A true Eastern Cape adventure! (Completed)

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

zagser

Race Dog
Joined
Oct 11, 2008
Messages
820
Reaction score
1
Location
Strand
Bike
Honda XR600
According to Antoine de Saint-Exupery "It is in the compelling zest of high adventure and of victory, and in creative action, that man finds his supreme joys."

Well, this trip would bring us Supreme Joys then. Join the journey and find out why...  8)

Day one saw us leaving Bloemfontein on a Friday morning heading for Zastron as our first stopover. Myself on Katy, and Fanie on the wife's F658.

The route we took, traveling a total of 277km.

EasternCapeOct2010Day1.jpg


Due to work commitments I could not get to cleaning the bikes after the previous weekends' outing, so we started off by cleaning the bikes so that we can at least start the trip on clean steeds.  :deal:

00.jpg


Packed and ready to go.

01.jpg


About 20km later we were loosening the muscles and already getting some dirt on the bikes.  :ricky:

02.jpg


03.jpg


04.jpg


We then joined the railway service road to Sannaspos. By this time the gravel that was used to surface the road was compressed by all the vehicles traveling there, so it was not too much work to keep the bikes going. Previously this would have been like riding sand for kilometres on end.

05.jpg


Some more photos along the way.

06.jpg


07.jpg


We stopped at the now disused station for a quick breather and to check  that the luggage is still in place and not moving around.

11.jpg


09.jpg


Fanie making some adjustments to his 'water protection' system. If we only knew...

08.jpg


Note the distance above sea level - 1350meters.

10.jpg


Then we cross the tracks and head for Dewetsdorp.

12.jpg


13.jpg


14.jpg


Notice the clouds? They would haunt us for the next two days!

Arriving at Dewetsdorp and stopping for some petrol and refreshments.
Notice rule no2. You think they had problems before?  >:D

15.jpg


We were not planning on eating there, but the smells were enticing and we settled for a large helping of genuine 'Slap Chips'!

16.jpg


Standing around I notice two things:

1. Who would have thought that you could name a street like that...  :biggrin:

17.jpg


2. We were informed by our hostess of this amazing 'Gatfees' in Zastron. The advertising posters would have had the SPCA and Extreme Velcro up in arms. Note the event listed on the bottom...  :patch:

18.jpg


Then we saddled up and headed in the general direction of  Zastron.
Just outside of Dewetsdorp we encountered some light rain and decided to suit up now, rather than do it while it was raining hard.

19.jpg


20.jpg


My pooratech GPS and its pooratech raincover. This GPS is hacked to enable it to record trails and I created custom maps of our routes and loaded it onto it in order to be able to follow it, although it is not routable.

21.jpg


Trying to keep the rain from stinging...

22.jpg


The now famous 2008 National Wilddog Bash bridge.

23.jpg


Some more photos.

24.jpg


25.jpg


26.jpg


Nice water crossing to get the feet wet...

27.jpg


And again a sign of what lies ahead...

28.jpg


Stopped in Zastron to stretch the legs and let the hostess know that we are on our way to the guesthouse, which is on a farm about 12km from Zastron.

31.jpg


29.jpg


Fanie still fine-tuning his mounting method with the luggage on the bike...

30.jpg


The view of the guest house from the outside.

32.jpg


And the inside.

33.jpg


This is not 5 star, but at R150 a night it sure was a bargain!

The view of our steeds from the balcony.

34.jpg


We then prepared to leave for this ROCKING Zastron Gatfees, but when we removed the headlight protector from the Beemer we discovered that the bolts were almost lost!

35.jpg


No worries, get the tools and spares and in a jiffy we fix the problem and we were ready to go have some fun. Or so we thought...

36.jpg


37.jpg


What a total disaster!
The stalls closed at sundown (the 4 of them that was erected) and the only tents open for business was the coffee tent, the bar and a hotdog stand!
We sat a while, had some of the most expensive coffee ever and left for what would be a very long day that lay ahead of us.

The entrance fee was R50 per person, and the coffee R20, so the total cost of these two cups amounts to R140! (The were clever, they had the entrance where you needed to pay about a kilometre from the site, so we only realised the extent of the festival when we already passed the gates  ::))

38.jpg


We went to bed and got a good night's rest.


Just a teaser on day 2:  :eek7:  :eek7:

107.jpg

 
Top