Trygve Roberts
Pack Dog
- Joined
- May 20, 2014
- Messages
- 391
- Reaction score
- 1
- Bike
- BMW R1200GS Adventure
Lo and behold - a biker!
Over this past long weekend, we were filming some really obscure and remote passes up the Biedouw Valley. One of those passes was called Uitspankraal and involves a deep water river crossing at the point where the Biedouw and Doring rivers have their confluence. There is no bridge and a sign much further back warns that the river cannot be crossed between June and November. We decided to take a look...
At the river, I got out of the Land Cruiser and measured the river crossing to be about 80 metres wide. Here and there a rock peeped above the surface, so I estimated it would not be much deeper than 400mm. A make-shift pont rested on the far bank, big enough to carry a motorcycle, but certainly not a car. Decisions, decisions....
I took off my shoes and decided to walk across. The water was clear and I could see that a car's width had no serious rocks. The bottom was sandy, rather than muddy and at the halfway point, I made the decision that we were good to go to drive across. Low range, 1st gear with all 3 lockers engaged and we started the crossing. Nice and slow & steady building up a neat unbroken bow wave - text book style. Then suddenly just after the point I had turned around on foot, the depth dropped to 1000mm and the water started washing over the bonnet. That is the point of no return and I immediately cursed myself for not having walked the whole river width, like I constantly preach about on the website. It was too late to reverse, so I gave a bit of extra gas to match the shot of adrenaline. Getting stuck there would have meant a hugely expensive recovery exercise. The Cruiser didn't bat an eyelid and in another 6 seconds or so our bow wave washed up the far bank ahead of us and we were over. The crossing took under 50 seconds.
The next 2 kms is a very steep, bone jarring set of rock steps and big boulders that requites a speed of under 5 kph and low range 2nd gear. What a shocking road - and it is an official one with a proper number (P2266 IIRC). Far ahead on the next bend I spotted a black clad figure holding an object which I hoped was not a sickle from the Grim Reaper. As we got closer it became apparent it was a biker holding his helmet and looking desperately unhappy.
"Where's your bike?" I asked.
"Around the next bend" came the reply.
"Why are you standing here in the middle of nowhere?"
"I cant ride anymore. I'm finished. This road is beyond my capabilities. My friend rode both our bikes up. He's waiting up there for me"
When we got to the bikes, these two riders were well and truly bushed and still had another 4 kms to climb to the summit. It had taken them 3 hours to get both bikes over the river on the pont, which itself was leaking and had to be repaired first. The 2 km climb to where we found them took them another two hours of pushing, cursing and walking. All we could do was help them with their navigation - they still had to ride to Sutherland - a very long way to go and to give them some encouragement. That seemed to help as soon we got them on their way and they both managed to ride to the summit where we caught up with them and gave some additional navigation advice. All we could do was offer them a lift to the nearest town if one of them fell badly. There are no sign boards whatsoever in that part of the world and without a good GPS and T4A it is so easy to make mistakes and find yourself well and truly lost.
The one chap (Johan) said he was a member of the Wild Dogs and I mentioned that I write here each week. So we made two new biker friends and we hope they made it safely to Sutherland before dark.
This VERY difficult pass will be featured within the next 3 weeks or so. Keep a look out for it.
Over this past long weekend, we were filming some really obscure and remote passes up the Biedouw Valley. One of those passes was called Uitspankraal and involves a deep water river crossing at the point where the Biedouw and Doring rivers have their confluence. There is no bridge and a sign much further back warns that the river cannot be crossed between June and November. We decided to take a look...
At the river, I got out of the Land Cruiser and measured the river crossing to be about 80 metres wide. Here and there a rock peeped above the surface, so I estimated it would not be much deeper than 400mm. A make-shift pont rested on the far bank, big enough to carry a motorcycle, but certainly not a car. Decisions, decisions....
I took off my shoes and decided to walk across. The water was clear and I could see that a car's width had no serious rocks. The bottom was sandy, rather than muddy and at the halfway point, I made the decision that we were good to go to drive across. Low range, 1st gear with all 3 lockers engaged and we started the crossing. Nice and slow & steady building up a neat unbroken bow wave - text book style. Then suddenly just after the point I had turned around on foot, the depth dropped to 1000mm and the water started washing over the bonnet. That is the point of no return and I immediately cursed myself for not having walked the whole river width, like I constantly preach about on the website. It was too late to reverse, so I gave a bit of extra gas to match the shot of adrenaline. Getting stuck there would have meant a hugely expensive recovery exercise. The Cruiser didn't bat an eyelid and in another 6 seconds or so our bow wave washed up the far bank ahead of us and we were over. The crossing took under 50 seconds.
The next 2 kms is a very steep, bone jarring set of rock steps and big boulders that requites a speed of under 5 kph and low range 2nd gear. What a shocking road - and it is an official one with a proper number (P2266 IIRC). Far ahead on the next bend I spotted a black clad figure holding an object which I hoped was not a sickle from the Grim Reaper. As we got closer it became apparent it was a biker holding his helmet and looking desperately unhappy.
"Where's your bike?" I asked.
"Around the next bend" came the reply.
"Why are you standing here in the middle of nowhere?"
"I cant ride anymore. I'm finished. This road is beyond my capabilities. My friend rode both our bikes up. He's waiting up there for me"
When we got to the bikes, these two riders were well and truly bushed and still had another 4 kms to climb to the summit. It had taken them 3 hours to get both bikes over the river on the pont, which itself was leaking and had to be repaired first. The 2 km climb to where we found them took them another two hours of pushing, cursing and walking. All we could do was help them with their navigation - they still had to ride to Sutherland - a very long way to go and to give them some encouragement. That seemed to help as soon we got them on their way and they both managed to ride to the summit where we caught up with them and gave some additional navigation advice. All we could do was offer them a lift to the nearest town if one of them fell badly. There are no sign boards whatsoever in that part of the world and without a good GPS and T4A it is so easy to make mistakes and find yourself well and truly lost.
The one chap (Johan) said he was a member of the Wild Dogs and I mentioned that I write here each week. So we made two new biker friends and we hope they made it safely to Sutherland before dark.
This VERY difficult pass will be featured within the next 3 weeks or so. Keep a look out for it.
