Archive of BMW Motorrad Club Cape (2006 - 2019)

 

Thursday: 9 August

 

The excitement was high and we were ready for a long weekend of Dirt roads, snow and lots of Meat.

Being woman's day we were met at Hamman Motorrad by hundreds of people participating in an annual woman’s walk. The roads were closed, but as we were an amazing group of guys an alternative arrangement was quickly established and Sportsman’s Warehouse became our meeting place.

Our meeting place 

 09h00. a quick stop at the Winelands 1 Stop to empty the bladders.    "Are we all ready?" "Yes, let’s go" and off we went with Iwan hot on our heels in the support vehicle. And what a support vehicle it was. One of the latest Ford Double cabs with the coolest wheels you will see ready for whatever terrain that gets thrown at us.

Iwan and his truck

Our first official stop was in Ceres at the Wimpy for a quick coffee. But we were only five guys and the support vehicle. Mmmm where could the rest of the guys be? I could have sworn that Antonie said we were going over Bainskloof, so why did we drive all the way around through Riebeeck kasteel? "Hey guys, who were waiting for us at the 4 way, stop just before Wellington?" "No one we just followed the rest of the group that turned left at the stop sign". "You don’t perhaps mean the two guys on BMW's that was on their way to Ed’s diner in Riebeeck kasteel?" LOL

 

The confusion and the real route

"Here they come!" After a lekker laugh and a warm beverage we got to our first dirt road. YES!

It was clear that we were very lucky in the sense that if we passed through these roads a few days earlier it would have been very slippery, but due to the traffic that came before us we had two nicely carved paths to follow. Matjiesfontein was our next stop and after a bite to eat we set off to Lainsburg.

 

Just missed the mud!

Some wet bits

Some more wet Bits

Lekker

Lunch time

 Now keeping in mind that I took a bit of a detour before Ceres and the fact that my range computer was on zero for the last 40km's I was quite nervous if I would even make it to Lainsburg. It was a big relieve when my bike took its final gulp of fuel about 50 meters before the Shell ultra city and I could literally coast to the pump. 47 Km of tar and back on the dirt we went for the last stretch before we got to our destination for the weekend, Merweville.

The last stretch before Merweville

Just a bit more, Fun!

House Mervia is the local Boarding house for the Primary school on Merweville. It houses 42 under-privileged children of which 23 are from families here in Cape Town that cannot afford to look after them. Being a long weekend they got to visit their families and it was empty; we would be based here for the duration of our stay.

Besides going to have a nice break on our GS's part of our trip's purpose was to take some toiletries and towels to these kids, and with the help of Antonie (Enduro riders) Rory ( T-Systems ) and Morne ( MTG Electrical ) we managed to provide these basic necessities to all the kids. The school fees per child are R150 per month to cover their education, board and lodging. Currently only 4 kids can afford to pay school fees.

For the kids: Some off them.

Thanks Guys: Some of the goodies

Thanks T-Systems: They also came along

  Blankets, Towles and Shower bags.

 We were all so touched by the good work that was being done at this school that we all decided to contribute in our own ways to make the lives of these children better.

Dinner and here all the eating starts. A traditional Karoo potjie was prepared for us and when I say it was a big plate of food I was not kidding. This thing was heaped to the sealing with the tenderest peace of lamb I have eaten in a while. Magies vol, Ogies toe.

Meal 1: Lamb Potjie

 

Friday: 10 August.

Barely having time to digest our last meal, we were met by the next. (The trend for the rest of our stay) Breakfast was a full English plus VAT. Bacon, eggs, boerewors, tomatoes and Plaas brood, Wimpy eat your heart out. Trommel duk and we were ready to take on the day

Breakfast plus VAT

Bring on the Legend of Merweville. A 1970's K100RT mounted by Oom Antonie aged 70 (this duo hence forth known as THE LEGEND) with Anthonie's brother pillion was going to be our leader for the day showing us the sites of Merweville.

THE LEGEND

Our first stop would be at the top of a hill overlooking the town. A narrow path snaking its way up the hill gave our newbie’s a taste of the type of riding that we would be doing. At the top we could actually see how small the town really is. Barely covering the size of Century City's bottom floor, this is truly a Karoo Dorpie.

Just closing the gate before we tackle the hilll

 

 

Down the hill and off to the farm of Oom Petrus Janse van Vuuren and his amazing collection of nearly 50 guns. His most-prized gun being a Muaser valued at close to R 50 000. He proudly showed them to us and explained the whole process of how you go about to start such a hobby. You could clearly see this guy is a perfectionist; his entire yard was raked like a Japanese Zen garden.

Guns Guns GunsGuns Guns Gunsand more Guns

The zen Garden

Before we left a phone call was made to let the people in town know we are on the way so that they could get our next meal ready for the support vehicle to pick up. Imagine my amazement when I saw Antonie's mom make this call on one of those Nommer asseblief slinger type phones to the local exchange. Flippen awesome. I doubt any of today’s kids even know that such a thing exists.

We found ourselves on the dirt road connecting Merweville and Southerland simply riding amongst the most amazing scenery you could imagine. The Swartberg Mountains covered in snow being the most prominent feature. Winding up a pass THE LEGEND took us to a deserted shed at the highest peak of the road only stopping because….Yes you guessed it, it was time for lunch. Like all of our meals thus far this one would not disappoint. Two frikkedelle a boiled egg, a piece of Sout tert, two slices of salami, some form of savoury bread and a chicken drum stick…..O my goodness.

I love my JobMeal 2

rest for lunch 

 

covered in snow

 

 

 

 

Stuffed to the brim we made our way back along the same route allowing us to see what we missed on the way up.

We made a right on to another dirt road about 30 km before town setting of THE LEGGEND's farm. Pulling in to a random gate along the fence line it was clear that the action was about to start. I noticed that this road was not used often and that we were in for a treat. At the next gate there it was "bum bum bummmmm” SAND. A few guys were quite excited to put their skills to the test, but quite a few were shaking in their boots. After a quick pep talk and a "YOU CAN DO IT!!!!" Wynand led the way to show us how it’s done with Bert and the rest of the Guys following. It was quite a tricky piece of road so 2 or 3 or 5 of the guys did end up taking a few breaks with their tired bikes also taking a rest on their sides. All this while THE LEGEND casually made his way past the bodies’ Struan across the road. Now if a K100RT can ride sand then a GS should definitely be able to do it. Shaun kept the flags flying with a flawless run. Well done.

 

Lets tackle that SAND!

 

My trusty steed

Taking it easy

Almost

Go! Morne

 

 

 

Our next stop was a Windpomp (nogals a CLIMAX) in the middle of nowhere with an orange tree carrying the sweetest fruit you will find. Yes, we ate again but we did not feel too guilty about it. From here we made our way to THE LEGENDS farm house. After a day of hard riding we were pretty tired and believe me the mouths could not stop flapping about our fun in the sand. We had a big laugh at Pieter as he was so nervous for the powdery stuff that he even walked around it to prevent him from possibly falling.

lemoen boom

Lekker soet

 

By die LEGENDE se Plaas.

Die beste Pomp op die plaas

 

Pasop die sand

 

vuur

 

After a couple of hours of relaxing, and keeping in mind all the calories we burned, it was that time again. Out came the freshly made crumbed mushrooms, Karoo droewors and skaap stertjies all the while Anthonie was busy braa'ing what seemed like 2 lambs a few chickens and about 4 meters of wors. That night around the dinner table dressed with all the meat, homemade beet salad, baked potatoes and some toss salad ( can you believe it )the conversations ranged from Wynand trying to convince Oom Anthonie to sell him his 1970's lounge suite to a debate when the last lions were around in the Karoo. By the way I am still convinced there was such a thing as “Berg Leeus". If you think that this was where the eating stopped for the night, you were wrong. Ice cream topped with crushed Romany Creams, nuts, wild Africa Cream and a Cherry on top was the Grand Finale.

 

Nou soek ons lê plek

 

Now, we still had 30kms to go, to get back to our place of rest, and with most of the guys actually keen to sleep right there on the lounge floor. We set of back to Merweville in the black of the Karoo night. If you've never done a group rides on the dirt at night you would not know how cool it was to see the 14 red tail lights snaking their way into the dark, still trying to keep you’re following distance to avoid the dust. Anthonie thought it good to pull us over onto a dried out pan so that we can appreciate the night sky. WOW! Good call. We lay on our backs and stared into what seemed like something out off and Discovery HD Channel documentary on astronomy, but much better. Again, something that the kids of today won’t be able to appreciate, unless they put their smart phones down for a minute while they are being driven through the country side at night.

 

Into the dark

 

The Milky way

 

Finally back in Merweville and after a night cap or two and some shenanigans with a blanket and a polished passage way (Graham) we laid our heads down to rest.

Saturday: 11 August

The day started as per usual with a meal. Some left over’s and sandwiches of last night's braai. And to be honest none of us was really that eager to eat anything, but the well brought-up boys that we were, we did not want to offend anybody by not at least trying to nibble our way to the bottom of the plate.

09h00 and THE LEGEND were in for a treat. Paulus, Anthonie's right hand guy decided to take the day off and ride along with Iwan in the support vehicle due to a sore back and neck and offered his R1200GS to THE LEGEND and Antonie's Boet for the day. We set our sights in the direction of Prince Albert as we wanted to concur the Swartberg Pass today. We were nervous that is was going to be closed, but never the less we still went.

The Legend on a R1200GS

The group arrived at the BP in Prince Albert and was met by the good news that the pass was open. "WooHoo" We filled up and me being an ex Voortrekker (Afrikaanse Boy Scout) I decided to be prepared for the worst and to put on my Shocking Yellow BMW Rain suit. Yep, I got a few laughs but I was convinced it was the right thing to do.

Prins Albert BP

 

Yello Teletubby

At the entrance of the pass we were met by a small river crossing and everybody posed for an action shot. Even Iwan had a good go in the Ford Monster to create a bit of a splash. Winding our way up the pass, the slippery mud took one victim in a moment of weakness (and lack of traction). We picked the bike up and continued further along the narrow dirt road with its rocky barrier that was clearly packed there by the last Voortrekker that passed over in his Kakebeenwa.

Wooohooo

I don't know if you've been over the Swartberg pass, but there is a spot almost at the top just before the entrance to "Die Hel" called Teeberg were you can pull over for a rest. We regrouped there to make sure everyone was still having fun when it happened. SNOW!!!!! Or what I perceived as snow, I have never experienced this phenomenon before and my excitement levels was at a high. The stuff that was descending down on us quickly changing into a small hale type drop that started to sting a little. By the way, who was laughing now with his bright yellow rain suit? We decided to continue and with our helmets and rider gear we did not seem to be bothered by it.

Wow, so this is Snow?

Ouch, lets go this Snow is getting Hostile

Hell is freezing over !

Chapter two of our winter wonderland. The part of the story where the excitement and fun was met by drama and tension.

As we finally crested the Swartberg pass on the Oudshoorn side the guys in front was all of a sudden overwhelmed by the forces of gravity, falling over as if their bikes were yanked out from underneath them. STOP! SLOW DOWN! Were the cries that came up to us here at the back of the pack? IT’S ICE!! And yes, it was ice, about a 2cm thick layer of white slippery Anarchy was forming a crust over the road. A few of the guys already decided to attempt to gradually make their way down the rest of the pass slowly descending with both feet out and trying to stay off the breaks. A couple tips were exchanged, and the best technique seemed to be to have the bike's ignition on, to keep the ABS off, 1ste gear, but without the engine running to benefit from the bikes clutch ever so slightly pulled in, almost to create a bit of a downhill assist feature.

GSs on Ice.

Easy Does it

Now its getting Cold

Realy cold

This is scary

I made it!

Getting back to the rest of the guys. There was a few of them who decided that it was not necessary to fit some form of knobblies and at this very moment an "I told you so" would have not gone down well. Never the less I made my way back up to them where a few impatient Chops was stuck behind Iwan's Bakkie that was sheltering my guys from being run over. We decided that the best thing to do would be to load the two bikes of Rory and Pieter on to the trailer to help them get passed the ice and give them time to re gather their courage. I must admit I did get a bit impatient trying to get them to co-operate with me while we were loading the bikes. This can be contributed to my nerves also being shot. I was trying to keep a confident facade but in the back of my mind I was also K@King myself.

A little bit further down the hill Albie also decided to abandon his bike for now and walk down, but a good semaroton in a Camper van offered to give him and Pieter a lift down in the back. In and amongst the poor guys groceries that had fallen out his fridge which he forgot to lock.

Finally the ice and mud ended, so Iwan pulled over on Skelm draai and we regrouped. Myself and Antonie (riding pillion) quickly went back up the mountain to go and fetch Albie's bike.

Back with the group Albie mounted his steed and continued riding. Imagine Pieter's discuss, now that he was nice and cozy, when we said, “Right, time to take the bikes off and continue riding" That being said he got out and helped us unload his R1200GS. Rory's reaction was slightly different and with a spring in his step we swiftly got back on his 800GS for the rest of the trip.

Not to Happy to get out the warm bakkie :(

The predetermined stop for lunch was to be the Cango caves everyone was relieved at the fact that they cold actually have something small to eat. Don’t get me wrong, all the food up until now was amazing and we were looked after like kings, but a few guys was already concerned about their cholesterol count being sky high. Not me, so I ordered nice ostrich burger with cheese sauce.

Lunch at the Cango caves

What a view

After lunch we forced ourselves back into our already wet rider gear and set our sights to De Rust. To be honest a bit of tar was a welcome site after the Disney on Ice escapades of earlier. As we pulled into De Rust a quick vote was taken and we stopped for some coffee. The one thing I can say about the group of guys I had the pleasure of riding with, was that they all had a good sense of humour. We quickly found ourselves at a Mad Hatters Tea party. A pair of crazy David Bowie sunglasses and three big rim hats was passed around for some laugh of loud poses. I must say Albie, that leather pants combined with the glasses and hat was a very nice ensemble.

Such a nice hat Wynand

 David Bowie

I got the moves like "Jagger"

 

Coffee cups cold and we are back on the road. Meiringspoort has to be one of Gods greatest creations. With its picturesque scenery surrounding you from all sides, combined with the smooth tar winding its way 25 times over a raging Groot Rivier, You find yourself struggling to concentrate on the road. Due to all the rain and snow that the area has received the last couple of days, we took the time to walk up to the rock pool that is situated half way through the poort. We came across a raging waterfall where normally you would get a gentle stream during summer time.

The waterfall

 

Unreal

Cheese

Everyone back in the saddle and off to Prince Albert for a final refill before we head back to Merweville again.

Back at the boarding house and we were instructed to have a well-deserved shower and be ready by 19h00. Gepaint en Gepoeier we lined up outside. Where are we of too? In pulled two bakkies and we are instructed to get on the back. "Do you have any idea how cold it is". Being the little opportunist that I am, I quietly slipped into the front of one of the bakkies, only to find out that our little excursion took us two blocks up the main road into town. We found ourselves the Hokaai Restaurant, a small building that consisted of for walls and a long table running down the middle all set nicely. The walls were dressed with nostalgic pictures featuring historical rugby matches. It was safe to say these guys support the Western Provence. "WP jou lekker ding".

Kom kuier saam

Our Menu for the evening offered two choices. How would you like your steak done? And what sauce should be on it? Simple. A cash bar was also available to us with a variety of Red and white wines, as well as different Beers and Spirits. 30 minutes after we made our choices the first plates emerged from the back. Once again, Merweville did not disappoint. A T-bone steak, Medium rare, the size of an A4 page, fresh onion rings and amazing "slap chippies" was placed in front of us.

STEAK

That evening was a great end to a great weekend. Good conversation, lots of laughter and friendships created, we could not say a thank you to the bowl of Malva Pudding and custard, a sweet end to a sweet adventurous day.

What an end to a great weekend

Sunday 12 August:

It’s the final day of our Hamman Motorrad meat fest trip, and it’s clear to see that everyone was sad, but also ready to go home. We all made our beds and packed our bags and boxes, eagerly anticipating the chilly road back home. It was a group decision made last night that we would drive home on the N1 with a fuel stop at Prince Albert road and a snack stop in Touwsrivier. We would say our final goodbyes at the Shell Ultra city in Worcester.

Time to go home

Prins Albert Road

Bikes and back-up vehicle loaded, we said goodbye to our gracious hosts and departed from House Mervia setting our sights and GPS's on Home.

Needless to say it was a cold morning with snow covering every major mountain range along our route. As a matter of fact some snow was still being deposited on the mountains behind Matjiesfontien and De Doorns. Yep, I was already in my Yellow rain suit and even though it got me the nickname of the Yellow Teletubby, I was very grateful for its wind proof features.

Lekker Koud

Pragtig

Amper by die huis

De Doorns

Awesome

We did make that quick snack stop in Touwsrivier and this was where Charles left the group to take his route home through Ceres to Riebeeck-wes. The rest also made their intensions clear on when they would separate from the group so that we would not have to worry about them.

Time for some warm beverages

Except for the wet day on top of Swartberg Pass, the only rain we had was on our way home as we made our way past Rawsonville towards du Toits kloof Pass. We were very blessed with amazing weather and I was especially proud about the fact that we were also blessed with an incident free weekend. Yes we had a few spills, but no one was heart or needed to contact their insurance company on Monday.

A few Kilograms heavier my weekend away was over. I experienced my first snow and met some of the nicest people around.

Big thanks to Chris and Hamman Motorrad who gave me a bike for the weekend. Thank you to Iwan who donated his time and bakkie as back-up vehicle and finally to Antonie who arranged the entire weekend’s activities and logistics.

We look forward to our next one on the 21ste od September and all are welcome to come along.

Rynier van Tonder.

0860 000 269