My work was kind enough to give me a weekend break from working in the Cape and I must say it was much needed. My girlfriend is on holiday with her mom in East London so I had the weekend all to myself. Next question was what to do ? Well if you own a bike it's pretty obvious right ! Getting back on a bike without riding for three odd weeks was heaven, I could not wait to get on the dirt. Had a good ride some weeks ago towards Cullinan and Rust De Winter so I knew excactly where to go.
It was a late start, close to 12 I got going taking the tar towards Cullinan. It's a small little town made famous by a shiny stone found here years ago. It still retains the old world charm much like Knysna and Hogsback.
And every town such as this seems to come standard with a quient little church.
But there is something else you will also find here, chromed Harleys and city slickers driving sixty odd kays to pay double for coffee. Now I don't know about you but I ride to avoid crowds and the buzz of everday city life so when I saw the crowds I decided to hightail out of there, the dirt was waiting >
Ahh my office for the day.
Some three kays outside of Cullinan I found the first stretch for the day, an easy dirt route meandering through the very green countryside. I glanced down at the GPS and noticed I was about to cross into Mpumalanga, even the trail got a bit more interesting.
The route lead me past old abondoned farm buildings and looking at the state of the roads it is not used that much anymore. Some nasty ruts also ran all over the track from the recent rains. A quick stop and finishing the Coke I bought in town, no one around just birds chirping .... aah life's good !
I was about to bid the dirt roads fairwell as I headed into the hills, it's really overgrown and you need in most cases to make your own path. The occasional anthill made life interesting in the tall grass.
I was not sure on which side of the river I should have been but in the distance I saw the tar road which would link me up to my next stretch of dirt. Some kids were playing in the river and when they saw me coming they ran hell for leather back home ! Their parents must have warned them about bikers ;D
Playing along the river was fun allbeit a bit slippery in places.
More singletrack.
The next bit was really dense and full off thorn trees in some places I had to ride straight across fallen branches. Really lucky I did not pick up a puncture. I guess that heavy duty tubes really works. This was some great riding.
Ask Runner and Allover about this watercrossing, it looks all innocent untill you get halfway and it just swallows your bike This time I decided on taking the right hand side and it turned out to be much better. Wonder why they said I should go left last time around camera in hand :-\ >
It's a hard knock life out here.
Nearing Kwamahlanga's hills made for more interesting riding allthough pretty technical. It's very rocky with steep uphills and downhills. Probaly not the best place to ride on your own, it's very easy to drop your bike here or take wrong lines like I did
Going up.
And dropping into the valley below, it really is beautifull though. Singletrack with steep drop off's in some places. I was about to have a bit off a tough time down there.
Now some days it feels like you are finding every single ditch and hole possible to neek into, well this was that day. My rear 606 is toast and this may have added to my woes down there. I was also getting very tired, funny since last time I was here it was hotter and I had much less dificulty in getting through this part. Down here a GPS is not much use. It looks like you are on track only to ride five meters from were you should and then running into a dead end. Note the absense of any visible trail ;D
It had to happen and as I tried climbing out of the ravine and the back slid on the lip and I went down. Usually I pick up my bike asap but in true Wilddog tradition I had to take a pic first ;D
The fall flooded the bike and you just know what happened next. The starter turned over but the bike did not fire. I could hear the battery slowly losing voltage. Great stuck in this hole and with the battery about to quit that R2000 optional kickstart kit seemed like a bargain to me ! I switched off and gave the bike some time to hopefully "unflood" ;D
One more time I gave it a go and just before the starter cranked no more it fired woohoo ! I was out of there. It was a fun ride but I was in the need for some food and drink and headed back to Pretoria via Roodeplaat dams way.
The bike ran very strong with the new 440 kit and the ex MetalJockey IMS tank worked a charm and survived a crash but I'm not sure it will give more mileage than the Clarke, I will have to see. All in all it was good to be home. And that folks is how I spent my Saturday ;D
It was a late start, close to 12 I got going taking the tar towards Cullinan. It's a small little town made famous by a shiny stone found here years ago. It still retains the old world charm much like Knysna and Hogsback.
And every town such as this seems to come standard with a quient little church.
But there is something else you will also find here, chromed Harleys and city slickers driving sixty odd kays to pay double for coffee. Now I don't know about you but I ride to avoid crowds and the buzz of everday city life so when I saw the crowds I decided to hightail out of there, the dirt was waiting >
Ahh my office for the day.
Some three kays outside of Cullinan I found the first stretch for the day, an easy dirt route meandering through the very green countryside. I glanced down at the GPS and noticed I was about to cross into Mpumalanga, even the trail got a bit more interesting.
The route lead me past old abondoned farm buildings and looking at the state of the roads it is not used that much anymore. Some nasty ruts also ran all over the track from the recent rains. A quick stop and finishing the Coke I bought in town, no one around just birds chirping .... aah life's good !
I was about to bid the dirt roads fairwell as I headed into the hills, it's really overgrown and you need in most cases to make your own path. The occasional anthill made life interesting in the tall grass.
I was not sure on which side of the river I should have been but in the distance I saw the tar road which would link me up to my next stretch of dirt. Some kids were playing in the river and when they saw me coming they ran hell for leather back home ! Their parents must have warned them about bikers ;D
Playing along the river was fun allbeit a bit slippery in places.
More singletrack.
The next bit was really dense and full off thorn trees in some places I had to ride straight across fallen branches. Really lucky I did not pick up a puncture. I guess that heavy duty tubes really works. This was some great riding.
Ask Runner and Allover about this watercrossing, it looks all innocent untill you get halfway and it just swallows your bike
This time I decided on taking the right hand side and it turned out to be much better. Wonder why they said I should go left last time around camera in hand :-\ >
It's a hard knock life out here.
Nearing Kwamahlanga's hills made for more interesting riding allthough pretty technical. It's very rocky with steep uphills and downhills. Probaly not the best place to ride on your own, it's very easy to drop your bike here or take wrong lines like I did
Going up.
And dropping into the valley below, it really is beautifull though. Singletrack with steep drop off's in some places. I was about to have a bit off a tough time down there.
Now some days it feels like you are finding every single ditch and hole possible to neek into, well this was that day. My rear 606 is toast and this may have added to my woes down there. I was also getting very tired, funny since last time I was here it was hotter and I had much less dificulty in getting through this part. Down here a GPS is not much use. It looks like you are on track only to ride five meters from were you should and then running into a dead end. Note the absense of any visible trail ;D
It had to happen and as I tried climbing out of the ravine and the back slid on the lip and I went down. Usually I pick up my bike asap but in true Wilddog tradition I had to take a pic first ;D
The fall flooded the bike and you just know what happened next. The starter turned over but the bike did not fire. I could hear the battery slowly losing voltage. Great stuck in this hole and with the battery about to quit that R2000 optional kickstart kit seemed like a bargain to me ! I switched off and gave the bike some time to hopefully "unflood" ;D
One more time I gave it a go and just before the starter cranked no more it fired woohoo ! I was out of there. It was a fun ride but I was in the need for some food and drink and headed back to Pretoria via Roodeplaat dams way.
The bike ran very strong with the new 440 kit and the ex MetalJockey IMS tank worked a charm and survived a crash but I'm not sure it will give more mileage than the Clarke, I will have to see. All in all it was good to be home. And that folks is how I spent my Saturday ;D
