Archive of BMW Motorrad Club Cape (2006 - 2019)

Firstly, there are no pics for this ride report. Sorry. They just did not happen. But, if you are looking for an interesting morning route near Cape Town, read on…

My friend Johnny is not normal.

That is to say, he has abnormal bike-riding skills, which I guess comes with the territory if you have been riding bikes for a few decades, including successfully racing dirt bikes. For the record, he rides an Orange Beast with the most divine rumble when idling (I’m never close enough to hear it when it’s moving), but we won’t hold that against him.

Once in a while, I get invited along when Johnny and the boys go out to play, but only when they are planning a very short, very slow (for him) ride to a coffee shop. Having played on the new Enduro stuff at Zone 7 on Saturday, Johnny was a little lazy and therefore planned a slow breakfast ride to Riebeeck Kasteel (with his wife as pillion) yesterday, so my husband and I went along.

The day started out quite well.

We left the southern suburbs and headed out to Durbanville, hitting the first gravel of the day on the Slent road (the extension of Wellington road out of Durbanville, past the silos and wind turbines).

While I can still keep up on tar, Johnny does not slow down when he hits gravel (or sand, or corners, for that matter). I even suspect he speeds up when he hits gravel. That said, I know Mach 3 on gravel is not quite my thing, so I continue at my pace & the boys simply (have to) wait for me at intersections etc.

The Slent road was recently graded, so even I did not have to slow down much.

About half-way down the Slent road is a turn-off to your right where the board reads "Leeuwendans". It looks like just a farm road but is a public road, winding through lovely farms to join up with the Hoogstede road near Voorpaardeberg. With its white surface that had me thinking “Sand Monster!!” a few times, I was somewhat slower on this section than on the Slent section, but still, so far so good.

The Leeuwendans road joins up with the Hoogstede (gravel) road, which eventually joins up with the Voorpaardeberg/Windmeul (tar) road. We turned right onto Voorpaardeberg, left onto the R44 for a km or two and left onto Voorpaardeberg to ride the short gravel Schooneoord section to rejoin the Voorpaardeberg/Sonop road (whoever named three different roads ‘Voorpaardeberg’ did not have much imagination) to the T-junction with the R45.

Google and Garmin will both tell you that there is a public gravel road (also looks like just a farm road) continuing across the R45, joining up with the gravel road leading from Wellington to Hermon. The road winds its way through lovely farms and offered good quality gravel (in winter this road turns to muddy slush, though).

Then we turned left onto the Wellington-Hermon gravel road.

Johnny took off with a leap of joy, disappearing over the horizon in a large dust cloud within seconds. I waved Gav on and set off at a more sedate speed of around 80km/h.

About 5 min later my comfort zone took temporary leave of absence.

The boys had been riding in the two tracks on the left of the road; for some reason I ended up in the ‘3rd’ track, i.e. on the right of the road. Roughly halfway down a long downhill, I hit a series of unseen sand-filled potholes; the bike starting to snake, buck, jump and jive like a rodeo horse on steroids. I vaguely recall wondering if the front wheel had gone down.

An eternity later I got the bike under control and stopped in the middle of the road. Nope, front wheel was still fine.

Somewhat gingerly, I continued - my comfort zone having returned, but now shrunk in size to a small web barely covering the bike.

Oblivious to my escapade, the boys were waiting at the end of the gravel, and we turned left onto tar for Riebeeck Kasteel, the need for coffee even allowing me to open up the throttle a bit again.

I had forgotten that my dear friend does not ever ride the shortest route between two points if there is an interesting detour to be had; in this case the detour being a narrow gravel road inbetween the farms on the right of the tar.

So off we went; the idea of having to wait for my coffee causing a few whimpers to escape from my helmet.

I got a bit concerned when farm names like “Sandkraal” started popping up, but the road never got too bad and around 20 min later we finally did pull into Riebeeck Kasteel.

Café Felix was closed for a function, so we went to Bar Bar Black Sheep, where their ‘Turkish eggs” (soft-poached free-range eggs on creamy spicy mushrooms, served with homemade bread and some greens) and a few coffees did much to restore my equilibrium.

“It’s only 70km home,” the boys were saying. I perked up substantially.

Only much later I would realize they had the distance quite wrong. Or rather, it’s quite possible to get home from RK to CPT in 70 km, but that was not the route they had in mind.

So, we went over Bothmaskloof Pass, and then turned right onto the lovely gravel road that connects up with the road coming from Riebeeck-West. Stunning scenery, mild coffee buzz, life was good.

Then we turned left onto the Riebeeck-West-Malmesbury gravel road. Man oh man oh man.

Gravel. No, not gravel, marbles. Lots of them.

Sand.

Car tracks weaving through the gravel and sand, ensuring there were no straight lines to follow.

My comfort zone took one last look at all of this and fled. I think it’s still out there, cowering behind a tree.

Eventually I discovered that what worked best for me was to simply scream into my helmet, bend the arms and legs, throw the bum backwards over the rear wheel to un-weight the front wheel, and keep the throttle steady (and the screams loud).

We got to Malmesbury, and I sent up a quick prayer of thanks, thinking that - surely - we would now take the most direct (tar) road back home.

No.

We turned left, back towards Paarl. Back to the Slent gravel road; the full distance this time. Across to the silos, then right onto the Philadelphia road. Left onto the Occultsdale gravel. Left onto Adderley. Right onto the Malanshoogte gravel.

And then, finally, thankfully, there were no more detours available so we went home.

So, this coming weekend I think I have to go back to the Malmesbury/Riebeeck-West section to ride it a few times. Perhaps, if I’m really lucky, I may even find my Comfort Zone again.

See you out there.