Archive of BMW Motorrad Club Cape (2006 - 2019)

 

10-20 September 2016

 

Pre Prologue / Disclosure

For the people who like to read, I’ve tried to scribble down my recollection and experience of my trip in extensive detail.

For the people who don’t like to read, I tried to include enough visuals and simple info that might be helpful in a future trip.  I’ll also happily share route files upon request.

Prologue

DAY 1 – 350kms

Monday mornings are not usually the best time for most people – me included. But today was different. I would only be going to work for a total of 15 minutes on my way out of town.

Just a short report of a trip down memory lane - since my father passed away last year I had the yearning to visit the little town of Kenhardt where I first got some brains! It is now 50 years later - On my way on a rainy Tuesday Morning I slept over at Nieuwoudtville - a little town on my way, where I had the privilage to be pastor for six years. I visited a lot of old folks, and also Griet - who used to work for our family for 14 years Griet and her son, Koos, was quite surprized to get a visit from out of the blue!

On Sunday I was watching F1 with some friends, Steve the bike collector was there and he received a phonecall. Turns out that a guy had come off his new Adventure and was in Calvinia hospital. Steve was asked to collect his bike, not sure why on-call did not do it. Anyway I asked to go with as I had a day off. We left at 06:00 on Monday. We met three other GS riders just outside Calvinia and were told the bike was outside a farm house about 65km towards Ceres on a gravel road. What a ride!!! By 11:00 the bike was loaded, we decided to take a shortcut to Clanwilliam, stupid, took 2 and a half hours to cover 100km, with roadworks and stop-go traffic, stunning scenery. Got back to Cape Town at 17:00. Apparently the bike hit a ditch in the road, rider came off, not too badly injured, bike continued on its own and hit a rock.

Four degrees Celcius Saturday morning in Ceres belies the sun's heat, but the expectations of the coming week and many gravel miles heats up our bodies. On the very bad road between Loeriesfontein and Pofadder mishaps forced two bikes to return home, luckily without serious injuries. Augrabies Falls an -Park deserve a six day visit all by itself. At Karoopoort the customary stop to adjust suspension and tyre pressure Ceres Karoopoort Wiele nagaan

The story, I believe, is a familiar one. It goes like this: wife needs to work over the weekend. Husband is given permission to do something productive with his time. The beemer is available, willing and ready. The rest is history. I left Saldanha on Thursday morning at five – destiny unknown; except that I know I want to do the long stretch of gravel road between Ceres and Calvinia. A gale force southeaster was blowing and I tried to make myself as small as possible on the GS. My approach to riding in the wind is to be as light on the handles as possible i.e. put on the speed control and keep two fingers on the handle bar. Sunrise found me riding through Bainskloof on my way to Ceres. The wind was still gale force. I stopped in Bainskloof for some pictures and find it difficult to walk in the wind.

BACKGROUND PHASE 1 It all started at Freak’s birthday bash with a comment by Hermanator that a visit to his relatives for lunch at the Docks might be a good idea. Freak immediately rushed off and acquired an attractive pillion candidate from a nearby table and Neil and I agreed that keeping the Sunday breakfast run tradition going would be a good call. PHASE 2 Neil did some debating and philosophising and then came up with a counter proposal to do “a bit of a longer trip” on dirt, and skip the meal that would require increasing the pre-load of his GS for the return trip.

This was my first long distance trip (got the 650 GS in April and has not done more than +- 100km a trip) and although not knowing what to expect, I was very excited. I was thinking at first to leave late the Tuesday afternoon and sleep over near Laingsburg but in the end left early Wednesday Morning (one night less away from the wife and kid) and was looking forward to the 870 km's that was ahead for the day. Ready to Depart Cape Town Morning has broken