A Christmas run in the Swartland.

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hando

Race Dog
Joined
Mar 24, 2011
Messages
3,510
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Location
Somerset West
Bike
Yamaha Super Tenere
So Today ( Xmas day) found me alone and bored at home so I decided to take Jemima out for a little spin. Now they say that new bikers pick a destination while old bikers pick a direction. I guess that makes me an old biker as I pointed Jemima in the general direction of the Swartland and got going.

I stopped in Durbanville to fill up Jemima's tummy and grab some liquids for myself as it was bound to be a hot day. I grabbed the water bottle because I could not find my camelback after my recent move. This would bite me in the butt later.

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I followed the road out of Durbanville past Fisantekraal , where I did the first of many U-turns for the day to go and take a pic first.

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Then followed Occultdale and Slent roads. Stopped to show Jemima the nice vineyards.

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And then stopped to show Jemima the haybales.

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Then on towards Malmesbury and a right turn towards Riebeeck Kasteel.

I got to do Bothmasklooof pass for the first time on a bike and stopped at the top for a pic.

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Then into Riebeeck Kasteel where I rode around to see what I can see. I saw this R80 GS in the Nissan Stealer's window.

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Then out towards Riebeek West where I came acros a road sign pointing to Gouda. I took the road and was very happy to discover that the road turns into a gravel road. The surface was quite loose and kept me wide awake.  As I approached I saw a hawk trying to take off with it's kill before dropping it . I stopped and photographed the kill and really hoped that the hawk would return to it after I left.

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Saw some more haybales , birds and a bridge.

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Just after Gouda I turned left and did Nuwekloof pass for the first time on a bike. But not before attempting the old nuwekloof pass.

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Unfortunately it seems that the bridge that crosses the railway was out and I needed to turn around.

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I saw some more haybales and trees.

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And came across this guy. I passed him and turned around to see if I can move him out of the road before a car hits him , but on closer inspection I found that I was to late . I really hated to see this oke in such pain with his spine obviously broken.

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I followed the Boontjies rivier road but, being a law abiding citizen,  turned around when I came to these signs.

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I enjoyed myself on the pass to Ceres as I came up behind what looked like a father and son on KTM 990 and 640 respectively. They were seriously dressed up in KTM kit.  The son was riding the pass really well except that he did not check his mirrors very frequently and I did not want to pass him in a corner and give him a fright if he did not see me.

When he did eventually realize that I was behind him , I could see his riding change. He lost a lot of the smoothnes he had and his lines and accelleration and braking became choppy. At least now that he knew I was behind him I took a gap and passed him just before we entered Ceres.

I hoped to find something to eat in Ceres but every place was closed. So I shot back towards Wellington and stopped at Calabash for an orange juice and a burger.

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This one cruized around at calabash hoping for something to scrounge.

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With my stomach full I went up and down Bainskloof pass with a fair turn off speed. I must be honest , I do not enjoy Bainskloof as it is very bumpy and I can not seem to get a smooth rythm going through the pass.


From Wellington I followed the Lady loch road where I photographed another bridge.

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I rounded the trip off by doing the slent road and occultdale road again.

On the slent road I came up behind a red city golf doing about 50km/h. At this point I was doing about 130km/h. The golf was well over to the left and I went far right to pass him. As I was about to pass him he started moving over to the right . I guess he never once looked in his rear view mirror.  I was committed and had no choice but to just pin the bike and pass him with inches to spare. I think he had the fright of his life as I passed with my luggage racks missing his window hanging ellbow in a cloud of dust .

I got home and started to unpack the top box , only to discover that water bottles and topboxes do not go together.
With all the vibration in the box , the water bottle developed a hole and leaked out into the box.

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So that is my ride report for the day. Excuse me while I go and clean and dry out my top box .
 
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