Westcoast - gravel and flowers

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DD650

Race Dog
Joined
Oct 23, 2009
Messages
966
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Location
Centurion
Bike
BMW F800GS
Pretoria to Klerksdorp
Kosi Bay, Cape Agulhas, Pontdrift…. Man-on-the-moon and I only still needed to go and visit Alexander Bay for our club's Extreme point award (visiting the 4 furthest corners of SA). So we started thinking… let’s go during the flower time as we always wanted to go and see the flowers. So the research started and everybody told us to plan and book upfront as it is their peak season and we will battle to find accommodation and food.

Eventually the trip and everything around it was planned – our route would take us to Alexander Bay and from there down the Westcoast through the Cedarberg to the flower capital of Nieuwoudtville and back through the Karoo.

The day finally arrived and we set off on our 4500km journey. We left Friday around 15h30 and headed off to the family in Klerksdorp from where we would seriously start our journey. We used this first 230km stretch to test all the new gadgets and goodies – Leatt brace to get used to as well as new Noiseclipper earplugs. It took some time to get used to the braces but hey, rather be uncomfortable and safe. The earplugs worked great! It doesn’t cut out all the wind noise, but it is a vast improvement. Man-on-the-moon also made me a wind deflector for my screen and this made a huge difference in my comfort levels! I quickly got into the mood and thoroughly enjoyed the first 230km. The only incident was when we wiped out a whole colony of muggies.  :S

We arrived in Klerksdorp as the sun dipped below the horizon and we rode the last 5km in dusk. The family welcomed us with a great meal, including cake and coffee as it was my sister-in-law's birthday. We got up early the next morning and sat down to a farewell breakfast that would make any Wimpy lower its head in shame! This however also meant that we left 1½ hours after our scheduled time, but what the heck – we had a great time with the family and we are on holiday after all!  :bounce:

Klerksdorp to Augrabies
Our trip the next day was uneventful but still enjoyable with just you, the open road and the bike eating up the kilometres. We stopped in Kathu so I could show Man-on-the-moon the trucks we use at our mine in Sishen just outside Kathu. They have one of these trucks at the garage outside Kathu. We filled up here but decided to have a picnic next to the road – the first time I stopped at one of these roadside picnic places since I was a child! It was great and everyone passing us hooted and waved – obviously jealous of our trip and padkos consisting of snacks and leftover birthday cake!  :lol:

Stop next to the road
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On the road to Upington
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We just had to make a stop at the Pienk Padstal outside Upington. Everything is pink and looked very inviting for a drink, but we wanted to get to Augrabies before dark and opted to only buy some sweets and snacks.

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They had some quite interesting old bikes in front of the shop.
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We arrived at Augrabies national park at around 16h30 and quickly settled into our bungalow so we can go and watch the sunset over the falls. Only problem was that the sun doesn’t set over the falls.  :(  It was still great seeing the falls, even though it was not very full. We did get to see the sunrise the next morning and Man-on-the-moon also got the opportunity to scare a baboon into barking!  :evil:  An eland came to visit us just outside our bungalow but ran off before we could catch him on camera!

Augrabies falls
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Dassies on the rocks
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Sunrise over the falls
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Next…… Augrabies to Port Nolloth.
 
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