Mark Hardy
Grey Hound
Got a phone call from Madal " a group of us going for the weekend to Loriesfountain, are you in? and oh yes all the bikes are KTM's". Not much thought needed to answer that question, asked the boss (wife) and she just sighed and said "yes go and enjoy yourself", told the work boss that a long weekend (saturday +sunday) was needed for my sanity and everything was set.
Saturday morning saw myself (950) Madal (990) Daviesprocket (640) and Rod and his missus (640) meet at Caltex. From there it was through Wellinton and over Bain's Kloof pass..
Madal
Davesprocket
Rob and missus
too Ceres for breakfast at 9.00am where we would meet the other crowd of Frik (950) John (950) and a friend of John's on the only BMW who would join us to the "op die berg" dirt road and then would go his own way, not being able to join us for the whole weekend. Which in hind sight saved his liver from some seriouse damage saturday night. :twisted:
Wimpy, Ceres
When the tar ended it was time to say goodbye to the BMW who go on straight to Ciderberg via gravel and where we turned right on the gravel roads to Kakbakkis pass and on to the final destanation of Loriesfountain.
Dave setting the camera up for the group photo.
...thanks dave for the entertainment...smille boys........nothing happening, ok lets try again, and so on for about 5min and then........
Smile boys....ok got it, it worked.
At this time of year the klien Karoo and Cederberg is very dry and HOT and oh boy was it hot. With no shade and a hot wind blowing it was go go go to get to Calvinia where there was promise of some cold beers waiting at the local hotel. But that was still 270 km away. Frik and John took off and disapered into the distance at the deathly pace of between 180-200km/h while the rest of us stayed at the more sane pace of 120-130km/h.
Frik
Dave
Flying Frik with the pink scarf
John
Madal
Me
Rod
We stopped often to regroup and smoke a cig, drink water and generally talk some sh..t before starting the motors and getting back to the task of finding those beers in Calvinia. :twisted:
We were now getting really hot, I think the temp was well over 40 or there abouts and the the new task at hand was to find some where to swim...swim, in the middel of the karoo. no rivers in sight just dry river beds and dust and heat and and and I need to cool down. Then we see Frik slid to a holt and head towards a concrette resoviur and turn to us with a big smile on his face....water was found and it was goooood
In we went, some still dressed in all the ATGATT and some in thier birthday suits. That was one of the best swims of my life apart from the time in my new pool but thats for another time
After the swim it was on the way again for the last strech to Calvinia and the awaiting beers. It was said to just be one or two beers but the first two went down so quickley that we just had to enjoy another one to get the taste. :roll: :roll:
Now for the Final 90 km to Loriesfontain. Again Frik took off into the distance and I for some reason or other decided to push myself abit. After about 5min I noticed a head light in my mirror which I thought was the flying John on his black 950, it turned out to be madal. Now with somebody chasing things turned into abit of a adrenalin induced race of sorts. Maintaining speeds of 130-140 it was a quick 90km to loriesfountain.
The road to Loriesfontain from Calvinia
When we stopped on the out skirts of town both madal and I were smiling from ear to ear and our heart and hands were beating to the pace of the adrenalin that was flowing through our blood. That has to be one of the most exciting 90 km I have ever ridden.
We all regroup after looking for Rob who had run out of petrol on the 640...diffinetly has only a 24L tank and headed to the place where we would be staying for the night. Arrived in time to catch the last half of the Sharks game (SHARKS RULE :twisted: ) and then the drinking and bulls..t talking started and carried on into the late hours.
By 12pm we all in bed and feeding the mosquitoes, and there were millions of them but thanks to the beers and whiskeys and red wine they prove not to be to much of a insomnia inducing pest.
Part 2 soon.......
Saturday morning saw myself (950) Madal (990) Daviesprocket (640) and Rod and his missus (640) meet at Caltex. From there it was through Wellinton and over Bain's Kloof pass..
Madal
Davesprocket
Rob and missus
too Ceres for breakfast at 9.00am where we would meet the other crowd of Frik (950) John (950) and a friend of John's on the only BMW who would join us to the "op die berg" dirt road and then would go his own way, not being able to join us for the whole weekend. Which in hind sight saved his liver from some seriouse damage saturday night. :twisted:
Wimpy, Ceres
When the tar ended it was time to say goodbye to the BMW who go on straight to Ciderberg via gravel and where we turned right on the gravel roads to Kakbakkis pass and on to the final destanation of Loriesfountain.
Dave setting the camera up for the group photo.
...thanks dave for the entertainment...smille boys........nothing happening, ok lets try again, and so on for about 5min and then........
Smile boys....ok got it, it worked.
At this time of year the klien Karoo and Cederberg is very dry and HOT and oh boy was it hot. With no shade and a hot wind blowing it was go go go to get to Calvinia where there was promise of some cold beers waiting at the local hotel. But that was still 270 km away. Frik and John took off and disapered into the distance at the deathly pace of between 180-200km/h while the rest of us stayed at the more sane pace of 120-130km/h.
Frik
Dave
Flying Frik with the pink scarf
John
Madal
Me
Rod
We stopped often to regroup and smoke a cig, drink water and generally talk some sh..t before starting the motors and getting back to the task of finding those beers in Calvinia. :twisted:
We were now getting really hot, I think the temp was well over 40 or there abouts and the the new task at hand was to find some where to swim...swim, in the middel of the karoo. no rivers in sight just dry river beds and dust and heat and and and I need to cool down. Then we see Frik slid to a holt and head towards a concrette resoviur and turn to us with a big smile on his face....water was found and it was goooood
In we went, some still dressed in all the ATGATT and some in thier birthday suits. That was one of the best swims of my life apart from the time in my new pool but thats for another time
After the swim it was on the way again for the last strech to Calvinia and the awaiting beers. It was said to just be one or two beers but the first two went down so quickley that we just had to enjoy another one to get the taste. :roll: :roll:
Now for the Final 90 km to Loriesfontain. Again Frik took off into the distance and I for some reason or other decided to push myself abit. After about 5min I noticed a head light in my mirror which I thought was the flying John on his black 950, it turned out to be madal. Now with somebody chasing things turned into abit of a adrenalin induced race of sorts. Maintaining speeds of 130-140 it was a quick 90km to loriesfountain.
The road to Loriesfontain from Calvinia
When we stopped on the out skirts of town both madal and I were smiling from ear to ear and our heart and hands were beating to the pace of the adrenalin that was flowing through our blood. That has to be one of the most exciting 90 km I have ever ridden.
We all regroup after looking for Rob who had run out of petrol on the 640...diffinetly has only a 24L tank and headed to the place where we would be staying for the night. Arrived in time to catch the last half of the Sharks game (SHARKS RULE :twisted: ) and then the drinking and bulls..t talking started and carried on into the late hours.
By 12pm we all in bed and feeding the mosquitoes, and there were millions of them but thanks to the beers and whiskeys and red wine they prove not to be to much of a insomnia inducing pest.
Part 2 soon.......
