Archive of BMW Motorrad Club Cape (2006 - 2019)

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 :-) Engen 1-stop departure Formation Riding: To Malmesbury on tar in staggered formation Tyres down: Letting tyres down to 1.3 bar for the day, just outside Malmesbury As usual, the dirt takes a little getting used to. This road also had some fairly sandy patches that had some members of the group a bit twitchy. An interesting ride to the causeway over the Berg river, then on to the intersection with the R399 between Piketberg and Veldrif... ===R399, Kapteinskloof and on=== R399: Peter Mann, Nicolaas and Duncan The mountain in the background belongs to me, see [http://finebushpeople.co.za/ our protea seed business]. Notice how the road we have just emerged from is described as an ''ondergeskikted pad'' (i.e. '''less than suitable road'''). My favourite. This is where Corné's bike decides to stop... Hennie tows the bike to the shady spot where we are all waiting and we set up a workshop. Shady Workshop Field diagnostics: To get to the battery you need to remove all the panels around the tank (3 of them), and the indicators! We found one blown fuse, and noticed that the battery died the minute you turned on the GPS or tried to crank the engine. It was clear the battery was flat. The question remaining was: * is the battery broken (though it is only a few months old)? or * is the alternator not charging anymore. A quick test to see whether, with the fuse replaced, the bike would run after a push start, showed that the alternator was fine. This meant a possible problem with the battery, or that the blown fuse had prevented the charger from charging the batter. We decided not to find out how hard it would be to push-start the bike in thick sand somewhere, but rather to send Corné home until the problem is resolved... Push start: the 650GS is not that easy to push start, because the back wheel slips unless you drop yourself onto the seat at the moment of clutch release We ride a short stretch on tar towards Piketberg, then turn left onto the Kaptein's Kloof / Banghoek road. This kloof separates the mountain above Aurora from the Piketberg range. The peak closest to the kloof on the left belongs to me, but since we normally visit from the other side and camp at the top, I have seldom seen this side of it. Kaptein's Kloof: The mountain is part of my farm The road is interesting, and Hennie and I are at the back. I am enjoying this part of the route because I have twice before wanted to ride it and on both occasions had pillion trouble (pillion wants to go home, or pillion forgets the new camera at the garage in Malmesbury). Today I am pillion-free and hassle-free... ===Elephant and Sidestand Incidents : Eendekuil=== The Banghoek pass road joins the Redelinghuys road, and we turn right and head towards Het Kruis. Eventually we end up on a dirt road, and Geoff turns right along a shortcut just a bit too early. We need to do a U-turn on dirt. I start with a normal u-turn at slow speed, but stuff it up somewhat and put down my foot to donut around. This I manage, except that the bike is in second and stalls at the end. Not very elegant - I should have just done the elephant turn. Then, at the correct right turn, I notice some deep tracks in the sand, and look down to the right, thinking to myself that it is a good thing I noticed them in order to avoid falling. At which point Mr. Badger lies down on his right side. Luckily I was able to break his fall using my right elbow and wrist. Since I did not lose contact with the bike this does not count as a fall. The guys rushed to help me up again - thanks. Personally I would have preferred it if nobody had seen this ignominous occasion. Eventually we end up on the same road Geoff uses on the West Coast trip, from ''Kardoesie'' around to Clanwilliam, but from the other side. We ride some nice pass on top of the hills, but halfway through it turns to newly-tarred road. At the N7 just South of Clanwilliam, we wait for the group to catch up. ===Clanwilliam to Wupperthal=== We fill up in Clanwilliam and head straight through into the Cedarberg. Pass Louis Leipoldt's grave (we never stop there, Mr. Badger thinks Geoff might be afraid of ghosts). Turn off right to Wupperthal. The road is quite long and tricky in parts (especially if you take some of the corners too fast). Wupperthal is as quite as always. The canal that you cross to enter the town is dry, so there isn't even that excitement. We head on out up the narrow, steep and winding pass. We are caught behind two vehicles, so are forced to negotiate the rocky climb at very low speed. No incidents thankfully. ===Eselbank Rock Pools=== Eventually, the tweespoor becomes very sandy, and I notice that Duncan behind me is no longer there. I stop to wait and see in the distance behind me that someone has bought a sandy erf. Apparently he did a full 180 degree spin in the sand (wish I could do that on demand). After my little incidents I am none too confident myself, and find myself noticing sandy patches and tensing up. It helps to follow Nicolaas, who is riding beautifully doing the ''Stand Up, Look Up, Open Up'' thing. We turn left just before Eselbank to the waterfall. What a glorious sight: Eselbank Waterfall Some local youngsters are swimming, but there are no girls, so most of us strip completely and jump into the cool, refreshing water. There is one incident where Geoff tried some tomfoolery and ended up seeing his *ss (or was that showing his *ss - you decide): Geoff shows *rse Olaf takes the plunge What a spot By now it was about 14h30 and we were feeling a bit peckish. Geoff reckoned we had about a half-hour to go to the Cederberg Oasis for lunch. Silently in my head I doubled that ('cos that is how Geoff's time estimates work). ===Stone, scissors paper to Cederberg Oasis=== As you leave Eselbank there is a fairly long and deep sandy patch. Some of us had little oopsies here, though it was not as hard as it had been made out to be. Then some sandy and rocky water crossing. Interesting. I was riding second-last ahead of Hennie, the sweep, with Peter ahead of me. The terrain got very stony and rocky. We came across Alan, stopped. I asked if he was alright, fully expecting to hear him say 'yes'. 'No'. I stopped and ran back. A stone had shattered his sidestand detector switch, and now the bike was convince his sidestand was down and would not let him ride. We disconnect the wires to see if we can short them. Dammit! there are three. Ok, not so bad, there are only 3 possible combinations. We discover that connecting the two outermost terminals does the trick. Alan has solder and insulation tape in his toolbox. Sunny Workshop: But a strange place to have computer trouble By this time Geoff has ridden back to see what the holdup is. So after winding some solder around the two wires, insulating them, and fastening them to the frame, the four of us ride on to join the group at the top of the descent towards Sand river and the Oasis. Waiting is ... ===Cedarberg Oasis for Lunch=== We get to the Oasis at 15h30. Oasis We leave at 16h30 after a very satisfying lunch and drinks. Cedarberg Oasis ===Ceres=== It is quite a long ride to Ceres from there, over good, undulating road. Around 'Op die Berg' we hit tar and that is the end of the dirt for the trip. In Ceres we stop at a fuel station and say our goodbyes. We pump up tyres and some fill up (especially Dale on his X-Challenge). I leave a bit ahead because I have no desire to be caught up in the race over Bain's Kloof. I am halfway through Bain's when 3 onbeskofte Adventures shoot past me and disappear around the next bend - Geoff, Olaf, Duncan... Alan and Hennie catch up to me and the 3 of us finish the pass together. ===Home=== By the most direct route. Hennie takes the R44/Durbanville road, I head towards the N1. I finally reach Norfolk Park / Lakeside at 20h05. Over 14 hours in the saddle - a long and satisfying day. The first thing I do is take Arnica tablets to ward off the sore wrist and stiff muscles that will haunt me tomorrow. What an appropriate way to celebrate midsummer's day.