Dad & Daughter jaunt to Sutherland

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Beagle Boy

Race Dog
Joined
Nov 19, 2007
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Location
Port Elizabeth
Bike
BMW (all models)
My youngest and I decided to go on a Dad and daughter ride, as we were both on leave there was no limit to what, when and where. I wanted to go to the southernmost point of Africa and she is very interested in stargazing , we decided that these were the only 2 definite points of call. How we got there and how much time we took was not an issue. OH yes! ..... other influencing factors were she had never travelled gravel with me before or travelled further than 70km’s and back as a pillion.
Needless to say we planned a 4 night trip:
Day 1 - being the longest trip of about 640km, PE to L’ Agulhas, where we would meet up with our good friend and his son. They ride a Busa so you won’t see them at any off-road ride, after all it’s not build for gravel.  ::)
Day 2 – L’ Agulhas to their place in Stellenbosch about 250km, the scenic route.
Day 3 – Stellenbosch to Sutherland (about 300km)
Day 4 – Sutherland to De Rust (about 300km)
Day 5 – De Rust to PE (about 250km)
The route:
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Our Trip began on Saturday the 27th at 6:30 in slightly windy weather, by the time we had reached George the wind had reached almost gale force and our trip soon became unpleasant  and by the time we had reached Bredasdorp, we were “GATVOL” as they say, but we decided that we’d push on.  :-\
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When we arrived at Cape Agulhas Gavin & Mitch were there waiting for us they too had withstood the wind from Stellenbosch, there was a quick vote and we agreed to find self catering accommodation. Once this was done, Angelo’s restaurant prepared a fantastic meal for us. Red wine being our beverage of choice  :drunken_smilie: and the kids ‘slukking’ whatever they wanted.
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Note that by the time we had finished dinner, the wind had died down.
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The next morning we visited the lighthouse. This is one really OLD building which serves it purpose along this treacherous coast.
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The children, waiting for the “Toppies” to come down the very steep stairs.
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To give you an idea of the size of the lens, Gavin’s not a very short chap and the lens almost dwarfs him
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My chicken and I at the top of the lighthouse
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HHHHhhhmmmm .... was this Escoms doing? Load shedding?  :pot:
After our visit to the lighthouse we started making our way to Stellenbosch.  Although we had this lekka map and GPS, it seems there is only one tar road into Elim, which we did not pick up on. So we consulted with a local on the route to Gaansbaai  and his comment was “Nay Baas, dis net so 10km gravel en dan word dit teer, en die gravel pad is goed” so instead of going back to Bredasdorp  we pushed on to Gansbaai ......  the result .....
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....... an off-road Busa  :ricky:
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...... 20km later ....... never trust a local!!  :eek: (Give him some credit in that the gravel road was good)  :D
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By the time we had reached tar the kids were screaming for a “bum break” naturally we pushed on for a short while and then stopped, I think Gavin was trying to blow the dust off the Busa, before stopping.
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We turned right at Grabouw to take the scenic route to Stellenbosch and I was suitably impressed, man you chaps in the Western Cape have some awesome tar roads for playing on.  :biggrin:
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The 2 of us thoroughly, enjoying the ride and scenery
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When we arrived in Stellenbosch, Gav’s missus had put a memorable meal together, naturally steak needs to be washed down with ..... you guessed it ..... Red wine!!  :drunken_smilie:
The next day Stacey & I parted ways with our good friends and moved on to Sutherland. We had barely left Stellenbosch when the GS’s warning and ABS lights started flashing red alternately.  :BangHead: A quick test of the brakes proving them functional put me at ease. Needless to say I had decided to take the bike to BMW in Paarl once I had done an inspection and reset the system by switching off and re-starting. When it was safe, I stopped and checked the front sensor and saw a bug was stuck on the front ABS sensor, between the sensor and spindle. Clearing the bug out and cleaning the sensor seemed to have worked, as we continued on our way without a problem.  (I’ll be posting some questions in the Technical section of WD’s site)
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When we reached this sign board, chicken suggested she would like a beverage in Matjiesfontein, so I turned right instead of left at the junction.
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This is certainly a little hamlet not to be missed we walked around the museums and thoroughly enjoyed the station especially watching a train passing through while we were there.  We spent about 2 hours and still did not get to see all they had to offer.  Moving on ....
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.... upon our arrival at Sutherland we setup camp and went off in search of dinner for the evening ..
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...... at these prices I recon this Butchery owner should be a multi-millionaire by now ...  :eek7:
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.... at least the quality was great, we soon sat down to Chops, Wors and a jar of KOO Beetroot, what a lekka chow!!
We did the star gazing thing with Jurg who also runs the campsite and owns half of the town by the sound of it, but an experience we’ll not forget!! He has a number of telescopes he programmes to focus on various stars & constellations so at the press of a button one can gaze at anything he has programmed. Eish ........ technology ....... she never ceases to amaze me!!
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The next day we moved on to Laingsburg. After explaining their famous floods of 1981 to Chicken we saw this sign board and promptly popped in. There was this Tannie in the Museum who really knew her stuff and made our visit so much more informative. It’s really quite sad that over 100 lives were lost in these floods.
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We moved on to Oudtshoorn over the Swartberg Pass on which we encountered a few other bikes and cars .... it felt like a PE highway in peak traffic !!! As we approached the “Die Hell” intersection 3 bikes came out of the kloof none of them displayed the WD Paw, but quite a friendly bunch, as we rode down the mountain in a group. Unfortunately no one stopped so the opportunity for a chat was lost. 
We got to Oudtshoorn at about 15h00 and pulled in to a fuel station to re-inflate our tyres. Chicken quietly asked how far it was to De Rust and then to Port Elizabeth, after hearing my answer to both questions she commented on rather going home than sleeping in De Rust.
Although disappointed at the idea and realising it was her holiday jaunt as well, we headed on home after a great ride. at the end of the trip we had covered 2029KM ....

WELL DONE STACEY!!  :thumleft:
 
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