Western Cape - Overberg Twister

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LuckyStriker

Bachelor Dog
Joined
Jan 24, 2006
Messages
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Location
Bellville
Bike
BMW G650 X-challenge
6 ? 7 May 2006

It was raining heavily the night before. I almost decided to cancel my trip to the Overberg. I?m glad I didn?t.
On Friday night I packed my bags and made sandwiches enough to feed a small army. It was here that I discovered that the batteries of the digital SLR were run down and I didn?t have the charger.

DAY 1 ? Saturday 6 May 2006

It is Saturday morning and I?m off to the nearest camera shop. I ask the sales clerk to charge the batteries up for me and I return home to finish loading the bike. An hour later I?m back at the camera shop to pick up the charged batteries and off I go. The time is 10:00

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11:30 ? I stop in Franschhoek to put on another shirt underneath my jacket. Damn, it?s quite chilly!

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11:45 ? The clouds are dense around the top of the Franschhoek mountains.

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There is a slight drizzle and the twisty roads look slippery. Fortunately the TKC80s have surprisingly good grip.

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12:00 ? I stop to take in the views down into the gorge below. The DuToit?s river is in full flood and water roar over rocks and debris.

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I love the Franschhoek pass. It reminds me a little of Glen Coe in Scotland. What was that Ewan McGregor said in LWR? ?The whole world looks like Scotland? :wink:

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12:15 ? I took a disused access road down onto the shore of the Theewaterskloof dam.

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Dead trees. This whole area is normally submerged by the Theewaterskloof dam but the past summer was hard on the Cape. These trees are remnants of a wooded area that was drowned by the dam when the valley was flooded many years ago. Occasionally you encounter the foundations of old houses.

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Dead end ? This old road will soon disappear under rising level of the dam. Part of it is already gone.

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13:00 ? Botrivier train station. Not much to do in this town. Most people simply fly past on the N2 on their way to Hermanus or further down the South Coast.

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Okay, who stuck a TB sticker to this sign? I saw the sticker and had to stop and take a picture.

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14:00 ? Napier. A pic of a church... it seems to be fashionable nowadays, so I took one as well :p

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14:30 ? The town of Bredasdorp is behind me and I hit the road to Malgas and from there to Infanta.

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15:30 ? We have reached Cape Infanta and decide to take a dip in the ocean. The water is freezing!

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Don?t stress? I?m not parked on the soft beach, it?s a launch. Getting out of here was a bit tricky because the concrete was extremely slippery. :shock:

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16:10 ? The Malgas ferry. When I got there the pont was quiet. Not a soul in sight. I drove over to the nearest house and roused the captain of the good raft. The price is 10bucks but I offered 20 because they pulled the ferry across just for me. Of course, I didn?t pay them until they got me to the other side (Chris deBurg wrote that song just for such an occasion as this)

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17:00 ? I paid the proprietors of the campsite the handsome fee of R88.00. I commented that it seemed a bit much for a lone motorcyclist. I must have had bad helmet-hair because my charisma failed to impress the lady behind the desk.
Pefore I pitched my tent I rode around Witsand and came across this tavern on the beach. I drank a beer to celebrate my arrival but unfortunately there was no-one to engage in idle banter.

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18:00 ? My GPS claims the sun will set in 10 minutes. Doesn?t look that way to me... Nevertheless, my tent is up and the bike is parked.
I did take my new bivvy along but decided to use the tent instead.
You may ask at this point why I mounted the Zega cases and not just a luggage roll. After all, I?m only going away for one night. Well, I knew that it would be a very cold trip so I brought along a thick wool blanket that takes up two thirds of a pannier and a proper pillow that took up the rest of the space. Pannier number two held my food, drink and sleeping bag. Plus a paperback, torch and white gold.

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Inside my tent. I have not yet made my bed but the sandwiches, wine and smokes are out.

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Self-portrait with cellphone camera. I felt a little bit lonely. No one to talk to (the campsite had only 2 other tents) and I didn?t even bring my laptop to chat to you folks online. And my wife is still on the S.A. Agulhas returning from the polar circle? :cry:

The tent nearest to me was occupied by a canoo guy. He must have feared the dark because he camped right underneath a lamp post and kept his gas light burning all night too. He was a nervous guy. I could tell because everytime I gave a loud fart (oh the joys of camping solo) he would sit up at his camping table and look around bewilderedly. He couldn't see me because he had too much light around his tent. hehehe

DAY 2 ? Sunday 7 May 2006

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08:00 ? The bike is fully fuelled and I?m ready to say goodbye to Witsand. I had to pump my own petrol because the adult natives in the area are too short to see down into the tank!

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08:10 ? Port Beaufort. Right next to Witsand lies this coastal haven. On the opposite side of the mouth lies Infanta (or Ballyfar to be exact). It looks a little like the towns on the shores of Loch Lomond?

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08:30 ? The roads roll up and down, up and down the undulating hills of the Overberg.

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08:50 ? I rode all the back to ferry again. Not to cross the river but to take another pic. I didn?t feel that I had a good enough pic the first time round.

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09:00 ? En route to Buffeljagsrivier.
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09:30 ? The BP Petrol station at Buffeljagsrivier has a petting zoo. This damn horse tried to grab my coffee.

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09:50 ? Above the town of Swellendam are many fire roads on the foot of the Langeberg mountains. I took this one but had to do an emergency stop when the whole road disappeared into a muddy quagmire .

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I stomped through the mud to see if it was worth pushing through but a large log blocked my path a few metres on. Just as well?

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The radio tower above Swellendam. Kinda reminds me of a lone lighthouse or a mysterious dark tower in the land of Mordor?okay, not really.

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10:30 ? Rolling hills of the Overberg. The overberg has no ?nature? to speak of. It?s all just onion farms, sheep farms, cattle farms, etc. The hills are lovely though. Some places looked like the wallpaper for Windows XP and other places made me think that I found the secret valley of the Tellytubbies.

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The roads are easy to ride. Deceptively so. More than once did I realise I was going way too fast for an upcoming turn. I?d jump on the rear brake only to find that I had forgotten to switch off the ABS? Not once did I crash and lord only knows why not.

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12:00 ? Hey whaddaya know? I found bla-bla?s family. They send their regards! :lol:

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12:20 ? Crossing the Sonderend river. I now leave the hills of the Overberg behind and hug the Sonderend mountain range.

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13:00 ? Crossing the Sonderend river again as I approach the picturesque town of Greyton.

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13:30 ? I now say goodbye to the Overberg as I climb into and over the Sonderend mountains on my way back to Theewaterskloof dam.

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On the bridge crossing the dam I encounter a man and his daughter with car trouble. They have run out of fuel and ask if I?d be willing to fetch them some in nearby Villiersdorp. They are surprised when I say yes. When I return they are almost giddy?they actually believed that I would let them down?weird.

I raced through the Franschhoek pass as fast as I dared. It must have looked crazy to the cars I passed. Imagine a bike as wide as a truck leaning around corners with these metal boxes almost scraping the tar!
I kept on riding crazy until the TKCs suddenly gave me a warning. I almost pissed my pants and decided to behave from then on.

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14:50 ? I stop on a bridge over the N1. Naaah?I liked the dirt roads better than this precision engineered slab of tar.

I arrive home 10 minutes later.

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My route

Moving time: 10hrs 47mins
Stopped time: 03hrs 20mins (excluding time spent at camp)
Total 'road' time: 14hrs 08mins

Day one: 382km
Day two: 449km
Trip Odometer: 831km
Max speed: 157km/h

Thank you. I'm LuckyStriker, and you're not.
 
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