Around Durbanville in a dusty sort of way

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

droffarc

Race Dog
Joined
Jan 27, 2006
Messages
1,368
Reaction score
113
Location
Cape Toon - TransAlp XL650V 2004
Bike
Honda NC750X
Around Durbanville in a dusty sort of way.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Had a few hours to spare last Sunday afternoon and had an itching to ride some dirt. Rode past Richwood on the M13 Durbanville road and turned right onto the Contermanskloof (I think it is called) road towards the Vissershok road past the quarry. At the Vissershok crossroad I continued straight along the Adderley road which, after a bit becomes the gravel Malanshoogte road. Fairly nice road, just enough to set the mood.
At the T junction with the M58 Old Malmesbury / Durbanville road I turned right to the Durbanville Centre, then left onto the Wellington road R302 all the way to Klipheuwel where I turned right onto Radio road.

R01Radiord.JPG


Apart from some smallholdings and a train line there was not much.

R02Train.JPG


Somehow one of the roads I followed took me to an open gate. Beyond the gate was an inviting farmland. It had recently been cleared of probably wheat.

R03farm.JPG


I followed a track that had clear tractor tyre marks. This track sort of degenerated into barely two wheel tracks covered in ?Dubbeltjie? ground hugging thorn plants. At one stage a whole plant became stuck to my front wheel but cleared itself. The track was not unpleasant but had an undulation not unlike that which one would get on a waterbed, just right for procreative activity.
All too soon I arrived back at the gate without having turned around.
Back on the R302 towards Durbanville again I took a left at the sign pointing to a station called Mellish.

R04Mellish.JPG


Another gravel road that led to a crossroad.

R05Crossrd.JPG


The way straight ahead led with a red road to a farm house where I backtracked to the crossroad and this time turned left towards Klipheuwel.

R06CrossRight.JPG


This road also went past a farm and ended on a tarred road near Kliphewel.

R07Klipheuwelrd.JPG


I turned in at Klipheuwel and somehow found myself in among the houses. My heart was in my throat at one corner as there was a rather large crowd gathered and I could sense the tension in the air. What that was about I don?t know, I just made myself scarce. Once I found the road I was gone. I passed a small group of kids who waved enthusiastically as I passed. I make a point of it to wave back to the kids ? it means so much to them I guess. The road I was now on has large speed humps every now and then.

R08Joostenbrg.JPG


The road took me to the smallholdings at Joostenburgvlakte. Just before this is a branch in the road which took me to the suburb of Kraaifontein. Passing a house on a corner I noted another gathering of people and a utility vehicle (bakkie) that was parked in a most peculiar way. Upon closer inspection I found that the bakkie had negotiated the corner too wrongly and had managed to demolish the surrounding wall of a house that had been wrongly situated for the past few years. It must be really irritating for a bakkie driver to come round a corner and find a house in the way ? these houses that won?t sit still!

R09Smash.JPG


As I proceeded, now on tar I noted that my rear wheel was still behaving as it does when on loose gravel so I stopped at a filling station to chide the wheel for its errant ways but found it to be quite innocent of errant behavior so I set off again in the direction of Durbanville. At the one robot (traffic light) I caught up with a lady riding a Honda Silverwing Scooter. Gad that thing has a nugly rear ? the scooter I mean! I think it looks quite nugly.

Soon afterward, as I was passing the golf course at De Ode Welgemoed on Jip De Jager I managed to convince myself that I was not imagining things. There was a definite aberration in the way the bike was handling, so I pulled off at the filling station and was not surprised to find that my rear tyre was now very flat. I pumped it and filled the tank and made my way home. By the time I reached my driveway at home the wheel was flat again. I removed a large number of Dubbeltjie (corruption of the word duiweltjie being a thorn with evil spines) thorns from both front and rear tyres.
I had now learned a further lesson ? one can (carefully) ride with a flat front wheel for a few Km to get out of trouble and ? one should use sludge to prevent this type of occurrence.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Top