Mud, Rain, Snow, Booze & Braai

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Crankshaft

Race Dog
Joined
May 26, 2013
Messages
1,845
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392
Location
Brackenfell
Bike
AJS (all models)
So a few weeks ago I get the call from Con to join him and Uhan for a quick trip to Tankwa via Cederbeg, Oasis, Katbakkies pass, Tankwa padstal and finish off at Stonehedge, Tented Camp.  (This is the same spot where AfrikaBurn and Bike Burn is every year.  If you haven't seen the video's, google or youtube is your friend :thumleft:)
So Con started with the accomodation booking and start planning on where to stop and what route to take....

Closer to the time we started noticing that the weather is planning on making this trip interesting, but we are not worried to much because for those of you that have travelled into the Tankwa Karoo area will know that it hardly rains on that side of the world.
As the days goes by, we started to get very excited like a small kid in a toy store.  Can not wait to get out there and ride our bikes, drinking a few cold ones, having a lekker braai and taking the ride out and watch the sunset.

With the weather forecast it gets worst by the day with expected rain all over the western cape and snow expected in Ceres, Matroosberg mountains and heading north towards Sutherland.  Rain? Snow?  No problem!!! We will make sure that we have some rain coats and warm clothing.  Still not worried much about it...
D-day is getting closer.  We decided that we will all meet up in Paarl at Con's house and travel from there. 

On Monday the 24th of August the excitements starts kicking in with the plans of what to pack and what to leave behind.  Still the weather forecast is showing heavy rain and snow for the weekend to come.  Rain starting on Thursday and carry on until Sunday.  On Saturday morning, 4:30am I'm up and wide awake.  Can not sleep anymore and listening to the rain outside, just hoping that it will stop for a few minutes so that I can leave my place at about 07:30.
At last.... it stopped a bit.  So there I was with biking gear with all the rain coat inners and padding and on top of that, another rain coat, just in case!! :ricky: :ricky:

In Paarl we meet up and not too long afterwards, we head out towards Wellington, Hermon and Gouda on the R44 and then turnoff towards Porterville.  At this stage we were lucky enough not to have any rain yet, but the clouds were black and hanging very low in the Porterville surrounding.  As we head out of Porterville towards the N7 we noticed that those dark clouds are approaching us big time...  After about 5 minutes we started getting the rain and it wasn't long before we got those huge rain drops.  You could feel them hitting against your clothing and helmet and with a cross wind helping them along as well.  Eventually we linked up with the N7 and turned towards Citrusdal.  At this stage we managed to get away from the rain. (Riding above the speed limit  :peepwall:)

Stopped on our way up Piekenierskloof pass for a quick photo and carry on to Citrusdal.  The original plans was to shoot straight on with the N7 and then take the Algeria, Cederberg turnoff, but there's also a low water bridge and the Olifantsriver is occationally flooded, depending on the rainfall.  Decided then not to take the chance, we turnoff into town and take Voortrekker street that runs parallel with the river and meeting up at the same place.  Turned right and up Nieuwoudts pass into Algeria.  Visited this area a few times before but never seen the peaks on top of Sederberg pass covered in white powder and being ice cold. You know it's cold when the bike gives you a "ice rain" warning. 

From here on we knew that we are gonna have our hands full with the roads.  The dirt roads turned to mud with slushy, slippery clay conditions.  You could see that they were trying to do some repair work because of previous heavy rainfall a few weeks ago.  At some stages it was so bad, we only managed to get into 3rd gear on the bikes.  Still on our way to Oasis for lunch, about 4km's to go, we came to a stop at another low water bridge at Matjiesrivier.  This time we were not lucky at all.  Standing there and discussing the plan on going forward and what to do, Con decided to walk in and check how deep it is.  In the middle you can see the rapids and how intense it was.  There we are, asking ourselves "What the fuck now??"  Eventually a local guy arrived and advised that we turn around and make a detour via the Kromrivier camp site.  This will link up again with the dirt road just on the other side of the river with a quick dash and we stopped at Cederberg Oasis for a cold one.

Enjoying our beer and a snack for lunch, we started to contemplate on what the plans are for goring forward.  Taking into consideration the amount of time we have already spend on the road, the bad road conditions going forward as well as the conditions of the R355 heading out towards Tankwa tented camp.  Not knowing what to expect and how the conditions may be.  By now it was already 3pm.  Eventually we decided for the sake of safety and weather conditions, we call it a day and stay over at Oasis. 

Getting unpacked, into warm dry clothes was a lekker feeling.  Lighting a fire and enjoyed the rest of the afternoon.  Saturday evening you could feel the temperature drop the later it got.  Round about 11pm it showed 3 degrees on the bike.  Luckily for us the beds were warm with a lot of bedding available.
Sunday morning we were greeted with a -2 degrees and expected to get colder when the sun rises over the mountains.  After having our 4th cuppuccino just to get warm, we had breakfast and were on our way, heading towards Katbakkies pass turnoff.

We were greeted with crystal clear sky's and no rain forecasted for the day, but very cold conditions.  The roads were wet and slippery at a few spots but nothing compared to the previous day.  Got a few nice pictures of the snow in the mountains.  At the Katbakkies turn-off, we inflated our tyres again for the tar road stretch back towards Op-Die-Berg and Gydo pass on the R303.  As we head out towards Gydo pass and Ceres, you could see the amount of snow on the mountains.  It was really beautiful. 

Going down Gydo pass was becoming more of a risk than anything else.  Not because of snow, but because of every Tom, Dick and Harry that wants to stop and have a look, not taking in consideration the other cars or bikes on the road and not even worrying about indicators when they want to turn off.  In Ceres we turned right towards Mitchells pass and head out towdards Cape Town.  This was crazy to see the amount of cars that was planning or trying to get into Ceres to go and have a look at the snow.

So the trip was cut short by at least 300km of dirt roads but was still one for the books and one that will always be remembered.
Please follow the link below and have a look at the youtube video.

https://youtu.be/aVcPATZTE5M







 
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