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- Aug 28, 2006
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I have been wanting to do a solo trip for a while now, but developments at home and work meant it kept on getting put off.
So when my in-laws from Zimbabwe agreed to come and spend a few weeks with us after Christmas, I knew that this would be my opportunity.
Preparation for the trip was negligible, though I did get some advice on my intended route from my cousin's husband when we stayed with them in Clarens over the New Year, He is a geologist who has walked most of the Eastern Cape mountains in his search for dinosaur fossils, so he knows the area well and was able to tell me about some great roads to ride on.
The only preparation I did to my bike was to get a new tyre, as the Trail Wing had given good service and was looking a little tired. The dealer had a choice of a Dunlop Trailmax or a Kenda 270. I went for the Kenda, as I was hoping to spend as much time off the tar on my trip.
Left home on Friday 4th January at 05:00, gray overcast skies, but not raining as such. Rain had been fore-casted for the next 5 days over the Eastern Cape and Kzn.
I tried to pack as light as possible, just the essentials such as tent, sleeping bag, tools and clothes.
The road out to Underberg was great, countryside looking nice and green from all the rain. I was not at all sure about the new Kenda on the back, it seemed very twitchy on the wet tar, but hopefully it would come into its own on the dirt.
After Underberg I headed for Swartberg, where I got onto the first Gravel of the trip. This is a very lekker road, great countryside.
After filling up at Matatiel I passed through Mount Fletcher, then about ten km out of town turned off onto the dirt road that leads over Naude's Nek to Rhodes
This is a great road to ride on, the scenery is awesome and the road surface seemed ok depite the obvious heavy rains that had recently fallen. But then I started hitting patches of mud, pretty innocuous at first, but then thicker and longer.
I thought I was handling the mud pretty well, and was feeling rather smug about my Kenda on the back, when I picked up a bit of sppeed on a dry patch, rounded a corner and hit a mud bog in the middle of the road. Before I had time to take evasive action I was sprawling on my face in the mud. I had a fairly soft landing though, and it was only my pride that was injured, or so I thought.
I was now covered in mud from head to toe and not feeling quite so happy. What made me even more unhappy was the mud was now covering every inch of the road, and I still had about 70 km to go to get to Rhodes. The weather was also getting worse, it was raining quite hard now, and I discovered that in the fall I had broken the bracket that secured my back brake lever to the bike.
I was now confined to first and second gears, mud was everywhere, and I was making very slow progress.
At last I reached the top of Naude's Nek, It was not a pretty sight.
When I posted a thread on Naude's Nek in the Mountain Passes section, I said it was a very easy ride, but that in adverse weather conditions this may not be the case.
What depressed me no end was the thought of another 30 odd kilometers of mud down the other side of the pass to Rhodes.
Looking over the pass towards Rhodes there was a gap in the clouds as if the sun was trying to get through....was this a good omen?
Amazingly enough, there was absolutely no mud at all on the pass leading down towards Rhodes, the road surface was great. The only problem was it was raining quite heavily and I now had no back brake at all on the KLR.
I arrived at Rhodes at about 15:00 almost 3 hours later than I had planned on thanks to the 40 odd km of mud that I had to play in, also I was still covered in mud from head to toe.
I went through Rhodes and headed towards Barkly East, then on to Dordrecht where I planned to find somewhere to camp for the night. On the way to Dordrecht I got to a turn-off to the right with a sign that said: Ida via Otto Du Plessis Pass, this looked too good to resist, so I took it, not having any clue where Ida was.
The pass was beautiful, or what I could see of it was.....it was raining heavily and was extremely misty.....so I never took any pictures of this section. I did make a promise to come back here sometime.
Anyway, I got to the tar road again eventually and found that this little detour had taken me about 80 km off track, which meant that I only got into Dordrecht at about 19:00, no time to look for a place to camp.
I checked into a B&B on the main road in Dordrecht, R200 for the night, no breakfast coz I wanted to leave early the next morning. Supper was at the Purple Peacock restaurant, good value for R80.
My room at the B&B
Slept like a log and had a great shower to get all the mud off. Money well spent, but I really felt that I wanted to rough it a bit more, so I decided no more B&B's for me.
Set my alarm for 4:30 the next morning, as I had a lot of distance to cover the next day.
To be continued.....
So when my in-laws from Zimbabwe agreed to come and spend a few weeks with us after Christmas, I knew that this would be my opportunity.
Preparation for the trip was negligible, though I did get some advice on my intended route from my cousin's husband when we stayed with them in Clarens over the New Year, He is a geologist who has walked most of the Eastern Cape mountains in his search for dinosaur fossils, so he knows the area well and was able to tell me about some great roads to ride on.
The only preparation I did to my bike was to get a new tyre, as the Trail Wing had given good service and was looking a little tired. The dealer had a choice of a Dunlop Trailmax or a Kenda 270. I went for the Kenda, as I was hoping to spend as much time off the tar on my trip.
Left home on Friday 4th January at 05:00, gray overcast skies, but not raining as such. Rain had been fore-casted for the next 5 days over the Eastern Cape and Kzn.
I tried to pack as light as possible, just the essentials such as tent, sleeping bag, tools and clothes.
The road out to Underberg was great, countryside looking nice and green from all the rain. I was not at all sure about the new Kenda on the back, it seemed very twitchy on the wet tar, but hopefully it would come into its own on the dirt.
After Underberg I headed for Swartberg, where I got onto the first Gravel of the trip. This is a very lekker road, great countryside.
After filling up at Matatiel I passed through Mount Fletcher, then about ten km out of town turned off onto the dirt road that leads over Naude's Nek to Rhodes
This is a great road to ride on, the scenery is awesome and the road surface seemed ok depite the obvious heavy rains that had recently fallen. But then I started hitting patches of mud, pretty innocuous at first, but then thicker and longer.
I thought I was handling the mud pretty well, and was feeling rather smug about my Kenda on the back, when I picked up a bit of sppeed on a dry patch, rounded a corner and hit a mud bog in the middle of the road. Before I had time to take evasive action I was sprawling on my face in the mud. I had a fairly soft landing though, and it was only my pride that was injured, or so I thought.
I was now covered in mud from head to toe and not feeling quite so happy. What made me even more unhappy was the mud was now covering every inch of the road, and I still had about 70 km to go to get to Rhodes. The weather was also getting worse, it was raining quite hard now, and I discovered that in the fall I had broken the bracket that secured my back brake lever to the bike.
I was now confined to first and second gears, mud was everywhere, and I was making very slow progress.
At last I reached the top of Naude's Nek, It was not a pretty sight.
When I posted a thread on Naude's Nek in the Mountain Passes section, I said it was a very easy ride, but that in adverse weather conditions this may not be the case.
What depressed me no end was the thought of another 30 odd kilometers of mud down the other side of the pass to Rhodes.
Looking over the pass towards Rhodes there was a gap in the clouds as if the sun was trying to get through....was this a good omen?
Amazingly enough, there was absolutely no mud at all on the pass leading down towards Rhodes, the road surface was great. The only problem was it was raining quite heavily and I now had no back brake at all on the KLR.
I arrived at Rhodes at about 15:00 almost 3 hours later than I had planned on thanks to the 40 odd km of mud that I had to play in, also I was still covered in mud from head to toe.
I went through Rhodes and headed towards Barkly East, then on to Dordrecht where I planned to find somewhere to camp for the night. On the way to Dordrecht I got to a turn-off to the right with a sign that said: Ida via Otto Du Plessis Pass, this looked too good to resist, so I took it, not having any clue where Ida was.
The pass was beautiful, or what I could see of it was.....it was raining heavily and was extremely misty.....so I never took any pictures of this section. I did make a promise to come back here sometime.
Anyway, I got to the tar road again eventually and found that this little detour had taken me about 80 km off track, which meant that I only got into Dordrecht at about 19:00, no time to look for a place to camp.
I checked into a B&B on the main road in Dordrecht, R200 for the night, no breakfast coz I wanted to leave early the next morning. Supper was at the Purple Peacock restaurant, good value for R80.
My room at the B&B
Slept like a log and had a great shower to get all the mud off. Money well spent, but I really felt that I wanted to rough it a bit more, so I decided no more B&B's for me.
Set my alarm for 4:30 the next morning, as I had a lot of distance to cover the next day.
To be continued.....
