- Joined
- Oct 2, 2007
- Messages
- 1,650
- Reaction score
- 478
- Bike
- Triumph 800 XC
As I work overseas, I look forward to getting home for my 3 week break once every 8 weeks. It means I get to harass the Mrs, ride the bike, play my guitars, and basically carry on like a teenager.
I've been looking longingly at the roads around Loskop on Google Earth, and had a lekker dirt-heavy route all worked out.
It looks like this:-
Now the best laid plans are subject to change due to various forces of nature. Humans factor quite strongly in this phenomenon, and I include myself in this statement, however I definitely am not solely responsible for the deviations from the original "Flight Plan". All I can tell you is that if this outride was a flight, the yanks would have shot us down at least 3 times.
irst part of the plan was to rope in some sidekicks to take to the trails with me. Three of us ended up going. Yours truly, my cousin Warren, and a man known as Gus. Gus has a Triumph Tiger 800XC, exactly like mine. Gus is 70. He rides like he's 40, and eyes the girls like he's 20. He owns a used car lot outside Benoni. I call him "Honest Gus" :laughing4:
I met Gus at 06h00 on Sunday at the Engen in Rynfield, Benoni. He was off somewhere but his bike waited patiently...
Mine is the one with the RAF decals.
We set sail for Bapsfontein where we were to meet Warren on his spanking new 1200GS Adventure. He waslate.. wewaited around until he called to say he was delayed, so Gus and me headed for Que Sera for a cup of coffee while Warren got his act together.
Time was ticking and we decided to take tar to Bronkhorstspruit. Noth of Bronkies we hit a right turn and headed for the dirt.
It was overcast but dry. Perfect weather! I could feel the stress dissolving as we blasted off into the lesser travelled roads. There was some game to be seen in various places with Rooijakkals, Wildebeest, Giraffe, Impala, Baboons and Vervet monkeys, as well as the ubiquitous Meerkat darting across the road. We never stopped to take pics though.
By this stage we were feeling Honger and Dors but, try as we may, we could find not a single padstal to cater to our needs. We decided to vasbyt and head for Loskop post haste. The road led along the boundary fence of the Loskop Nature Reserve.
Finally we got to the little Dorpie where we rode down to the biker pub on the river, where we were served breakfast. I don't take photos of my food, but the view was great and very peaceful.
We ate our food and skedaddled.
The views around the dam were not particularly inspiring, so we moved along the N11 towards Middelburg, turning off the dirt road at "Avontuur".
Not long after, we stopped on a little bridge and drank some water and chewed wine gums while admiring the surroundings and taking pics.
You can tell we were enjoying this little piece of heaven.
Shortly after this we headed off and arrived at a T-Junction, and that's where the wheels fell off.. Instead of going left, we (I) turned right, cause going left somehow felt wrong. Well, right turned out to be wrong and left was right. So we dondered off blissfully into the unknown.
We finally get to a tar road and Warren consults his GPS on the GSA "Oil Tanker" and says he knows a road to get us back in the right direction. YAY!
We turn north and gooi mielies until we get to this turnoff, where we stop and rest a bit:-
Then Warren leads us offin a most confident and inspiring manner. We feel good. Lunch in Dullstroom is maybe 40km away.
This was not to be, as every road looks familiar out there, so soon we are pulled over, scratching our heads, consulting our GPS's, Google Maps and phoning home to update Mrs.
Finally GPS comes to the rescue and we find we have to head south (AGAIN) to the N3 and then head east to Belfast, then Tar it all the way to Dullstroom.
As we were eating pub lunch in Dullstroom, the Clouds came rolling in, thick and dark and low. Tails between our legs we throttled back to Belfast and took the highway (ugh) home to Benoni. We managed to sneak out under the clouds before getting soaked. Benoni was dry and warm, so I gave the Tiger a quick wash before putting it to bed.
I'm beginning to wonder how much dust and dirt I've imported to my driveway throughout the various rides I've taken..
:ricky:
I've been looking longingly at the roads around Loskop on Google Earth, and had a lekker dirt-heavy route all worked out.
It looks like this:-
Now the best laid plans are subject to change due to various forces of nature. Humans factor quite strongly in this phenomenon, and I include myself in this statement, however I definitely am not solely responsible for the deviations from the original "Flight Plan". All I can tell you is that if this outride was a flight, the yanks would have shot us down at least 3 times.
irst part of the plan was to rope in some sidekicks to take to the trails with me. Three of us ended up going. Yours truly, my cousin Warren, and a man known as Gus. Gus has a Triumph Tiger 800XC, exactly like mine. Gus is 70. He rides like he's 40, and eyes the girls like he's 20. He owns a used car lot outside Benoni. I call him "Honest Gus" :laughing4:
I met Gus at 06h00 on Sunday at the Engen in Rynfield, Benoni. He was off somewhere but his bike waited patiently...
Mine is the one with the RAF decals.
We set sail for Bapsfontein where we were to meet Warren on his spanking new 1200GS Adventure. He waslate.. wewaited around until he called to say he was delayed, so Gus and me headed for Que Sera for a cup of coffee while Warren got his act together.
Time was ticking and we decided to take tar to Bronkhorstspruit. Noth of Bronkies we hit a right turn and headed for the dirt.
It was overcast but dry. Perfect weather! I could feel the stress dissolving as we blasted off into the lesser travelled roads. There was some game to be seen in various places with Rooijakkals, Wildebeest, Giraffe, Impala, Baboons and Vervet monkeys, as well as the ubiquitous Meerkat darting across the road. We never stopped to take pics though.
By this stage we were feeling Honger and Dors but, try as we may, we could find not a single padstal to cater to our needs. We decided to vasbyt and head for Loskop post haste. The road led along the boundary fence of the Loskop Nature Reserve.
Finally we got to the little Dorpie where we rode down to the biker pub on the river, where we were served breakfast. I don't take photos of my food, but the view was great and very peaceful.
We ate our food and skedaddled.
The views around the dam were not particularly inspiring, so we moved along the N11 towards Middelburg, turning off the dirt road at "Avontuur".
Not long after, we stopped on a little bridge and drank some water and chewed wine gums while admiring the surroundings and taking pics.
You can tell we were enjoying this little piece of heaven.
Shortly after this we headed off and arrived at a T-Junction, and that's where the wheels fell off.. Instead of going left, we (I) turned right, cause going left somehow felt wrong. Well, right turned out to be wrong and left was right. So we dondered off blissfully into the unknown.
We finally get to a tar road and Warren consults his GPS on the GSA "Oil Tanker" and says he knows a road to get us back in the right direction. YAY!
We turn north and gooi mielies until we get to this turnoff, where we stop and rest a bit:-
Then Warren leads us offin a most confident and inspiring manner. We feel good. Lunch in Dullstroom is maybe 40km away.
This was not to be, as every road looks familiar out there, so soon we are pulled over, scratching our heads, consulting our GPS's, Google Maps and phoning home to update Mrs.
Finally GPS comes to the rescue and we find we have to head south (AGAIN) to the N3 and then head east to Belfast, then Tar it all the way to Dullstroom.
As we were eating pub lunch in Dullstroom, the Clouds came rolling in, thick and dark and low. Tails between our legs we throttled back to Belfast and took the highway (ugh) home to Benoni. We managed to sneak out under the clouds before getting soaked. Benoni was dry and warm, so I gave the Tiger a quick wash before putting it to bed.
I'm beginning to wonder how much dust and dirt I've imported to my driveway throughout the various rides I've taken..
:ricky:
