off road to thabazimbi and vaalwater

[Kradmelder]

Spring is on its way, and with warmer temperatures and longer days I did a 600 km gravel trip today. The trip was to Brits, then west on gravel and sand roads along teh crocodile river, to Thabazimbi, then gravel across the edge of the Marakele National park, almost to the Botswana border, then home via Vaalwater. The ride was on the margins of the Kalahari, so sand is everywhere.

The road from Brits was very sandy, which kept speed down, sometimes to below 40 kmh. The front wheel is just head shaking and snaking around, and the only way to steer is with the throttle: stand up, put weight on the rear and apply throttle to go straight.



https://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m270/hvandermerwe62/thabazimbi/IMG-20120819-00325.jpg


https://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m270/hvandermerwe62/thabazimbi/IMG-20120819-00328.jpg




Look how the front wheel sinks in when you stop



https://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m270/hvandermerwe62/thabazimbi/IMG-20120819-00327.jpg

A white man lives here. carving something from the bush and working to feed the nation. There were 85 000 white farmers in 1994. Now there are only 30 000. 3800 have been murdered on their farms. 12% have been attacked, The rest have given up due to stock theft and crime, or moved to towns for security. SA used to export food, now we must import. What will the darkies do when their rampages result in food shortages? Starve like zimbabwe and the rest of africa. Such a fertile continent, and they cant even feed themselves.


https://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m270/hvandermerwe62/thabazimbi/IMG-20120819-00329.jpg

Guess who lives here. Can you see the difference?


https://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m270/hvandermerwe62/thabazimbi/IMG-20120819-00333.jpg


The crocodile river. It is fenced off due to the irrigation pumps down below. It is to stop the darkies from carrying off the pumps


https://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m270/hvandermerwe62/thabazimbi/IMG-20120819-00330.jpg

Going through Marakele

https://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m270/hvandermerwe62/thabazimbi/IMG-20120819-00331.jpg

https://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m270/hvandermerwe62/thabazimbi/IMG-20120819-00332.jpg

Coming past the Schoongelegen game reserve. Bikes are not allowed in game reserves so I took the gravel along the border


https://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m270/hvandermerwe62/thabazimbi/IMG-20120819-00334.jpg

https://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m270/hvandermerwe62/thabazimbi/IMG-20120819-00335.jpg


The road is so soft the stand just sinks in and it is an effort to right the bike again

https://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m270/hvandermerwe62/thabazimbi/IMG-20120819-00336.jpg

The Mokolo river coming into Vaalwater

https://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m270/hvandermerwe62/thabazimbi/IMG-20120819-00337.jpg

I stop for lunch in Warmbaths, and pub and grill is infested with group riding weekend warriors on cruisers. Check my bike next to the 1200 Harley. Lol, the harley looks like a toy. His head must be at my knee

https://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m270/hvandermerwe62/thabazimbi/IMG-20120819-00339.jpg

https://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m270/hvandermerwe62/thabazimbi/IMG-20120819-00341.jpg

More fashion accessories. Another town to avoid on a sunday to give a miss to the weekend warrior breakfast runners

https://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m270/hvandermerwe62/thabazimbi/IMG-20120819-00342.jpg

But I get a nice cold one and a 350 g T bone steak smothered in cheese and mushroom sauce

https://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m270/hvandermerwe62/thabazimbi/IMG-20120819-00343.jpg

https://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m270/hvandermerwe62/thabazimbi/IMG-20120819-00344.jpg

Strange to see my dirty bike next to all that shiny chrome and leather. And my boots...

https://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m270/hvandermerwe62/thabazimbi/IMG-20120819-00340.jpg

Madchen needs a wash. I cant recall how I got mud on it. I thought it very dry and sandy, but some of the ground beneath must have been muddy and I churned it up. The risks of off-raod. You cant always see the mud until your bike slides under you. But it is absolutely the best riding for me.


https://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m270/hvandermerwe62/thabazimbi/IMG-20120819-00345.jpg
____________________
2011 KTM 990 Dakar
2009 BMW 1200 GS

[_Iain_]

Would very much like to do some offroad touring overseas.

Money, licence, time etc mean it's not happening in the forseable future!

for an interesting read
____________________
Please be aware that the above post may be full of complete nonsense.
Riding: '07 KTM Duke II, Baotian BT49QT-20 Driving: '88 Volvo 340

[Kradmelder]

Regarding farm attacks, inall these cases, the attackers were young, black males, often armed with AK47s and Uzis. In only 31% cases theft was involved. So it is simply killing, not stealing. And like all theft in SA food is never taken, so they are not stealing because they are hungry.

The farm attacks come with growing hate-speech by government officials targeting white farmers. Mandela used to sing kill the Settlers, Zuma sings kill the Boers. This from state presidents.

But the darkies also suffer. The economic effect from on the emptying out the farms results in squatters moving in and the farms become disused and dilapidated in a short period of time.

The number of food-producing commercial farms in South Africa has dropped from 85,000 in 1994 to a mere 11,500 this year, according to SA tax records.

This has in turn also caused massive unemployment among farm-workers: 1,2million were employed on white-owned farms in 1994, only 360,000 now remain.

Then squatter towns grow larger every time jobless farm workers move away from desolate farms after such murders. Less than one percent of the entire South African land surface is now used for irrigated crop-production, causing local food prices to triple this past year. In 1994 about 6% of the entire SA land-surface was used by commercial farmers for irrigated crops.
____________________
2011 KTM 990 Dakar
2009 BMW 1200 GS

[sidewinder]

again some great pics What sort of time are you doing these trips in?
____________________
"Nitrous is like a cheap hooker, you want to hit it but are scared of the consequences

[Kradmelder]

[Suntan Sid]

Why ruin a perfectly good steak with melted cheese?
Shrooms YES, cheese NO!

Looks like you had a good ride though!
____________________
"Everybody needs money, that's why they call it money!"

[Kradmelder]

[drzsta]

Nice ride, shame about our Colonial Brothers and the general decline in self sufficient output.

I would not feel safe in a cage out there let alone an almost grand spanker of a Katoom.

How big a problem is Hijacking out there?
____________________
Current Bikes - BMW S1000RR ‘17 & KTM 690 SMC-R ‘12

[Kradmelder]

[Werny]

That was an interesting write-up, cool pictures and interesting facts. We have nothing similar in the UK, a few areas we can go off-road but nothing like the 1000's of miles of dirt track you have. A fantastic playground for you!

And such a beautiful country so obviously going downhill due to mismanagement by the current rulers. I've worked with a few South Africans in my time, and all of them, without exception, have stories of violent crime committed to either themselves, their families or close neighbours. Except one old fella, but I don't think I ever understood a single word he said, his accent was so strong, proper Afrikaner

[Kradmelder]

[.Chris.]

Interesting. Here it's the complete opposite. You'll really struggle to find unsurfaced dirt roads that actually take you somewhere useful. The number of byways (i.e. unsurfaced public roads that you can drive/ride on) has diminished greatly in recent years, due mainly to pressure from groupls like the ramblers' association. There's a huge number of public bridleways, but vehicular traffic isn't allowed on these.

That said, plenty of small country lanes in more remote parts of the country have only a fairly minimal 'surface'. I used to live in Devon and plenty of the minor roads in rural areas there are little more than two strips of crumbling tarmac (where car tyres go), and a strip of grass in the middle.

Sadly, this is now a very crowded island (particularly in the south), and the sort of wilderness you have in SA is harder to find here.
____________________
Chris
1985 Kawasaki Z550F

[Kradmelder]

[MarkJ]

Krad, do you carry a gun with you at all?

[.Chris.]

[Kradmelder]

[Kradmelder]

[.Chris.]

Not sure about Scotland as their legal system is somewhat different. In Wales, the same law will apply as England, but I've certainly never heard of the type of long unsurfaced roads that you seem to have.

As you say, the problem with unsurfaced roads here is the mud. I suspect a lot of very minor roads would be left unsurfaced if it weren't for the fact that in the winter they'd quickly turn into a quagmire and become impassable. The mud is also part of the reason why so many off-road rights of way are not open to vehicular traffic these days - unfortunately some people with 4x4s were churning them up big time and incurring the wrath of the walkers/cyclists/horse riders who also used them.

Of course it's possible to get a bike up quite a few public footpaths/bridleways/etc (as I've done in the past), but this is technically illegal and you can get your bike impounded. The banana republic s59 legislation we were talking about in the general forum was originally brought in to counter illegal off-roading.
____________________
Chris
1985 Kawasaki Z550F

[Kradmelder]

[Kradmelder]