Archive of BMW Motorrad Club Cape (2006 - 2019)

Sat morning, nip in the air, bike packed, refueled and ready to ride……… meeting place Wellington main road, the Gecko Restaurant. This was the start of Group2’s ride to Sutherland. We pulled in at 07:40ish, enough time to meet all the boys and girls and to have the pre-arranged breakfast Rony organised. It’s here that Chris E and Chris T managed the 1st step to the nightmare award. On our rides this award is bestowed on the rider or team who has the biggest nightmare on the day. I’m sure we’ve all been there at some time or another. They started by managing to lose their keys to the bike between arriving and the breakfast table….. Not knowing were they were, we retraced their steps, checked pockets to no avail…..”AH HA! there they are” Chris T it seems packed them safely away in a bag on the top box, well so Chris E tells me. Saddling up we made our way out of town on the way to Ceres via Bainskloof Pass and Michell’s Pass. Wow, every time I ride these passes I’m both exhilarated by their tight turns and amazed at how it was carved out of the rock. Bainskloof was built and completed in 1853 by Andrew Geddes Bain, it’s generally regarded as the "Magnum Opus" of all his work….. after running Bains pass you cross the valley and then ride over Michell’s Pass into Ceres. It was designed by Charles Michell and built by Andrew G. Bain and was completed in 1848. Ironically the building of this pass lead to the building of Bain’s pass. We re-fueled the smaller tanked bikes in Ceres and we hit the R46 through the Theronsberg pass, continuing onto the R356 were we finally hit the 1st bit of Gravel for the day… Daniel, Joe and I were the sweepers on this trip. Not long on the dirt we spotted adventure headlights coming our way, was it another rider?.... No! Low and behold it was the 2 Chris’s with their second nightmare of the day… they had lost the connecting coms cable to the pillion helmet. They were now riding slowly, both craning their necks either side to see if they could find it. Remarkable Chris T must have the eyes of a hawk, because he spotted it in the brush on the side of the road…. But not since the Charles camera issues on the west coast ride of 2008, had we experienced nightmares of this magnitude…. The R356 is an awesome section of road that takes you to the turn off +-70km, to the Tenkwa National Park. We trekked up towards the park and the eagerly anticipated Gannaga Pass.Gannaga Pass We had a short lunch stop in the planes before the pass, mainly comprising of sandwhiches and coolies. Lunch also gave the BM riders a chance to heckle the KTM rider, my mate Vaatjie (Riaan.) He took it in good spirit and as I understand it, he is trying to convince Chris to sell him the Adventure. Lunch stop Lunch was over and we had to keep moving to make the 17:00 cut off of the Sutherland garage. The road to the pass had a few wash aways that had to be negotiated to avoid bottoming out at speed, but all in all a nice road too. re-group before the pass The Pass was awesome, technical enough to make it necessary to watched your line and speed at all times. The rains had created enough wash aways to test us all in sections, especially on the hairpin bends going up. It’s one of only 2 passes built in South Africa were they did not use piping systems. Instead they used rocks to bridge the gaps and allow for drainage in sections. Don’t ask me where the other pass like this is, but I will have fun trying to find it. We all managed the pass with out incident, up to Middelpos, and soon we were on the home straight to Sutherland. Hennie punctured about 10km before Sutherland, but we managed to push through to the garage to attend to it there. Half our group stayed in the hotel and the other half in the Southern Cross B&B. Both establishments were awesome and I could not complain or heard complaints about them. It was also fortuitous that we made it 15min into the Bulls semi. Adding the elations of their win to the awesome days riding, one could only imagine the mayhem and chaos lying in wait for us at the hotel bar. After the game we sat down to dinner and got to know the rest of the group, we had a few drinks and eventually ended up in the bar again. fun at the table fun at the table fun at the table fun at the table The Chris’s got their nightmare award and a ‘struff dop’ for failing the thumbs up test. The drink you ask? 2 “Bergie Bombs” a sneaky drink I was introduced to in the sand course…. thanks Hennie. Chris explaining why he should not drink the bomb During Dinner Rony got word that Maurizio had a side wall gash and was stranded +-80km away…. He had left Cape Town around 15:00 after landing from JHB. He got the gash and managed to plug it with 7 plugs, but was concerned that it might not hold so he pulled into a farm, were he does what every good Italian does… made friends. Not sure if it was “ met ys”, but I understand that he ended up eating their braai and drinking all their beer. If you in a bind in any small town I can tell you that the bar lady is the best person to ask for help. Rony and Dan left in the van she organised and ended up just outside Ceres on the farm… ouch! They only got back after midnight. Yes it seems 80km is a lot further in Italian. While they were out on the recovery; the other group joined us in the hotel bar and I think it was about then that the wheels came off. I’ve been told that the hotel eventually kicked the last boys out close to 2. No I wasn't at the bar in the bar in the bar in the bar Depart time was 09:00 the next morning. After all the talk in the bar about the ride up Ouberg pass from Geoff’s group, our boys were like stallions ready to be released on the out ride. At the top of the pass we stopped to admire the view and take it all in. group shot top of Ouberg pass group shot top of Ouberg pass The pass drops 800meters in 7km, steep rocky switch backs make it quite tricky. ABS off we all meandered down the pass looking up, weight back and controlled braking and in no time and I mean no time we were down. Ouberg pass Ouberg pass Ouberg pass Ouberg pass Ouberg pass Rony took us off the main track and onto a farm track Geoff found a week or 2 earlier. Rony and Joss things to see on the farm track things to see on the farm track Wow, dry river bed crossings, thick sand, big rocks and awesome “twee” spoor. Some of the boys managed to buy a few plots along this section but nothing too serious. river bed crossings rest stop Gruesome twosome After we got back on the main gravel it was full taps back to Ceres. Maurizio checked and tested the 7 plugs the morning before we left and all was fine till 31km before Ceres and no amount of plugs could hold it together. Dan stayed with Maurizio while, Rony, already in Ceres, made his way back with a tube to help again, the good man that he is. It was my 1st Sutherland ride can’t wait to do it when it snows….. Last one at the Bush Pub Last one at the Bush Pub