KZN- Karoo- Sandveld- Capetown- Garden Route -Transkei- Home. 3 Weeks.

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Alpine Al

Race Dog
Joined
Jun 11, 2012
Messages
813
Reaction score
33
Location
Western Cape , West Coast
Bike
BMW R1200GS Adventure
We are presently "grounded" in Langebaan after a rather eventfull few days into our trip. My trusty 2005 1200 GS will be ariving in Stellenbosch today for Donford Motorrad to diagnose the reason for breaking down 30 km before Williston in the "Great Karoo". After performing like a dream around Mozambique in January, doing the Sabie GS Challenge recently and a few shorter rides in between and showing 81000 km on the clock she showed smoke from oil dripping onto the exhaust from the of the driveshaft front boot area. I stopped, switched off, started after 10 minutes and, after listening to the motor sounding normal, decided to press on slowly for Williston. As I released the clutch the bike gave a little lurch, a "clank" sound, and stopped dead. I think I left the ignition on a little too long ( with spot lights on) so I'm hoping thats the reason she wouldnt start. Any advice would be welcome guys?!
Other than the mechanical failure, our trip so far has been awesome. We planned this trip in January, two bikes, two couples, My mate Anton (Gyro Ratfink, Wild Dog), his wife Gabby who graciously gave up her weekly manicures, pedicures, facials and hairdoos to come along, and,of course, my fearless Pinotage Pillion Angela. Our priority has been to spend good time as friends on and off the bike, enjoying the journey as much as the chosen destinations. Just for something to do we calculated distances ( just over 4000 km), fuel costs, accomodation ( we dont rough it with our" hand breaks"), food and, of course, liquid refreshments. My bike has a Captain Morgan Survival Bag permanently strapped to the crash bars as this is Gyro's and my choice of medicine to be taken after some beers to negate the effect of a headache the following morning. As "The Captain" is omnipresent and a permanent fixture the cost and consumption thereof is divided by the kilometers we do and included in the fuel budget. What has astounded us so far though is that we are under budget on something we didn't consider worth a thought, the P.R.W.C. ( pillion red wine consumption). I remember as a kid there was an advert on the radio that said "drink Canada Dry", any of you remember,it was a sort of lemonade? Anyway our pillions are trying to drink the Western Cape Dry!
Anton and Gabby left Kloof for my home at Blue Haze, Estcourt, at 8.00 am, 2nd April and we left for Clarens just after 10am. The weather was great and we were realy looking forward to the journey. We went up Olivier's Hoek pass, past Sterkfontein Dam and through Golden Gate with Anj doing some handycam and GoPro recording of the trip. We had yet to show Gabby how these things worked. If you've never done this route before you must put it on your "bucket list" it's truly spectacular. Unfortunately, with all the videoing we didnt get as many stills shots as we should have.
We arived in Clarens and went straight to the Clarens Brewery,  to have lunch of course. I introduced Anton to a few blondes and we entrenched ourselves for a couple of hours, the girls prefered  to start on the PRWC. We stayed the night at our friends Len and Pauline Bines who, again spoiled us with their warm hospitality, the first day had been great.
Second day,Clarens to Bloemfontein through Bethlehem where I did my basic training for that big happy organisation SADF AND SONS, I Shivered from the memories as we shot through. Lunch in Bloem then we took the more scenic route through Boshof to Kimbrley. We stayed at the "Hadeda" a self cater/ B&B which was more than adequate and well priced. We rode to  The Halfway House for supper and ended our second night on a good note.
Third day Kimberly to Carnarvon, long straight roads, not much traffic, one or two go and go's ( in a car they are stop and go's), now deep in the Great Karoo.
We stayed at the "Lord Carnarvon", a delightfull, beautifully apointed establishment full of tastefull antique furniture where you are personaly served by the owner, Pieter, and his Mom. Supper at the next door restaurant and drinks at the famous "blikkies bar" down the road. Unfortunately the town looks a like a place, like many others in S.A., that have had much pappier days. Poverty and alchoholism are rather evident and a bit of begging was endured, but the friendliness, respect and peacefull way of the Cape people was evident and a their faces lit up when we spoke to them. When served by them and when asking for directions they had the willingness to please that the people of KZN lack dreadfully. Pieter informed us that the town is looking forward to the enormous "Telescope" project which is about to be started nearby. We left Carnarvon hoping that this project would help the little town back to happy days.
Day four.Departure 9.00am and all was well. 10.00am and all was not well. My bike buggered, Anton and Gabby drinking beer and wine in Williston and Anj and I trying to work out from how far away we could hear the next car coming. No cellphone coms therefore we had to rely on Anton's organisational skills. One hour and five vehicles later we were playing" I spy" when "Oom Smitty" arived with a trailer to fetch us. I insisted he drop me and the bike at "Die Bandediens" where a farmer who had stopped for us earlier had told me to ask for Johan. Johan was a star, he made a few calls for me and, whilst he was on the phone I noticed a courier bakkie with a nearly empty "railing type" venter trailer behind it. I asked the driver where he was going, he said "kaap toe" and that was enough for me as I knew that the nearest Motorrad dealer is in Stellenbosch and Anton had established that they would charge R4500.00 to collect the bike. It wasnt long before Johan had negotiated a cost of R850.00 and the bike was op pad.
Now the next order of bussiness was to get our own butts to our next destination, an amazing place that few people know about, Donkie's Kraal, near Lambert's Bay and nearly 400 km away! Unbeknown to me Angela, who had jumped out of Smittys bakkie whilst it was stopping near the local restaurant/pub to join Gabby and Anton, had contacted Donkie's Kraal to cancel our 2 night stay. They were firmly entrenched in the restaurant, Anton was on his fourth beer and they were making accommodation arrangements in Williston whilst I was intent on getting to Donkies by asking people at the petrol station for a lift to the Cape, after all it was a Friday and still school hollidays. I watched my bike being towed away and called my cousin, Paul, from Langebaan to tell him about our predicament when my Irish luck came back to bless me. A tap on my shoulder, I looked around and there was an attractive lady, a Prado parked behind her, asking me if I wanted a lift to the Cape! She said she was on her way to Lambert's Bay for the weekend, saw my bike leaving on a trailer and me in my bike gear. Attractive and clever and going exactly where I was going! How could my luck get any better? My next thought was of Anj. How would she react when she heard that my bike was on its way  on a trailer and I had left for the Cape with another lady? I will leave you to work that one out while I transfer some pics to the thread and get some sleep after a weekend of partying. More a bit later...

 
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