de wildt seep-over

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

krazy-eyes

Race Dog
Joined
Feb 10, 2006
Messages
1,422
Reaction score
0
Location
Johannesburg
Bike
BMW R1200GS
we left lourens' house at 4pm and dodged taxis like you cant believe untill, about 20 minutes later, we were both well and truly annoyed at playing russian-roulette with 2ton missiles. finally we got off the tar and left the city behind. in essence we still had a lot of tar to do, but this short gravel stretch, although uneccesary at this point, was symbolic of cutting ties with the hussle and bussle.
we made our way outwards towards brits, and onward in the direction of jericho. about 25k's before the latter we got back onto the gravel. we travelled untill sunset looking for a suitable campspot, but to no avail, game fences everywhere. luckily i had put the co-ords for Moegatle game farm on my gps (s25 24,114 e27 43,586 https://www.moegatle-lodge.co.za/). so plan B it was. we rode for about 20 minutes in the dark, on gravel, with thick sand at times :shock: (hectic for a novice like me), but it was hypnotic in a way and i enjoyed it thoroughly! the co-ords were spot on, and the home made gps handle-bar mount worked like magic!
we arived at the campsite and met the friendly owner Alex who pointed us to the campsite. we got there and were welcomed by a flock? of impala. we unpacked and set up camp - 10 minutes max.
next we lit the fire and opened a cold one (or two :lol: )
we spent the night looking at stars and getting Philosophical about trivial junk - as long as it wasnt "shop talk".

the next morning i awoke to the call of sand grouse and the smell of fog. i opened my eyes and rolled out of the tent. lourens appeared out of the bushes after having gone for a walk already where as i opted for a sleep-in. within 30 minutes we were packed and ready to roll. it is amazing how little stuff one needs to camp succesfully.

we hit the road and headed further north, towards the big rock. we encountered a set of HUGE pools of water right arcross the road. i told lourens to do the honours and he went, albeit rather nervously :D
he sailed through and i followed. by the the next set we were pro's and i actuaaly enjoyed it. the road made a 90degree turn to the right and with this the fences ended. i stopped and pointed this out to lourens and told him that THIS was were i wanted to camp - no electricty, no people, no lights, just the bush.
we continued towards the rock and encountered lots of smiling waving kids. our route took us right around the base of the rock. lourens had a little spill at low speed when his front wheel skidded and slid out from underneith him on a muddy patch. we then unanimously decided that going UP the rock is still a bit ambitious concidering our level of experience (hats off to those who have done it before on 200+kg machines).

we rode out the last bit of gravel and headed back to civilisation knowing that this was merely the 1st of many, many, adventures - as it says on the side of the bike.

i got back to joburg greeted by drizzle, and rode the last 3k's in pouring rain. but it was totally bare-able knowing i was going home to a hot bath :twisted:

the bike:
the bike was a dream come true. it behaved really well on all surfaces. the only hick-up was a steering headbearing that shook loose (barely noticable), and a chain that needed tensioning - i write both up to the bike being new and "unbroken in", and it took me 15 minutes to fix both once i got home, i sommer breathed the shox while i was at it and filled up the coolant reservoir.

READY TO ROLL!


the smell of woodfire and early morning fog :


while it was raining in joburg, we were sipping beer next to the camp fire and gazing at the stars:


NOT going up the rock:


circumnavigating the BIG rock:


the 950 in its natural environment:
 
Top