Crossed-up
Pangaman
The Outride on Saturday through Wupperthal was amazing, and I just couldn't go back to Cape Town without another ride. :ricky: :ricky: I decided to go for a little solo run on Sunday. And so, after a leisurely start I set off back over Pakhuis and down to Doringbos and the Moedverloorpad. After stopping at both Leipold's and Engelsman’s graves and then choosing the Moedverloorpad, I was wondering if there wasn’t a theme developing. ??? Did you know that there was fighting in the Traveller’s Rest area during the Boer War? The trenches are still in evidence as well as occasional Martini-Henry cartridge ends etc. I was inspired to take this road by the recent RR's from XT660R and Rynet.
The Moedverloorpad is an awesome ride. :thumleft: It has everything from rocks to loose stuff, slow stuff and high-speed stretches. It also has a lot of gates! I counted 11 that I had to open and close, and a great many other gates were already opened. The first section is very isolated and desolate on Karoo lands above the Doring. After some distance one comes to the Kransgat river valley with scattered settlements along its course. Many of these are riethuisies belonging to subsistence farmers.
As an archaeologist I was struck by the richness of the archaeological remains in the area. Everywhere there are scatters of artefacts and in the valley are a great many rock-shelters with paintings and occupational debris. I am definitely going to have to return to this place for a better look.
After this the road rises to the high ground east of the Koebee river and gradually becomes wider as it crosses the commercial farming areas. Here I encounted another curiosity. Now, instead of gates they have built cattlegrids – but these are set at an angle to the road and some way off to the side! No chance of flying over these at speed! At one of them I had to take to the veld for a few meters rather than try the sharp exit turn in the loose stuff!
I stopped at the glaciated pavement at Oorlogskloof. This is a flat rock surface which is scarred by the passage of ice over it. I reflected on the rarer and very much more impressive occurrence below the east side of Pakhuis Pass. The latter was caused by icebergs floating in a shallow sea dragging their bottoms in the mud and sands on the sea-bed. I imagine a similar process might be happening in parts of the Alaskan seas today.
Nieuwoudtville. I stopped here for fuel at the famous garage-cum-motorcycle museum. I had planned on filling up here but it was Sunday and I would have had to wait some hours for them to open up and serve me, so I changed my plans and headed down to Vanrhynsdorp. I figured I'd had an amazing ride already that day, and that I should let it rest at that. Here I met a oke who lives in Calvinia, owns an 1150GS and didn’t know that there is a gravel road along the east bank of the Olifants!
Hell, I enjoyed the ride on that road from just past Klawer up the Olifants, over the dry Doring, past Bulshoek Barrage and on to Clanwilliam. The scenery is gorgeous, the road deserted and just bad enough to keep you on your toes. You pick up the road again past the Outriders' campsite and from here it follows the river up to Citrusdal.
A quick coffee in Piketberg and a dash in the gathering dark for the smog and southeaster in Cape Town. I hate the last 60km stretch from Malmesbury. It is only made better by the strong sense of smugness when barrelling along the N1 between the traffic thinking, "Hah! You don't know where I've been today, and you probably will never get there."
Some pics:
1. Leipoldt's grave.
2. Moedverloor turn off.
3. Looking west towards Pakhuis.
4. Descending to Kransgat Rivier
5. Some of the caves and overhangs.
The Moedverloorpad is an awesome ride. :thumleft: It has everything from rocks to loose stuff, slow stuff and high-speed stretches. It also has a lot of gates! I counted 11 that I had to open and close, and a great many other gates were already opened. The first section is very isolated and desolate on Karoo lands above the Doring. After some distance one comes to the Kransgat river valley with scattered settlements along its course. Many of these are riethuisies belonging to subsistence farmers.
As an archaeologist I was struck by the richness of the archaeological remains in the area. Everywhere there are scatters of artefacts and in the valley are a great many rock-shelters with paintings and occupational debris. I am definitely going to have to return to this place for a better look.
After this the road rises to the high ground east of the Koebee river and gradually becomes wider as it crosses the commercial farming areas. Here I encounted another curiosity. Now, instead of gates they have built cattlegrids – but these are set at an angle to the road and some way off to the side! No chance of flying over these at speed! At one of them I had to take to the veld for a few meters rather than try the sharp exit turn in the loose stuff!
I stopped at the glaciated pavement at Oorlogskloof. This is a flat rock surface which is scarred by the passage of ice over it. I reflected on the rarer and very much more impressive occurrence below the east side of Pakhuis Pass. The latter was caused by icebergs floating in a shallow sea dragging their bottoms in the mud and sands on the sea-bed. I imagine a similar process might be happening in parts of the Alaskan seas today.
Nieuwoudtville. I stopped here for fuel at the famous garage-cum-motorcycle museum. I had planned on filling up here but it was Sunday and I would have had to wait some hours for them to open up and serve me, so I changed my plans and headed down to Vanrhynsdorp. I figured I'd had an amazing ride already that day, and that I should let it rest at that. Here I met a oke who lives in Calvinia, owns an 1150GS and didn’t know that there is a gravel road along the east bank of the Olifants!
Hell, I enjoyed the ride on that road from just past Klawer up the Olifants, over the dry Doring, past Bulshoek Barrage and on to Clanwilliam. The scenery is gorgeous, the road deserted and just bad enough to keep you on your toes. You pick up the road again past the Outriders' campsite and from here it follows the river up to Citrusdal.
A quick coffee in Piketberg and a dash in the gathering dark for the smog and southeaster in Cape Town. I hate the last 60km stretch from Malmesbury. It is only made better by the strong sense of smugness when barrelling along the N1 between the traffic thinking, "Hah! You don't know where I've been today, and you probably will never get there."
Some pics:
1. Leipoldt's grave.
2. Moedverloor turn off.
3. Looking west towards Pakhuis.
4. Descending to Kransgat Rivier
5. Some of the caves and overhangs.
