A little bike ride and lotsa Coffee ......

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Beagle Boy

Race Dog
Joined
Nov 19, 2007
Messages
1,490
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3
Location
Port Elizabeth
Bike
BMW (all models)
My Brother-in-law (Nic) and I decided, to go on a little trippie. We ended up going on a round trip starting from Rocklands & ending back at Rocklands, here’s the route we agreed on.  :biggrin:
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We met at the Excel Garage at Rocklands filled up and we left at a 6am sharp. It was a little wet but more a heavy mist than any rain although it was an overcast day.

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After a quick stop at the Sandriver dam we checked that all our tie downs were still intact and no adjustment was needed.  :thumleft:

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Another stop at the Grootrevierpoort  intersection for a quick smoke. Check the air-conditioning in Nic’s pants ... he must have been getting cold although he never really complained. Note the CRF has now got it’s light kit and number plate!! 

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If you look hard enough one can make out the Telkom tower through the thick mist about 200 meters away...

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Old houses always intrigue me, I always wonder what stories they could tell of the families that lived in them......

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Going down to the valley the road was very interesting, very rocky and quite loose  :eek7:

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Scenery of the valley down below, must have been about a 200 meter drop to the valley floor thank goodness heights don’t really bother me much

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The weather was still overcast, but by now we had experienced a light drizzle and things were a little wet. Wet enough to make our ride almost dust free ....
;D
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We were getting a little thirsty so at about 10:00am we stopped for some coffee, this is where Nic discovered just how much wifey loved him, she had packed enough energy bars to feed and army .......  >:D

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After coffee we moved on through Steytlerville, passing up the opportunity to re-fuel as we had 10L of petrol on the CRF which only has an 8L tank. The Suzuki has a 12L tank and I was absolutely sure I’d make it to Willowmore, which it did...  :mwink:

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Along the way we stopped next to a spot on the Grootrevier which was a really sad sight, it was absolutely dry.

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As a matter of interest the “Boss chick” and I passed through here on the 25th Oct 2008 almost 2 years ago to the day and this is what the same river looked like ......

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Anyway from here we pushed on to Willowmore where we refuelled and moved on into Baviaans Kloof .

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The Rock formations are just stunning in this area, the Suzuki looks great against the majestic backdrop of those rocks ....

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That Oxford luggage system really put’s wings on the CRF ... But they certainly worked well......

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After 316km’s for the day we decided to set up Camp here at Uitspan, Nico and Christine are really great hosts and I noticed that they had been visited by some other Wilddogs  8)

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The camp site. We had our own Lapa and ablution block, where we braaied....

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Nothing like a modified BMW top box to carry wood in.....

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The Lapa kept the scooters dry while our tents kept us dry ... it started raining on Saturday evening about 10pm ... just a lovely soaking rain and continued on & off all through the night what a blessing!! We left the site at about 7am, we were in for a fun day in the mud ...... :p

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Even with the light rain the water levels were not really as high as we’ve seen previously, but they still made for a fun time...

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At about 10:50am we decided it was time for another cuppa so we found a nice spot where we could pull off and we enjoyed another cup of coffee, this would be our last for the trip.

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We pushed on through Smits Kraal...

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The bikes were not skipping a beat......

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The Famous Telkom tower, which we could now see without the mist...

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Scenic Elandsriver Road down in the valley below ... It started raining as we got closer to PE and Elands river road became fairly slippery which made for interesting riding....

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Back at Rockland’s the bikes had done their job both Nic & I were rejuvenated and ready for the work week to follow....Oh and yes I guess I need to replace that back tyre now..

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When I got home this is what the GPS readings were, sorry about the crappy quality of the picture, but it makes the point, we did almost 12hrs of saddle time did’nt go over 100km/hr and the Suzuki did the 573km on only 19.7L of fuel, the Honda was slightly heavier on fuel, but not much.

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Let me also add that we had absolutely no hassle with the National Parks authorities, the process of obtaining our permits (R30-00 Each) was seamless and the people manning the booms were friendly and courteous. We had a great weekend & even better ride.
 
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