Eastern Cape: Baviaans Side Entry PE, Kareedouw, Willowmore

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Drusky

Race Dog
Joined
Jan 6, 2009
Messages
647
Reaction score
0
Location
Port Elizabeth
Bike
BMW R1100GS
Previous RR.

Region: Eastern Cape
Start: Port Elizabeth
In Between: Kareedouw, Willowmore, Steytlerville
End: Port Elizabeth
Time: Two days
Type: A lot of dirt with some technical bits
Difficulty: I dunno, I've only had a DS for a bit more than 10 000km


This is how we roll:
When riding, my buddy Scumdog and I take turns at eating dust. On faster dirt your stint lasts for 10km. 10km down the road from the point that you took the lead you slow down and let the guy behind you catch up and pass for his 10km turn. On slower trails like the 4x4 route your turn lasts for 5km. The idea behind this isn't just about taking turns at eating dust. It is also a good way of keeping an eye on one another. If, 1km beyond the end of your turn, your Buddy has not yet caught up to you then you need to go back and look for him.

Who was rolling:
Scumdog is mostly bald. He knows things about animals and is currently living in the UK trying to convince the English that this is true. He may have touched your dog or your cat.
Drusky has lots of hair. He knows things about microorganisms and molecules and lives in the PE. He disciplines staff and fixes machinery and gets milk to vrot in all sorts of clever ways that make other people happy. He may have touched your food.

PE to Kareedouw, 4x4 entry to Baviaans exit Baviaans to Willowmore 20100123

7:30am I rendezvous with Scumdog on the N2 off-ramp to Humansdorp. We're not going to Humansdorp but the off-ramp is a convenient meeting point. We're planning to ride to the next off-ramp where the sign invites you to visit Kareedouw or Oyster Bay. Neither destination is of particular interest to us. We are hoping to ride the rocky 4x4 trail that links Kareedouw to the farm gate of Rus en Vrede in the Baviaanskloof. The last time we followed this trail we experienced it from the opposite direction. Back then we didn't muck about either. Not being sure how long the route was or how lost we might be reduced the time spent taking in the scenery to almost nilch. This time would be different and knowing we had a day of relaxed exploring to look forward to made us grin happily.
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8:15am we reach Kareedouw. The vending machine at the filling station there looks cool but doesn't dispense coffee. So what. We don't need coffee. We're packing fizzy caffeine in 500ml units for later. Phosphoric acid for stabilizing rust and carbonic acid for removing steak from between your teeth, the bucket load of sugar that goes with it is an added bonus.
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Getting to the 4x4 trail from the Kareedouw side is tricksy-tricksy. On our last trip the farm gate at Rus en Vrede simply swallowed us up and the trail sent us rolling out like good little Koedoedrols on the Kareedouw side. See previous RR at top of page. Going the other way offers far more options. I forgot to take a picture of the turn off to the dirt road that will carry you to the Kareedouw farm side of the trail so I will try to describe it using lingowords. Picture Kareedouw as a long wors of a town. Imagine that it lies parallel to the N2, it probably doesn't. The wors will then have a Cape Town end with a reasonably well run municipality and a PE end with... Yes, you are interested in the PE end. Somewhere on your left after leaving the PE end is a dirt road that will take you back  towards Kareedouw while climbing up a ridge. That road will end up turning away from Kareedouw giving you this view of the hills on the N2 side of the wors. 8:41am.
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This is what you see when you look the other way. It's a pseudofork. Looks like a fork but it isn't. Actually I think I know what might have happened here. What you see is a piece of lonely veld that used to be on one side of the road. Apparently it has decided it wants to visit the pretty flowers on the other side. I'll check on it next time I go past there. Idon't expect to see much change. Veld isn't very fast. In my experience it moves so slowly that most of the time it looks like it's standing still.
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I am navigating with the help of Thumb-Thumb and I have Thislooksrite and Trustme applications installed. Scumdog reckons Trustme is useless but I think it works pretty well most of the time. I must point out that Scumdog has two degrees which is one more than me so I only take him seriously half the time, after all, there can't be much space left in his noggin for a useful evaluation of the applications running in mine.

8:53 Thislooksrite kicks in nicely when I see a river below us. I know I must follow the road to the right on the other side of the kloof. At least I think that's the way sitting here looking at the photie. I would have to be there for Trustme to kick in.
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8:57 We stop briefly to listen to the bubbling brook and I look longingly past Scumdog at the charming bungalow that lives there. I would very much like to visit that bungalow. Does anyone know if it is possible to rent it?
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8:58 Up on the other side of the kloof Scumdog stops to adjust his junk. He has a small can of fuel on there called Jerry. Jerry loves Scumdog more than anything and likes to creep up close and rub affectionately against the small of his back.
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While Scumdog makes Jerry and his junk comfortable I take the obligatory photie of a road doer in the distance. The fynbos stretches away as far as the eye can see, down the kloof and over the mountain. No Port Jackson, Blue Gum or Wattle anywhere. I often wonder what PE would look like without the exotic Aussie weed trees that cover the landscape. Perhaps it would look like this.
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We are not on the actual 4x4 trail yet. If you read my previous ride report you will have seen a photo that shows a plethora of signs at a T junction. If you have come up from the river you need to turn left at that T so that you leave the signs and the top line of the T behind you. That road will take you over some sandy stuff like this photie taken at 9:40
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While I am parked there I take a photo towards Kareedouw.
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There's a lot of detail missing between the T junction I have just mentioned and this next pic. Things like a a farm gate on the road with a sign that mentions the 4x4 trail with a side dish of pain and suffering for trespassers. Then some kilometres later a farm gate next to the road which is the start of the 4x4 trail. This gate is marked in my Thislooksrite application as being on the right of the road with a sharp left bend immediately ahead and a single power line running parallel to the road after that left bend. Once through the gate you climb away from the road and eventually find the green sign in the photie on your left. 10:10am Behold! It is a not very scale map! You can't see the kloof that the green sign mentions while standing in front of it but ride a little further and you will see one off to your left.
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It's my turn to ride in front, we are swapping position every 5km because the trail is very slow. I can't help feeling a little guilty when I get to a herd of Wildebeest. They're in a broad valley and when I get to the bottom of the hill I am on I turn off my GS and watch the herd as it turns away from me. Riding in front means you will see the wildlife first and enjoy the experience longer. By the time your buddy gets there the animals will have moved on or dived into the bush. I watch the herd moving off and try to zoom my point and shoot in for a heavily pixelated “close up”. All this fiddling takes a while and by the time I'm done I realize Scumdog should have arrived. I remove my helmet and listen for the Funduro's engine. I am now a bit worried and decide to head back up the rocky path to look for him.
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By the time I get to the top and look across the plateau I know something has happened. I turn off the GS again and take my lid off to listen. TBC.
 
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