Big Alan
Puppy
Around Southern Africa
This is one of the things we can tick off our “Bucket List”. My brother from another mother and I discussed going on a long trip for many years but always had excuses. Eric then one day said his father is getting old and we must do a last trip together, then his father, Leon, died. Then my father, Len, died, I then decided we must go on a long trip, and it must happen NOW. Ok I did planning for about eight months, and in that time bought the necessary kit, including a BMW GS. Here are some photos and a little story of how it went
The Route, the pins are where we slept.
On the 17th of March 2013 my wife, Wilna, and I left home on our BMW R1200GS to circumnavigate Southern Africa.
The Diesel Bakkie
Wilna had a Drift camera mounted to her helmet to try record this epic journey, but there were a few issues with this camera, firstly my helmet features in all the videos, then the camera is not waterproof and, although we had a 12v hub with a usb port we could not get the camera to power off the bikes battery. Every time we stopped we plugged the camera in to charge the battery off the bike, but the battery still died on us a few times. We also had a 10 mega pixel “mik and druk” camera, that is why the photos are so k@k. So please bear with us.
From home we first went to “The Place”, this is where our bike club, Ulysses Pretoria congregates on Sunday’s for breakfast runs. Our friends Robbie and Wendy then escorted us out of town.
The first day took us on the familiar route to Nelspruit; of the three toll roads on the N4 we only went through the expensive one at Machadodorp, the other two we rode around by going on the old Bronkhorstspruit road, and through Witbank where we had breakfast at the Wimpy. The road from Silverton to Bronkies is been worked on so did our first gravel early in the trip.
After breakfast the excitement of the trip caught up to me, as the last few nights I did not sleep well as one is all hyped up, so had great difficulty in staying awake. To add to my discomfort there was a cross wind and it was hot. At 15h00 we arrived at our friends in Nelspruit, we had only done 350 km’s but my bum and back was sore.
Coenie and Telani treated us like royalty and cooked us a five course meal.
I lay awake a while worrying that my bum, back and neck was sore and wondered how was I going to do another 20 days. The planned route for Monday was to Harrismith via Barberton, Badplaas, Ermelo, Standerton and Vrede. Coenie took a day’s leave to ride with us to Badplaas to have breakfast there with us.
We left a humid Nelspruit at 08h00 following Coenie on his old K100 BMW. As soon as we got out of Nelspruit and on the pass to Barberton it cooled down. We then came up to a stop and go which caused us to stop in a corner, I had visions of a car or truck coming around the corner and riding over us as they had no flagman out behind us.
Old Smokey
Spot the camera
Coenie in Barberton Pass
Badplaas although been a town on the map is only a non-biker friendly holiday resorts with the only restaurant been inside the resort. This meant the breakfast with Coenie had to be a pie and a coke eaten on the steps. We luckily had Rennies in the moon bag Wilna had around her waist.
We said our goodbyes to Coenie and continued to Ermelo where the scenery changed to grasslands, the weather also changed and I got quite cold until I took out my drymac to wear under my jacket. The roads are in good shape until near Ermelo then all the coal trucks change that.
In Warden we stopped to stretch and then saw the sign that says, “All at own risk”, which I thought sums up our lives as bikers quite well.
Just before Harrismith we turned left onto the R722 to look for a place to camp, after riding a bad gravel road for 9km’s we found the Kliphuis Lodge. The owners were not at home so we arranged the camp site over the phone, one of the staff came and opened the gate for us then unlocked a kitchen and bathroom. We pitched our tent on the lawn and put our kit in the kitchen. We then rode the bad road again to go buy some Nando’s, just before the tar my orange headlight cover fell off and broke.
It was a nice place and we were the only one’s there, the only problem was the dogs, don’t get me wrong I like animals, but these are flee ridden dogs who just would not leave us alone. These mutts lay next to our tent the whole night scratching themselves.
Monday night when I got into the tent I realized we had done 550 km’s and my body was feeling fine, maybe I was just tensed up the first day? Tuesday’s route was through Golden Gate, Ficksburg, Zastron and then overnight in Aliwal North. Golden Gate is one of the most beautiful places in South Africa and although very cold I really enjoyed the ride up to Fouriesburg where we stopped for breakfast.
Red mountains…….. and red hair.
After turning to Fouriesburg from Clarens a single headlight came up behind and followed us to Fouriesburg. Hendrik and Mix were on their way to the Buff from Springs. After breakfast we dodged potholes together to Aliwal North.
Their FJ and our GS
At about 16h00 we pulled into the Nest Bed and Breakfast which is about 10km’s before Aliwal North and got a spot to camp. When we took our tents out we found we had identical tents, we have used ours before so Hendrik was one step behind watching us as it was the first time he had erected there’s.
The lady of the B&B was very intrigued with us and asked us where we pack the food, we told her that after putting up camp we will go into town to get the necessary to braai. “Oh no” she said, “give me a shopping list and I will send someone”. So once camp was set up our groceries arrived, including whiskey and cigarettes, all that was left to do was to light the fire and start partying.
The next morning Hendrik’s FJ would not start so we pushed it alive, twice. We rode together to Steynsburg for breakfast.
We then turned to Hoffmeyer whilst our new friends went straight on to Middelburg.
If we were in a car or a 4x4 we would never have met, never had a braai together. Motorcycles are great levellers, there is an international brotherhood, and days like these are what make us bikers a breed of our own, I feel privileged to be part of it.
This is one of the things we can tick off our “Bucket List”. My brother from another mother and I discussed going on a long trip for many years but always had excuses. Eric then one day said his father is getting old and we must do a last trip together, then his father, Leon, died. Then my father, Len, died, I then decided we must go on a long trip, and it must happen NOW. Ok I did planning for about eight months, and in that time bought the necessary kit, including a BMW GS. Here are some photos and a little story of how it went
The Route, the pins are where we slept.
On the 17th of March 2013 my wife, Wilna, and I left home on our BMW R1200GS to circumnavigate Southern Africa.
The Diesel Bakkie
Wilna had a Drift camera mounted to her helmet to try record this epic journey, but there were a few issues with this camera, firstly my helmet features in all the videos, then the camera is not waterproof and, although we had a 12v hub with a usb port we could not get the camera to power off the bikes battery. Every time we stopped we plugged the camera in to charge the battery off the bike, but the battery still died on us a few times. We also had a 10 mega pixel “mik and druk” camera, that is why the photos are so k@k. So please bear with us.
From home we first went to “The Place”, this is where our bike club, Ulysses Pretoria congregates on Sunday’s for breakfast runs. Our friends Robbie and Wendy then escorted us out of town.
The first day took us on the familiar route to Nelspruit; of the three toll roads on the N4 we only went through the expensive one at Machadodorp, the other two we rode around by going on the old Bronkhorstspruit road, and through Witbank where we had breakfast at the Wimpy. The road from Silverton to Bronkies is been worked on so did our first gravel early in the trip.
After breakfast the excitement of the trip caught up to me, as the last few nights I did not sleep well as one is all hyped up, so had great difficulty in staying awake. To add to my discomfort there was a cross wind and it was hot. At 15h00 we arrived at our friends in Nelspruit, we had only done 350 km’s but my bum and back was sore.
Coenie and Telani treated us like royalty and cooked us a five course meal.
I lay awake a while worrying that my bum, back and neck was sore and wondered how was I going to do another 20 days. The planned route for Monday was to Harrismith via Barberton, Badplaas, Ermelo, Standerton and Vrede. Coenie took a day’s leave to ride with us to Badplaas to have breakfast there with us.
We left a humid Nelspruit at 08h00 following Coenie on his old K100 BMW. As soon as we got out of Nelspruit and on the pass to Barberton it cooled down. We then came up to a stop and go which caused us to stop in a corner, I had visions of a car or truck coming around the corner and riding over us as they had no flagman out behind us.
Old Smokey
Spot the camera
Coenie in Barberton Pass
Badplaas although been a town on the map is only a non-biker friendly holiday resorts with the only restaurant been inside the resort. This meant the breakfast with Coenie had to be a pie and a coke eaten on the steps. We luckily had Rennies in the moon bag Wilna had around her waist.
We said our goodbyes to Coenie and continued to Ermelo where the scenery changed to grasslands, the weather also changed and I got quite cold until I took out my drymac to wear under my jacket. The roads are in good shape until near Ermelo then all the coal trucks change that.
In Warden we stopped to stretch and then saw the sign that says, “All at own risk”, which I thought sums up our lives as bikers quite well.
Just before Harrismith we turned left onto the R722 to look for a place to camp, after riding a bad gravel road for 9km’s we found the Kliphuis Lodge. The owners were not at home so we arranged the camp site over the phone, one of the staff came and opened the gate for us then unlocked a kitchen and bathroom. We pitched our tent on the lawn and put our kit in the kitchen. We then rode the bad road again to go buy some Nando’s, just before the tar my orange headlight cover fell off and broke.
It was a nice place and we were the only one’s there, the only problem was the dogs, don’t get me wrong I like animals, but these are flee ridden dogs who just would not leave us alone. These mutts lay next to our tent the whole night scratching themselves.
Monday night when I got into the tent I realized we had done 550 km’s and my body was feeling fine, maybe I was just tensed up the first day? Tuesday’s route was through Golden Gate, Ficksburg, Zastron and then overnight in Aliwal North. Golden Gate is one of the most beautiful places in South Africa and although very cold I really enjoyed the ride up to Fouriesburg where we stopped for breakfast.
Red mountains…….. and red hair.
After turning to Fouriesburg from Clarens a single headlight came up behind and followed us to Fouriesburg. Hendrik and Mix were on their way to the Buff from Springs. After breakfast we dodged potholes together to Aliwal North.
Their FJ and our GS
At about 16h00 we pulled into the Nest Bed and Breakfast which is about 10km’s before Aliwal North and got a spot to camp. When we took our tents out we found we had identical tents, we have used ours before so Hendrik was one step behind watching us as it was the first time he had erected there’s.
The lady of the B&B was very intrigued with us and asked us where we pack the food, we told her that after putting up camp we will go into town to get the necessary to braai. “Oh no” she said, “give me a shopping list and I will send someone”. So once camp was set up our groceries arrived, including whiskey and cigarettes, all that was left to do was to light the fire and start partying.
The next morning Hendrik’s FJ would not start so we pushed it alive, twice. We rode together to Steynsburg for breakfast.
We then turned to Hoffmeyer whilst our new friends went straight on to Middelburg.
If we were in a car or a 4x4 we would never have met, never had a braai together. Motorcycles are great levellers, there is an international brotherhood, and days like these are what make us bikers a breed of our own, I feel privileged to be part of it.
