One day riding Mpumalanga's finest roads . . .

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RyanI

Pack Dog
Joined
Sep 8, 2010
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JHB
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BMW R850GS
This was a ride that we had been talking about for some time now but it had been postponed a couple of times. In any case, so far this year, I have had a brilliant start to my riding. It all started on the 1st of January with a 4 day camping trip / ride through the Waterberg and Wolkberg with Brodes and Mike van Niekerk. Then two weeks ago I had the fortune of riding with Subie, Brodes, Pampoen  and a few others along the Molopo River towards Vostershoop. We never made it all the way but the ride was brilliant. Now it was time to go in the opposite direction for a quick 2-3 day “non camping” – ie “travel light for a change” trip. Three of us pitched up for this one - Wayne arrived on his very nice looking KTM 990 and Steve on his 800GS. I brought my pride and joy – 2013 800GS. So for the first time on one of my trips, the Beemers outnumbered the Katooms and boy did he come in for a well-deserved grilling.

But I get ahead of myself. Wayne had previously done two trips to the Sabie / Graskop area with other mates and they had a jol riding those forest roads, hence the motivation for this trip.  On those trips there was not a lot of planning, just pack and ride where your heart takes you. My practical / engineering / “plan everything” brain couldn’t deal with that, so I started the week before plotting a route. I used Google Maps, Mapsource and Google Earth to find the dirt! It took me an evening and I had the perfect route and adventure planned. I was so excited that I sent it out to the other guys immediately . . . .  . . and  . . . . . . . . got no response for a few days.  Then the guys gave the all clear and said they liked it. The plan was to start in Randburg where we all live, and head out on the N12, take the Benoni turn off and head up towards Bronkhorspruit and Loskop Dam. Around Loskop dam there should be the first dirt and then we head into Dullstroom to sleep the night. This meant 335km on the first day with about 80km being off road. The plan was to leave at 4pm after work on Friday and then it sunk in that we would probably be riding dirt at night. None of us liked this kak idea and we chickened out and rode the quick tar roads all the way to Dullstroom.

 

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