Extreme
Pack Dog
This trip materialised in 2 days, I wanted to leave for Mozambique, but realised my pasport expired. Then Stepahnus came in the shop and said the trip he was really looking forward to- organised by Touratech - got cancelled, I phoned Vince and 2 days later that is Wednesday the 18th of November 9:00 we left with a sort of idea to go up north east and see what happens.
Ready to Rock and Roll
We left Pretoria via Cullinan aiming for Marble Hall with as little tar as possible. From Marble Hall we aimed for Tzaneen as the crow fly or is that as the Katoom rides. We had no idea where we are going to sleep, but we agreed on camping.
Lunch time we went through Chuniespoort and almost ended up without fuel and rolled into the suburbs of Polokwane al 3 on reserve. We filled up and turned back to follow some dirt road alongside the Strydpoortberge going through villages. Eventually we ended on tar again just before Tzaneen and started looking for something to wet the throat and fill the stomach. We ended at this beautifule hotel looking into the valley where we would eventually camp that night
Lunch at 3 o'clock with a view.
We found a nice camping spot within some Eclipses forests, down a steep gravel road until you end up at the camping spot with a trout and bass dam. My partners rented fly rods and had a ball off a time netting and releasing almost 10 trout each. The rest of the night was enjoyed......
We left early and had breakfast in Tzaneen's shopping centre after stocking on provisions we left towards Duiwelskloof riding in overcast weather with a slight drissle. Past Duiwelskloof we left the main road and turned towards Kiyani. We eventually ended in a Village with no road going out of it only the one coming in, we decided to follow the compass north. This part was done on cattle tracks alongside the river. We ended up alongside the Hans Merensky Nature Reserve and eventually got on tar on the r529. The veld was mainly "Sekelbos" and the damage of that to our tires we would find out luckly only later.
On the way to Kiyane my front tire went flat, we pumped and around 4 times before getting into Kiyane. After trying to use tyre fix, we decided to make use of the local tyre shop and have a new tube put in, the change cost me a massive R10. On our way again we where running a bit late, but on recommendation of the Tyre man we aimed for Levubu just past Thoyandou. We wher aiming for a camping space on the mountain, but luckily stopped before we turned of into the mountain at a liquerstore to refill our stock and decided to have a thirst quencer in the pub next door. There we met the local police Captain and the local security company man discussing "safety related issues". They recommended and later confinced us that the Levubu caravan park has the best T-bone in town and a very nice camping site - they where right
Levubu caravan park
As we entered the camping site Vince's front tyre started with its problems, we "he" took it of and fixed the tube. We decided to let the patch cure till morning and we will refit it. We had a great dinner and earlier night than the previous one - just a bit earlier
Vince and his tube
The next morning we fitted the tube, but we could not get it to work, eventually went into town, took tube out again and had patched again (we didnt have enough tubes with us big lesson learned.
We left Levubu around 10:00 we took a turn just past Levubu it goes north over the mountains. You go through a boom gate of the Forestry department, but it is a public road, your just not allowed to go off the road. Once over the Soutpansberge we went followed the Ivory route and ended at the Mpapuli Cydcad reserve, thinking we could go through it, although a very nice route to get their but we had to turn around (nice place to sleep over). After that we again went through villages and saw this beautiful gravel pass crossing a mountain and decided thats the way to go. The way to the pass is depicted below, it was really bundu bashing, one local asked us why we dont use the road :shock: . It turned out if we followed the road just a little bit further we would have found the entrance to the pass, but a great experience we had doing it our way.
After the pass we headed for Tsipise, Vince had to leave us to attend some Family Wedding thing. Me and Stephanus went up to Tsipise. Lovely boring campsite :?
The next morning we headed west over the N1, heading for Vivo, around the Blouberge,ending in Marken we had the biggest pub lunch ever for R30 at the local Guest house.
We aimed to sleep at Lapalala game reserve, but apparently you need a cage to get in and bookings made long before. They didn't say this but by the way the guard looked at the bikes and immediatly told us they are fully booked said a lot. We were quite tired by now having done almost 500k's standing in the thick sand, Stephanus made a compellling argument for a soft bed, we drive through to Nylstroom and booked in at a a resort.
On arrival I had picked up a nail in my rear tire and we immediatly decided, that we are close enough from Pretoria, I organised to be picked up the next morning
We had a nice early night, Stephanus head home early Sunday and I got trailered home.
A very enjoyable trip by all.
Ready to Rock and RollWe left Pretoria via Cullinan aiming for Marble Hall with as little tar as possible. From Marble Hall we aimed for Tzaneen as the crow fly or is that as the Katoom rides. We had no idea where we are going to sleep, but we agreed on camping.
Lunch time we went through Chuniespoort and almost ended up without fuel and rolled into the suburbs of Polokwane al 3 on reserve. We filled up and turned back to follow some dirt road alongside the Strydpoortberge going through villages. Eventually we ended on tar again just before Tzaneen and started looking for something to wet the throat and fill the stomach. We ended at this beautifule hotel looking into the valley where we would eventually camp that night
Lunch at 3 o'clock with a view.We found a nice camping spot within some Eclipses forests, down a steep gravel road until you end up at the camping spot with a trout and bass dam. My partners rented fly rods and had a ball off a time netting and releasing almost 10 trout each. The rest of the night was enjoyed......
We left early and had breakfast in Tzaneen's shopping centre after stocking on provisions we left towards Duiwelskloof riding in overcast weather with a slight drissle. Past Duiwelskloof we left the main road and turned towards Kiyani. We eventually ended in a Village with no road going out of it only the one coming in, we decided to follow the compass north. This part was done on cattle tracks alongside the river. We ended up alongside the Hans Merensky Nature Reserve and eventually got on tar on the r529. The veld was mainly "Sekelbos" and the damage of that to our tires we would find out luckly only later.
On the way to Kiyane my front tire went flat, we pumped and around 4 times before getting into Kiyane. After trying to use tyre fix, we decided to make use of the local tyre shop and have a new tube put in, the change cost me a massive R10. On our way again we where running a bit late, but on recommendation of the Tyre man we aimed for Levubu just past Thoyandou. We wher aiming for a camping space on the mountain, but luckily stopped before we turned of into the mountain at a liquerstore to refill our stock and decided to have a thirst quencer in the pub next door. There we met the local police Captain and the local security company man discussing "safety related issues". They recommended and later confinced us that the Levubu caravan park has the best T-bone in town and a very nice camping site - they where right
Levubu caravan park
As we entered the camping site Vince's front tyre started with its problems, we "he" took it of and fixed the tube. We decided to let the patch cure till morning and we will refit it. We had a great dinner and earlier night than the previous one - just a bit earlier
Vince and his tubeThe next morning we fitted the tube, but we could not get it to work, eventually went into town, took tube out again and had patched again (we didnt have enough tubes with us big lesson learned.
We left Levubu around 10:00 we took a turn just past Levubu it goes north over the mountains. You go through a boom gate of the Forestry department, but it is a public road, your just not allowed to go off the road. Once over the Soutpansberge we went followed the Ivory route and ended at the Mpapuli Cydcad reserve, thinking we could go through it, although a very nice route to get their but we had to turn around (nice place to sleep over). After that we again went through villages and saw this beautiful gravel pass crossing a mountain and decided thats the way to go. The way to the pass is depicted below, it was really bundu bashing, one local asked us why we dont use the road :shock: . It turned out if we followed the road just a little bit further we would have found the entrance to the pass, but a great experience we had doing it our way.
After the pass we headed for Tsipise, Vince had to leave us to attend some Family Wedding thing. Me and Stephanus went up to Tsipise. Lovely boring campsite :?
The next morning we headed west over the N1, heading for Vivo, around the Blouberge,ending in Marken we had the biggest pub lunch ever for R30 at the local Guest house.
We aimed to sleep at Lapalala game reserve, but apparently you need a cage to get in and bookings made long before. They didn't say this but by the way the guard looked at the bikes and immediatly told us they are fully booked said a lot. We were quite tired by now having done almost 500k's standing in the thick sand, Stephanus made a compellling argument for a soft bed, we drive through to Nylstroom and booked in at a a resort.
On arrival I had picked up a nail in my rear tire and we immediatly decided, that we are close enough from Pretoria, I organised to be picked up the next morning
We had a nice early night, Stephanus head home early Sunday and I got trailered home.
A very enjoyable trip by all.
