Author Topic: Wupperthal and Citadel 4wd trails.... (Read 2662 times)

KTMvan · « **on:** April 26, 2018, 08:11:09 am »

Does anyone know whether these trails are still in existence? Hoping to ride that way later today

KTMvan · « **Reply #1 on:** April 26, 2018, 11:08:30 am »

No negative answers so I take that as a positive :-) Here we go!

KTMvan · « **Reply #2 on:** April 30, 2018, 11:03:52 am »

So I left home in a bit of a drizzle, and the weather stayed that way for the rest of the day. I have to apologise for the poor quality of my pictures, my helmetcam is a cheap Chinese jobbie and the raindrops on the lens did not improve matters.... The rough plan was to see if these 2 routes are rideable. I have done a part of the Wupperthal route about 15 years ago in the Landy. At that stage it was so eroded that it took a lot of roadbuilding. My wife did not enjoy the route and walked most of the way so we turned off the route after a while. The Citadel I have not seen before but a few weeks ago someone told me that they have tried it from the southern side with plastics and it was not doable. I would approach from the north and had the gpx from T4A on my phone. From home I went over Velddrift and hit the first dirt highway at Bergrivier. The Kersefontein road was quite wet and the rear E07 showed it's limitations in these conditions. Between 100-120 km/h the revs would fluctuate quite wildly as the rear battled for grip

KTMvan · « **Reply #3 on:** April 30, 2018, 11:18:04 am »

Kersefontein road

KTMvan · « **Reply #4 on:** April 30, 2018, 11:24:31 am »

Then a bit of tar and onto the Kapteinskloof road. I love riding this road. Nice windy bits in beautiful surroundings (in a Western Cape way)

KTMvan · « **Reply #5 on:** April 30, 2018, 11:28:30 am »

Again a short bit of tar leading onto the Paleisheuwel road with the last 10 km to Clanwilliam on the N7. By the time I got to Clanwilliam the hands were quite frozen so I stopped for a cuppachino

KTMvan · « **Reply #6 on:** April 30, 2018, 11:34:34 am »

From Clanwilliam the inevitable tar over Pakhuispass and onto gravel towards Wupperthal. The turnoff onto the Citadel route at Kouberg looked well used and very inviting. This would change as I went along....

KTMvan · « **Reply #7 on:** April 30, 2018, 11:47:01 am »

Soon after the previous pic I came to a fork in the road and the gpx pointed right, onto a far less used track. OK, now the fun starts. In retrospect, I now believe that this route has changed and the T4A route that I have is outdated, but at this point in time I was just happy to be out there riding :-)

KTMvan · « **Reply #8 on:** April 30, 2018, 11:51:40 am »

Nothing grows fast in this part of the world, so by now it was evident from the size of the bushes on the middelmannetjie that no 4x4 has gone in this direction recently. There were also no sign of any other tracks except some animal tracks and poo. This did not phase me at all, it is supposed to be an adventure and I had no set plans of where I wanted to camp that night

KTMvan · « **Reply #9 on:** April 30, 2018, 11:57:53 am »

During the previous week I changed the fork seals on the 640. The R1285 quote from KTM seemed a bit excessive as bearing places sell similar seals for less than R20 each but they do not have the right size so a local guy sourced some seals for R170. What a dismal failure. 300km into my trip and the fork oil was dripping over the front disk. I was sorely disappointed, but the 640 still handled well thus I wrote that off as schooling fees....

DirtRebell · « **Reply #10 on:** April 30, 2018, 12:10:18 pm »

did you also ride the Heuningvlei road?

KTMvan · « **Reply #11 on:** April 30, 2018, 12:55:04 pm »

Quote from: DirtRebell on April 30, 2018, 12:10:18 pm

did you also ride the Heuningvlei road?

no, I have never done that, will work it in with my next visit to that area

Matewis · « **Reply #12 on:** April 30, 2018, 01:25:10 pm »

Ek het my gat losgeval en my bike afgeskryf op die Kersefontein pad.

KTMvan · « **Reply #13 on:** April 30, 2018, 01:33:24 pm »

Some more pictures as the path continued to become less and less visible. I was real happy about the gpx, without that I would have been quite lost. One other thought, on this trip I made a pact with myself to start using more aggressive tyres. I have gone through Kaoko and Damara on E07s but on this trip that rear E07 was just not enough. OK, it was also not that new to start with at the beginning of this trip...

KTMvan · « **Reply #14 on:** April 30, 2018, 01:35:57 pm »

Quote from: Matewis on April 30, 2018, 01:25:10 pm

Ek het my gat losgeval en my bike afgeskryf op die Kersefontein pad.

Die ding van die meeste Sandveld en Weskus grondpaaie, dit verander drasties met seisoene. 'n Pad wat in die somer 'n sansloot is ken in winter in 'n modderbad verander en net na dit geskraap is ry dit soos 'n snelweg....

KTMvan · « **Reply #15 on:** April 30, 2018, 01:48:38 pm »

some more pics...

KTMvan · « **Reply #16 on:** April 30, 2018, 01:53:23 pm »

The last pic brought me to a steep rocky descent which I knew was outside of my skill level. I walked down and this is what it looks from the bottom. This is also where the guys with the plastics coming the other way turned around

JFE · « **Reply #17 on:** April 30, 2018, 01:56:48 pm »

Dis k@k as jou pad skielik in 'n adventure verander, maar jy is gelukkig op 'n baie capeable masjien. Het myself amper hospitaal toe geval in Transkei toe ek bokspore begin vat het na ek verdwaal het. Verskil is in '94 was daar nie gpx of T4A nie maar die prinsiep bly die selfde.

Matewis · « **Reply #18 on:** April 30, 2018, 02:00:10 pm »

Quote from: KTMvan on April 30, 2018, 01:35:57 pm

Quote from: Matewis on April 30, 2018, 01:25:10 pm
Ek het my gat losgeval en my bike afgeskryf op die Kersefontein pad.
Die ding van die meeste Sandveld en Weskus grondpaaie, dit verander drasties met seisoene. 'n Pad wat in die somer 'n sansloot is ken in winter in 'n modderbad verander en net na dit geskraap is ry dit soos 'n snelweg....

Dis feite. Maar daai pad sien my nie gou weer nie. Behalwe met die bakkie

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Mr D · « **Reply #19 on:** April 30, 2018, 02:03:29 pm »

Proper adventure that hey!