Triptus Interuptus

[Stephan]

Sunday morning Red and myself headed towards Hills and Dales again to continue exploring and get some more saddle time.

Found a new sign claiming that it is Kareebosrand Conservancy.

Took the same route that Groenie and myself took the other time towards plot 35 to show Red the sights. This really is a lovely area to ride and recharge.

Red crossing a small stream

On returning to the turnoff to the bridge we met up with two other riders on scramblers, Robin and Nico. After chatting it became clear that Robin knew the area extremely well, he offered to show us the route from Hills and Dales to Hekpoort, using mainly dirt roads with some tar sections. This suited us well and we set off. But as Droff posted ?The best laid plans of mice and men ?.? As we arrived at the low water bridge that Groenie and Miena Moo took such delight in it was obvious that today it was not the placid stream of their excursion, the water was running quite strongly at close to knee height.

As we looked on with misgivings as to whether we would tackle this crossing, Robin started crossing. After crossing about a third of the bridge he got swept off the bridge nearly drowning himself and losing the bike as it was swept downstream.

He managed to hold on to the bike and pick it up again holding on for dear life until Nico and myself could get to him to help recovering the bike. After a bit of a struggle we got the bike back on dry land.

Then the struggle to get the bike operational again started. First we tried putting the bike in 4 gear and rocked it backwards, with the bike coughing up great big gobs of water out of the exhaust.

Trying the start the engine soon convinced us that this had not been successful. We decided to remove the plug to dry it. As we did not have an 8 spanner we could not remove the seat but could only remove the 2 front bolts on the seat allowing us to partially lift the seat and fuel tank, enough to get the plug spanner in and remove the plug. The engine was flooded, pressing the starter resulted in more great big gobs of water going everywhere. Dried the plug and replaced it, no joy.

Repeated the process, plug wet again when we removed it. Eventually we turned the bike upside down after removing the plug again to try and drain all the water.

No luck, although the plug was firing, the bike would not start. We gave it up as a bad job and Robin got onto Nico?s bike and headed back home to go and fetch the bakkie. We loaded the bike onto the bakkie and strapped it down for the trip back.

While we were busy with the bike Red saw this sign that had be put up. Seems someone is confused, as far as I know this area is Tshwane not Jo?burg?

As we started on the way back we saw a surprise visitor heading the other way, with full intent to leave dry land and head for the water. The terrapin had no intention of being stopped and chose the shortest route passing underneath Red?s bike and crossing her boot on his way.

Robin, Nico and ourselves parted ways after exchanging contact details. The trip to Hekpoort postponed to another day after the Suzuki had had some treatment at the dealership.

 

[krazy-eyes]

the first sign is on a section of road open to anybody - seems like a desperate attempt by the locals to keep it exclusive.
the second sign is next to a fenced off area that seems pointless to enter anyway, as the gravel roads are more than enough fun.

and finally, looking at the pic of the swollen river, i kinda knew how the story would end....eish....better luck next time :wink:

 

[spyker]

I also crossed that same river a few times. The first time I saw it it looked like this.. And no, I did not even attempt to cross it. I did take my boots of and waded about 5 meters into the river, just to get a feel for the current, and all I can say is THERE IS NO WAY IN HELL THAT I WILL ATTEMPT IT!!!

A week later, it looked like this before I crossed it..

This is the same day just from the other side after crossing it..

 

[chrisB]

Thanks for sharing Stephan it looks awesome, nice going there RED!!! 8)

 

[Kev]

I can just hear the screams: "WHEEEEEEE!!!!!"

:lol:

 

[Welsh]

I also crossed that same river a few times. The first time I saw it it looked like this.. And no, I did not even attempt to cross it. I did take my boots of and waded about 5 meters into the river, just to get a feel for the current, and all I can say is THERE IS NO WAY IN HELL THAT I WILL ATTEMPT IT!!!

A week later, it looked like this before I crossed it..

This is the same day just from the other side after crossing it..

I have been through a few times, beware if it is murky, 1/3 the way across there is big hole in the concrete about where Robin lost it, maybe why?

Welsh 8) 8)

 

[shark_za]

There is am art to draining am offroad bike.
Check Litos post in the tips section for a primer.

Dont try start if the piston is not moving freely, any resisitance and you are going to mess things up.
Biggest caution is to get the spark lead covered and away from the scene, there is lots of petrol all over the place and you dont need sparks just yet.

You must make sure you drain the exhaust properly, close all the overflow pipes and put the bike on its bars/seat like you did with the plug removed.
In gear turn the wheel for a while, till it stops dripping water.

With the bikes exhaust and airbox drained, and the bike upright again, try with dried plug.
If no luck drain the carb and have another go.
This is usually all thats needed.

KDX started on the 3rd kick... But then it is a Kawasaki.

 

[MuttsNutts]

THanks for the pics, Looks another situation where road has been declared by the local as private.

My farm in the eastern cape is in a conservancy and I can for a fact tell you that I cannot block the proclaimated road that run past/over it.

 

[Red]

I can just hear the screams: "WHEEEEEEE!!!!!"

:lol:

Oh yes!

 

[BlouVark]

:shock: Swimzuki eh

Stephan, I see the sign says it has been gazetted as a nature reserve, private road. If it's "gazetted", is it "law" or can it also mean that it has basically only been "applied" for? Am I making any sense??

There is a dirt road from Vaalbank past the "shoppie" that runs along the N4 & ends up at the off ramp close to Rayton. I was stopped by a guy, waiting for me in the middle of the road on foot, telling me that I'm tresspassing & that's it's a private road & I'm making too much noise (1150GS with standard exhaust, yeah right). There are no signs claiming this or gates restricting access, so I told him to fluck off. Heard of some guys who did this route as well & they were chased by some guys on a bakkie after they were also stopped:shock:

 

[Stephan]

BV

The sign can virtually say anything, does not have to be legal or correct. As Mutts pointed out in his post evan if it was a conservancy it does not change the status of the road, what it does do is proscribe the activities and other things that may be done on the smallholdings itself. According to my research they applied to Tshwane have it declared a conservancy, the application was declined, therefor the conservancy does not exist.

The sign also refers to Jo'burg, the area forms part of Tshwane. The road itself is public servitude and was proclaimed as such when the smallholdings were cut up in the first place, willing to bet on that one, and as such they cannot deny any member of the public access or use of the road.

The crux of their argument (based on my conversation with the chairlady of the residents association in area) revolves around the fact that they pay levies to maintain the road (refer the Kareebosrand pic) and as such reckons that they have the right to decide who gets to use it.

The other aspect is that a servitude does not neccesarilly have to be proclaimed to attain the legal status of servitude. Example, a road runs across my land and I allow my neighbour to use it as a matter of courtesy as traveling via the servitude road would entail an hour's drive. A common law servitude comes into being after he had used the road for a specific period (think 5 years) and I will thereafter not be able to deny anyone access to this road.

Having said all of the above, I am no legal eagle, it would be worthwhile asking a legal eagle's opinion in this regard. Can't believe that we do not have a legal eagle as a member or access to one via a member.

 

[BlouVark]

Thanks for the info Stephan.


Sorry for the hi-jack

 

[Welsh]

I had a chat with one of the "owners" about a year or so ago, unfortunately I must report that they have issues.

No this is not Kwat bashing, but they are close to the "affluent North" they have a problem, with Kwats and MX,ers riding on there land (or maybe in some cases what they percieve as there land) and in some cases the Kwat riders have got abusive and violent when they are aproached about it!

A legal road/servitude does not mean you can ride a non legal vehicle on it?

Welsh :evil: :evil:

 

[wino]

as far as i'm aware, a servitude does not inherently give access to the public. a servitude is merely a form of a real right in property, as opposed to a personal right. e.g. you and i are farming neighbours and you want quicker access across my land to yours. i register a servitude over part of my land in your name that gives you that access. (it does not automatically give everybody access). when i die, the servitude remains in place due to its nature as a real right. if it was a personal right, it would have been lost. think also of the vodacom/mtn towers on farm land. that small piece of land on which the tower is may be a servitude in favour of the telcom. it does not, however, give me the right to go park on that piece of land. just a way to have an embedded right in land, without actually owning the land itself.
but, i'm no legal eagle, thus stand to be corrected.

 

[Stephan]

Wino, you're correct, not all servitudes are public access. However when a farm is subdivided into small holdings, the access roads are always defined as public servitudes (I think this is a prerequisite for the subdivision) and are registered as such with the Deeds Office.

Not all servitudes are registered with the Deeds Office either, in a number of cases a servitude comes into being as a result of a contractual agreement between 2 or more legal entities. A number of Escom's and Telkom's servitudes arise from this (no building allowed 6m either side of the center line). Most of these types of servitudes are exclusive use. In some cases these are also registered with the Deeds Office as exclusive use.

The default servitude type for common law (usage based) servitudes, as far as I know, is public access.

On the small holdings, where we are, near Parys, all of the access roads were registered as public access, and as such we are unable to deny access to anyone irrespective of the fact that we pay levies to maintain the roads. There is a strip of land fronting on the river that had been registered as exclusive use for the farm owner for irrigation purposes (not the individual but the farm owner whoever he may be at that point in time). We also have the Escom servitude, that we were not informed about at the time of purchase and I found out about the hard (read expensive) way.

But as I said, think we should ask someone who knows and understands all the twists and turns of this, especially as we are gonna keep getting confronted with this as we ride.