ianhogg
Race Dog
- Joined
- Apr 24, 2010
- Messages
- 1,503
- Reaction score
- 20
- Location
- 34 Stanbury Street, Proserpine, QLD
- Bike
- Kawasaki Versys
Ngubevu Mlongosi bridge loop
If you have a look at the map you will see that if you want to go to Vryheid from Durban you have to loop around to Dundee or drive along the coast to Eshowe to get there. That’s because the bit in the middle from the confluence of the Mooi, Buffels and Tugela river and associated gorge towards Nkandla is a bit rugged. This ride planned to go right through the middle using the new bridge and return along the coast which is exactly what we did. It was quite a long day, Mark logged 513km on his bike. I’ve attached the ride from tar to tar in gpx and kml and remember rather than looping back you can carry on into Northern Natal. In January 2016 we had to call it a day when we found no bridge.
https://wilddog.net.za/forum/index.php?topic=185637.msg3447547#msg3447547
The ride started well, Mark was early at my place and Pete was early too on his new (to him) bright and shiny blue KTM so we were into the valley not soon after dawn. I’ve had some miserable trips through the valley at this time of year but this one was superb, the rising sun giving us bright hillsides and dark valleys . However, it wasn’t long before the inevitable happened and Pete’s KTM started to misbehave,cut out and backfire. He gamely made it through to the Greytown Wimpy where we met up with Phillip, who was involved with the new bridge, and Andrew. Pete deliberated whether to strip his bike and find the problem or limp home and decided that as it would take half the day to get the panels off that he would limp home and Phillip very kindly offered to babysit him. That left Mark and Andrew to come with me and we toddled around the Tugela at a pretty reasonable pace. Phillip noted that he had surveyed for the bridge further upstream. He was quite right, that is where the proper bridge is being built, the one we crossed I think is just for the construction vehicles. The North side of the Tugela to Mlongosi is a spectacular ride and I was surprised at how much human activity there is around there. At Jamieson’s drift Andrew headed back to PMB and Mark and myself called in at Shu Shu and then the R881 to Stanger and home.
If you have a look at the map you will see that if you want to go to Vryheid from Durban you have to loop around to Dundee or drive along the coast to Eshowe to get there. That’s because the bit in the middle from the confluence of the Mooi, Buffels and Tugela river and associated gorge towards Nkandla is a bit rugged. This ride planned to go right through the middle using the new bridge and return along the coast which is exactly what we did. It was quite a long day, Mark logged 513km on his bike. I’ve attached the ride from tar to tar in gpx and kml and remember rather than looping back you can carry on into Northern Natal. In January 2016 we had to call it a day when we found no bridge.
https://wilddog.net.za/forum/index.php?topic=185637.msg3447547#msg3447547
The ride started well, Mark was early at my place and Pete was early too on his new (to him) bright and shiny blue KTM so we were into the valley not soon after dawn. I’ve had some miserable trips through the valley at this time of year but this one was superb, the rising sun giving us bright hillsides and dark valleys . However, it wasn’t long before the inevitable happened and Pete’s KTM started to misbehave,cut out and backfire. He gamely made it through to the Greytown Wimpy where we met up with Phillip, who was involved with the new bridge, and Andrew. Pete deliberated whether to strip his bike and find the problem or limp home and decided that as it would take half the day to get the panels off that he would limp home and Phillip very kindly offered to babysit him. That left Mark and Andrew to come with me and we toddled around the Tugela at a pretty reasonable pace. Phillip noted that he had surveyed for the bridge further upstream. He was quite right, that is where the proper bridge is being built, the one we crossed I think is just for the construction vehicles. The North side of the Tugela to Mlongosi is a spectacular ride and I was surprised at how much human activity there is around there. At Jamieson’s drift Andrew headed back to PMB and Mark and myself called in at Shu Shu and then the R881 to Stanger and home.
