A ride to "Ospad"

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JERINOMO

Race Dog
Joined
May 17, 2010
Messages
1,194
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Location
Port Elizabeth
Bike
BMW F800GS
It was a sunny Saturday morning when we left off to Rocstompa’s farm called Ospad.

We were three riders, Rocstompa, Garthvader and myself.

At about 06:30, we all met up at the Sasol garage in Disa rd.

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As time was a scares commodity we decided not to take the gravel from Glenconnor to Pardepoort and decided to go down the tar and hit Pardepoort at the latter turnoff.

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RS making some adjustments before turning left toward Pardepoort

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GV stopping for a “smokebreak” ::)

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As always a scenic route

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a Bit of water from the previous day’s rain.

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Ospad is well stacked away from the main road. You have to go through 3 farms to get to Ospad. And a “ospad” it was. I ask RS how the route was and his answer was: “ 5.5km of road, not so technical but very interesting”. I liked the “not so technical” but the “interesting” received a question mark. ???

The turnoff toward toward Ospad.

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At the first gate the 990R just fell over. Nobody can explain why. Probably too upright on the sidestand.

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Through the first gate we crossed the first dry river bed with a bit of loose sand.

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It’s nice to see the veld as green as it was.

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We crossed the same river about 7 times. Great to see it still flowing


A climb toward the second farm’s gate

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Third  crossing.

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Fourth crossing

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The route towards Ospad became less prominent as we went along

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A stop to take in the view

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Downhill toward the fifth crossing

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Fifth Crossing

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The veld became more bushy. I had a flashback of a trip we had to the bushveld farm of Bertus and Amelia, close to the Tuli block in Northern Transvaal on the Botswana border.

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The sixth crossing with the second farmhouse in view

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The farmhouse was uninhabited. When I see a farmhouse empty and uninhabited  I always wish I can go back in time and  get to know the story(History).

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At last, we’ve arrived at Ospad.

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A nice, well maintained old farmhouse, fully functional, operating with gas and solar power and borehole water.
 
(A nice venue for a bash don’t you think)

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RS decided we should scout the farm. Without the “cooling” limitations of ATGATT off we went. As the camera man I had to keep my helmet on.


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Now that’s one thumper I fell in love with. If I’m ever in the market for a lighter single cylinder bike, this XT 660 Z  “preying mantis” will be the one.  What do you have to say now Oom Danie? >:D

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Not much of a road, but the scenery made up for it.

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Another river bed to negotiate. From here it got a bit technical, but I managed to keep up with the pack.

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The veld looked great.

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There appeared a strange pink line across the screen which was unexplainable.

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Nice scenery before we went into the kloof

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The “Gogga’s” side stand rattled a bit and needed a cable tie.

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The riverbed was dry at stages indicating that it flows underneath the surface. Just the next crossing it flowed on the surface again.

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After we’ve turned around, RS wanted to go up the mountain. I told him that I will meet up with them at the farmhouse but RS decided that he will scout it first and then I can make my decision.

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Well as I’ve expected RS came back with a “It’s not so bad” report.

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So I’ve decided to give it a shot.

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Well the photos don’t do the climb any justice, but the important part is that I’ve made it without problem. The rest of the route was moderate with a down here and a up there. I’m proud of the “fat boy” (and I’m referring to the GSA) as he did his thing even in the technical stuff.

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At the turning point on top of the Eastern Border of the farm my Drift camera packed up. This was the last picture out of his lense. That also explained the pink strip across my pictures on some previous pictures.

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The ride back was just as interesting. I wish my fitness level was a bit higher as I would have enjoyed it more. It was a very enjoyable ride which I will do again anytime.

With regards to the Drift camera. I had it for 8 months, had at least 600hs of footage out of it, it weren’t abused that much but it had it’s good share of shakes rattles and rolls.

I E-mailed Warrick Kernes of Action Cameras, and ask if it can be repaired. His reply was to send it to him so that their technicians can have a look at it. Well I send it up to Gauteng just to get a report that there’s a huge problem with the camera. Very disappointed I thought well that’s it, just to hear the good news that Warrick wanted my post address so he can send me down a new camera.

A BIG thumbs up for ACTION CAMERAS. Listen, you have to be brain dead not to buy from Action Cameras!!!

Warrick, Action Cameras is the BEST.

Thank YOU.
 
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