- Joined
- Oct 2, 2007
- Messages
- 1,650
- Reaction score
- 478
- Bike
- Triumph 800 XC
Somehow the name Groot Marico popped into my head. Maybe it was the Herman Charles Bosman book I read a while ago..
Dunno. Anyway, I was thinking that I haven't done any rides ut to the "Wild West" so Google Maps was consulted and then I cast about for riding partners.
Mr. Zog was busy with family stuff, as was my mate Gus who rides an XC like mine..
However, StuartC was keen and so the two of us set out to ride as many dirt roads between here and there as possible.
I met Stu at his place in Centurion, and we heaaded out west. First stop was at the hill overlooking Harties dam. Beautiful scenery..
I had a small hiccup on the way up the hill. I took the right hand lane in the tweespoor and ended up taking on a rock that was having none of it. I got the front wheel over it but the back wheel said aikona. I needed to extract said rock before I could get going.. bleh..
So nice I sommer took two photos..
From there we took the road that runs past Vlakplaats.. notorious place.. to Breedt's Nek. It turns out StuatC never knew about its existence and was about to turn the other way when I talked him into going up.
It was fun..
This is Stu's pony. It's a Yamaha TDM 850 but actually not so much anymore.. Observe the offroad front end, crash bars and offroad handlebars... Let's call it a Franken-TDM because it's got a lot of donor parts. It handles the aventure stuff amazingly, and Stu claims not to be done with it yet..
We didn't go down the other side of Breedt's Nek, but will do so sometime.. It's like a mini Sani.. complete with okes in their 4x4's thinking how awesome they are.. :laughing4:
This is the way we came and went.
Somewhere before Derby we got lost. Stu said we would and he is a man of his word. We did.
GPS lied to us. Said there were roads where we found none..
Stu going off to see if his GPS will change its mind with a bit of motion...
The local stud bull wasn't very forthcoming with any information..
Anyhow we just rode until we kinda knew where we were..
In Koster Stu discovered he had a flat.. Sorry, no pics, too busy fixing. We patched his tube which had a puncture because he had no rim tape on the new front wheel.. After putting it back the patch blew off and went flat again so I gave him mine.. Things were getting late so we just slabbed it to Groot Marico.
We intended to camp but it was late and we were hungry, tired and thirsty, so we found a guest house, showered and changed and went to the "Wag 'n Biekie" pub to watch the bokke put Scotland in their place. The food was so good we ate like dogs.. wild dogs..
After Rugby and chow we went back to the guest house to end off the evening with words of wisdom and world peace until the world peace became so at peace that we needed to go and rest our eyes in the shade of the withaak.. OK, no, in the slaapkamers..
In the morning this wonderful sight greeted me from the window of my bedroom..
The roads were calling, but we took our sweet time and chatted over several coffees before heading out..
I opened the gate while Stu wrangled his beast out..
I saw something in the withaak's shade, but it wasn't a leopard.. it was a Tiger!
The ride back was spectacular. Heading due South from Groot Marico we took the most awesome dirt route I've ridden so far.. Sadly the pics do it no credit as we stopped with grins on our faces at the end of the best section.. I wanna go back SOON!
Check that grin on StuartC's face!
Our bikes were so happy..
Some bushveld graffiti..
After this we slabbed it all the way home with a brekkie stop in Magaliesburg. We watched the Harley boys and girls come posing through.. Clean, shiny and totally uninteresting. We were dirty, happy and content. We surely must do this again!!
Dunno. Anyway, I was thinking that I haven't done any rides ut to the "Wild West" so Google Maps was consulted and then I cast about for riding partners.
Mr. Zog was busy with family stuff, as was my mate Gus who rides an XC like mine..
However, StuartC was keen and so the two of us set out to ride as many dirt roads between here and there as possible.
I met Stu at his place in Centurion, and we heaaded out west. First stop was at the hill overlooking Harties dam. Beautiful scenery..
I had a small hiccup on the way up the hill. I took the right hand lane in the tweespoor and ended up taking on a rock that was having none of it. I got the front wheel over it but the back wheel said aikona. I needed to extract said rock before I could get going.. bleh..
So nice I sommer took two photos..
From there we took the road that runs past Vlakplaats.. notorious place.. to Breedt's Nek. It turns out StuatC never knew about its existence and was about to turn the other way when I talked him into going up.
It was fun..
This is Stu's pony. It's a Yamaha TDM 850 but actually not so much anymore.. Observe the offroad front end, crash bars and offroad handlebars... Let's call it a Franken-TDM because it's got a lot of donor parts. It handles the aventure stuff amazingly, and Stu claims not to be done with it yet..
We didn't go down the other side of Breedt's Nek, but will do so sometime.. It's like a mini Sani.. complete with okes in their 4x4's thinking how awesome they are.. :laughing4:
This is the way we came and went.
Somewhere before Derby we got lost. Stu said we would and he is a man of his word. We did.
GPS lied to us. Said there were roads where we found none..
Stu going off to see if his GPS will change its mind with a bit of motion...
The local stud bull wasn't very forthcoming with any information..
Anyhow we just rode until we kinda knew where we were..
In Koster Stu discovered he had a flat.. Sorry, no pics, too busy fixing. We patched his tube which had a puncture because he had no rim tape on the new front wheel.. After putting it back the patch blew off and went flat again so I gave him mine.. Things were getting late so we just slabbed it to Groot Marico.
We intended to camp but it was late and we were hungry, tired and thirsty, so we found a guest house, showered and changed and went to the "Wag 'n Biekie" pub to watch the bokke put Scotland in their place. The food was so good we ate like dogs.. wild dogs..
After Rugby and chow we went back to the guest house to end off the evening with words of wisdom and world peace until the world peace became so at peace that we needed to go and rest our eyes in the shade of the withaak.. OK, no, in the slaapkamers..
In the morning this wonderful sight greeted me from the window of my bedroom..
The roads were calling, but we took our sweet time and chatted over several coffees before heading out..
I opened the gate while Stu wrangled his beast out..
I saw something in the withaak's shade, but it wasn't a leopard.. it was a Tiger!
The ride back was spectacular. Heading due South from Groot Marico we took the most awesome dirt route I've ridden so far.. Sadly the pics do it no credit as we stopped with grins on our faces at the end of the best section.. I wanna go back SOON!
Check that grin on StuartC's face!
Our bikes were so happy..
Some bushveld graffiti..
After this we slabbed it all the way home with a brekkie stop in Magaliesburg. We watched the Harley boys and girls come posing through.. Clean, shiny and totally uninteresting. We were dirty, happy and content. We surely must do this again!!
