Long weekend Mpumalanga highlights (re-launched)

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Doringboom

Race Dog
Joined
Sep 14, 2006
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Location
Pretoria
Bike
Suzuki DL 1000 V-Strom
Good day 8)

(Herewith a re-launch of my posting of yesterday, now with a new image host. Yesterday?s attempt suffered some reliability problems.)

I took the following pictures over the past long weekend (23-25 September 2006) while on a solo visit to the Graskop ? Sabie area in Mpumalanga. Please note that it was a tar road trip and the pictures are not of any gruelling sandy, rocky, muddy, bushy, dusty and/or watery safari. It was nonetheless an ADVENTURE for me and thus appropriate for this Forum I would guess.

For the Forumers up-country the pictures may be on the boring side (also a little bit Bike SA?ish perhaps), but let us spare a thought for the Forumers from the rest of SA that do not come so far north very often. We should also not forget about the non-SA Forumers that are completely unfamiliar with the geography of SA.

Here we go! (A Dreamworks ? News Corporation - Doringboom Production :lol: )

Here am I. 8 o?clock departure from Pretoria on Saturday morning.

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For the outward bound leg I decided to ride the somewhat more scenic, somewhat more rural alternative road via Stoffberg and Roossenekal. Between Middelburg and Stoffberg I stopped for an ?Energade moment?.

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On the road between Roossenekal and Lydenburg. The landscape bears the scars of a recent veld fire.

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Da fuzz, putting up da roadblock in Lydenburg to ask motorists (and bikers) some stupid questions. I missed out on this with a few minutes.

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A view from the Long Tom pass between Lydenburg and Sabie. Very little natural vegetation is still left. Mainly pine plantations cover every single hill.

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The famous Long Tom canon halfway through the pass. Aim for the Union Buildings in Pretoria! Ready? Okay, FIRE!

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My own little place in Africa for the weekend at Graskop Holiday Resort for R40 (�± 4,10 Euro) a day. Bargain!

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Sunday morning, while having breakfast at the Wimpy in Sabie, I watched the bikers at the garage outside, refuelling and preparing their machines for the day?s ride. Here are two Nortons. Note the aerosol puncture repair can, carried on the front shock of the left bike. Kick-starting a bike like this takes some muscle power and also the correct technique.

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On the Sabie ? Hazyview road. Towards Hazyview the climate becomes much more subtropical, so too the fruit that is grown here.

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A beautiful runaway garden shrub, also on the Sabie ? Hazyview road.

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No, it?s not Australia. Bluegum trees are also big in SA, as here on the road from Hazyview to Graskop.

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No, it?s not Switzerland. This is a section of Kowyns Pass on the road from Hazyview to Graskop. Note the little cross behind the bike, in memory of somebody that must have died on this scene. There are some other crosses too along the roads in this area.

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What is indeed big over here is the curio trade along the roads. Here is a roadside stall just outside Graskop on the road to Pilgrim?s Rest.

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Bikes parked outside the Royal Hotel on Pilgrim?s Rest.

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The beers are cold. Try one on your next visit!

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An oom and auntie about to depart Pilgrim?s Rest on a gentle ride through the countryside.

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An icon of Africa! Informal sector car/bike washers are always only an arm?s length away to lovingly attend to your dirty vehicle. Here are two on duty outside the Royal Hotel.

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Pass Pilgrim?s Rest on the road towards Orighstad you get the Robbers? Pass. Here is the view back towards Pilgrim?s Rest from a lookout point. You must watch your riding carefully around the sharp hairpin bends!

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One of the sorry scenes in SA nowadays: Why every second road junction must also doubles as a refuse dump I don?t understand. This is at the Lydenburg ? Orighstad ? Pilgrim?s Rest T-junction.

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Some technical information on Robbers? Pass for the analytical Forumers.

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The view back towards Pilgrim?s Rest on my way to Graskop again.

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From Graskop I rode to God?s Window. Here you can gaze from the escarpment over the vastness of the Lowveld in the direction of Mozambique. But here were such a number of visitors, also shopping at the booming curio market that I did not bother to do any gazing myself.

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Back in Graskop. Here is how the downtown Paradise Rally runway looks like in peace time.

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Monday morning, having a quick stop in Dullstroom. Dullstroom is not so dull after all! What was dull though, was the N4 National Road from Belfast back to Pretoria.

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The Tiger was a joy to ride. Average fuel consumption was 21km/l.

That?s all folks! Until next time.

Doringboom :wink:
 
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