Beagle Boy
Race Dog
Well, my oldest daughter, Maxine, is 16 soon and we bought her a 2nd Hand NXR125 about 3 months ago. Her experience of riding the NXR has been only around the block at home and practicing her stops & starts (clutch control) in the yard, we have a nice path around the pool as testament to that. 
So when I started mentioning that I’d love to get Max out on the gravel for a slightly longer ride, my brother-in-law was all too keen as well. He wanted to take his CRF230 for a slightly longer ride than usual and that’s how our trip came about. We had a slight advantage as Nic comes from Kirkwood and he suggested the route.
Anyway, on Friday night we trailored the bikes to Umlambo and prepped them for our journey the next day. Go check out Umlambo at https://www.umlambo.co.za .
This is the route we did..
All packed and ready to ride, the Bakkie and car would be meeting us at Darlinton later in the day :thumleft:
The Zuurberg pass is always a scenic one & Max is being very careful and getting along well. There are a few scary, tense moments that I have as I find myself getting nervous on her behalf :eek7:
About 30km’s in and she seems to be enjoying herself
The only bit of mud we saw, we stopped just after it and Max went through it a couple of times ….. just for fun
The road conditions were splendid!!
Another Bum break ….. not used to doing long distance this became her only discomfort on the whole trip
The scenery is really stunning in this area
She’s doing well and Nic and I have swopped places, I’m now taking the lead, in the hope that Max will follow my line …. at least I won’t be so nervous!! :
This old farm stead, turned school, turned dilapidated building with graffiti all over it, one wonders what secrets of life it holds.
Nic & Max on the stairs!!
The Bikes are going well …..
We stopped over at Anne’s Villa and took a tour of the Blacksmiths workshop and trading post; thank goodness our wheels aren’t as rigid as this?
The shop had a whole lot of old tins and other goodies ….. they do sell beer and fruit juice, but since we were so well stocked, note the top box on the Suzuki & Nic’s backpack, we didn’t need anything from the shop ..
Remember back in the day, the “old” party line was exactly that!! everybody seemed to listen to everyone’s conversations …. there were no secrets
Yeah and something else I found interesting was that they had different Mathematics for Girls … here’s the girls tests ….. I must be a girl as I could'nt get any of these correct …
The boys test, these days with Computers and calculators, etc, one wonders just how advanced we really are!!
The R400 a looonnnng and boring ride ……
More ….. Max actually admitted to getting bored on this road … she pushed her speed up to 80km/hr, as I was following her, my heart stopped every time she drifted into the loose gravel ….. :eek7:
Even more straight road ….. damn it seemed as though it would never end …. :
Cutting through the Addo National Park we had to cross this low level bridge downstream of the dam wall, nice to see water flowing, I believe Darlington receives water from the Orange River.
Where …. WHERE ??? We fortunately didn’t encounter any Hippo ..
When we arrived the Ladies had already pitched 1 tent so we had the menial task of pitching the second tent. The speedo’s indicated between 147 & 150km’s for the day. Max was complaining that her bikes seat was hard, but she looked forward to the next day’s riding ;D
The Dam wall in the distance …… this is quite a nice site, although ablutions were lacking … there were none, other than long drops about 1km from where we had settled!!
The next morning we were up early and decided to move out earlier than originally planned … I think we were all longing for decent ablution facilities
This is where Max decided that she had had enough for the day, fortunately the Bakkie was following us and we were able to load the bike onto it. Well done!!! in total for the weekend Max did approximately 180 KM’s not bad for someone who had only ridden around the block at home once or twice.
The rest is history Nic & I continued to enjoy the scenery of the trip back to Umlambo …
The 2 of us ….
We arrived home safely after what can only be described as an awesome ride, we’ll gladly do it again, but will find better accommodation which there is plenty of. ;D
HHHhhhhmmmmm Baviaans maybe …. I see a trip in the making already!!atch:
So when I started mentioning that I’d love to get Max out on the gravel for a slightly longer ride, my brother-in-law was all too keen as well. He wanted to take his CRF230 for a slightly longer ride than usual and that’s how our trip came about. We had a slight advantage as Nic comes from Kirkwood and he suggested the route.
Anyway, on Friday night we trailored the bikes to Umlambo and prepped them for our journey the next day. Go check out Umlambo at https://www.umlambo.co.za .
This is the route we did..
All packed and ready to ride, the Bakkie and car would be meeting us at Darlinton later in the day :thumleft:
The Zuurberg pass is always a scenic one & Max is being very careful and getting along well. There are a few scary, tense moments that I have as I find myself getting nervous on her behalf :eek7:
About 30km’s in and she seems to be enjoying herself
The only bit of mud we saw, we stopped just after it and Max went through it a couple of times ….. just for fun
The road conditions were splendid!!
Another Bum break ….. not used to doing long distance this became her only discomfort on the whole trip
The scenery is really stunning in this area
She’s doing well and Nic and I have swopped places, I’m now taking the lead, in the hope that Max will follow my line …. at least I won’t be so nervous!! :
This old farm stead, turned school, turned dilapidated building with graffiti all over it, one wonders what secrets of life it holds.
Nic & Max on the stairs!!
The Bikes are going well …..
We stopped over at Anne’s Villa and took a tour of the Blacksmiths workshop and trading post; thank goodness our wheels aren’t as rigid as this?
The shop had a whole lot of old tins and other goodies ….. they do sell beer and fruit juice, but since we were so well stocked, note the top box on the Suzuki & Nic’s backpack, we didn’t need anything from the shop ..
Remember back in the day, the “old” party line was exactly that!! everybody seemed to listen to everyone’s conversations …. there were no secrets
Yeah and something else I found interesting was that they had different Mathematics for Girls … here’s the girls tests ….. I must be a girl as I could'nt get any of these correct …
The boys test, these days with Computers and calculators, etc, one wonders just how advanced we really are!!
The R400 a looonnnng and boring ride ……
More ….. Max actually admitted to getting bored on this road … she pushed her speed up to 80km/hr, as I was following her, my heart stopped every time she drifted into the loose gravel ….. :eek7:
Even more straight road ….. damn it seemed as though it would never end …. :
Cutting through the Addo National Park we had to cross this low level bridge downstream of the dam wall, nice to see water flowing, I believe Darlington receives water from the Orange River.
Where …. WHERE ??? We fortunately didn’t encounter any Hippo ..
When we arrived the Ladies had already pitched 1 tent so we had the menial task of pitching the second tent. The speedo’s indicated between 147 & 150km’s for the day. Max was complaining that her bikes seat was hard, but she looked forward to the next day’s riding ;D
The Dam wall in the distance …… this is quite a nice site, although ablutions were lacking … there were none, other than long drops about 1km from where we had settled!!
The next morning we were up early and decided to move out earlier than originally planned … I think we were all longing for decent ablution facilities
This is where Max decided that she had had enough for the day, fortunately the Bakkie was following us and we were able to load the bike onto it. Well done!!! in total for the weekend Max did approximately 180 KM’s not bad for someone who had only ridden around the block at home once or twice.
The rest is history Nic & I continued to enjoy the scenery of the trip back to Umlambo …
The 2 of us ….
We arrived home safely after what can only be described as an awesome ride, we’ll gladly do it again, but will find better accommodation which there is plenty of. ;D
HHHhhhhmmmmm Baviaans maybe …. I see a trip in the making already!!
atch:
