Railway line road - van reenen

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AdventureBoy

Pack Dog
Joined
Oct 15, 2007
Messages
339
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4
Location
Randburg, Gauteng
Bike
Honda CRF-1000L Africa Twin
In response to GundaGunda sending me the route for this ride I eventually did it on Sunday. We were stayng at the Bald Ibis hiking trail just behind the Ultra City at Montrose. We hiked up the mountain on Saturday, and the plan was to do the ride on Saturday afternoon. I was too tired and thought it better to have a good nights sleep so I can concentrate on th route.

So Sunday morning up mbright and early, legs not working too well from the previous days activities, but set off and set the GPS to navigate tpo the start of the route. This was the first time a was navigating with a GPS, and subsequently got a bit lost. I eventually got onto the correct road and then had to go through a sprawling rural township, on some dodgy roads. I then recognised the road as the one I had a puncture on about two year back when I went down to hike and travelled on the bike. So I negotiated the township at a much reduced speed and watched out for road hazards. All went fine once out of the township and found the start of the route.

Once I found the start the GPS was not really needed as there are no turns or bends in the road that require navigation. The road varies from very rocky to wet to sandy. There are places where the water just oozes out of the ground, which makes it a bit slippery. The rocky sections need to be watched carefully. I thought overall the ride was not very difficult and most certainly did not push the KLR to the limit. I have done much worse routes and the bike copped well with those. I think the route could be a different proposition if there was a lot of rain and the route was tackled from the top (van Reened side) down to the bottom. It is always easier to be pulling uphill when dealing with sand and slippery stones.

The degree of difficulty is largely a function of speed. Had some of the KTM brigade been there and had I tried to keep up with them, I am sure that my view of the ride would have been much different. I also had a new GPS strapped to the bike and was not keen to fall first time out.  I would imagine that anybody who has been on a regular wild dog ride would cope quite adequately with this ride as long as they rode at a speed they are comfortable with. It really is a beautiful part of the country and climbing up to the top of van reenen without any pressure is a memorable experience.

I was tempted to do the other root from Newcastle to Ladysmith, but I did not have the time to do it on Sunday and I had done part of the ride when I rode down to hike as mentioned previously.

Sorry no pictures with this one, getting on and off the bike was painfull on the legs, so I avoided it as much as possible.

Hope this helps and go and ride both routes.

Regards

AdventureBoy
 
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