Archive of BMW Motorrad Club Cape (2006 - 2019)

It was a long weekend, and on the Friday night Gav and I realised we had not really planned anything. A bit of internet research and a quick phonecall to McGregor found us accommodation for the Saturday night; the idea being that we would simply point the bikes in a direction and take things from there. We had ridden the Koppies gravel road near Villiersdorp a week or so earlier, but wanted to go back and explore a bit more, so headed out from Cape Town via Stellenbosch and Franschhoek. It was a perfect day for being out on your bike, and being mid-morning on the Saturday of a long weekend, the roads were lovely and quiet. The Koppies road is a few km outside Villiersdorp on the R43 towards Worcester, with the turn-off pretty much as you drop down the Rooihoogte Pass. Turn-off to the Koppies gravel road The road is currently in excellent condition with only one or two mild washaways to keep you on your toes, but do keep your eyes open for mountain bikers and kids on horses. En route amongst the koppies After a short tar section and just before rejoining the R43, we turned right towards Robertson onto the gravel road that eventually leads you past the Amathunzi Game Reserve. This looked quite interesting: The track off to the left did catch our attention; fortunately the gate was locked... Awesome scenery Upon reaching Robertson, we turned right onto the tar road leading to McGregor, and shortly thereafter right again onto the Koningsrivier gravel road. Again the scenery was really impressive; while some erosion near the Kings River Estate certainly woke me up! Oh yes, and there's a fun bit of sand after crossing the drift into town - just enough to make the back play nicely. Mark, the owner of the Fountain Guest House where we stayed, immediately scored top brownie points when his first words were: "Welcome... Oh what beautiful bikes", to be followed by: "It really is safe here and I leave my car unlocked next to the road most of the time, but would you like to bring your bikes into the garden?" Parking on the street? Pfff! Although we left Cape Town only mid-morning and stopped en route for breakfast and plenty of pics, we still got to McGregor with plenty of time left to explore the town and have some coffee (okay, and the best lemon tart I have eaten in years). The Deli Girls (Main Rd): They even serve Origin coffee here! McGregor on a Sunday morning is a delightful place, but, as you can see, you really have to duck the traffic in the main road. Rush hour traffic If you have the time, visit the Info centre in the Main road - they are most helpful, plus there's a really good aerial pic of the area, which is how we found the gravel road leading out of town past Rhebokskraal before joining up with the Stormsvlei gravel road. We stopped to chat to a local to find out if the road was indeed passable on bikes, and he warned us about a river crossing around the corner which should be avoided if the river's flowing, but which was a doddle at the current level. In any event, if you get to the river and find it too high, it's only about 5km back to town to join up with the "proper" Stormsvlei road. Fun on the Rhebokskraal road We encountered no other vehicles on the road between McGregor and Stormsvlei; it was another beautiful day; the gravel was good - what a pleasure! Near Stormsvlei From Stormsvlei, we turned onto the N2 direction Swellendam for a few km, and then turned right onto the gravel road that runs parallel to the R317, passing Protem en route to Bredasdorp. The road surface changed near Protem with lots of loose gravel and middelmannetjies, but fortunately traffic was again light and I could pick and choose my lines. We stopped at the Napier Farmstall for their famous lunch. Napier Farmstall: On the breakfast menu, one of the meals is even called a "Biker Breakfast"! Gav had found some interesting roads on GoogleEarth which he was convinced were public roads, and claimed that Lulu-our-GPS would eventually get us to Riviersonderend. After the third (unsignposted) turn, I had no choice but to hope that we would get to Greyton before dark. We did. Off the beaten track between Napier and Riviersonderend: We followed the track going off to the left Again the scenery was amazing - lots of blue cranes, lovely pastoral scenes, excellent roads; you name it. (However, I would guess that some of these roads could get very slippery when wet.) Canola fields near Riviersonderend The R406 between Riviersonderend and Greyton carried heavy traffic near the start of this dirt section (read: way too much dust & very poor visibility), but the prospect of a cold beer was enough to keep the throttle open. (Incidentally, the local Napier draught is excellent!) The bikes again sleep in the garden, next to a fountain On Monday we returned to Cape Town via the stunning gravel road past Genadendal, although by now the predicted cold front was fast setting in and at times I thought I would be blown off the bike. We turned right onto the R43 towards Villiersdorp, and virtually immediately left again onto dirt towards the Thewaterskloof Dam. By now it had started to rain, and coping with the fairly rutted road (beware the potholes on this section!!) as well as the rain, wind and rapidly dropping temperatures, pushed me a few miles out of my comfort zone. Then we reached Franschhoek Pass, only to discover that the road had disappeared into the clouds. Visibility dropped to 1m, and with that my bottom lip - especially on the two U-turns near the top of the Pass (now I know why we don't have bike-to-bike comms. Some screams are best kept private). So what's a girl to do? Gotta get home, so I switched the heated grips to full blast, mentally thanked the cars that had followed us up from the bottom of the Pass without trying to overtake in the rain & who kept a good, safe distance behind us, and just focused on keeping the bike upright. And so we reached the bottom of the Pass, the wind seemed to drop on the way home (perhaps by now I was too tired to notice, or care) and as we pulled into the garage, the only question was: "Where to next?"