logie
Pack Dog
- Joined
- Jul 19, 2007
- Messages
- 93
- Reaction score
- 0
- Bike
- Honda XR500
I went on a short ride on Saturday's blustery morning to my family's game farm near Bronkhorstspruit (we unfortunately don't own the whole place, just a small old house my grandfather built many moons ago!).
I was escorting my brother-in-law and some of his family to the farm so we set off at a very civilized 09h30! We left Pretoria via Lynwood road all the way to the R25. This is usually a fairly uninspiring road but the gale force wind made things quite interesting! The bike was tossed from side to side and I almost ran off the road a few times (very scary for a Newbie :-[). Upon turning left onto the R25, my KLR felt like a new machine: an extra 10 whp (wind horse power) from behind ;D. Having virtually no wind noise riding at 90km/k was quite an eerie experience! No photo's here I'm afraid!
We then took the N4 from Bronkhorstspruit followed by the old Bronkhorstspruit road towards Balmoral. All in all, 80km of fairly uninteresting tar to reach the dirt. I've heard one can get to Bronkies entirely on the dirt but will explore that option next time.
This is where the 20k's of dirt to the house started.
Most of the road en route to the farm is in really good condition. A few mud baths appear in summer (can't wait to test the KLR's wallowing capabilities ;D) but our bone dry winters make for easy going.
I had my virgin sand experience at about 60km/h and almost soiled my seat! There turned out to be quite a lot on the road (sand... not "soil" ;D) but I made it through unscathed at a solid, ready to paddle 20 - 30 km/h!
The entrance to the farm.
Once in the park, the roads get a bit trickier (4x4 type roads with high middle mannetjies etc) but nothing too hectic (a Newbie and his KLR made it through no problems!) All credit given to the KLR though, it was so light and easy to handle in the "rough".
The house is really simple and still needs a bit of work but is a great place for a weekend. The view from the stoep is fantastic!
Due to my "Game Ranger" role for the day, I didn't get a chance to ride around the farm much. Not even sure if bikes are allowed there actually ??? Luckily though the KLR is quite quiet stock so hopefully I went unnoticed! There's a wide variety of game at the farm, a leopard or two are the only Big 5 representatives but there are many buck, girraffe etc. Was great to ride next to our wild African heritage! Couldn't get very close to the game (the bike's not that quiet!)... but managed to get some Eland in the shot.
Some kudu were quite a bit closer...
All in all, a great place to do some slightly technical dirt riding whilst surrounded by nature's creatures and beauty!
I was escorting my brother-in-law and some of his family to the farm so we set off at a very civilized 09h30! We left Pretoria via Lynwood road all the way to the R25. This is usually a fairly uninspiring road but the gale force wind made things quite interesting! The bike was tossed from side to side and I almost ran off the road a few times (very scary for a Newbie :-[). Upon turning left onto the R25, my KLR felt like a new machine: an extra 10 whp (wind horse power) from behind ;D. Having virtually no wind noise riding at 90km/k was quite an eerie experience! No photo's here I'm afraid!
We then took the N4 from Bronkhorstspruit followed by the old Bronkhorstspruit road towards Balmoral. All in all, 80km of fairly uninteresting tar to reach the dirt. I've heard one can get to Bronkies entirely on the dirt but will explore that option next time.
This is where the 20k's of dirt to the house started.
Most of the road en route to the farm is in really good condition. A few mud baths appear in summer (can't wait to test the KLR's wallowing capabilities ;D) but our bone dry winters make for easy going.
I had my virgin sand experience at about 60km/h and almost soiled my seat! There turned out to be quite a lot on the road (sand... not "soil" ;D) but I made it through unscathed at a solid, ready to paddle 20 - 30 km/h!
The entrance to the farm.
Once in the park, the roads get a bit trickier (4x4 type roads with high middle mannetjies etc) but nothing too hectic (a Newbie and his KLR made it through no problems!) All credit given to the KLR though, it was so light and easy to handle in the "rough".
The house is really simple and still needs a bit of work but is a great place for a weekend. The view from the stoep is fantastic!
Due to my "Game Ranger" role for the day, I didn't get a chance to ride around the farm much. Not even sure if bikes are allowed there actually ??? Luckily though the KLR is quite quiet stock so hopefully I went unnoticed! There's a wide variety of game at the farm, a leopard or two are the only Big 5 representatives but there are many buck, girraffe etc. Was great to ride next to our wild African heritage! Couldn't get very close to the game (the bike's not that quiet!)... but managed to get some Eland in the shot.
Some kudu were quite a bit closer...
All in all, a great place to do some slightly technical dirt riding whilst surrounded by nature's creatures and beauty!
