Archive of BMW Motorrad Club Cape (2006 - 2019)

My friend Robin has a way of dropping bombshells. The figurative ones. "I'm riding my bike to our holiday house near the Kruger, via Naude's Nek" he announced. "Hmm," I said. Then I googled 'Naude's Nek' and the 'hmmmm' became a bit tinged with green. The highest pass in South Africa, and gravel to boot - what could be nicer. "Well, come along!" came the invitation. "Hmmmmm!!!!" I said Before there was too much time to stress about what clothes to take along on a two-week trip, Gavin (the hubby), Robin and I left early in Sept to ride nearly 4000 km from Cape Town to Komatipoort, the "rules" of the trip being: 1. Ye shall not passe a Good Coffee Shoppe. 2. Ye shall ride dirt whenever possible. 3. Ye shall not ride more than about 400km per day (see Rule 1). The trip was divided as follows; Day 5 being ''The Day'': Day 1: Cape Town to Swellendam Day 2: Swellendam to De Rust Day 3: De Rust to Cradock Day 4: Cradock to Barkly East Day 5: Barkly East to Matatiele via Rhodes, Naude's Nek and Mount Fletcher Day 6: Matatiele to Howick Day 7: Exploring the Midlands Day 8: Howick to Louwsburg Day 9: Louwsburg to Komatipoort via Swaziland Days 10+: From here we spent a few days near the Kruger; visited Maputo; and explored the Swaziland Piggs Peak area Day Whatever: Komatipoort to Dullstroom via Sabie & Long Tom Pass Day Whatever plus 1: Dullstroom to Johannesburg Station '''Day 1: Cape Town to Swellendam''' Work has a nasty habit of interfering with play, so we only left CT around lunchtime. We stopped at the top of DuToitskloof to wave goodbye to the Mountain, and Robin was reminded that one should perhaps not park a heavily-laden bike on a downward slope. (Being the good friends that we are, we reminded him about his parking techniques at every possible opportunity.) How not to park a bike: Note to self: Heavy bike; slope... hmmm We stopped in Robertson for the first coffee of the trip, and arrived in Swellendam around 6-ish, where Robin promptly phoned his wife and told her he's sending the metal panniers back to Cape Town as the bike was too heavy. (He would worry about panniers after this trip. Right.) '''Day 2: Swellendam to De Rust''' We turned off the N2 at Riversdale to get to Garcia Pass, finally hitting dirt at the turn-off to VanWyksdorp. (PS: For most of the trip we left the tyre pressures as they were; riding on standard Battlewings). Somewhere along this section I discovered that the lefthand headlamp screw had gone walkabout - nothing a bit of duct tape could not fix. Fixing the bike near VanWyksdorp: Bella and Blue now both have a screw loose Yeah for duct tape Rooiberg Pass near Calitzdorp caught us by surprise. Sure, the surface was a bit loose in places due to being recently graded, but what a great piece of gravel! Rooiberg Pass: What a stunning piece of road! Die Handelshuis in Calitzdorp introduced us to chicken pies ''par excellence'', and the best milk tart I've eaten in a very long time. This little restaurant is well worth a detour if you're in the area, and it's not really true that your pants are immediately tighter as you walk out of the cafe. Lunch at the Calitzdorp Handelshuis: You'll find unbelievably good Milk tart here! Calitzdorp Handelshuis: View inside: Oh yes and the coffee was also great After lunch we rode the Kruisrivier/Matjiesrivier gravel road (the one that leads to the Cango Caves / foot of the Swartberg Pass). We found it to be a scenic road with good quality gravel and no surprises & I was only sorry that we did not have the time to ride the Kamanassie road to De Rust as well, but had to cut down via the Red Stone Hills section to Oudtshoorn. ''Note to self: Next long weekend...'' Lovely scenery near the Red Stone Cottages That night we stayed at Jans Rautenbach's farm outside De Rust where a four-course meal was included in the overnight price - let's just say I was slowly getting worried with the rate with which my pants were shrinking in the hot midday sun... '''Day 3: De Rust to Cradock''' Today was a long day in the saddle, primarily because we wanted to stay at Die Tuishuise in Cradock. After breakfast, we stayed on the R341 and then joined up with the R339 to Willowmore. The roads were quiet; virtually no traffic; and it was a lovely cool morning after the 35-odd degrees of the day before. We stopped in Willowmore for coffee, and continued to Steytlerville where we had more coffee at the friendly Veranda Cafe. Cement strip 'highway': You just stay on the cement, and wave sweetly when the cars take the rough, loose gravel on the side The coffee shop owner advised us to take the Mount Steward gravel road to Jansenville. While generally fine, some sections had not seen a grader in a while so you had to keep your eyes open for pockets of loose stones. From Jansenville we stayed on gravel, taking the R337 to Pearston. This section was in great condition - open flat road; solid, hard-packed gravel; virtually no traffic - just pleasant, easy riding. Just outside Pearston, en route to Cradock After a Coke in Pearston we rode the Swaershoek Pass into Cradock. Now, if ever you are in this area with a GS - go and ride this road!!! It has it all - amazing scenery; nice twisties; good road surface - just watch out for the farmers who prefer driving on the wrong side of the road around blind corners. I have no idea why that one guy got so upset; there was more than enough space for us both; and I thought my emergency swerve was quite good. Really. The very scenic Swaershoek Pass near Cradock '''Day 4: Cradock to Barkly East''' The day started nicely. A great breakfast at the Victoria Hotel was followed by a lovely section of smooth, scenic gravel on the way to Tarkastad (we turned off the R61 as soon as we could due to the large number of big trucks on that road). We flew along; the iPod was delivering a great random mix of everything from Pink Floyd to opera, and... then we hit the potholes; some 20km of deep, deep corrugations. Loose gravel (those horrible fist-sized stones). Just too much distance from 'top' to 'top' to make for comfortable riding at anything below warp speeds, and... Lots of sheep. Now, goats will generally look after themselves and stay out of your way, but sheep? They wait until you are virtually on top of them, and then one decides the grass is greener on the other side of the road. And where one goes, the other follow. So: Thank you Wayne from Country Trax for the emergency braking you made me do (somewhat against my will, at the time) during the Intro course. Yes, you were right. It does work. We arrived in Barkly-East mid-afternoon; plenty of time for a walk through town. Not that you need too much time to walk through; Barkly-East is a small, pretty town (book in advance if you plan to stay there: very little is open after 5 at night.) '''Day 5: Barkly-East, Rhodes, Naude's Nek, Mt Fletcher to Matatiele''' In all the internet research we did before we left on the trip, we battled to find solid information about Naude's Nek, the road condition and how difficult is actually is to ride. All I could determine for sure was that it is the highest pass in South Africa; that the section leading from the top to the Maclear/Mount Fletcher side is not something you want to do in wet conditions, and that's about it. So I would lie to you if I said I did not wake up with a few butterflies in the stomach that morning. Incidentally, the road leading out of Barkly-East goes past the local graveyard, which kind of keeps you riding carefully for a while! Great roads, awesome scenery near Rhodes We really enjoyed the section between Barkly East and Rhodes - the roads were in good condition; the mountains were amazing, and we had missed all the snow. The 'detour' past Lundean's Nek is well worth it if you have the time, I hear We had good coffee at the art gallery as you enter Rhodes itself. We took a quick tour through the town and then - very excited - headed up the pass. Heading out of Rhodes The road surface was a little loose/stony for the first few km as we headed out of town, and they were burning grass on both sides of the road, but the scenery is amazing. Mid-day high... As we neared the summit, we saw some clouds hanging around the top of the pass, but did not think too much of it, expecting the summit to be in the clouds and the road clearing on the other side. How wrong can you be. The temperature kept dropping, finally settling at zero degrees at the summit, with a thick and very wet cloudcover preventing any views from the top. We had planned to stop at the five-star Tenahead Lodge at the summit for a cup of coffee (we heard later that you have to phone them to warn them if you want to stop; they appear to open only if expecting visitors), but it was so cold and miserable and wet that we kept riding. The long-awaited summit: Too cold to stop; too wet to see anything!! While the road surface on the Rhodes side is great, the Maclear/Mt Fletcher side was covered in small black rocks. And they were wet. So, from the long-awaited pleasure ride down Naude's Nek, I only remember the following: I could see diddly-squat; the descent was steep; it was very slippery; and the times when I could see the drop I wished that I could not. And it was ***** cold. So, slipping, sliding and cursing our way down the mountain, we eventually got to the Mount Fletcher turn-off (the 'shortcut' to Matatiele). Now, the road to Mount Fletcher is - according to some maps, a main road. Perhaps this was true many, many years ago. They had started some repair work, and on the day we rode it, it had been graded so that all the good top soil was taken off, leaving a slimy, slippery muddy layer below. By the time we got to the point where my bottom lip was trembling seriously, it was too far to turn back. Things turned into a bit of a blur from here. We were eating all our emergency rations of chocolate and jelly babies and Vit C sweets for energy; it was generally wet, cold and muddy; there were a few rocky sections that would have been fun to ride under any other circumstances. We reached Matatiele around 5 that evening, where we had pre-booked into "The Upmarket Accommodation" (really!) on a farm just outside town. Clean, tidy, LOTS of boiling hot water and - 10/10: The electric blankets were already heating the beds! '''Day 6: Matatiele to Howick''' We took the 'New Amalfi/Swartberg' gravel road to join up with the R617 towards Himeville. The road was in fairly poor condition - rutted, stony and apparently bent on shaking loose various parts of the bike. It did not matter if you tried to ride on the left of the road, the right of the road, in the middle - shake, rattle and roll was the order of the day. It is possibly true to say that I may have had a eensy-teensy-wheensy humour failure on this section. But - things could only get better. We eventually got to Himeville (I seem to recall Gav's bike was running on fumes) and after a lovely lunch, decided to take the Loteni road into the Midlands. The locals neglected to tell us that it had recently rained. Now, when it rains in this area, it gets muddy. Very muddy. At one stage we got around a corner to be greeted by a mud puddle about 20m x 10m, with a very steep hill on the far side, where you could see tracks for Africa criss-crossing the hill. I paddled "Le Bleu" around the 5cm wide track around the water (turned out to be the right decision) and then started on the hill, and then had an interesting time finding traction on the hill: There was none. Eventually got some stones and sticks under the back wheel which was just enough to keep going - not really an experience I want to repeat. Anyway, we made it to our friend's house near Pietermaritzburg, where we had a lovely time R&R for the next few days. Even washed the bikes, and then set about exploring the Midlands - what stunning motorbiking country! On our way out, we rode past Alfie Cox's farm ... hmmm, nice place to come for a training camp. Two days later we got to our friend's house near the Kruger, where we spent the next week or so, using his Landrover to visit the Park (no bikes allowed). We then rode to Johannesburg via Dullstroom, put the bikes on the train (Premier Classe) and relaxed for a day and a night while coming home... planning the next trip, of course!