The Germans and the South African bucket list Days 1 - 12 Completed

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NIMMO

Race Dog
Joined
Jun 16, 2009
Messages
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Location
Colesberg
Bike
KTM 990 Adventure
Where do you start with a RR that involves foreigners, the South African bucket list, 12 days and 50 odd passes and breaking down preconceived perceptions?  Probably best to start at the beginning.  :pot:

Index:

Day 1 – Losing Karl Heinz

Day 2 – Reunited with Karl Heinz

Day 3 – Losing Richard

Day 4 – Reunited for a short time 

Day 5 – Both Len and Andreas have their lucky days

Day 6 – Andreas takes a dive and Alfie loses us

Day 7 – Angie’s is still there to Len’s relief and I curse Doc Kriek

Day 8 – Finding Nimmo’s swamp 

Day 9 - Len just can’t stop 

Day 10 – The Germans meet a castrated dog

  Day 11 - What an amazing country we live in 

Day 12 - Auf Wiedersehen




Somewhere mid last year a local farmer (who knew I biked) phoned me and asked if I would be interested in taking a German friend of his around the country. 
At first I thought it was one of those conversations that would lead to nothing.  I was wrong.  :deal:
I sent the farmer a link to all my RR’s and asked him to forward it to his friend; I can’t recall how we started communicating, whether it was by mail or Whattsapp.  None the less I was introduced to Richard.

They were a couple of friends and acquaintances that wanted to tour South Africa and his criteria were short but precise.  “Remember it is our holiday, we want to travel on gravel and see the sites.  Not too far everyday to make time to really see the sites and take plenty of photos”  :deal:

I let my thoughts go and started to think off all the places I have been and where we could go and how the logistics would work.  I soon came to the conclusion that if I were to do this I would need a partner to help along the way and also someone that was able help me fix things, if need be.  Long and short of the story is Briv and I got to talking and started exchanging ideas. 
At one stage Richard informed me they would now be one less person and I started making plans for the four of us.  It was evident that camping would be out of the question as they were bringing their own gear and we could not provide everything, also in the event of rain etc it would make start-up times later everyday etc.    Hence we decided on accommodation establishments and varying it from night to night to give our guests a taste of South Africa.

The plans changed a number of times and Richard and I kept in touch over the months.  It was evident they REALLY looked forward to touring our country.  In the end we decided on the last two weeks in March and they started making arrangements to get their bikes hired and I started confirming accommodations and Len and I exchanged some routes and alternatives should thing go south here and there.

Not too long before the trip would start the son in law of the local farmer who put me in touch with Richard (Read Righardt), phoned me and asked if he could come with on his 690.  He made his own arrangements to stay at the same places and we would now be 5.  :ricky:

It would be a looooong wait.  After what seemed like an eternity the 19th of March arrived.  :ricky: :ricky:
The bike was Stoetied 800km to Len in Cape Town  :peepwall:  and we would meet Richard and friend at Winelands Engen the next day.  Driving down I passed the road to Merweville and noticed how close it was to Prins Albertweg.  I made CT without issues offloaded the bike and spent a lovely night with the Briv’s.  Living in the middle of nowhere I asked Briv to buy me some crash bar bags to help with storage space – there is a story to this.

Day 1 – Losing Karl Heinz

On Monday we loaded the bikes checked if we had everything and waited to hear from Richard as to when they left Moto Berlin (V&A area) then we would meet them at Winelands. The call came and with it the first issue, they forgot a camera and needed to fetch it in Stellenbosch before we could set out.  Len took me site seeing in Belville to go say goodbye to his daughter at some hockey field – I HATE your traffic.  :p  After that we set off to Winelands Engen.

Len and I waited for the two bikers to pitch at Winelands.  Soon enough 3 other bikers (3 * F700GS’s with tubeless tyres and EO7’s on) rode up and I recognized Richard.  :eek7: :eek7: :eek7:
 
DSC_0003 by Jean van der Walt, on Flickr

IMG_5397 by Jean van der Walt, on Flickr

It seems somewhere I missed one, for the life of me I could not think how but it could not help to ponder this we would sort it out as we went along.  We met a friend of theirs at a place in SB to get the camera and off we went.  The local farmer’s SIL was Alfie he too had issues and would meet us at the foot of Bainskloof.  There we would stop and meet and have a talk. :bueller:

Riding through Wellington a car pulled out of a parking bay and rode up next to me and all I could see was a finger pointing me to pull over.  I stopped and the whole train in tow.  As the driver got out I realized it was my old sottebaas from school, he recognized the number plate and we had a quick chat. 
At Bainskloof we met up with Alfie and we all introduced ourselves.

P1170501 by Jean van der Walt, on Flickr

Richardt (62) the one whom I knew by now, his childhood friend Andreas(60) & Karl- Heinz (68 former German gymnast).  I had some points I wanted to discuss before hand and mentioned those to all of them - one of them being that you are responsible for the man (read light) behind you etc.  In Bainskloof it became apparent they knew how to ride despite just earlier mentioning they were not used to gravel. 

IMG_5399 by Jean van der Walt, on Flickr

DSC_0007 by Jean van der Walt, on Flickr

We stopped in Ceres to fill up.

P1020408 by Jean van der Walt, on Flickr

Len left the garage first to get some refreshments they could enjoy along the way. 
We would meet him at the Sutherland turnoff.  As we started up KH left the service station first and stayed in front, we planned on stopping at Tankwa Padstal so when we got to the Sutherland split I told KH he could go ahead.  :patch:

Len and I had a word and we started on our long awaited tour.  Len and I would take turns sweeping etc.  When I stopped at the Padstal everyone was there except KH.  He was in front and despite Alfie trying to catch him he went past.  Well he would soon see no light was behind him and turn around. :sip:
 
P1020437 by Jean van der Walt, on Flickr

P1020418 by Jean van der Walt, on Flickr

P1020422 by Jean van der Walt, on Flickr

P1020428 by Jean van der Walt, on Flickr

P1020429 by Jean van der Walt, on Flickr

P1020431 by Jean van der Walt, on Flickr

P1020433 by Jean van der Walt, on Flickr

 
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