- Joined
- May 15, 2009
- Messages
- 281
- Reaction score
- 49
- Bike
- Aprilia 650 Pegaso
so, i finally got round to doing a little trip. I had to go to JHB for a little work, with an uncertain amount of time to spend there. So I took the bike up. I left at a good christian hour of 8:30 and planned to do it over 2 days. Day 1 was pretty much get to Kimberley, being based in CPT I could do all the exploring of western cape anytime. Day 2 I started to wander off the national roads and going down some arb little roads. I found Camelot, but not the head of the round table. The step pyramid of SAQQARA made a showing too. At one point I stopped to take a photo and in getting going again I thought I'd be clever. Gave it gas and got whipped off the bike. Great. luckily it was a quiet road and no-one was around to see :-[ A local did stop and help get the bike up again, which was a bit of a relief. I bet he had a good story to tell his people.
Anyway, at this point I discovered that a bolt had fallen out the headlight, so I stopped at a cash store somewhere. The kind folks helped me out with a bolt that sort of fit, and I managed to make it to JHB before 5 pm, at the dealer where I bought the bike. Thank you lyndhurst motorrad for sorting me out with some new bolts.
right, so following a week of work, I decided to return via eastern edge of lesotho through KZN, EC and WC. Pretty much cruised down the N3 until I got to Harrismith and took one of the smaller roads from there. Had an absolute blast riding through the highlands/midlands whatever they were, somewhere near Underberg if memory serves. Eventually I got to and through Kokstad and started looking for a place to stay. This continued into the dark and ended in Mthatha where I found a B&B. It was in retrospect pretty scary cruising down the N2 at night, with animals and fools on the road. But no worries: my guardian angel has big wings and kept me safe and sound. He did punish me though as I had to dance around in the shower with hot water only. Ne'er did I think I would welcome some cold water!
From Mthatha I went off the N2 again and found an awesome road to ride, the R617. It was basically full of dips and climbs, left and rights for about 100km. Although it wasn't the super technical stuff, it was enough for my emerging skills to handle safely. I never felt as if I was going to die from coming into a corner too hot. Highly recommended for us beginners. Eventually ended up in Queenstown and started battling what turned out to be an incessant wind. Thank you to whoever suggested the tip of hanging the knee out on the side the wind blows from to pull the bike upright again :thumleft: . That worked a treat! I don't quite recall the town I stopped at to refuel, but I had a good laugh at the guy on the Harley that wouldn't start. He was being pushed around the garage trying to get it going. Of course, it magically ceased being funny when I started helping ??? Anyway, he eventually got going and the attendant and myself got hot and tired. By this stage I'd had enough of the heat (37) and the wind (even by cpt standards, it was quite a bit) so i made a bee-line for the coast, headed towards Grahamstown. Pretty much just made my way through to George for the night. The garden route really is some lovely riding.
So for the last day (Monday) I decided to go south of the N2 through Bredasdorp. I picked a well graded dirt road (possibly not such good idea on battlewings and no skills) and proceeded to slowly make my way to Bredasdorp. And then there was a pontoon! That was very cool! A german couple were their and they had made their way from Durban heading towards Cape town. Turns out he was an enthusiastic biker too, owning an 1100 Gs with only 55000km on it. Don't ask me why I remember that little of all things. Once through the pontoon the weather started turning progressively worse. To compound matters there were some road works in progress, and where the clay had been churned up, it had turned into good gloopy mud. You know the kind that isn't really solid or liquid, but more a plasma-like state in between? Needless to say the third and fourth wheels came out quite a bit. Having got through that back onto the tarmac it started raining in earnest. Decided to take the coast road back to CPT and pretty much got wetter and wetter. By the time I got home the magic was wearing off fast, but as with all things: when your loved ones laugh at you you reckon that maybe, just maybe, it was worth it.
Pics will come as soon as I figure out how to link this to my face book page
Anyway, at this point I discovered that a bolt had fallen out the headlight, so I stopped at a cash store somewhere. The kind folks helped me out with a bolt that sort of fit, and I managed to make it to JHB before 5 pm, at the dealer where I bought the bike. Thank you lyndhurst motorrad for sorting me out with some new bolts.
right, so following a week of work, I decided to return via eastern edge of lesotho through KZN, EC and WC. Pretty much cruised down the N3 until I got to Harrismith and took one of the smaller roads from there. Had an absolute blast riding through the highlands/midlands whatever they were, somewhere near Underberg if memory serves. Eventually I got to and through Kokstad and started looking for a place to stay. This continued into the dark and ended in Mthatha where I found a B&B. It was in retrospect pretty scary cruising down the N2 at night, with animals and fools on the road. But no worries: my guardian angel has big wings and kept me safe and sound. He did punish me though as I had to dance around in the shower with hot water only. Ne'er did I think I would welcome some cold water!
From Mthatha I went off the N2 again and found an awesome road to ride, the R617. It was basically full of dips and climbs, left and rights for about 100km. Although it wasn't the super technical stuff, it was enough for my emerging skills to handle safely. I never felt as if I was going to die from coming into a corner too hot. Highly recommended for us beginners. Eventually ended up in Queenstown and started battling what turned out to be an incessant wind. Thank you to whoever suggested the tip of hanging the knee out on the side the wind blows from to pull the bike upright again :thumleft: . That worked a treat! I don't quite recall the town I stopped at to refuel, but I had a good laugh at the guy on the Harley that wouldn't start. He was being pushed around the garage trying to get it going. Of course, it magically ceased being funny when I started helping ??? Anyway, he eventually got going and the attendant and myself got hot and tired. By this stage I'd had enough of the heat (37) and the wind (even by cpt standards, it was quite a bit) so i made a bee-line for the coast, headed towards Grahamstown. Pretty much just made my way through to George for the night. The garden route really is some lovely riding.
So for the last day (Monday) I decided to go south of the N2 through Bredasdorp. I picked a well graded dirt road (possibly not such good idea on battlewings and no skills) and proceeded to slowly make my way to Bredasdorp. And then there was a pontoon! That was very cool! A german couple were their and they had made their way from Durban heading towards Cape town. Turns out he was an enthusiastic biker too, owning an 1100 Gs with only 55000km on it. Don't ask me why I remember that little of all things. Once through the pontoon the weather started turning progressively worse. To compound matters there were some road works in progress, and where the clay had been churned up, it had turned into good gloopy mud. You know the kind that isn't really solid or liquid, but more a plasma-like state in between? Needless to say the third and fourth wheels came out quite a bit. Having got through that back onto the tarmac it started raining in earnest. Decided to take the coast road back to CPT and pretty much got wetter and wetter. By the time I got home the magic was wearing off fast, but as with all things: when your loved ones laugh at you you reckon that maybe, just maybe, it was worth it.
Pics will come as soon as I figure out how to link this to my face book page
