LeonDude
Bachelor Dog
- Joined
- Sep 26, 2007
- Messages
- 10,300
- Reaction score
- 331
- Location
- Gauteng - Centurion
- Bike
- Suzuki DR650
Cave Girl and LeonDude ride the Lowveld – Part I
A short history
When I was very young, my dad had a plot close to Komatipoort. I’ve wanted to go back there for a long time, to see how the place looked now. Two years ago I started trawling Google Earth, and after many hours found the location of the plot. From that time on it was all a matter of time until this trip was going to happen.
Meanwhile back at the ranch, GundaGunda did a trip next to the Kruger Park fence. When he told me about the route I was fascinated, and this route was obviously going to be incorporated into my planned ride to the plots in Komatipoort.
In the meantime however, as some of you might know, I broke my leg, and thus my trip got held up by a long time, but more about that later.
Here is something to wet your appetite
The planning
I asked Cave Girl to join me on this trip, as I enjoy her companionship and we have much the same riding style. It was she that came up with the timesaving idea. My first idea was to ride through on Saturday morning, ride the area and then head back on Monday morning. CG had other ideas. We trailer the bikes down on Friday night. (I don’t like riding strange roads in the dark, and on the N4 east of Nelspruit you’re looking for your death after dark). We then ride for three days, and trailer back late on Monday, giving us 2 whole extra days of riding. Brilliant idea!
Sudwala was great, the accomodation was superb and the pub stayed open late. I can recommend the place.
The next morning was a bit cool though.
Next morning we took our time sorting out the kit, and got under way to the plot rather late, but we felt in no rush.
On the way to the Komatipoort this mountain gave us a rude sign!
To my surprise we found the plot without too much messing about, and walking around the place brought back happy memories, but also a sadness for what it had become. The once – beautifull little cotages that we had stayed in had become the homes of the farm labourers, and the pics will explain the condition of the places. The Macadamia trees had made way for Sugar and Banana plantations.
The dam where we once fished for kurper was full to the brim. It’s built up instead of being a hole in the ground. Here, as kids, we could never go close to the water, because there were crocodiles in the dam. Beware of the wasps on the wall!
Riding back towards Komatipoort I had some trouble sorting out my head concerning my feelings about the plot, but managed to put the past behind me. Once through Komatipoort we soon reached the low water bridge over the Crocodile river. This was another spot I remember well from my young days. There used to be huge crocodiles lying around on the sand banks. Here too things were changing fast. They old low – water bridge was being replaced by a new bridge. I seem to remember that the old bridge had taken a hit during flash floods a few years ago, so I wasn’t too surprised to see the work in progress. Here we had our first glimpse of far – off hipos, but no crocs in sight. I suppose it’s the construction work that keeps them at bay.
From here we headed off to Marloth park, where we hoped to get accomodation for the night. It would have been a beautiful ride, but there was no wind or breeze to speak of, and the trucks and cars in front of us kicked up huge dust clouds which hung in the air. I was actually glad when we hit the tar at Marloth.
A little known gem!
We found accomodation at the Marloth Municipal camping site. It’s a nice big site, and the fence on the one side is also the fence to the Kruger Park. On the other side of the fence is the Crocodile river, and on the other side of the river is a very big bank that the game walk around on. The camping site is situated high above the river, and the views are fantastic. I cannot believe that other WD’s have not mentioned this place before. At R70 per person per night I felt like I was robbing them.
While I set up camp CG was off on her bike to find fire wood. She reported later that she’d taken the dirt roads all around Marloth to find the wood!
There is a huge screen under which you can pull your carevan. We pulled the bikes under this screen, then tied the tent fly sheet over the bikes and stored our equipment under the fly sheet. Then we packed all our gear, including the tend, under the fly sheet. We opened up the ground sheet next to the fire, put our ground sheets and sleeping bags on the ground sheet and slept under the stars, with CG waking me up in the middle of the night to listen to the lions roar!
Oops, the food.
I had picked up two delicious looking steaks at Komatipoort for about R25 each. At first I just thought they were extremely well priced, but realized later they had been rung up as Pork Rashers. Those people sold me the best two steaks in the country as pork rashers. We only managed to share one steak between the two of us that night, the other one became lunch the next day!
Marloth in the morning. Yes, those are crocs lying around next to the river.
Friendly neighbours in camp.
Today was going to be a quiet day. We were going to ride up Gunda’s route next to the Kruger park, taking it as slow as we could and hoping to see some game. The road we were on was a railway service road, so I was sure it would be nothing technical. Until Sharon read me an email she’d had from another rider who had done the route a week or two before. Easy to start off with, very technical and sandy in the end.
Eh, ok?
Firstly, we took an hour extra before setting out that morning doing game viewing and just enjoying the Marloth camp site, and that campsite deserved it, it’s a great place. Then we had to get to where the route starts, and then we had to ride through the location to find the route. In the end, we started riding the actual route just after eleven, and by then it was hot. And just to be sure we weren’t going to make things easy, we were so excited to get started that we forgot to buy water. Big mistake.
To show you how close we were riding to the Kruger Park. That is the fence next to us.
The route is a lovely ride, and within the first ten kilo’s I decided to call a lunch break in a shady spot, and what a good lunch it was. It was here that I discovered our lack of water, but riding was easy and the track was only about 50 kilometers long. I had a half litre coke, of which we drank some, then packed up and continued.
Slowly but surely the route got interresting. And hot. And then it got hotter. We stopped under a railway bridge and out came the Gundachino’s, a fitting drink on a route given to us by Gunda. By this time it was so hot that we had to cool down by wetting our shirts and riding jackets in the river. Luckily for us the river is very shallow and we could see the bottom, otherwise the crocs might have had us. BTW, at these little water crossing, dry or not, the fence was mostly damaged and the game had free access to come and go. At one such spot we saw bicycle tracks going into the park on a sand bank, it seems the hippo’s have taken to riding bicycles to work in the morning.
We were seeing some game, but I’m afraid the elephant were far off, and they do not show up on our cameras. The few buck I saw was actually outside of the park. They would hear the bikes and quick as a flash dart to the fence, where they knew how to get back into the park.
CG’s camera seemed to have picked up an error with the auto focus, and many of the pics did not come out as nicely as we might have hoped.
By now it was well past twelve, the sun was beating down and the road was not just difficult anymore, it was extremely technical, but a lot of fun to ride. I had trouble trying to judge at what speed I could ride safely while still keeping an eye open for game in the park.
And then, in a flash, I came back to the moment where I broke my leg last year. Having gone down a steep incline to a river crossing I stopped to judge the depth of the water, went through and looked at the uphill that lay ahead of me, and knew I would not be able to ride up there. That is the little hill behind me, and like mostly on photo’s, it does not show the gradient.
It was high, it was badly rutted on both sides of the tweespoor, right in front of me. I would not be able to get up any kind of speed from where I stood to there, and already I could see myself dropping the bike.
I got off the bike and weighed my options, which were nill. I had to go up. Eventually I decided to walk the bike up, and that is exactly what we did. Here my riding partner Cave Girl never said one nasty word, she helped me walk, pull and coax the bike up that hill, all the while sweating in the now unbearable heat.
Then we walked back down, and for a second time our clothes got a solid dunking in the river. Be warned if you have never done this, a tee – shirt is freezing cold if you dunk it in river water!
CG then did me the favour of showing me how it is done, quick and easy, and sitting down like KLR riders do.
Funny thing is, there were about thirty such inclines. There are little streams feeding into the river which ran just inside the park everywhere, and each one had a steep downhill and then a steep incline on the other side. It was only this specific one that I could not do, the rest of them I flew over, enjoying the KLR’s thumping and jumping. I’m hoping it’s because I stopped for the water that I suddenly could not get up there, but only time will tell.
Except for the heat, the rest of the ride was ok. The further north we went, the more techinical it became, and it also became much more sandy. Strange sand though. Even the deep patches never gripped the wheels, and although I stayed causious of it, it never gave us trouble. Also, there are fantastic speed bumps every few meters.
Then sadly the route ended and we were back on tar, and it was only about five minutes before I saw Cave Girl’s indicator go on in my read – view mirror and she pulled into a shebeen.
It was time for Zamalek!
We shared a quart, but the heat had taken its toll and what I wanted was water. Having gotten some at a garage we made our way to Sabie, where I talked us out of camping in the freezing cold and into getting a room at a backpackers. And then, of course, it was off to the local sports bar, and lots more little brown bottles.
Part II to follow.
A short history
When I was very young, my dad had a plot close to Komatipoort. I’ve wanted to go back there for a long time, to see how the place looked now. Two years ago I started trawling Google Earth, and after many hours found the location of the plot. From that time on it was all a matter of time until this trip was going to happen.
Meanwhile back at the ranch, GundaGunda did a trip next to the Kruger Park fence. When he told me about the route I was fascinated, and this route was obviously going to be incorporated into my planned ride to the plots in Komatipoort.
In the meantime however, as some of you might know, I broke my leg, and thus my trip got held up by a long time, but more about that later.
Here is something to wet your appetite
The planning
I asked Cave Girl to join me on this trip, as I enjoy her companionship and we have much the same riding style. It was she that came up with the timesaving idea. My first idea was to ride through on Saturday morning, ride the area and then head back on Monday morning. CG had other ideas. We trailer the bikes down on Friday night. (I don’t like riding strange roads in the dark, and on the N4 east of Nelspruit you’re looking for your death after dark). We then ride for three days, and trailer back late on Monday, giving us 2 whole extra days of riding. Brilliant idea!
Sudwala was great, the accomodation was superb and the pub stayed open late. I can recommend the place.
The next morning was a bit cool though.
Next morning we took our time sorting out the kit, and got under way to the plot rather late, but we felt in no rush.
On the way to the Komatipoort this mountain gave us a rude sign!
To my surprise we found the plot without too much messing about, and walking around the place brought back happy memories, but also a sadness for what it had become. The once – beautifull little cotages that we had stayed in had become the homes of the farm labourers, and the pics will explain the condition of the places. The Macadamia trees had made way for Sugar and Banana plantations.
The dam where we once fished for kurper was full to the brim. It’s built up instead of being a hole in the ground. Here, as kids, we could never go close to the water, because there were crocodiles in the dam. Beware of the wasps on the wall!
Riding back towards Komatipoort I had some trouble sorting out my head concerning my feelings about the plot, but managed to put the past behind me. Once through Komatipoort we soon reached the low water bridge over the Crocodile river. This was another spot I remember well from my young days. There used to be huge crocodiles lying around on the sand banks. Here too things were changing fast. They old low – water bridge was being replaced by a new bridge. I seem to remember that the old bridge had taken a hit during flash floods a few years ago, so I wasn’t too surprised to see the work in progress. Here we had our first glimpse of far – off hipos, but no crocs in sight. I suppose it’s the construction work that keeps them at bay.
From here we headed off to Marloth park, where we hoped to get accomodation for the night. It would have been a beautiful ride, but there was no wind or breeze to speak of, and the trucks and cars in front of us kicked up huge dust clouds which hung in the air. I was actually glad when we hit the tar at Marloth.
A little known gem!
We found accomodation at the Marloth Municipal camping site. It’s a nice big site, and the fence on the one side is also the fence to the Kruger Park. On the other side of the fence is the Crocodile river, and on the other side of the river is a very big bank that the game walk around on. The camping site is situated high above the river, and the views are fantastic. I cannot believe that other WD’s have not mentioned this place before. At R70 per person per night I felt like I was robbing them.
While I set up camp CG was off on her bike to find fire wood. She reported later that she’d taken the dirt roads all around Marloth to find the wood!
There is a huge screen under which you can pull your carevan. We pulled the bikes under this screen, then tied the tent fly sheet over the bikes and stored our equipment under the fly sheet. Then we packed all our gear, including the tend, under the fly sheet. We opened up the ground sheet next to the fire, put our ground sheets and sleeping bags on the ground sheet and slept under the stars, with CG waking me up in the middle of the night to listen to the lions roar!
Oops, the food.
I had picked up two delicious looking steaks at Komatipoort for about R25 each. At first I just thought they were extremely well priced, but realized later they had been rung up as Pork Rashers. Those people sold me the best two steaks in the country as pork rashers. We only managed to share one steak between the two of us that night, the other one became lunch the next day!
Marloth in the morning. Yes, those are crocs lying around next to the river.
Friendly neighbours in camp.
Today was going to be a quiet day. We were going to ride up Gunda’s route next to the Kruger park, taking it as slow as we could and hoping to see some game. The road we were on was a railway service road, so I was sure it would be nothing technical. Until Sharon read me an email she’d had from another rider who had done the route a week or two before. Easy to start off with, very technical and sandy in the end.
Eh, ok?
Firstly, we took an hour extra before setting out that morning doing game viewing and just enjoying the Marloth camp site, and that campsite deserved it, it’s a great place. Then we had to get to where the route starts, and then we had to ride through the location to find the route. In the end, we started riding the actual route just after eleven, and by then it was hot. And just to be sure we weren’t going to make things easy, we were so excited to get started that we forgot to buy water. Big mistake.
To show you how close we were riding to the Kruger Park. That is the fence next to us.
The route is a lovely ride, and within the first ten kilo’s I decided to call a lunch break in a shady spot, and what a good lunch it was. It was here that I discovered our lack of water, but riding was easy and the track was only about 50 kilometers long. I had a half litre coke, of which we drank some, then packed up and continued.
Slowly but surely the route got interresting. And hot. And then it got hotter. We stopped under a railway bridge and out came the Gundachino’s, a fitting drink on a route given to us by Gunda. By this time it was so hot that we had to cool down by wetting our shirts and riding jackets in the river. Luckily for us the river is very shallow and we could see the bottom, otherwise the crocs might have had us. BTW, at these little water crossing, dry or not, the fence was mostly damaged and the game had free access to come and go. At one such spot we saw bicycle tracks going into the park on a sand bank, it seems the hippo’s have taken to riding bicycles to work in the morning.
We were seeing some game, but I’m afraid the elephant were far off, and they do not show up on our cameras. The few buck I saw was actually outside of the park. They would hear the bikes and quick as a flash dart to the fence, where they knew how to get back into the park.
CG’s camera seemed to have picked up an error with the auto focus, and many of the pics did not come out as nicely as we might have hoped.
By now it was well past twelve, the sun was beating down and the road was not just difficult anymore, it was extremely technical, but a lot of fun to ride. I had trouble trying to judge at what speed I could ride safely while still keeping an eye open for game in the park.
And then, in a flash, I came back to the moment where I broke my leg last year. Having gone down a steep incline to a river crossing I stopped to judge the depth of the water, went through and looked at the uphill that lay ahead of me, and knew I would not be able to ride up there. That is the little hill behind me, and like mostly on photo’s, it does not show the gradient.
It was high, it was badly rutted on both sides of the tweespoor, right in front of me. I would not be able to get up any kind of speed from where I stood to there, and already I could see myself dropping the bike.
I got off the bike and weighed my options, which were nill. I had to go up. Eventually I decided to walk the bike up, and that is exactly what we did. Here my riding partner Cave Girl never said one nasty word, she helped me walk, pull and coax the bike up that hill, all the while sweating in the now unbearable heat.
Then we walked back down, and for a second time our clothes got a solid dunking in the river. Be warned if you have never done this, a tee – shirt is freezing cold if you dunk it in river water!
CG then did me the favour of showing me how it is done, quick and easy, and sitting down like KLR riders do.
Funny thing is, there were about thirty such inclines. There are little streams feeding into the river which ran just inside the park everywhere, and each one had a steep downhill and then a steep incline on the other side. It was only this specific one that I could not do, the rest of them I flew over, enjoying the KLR’s thumping and jumping. I’m hoping it’s because I stopped for the water that I suddenly could not get up there, but only time will tell.
Except for the heat, the rest of the ride was ok. The further north we went, the more techinical it became, and it also became much more sandy. Strange sand though. Even the deep patches never gripped the wheels, and although I stayed causious of it, it never gave us trouble. Also, there are fantastic speed bumps every few meters.
Then sadly the route ended and we were back on tar, and it was only about five minutes before I saw Cave Girl’s indicator go on in my read – view mirror and she pulled into a shebeen.
It was time for Zamalek!
We shared a quart, but the heat had taken its toll and what I wanted was water. Having gotten some at a garage we made our way to Sabie, where I talked us out of camping in the freezing cold and into getting a room at a backpackers. And then, of course, it was off to the local sports bar, and lots more little brown bottles.
Part II to follow.
