Archive of BMW Motorrad Club Cape (2006 - 2019)

Sunday 15^th May 2011. The BMW Motorcycle club Cape organized Relaxed ride. Was first posted on the 1^st of April.

It filled quite quickly, some new riders, many familiar names (one serial canceller I asked to confirm and commit and pulled out in due course).

The ride list of 22 filled up by 5^th May.

I wanted to change the route and add some spice with a new venue.

I went out and recce’d the route, looking for some new ground to cover.

I found some wonderful gravel roads, right here close to home.

On Saturday 14^th, Geel Kameel joined me to recce some orange route stuff I was worried about near Botriver.

Thanks GK, we had a lekker trip.

Well while the road had recently been graded, there remained an orange route descent and ascent. The descent had a chicken run, but the ascent had to be done.

Sunday 15^th arrived, misty with low visibility and a bit on the chilly side.

Joce Sacco was piloting the backup vehicle.

I had collected the trailer on Saturday and replaced some expired IV packs in the medical kit as well as some dressings. So we were all set and  on time at the start point.

Sean Hidden would lead the lead peloton and I took the second peloton.

It just is that much easier to ride in groups of not more than say 12. It works well.

The group was all on time and Joce did a sterling job as treasurer.

She confirmed numbers with the lunch venue as well as the meal selection of the riders.

Its great to have to introduce people because there are new faces.

I hope these new faces become familier faces and they develop an apetite for adventure riding.

I kept the briefing kort & kragtig and we left the Helderberg in thick mist.

Keeping the briefing short is a serious business: Trying to cover all aspects in as few words.

This cleared soon but as we topped the pass the mist was back…and then some!

After on 35 km on tar we stopped just after Houwhoek Hotel for the briefing for gravel. This is where we split into 2 groups in a random arb way.

Pete O'h gave a very good brieifng on pillion management & it was clear this helped all pillions as they had a superb ride.

We netted-in the 4 radios with Pete H, Frans, Back up and I.

Call signs were allocated as we were using a common frequency.

Sean took off with his peloton and I followed shortly on the railroad service road- 6km to Botriver.

This is a must do road as it takes you down a lovely valley to Botriver.

From Botriver we flowed up the N2 for a short tar stint before crossing South onto farm roads.

It became clear from the way Grant mounted his F800 GS while pulling off that he  was very at one with his machine.

We had a short stop to brief on the descent and ascent.

Boris n Pete leading and assisting with the descent and the ascent.

The brave who made the descent did so without dropping a bike on the chewed up stony road. Well done.  On the chicken run, I think it was only the last few bikes that got to see the fantastic Anatolian Sheep dog that lives with his flock and does an outstanding job of guarding them.

The ascent was enjoyed by us all with only one bike going down.

We put the bike on the trailer so the rider & pillion could let his body recover for a while. Jenny rode pillion as far as Klein river with me and then went to the back up vehicle.

Boris helped riders with their line and encouraged them up the last rough phase.

Nobody opted to have their bike taken up for them and I'm sure more than one dragon was slain in the process. Well done to all.

And this ended any technical riding, hereafter it was lovely roads with amazing views.

We soared along excellent roads, very little traffic all day, able to relax at moderate speeds and admire the wonderful vistas as they opened up before us.

By now the group was relaxed and the pace increased slightly.

We hardly touched Caledon as we slipped by and on to the R320- to Shaw’s Pass and the Teslaarsdal road.

Stopping 26 ks later at the Klein river crossing. Somehow riders had sneaked across from 2^nd to 1^st group and we re-set and off the groups went.

Francois took his bike off the trailer and completed the ride on his bike-  WELL DONE!!!

We arrived at the venue- Oaks Estate bang on time 12H30  and 169 km to be warmly welcomed by our hosts, Sam and Bruce Logan and Gert, master of the Estate.  www.theoaks.co.za

Escom had no power to supply the area but our hosts rose to the challenge.

View of venue from across the lawn: The farm has been active since 1775

We had really lekker refreshing lemon juice and water waitng for us on tables.

Lunch soon followed, chiabatta’s with a choice of three fillings- Lamb, Chicken or Chickpea and salad.

The food was great, the lamb just melted in your mouth. Gert explained some of the intersting history of the estate and the area and clearly we need to come back for a weekend of technical riding. Gert is a BMW enthusiast.

After seconds and lunch the basset hound vacuumed the floor with admirable precision.

After lunch we headed on the return journey passing through Greyton, then Genadendal before following the Riviersonderend River up the valley to the theewaterskloof dam. This was the only really dusty bit of gravel so far.

Andy had forgotten to correct an earlier route error and this lead Sean down a dead end down the Pampoenskraal road, aka "fierce ostrich road', which caused a delay of some ten minutes. However, we were soon on the Bot river road, running the entire length of the valley to Van Zyls pass and on to Botriver.

What's this? queueing to watch someone take a pee?:

Draaiberg road, shortly before Kurt found his top box was shaken his load tray apart...again.

Some riders chose discretion in the face of valor and opted to fill up.

The rest ran back up the railroad to Houwhoek and some coffee at the farm stall.

We greeted and left.

It is rumored that a bike lost grip on the railroad and went rubber side up. However this was soon rectified and the tail joined the head.

We were all off homeward by 16H15 after a really lekker day exploring the lekker travelled gravel roads of the Western Cape.

I was impressed with the ride discipline and how everyone enjoyed the ride.

Thanks to Frans and Joce for good radio discipline which made keeping tabs very easy.

I look forward to riding with you all again.