by a few episodes of Nitro Circus  :thumleft: This definitely put me in the right frame of mind for the trip.
At 11:00 we were ready to depart, only to be greeted by a bit of rain… (“Goon, I thought you were arranging the weather.” “Nope Kreef, that was your job”) So off we went.

Right off the bat we decided to take the scenic route instead of the N2 and headed through Gordon’s towards Rooi-Els. This was the first test for the handling with the additional weight on the bikes (Last time I had “additional” weight on my bike, we fell in a corner which ended in the bike crushing my friends foot… so I was quite careful going around the first few corners).
Going past Fisherman’s Haven (just before Hermanus) we decided that the wind was strong enough and we pulled over for our first kitesurfing session of the trip. WOW!!! What a way to start off   :ricky: For security, we decided not to leave the bikes in the street with all our luggage on, so we knocked on the nearest house and they offered to keep our things safe   They even assisted when Goon had to tighten his chain a bit and their neighbors even gave Goon 2 x size 10 spanners should he need to adjust his chain again. This also pretty much set the tone for the rest of the trip, as everywhere we went people were willing to help us in any way they could. DAMN I LOVE SOUTH AFRICA!!

After this we headed to Cape Agulhas for a few pics on the most Southern point and to have a quick beer.

When we left Agulhas it was already quite late and we knew we would miss the Ferry to Witsand, so we headed back up to the N2 to make a wide detour around the Breederiver. We arrived in Witsand at 21:00 to a warm welcome from some friends. Beers and good food soon followed which in turn was followed by a lekker kuier at the local pub  :biggrin: Even though we didn’t travel to far today, we were exhausted so we headed to bed. Getting used to being in the saddle the whole day seems to be a process  

DAY 2 (24 Dec 2009): WITSAND TO GEORGE
We woke up to a beautiful morning in Witsand, which unfortunately mean we would not be enjoying a kitesurfing session in this world renowned kitesurfing spot  :crybaby2:

After a hearty breakfast and a 1 hour delay (for Goon to adjust his rear wheel again, as the chain was making quite a bit of noise) we hit the road again. Taking a lovely gravel road to Stilbaai, we also made some time for play…

My ‘mudguard’ was eaten by the rear wheel while taking a quick scenic trip down to ‘Die Puntjie’.

From here we headed to George, but not before making a quick stop at the “Map of Africa” in Wilderness

Again 5 star hospitality was experienced as we were welcomed into a friend of mine’s house for the night. “The Night Before Christmas” was spend with her and her family, having a great braai and drinking enough wine to quench the thirst of even the thirstiest hippo.

TO BE CONTINUED...

 

[Kreef]

DAY 3 (25 Dec 2009): X-MAS!!! GEORGE TO BAVIAANS
After an early morning jog, preparation was made for the day in the form of a lekker Bacon & Eggs breakfast, some route planning and the receiving of some Christmas presents  :mwink: The bikes were loaded and off we went… but not far. I had A LOT of rattling coming from somewhere on the bike. Listening very careful we estimated that the sound came from the rear shock or surroundings. At the next petrol station I realized that the clamp holding the exhaust manifold to the front pipes had come loose and was shaking a bit. Being an idiot, I took the exhaust in my hand to move it… OUCH!

Clamp tightened, we left again only to hear the same noise. This time we pulled over and tightened my chain which seem to dampen the sound somewhat… at this point I should have realized something was wrong…

We headed over the mountains on a small gravel pass and made way for Uniondale.

From here we took gravel roads through Zaaimansdal and into the Baviaanskloof. These were nice open roads and we were cruising faster than we were on the highways (we always kept a steady 100-110km/h on the tar roads as the XR is a bit on the ‘slow’ side. > This would be my first time going through Baviaans, but it will not be my last. (although, next time I will not go fully loaded with gear/clothes for a 1 ½ week trip). Beauty was all around

We pulled off next to the road and hid the bikes behind some bushes. This was to be our campsite for the night  : We had a lovely Xmas dinner (haha, year right), took some photos of our prezzies under our “xmas tree” and then called it an early night. I fell asleep to the sound of a herd of baboons coming down the mountain towards us. I was too tired to care. My hammock rocked me to sleep (PS, the hammock was the perfect bed as it was VERY compact and really comfortable)

DAY 4 (26 Dec 2009): BAVIAANS TO CANNON ROCKS
Before the sun could lay sight on us, we were on the bikes. For the past 2 days, it had been VERY hot and we were looking forward to the early start. Driving through the Baviaans was great experience with quite a bit of wildlife checking us out from the side or running across the road. I could see that Goon was having a really hard time keeping his front wheel on the ground. He had promised his dad that he would be ‘responsible’ and not do any wheelies (although he could have probably wheelied the whole way to Transkei  :headbang This was bothering him as there was constantly really nice roads and several river crossing which he wanted to wheelie over… but alas, he kept his promise.

Goon had told me about a boy that had cycled the Baviaans on an old bicycle with a suitcase hanging from his handlebars to prove to his dad that he was a man. Last time Goon when through the Baviaans they had met up with him on the top of the longest hill in the entire kloof… I thought this story was quite funny until I was riding up that very same hill. SHIT its long! And STEAP! You would have to pay for my ticket to the Dakar rally before I would even think of riding that with a bicycle… yet further on we saw several cyclist on mountain bikes that had done exactly that. I was in awe and felt REALLY lazy.

We exited the Baviaans with fond memories and a bit more riding experience than beforehand. We opted to skip Patensie and head down to Humansdorp. This meant that we had to go a little bit further before reaching our next fuel stop… and this almost proved disastrous for the XR. Fuel was switched to reserve and we had to tip the bike sideways a few times to make sure that all the petrol was on the right side  atch: BUT, we made it and promptly filled up. At the gas station, people were staring at us in amazement. We were dirty. Full of dust and smelling  ;D I checked my mirror and saw that I had VERY quickly grown a beard  O0

We headed down to J-bay to meet up with some friends and we waited for the wind to die down a little so that we too could kitesurf. But the wind stayed gale force strong and we decided to head on. This wind had however been playing havoc with Goon as his kitesurfing board was mounted upright and thus served as a sail to any winds coming from the side.

We rocked our way past PE heading towards Cannon Rocks. This was the only spot that we had ‘booked’ before hand, but we had not given a very accurate idea of when we would be showing up. We gave our fellow WildDog a call from under a bridge somewhere along the N2 to inform her of our final arrangements… we would be there in a few hours. :ricky:  We were informed that they were heading out for a family dinner, but that we were still welcome and we could just have a braai at their house. So some major big steaks were bought along with some dop and mix. We arrived in Cannon Rocks to an awesome wind blowing in the right direction. The sun was almost setting, but we would be kitesurfing SOON! We quickly made way for our house for the evening to drop our things off. Here we were greeted with such warm welcomes by PinkGoat and her family that I almost felt sorry leaving to go kitesurfing.

In every sport, there are a few moments that are magic and that just constantly remind you of why you are putting all the time, money and effort into that particular sport. Several of these moments occurred on the bike during this trip with the major one happening in Transkei, but this night we experienced true kitesurfing bliss. I was riding a nice small lefthander towards the beach with the sand blowing across the dune and the sun setting, casting a golden brown light over everything, including my bike that was standing in the parking lot. I had a brand new kite in the air (only my second session with it – and it was performing GREAT – PS, get yourself a Genetrix kite  :deal, the water was warm enough to kitesurf without a wetsuit and I had one of my best friends kitesurfing nearby. This was truly heaven!

We packed up in the last rays of daylight. We had an awesome braai in someone else’s house while they were not there (THANKS AGAIN PINKGOAT!) and eventually a lekker kuier with a fellow wilddog and all-around great gal. This trip was turning out to be a good one!

 

[Wabbit16]

:happy1:

aWESOME rr!!!!

 

[Thump]

Very good RR
Great pics

Well done

 

[JustJane]

Whoop whoop!! Finally, the RR I've been waiting for!! ;D
Not disappointed!!! Good reading and great pics! :thumleft: Looking forward to the rest..  :ricky:

 

[Wolfmother]

Subscribe..    :drif:

Keep it rolling..

 

[eikeboom]

Hell, this is an awesome trip!
:ricky:

 

[mrhyde]

so kreef,

what was the fuel consumption differences between the two piggies?

 

[Kreef]

Well, Goon would normally put in about 50% more than I did...

I would buy 10l and he would buy 15l at the same gas station ect

 

[MrBig]

:drif:
nice one guys!

 

[madmike999]

nice one guys

please more 8)

 

[Archangel]

Jis, ek is jaloers!!! Volgende keer moet julle 2 my saamvat! Kites en bikes...

 

[Kreef]

DAY 5 (27 Dec 2009): CANNON ROCKS TO HOGSBACK
Everyone had been going on and on about how amazingly beautiful Hogsback is, so we decided to head inland once again. We made a quick stop off in Port Alfred to check out the 43 Air School.

We headed North on the R343 and decided to take the gravel roads through Southwell. This was a great choice as you get to drive through some private game reserves… for free!

All the signs of “Beware of lions” made us a bit nervous, but the beauty of this area quickly filled every segment of my mind. I could not think about what we had done so far, or about work or about where we were going… I just loved every moment of bucks running in the road in front of us for 100’s of meters on end. We turned again and after Graham’s Town we again opted for gravel and went through the Double Drift game reserve (again for free).

We might have loved these roads… but the bikes didn’t… It felt like I was driving over Khayelitsha with the amount of “sinkplaat” road we were covering. We had to keep the speed up to minimize the vibrations, as the moment you slowed down the shaking become very “not lekker”. This was probably one of the hottest days of the trip and every time we stopped to take a picture, we were thankful that the bikes were running smoothly, as any repairs in that heat would have been a killer!

From Alice to Hogsback the road was good tar. Except for the occasional cow on the road, going was smooth. Climbing up the pass to Hogsback we were amazed and relieved by the sudden drop in temperature. Goon was staring at the scenery and ended up spotting a turn way too late. Some heavy braking and a near wipeout ensued.

Hogsback is one of those places that you just have to see. “That’s HOT” is the only way to describe it (we got tired of saying beautiful, amazing and awesome…) Here are a few random pics from Hogsback. We spend the night camping at the “Away with the fairies” backpackers.

DINNER

That night's party would come back to haunt Goon the next morning in the form of a lekker babelas!!

DAY 6 (28 Dec 2009): HOGSBACK TO MORGAN’S BAY (TRANSKEI – FINALLY)
An early morning walk in the forest let us to a group of bikers from Stutterheim. These okes were riding some really old bikes… They had cruised here at about 50km/h (the top speed of the slowest bike) and were just out to really enjoy the ride. THEY understood what riding was all about!!! They even shared their breakfast with us. THANKS GUYS!

Starting my bike I realized it wouldn’t idle. Keeping revs up was fine and riding was just as good, but the moment I closed the throttle she would just die  . There was a Christmas Day War Memorial that we had seen a sign for on the way to Hogsback. I told Goon to go check it out while I tried to fix the bike. It was warm again and I was sitting next to the road. I posted a question on WildDogs (https://wilddog.net.za/forum/index.php?topic=42593.0) and in 9 minutes I had received 2 answers. I was able to quickly sort out my bike, next to the road, more than a 1000km from home, without ANY experience, before Goon was even back. All I can say is: WILDDOGS ARE AMAZING!

Next stop would be King Williams Town. Several screws on our bikes had come loose during the heavy shaking of the day before. We needed nuts and bolts, and we needed them ASAP. Several cableties were holding things together… but only just. We managed to get the required help from some great people at a motorcycle repair shop. I cannot remember the name, but they have a small motorcycle on the roof and they are in Buffalo street. A big shout out to you guys for helping us out… again for free!

A quick lunch in a cockroach filled Steers later and we again mounted our steeds. As I was getting on the bike in the middle of the petrol station parking lot, the weight of the bike managed to pull me over and the bike fell down, much to the amusement of the locals  :imaposer: Luckily my soft luggage prevented any damage.
A quick stop in East London for some kitesurfing spare parts and we were off to Morgan’s Bay.

This would be the end of our “Bikes only trip” and from here we travelled together with 5 more friends in their bakkie…
Sunset to prove to be extremely beautiful!

NOW, THE TRANSKEI FUN STARTED... (to be continued)

 

[Kreef]

DAY 7 (29 Dec 2009): MORGAN’S BAY TO MAZEPPA BAY
A quick kitesurfing session in the morning turned out to be longer than expected and some of the girls got quite bad sunburns from lying on the beach waiting for us  >. I also managed to badly injure my calf muscles as well as my knee with a kite jump that I knew beforehand was not going to end well. This affected me later in the day as I had delayed reactions on the rear brake… and even when I managed to brake, it hurt like hell.

We had no real destination for the night, as we had not booked any accommodation. We decided to see how far we could get and just put up camp there. Just out of Morgan’s Bay, there was a turn-off onto a “regional” road. This turned out to be nothing more than 2 tracks on a grass field, but we decided to take this route none the less… the bakkie as well.

I do not know if I was dreaming or not, but this road turned out to be one of the ‘best’ of the trip. We were rolling up and down grassy hills, we were doing some very technical sections followed by nice fast stretches. We eventually ended up on a hill next to a valley that we would have to cross. And this to me was another perfect moment in sport. There we were, 7 friends looking out over a grass fill valley surrounded by rolling green hills. Right in the middle of the valley was a nice river crossing and on either side the road strenched scenically accross the hills. This… was going to be fun!

We continued on, stopping at several little “resorts”. We eventually reached Mazeppa Bay a little before sunset and decided that this would be our town of choice for the evening. Unfortunately the hotel was full. Camping it is then  :thumleft:. We drove around the town for a few minutes until we found this wonderful spot. Camp was set up followed by some swimming, some bike maintenance and then a huge steak braai!

DAY 8 (30 Dec 2009): MAZEPPA BAY TO ANCHORAGE BAY
A not so early start saw us departing from Mazeppa Bay. I will definitely be coming back to this hotel someday. Even though they did not have room for us, we still made full use of the really nice bar facilities.

As we were driving towards the next turn-off, Goon (the scout) return with the news: “There’s no way the bakkie is going down there!” This road, only marked on the Slingsby map as ‘4x4’ was to be our more direct approach at reaching our next destination. After some further investigation, the bakkie turned around and took the long way round.

The bikes however, was made for this, so we started down this grueling rocky road.

Hands down, this was more difficult than any other route that I had ever taken. I will definitely be back to do this with a plastic bike!

Heading out the kloof, we ran into a very steep hill. Little to no traction was provided to get over the soccer ball sized rocks that littered our route to the top. Goon made it… JUST. I didn’t make it. As I was heading up, giving gas to get momentum for the next part, the front wheel hit a rock bouncing it into the air. The power from behind must have been too much as the bike wheelied upwards. I managed to jump off sideways just as the bike started rolling over backwards. Not once, not just twice, but 2 and a half times this massive machine rolled down the hill. Adrenalin kicked in and I again could walk very easily with the leg that I had hurt the previous day.

We picked up the bike to assess the damage. Mostly cosmetic… and a bent handlebar. Pushed the starter button: Nothing. Pressed it again: Nothing. On the 3rd try it roared (well, as much as a Dakar can ‘roar’) to live. It was BLOODY hot, but we pushed and lifted the bike to the top (as there was no other way of rescue). We had made it out of the valley. The handle bar was quite badly bent, so we made a quick stop over at a ‘construction’ site and we managed to bend the handlebar with a piece of wood.

The entire way through I kept on thinking: “This can be either Heaven or Hell. Depends on who you ask and when you ask them”. Me: I remember it as Heaven!

With the bike a bit battered and the roads not all that well, we headed to the N2 enroute to Coffee Bay. People were making ready for one hell of a New Years party. Not once, not twice but three times I was offered Schrooms. We quickly made way for Anchorage Bay which was to be our home for the next few days.
The bikes were parked and unloaded… and then they waited.

DAY 11/12 (02/03 Jan 2010): ANCHORAGE BAY TO CHINTSA
We had an amazing time at Anchorage bay, but all good things have to come to an end. The rest of the people were heading up to Port St Johns for a few more days of fun, but I had to be back at work.

After a detour to Hole in the Wall, I set off on the long road home. The plan was to see how far I could get before sunset and just stay there before hitting the last part of the N2 to Cape Town. This however did not go exactly as planned.
About 3 hours into the ride, something started feeling very weird with the bike. I stopped to investigate and realized that my rear sprocket was completely worn  :eek7: This is something that I had not checked at all before the trip and it was now coming back to bite me in the arse.

I continued on to the nearest backpackers that I knew of and posted an urgent request for help on WD (Remember, this was at 8PM on a SATURDAY) I had very little hope of actually getting any valuable feedback. https://wilddog.net.za/forum/index.php?topic=42742.0

Once again, however, a WD stepped in to help. BMWPE, thank you so much for the tip. I got the number for Alan Lewis in PE. A quick call later and I WAS SET!! He had a sprocket that he could sell to me. I can come in at 11:00 on Sunday!
ALAN LEWIS, you are a true hero. He took time out on a Sunday to help me replace my sprocket. He did not even charge me any labor cost.

After that it was the long haul back to Cape Town. A few dodgy moments were had, as my taillight was broken and only my brights worked… but I made it home at 21:30. I was relieved and very saddened at the same time.

THE SUMMARY:
TOTAL DISTANCE: 3800 km
This was my first long trip but it will definitely not be my last. Fond memories were made and great friendships were made even stronger.
On a daily basis I was impressed with people’s willingness to help out and I was truly amazed by the absolute beauty that our country holds.

Transkei: I will definitely be back!

 

[GlenInk (R.I.P)]

Very good ! The Transkei is an awesome place ! Glad you enjoyed  :thumleft:

 

[JonW]

A great read.

Really enjoyed your Ride Report and the pics.

Well Done.

 

[Watty]

on a lekker report !

 

[Misty]

wow - awesome RR I've read in a while! love the kites, places and pics - esp the one of rider in mirror with the green hills :thumleft:

 

[AntonW]

Sweet ride. The transkei is my next holiday ride.

 

[Archangel]

Kreef, gooi daar n piccie van hoe die dakkie lyk na jou wipe out?