3 day trip to the Breede Bash

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tok-tokkie

Race Dog
Joined
Jan 5, 2007
Messages
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Location
Cape Town
Bike
Yamaha TW200
This was to be the first proper trip together with my vrou; where we were going on gravel roads, she on her F650GS. First night at Ektoknbikeâ??s bash & second night in Barrydale.

I planned the trip in Mapsource to be largely gravel.  This time I managed to get all 3 days into my Zumo (on the WD Bash I found only 1 day in the Zumo although I had transferred 5 days; slowly I learn the new technology through trial & error).

Saturday  Day 1  Home to Breede River.

Up Sir Lowryâ??s Pass where the wind was howling & we had to duck behind the screens to not be blown around so much.  Down the service road alongside the railway line at Houw Hoek

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That's the track above & the railway below.  This leads you into Bot River.

Going through Bot River I saw a sign to Villiersdorp via van de Stel Pass.  This was not on my planned route but a pass sounded much nicer than the vlaktes route I had planned so we went that way.  I still had Karin Garmin doing the navigating so she did a quick re-calculation and told me to turn right just after we exited the pass â?? which was not very long but pleasant.  This looked like a farm road and, sure enough, it led us right into a farmyard.  Since Karin was telling me it was a public road we went through and on out the other side.

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We came to a locked gate but there was a real tweespoor to the right so we had a look up there but that was not going to get us anywhere.

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So back to the gate.  I saw that we could unhook the wires in the fence next to the gate and get the bikes through.  Here is Antonia putting the fence together again after I had got the bikes through.  The railway line is on the left of the picture â?? a train came through while we were here.

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We followed the road which took us through another farmyard and out onto the tar road to Villiersdorp.  We followed the road to Villiersdorp where we had a beer and a very peculiar chicken salad â?? put all the ingredients into the Magimix & dice it up to a pulp & pour that lot over some lettuce leaves.  Down the tar road to the campsite.

I liked this bit; rugged bikers camping gear:

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In due course most of the dogs arrived & we bundled onto the trailer to go for the booze cruise.  Here we are boarding the good ship 'The Breede Otter' for its maiden voyage â?? the previous ones being just the shake down trips but we were the first group of passengers on this good ship â?? a real boer maak n plan vessel consisting of lots of green plastic water tanks lashed to a steel frame with solid scaffolding boards as the deck. The seating & tables are cleverly not attached to the deck so I foresee them being pushed to one end and a merry dance taking place some day with the band on the upper deck.  The bar was at the back alongside the skipper with drinks at cost price.

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After much huffing & puffing of the two small outboard motors we reversed out into the mighty stream â?? thank goodness it is wide and deep here so the flow is very stately as the little motors struggled to push the pontoon against the wind as there was vast hydrodynamic resistance from the green tanks which are lashed long axis across the vessel two abreast â?? you should have seen the eddies thrown out by these things as we chugged along.

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This was an interesting moment when Big Ed & Trailrider were standing conversing at the port bow unaware that now the props were thrashing around like egg beaters half out of the water at the other end.

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Trailrider
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Mountainboy
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The voyage went majestically out and back then onto the trailer once more for the trip back to the camp site.  Fires were lit, drinks were drunk, kak was praated, food was braaid and eaten, some of the things were reprised till late into the night & some of us crept off to bed.

The Hospitality of Ektoknbike & Piksteel exceeded the bounds of comfort.  We contributed nothing to all this, hiring of chemical loos, firewood, spanspek & watermelons beyond counting, wine tractor ride, booze cruise and electric generator come to mind plus collecting orders from Worcester.  Hein that was extremely generous of you but I would be much more comfortable if I could contribute to your out of pocket expenses next time.  I would feel awkward coming again if I could not do that.  This was Antoniaâ??s first experience of a bikers bash and she is very keen to do it again.  We both say thanks very much, it was a huge success.

 
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