Firstly let me say that this trip was riddled with chirps from the KTM guys aimed at the BMW boys about you know what. Based on this I am going to try and avoid going down that road as it seldom ends pretty 
Day 1
We leave East London bright and early for Van Wyk’s Vlei. The route goes via King Williams Town, Graaf Reinet and on to Victoria West.
Filling up in Graaf Reinet:
On the section of road between the N1 and Victoria West Wikus, on his 1200GSA, manages to undo a brand new rear tyre, a Heindenau, the model just before the current (new and improved?) version. Truth be told the tyre was being used well outside of its design specification if you know what I mean. Nonetheless, less than 500km on a new tyre, not a good showing!!! Fortunately he brought a spare along, mmmmmmm, makes you think, doesn’t it. So Wikus limps into Victoria West where we get a first taste of his resourcefulness. Chip chop and he has found a tyre shop/garage that can change his tyre and has a second hand spare one for him, for free nogal!!!
We have a couple of drinks at the local thirsty shop and head on again. It starts to rain 10km out of town but we can see that it is just a local shower so we keep riding and don’t worry about rain gear. Less than 10km later we turn onto our first dirt of the trip . Now it has been raining and wet dirt is not something that I have experience on. So I trundle along at a pace that I am comfortable with. 10 minutes later the rain stops but the dirt is still squidgy!!! I am now very glad that I changed my Anakee’s for a TKC 80 on the front and the new Heidenau on the back. I still stick to my comfort zone with respect to speed and steadily fall behind. The guys up front are fortunately patient and this trend continues for most of the rest of the trip.
Being slow does have its advantages sometimes. I come around a corner and see a wall of black mist in front of me. It turns out to be a swarm of locusts. Peter and Shawn, on the KTMs, had found them first and at high speed. In fact the locusts weren’t swarming/flying when the boys came across them. Apparently they were about 10cm thick on the ground having an afternoon nap. Pete reckons he nearly lost control of his bike and Wikus said that his breaks got lined with locust juice to the extent that they didn’t work anymore. Nonetheless the 3 of them were full of locust remains, juice, etc and it stank like anything!!!!
We finally arrive in Carnarvon. Wikus, being resourceful again finds a good pub, Blikies Bar, and we enjoy a few cold ones with the locals. We ask about the road to Van Wyks Vlei and they reckon it is awful. Strange that, because we found it to be bloody brilliant!!!! They guys in these parts have no clue as to how good their roads are.
Anyway we move on to our nights rest but manage to stop along the way to sort out a bottle of Captain Morgan on the side of the road.
Van Wyks Vlei, flip, what is the point of the place? There are a few houses and a few billion mosquito’s and ants!!!!! We had a lekker braai that night but got eaten alive!!!!
Day 1
We leave East London bright and early for Van Wyk’s Vlei. The route goes via King Williams Town, Graaf Reinet and on to Victoria West.
Filling up in Graaf Reinet:
On the section of road between the N1 and Victoria West Wikus, on his 1200GSA, manages to undo a brand new rear tyre, a Heindenau, the model just before the current (new and improved?) version. Truth be told the tyre was being used well outside of its design specification if you know what I mean. Nonetheless, less than 500km on a new tyre, not a good showing!!! Fortunately he brought a spare along, mmmmmmm, makes you think, doesn’t it. So Wikus limps into Victoria West where we get a first taste of his resourcefulness. Chip chop and he has found a tyre shop/garage that can change his tyre and has a second hand spare one for him, for free nogal!!!
We have a couple of drinks at the local thirsty shop and head on again. It starts to rain 10km out of town but we can see that it is just a local shower so we keep riding and don’t worry about rain gear. Less than 10km later we turn onto our first dirt of the trip . Now it has been raining and wet dirt is not something that I have experience on. So I trundle along at a pace that I am comfortable with. 10 minutes later the rain stops but the dirt is still squidgy!!! I am now very glad that I changed my Anakee’s for a TKC 80 on the front and the new Heidenau on the back. I still stick to my comfort zone with respect to speed and steadily fall behind. The guys up front are fortunately patient and this trend continues for most of the rest of the trip.
Being slow does have its advantages sometimes. I come around a corner and see a wall of black mist in front of me. It turns out to be a swarm of locusts. Peter and Shawn, on the KTMs, had found them first and at high speed. In fact the locusts weren’t swarming/flying when the boys came across them. Apparently they were about 10cm thick on the ground having an afternoon nap. Pete reckons he nearly lost control of his bike and Wikus said that his breaks got lined with locust juice to the extent that they didn’t work anymore. Nonetheless the 3 of them were full of locust remains, juice, etc and it stank like anything!!!!
We finally arrive in Carnarvon. Wikus, being resourceful again finds a good pub, Blikies Bar, and we enjoy a few cold ones with the locals. We ask about the road to Van Wyks Vlei and they reckon it is awful. Strange that, because we found it to be bloody brilliant!!!! They guys in these parts have no clue as to how good their roads are.
Anyway we move on to our nights rest but manage to stop along the way to sort out a bottle of Captain Morgan on the side of the road.
Van Wyks Vlei, flip, what is the point of the place? There are a few houses and a few billion mosquito’s and ants!!!!! We had a lekker braai that night but got eaten alive!!!!
