Archive of BMW Motorrad Club Cape (2006 - 2019)

I am doing this the Tom Sawyer way, I’ll write, every else add pictures.

So what do you get when you combine 29 special people, 3 CRF230’s, 19 BMW GS Adventure Bikes, 2 4x4’s and 2 trailers with one of the best biking areas in the Western Cape?

Well, you get a very awesome long weekend, that’s what. A weekend filled with loads of fun, loads of riding, and much laughing, eating, drinking, swimming, exploring and some falling on the stuff.

That’s right, “stuff” is the new “in” word. At some point over the weekend, Tony ran out of descriptives for all the different types of terrain we were riding over, so everything just became known as “stuff”.

And there was plenty of stuff. At times one would be forgiven for thinking you were actually at Jurg se Kia, other times the word Lesotho was being thrown around - the climb out of Wuppertal is the worst I have ever seen it. So stuff apparently stands for sand, stones, sweat, swearing with shit thrown in there to describe the rest, probably a mixture of ruts, rocks, wash aways, steep downhills, steps and pebbles and more. So all in all, a lot of interesting and fairly technical riding.

But there were also a lot of perfect gravel roads with scenery to match, and many vistas that simply took your breath away. My favorites were as we popped onto the plains whilst on the Soutpanpad and also the incredible views from the top overlooking the Biedouw Valley from the East before we dropped down “that hill” to the Doring River. Also, those who opted not to go up onto the Old Post Route to the view point overlooking the Biedouw Valley from the south missed out. You also missed out on much sand and many falls, including one by yours truly.

So after a nice relaxed ride from Cape Town to Clanwlliam and beyond, we were given a warm up just past the Englishman’s Grave as they are putting a new “blad” on the dirt road. As I approached the stop and go and then jumped past the front car as I saw the cones being removed so we could go, I first had to stop and ask “kan ons hier ry” because there really was no obvious road to ride on, just a deep channel that had been scraped or rather scratched. It may not have been a road, but it was definitely fun.

We got to the campsite early, and everyone found their spot and then we had a few hours to relax until the midday heat was gone and Barry was back to take us on a little outride to a place called…..actually we’ll keep that a secret for now, but they do have a stunning hidden away campsite that we will need to visit sometime. I will say we were south of Wuppertal and deep in the Cederberg mountains. Anyway, it was a really lekker little late afternoon ride and was a good introduction for what was to follow on Saturday.

Saturday night was a festive affair on the lawns in front of the main house where Mariette had put tables and chairs for us all, the food was good, many stories were told and a pleasant evening was enjoyed by all.

D Day.

We set off nice and early and the first part of the ride was splendid, cool morning air, perfect roads and an overwhelming feeling of happiness. Once on the Moedverloor Road and close to Moedverloor I had my scariest moment ever on a bike. Coming round a bend with wingman Henk on my right, we saw what looked like a large Black Mamba on my side of the road, trying to go across the road towards Henk’s side. Henk did the look up, stand up and power up thing and shot past it, not even noticing that it seemed to go for him. I was in all kinds of trouble trying to stop as it was right in front of me and by now had noticed me. It was standing up right in front of me, hood open and I had no idea what to do. But just as I thought I was going to hit it and was thinking about trying to get “off” the bike and onto the no snake side, it turned and disappeared into the bush, very quickly. At least I only wet myself a little, but it was determined to cross the road and Pam would later see it as she came round just finishing off getting to the other side.

The Moedverloor Road is a stunning road to ride a motorcycle on.It has some sandy bits but nothing too severe, and it winds its way through all sorts of different terrain and there are many places that try to steal your eyes away from the road. It’s probably one of my favorite rides. It also has the weirdest cattle gates I have seen because they are not on the road, but off to the side of it, and one of these caught Francois out in the dust. A big accident, with a very lucky outcome as he was able to walk away, and still ride the somewhat bent and broken bike home.

After a compulsory fuel stop in Niewoudtsville, we headed down the Oorlogskloofpad, which is fairly boring, but it then takes you onto the Soutpanspad which is simply stunning. The road is fair and the views are fantastic. At one point I slowed so I could talk to Henk while still riding, we agree that even with the finest photographer, you could never capture or properly explain to someone what we were looking at, it was that awesome.

We then turned onto the approach road to the Doring river and the Biedouw Valley and things became a little more technical. This area experienced heavy rains in January and the evidence it still there. Already rocky, sandy, tight and twisty little roads now have deep wash aways across them, some of them could better be called trenches, and all at odd angles to the road, making for some interesting riding.

Everyone eventually reached the empty Doring in one piece and got back onto the fairly decent road which runs down the length of the Biedouw Valley. Just as we could see the farm house, and taste the cold beer, we turned away to go up the Kraaiberg Pass and onto the Old Post Route, well most of us did, some decided they had experienced enough “stuff” for the day and went straight home. Those that did follow me up the mountain I think will agree it was worth it, even though there was more swearing in “stuff” than usual getting up to the view point.

Not even 4 weeks ago we rode this route and I cannot explain how much it changed in that short time. It seemed like someone had swapped the Cederberg and the West Coast around there was that much sand about, and that horrible loose red mountain sand that seems to suck wheels in at every opportunity, and in the afternoon sun one could not always see the red “stuff” properly, so it was catching people out at regular intervals.

We usually have a bit of fun around the fire at night with some strafdoppe and therefore I keep an eye out from the very start of the weekend looking for “victims”. So by Friday night I had Tony’s name written down for a small fall on Friday afternoon, but by Saturday afternoon I could have filled my little black book with names for falling and some names would have five stars next to them. In fact the very same Tony declared at some point that his bike had a technical problem, he had discovered that it was unable to ride for long distances in an upright position.

Once we got to the top lookout point I realized something else, everyone was absolutely shattered, and we still had to ride down. I have it on good authority that way more people fell on the way down than up, but once again, everyone got back safely and sapped of energy, simply found themselves sitting amongst the parked bikes on the lawn at the campsite having beers passed to them by Mike, who had spent the day in the back up due to his neck being very sore. Not many lasted longer than just past supper either, and the campsite was quiet and lights out by about 21H00 as everyone took their tired bodies off for some well-deserved rest.

Sunday morning we said our goodbyes to the Lubbe family and started to make our way to the Cederberg Oasis via Wuppertal and Eselbank. During the planning of this weekend it was decided that the lady riders would be better off on their small enduro or plastic bikes and as I rounded the first corner to start the climb out of Wuppertal, I was very glad our ladies were on their “plastic bikes”.

This little piece of road did not escape the January rains and is in a fairly bad state of repair at the moment with deep ruts running down the length of the road making for some interesting “which line” decisions, mostly on the spur of the movement. This whilst trying to get across the top of hundreds of exposed loose rocks. Once you are past this first “hurdle” though, the rest of the road remains pretty much the same as always, although after Saturday’s riding, I didn’t hear one person mention anything about the long sections of klippies.

We were early at the Oasis, lunch was as usual very good, we all relaxed a bit and then suddenly it was home time. The road from the Oasis towards Ceres is in excellent condition at the moment which makes for a very pleasurable ride to the tar. A quick stop here to pump tyres where we also said our good byes and broke up to head home.

I said on Friday morning that this was my first ever group made up of  only “old timers”, so much so that all that was needed at the morning briefing was to identify the sweeper, and I would like to thank Andy Connell for carrying out those duties for the weekend.

I would also like as usual to thank Pam and Bianca for driving our back up and as always to Trevor for providing the truck. It is more appreciated that we sometimes let on. And thank you for the awesome BMW cake Bianca.

Also need the thank the Lubbes for their hospitality, as always, not much they won’t do to make sure your stay is pleasurable.

And last but never least, thanks to all 28 of you, including Johan and Tami who drove up by Fortuner to be with us, for another splendid weekend spent riding motorcycles and being with mates. I truly had a blast.

So where to next, any ideas……………………..