Bucket list 2: Baviaanskloof

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

Bernoulli

Race Dog
Joined
Oct 16, 2007
Messages
743
Reaction score
14
Location
Cape Town
Bike
BMW R1100GS
Any excuse to ride! After a very successful venture to the wide open spaces of Verneukpan last year (that was bucket list 1) we felt the need to mount our stofskoeters (dust scooters for the linguistically challenged) and go explore something less flat. That made the choice of destination exceedingly easy. Baviaans, of course! We have done the flat, it is time for the mountainous.  

But there was a problem: In a moment of still unexplained lunacy, our leader sold his bike! He is bikeless and seems intent on remaining so.  After 5 lengthy seconds of intense deliberation as to (a)why anyone would do something so out of character, (b)how do we proceed without his formidable leadership and most importantly (c)how do we stop him from crying uncontrollably when we break the news to him, we decided to proceed with 2 participants only: the photographer (LuvOutdoors) the writer (Bernoulli).

Where better to start than at Winelands Engen on a balmy autumn Friday morning late in March.

1.jpg

2.jpg


When I arrived, the photographer seemed out-of-sorts, troubled almost. Quickly turns out that his added responsibility of operator-of -all-devices-electronic-including-matters-GPS caused him an almost sleepless night. I knew he had carefully and skillfully devised a pooratech mounting for his ageing  GPS, so why the fuss?

Allow me an interruption here. “Carefully and skillfully” in this context is woefully inadequate. I simply do not have the writing skill to do justice to the man’s skills. He is a master at all things practical, be it farming, bikes or IT - The closest I have ever come to being in the company of a real-life McGyver.

Back to the story. When attempting to upload the planned route, said ageing GPS decided not to co-operate. Several plans were attempted, none worked. And time marched on relentlessly, deeper into the night. Until eventually the (still sobbing) leader came to the rescue and offered his GPS. It solved our problem (or rather the photographer’s problem: I was soundly asleep and completely unaware of all these shenanigans going on in the deepness of the night) and it made the leader part of the trip, somehow easing him out of his uncontrolled fits of pity.

Anyway, here we were. Fuelled up, fired up and raring to go!

Over Helshoogte, on to Franschhoek and a quick stop at the top to take official leave of the beautiful Boland waking up to the already mentioned perfect autumn day.

3.jpg


4.jpg


We rode along a misty Theewaterskloof dam,

5.jpg


through Villiersdorp and shortly afterwards turned onto gravel that delivered us onto the R62 just before Robertson, in time for tea at the farmstall.

6.jpg


The R62 took us to Barrydale to refuel and 20km later we turned onto gravel with the knowledge that it is going to be mostly gravel to George, our destination for the night. Time to adjust tyre pressures.

7.jpg


What a glorious road to ease one into gravel! Well maintained, surrounded by beautiful landscape and all coming together on a beautiful autumn day (Or did I mention that already?) In fact, let me deal with that right here. Throughout our trip, the weather was so perfect that I (usually riding at the back) had to increase my following distance substantially. There was no wind to clear the photographer’s dust from the road!

Lunch somewhere along the road,

8.jpg


followed by a quick rest.

9.jpg



 
Top