Two-up adventure tour from WC to Rhodes and back: Complete !

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Eisbein

Bachelor Dog
Joined
Feb 9, 2007
Messages
12,498
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Location
Kraaifontein
Bike
BMW R1200GS Adventure
So this was the time then for our 1st proper motorcycle holiday tour.
We were planning (sort of) way in advance, anticipation (and excitement) grew as the starting date of my leave drew near.

It wasn't a very long and difficult meeting when me and Vicky decided the destination: Eastern Cape. Rhodes.
She's seen it before. I have only heard about it, so Eastern Cape it was. Stop-off points would be:
Klein Brak, P.E. (Despatch), Hogsback, Dordrecht, Rhodes, Dordrecht, Graaff-Reinet, Karatara, George, Kleinbrak and then back via Oudshoorn and the Sewe-weeks poort home.This was the final version (we made it up as we went along at times).
The plan was then also to find the most interesting ways to get from one point to the next.
So we had a plan, we had the leave, we have the right bike, we were eager and we were leaving later than expected.

We were gonna start of slow, with a leisurely afternoon drive to friends in Worcester on the Saturday and then the next morning on to Klein Brak. So the Saturday my helmet's visor's clip broke off. :( This was outside of office hours so we would have to postpone to Monday. Monday morning I went into town, got the visor sorted, came back, put the topbox and panniers and ATGATT on and was on our way. At klapmuts we stopped quickly and Vicky wasn't feeling too well. She even looked slighty green/pale. Damned if I was gonna force her to go along if she's feeling sick, so at klapmuts (15 km into our epic journey) we turned around and went home. Sharing a holiday with her was more important to me than just being on the road, so she settled with some dry toast and flat Coke and I settled with some holiday food and Monday night TV ('Till death, Joey, CSI).

Tuesday morning at 4 we are wakened by an awesome thunderstorm, so we let our 'verskrikte' boerboel in the house and off we went to bed again. We woke up later that morning, bright eyed and bushy tailed with Vicky feeling 100%.

Finally we were off for real and this was what lay ahead of us over the next 11 days:


Day 1:
N1 over Du Toitskloof, Worcester, Roberston. Then Route62 to Barrydale, Tradouws (R324 and R322) to Heidelberg, N2 to Riversdale, R323 and some back roads to Albertinia, N2 to Klein Brak.

Day 2: From KleinBrak on the old road to George, the Saasveld road past Karatara, over Homtini pass and the Phantom pass to Knysna. Then on the N2 to Nature's Valley, the old BlouKrans pass to Stormsriver and then the N2, the R334 and R102 to Despatch.

Day3 (the most adventurous one !) : P.E. on the N2 to Grahams Town. From there past Rini on the R67, then (just before Fort Brown) off into and through the DubbelDrift game reserve onto the R345 through Alice and into Hogsback.

Day4:From Hogsback on the R345 to Cathcart then the N6 to Queenstown and then the R392 to Dordrecht.

Day5: Just hang around with friends and let the backsides rest

Day6: From Dordrecht on the R56 through Ingwe and Elliot. To 'Gatberg' and back to Elliot. Then over Barkley pass and the R393 via Moshesh's Ford To Rhodes. Back on the R396 through Barkly East, Clifford, Rossouw, Killians' pass and back to Dordrecht.

Day 7: Dordrecht to Queenstown, the R61 through Tarkastad and Cradock. Then on the R61 to the N9. From there through Nieu-Bethesda to Graaff-Reinet.

Day8: N9 through Willowmore and Uniondale, the R339 through Uniondale Poort, Avontuur, Prince Alfred's pass, de Vlugt to Knysna. From there on the Phantom pass to Karatara.

Day9: 'Chill' with family a little in Karatara and move to George (N2)

Day 10: N2 to KleinBrak

Day 11: Bottelierskop road to the R328 over Robinson's pass to Oudshoorn. From there Route62 over Huisriver to the SeweWeeks poort turnoff. Through to about 5 km's from Laingsburg, left on the 'Witteberge' road and through to 'Konstabel' station. From there onto the N1 through Touwsriver, Worcester and home.

I will post day one (and photos) later today (it is after all 01:25 and I have the 1st day of work after the holiday ahead of me *sigh* )

Watch this space...
 
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