3000 km Trip across the Karoo and Eastern Cape by gravel

Kradmelder · World Chat Champion Joined: 13 Jun 2012 Karma :

This past January I did a solo trip in about a week, mostly on gravel roads. Kit included spare tubes, a first aid kit (in tank bag), chain lube, cleaner and brush, air compressor, tyre levers, valve puller, tools, tent, dry bag, sleeping bag, personal kit. I prefer solo riding. It is what adventure riding is all about. No one can hear you scream and it is just you and the bike. You can also deviate your route.

The day before I load and check over the bike.

https://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m270/hvandermerwe62/2012ecape/IMG-20120108-00027.jpg

Departure is before sunrise at 0500 as the first day is nearly 900 km long, from Pretoria to Hanover, in the centre of the Karoo. Madchen roars to life and is anxious to depart. She can smell the gravel.

https://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m270/hvandermerwe62/2012ecape/IMG-20120109-00028.jpg

Just after dawn I hit my first gravel outside Parys, or more like mud due to all the rain the day before.

https://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m270/hvandermerwe62/2012ecape/IMG-20120109-00029.jpg

Eventually I have to hit tar to find petrol in the northern Free State.

https://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m270/hvandermerwe62/2012ecape/IMG-20120109-00030.jpg

The road takes me past salt pans as the climate gets drier

https://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m270/hvandermerwe62/2012ecape/IMG-20120109-00032.jpg

The roads are empty and peaceful. I run 3 stop and goes for road works. The darkies working on roads sure are friendly. They all wave their arms and flags as I go around the barricades Mr. Green

. Oncoming cars also greet me with hoots and flashing lights as I pull of and ride on the shoulder to give them right of way Mr. Green

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By lunch I am in Bloemfontein, having done 500 km. I now have to endure damn awful british food at Wimpy. How can people make an empire eating that kak? Madchen wants to ride inside with me as there is an ANC rally going on in Bloem and the town is infested with very aggressive, screaming drunk darkies. Sort of like Manchester circa 2011.

https://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m270/hvandermerwe62/2012ecape/IMG-20120109-00036.jpg

I then head off to Jagersfontein, which is almost a ghost town now. The new government imposed punitive muncipal taxes against white residents, which drove most of them to leave and the town collapsed. Amazingly, some of the rivers have water. This area is semi arid and rivers never flow for more than a few days, and that is rare. So it is a treat to see the area so green.

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The roads get even more remote asIi start to enter the Karoo proper.

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There are stretches of over 100 km of just gravel between towns. But I start picking up bossies. This are little balls with thorns from the vegetation. Every 10 min I must stop and pull them out of my tyres before they get pushed in too deep and cause punctures. This makes progress very slow and 60 km takes me well over an hour.

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The karoo sure is a remote place

https://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m270/hvandermerwe62/2012ecape/IMG-20120109-00045.jpg

Then i see a dreaded karoo storm coming. These are high winds, intense rain, lightning, hail. No where to go but forward into it. The karoo is largely clay, so if the gravel gets wet it is like riding on snot. Very slippery. So I'm torn between speed and caution. I need to get off the road before it gets wet, but the road is covered in bossies and little stones like marbles, and I have a few head shakes, but madchen recovers.

https://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m270/hvandermerwe62/2012ecape/IMG-20120109-00046.jpg

I manage to reach the tar as the first few drops fall, and after pullng bossies, it is a 160 kmh run to beat the storm. I can't even stop as each time I stop it catches up.

I reach Van der Kloof Dam still ahead of the storm.

https://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m270/hvandermerwe62/2012ecape/IMG-20120109-00048.jpg

still out running the storm heading south for Hanover

https://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m270/hvandermerwe62/2012ecape/IMG-20120109-00049.jpg

I arrive in Hanover at sunset, about 1900 and find a rondavel

https://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m270/hvandermerwe62/2012ecape/IMG-20120109-00050.jpg

Days distance

https://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m270/hvandermerwe62/2012ecape/IMG-20120110-00052.jpg

end of day 1 with a cold one

https://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m270/hvandermerwe62/2012ecape/IMG-20120109-00051.jpg
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2011 KTM 990 Dakar
2009 BMW 1200 GS

Kradmelder · World Chat Champion Joined: 13 Jun 2012 Karma :

Kradmelder · World Chat Champion Joined: 13 Jun 2012 Karma :

Day 3. I'm heading to a mate in Port Elizabeth. We have been mates over 20 years from security forces days. It is about a 500 km run.

But first a boere breakfast!

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I start heading up the Prince Alfred pass

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The morning is nice and quiet but by lunch Im getting all the day tripper weekend warriors out of Kynsna. It is awful. Herds of DS bikes with no luggage coming in packs of 10 or more;cages coming around hair pin bends in the middle of the road as they gawk at scenery. Kyk daars I call them (look there). Just dust and constantly watching for traffic. If i stop i get showered in dust and stones. I decide to veer off on forestry roads and bypass Knysna and all the tourists. if there is anything worse than riding tar, it is riding crowded gravel roads. Better on sandy forestry roads

https://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m270/hvandermerwe62/2012ecape/IMG-20120111-00084.jpg

But one problem of forestry roads...trees in the way

https://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m270/hvandermerwe62/2012ecape/IMG-20120111-00085.jpg

I finally reach tar at george

https://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m270/hvandermerwe62/2012ecape/IMG-20120111-00086.jpg

Tar is brain dead. Any one can ride tar. and I quickly get bored and detour

https://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m270/hvandermerwe62/2012ecape/IMG-20120111-00088.jpg

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I arrive early in PE and have a good time with my mate recalling the old days
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2011 KTM 990 Dakar
2009 BMW 1200 GS

Kradmelder · World Chat Champion Joined: 13 Jun 2012 Karma :

Day 4 is an easy day, along the coast road then to Grahamstown, my old hometown. About 300 km day, so not even a proper ride. A rest day.

But going along the tar is anathema. I figure this sign does'nt apply to me and I can out run the lions. Did they say bikes forbidden? Mine isn't a bike, it is my mistress.

https://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m270/hvandermerwe62/2012ecape/IMG01201-20110429-1141.jpg

I must see the sea

https://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m270/hvandermerwe62/2012ecape/IMG01119-20110429-1109.jpg

Then to grahamstown to stay with a mate and service the bike.

https://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m270/hvandermerwe62/2012ecape/IMG-20120112-00092.jpg
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2011 KTM 990 Dakar
2009 BMW 1200 GS

Kradmelder · World Chat Champion Joined: 13 Jun 2012 Karma :

Day 5 starts with rain and I'm heading to Elliot to stay with another mate.

I'm heading up the Blinkwater valley to Spring valley. a very remote road through the Winterberg. Everyone warns me against it due to the rain and mud, but I figure I didn't come all this way to ride tar and miss out on roads I know well and really enjoy.

I start heading up through lowering cloud and drizzle.

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Just after this pic I have an off. Im trapped under the bike and smell petrol leaking, so figure, Scheisse, I must get out from underneath. I manage to get out, but battle to lift the bike as I can barely stand on the mud. My feet keep slipping out. Eventually I grit my teeth and get the bike up and pull my back doing it. It is still not 100%!

https://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m270/hvandermerwe62/2012ecape/IMG-20120113-00102.jpg

I realise I can't go back as it is too slippery to attempt going downhill so it is soldier on with the biker sprit.

https://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m270/hvandermerwe62/2012ecape/IMG-20120113-00103.jpg

Traffic picks up

https://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m270/hvandermerwe62/2012ecape/IMG01296-20110429-1609.jpg

I eventually reach Elliot, dodging rain and hail, and sleep at the MOTH shell hole, which my friend managed.
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2011 KTM 990 Dakar
2009 BMW 1200 GS

Kradmelder · World Chat Champion Joined: 13 Jun 2012 Karma :

Day 6 is classic eastern cape gravel. I'm heading through the east cape mountains to the Free State and home.

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And then I come across signs of the hated British. Bastards. Block houses and concentration camps. And they tried to pin that on Adi. Now, looking at the streets of London, their colonies have colonised them and it looks like half of India, pakistan, arabia, hong kong and china, jamaica and africa is in the UK Mr. Green

. The wheel turns Mr. Green

Even the South Africans are colonising them. Laughing

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I finally reach the Orange River somewhere in the Transkei and cross into the Free State

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I stop for lunch in Wepener

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But now Wepener has no fuel and I have already done 220 km on the tank. They inform me the next town Hobhouse is also out of fuel. But there is fuel in Dewetsdorp, 75 km out of my may. I have no choice but to head that way. If I dont make it, dewetsdorp is 100 km from bloem and I can call a friend to bring petrol. 300 km is really pushing the KTM after riding mountains and gravel and some tar at 160 kmh.

Madchen gets to Dewetsdorp but then another storm is brewing. I elect to chance it by cutting across on gravel to Hobhouse rather than backtrack. As I reach Hobhouse the skies open up in a torenntial rain. The road is deep under water but I carry on. I reach Ladybrand in pouring rain, and now it is a main road, full of trucks, and cages, construction, and it is getting dark. I figure fark it, no point continuing in this so I stop.

But Ladybrand is a border down on the main road into Lesotho. African border towns are horrible places. I try to find a place to stay for white people but by now I'm exhausted and soaked and it is raining very hard. So I stay in a guest house, where everyone is black. So i first ask to check room. It looks reasonably clean so i stay but dont take a meal. I figure I will leave at 0400 anyway.

I didn't get much sleep as the partied and screamed all night.
____________________
2011 KTM 990 Dakar
2009 BMW 1200 GS

Kradmelder · World Chat Champion Joined: 13 Jun 2012 Karma :

sidewinder · World Chat Champion Joined: 24 Aug 2011 Karma :

Excellent write up and i really enjoyed the pictures.Thank you for sharing Thumbs Up

Alex_B · Brolly Dolly Joined: 15 Jul 2011 Karma :

Kradmelder · World Chat Champion Joined: 13 Jun 2012 Karma :

Paris2 · Nearly there... Joined: 10 Apr 2011 Karma :

Maybe don't call them anything, they are people, they don't need to be referred to in any other way.

That aside, nice write up and a great looking trip. I wouldn't have the balls to do that alone. So fair play Thumbs Up

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Current Ride: Daytona 600

Bru · Trackday Trickster Joined: 01 Feb 2007 Karma :

A great write-up, in very good English (ironically). The scenery and distances between them is impressive. A pity that you had to reinforce the stereotype of the white South African, which detracted somewhat from the piece. I'm sure you know best.

Kradmelder · World Chat Champion Joined: 13 Jun 2012 Karma :

Sload · World Chat Champion Joined: 28 Aug 2011 Karma :

recman · World Chat Champion Joined: 26 Mar 2012 Karma :

Enjoyed reading this thread and the pics.
Shame you did this trip on your own but if thats your thing then cool.
Riding that kind of distance alone would have done my head in.

Kradmelder · World Chat Champion Joined: 13 Jun 2012 Karma :

Groove · World Chat Champion Joined: 10 Feb 2005 Karma :

I think theres something wrong with your country. You seem to have a strange blue sky instead of the normal grey one?

Unless you have a cheap camera that turns grey in to blue?
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|| Past: 1991 Kawasaki ZXR 250 ~ 2003 Honda CBR 600 F Sport ~ 2004 Kawasaki ZX6R B1H 636 ~ 1999 Yamaha R1 ~ 1999 Kawasaki ZX6R J ~ 2004 Kawasaki ZX6R B1H 636 ~ 1998 Honda VTR1000F Firestorm ~ K1 GSXR 600 Track bike ~ K6 GSXR 1000 ~ 2006 Speed Triple 1050 || Current: 2005 R1 https://www.adrucore.co.uk

Kradmelder · World Chat Champion Joined: 13 Jun 2012 Karma :

Alex_B · Brolly Dolly Joined: 15 Jul 2011 Karma :

Kradmelder · World Chat Champion Joined: 13 Jun 2012 Karma :

P. · Red Rocket Joined: 14 Feb 2008 Karma :

Hmm,

I was with you until "darkies"

Regardless, everything else looked quite nice so I can't give neg karma...

Although, it may be different where you are, but if I was to say anything racist here.. I'd be fucked. It's not pleasant.

Kradmelder · World Chat Champion Joined: 13 Jun 2012 Karma :

P. · Red Rocket Joined: 14 Feb 2008 Karma :

Kradmelder · World Chat Champion Joined: 13 Jun 2012 Karma :

P. · Red Rocket Joined: 14 Feb 2008 Karma :

If he called me whitey... it would make me feel better knowing that I am not the one being racist...

But hey..