03/03/2018 – Looking for gravel

 

Seeing that we are planning a Lesotho trip in April the need to “get the Gravel legs out” had me looking at some local gravel routes on Saturday morning. As this was a very spur of the moment ride I was going to go solo.

 

I threw the Dustriders hoist on the back – just 4 in case!  Fortunately not needed on the day. Some ice-cold water in the top box and a energy bar if I needed that and the preparation was complete.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The invitation by Geoff Russell caught my eye : 

Swartland Beauty

Come and join your fellow Club Members and Guests for an Off Road Day ride through the Swartland.

With the recent rains the Swartland should in fact be called "Die Groenland" as most of the Farm Lands are covered in Green as the Wheat Takes Hold.

Fishtailing to the cracks and back …

For those of you who might have read my ride report earlier this year, entitled “experiencing the Overberg as a pillion“, I’ve since progressed to my own set of two wheels, a beautiful red F650GS, named She-Raz.

Ride Report : Off Road Day Ride 1st July

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.

SO on a slightly sunny day we met at Plattekloof Engen garage for our first ladies off -road BEGINNERS ride . All of us on BMW's except Suzette on her KTM 990 beast. There were to be 10 lady riders of whom 4 had hardly any tar riding experience, let alone any off –road experience. In order to lure the ladies’ bikes out of their respective garages I decide to make this the shortest , easiest, most level , most straight, most good gravel road ride that I can find in all of the Western Cape short of staying in the car park. Wisely I rope in Annie and Geoff , and the week before the ride Geoff and Noeline kindly hosts Annie and I first at Geoff’s computer and then at his bar . Geoff gives us some interesting and safe routes which we proceed to cut and slash to make it even easier and shorter .

The round trip from Cape Town to Wupperthal is usually done over a weekend with an overnight stop somewhere in the Cedarberg. How appropriate then, to do the trip on the longest day of the year with Geoff Russell on a route that seemed to include all the interesting dirt this side of Wupperthal. There are those who say you wouldn't need to stop overnight if you weren't carrying all that camping gear. So we traveled light and fast, rising around 5am, and getting home at 8pm. The longest day. ===Swartland Engen 1-Stop : 06h45=== Rendezvous for breakfast and 7h30 departure. I had managed to convince Shaded Alan to meet me en route at 6h15 (he had wanted to meet an hour earlier - I think he may have confused the Swartland 1-Stop with the one at Langebaan Lagoon :-)

Are we not riding past scenes of local beauty? ... a ride today , some local beauty in an area which contains more gems. May this encourage more exploration! The Vissershok to Durbanville turn-off Behind a Honda 750 Roadside veiw Roadside veiw2 Across to the M58: A rearward view