Stephenoraw
Puppy
Three of us set out on a long-awaited trip to Baviaans and surrounds last week. Here is a short ride report.
The route:
Day 1. A loop out from Willowmore towards Steytlerville through the Grootrivier Berge, then heading south and east towards Grootrivierpoort and the Antoniesberg Pass, finishing in Patensie
Day 2: From Patensie on gravbel roads to Storms River before heading back to Jeffrey's Bay
Day 3: From Jeffreys to Zandvlakte in the Kloof
Day 4: a very short day from Zandvlakte to Willowmore, leaving us time to do whatever else we felt like going back to look at , or to take a detour, which we eventually did, deciding that Angie's G-Spot needed to be visited.
The riders:
Chris: Yamaha XT660Z Tenere. Chris is a Cape Town commuter biker who had bought the Ten to do some adventure riding as well. He missed our Tankwa trip last year due to being forced to go and drink Beer in Denmark. We still haven't forgiven him. This would be his first big off-road trip.
Pete: GS 800. Pete has been riding super-bikes for years before dipping his toe into the off-road stuff on our Tankwa trip last year. He's also CT based, but far enough out of town that Stellenbosch is a viable detour on his way into Cape Town..
Me: Steve: Honda CRF 250 Rally. The Gautenger of the group decided to experiment and go small capacity for this trip. He also then decided to push the boat out by not arranging his life well enough to actually go and run in the bike beforehand. So he started the trip on a bike he'd never ridden off-road, or with luggage, and with only 156kms on the clock... :
The excitement before the trip was pretty high.
Day 1: Day 1 started with a pleasant breakfast at the Willow Historical House in Willowmore, a definite recommendation, before we headed out north east towards the Grootrivier Berge and Steytlerville. The route was designed to run parallel and north of the R 329. We started off very easy, we had no idea how good Chris was off-road (very good actually), but the real reason was for me to get used to how the Rally felt on the dirt. We built up a little speed, but kept the ride calm as we worked our way east towards the R337. The roads were dry and dusty but good and the ride was pretty uneventful, even as we headed down the Medenpoort and up Kampferspoort before a quick blast on the tarred R329 past all the flags painted on the rocks into the immaculate town of Steytlerville. (The flags on the poles in the main road are all the local family crests - I fully recommend reading Chris Marais and Julienne Du Toit's "Karoo" series of books for a bit of local info).
An (admittedly early) cold Windhoek (& only 1) was consumed at the Royal Hotel. Consumed with the enjoyment that only someone who has ridden through a dusty Karoo can understand.
We then headed out south for about 20kms before turning right off the main gravel road and heading towards what we suspected would be the best riding of the day, Antoniesberg Pass and Grootrivierspoort.
The riding here was excellent, we knew by now that the variable weather reports we had seen before the trip had been accurate in only one respect, cool weather, with none of the predicted rain. As much as we wished the rain on the area, it was drier than we could have imagined, we were a little selfish in appreciating the perfect conditions underfoot (undertyre?) as we rode and dipped and twisted our way east towards the poort, with the Baviaans Berge over our right shoulders.
The road got down to business soon enough, with the descent towards the poort, a very dry poort for us.
It then got interesting. We found out later through Guy of Dual Sport Motorcycle Clinic (More about him in the next episode) that the Antoniesberg Pass is in pretty good nick right now, with none of the erosion dongas he had experienced in the past. We found the route challenging enough as relative noobs, with loose rocks sand needing us to keep a balance between momentum and control. Chris and Pete, on the bigger bikes, found the conditions trickier than I did, but I'm not sure of it was the power of the bigger bikes or their tyre choice (or both). We worked our way up that amazing pass with some challenges, but a lot of fun, including a kudu that jumped out in front of Pete, from nowhere!
The pass had one last little goodbye for us before we reached the plateau that runs towards the Telkom tower. Of all the loose and rocky sections, there was one last piece of 200m that would change our trip somewhat. Pete on the GS800 had gotten up first, with a little help from his friends, before Chris had a go on the Ten. A rock jumped out at him halfway up, with the result that three spokes said "koebaai" on his front wheel, leaving it looking more like a pretzel than was ideal. The Rally, much to the irritation of my riding buddies, smoked that section. Breezed up. Vindication! (At this point I'd like to note that my buddies had decided that the smell of the Honda was a result of it burning up it's oil - baby oil apparently...)
After removing the broken spokes and checking to see if the wheel was ride-able, we headed off to the Telkom tower, before the descent to Patensie, a lovely piece of road.
The green of the Gamtoos valley after the harsh dryness of the Karoo was quite a mind-bend.
We eventually settled into the Ripple Hill Hotel in Patensie after a day of varied riding feeling well pleased with ourselves. The last order of business before getting outside of some phenomenal food (and I mean that - some of the best food I've ever had!) was to decide to can the planned Storms River ride for the next day and head into PE to get Chris a rim job...
More to follow
The route:
Day 1. A loop out from Willowmore towards Steytlerville through the Grootrivier Berge, then heading south and east towards Grootrivierpoort and the Antoniesberg Pass, finishing in Patensie
Day 2: From Patensie on gravbel roads to Storms River before heading back to Jeffrey's Bay
Day 3: From Jeffreys to Zandvlakte in the Kloof
Day 4: a very short day from Zandvlakte to Willowmore, leaving us time to do whatever else we felt like going back to look at , or to take a detour, which we eventually did, deciding that Angie's G-Spot needed to be visited.
The riders:
Chris: Yamaha XT660Z Tenere. Chris is a Cape Town commuter biker who had bought the Ten to do some adventure riding as well. He missed our Tankwa trip last year due to being forced to go and drink Beer in Denmark. We still haven't forgiven him. This would be his first big off-road trip.
Pete: GS 800. Pete has been riding super-bikes for years before dipping his toe into the off-road stuff on our Tankwa trip last year. He's also CT based, but far enough out of town that Stellenbosch is a viable detour on his way into Cape Town..
Me: Steve: Honda CRF 250 Rally. The Gautenger of the group decided to experiment and go small capacity for this trip. He also then decided to push the boat out by not arranging his life well enough to actually go and run in the bike beforehand. So he started the trip on a bike he'd never ridden off-road, or with luggage, and with only 156kms on the clock... :
The excitement before the trip was pretty high.
Day 1: Day 1 started with a pleasant breakfast at the Willow Historical House in Willowmore, a definite recommendation, before we headed out north east towards the Grootrivier Berge and Steytlerville. The route was designed to run parallel and north of the R 329. We started off very easy, we had no idea how good Chris was off-road (very good actually), but the real reason was for me to get used to how the Rally felt on the dirt. We built up a little speed, but kept the ride calm as we worked our way east towards the R337. The roads were dry and dusty but good and the ride was pretty uneventful, even as we headed down the Medenpoort and up Kampferspoort before a quick blast on the tarred R329 past all the flags painted on the rocks into the immaculate town of Steytlerville. (The flags on the poles in the main road are all the local family crests - I fully recommend reading Chris Marais and Julienne Du Toit's "Karoo" series of books for a bit of local info).
An (admittedly early) cold Windhoek (& only 1) was consumed at the Royal Hotel. Consumed with the enjoyment that only someone who has ridden through a dusty Karoo can understand.
We then headed out south for about 20kms before turning right off the main gravel road and heading towards what we suspected would be the best riding of the day, Antoniesberg Pass and Grootrivierspoort.
The riding here was excellent, we knew by now that the variable weather reports we had seen before the trip had been accurate in only one respect, cool weather, with none of the predicted rain. As much as we wished the rain on the area, it was drier than we could have imagined, we were a little selfish in appreciating the perfect conditions underfoot (undertyre?) as we rode and dipped and twisted our way east towards the poort, with the Baviaans Berge over our right shoulders.
The road got down to business soon enough, with the descent towards the poort, a very dry poort for us.
It then got interesting. We found out later through Guy of Dual Sport Motorcycle Clinic (More about him in the next episode) that the Antoniesberg Pass is in pretty good nick right now, with none of the erosion dongas he had experienced in the past. We found the route challenging enough as relative noobs, with loose rocks sand needing us to keep a balance between momentum and control. Chris and Pete, on the bigger bikes, found the conditions trickier than I did, but I'm not sure of it was the power of the bigger bikes or their tyre choice (or both). We worked our way up that amazing pass with some challenges, but a lot of fun, including a kudu that jumped out in front of Pete, from nowhere!
The pass had one last little goodbye for us before we reached the plateau that runs towards the Telkom tower. Of all the loose and rocky sections, there was one last piece of 200m that would change our trip somewhat. Pete on the GS800 had gotten up first, with a little help from his friends, before Chris had a go on the Ten. A rock jumped out at him halfway up, with the result that three spokes said "koebaai" on his front wheel, leaving it looking more like a pretzel than was ideal. The Rally, much to the irritation of my riding buddies, smoked that section. Breezed up. Vindication! (At this point I'd like to note that my buddies had decided that the smell of the Honda was a result of it burning up it's oil - baby oil apparently...)
After removing the broken spokes and checking to see if the wheel was ride-able, we headed off to the Telkom tower, before the descent to Patensie, a lovely piece of road.
The green of the Gamtoos valley after the harsh dryness of the Karoo was quite a mind-bend.
We eventually settled into the Ripple Hill Hotel in Patensie after a day of varied riding feeling well pleased with ourselves. The last order of business before getting outside of some phenomenal food (and I mean that - some of the best food I've ever had!) was to decide to can the planned Storms River ride for the next day and head into PE to get Chris a rim job...
More to follow
