Golden therapy

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zagser

Race Dog
Joined
Oct 11, 2008
Messages
820
Reaction score
1
Location
Strand
Bike
Honda XR600
I was left in Bloem due to work commitments while the wife and son spend some time with her family at the coast.
On the spur of the moment I decided to do an overnighter in Golden Gate, leaving on the 26th.

I believe it is not a true adventure if you spend the whole time in the sanctity of your comfort zone, and this was a trip where I would spend a some time ‘out there’.  ;D

I started off Saturday morning, planning on taking gravel up to Marquard, and from there on go to Ficksburg, taking as much gravel as I could find.
The GPS went down with the family, so I was left with my map, and general sense of direction, or lack thereof. I soon discovered that my map had far fewer turn-offs than what I encountered en-route.
Making a few guesses along the way saw me end up in Thaba Nchu, in stead of Marquard! A detour of about 70km...

The saying however goes that one is not lost if you still have petrol!

At Ficksburg I encountered my first real out-of-comfort-zone moment when it started to rain hard, accompanied by light hail, and a headlight that would not light up!
I had one of two choices; either head back home, or continue in the driving rain and try and get to GG before night-fall. I decided the latter, and rode in the driving rain past Fouriesburg and Clarens, just to get to GG and be told that the computer says that there are no more camping left!  :p
After some sweet talking to the personnel I managed to get a camping spot via the manual booking book.  :deal:
(This is a real book with genuine permits, in case you were wondering)
Still raining, I took cover at one of the sculleries, and waited out the rain.

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This is what supper looked like.

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An hour later the rain stopped, and I managed to put up my tent and get a good nights rest.

The following morning I was up bright and early, and decided to take one of my all-time favorite routes. This would be the third time this year that I would do it, although this time I decided to skip the Lesotho leg.

Taking the road out of GG I was treated with this:

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I filled up in Phuthaditjhaba and left for Monantsha border post in order to do the ‘tafelkop’ route from south to north.
Again, the scenery was breathtaking.
Add to that the fact that it was raining the previous day and you have a beautifull setting, with some nice mudd patches just to keep you on your toes.
Riding in that area, alone, with no cell reception and a bike weighing in excess of 200kgs was another slight out-of-comfort-zone scenario, but the rewards by FAR outweighed the risk!
At this stage the clouds was coming in fast, but the rain stayed away.

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Ahh, what could be better than great scenery, great weather, a dirty bike and some fresh coffee with breakfast!

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Its times like this that I believe the saying that you will not find any bikes outside a psychologist’s office…  :thumleft:


Some more photos of the route:

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Some shots of the GG - Kestell road:

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From there I went via Bethlehem, Lindley and Steynsrus towards Kroonstad to visit a friend, TK-Ten.

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Refreshment stop.


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Another Free State dirt road en-route to Wonderkop.

Spent some time on Kleynhansrust, and left for Hennenman via gravel.
It was evident that that area received a lot of rain recently.

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From there on things started to go pear shaped, as daylight was running out, and I have not been able to locate the offending gremlin, eating the power to my headlight.  :dousing:

I managed to reach Winburg where I stripped the front in order to see if I can find anything, and eventually gave up trying, calling in ‘KTM assist’ to pick me up for the last 100 odd kms to Bloem.

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This is the type of stuff adventure riding is made of, in my honest opinion!
 
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