Grizz & Dozer's Ride South Africa, Ride Report Complete. YouTube Videos.....

[grizz]

Just got some photos on a memory stick from Dozer in SA.

Rather than weave them in with the ride report, I thought I would just do them as an entry on their own.

Dozer arriving at his best mate Fred's place in Kroonstad.

He had decided to do this ride in a much more relaxed way from Jo-burg to Cape Town, so 200km days were fine to him. I do envy him the peaceful way he approaches certain tasks.

I think he was home before them.



Next day on the road, of course.... Brekkie, how could you forget the best part of his day.



Somewhere between Nowhere and Nothing.



Dozer took 3 days to get to Cape Town, and like me chose to use the old Du Toits Kloof Pass.

On top of the old pass overlooking Paarl and surrounding areas.





The next couple of days went by in a flash.... then we were off on the actual ride.

Meeting Goose at Sir Lowries Pass Village service station.



Gordons Bay views.....



Hermanus, and the canon all facing inland. Guess they are only ornamental these days.



Then on to the Seven Passes day.... Sunday.
Nothing beats the taste of black river water in a forest.



One of many stops with Kosie, our guide on the first half of the day.



Coming into Knysna where we were having breakfast, I love the lagoon to the right. Seen the road change over many years.





After Breakfast at the Wimpy, it was off with Jupiter and RCerrie into more forestry roads and passes.





Into the mountains, higher and higher to get to the viewpoint



Jupiter in the lead



Grizzly and Dusty



The roads just seem to go on and on for ever.



Zooooooom me up Scotty.



Eventually, Top of the world





Then back again to the main roads.....into another valley





Self portrait of Dozer.



After cake and coffee in the valley, it was on to Uniondale etc, and into the Baviaans where we stayed at Uitspan farm.

Nico likes the old stuff as much as we do.





Jupiters rest, a different perspective.



Deon's and my place.

He slept upstairs, to avoid my snoring.





After the traumatic end to our Baviaans adventure, getting my feet properly wet helping Jupiter push his fallen angel through the stream.



Then a couple of days later, after the stay over at Jupiters place, we were on our way to Elliott via Queenstown.





Last stop before Mountain Shadows to take a few nice sunset over the mountains type pics.



And just like that we were off into the sunset.

Day two of the Cape Town trip coming up later if anyone is still interested.

 

[Maak Hom Dronk]

Outstanding trip.... Outstanding pictures... 

[EssBee]

+1000 x 10²

Sigh.....one day...

[spoedvark]

AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME!!!!!

[bungycool]

Ag Grizz. You write so well tempt me with a thousand lovely flavours sights and sounds to head back home again. Thanks for having us along for the ride!!

[grizz]

Outstanding trip.... Outstanding pictures... 

Thanks Ian, It was certainly the trip of a lifetime, and doing it all with Deon was just a great way to build on a friendship we have as brothers.

All the stuff we did, saw and experienced, has left us so much richer for it.

[grizz]

+1000 x 10²

Sigh.....one day...

Easy EssBee........

Dream it, Discuss it, Do it.

We could have done a 4 day weekend and still managed to pull and suck out all the life it had out of th experience.

[grizz]

AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME!!!!!

Once again, Thank you very much, I write for guys like you.

Sharing this ride makes it that much more enjoyable for me.

[grizz]

Ag Grizz. You write so well tempt me with a thousand lovely flavours sights and sounds to head back home again. Thanks for having us along for the ride!!

Well, Mr KTM, are you not the guy who spent the afternoon scratching about the Scottish back roads this afternoon, enjoying yourself ??

You have done it yourself, so you know how good it is.

I just tend to do a bit of wordsmithing and post some pics (OK, a lot of pics)

Thanks for your kind comments.

[grizz]

I woke "late" on day 21, having slept till 05.40.

So I really made an effort to rise and shine slowly.
 
Having a shower, coffee and three Bakers Lemon Creams (There is only one Bakers )

Then I packed the few bits into the side panniers, which had given amazing service thus far.

I had also made a very hot flask of good coffee, boiling the milk and priming the flask twice with boiling water, this way I would have hot coffee when I made my first coffee break in two hours, and the last cup would still be quite hot when I got to it.

I left the house, pushing the bike out by about 06.15 and started it in the street. Then proceeded to go to the local petrol station to fill up with LRP.
I rode onto the N1 at 06.30 just as it started to get light.

Yesterday the bike was a pleasure, and soon we settled into a nice brisk pace of around 120km/h which we maintained till we hit the first roadworks, with a sign stating 10 minute wait between streams.... BUGGERRR !!!

About 2 minutes Later I was waved through and in my rear view mirror I saw them move the barrier for the Minibus taxi that had been at the head of the stopped traffic.

I carried on and as I rode further away from Richmond, the world flattened out and the road became more and more pleasant.

I was also wearing my specialized earplugs that Harry Pienaar "Cracklin" (another friendship going back almost 30 years) had given me to try out, they reduce the harmful road noise but even with our radio comms, I could head Dozer clearly when we were riding together.
These plugs also allow you to reach your destination much less fatigued. And for me this was my third big "New Thing" since starting the ride. The radio comms, though used in France on this trip - http://www.wilddog.za.net/forum/index.php?topic=106585.0  and then the use of a kidney belt on a longer and rougher trip, followed by the use of these ear plugs, all contributed to a much improved riding experience.
Thanks Harry, they work for sure.

Just as the sun was about to break the horizon, I reached the North Cape and Western cape border, and stopped to take a couple of photos and to just enjoy the silence.



And looking back at where I had just come from....



The morning air was what could be described as Crisp or even bracing...... I could happily just have sat down next to the road for an hour, watching the sun come up, and feeling its first rays on my shoulders, warming me through the layers of synthetic fibers on my back.



Then I dragged myself out of my short reverie and climbed back onto the Whale, who was performing more like a dolphin or a killer whale today.

Many more roadworks followed and at most I sneaked to the front, by overtaking on the left or right of the line of stationary vehicles.
I waited mostly for less than 4 minutes, and then sped off to only be caught by the next section, that said, I think I had been able to break the rhythm and thus ended up not waiting as long as some.

If you look at this photo, you will see to the right behind me, another bike approaching...... A rider on a HP2 who was putting some serious distance under his arse.

We greeted, and at the next stop, I shared my Bakers Lemon Creams  some dried fruit with him. being unemployed and between jobs, he kept himself busy with voluntary work and also, like me was making good use of the time to do some really cool long distance rides.



Towns like Three Sisters,Beaufort West, Laingsburg all came and went, and we were making very good time, all I had in my vision was N1 Cape Town.

Filling up here showed me I was on the right route.



Remember mentioning the sun on my back ?

At this point I started to feel just a gentle warmth through my riding jacket which I had kept the lining in when I had left early morning.  I just had to smile and chuckle inside my helmet. This would be repeated several times on the road back to Cape Town.

This country has a beauty that amazes, hypnotizes and never really leaves you.

I just wish more people could realize and experience it.



Some action and bored while riding shots.




At Laingsburg I saw this lot in the carpark.... overloaded?? Naaahhhhh...






Hex River Pass had these signs.... loved by most bikes.



Beauty everywhere you look.
Over my shoulder, vineyards, all in autumn colours and with varying degrees of leaf loss.
Again, this just made my heart shout and my head very happy, I found myself saying things like "Fuckit but this is beautiful, I wish Nicola was here" she has an incredible eye for detail with a camera.




Then you come out of the Hex River Pass, and come around a long bend to be confronted with this..... where the farm workers live.

What a contrast.





After Worcester I came to to the start of the Du Toits Kloof road, which ultimately culminates in a nice long oldskool mountain pass.



Surrounded by tall mountains, and colours as bright as what comes out of my wife's washing basket, I was really happy.
There was a time when I lived in Cape Town that I drove this road almost every week.

Then I came to the point where you have to choose, Pass or Tunnel ??



Easy choice. really

The road to the right leading to the old road, and to the left you had the entrance to the tunnel.

Details:

The Huguenot Tunnel is a toll tunnel near Cape Town, South Africa. It extends the N1 national road through the Du Toitskloof mountains that separate Paarl from Worcester, providing a route that is safer, faster (between 15 and 26 minutes) and shorter (by 11 km) than the old Du Toitskloof Pass travelling over the mountain.
Geological surveys and design started in 1973, and excavation followed in 1984, tunneling from both ends using drilling and blasting. The two drilling heads met with an error of only 3 mm over its entire 3.9 km length. The tunnel was finally opened on 18 March 1988.
Currently the tunnel carries one lane of traffic in each direction. Plans are underway to open a second unfinished tunnel, the "northern bore", to carry eastbound traffic. This will allow for two lanes of traffic in each direction, with each tunnel carrying traffic in one direction only.[1][2]
In 2002, traffic peaks occurred during Easter (a record on 26 April 18 200 vehicles) and the December school holidays (12 000 vehicles per day).
The tunnel is maintained by Tolcon, a subsidiary of the Murray & Roberts construction company.[3]





Following the old road, there was a tunnel as well, but no toll.

Many heavy hauliers still use the old road, as the cost of repeated tolls every day is prohibitive.



After a leisurely ride, with a couple of stops, I got to the viewpoint, and found some Swiss tourists who were prepared to take a photo for me before they drove off.

I also had the last of my coffee and biscuits here, as Paarl which was my destination, was literally 20 minutes away.



I then descended down the other side of the pass.

Enjoying the absolute majesty of the mountains.









It was just on 13.00 when I rolled back into the yard at Mabille engineering.



Eugene was both surprised and pleased,a as he had expected me back the next day only.
My original plan had been to do the trip over three days.




Happy to be back in one piece, I had done just over 6000km so far, and the trip was not over yet.....

I unpacked, relaxed, chatted and sorted my washing,

Later Eugene took me to the Woolworths/Marks & Spencer fudge factory shop where I bought 3kg of Fudge, Nougat and Turkish Delight. Some of it was to be consumed before I left SA, the rest was all that Nicola had asked for.

We also went to Metro Wholesale  for me to buy deodorant, toothpaste in bulk..... Trust me, if I had to explain, you still would not understand.

I also arranged to see Goose the next day, to return the electrical cables and connectors he had fitted to Deon's bike for the SatNav , and to pop in at Mavericks mate Piet in Rondebosch to collect a second set of saddle bags and some more electrical kit that needed to go back to Johannesburg to Deon after I left for the UK.

That night I went to bed with a stupid grin on my face, knowing what we had done was great, and that our parents both, wherever they were would be looking down and saying something like "You bloody mad bastards"

My trip was not yet over, there was still the days in and around the Cape on the bike, and then Friday night and Saturday, Sunday on Eugene's farm, near the village of Napier.

More about that tomorrow.

Bed beckons now.

[grizz]

Amazing, three weeks at this ride now.

I was on Day 22 and that was spent going to various shops around Paarl to buy some clothes, gifts and a few other bits. Followed by a trip to Rondebosh and then finally to Goose on the base of Cape Town.

Getting to Goose's place is easy, both geographically as well as easy on the eye.
Who would not be happy with this backdrop. That's his gate to my right.



I spent some quality time with Goose planning world domination and their return to the UK at the end of May, then went down to the Waterfront, and specifically to "The Red Shed" as I still needed to get an Elephant hair bracelet for Nicola, she had a very short shopping list, and I wanted to fulfill it for her.
Red Shed is aimed squarely at Rich Oriental and European tourists with its pricing, but at that point, at 16.00 with afternoon traffic building, it was convenient.
So I did a quick walk through, nearly bought a Senegalese brass cross for our collection, but when a shopkeeper takes an item out of my hands to tell me its virtues (I do not care that that is the way they do business) I just turned around and walked away.
At another stall ( where apparently I was the first customer, that was after 16.00) l I did find what I wanted (At a price that could make the eyes water) bought two of them and left the Red Shed.



After this I was straight back onto the Whale and into the 5 o'clock homeward traffic, with everyone spilling out of Cape Town onto the N1 in my case.
It makes for interesting, defensive riding, with every man/woman for themselves and all trying to catch up with all the phone calls and texts they missed through the day.
Again, I was pissed off at Policemen in marked cars driving and texting etc......

I made it to Eugene's place in one piece and settled for the evening.

Notice the standard working outfits of him and his son Marcel.

His disregard over the years for H&S has always pleased me, because in spite of shit happening, he has always allowed common sense to prevail in his domain.

[grizz]

Day 22 was a slow one.

I needed to dismantle The Whale again, to get the borrowed Suzuki Coil out from under the tank and recoonect the original dead BMW coil.

How typical though.... when I refitted and tested the BMW coil, it worked, very well.

I had breakfast, ate Eugene's rusks and stood in the garden eating fresh, ripe fruit from his trees.......Now that is as good as it sounds.

After Breakfast I unpacked, repacked my pile of stuff into a sensibly split by weight and value setup. I also weighed it all and found I was exactly on my weight limit. This allowed me to settle mentally as I was off to the farm near Napier with Eugene and his wife Annemarie after work, which means 19.00-ish after traffic settles and it is dark (Not a good combination when you drive with Eugene, I have known him for a long time and he drives like a demon)

Once packed up, I was ready for my last trip to the local shopping centre as I had a couple of things still to get.

I was also meeting Neels, Mavericks father in law there, as he is the manager of the Pick n Pay and would be taking back ownership of the bike.
Delivering it to him and being driven back the 3km to where I was staying was massively helpful.
We ended up chatting for quite a while and I fed back all the behaviours of the Whale that I had experienced so that he know what to expect.

Back at Mabille Engineering I kept myself busy until we were ready to leave for the farm.

I do not scare easily, but the drive to the farm had me at a point between scared shitless and angry enough to get out of the car and beat the crap out of Eugene. He is a guy who will always do more of what he is told to stop doing, and in retrospect, I should have stopped him and hitch hiked back home. Between him texting, calling and answering two different phones while driving through Franschoek and other passes and stupid speeds, I am very pleased to be able to be writing this Ride Report.
Porblem is, guys like him, as much a I like him, never see themselves as to blame.
On the way he delivered 150kg of frozen chicken, bacon and other items he sells as a side line, so the Mk3 Jetta at least handled better the last 30 minutes of the trip, than the first part with its boot stuffed full of boxes of chicken.

We got to the farm after 21.00 and had a drink (to calm my anger) and then went to bed.

[grizz]

DAY 23 - On the farm.

Up early on Saturday morning, I was able to walk out and just enjoy the solitude and quiet.

Listening to the farmer and his workers in their bakkie checking the bleating sheep on the next farms hills about 2km away was really good.

Eugene has buiilt pretty much everything you see singlehandedly in the last 5 years, as a weekend project when not in the engineering shop.
He has removed acres of invasive bush, built dams, sheds and roads.

This is the new farm house he built after vandals burned down the original house that was situated in a valley near one of the other sheds, known as the wood shed.

The designs is very specific, to be Baboon and wind proof. The wind is a real problem so high up on the farm, we are not talking breezes, but rip your head off winds.



Koi ponds



One of the VW bakkies he keeps to manage the farm.

I was amazed at just how tough they are, looking at the use and abuse he throws at them.



A 10 horsepower SINGLE PHASE saw he built to cut trees up for fire wood.

The invasive species he has systematically been removing brings in another welcome income to make the farm more self sufficient.

He also welcomes offroad riders and quad riders to the farm, and you can pitch your tents inside the woodshed.

There are basic amenities, like a workshop shower and toilet....... gotta beat taking a dump behind a tree.



Need some fire wood ??



No, not having a pee, but this is the workshop shower and toilet you could use after a day playing in the bush.





At the one dam he built up in the mountain, he has some "tame" ducks that he put there.
This is a grain "auto-feeder" that he made, being serviced.
Everything has to be baboon proof as they are absolutely destructive, and the porcupines love the free grain as well, so often come down to feed on the free food.





Protea and fynbos as far as the eye can see.

During the flowering season he contracts out the harvesting to flower sellers who come pick the flowers and take them to the city to sell.







Heather is doing well this year as well.



Looking down to the house and yard shed.



The 5 foot stone wall built with locally quarried stone with electrification is there for "security" from the raiding baboon troups.
They will rip every gutter and door handle off a house if not kept out. Which Eugene found out once when he forgot to activate the electric fence after a weekend there.








Eugene has always been a very keen gardener and keeps a vegetabe and table fruit garden next to the house, behind the shed.

Look to the left of him, close to the wall, there is a low bush ..... the nest of a Cape Sugarbird pair that were working very hard, they are tiny little birds but work incredibly hard and and incessantly.












Water is precious here as well, so in addition to bore hole and windpump water, tanks are vital.







Casualty of who knows what??



The green hill in mid-distance of the next farm is where the sheep were being inspected and I could hear the workers talk, the air is so clear here, no noise polution and no city smog.



Baboon shit on top of the Braai/BBQ chimney stack.







Some really nice colours in the veld to surprise you when walking about.



Eugene is also a keen bee keeper, so has quite a few hives dotted all over the farm.

He mentioned that this was his most aggressive swarm he kept, and typically it is one that resided inside the homestead walls, close to the Koi Pond.







Because of the baboon and porcupine problem with eating all the duck food, we needed to figure out a plan to make the food specifically accessible for the ducks only.

So a floating feeder with a hanging rock for ballast was designed by me....  strung between two strings in the middle of the dam.



Later we brought the ducks down to the farmyard as Eugene wants them to live between the dam and the yard.



This was my view driving about fetching and taking stuff around the farm, a view I could get used to ......



One large tunnel going into the dam wall, we cleared it a bit to see if there were any tracks in and out of it, to establish if maybe the porcupines had moved in there...... gotta try it all.





Late Saturday afternoon we had to go to one of the other small dams to harvest "Water blommetjies" for an order that needed filling

The order was for 8kg, but in typical style, we ended up with 19kg.
Now like eating roast sheeps head, waterblommetjie stew is not my thing. There are certain "cultural" delicacies that I just do not get.

Still, I agreed to help with the harvesting and processing.



It is a labour intensive harvest, and bloody cold if you are the guy in the water for two or three hours.



As the flowers and stems come out the water.





We filled 4 crates in the end.

The stems go back to be added to the garden and also for the ducks as they like greenery.



After this, Eugene in his typical style had to go show me the rest of the farm, going high up and over the hills to more viewpoints.

We were supposed to be returning to Paarl as his wife had arranged to see family on on Sunday, but the man just stays on his own mission.



King Protea





Picture below lifted from Google to illustrate size



One of the viewpoints.

I am not sure if the guy actually own real shoes.

His wife made him buy a pair of Crocs for when they go shopping together, as he never wears shoes.





Of course with all his time wasting, we had to sleep over on Saturday night, and had a really good Braai..... what else would you expect to do ?

We had more than enough brandy to drink and eventually went to bed near midnight. (still pissed at him for not listening to others or considering others)

Still, the visit was great and the farm has a magical way of calming pretty much anyone.

[grizz]

DAY 24 - SUNDAY MORNING BROKE BEAUTIFULLY ON THE FARM.





Eugene's aunt had turned 100 the day before, so we were out into the veld to get some Proteas for her.





After a rather large breakfast, which included mushrooms freshly picked from the pine forest below the top dam, we packed up and left the farm.
It seemed the farm had drained some of Eugene's mad energy, as we drove back to Paarl via The Strand and his aunts residential home at speeds not exceeding 120km/h so my mood was a bit better.

In the Strand we stopped at an open air "market" with many Nigerian, Zimbabwean and other foreign nationals all competing to sell handbags, flags and baseball caps.
Toward one end was some food stalls and here we bought some really goo, freshly made samoosa's and also coconut koeksusters...... just perfect.

Fishmongers all with the fresh mornings catch, straight off the boats waiting to clean your choice of fish.



Ice cream vendor did not seem to be doing too good.



We eventually got back to Mabille Engineering (remember his house is built on top of the workshops) at 13.00 which gave me time to shower, shave and get ready for my cousin Marius who was picking me up at 15.00 to spend some time with him before taking me to the airport.

We said our goodbyes and went off to Plattekloof to Greens restaurant for something to eat (Pizza and coffee's) Thanks Marius.

Later we were joined by Wilddogs member H20 who amongst other things is a keen diver.

He had contacted me in the first week when we were in Elliott to ask when he could meet me.


Tinus is another of life's gems  (for the English, an abbreviation for Marthinus) who had contacted me.
He desperately wanted to meet up with me to give me a smoking pipe he had dived out many years ago from a 300 year old wreck, for Nicola to add to her collection.

"Het Huis te Kraaiestein" was a Dutch ship of 1,154 tons, built in 1697 at the Zeeland Yard for the Zeeland Chamber of the Dutch East India Company, and commanded by Jan van de Vijver. It was wrecked on the rocks in the bay at Oudekraal on the Cape Peninsula on 27 May 1698 in thick mist as they were trying to find the way into Table Bay. The ship was on its maiden voyage outward-bound from Wielingen, which they had left on 1 February 1698, with a cargo of 19 chests of pieces-of-eight (approximately 57 000 pieces). No lives were lost. Three chests of treasure disappeared and the name 'Geldkis' (money-chest) appears on maps of the area.

When he got there, he showed me a couple of other pipes he had bought in deepest darkest Africa some years ago.

Lovely stuff.








Once we had enjoyed these, he brought out the reason for the meeting......

More than 300 years ago, someone had this in their hands and used to smoke it, using what would have been a luxury item, as tobacco was very expensive in the early days.



300 years worth of crystalization inside the bowl.



And back in the UK, in its current resting place, in front of Victorian tobacco jars.

I am in the process of making a small wooden display case for it, in which it will live a slightly protected life.





Finally I was checked in Cape Town International and waiting for my 23.25 departure for Amsterdam.

Stupidly I forgot the privileges that go with a Business Class tickets and went and bought myself a coffee ......
 




When I came back from my bike trip through South Africa, I was greeted by a bunch of parcels from the USA.


Some from Turnpikecruiser .... WHAT A SURPRISE !!

Thank you very much.

And some more from unidentified members.... Thank you too.

Problem is user names on here are not related to real names and surnames.







Now that concludes this Ride Report.

Thank you all for your contribution, interest, encouragement, incredibly generous offers of bikes, homes, friendship and everything else I may not have mentioned.

The people I have mentioned are by no means an exhaustive list.

You know who you are.

And lastly, also, a big thank you to the guys who have taken the time to make the effort to make comments on this thread.

Tomorrow I start a new contract job.

Life is good.

[cracklin]

Nice to have seen you after all these years Riaan!

Its cracklin sans the g by the way

Rian will know what I mean .

All the best for the new job

[LouisXander]

Kan nie glo alles moet tot n einde kom nie ne.

[grizz]

Nice to have seen you after all these years Riaan!

Its cracklin sans the g by the way

Rian will know what I mean .

All the best for the new job

You continue to be a funny guy Harry.

Great to see you and spend a few hours catching up.

You know where we live.

See you when you get here.

[grizz]

Kan nie glo alles moet tot n einde kom nie ne.

Plan klaar die volgende een  

All good things come to an end.... then the next good thing starts.

Planning my next ride as we all sit here watching the screen.

This is the sort of Ride Report I want to be able to write, both the way he writes and the adventure they had.

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=269251

Guess there is time to practice and get my writing style up to scratch .

[Mr Zog]

Thanks for sharing your adventures, thoughts, trials and tribulations with us Rian.

Maybe on a next trip we may have the pleasure of meeting and riding a bit together.

Best of luck with the new job tomorrow, I hope it all turns out good.

[billy-joe]

thanks grizz, been following you on advrider too, (fosterb)

pity these things end.