Archive of BMW Motorrad Club Cape (2006 - 2019)

This was a trip I joined Andy on as pillion, to keep him company. He was doing research work for a client’s project. It was necessary to head off to Port Nolloth for 1st-hand appraisal of their food supply chain processes. So on time and in good Spirits on Andy’s 1150GSA took us off at 06h00 from a dark and blustery Gordon's Bay towards Port Nolloth. Yup- this was a rush so it was a road trip. Up and down in two days - 1600 kilos round trip!! We hit rain from just before Stellenbosch all the way to Wellington. You know the feeling.... do you stop and don wet-weather gear or hope it ends soon? I spotted good definition in the distance indicating no more rain, so we pushed on regardless of the drizzle and rain. But I tell you, it was blerrie cold! About 3°C Andy's Data Centre little gadget kept telling us (one of his many gadgets he carries with him). I think I had 3 jackets on altogether – dressed like a true Michelin Man. Andy & I conversed through our headset intercoms, which allowed me to listen to his radio, voice and his cellphone! I must say, I’d rather do without his cellphone, though. (Andy’s note to himself (and of course through the intercom): pluck, cut, trim - whatever but get rid of offending nose hairs before going on a trip!!!) You can't really get the feeling of being on a trip until you get clear of suburban commuter traffic. So after turning left off the R44 at Wellington to take the R45 -Malmesbury, the traffic thinned and agricultural traffic replaced the cars n delivery vans threading to work. As we entered Malmesbury we had to break hard for a surprise stop street. The white markings on the road are faded away and the road sign has been turned 90º off by vandals. We neeeeeaaarly hit a car coming into the intersection. Thank heavens for ABS! A very near thing that. ... and more later too. Thanks to Brahman's post with the new traffic fine scales, we kept painfully to the speed limit in towns. Weather was hundreds and the air clearing. The temperature was NOT rising. The GSA was stretching her legs. The pastoral scenes of farmers working their fields in the half light of dawn, darker stripes marking the freshly tilled soil and the fantastic smells of newly turned loam really revitalised us. Andy was feeling “bullet proof” astride his GSA. On top of the world. And with the Autocom system, we listened to KFM or chatted quietly as the GSA sneaked up and over 160Km/h whenever Andy was not watching. She just wanted to run out on the open road… The trip nearly ended right there, just before Piketberg, as the sun was peeping up over the horizon and under the clouds, the horizon is not distinct at this hour, and a single tail light indicated a vehicle ahead, then headlights of an approaching car... and then suddenly the whole left side was full of agricultural mower. More like a Deathtrap of a Thingimabob Machine. All 6 metres of it behind a trundling tractor - no, two of them! The Thingimabob Deathtrap suddenly appears in our visors: The sun had not yet risen, it was half light and these "vehicles/contraptions" had no tail lights or flashing lights at all. From 160 to 60 in three seconds. Nowhere to go right or left. We hit those brakes hard. ABS in full force. When the juddering stopped we were almost on top of the mower and as the two oncoming cars passed we fell right and passed the gear. All the while Andy was shouting: “Get the camera out, get the camera out!” My goodness, my heart was pumping inside my Michelin suit. It was the last thing I was thinking of. I ungloved and got the camera out, switched on. We pulled off into the emergency lane, almost hitting the Thingimabob, and took some photos in the dark dawnlight. Well, I reckon ABS could also stand for Absolute Bloody Shock. Andy was glad he had his brown jocks on! The Thingimabob Deathtrap suddenly appears in our visors: The sun had not yet risen, it was half light and these "vehicles/contraptions" had no tail lights or flashing lights at all. Thingimabob Deathtrap no.2 passes us The 2 deathtraps in the distance: After swallowing hard and trying to lower the adrenalin levels, we continued our journey. In just on 3° temp, my ungloved camera finger was almost frozen to the snapshot button. The sun rose and uncovered some amazing sights: Well, my poor frozen hand just had to be ungloved again to try and capture this sight as the sun finally showed itself. This was in the valley towards Clanwilliam to the right of us. To the left of us the sun splashed another amazing view: This is when I feel I'm glad to be living in South Africa! And that was the only excitement for the next 2 days, except for Andy’s GSA wanting to veer off down every dirt road it saw! We had a lekker breakfast just before Clan William, heavy agricultural traffic which we passed easily. Actually, it was more for thawing out. Even Andy needed some thawing out The view from our breakfast window: You can just see Clanwilliam Dam beyond the trees. The roads are good and there no more stop-go road works. Leaving the Western Cape for the Northern Cape and the Great Karoo with the sun climbing higher. The temp was now 18ºC at dawn and never rose above 23ºC until after 13H30. Towards Vanrhynsdorp, the flora changes quite a bit 4 Beamer bikes approached with friendly waves as we crossed the Olifants River after Clan William at 5m above sea level. With wind on our 10 o'clock we pushed on at 140 -160 km/h..... - Klawer, Re-fuelling at Vanrhynsdorp (13.99km /litre!), Nuwerus, Bitterfontein, Garies, Kamieskroon, another re-fuel at Springbok (12.33km/litre!). A skew view from the pillion: You can't always keep the camera level when going round the bend... Breathtaking mountains all around us.: The camera definitely doesn't do it justice. The Karoo-type vegetation has it's own beauty.: Dry as it is, it still has its own colour schemes that are hard to capture on film. You can see my camera finger was thawing out a bit. A bank and fuel stop in Springbok. We weren’t sure about ATMs and facilities in Port Nolloth! So we thought "rather safe than sorry". ATM stop in Springbok.: Rather safe than sorry. The flora changes quite a bit on the way from Karoo semi-desert to bushy shrubs and then lots of hills with interesting geological forms. Plenty blind rises and blind corners. Talk about the looong and winding roads! Stay alert on the N7! The Long and Winding Road With a few breaks to rest and admire scenery the trip went well with light traffic. At Steinkopf, we turned left off the N7 (notice the weird litle squatter camp to your left just on the shoulder of the road) onto the R382 for the 90 k's to Port Nolloth, dropping 400 metres in about three kms. Boy, you could feel the temperature drop and the cold wind from the sea coming in. I wished I’d left that other jacket on. Andy only had one CD loaded onto his memory card! The Who's "Tommy" is only nice the 1st ten times!!! The roads are in good nick. Not a single traffic cop all the way. Not another bike seen either. We pulled in to Port Nolloth just after 14H00. We had a quick look at the Port Nolloth Harbour, where Andy was having a meeting in the next half hour. The other side of the harbour wall.: The little fishing dingies launch from the beach on this side. They follow a "path" out to sea, as there are a few dangerous reefs out there. Thanks to Google earth, we navigated easily to Bedrock Lodge. They own five historic houses of corrugated tin outsides, tongue & groove knotty pine inside walls and low doorways. (Olaf would have to stoop to get through). The roof is hardboard with thatch over it. Hardly waterproof. But hold that thought, rainfall is 250mm a year so that’s not a problem! We stayed in the Blue house and as the web had advertised R265.00 for the house we would not hear of the R300.00 Rose wanted to charge us. Nice ‘n comfy, bath, no shower (darn) and only hand soap, no fancy stuff. It really had a blue theme. Absolutely everything (including furniture and bedding) was a different shade of blue. But, yeah, comfy enough and well appointed. Note: if you ever go to the bathroom in that house - remember to draw the curtains! I found the neighbour's/gardener and fuel station just calmly watching me! The 30.0º high up on the escarpment had dropped to 21º by the coast. Andy changed and went down to De Beers to have his meetings and conduct his on-site appraisals of the operational environment of the victualling processes. He found them to be a nice enough bunch of guys and a doll who all chain smoked, never offered him coffee over the entire two days (only because such courtesy just doesn't occur to them) and who use the "F" word as an adjective, a noun, a verb and a pro-noun, as their vocabulary does not support much more. Sea carrier victualling launch for the offshore mines Andy went on board the launch, chatted to the master and chief engineer, measured, photographed, posed options and by 17H30 he was done for the day. A view from the victualling launch The crane that loads the launch In the meantime, at the Blue Lodge, I discovered that we needed some lunch and breakfast, and I trundled off to the local Spar, where I was inspected from head to toe by everyone in the shop. The shop assistants were all asking me if I had arrived on the “ysterperd”. Heck, we had only just arrived! An 1150 GSA is an 'ysterperd' in PN, nothing else, and an unknown machine in that One-horsedorp-wêreld. Later, we spotted an interesting feature - the town's Funky (yep, that's really what it's called). A balance sheet had in the recent years dictated that the narrow-gauge railway tracks, wagons and funky (the little locomotive) were not attractive commercially so they were retired. What a pity! The townsfolk said it had been running perfectly. Now new crazy paving and security gates rob the quaintness and "olde worlde" from this lovely town, and, what could be an attractive bit of heritage, has been side-swiped into oblivion. Another bit of sad history "sidelined". The Port Nolloth Funky on its sad sideline The History of the Funky as depicted by the town's Sideliners... The eatery most recommended was Anita's Tavern. Run by 'Fridge' & Anita Myburgh. If you ever pass through PN, then do yourself a favour eat there. We kuiered with them and had the most fantastic steaks and calamari. They make a stunning Espatada! Fridge is also Captain in the SAPS and has his work cut trying to get his SAPS colleagues to not smoke or swear at the bar and behave. We were highly entertained by his friendly colleagues who were already deep into their cold drinks by the time we got there. They kept asking a) where we hailed from and b) why in Gods name we came on the ysterperd all that way c) and why had we not stayed with them in their flat instead of paying the fortune at a guest lodge? We tried to tell them over and over that we had not known them, and that we needed some rest. But they couldn't seem to remember this detail. Anita's Tavern: Good food and entertaining company! We thought we'd get an early night (that's why we got there early!), but we were sadly mistaken - I think we got to bed after 1am. Our newly-appointed "hosts" who were keen supporters of the bar (I think the bar would have fallen over if they hadn't been supporting it), insisted on driving us home via their flat - both of which were less than 400m away! Literally round the corner. Well, we had a polite glass of sweet wine at their flat, while our "host" tried to SMS a summons for a police escort to take us to our lodge, which was just on his doorstep. While he was trying to find their number, we hastily bid him goodbye and fled the scene - he didn't even notice! The next (or shall I say the same) morning after a good rest and a lie in we rose and Andy went off with lots more questions for De Beers Marine. I kept myself busy with that Sudoku book again! Check the seabirds flocking around the entrance channel to the Harbour The PN harbour entrance channel was apparently blasted into the reef. It is lit up with bouys for the daring trawlers. Red is for port (left) and Green is for starboard (right). If they don't stay in that channel, there is no question that they will end up on the rocks. I couldn't see any wrecks. The lighthouse is an electronic affair housed in a building directly behind the Catholic church. There is no such thing as a lighthouse keeper anymore. Someone is in charge of checking on a daily basis that all the globes are flashing, and that they are flashing timeously. Check the baaiker on his Ysterperd: He didn't even worry about wearing his helmet. Everyone was very concerned with the met warnings of bad weather catching us out on the road. No one could understand that we enjoyed the riding and that we "laughed" at bad weather. Time to go home.. Ysterperd Packed and ready to go. So at 13H15 we bade Port Nolloth farewell and left on the return journey. What to do in PN. We stopped off quickly to take one last look at the harbour and read the local history. It's mainly a diamond mining town. A bit of Diamond Mining history Me n the ysterperd pose before the funky and its wagon Two ..or three.. Ysterperde? We "quickly" (people are very eager to chat and tell us about themselves - time is not of the essence here) visited the museum and walked down the beach road to see the light house. Its cycles on white flashes 9-9-5-5. (9 secs, flash then 9 secs, flash, then 5 secs, flash, and then 5 secs, flash and so on and on). Unemployment is over 50%, only a Spar, several guest houses and people who are friendly and hospitable. Even the fish factory has closed down, although there are still lots of active fishing dingies. The ride home was into the SW wind which was hell-bent on making life difficult. Place names can be entertaining. Land stretches as far as the eye can see: Richtersveld in the distance. The GSA had a specially hard time trying not to go and see what Bulletrap was all about. Does anyone know what the roads are like (looks like good dirt to me) and what happens in Bulletrap? Could be another interesting route to take towards Port Nolloth Bulletrap turn off The Ysterperd was just dying to go down the dirt road: He tried, but then duty and Mrs Ysterperd were calling....! We stopped just after Springbok for a bit of nibbles and water and a rest from the wind. Damn, that helmet itch can be killing! Are there any remedies for this. Wind just aggravates it - especially if you're riding pillion. Lunchbreak and a Wind break near a weighbridge There were such interesting rock/mountain formations: The camera again doesn't do justice. People farm out here. There are enough windmills to support this fact. Refueling at Kamieskroon showed again 13.88 km/litre - why so high? The load and pillion and head wind? Yeah, the load…. Kamieskroon literally has a fuel stop, a house and a windmill or two. The rest of the place is just strewn with roadworking equipment. Kamieskroon Fuel stop: I was surprised to find that they actually accept garage cards here - electronically printed! Talk about strange geology This mountain top is almost a joke! You see the Mesa, you know you are nearing Vanrhynsdorp Vanrhynsdorp Mesa Refueling again at Vanrhynsdorp was 15.0 km/litre, still not marvelous. We had a quick bite to eat here. The food is not marvellous at the restaurant attached to the Caltex station. Rather go across to the pizza place opposite. It was closed at the time... The coffee was warming and it was yet another wind break for us. As we started the 300 metre drop on the Piekenierskloofpas pass, the heavy weather tried to outpace us. We could see it in the darkness. Thick mist in patches and an extremely strong head wind coming from our 2 o'clock and 1 o'clock. We reduced speed to 100 km/h to be safe. And then after Moreesburg we outran the weather and it only caught us in Gordon's bay an hour later. The heavens opened up shortly after we closed the garage doors. Both of us were feeling fresh and loose. Not tired out or exhausted at all. Red Adventure queried the status of our back tyre with 2 of us and 160km/h into the wind. Andy rushed off to go and check – oh my gosh – this is what the back tyre looked like! Steel belt coming through big time after the 1600 km into the wind & two up with gear. Check the Photo! Ouch!: In the darkness of the last Piketberg fuel stop, we did not even notice this - we didn't even think to check - SCARY! So now we’re seriously trying to lose weight just to be fitter for riding.....ahem, and to spare the tyres, of course! Another way to "lighten" the load - is for me to follow on my own bike of course. This would have been a perfect trip for Miss Padlangs, who is used to on-road adventures... We’ll go back to Port Nolloth, but we’ll obviously find an off-road route. Does anyone know if they allow bikes into the Richtersveld perhaps?