Archive of BMW Motorrad Club Cape (2006 - 2019)

"Look Up, Stand Up, Pick your Bike Up!" was how several members of our tour party summarised their experience on arrival at Jurg se Kaya on Friday afternoon.

The Kaya

For the Statistically-minded

Friday morning saw 22 people - 2 in the back-up vehicle, 19 on 17 bikes and 1 on a kay tee emm - departing from the Engen 1-stop on the N7 just outside Blouberg. We were joined in Moreesburg by 2 more people, each on a bike, for a total of 24 under the leadership of Hoofseun a.k.a Geoff Russell. We would eventually cover something like 1200km over the 3 days of the tour - have 1 person go AWOL for most of the day, suffer 2 injuries, 1 of which required immediate medical attention, repair a single puncture twice (or was it three times?) - all on the 1st day! We would have 1 more injury, 3 more punctures and 1 dead battery on the last 2 days. 0 people dropped out of the tour!

For the Bloody-minded

• Rusty took an unintended side-trip down a drainage ditch which ended about 6 feet below the road surface. He was lucky to be spotted by an observant Phillip, riding back-up with Noelene after lending his bike to Willie whose KTM had just been put on the trailer. He was able to ride to Piketberg himself, accompanied by André, where he received five stitches to his upper lip. The two of them then made their way directly to the Kaya, joining us shortly after our own arrival there.
• Brent and Graham both sustained twisted ankles, in separate incidents, on Friday and Saturday, respectively. They resumed riding in Elandsbay after Sunday lunch.   

Rusty - maintaining a stiff upper lip - and Tristan

No giggles please

 For Everyone (Else)

Geoff made it very clear at the pre-tour gathering that conditions would probably be tough - given that it's been hot and dry up the coast - and that those who were on the Nov 2011 tour should definitely not expect anything to be as it was then. Well, the man is not Hoofseun for nothing - he knows a thing or two about the playground. Following is an extract from a post-tour comment by him. "... riding what was probably the worst sandy conditions we have experienced probably ever. Some of the dirt roads were in worse condition than the 2 track 'sand paadjies'!!"

Despite this having been only my second visit to the Kaya - I was fortunate enough to be on the Nov 2011 tour as well - I can confidently state that there are really only three constants when it comes to the BMWMCC Cape's legendary GS West Coast Tour, viz:

1. The exceptional leadership and organisational skills of Geoff Russell and his support team which, on this trip, comprised of Noelene Russell, driving back-up, Phillip Horstman, Trevor Versveld, Russell Rathbone and Neels Wilken - the latter when he wasn't AWOL. They just took everything the tour threw at them in their stride, calmly dealing with the situation at hand and making decisions to take our changed circumstances into account.
   
   Meneer and Mevrou Hoofseun
   
2. Jurg, his charming establishment, and his to-die-for seafood soup, which is served in equal measure with his unique brand of humour.
   Peter outside the Honeymoon Suite
   
3. The tourists! There is nothing quite as deeply satisfying as being among, and connecting with, a group of like-minded individuals sharing a common interest. It is truly inspiring to see a group of people, several of whom are meeting for the very first time, sharing each other's triumphs and disappointments as if it were their own.
   
   Lunch at Elandsbay Hotel

Right, now that the constants are acknowledged, we can start to look at the variables, and, wow! did those variables vary

The Menu

What could possibly vary on the menu for what is billed as a "West Coast Seafood Extravaganza"? Well, for starters, the starter! The Friday (was it still Friday?) evening starter was, yes! exactly what you'd expect, MEALIES! Thanks Phillip, for a wonderful treat - those mealies were delicious in their own right, but since dinner was served rather late, they really filled a gap, so to speak! The main course was worth the wait, though - Buurman arrived later than expected - what with a variety of dishes including a hearty "steenbok pasty". The extravaganza was reserved, as usual, for Saturday evening. We enjoyed Jurg's famous soup followed by home-made fish and chips. For dessert we had "polisiekoffie" - an interesting, if somewhat intoxicating, blend of 1 part coffee, many parts Amarula and yet more parts brandewyn.

Jurg and his magic potion

The Route

From the Swartland 1-stop we headed, on tar, along the N7 to Malmesbury where we deflated tyres and continued on a somewhat dusty, but certainly decent, gravel road to Moreesburg where Francis and Phillip joined the party on a 1200GS and HP2, respectively.

Phillip's beaut

 A little more than two hours into the tour, we stopped for our first break at a river crossing - does anyone know the name of the river? (Berg River) - due west of Piketberg. I'm not sure whether this stop was planned (we did stop at the same spot in Nov last year) or whether it was forced on us by the dark side, because this is where the orange lemon  shredded two tubes - the second one without moving an inch - I kid you not!

Go Willie, Go!

Eish!

While waiting here for the two tubes to be replaced we were treated to an impromptu display of precision driving.

Incoming... 

Easy now...

Hmm, looking tight, no?

No turning back

Home and dry!

The club trailer was swung ever so slightly out of the way between the third and fourth shots. The truck simply rolled forward all the time - SIMPLY AWESOME!

I'm just guessing as to our location here, but I think we were somewhere near Aurora when Rusty decided to go for his ditched & stitched side-trips. The KTM had, by all accounts, just been placed on the trailer and Willie was now riding the HP2 when the incident happened.

Waiting for Rusty (to pitch from the ditch)

 I suspect the route was altered slightly at this point to make up for the lost time fixing the punctures and getting Russ on the road again. Whether or not this is so we headed towards the N7 and the foot of the Piekenierskloof Pass. To be fair, Geoff did try to lead us on the gravel route towards Citrusdal instead of unto the pass itself, but we were forced to use the pass since the gravel alternative was closed. We promptly turned off, in the direction of Paleisheuwel, at the top of the pass. However we got to be on this route, I found this "detour" exhilarating! (Can someone please provide the name of that pass we traversed, before hitting the N7 outside Clanwilliam again?) We stopped for a wee / bit of fuel outside Clanwilliam then high-tailed it on the N7 to Vanrhynsdorp for a late lunch.

After lunch it was more N7, this time riding at angles varying up to 30 - 35 degrees from the vertical because of the cross-winds, to Bitterfontein where we deflated and some of us topped up fuel again. It was a short dash to Rietpoort for a brief stop and final briefing before the last strecth to the river mouth via Kotze's Rus and Waterval for our appointment with that tweespoor to Jurg se Kaya.

Rietpoort

Wilbur (2nd left) & Friends, P.O. Box 87, Rietpoort, 8202 

Please don't tell Geoff I missed the briefing?

 Martin and Annine's tent

Martin Denkhaus

Jurg and the flat-wheeled KTM

Saturday morning saw us heading off bright and early for Garies sans Phillip, Justin and Brent - the latter on account of a twisted ankle, for which he was a tad over-medicated the previous evening, while the former two decided to try their hand at harvesting the seas delicacies.

Hoofseun had informed us all on Friday evening that we would not be going to Groenrivier, as we had done in Nov, on account of the extremely poor "road" conditions. We therefore followed a nice scenic route, across several farms, to the Garies - Hondeklipbay road and lunch in Garies.

The tweespoor was "beautiful" this morning, being somewhat damp still. That didn't dampen the enthusiasm of some tourists to invest in property, however, so quite a few plots were bought. I am pleased to say that my own investments in Nov 2011 paid off handsomely as I did not spend a single cent, while at the same time collecting rent from and even concluding sales to some of the newbies.   

On the way to Brakrivier Saturday

Francis - Queen of the West Coast Tour! 

(Free) Willie

Graham 'The Full Monty' Montgomery

Snoozing after lunch : Garies

The return trip from Garies was rather shorter than the outbound leg, so Trevor promptly had a front tyre puncture in an attempt to take up the slack. The delay wasn't going to impact heavily though, since Hoofseun - who probably had his next several moves / options lined up after Friday's issues - simply sent the lead group on under the guidance of Rusty. This entire group made it safely to the Kaya - a 1st for Rusty by his own admission - much to his, and everyone else's, delight! The rest trickled in not too long afterwards and the celebrations started in earnest.     

Jurg's Kaya

We headed south on Sunday morning with several tourists - yours truly included - still suffering from the effects of "Jurg se sop, polisiekoffie etc." So much so that I, having gone the entire Fri and Sat without so much as a glance at the property market, suddenly started dabbling on the way to the salt pans. I twice "stepped off" a virtually standing bike which I suppose would qualify for no more than "viewings". By the time we reached the Sand Mine, however, I just couldn't resist and bought "a small one". About 10km beyond Brand se Baai I went ballistic, literally, doing a full-on land grab at 70 - 80 km/h. Fortunately, that transaction cured me of any further interest in the market.

Regrouping near Brand se Baai

  Justin suffered a puncture on the way to the salt pans and Jakobus had a power (battery) failure shortly thereafter. The road to Koekenaap was "interesting" - 'nough said! We stopped for fuel and a rest in Lutzville then pushed on through Strandfontein and Doornbaai. Trevor would later have his 2nd puncture - this time his rear wheel - on one of the two toll roads on the way to Elands Bay, where Willie also discovered that he had lost his wallet. What is it with these orange people? We are all pleased to hear that he got it back without serious loss. We arrived for a late lunch in Eland's Bay which we left at 16h15 heading for Veldrift where the tour ended. 

The view from the  Eland's Bay Hotel  

Law and Order

A tour is not a tour without someone, somewhere, pushing his / her luck and inevitably getting "caught". I have a suspicion that if no one breaks any laws, new ones - especially ones that have already been "violated" - would promptly be promulgated, but this is just a hunch!

"Strafdoppe" were the order of the day on Friday evening with charges including

• dereliction of duty (AWOL)
• riding from Cape Town to the Kaya alone at night
  This feat, in my view, deserves a medal but it earned the accused, who arrived at the Kaya well after 21h00, a strafdop. Such are the pleasures of living in the seafood republic.
• exceeding the prescribed tog-bag size
• failure to deliver luggage on time
• land grabs
• talking to others while Hoofseun holds court
• listening to others while Hoofseun holds court
• being Hoofseun  

Friday's sentences were, apparently, very harsh in almost everyone's opinion except that of Jurg and his crew. Jurg could not find enough ways to be punished. Court on Sat  was no less serious, but the punishment was arguably more palatable.

Jurg taking one for the team 

Jurg prepared to take another one for the team

Francis - for daring to buy her 1st plot ever on Hoofseun's watch

The People

First, a bit of mathematics. Hope I haven't lost anyone yet? Don't worry, it's "old school" mathematics, not the new-fangled stuff they don't teach nowadays. Do you remember "word sums" from the old days? I remember us writing an A, B and C Paper at exam time where the latter had all the questions formulated in words / phrases / sentences. So, if you recall - or simply scroll up if you weren't paying attention - way up near the beginning I mentioned the 3 constants of the Club GS West Coast Tour which I now define as a nice, old-school, C Paper question with the solution "All the people on the tour!" Don't worry if you didn't follow - even a calculator can't work out this one, but the answer is certainly correct!

Alright, I admit! The above is just a poor attempt on my part to avoid going all soppy about the most important aspect of any endeavour - the people!. If you will please bear with me, I would like to thank each and every one of the people who participated in the Feb 2012 edition of the Jurg se Kaya Tour.

So, without further ado, "Thank you Allison, Annine, Francis, André, Brent, Buurman, Dewald, Eric, Graham, Jakobus, Jurg, Justin, Martin, Neels, Paul, Peter, Phillip, Rob, Rod, Russell, Trevor, Tristan, Willie and, most importantly, Megan, Noelene and Geoff Russell for sharing in this wonderful experience and creating memories which I'll cherish forever!"

Experience has no value unless and until it is shared!

Thanks also to all of you for electing me to write this report, given the long list of nominees on the night. I have tried to place a photo of every member of the tour but, since I did not set out on the trip with this report in mind, I obviously did not actively seek out opportunities to photograph everyone and therefore do not necessarily have suitable photos of everyone. At the time of writing, several captioned photos were supplied, through Geoff / Charles, by Annine and Jakobus. Such photos as I did take, were taken "in the moment". Some of them are reasonably good, several are fairly poor, for which I apologise. The one good attribute they all share is authenticity because they are all spontaneous - not a single photo is posed - except for the one of Willie's bike on the trailer. It just sat there....        

  The Honeymooners - Tristan, Allison, Peter and Rod (& Cecil the Bachelor)

Jurg showing Eric his moves

 The big man himself

Just outside Malmesbury

Colourful Vanrhynsdorp - Phucifino

Francis can handle that bike

Just look at those names

Martin and Annine know how to choose a campsite...

Location location ...

Graham and Peter - are they dealing?

Trevor, Willie, Francis, Annine, Martin, Phillip and Eric

Justin, Graham, Rob and Neels

Noelene, Megan, Allison, Tristan and Rod

Brent

Francis and Phillip

Paul, Justin and Jurg

Rob

Russell and André

Rod

Jakobus

Laidback Garies-style