saklx650c
Race Dog
Packing night and Day 1
So there I was packing the bags with camping gear and the minimal amount of other sh#t that one needs when undertaking a journey to the highest pass in the Cape (the map book told me so) and surrounds. Yip I was off to Naudes Nek, Rhodes, a couple of the other passes in the area and then Blanco near Tarkastad, Katberg, Hogsback and finally back to EL. All of this over the Easter weekend with as little tar as possible.
After checking the weather the day before I decided that this would be the better route to go as there was some serious rain predicted for Sunday which was kind of a rest day in my initial planning stages. The intention was to spend the day in Rhodes checking out the local passes and ski resort if the weather allowed.
On Thursday afternoon the wife and kids headed down the coast to my favourite mother-in-law (ie: granny) and I was left to start the packing and polishing of the bike as one does before one gets it dirty. The aim was to leave EL around 06:00 on Friday which meant a 05:00 wake up. Schweet I will be in bed by ten feel refreshed and ready for good days riding – uuuhhh! At 00:45 I was reading the most boring article in the Times magazine in an attempt to put me to sleep. I did fall asleep eventually but woke up a couple of minutes before the 05:00 alarm went off – I think it was the anticipation of the day that lay ahead. This is the first time I have done an extended journey like this; most of my other rides have been day trips in close proximity to home.
05:30 tea has been drunk and the flask of coffee is loaded and we are off, well not quite! As I sling my bag, which is bursting at the seams, onto my back the zip pops open and all me sh#t hits the deck. Fortunately, after having repacked the bag, the second zip (two zip system) held everything in and woohoo we are off. Off 100 metres down the drive way when I realize that the new secondhand fox f3 boots that I bought from a mate can’t change gears. What now. I will ride to the petrol station up the hill, by then I should be used to changing gears in these boots. No chance, riding along Gonubie main road changing gear by hand and no clutch. Good thing there was not a lot of traffic out there at this time of the morning. Rethink, rethink, change of plan I will get my old hiking boots that I have used before. Back home, quick boot swoop and we are on the road again. Well not quite, obviously the minor adjustment that I had made to the gear level last night at 21:00 was not the right one, I could still not change gears with the old boots. Ok slow down, the excitement is over, just adjust the level back to its original position and forget about rushing off into the breeze.
Fine, all sorted and a quick breakfast at the folks (need to leave the house keys with them as they are feeding the dogs). Eventually leave Dorchester heights at 07:59 and we are off.
The chosen route takes through thornvlei and onto the N6 for about 5-6 km’s and then right turn towards Komgha. Intersect with the R something between Komgha and Stutt. Take a right after about 5 km’s towards Mgawali. Minor incident when a cow on the right hand side of the road got a bit spooked by the noise and decided to run in front of me. I just managed to clip its back leg lightly so no damage done to either party. Cross the Kei on an old concrete bridge structure and into the Transkei towards Tsomo. Nice riding here at the moment, roads are in good nick and quiet. Reach Tsomo, quick fuel stop, oil top up and sms to the wife who I think is a bit worried about her blued boy. Short trip along another piece of tar with an R number and then left towards Cala on another high quality piece of gravel. Top speed here. Nice bit through the forests. Up Cala pass and into Elliot. Here I pay GlenInk a surprise visit. I will tell you more about GlenInk a bit later as we did meet again a couple of times, I don’t think he was expecting to see me all four days of the weekend.
From Elliot I decide to go via Ugie and Maclear and up Naudes Nek pass and into Rhodes as time was still on my side. Wow the mountains here are assume. I think that the combination of the mountain air, the awesomenesss of the area which blew my mind and the rather smooth tyre caused me eventually to go into one corner a bit quick and landed the bike on its side (see photo). The tyre is for sale on the WD site if any one is keen. Bike and I were relatively unscathed and we pushed on. A little further up the drag Bang bang clank - ‘wtf’ – look in my mirror to see the exhaust pipe doing cart wheels behind me. We had pigeon sh#t welded on a new bracket that held for a fair old distance but the continous vibrations eventually meant it gave up. As every well prepared adventure rider knows, always take a spare exhaust bracket with you. I did have my temporary one that had used previously on me, so a quick repair and Naudes Nek was now in spitting distance. Got to the top what a relief, now it is all down hill from here with one or two turns. Ha Ha Haaa, not long after cresting the top I look back to see some missing luggage, in fact all of it. Quick u-turn and start the hunt for some bags. Found them all except for one crucial strap. Ahh! whats this, a friendly farmer with a bakkie heading in the same direction as me woo hoo again. Johan the friendly farmer helps me load the bags and it is off to Walkerbouts Inn- the couple of corners and level gradients that I was expecting never arrived instead it was sharp steep turns with a farmer in a bakkie chasing you on an unfamiliar road – F#@king scary. Well just about there. Oh no one more small incident; the bike started jolting like an engine problem – wtf now- the missing strap wrapped behind the rear sprocket, with the metal bit on the end circumnavigating my rear sprocket. Removed it and it was plain sailing after that ie: 5-6 km’s. Offered to buy Johan one or ten beers but he declined and headed home. What a day, screw the camping I deserve to spoil myself after that with a bit of B&B luxury. After looking at pic’s I can now see that sorting out the luggage earlier on would have been a good idea. The odd pull and pat was not enough.
Day 2
Let me just say that this day had less drama but it was not totally incident free.
Leave Rhodes at about 09:30 after breakfast head up to Tiffendale and then across to Wartrail. All very lekker riding. Then it was a right turn up to Lundeans Nek. Here I met HennieF who is a newbie on the WD forum. We had a chat, compared notes and then it was off. He was off to Rhodes and then Underberg for the day. He had suggested that the ride to Sterkspruit was very nice and I should consider doing it. I only went a little around the corner and then decided to turn back as I wanted to make it to Bastervoet Pas and back to Rhodes by night fall. All was going well until I got a puncture in the front wheel between Moshese’s Ford and Mountain Shadow about 5 km’s from the Bastervoet turn off. The tyre weld that I had had no pressure so was almost useless. Some people who stopped to help indicated the Mountain Shadow was about 10km’s down the drag. So there I was riding on a flat front wheel for 10 km’s. Old boy at the hotel helped me inflate the tyre, which seemed to be holding with the tiny bit of tyre weld that went into the tube. From this point on GlenInk became my best friend. I phoned Glen to check if he had the facilities at his spot to do tyre repairs etc. Yip he did so I was off to Elliot again. The tyre held for less than 500 metres from mountain shadow before it was flat. Oh well down the Barkely Pass and I quote the sign at the top – WARNING EXTREMELY DANGEROUS PASS PLEASE DRIVE CAREFULLY – now speed wasn’t going to be a problem with a flat front wheel. It was more likely going to be trying to keep the bike upright and the tyre on the rim. Well no dramas, I arrived ¾ of an hour later at Glen who had a compressor, patching kit and best of all, the tube from his IT. My tube looked like it had been filleted and therefore could not be repaired. I repaired the small punctures on the IT’s tube and fitted to my rim and Bobs your uncle and I was off back to Rhodes after a quick coke. Thanks once again Glen. I went via Barkley East and then Rhodes – 60km on an unfamiliar gravel road in the dark was not fun but did arrive back safely just in time for supper (another night in the B&B I deserve it again).
Day 3
I wake up early and decide to screw the rest of the trip I am heading back to EL. First problem slow puncture in the front wheel which means a tube change and looming rain/thunderstorms. I had a spare front tube with me so I changed that and the rain started pissing down. It looked as though I was set for another night in Rhodes when there was a clearing in the sky. The owner at the shop/petrol station said it was going piss down with rain on Monday too so that was my Q to hit the road. Well about 25km’s out of Rhodes and one moerse rain storm (check pic) klapped me (check other pic). Thunder and lightning, now I am not scared of water by I do sh#t myself for lightning. A family of 8 was recently wiped out by lightning in this part of the world hence me being a bit scared. So in the eye of the storm I parked the bike and scrambled up under a clay ledge in one of the cuttings. Eventually, bits of falling clay were enough to drive me out of my hiding place and on the road again. Fortunately the main part of the storm had passed, although I could still see lightning inside the clouds and I made it to Barkley East albeit a bit wet. I had some coffee at the petrol station and phoned Glen who said that it was clear down at Elliot and he and Ramkat were off for a quick ride to Indwe. I arrived in Elliot at Glen’s spot a bit wet and cold, gave him a call to see how they were doing and he suggested that it was clear in Indwe and that if I wanted to get back to EL the weather was clear. I declined his offer for me to push on and rather invited myself to stay over on his sofa. Thanks again Glen. Glen and Ramkat whipped up a good cholesterol free chips and gammon chops chow which went down well on all fronts. I was on the sofa ready to dos around 21:00 listening to the rain and wondering whether I would make it back to EL the next day.
Day 4
Nothing to much to report on this day. My only intention was to get home asap. There was one highlight and that was when I started my bike outside Glen’s flat whilst he was still dossing. Poor bloke looked a bit bleary eyed after surfing the WD page for most of the night (well I think that is what he was surfing) or maybe it was my snoring.
So there it is - an Eastern Cape trip cut in half by various incidents and a bit more tar than expected but nonetheless still a great experience.
Just a couple of lessons learned from my side (I am sure that the seasoned adventurers know this already)
• Make friends with GlenInk if you are in that area. – Thanks Glen for all your help.
• If you taking camp gear with you – use it as it is big and bulky and to haul it around is just plain stupid if you land up B&Bing for the trip
• If your rear tyre is fairly smooth do not try and get one more adventure ride out of it particularly if it is in gravel passes
• Check that the tyre weld that you have owned for 5 years but have never used does in fact work!
So there I was packing the bags with camping gear and the minimal amount of other sh#t that one needs when undertaking a journey to the highest pass in the Cape (the map book told me so) and surrounds. Yip I was off to Naudes Nek, Rhodes, a couple of the other passes in the area and then Blanco near Tarkastad, Katberg, Hogsback and finally back to EL. All of this over the Easter weekend with as little tar as possible.
After checking the weather the day before I decided that this would be the better route to go as there was some serious rain predicted for Sunday which was kind of a rest day in my initial planning stages. The intention was to spend the day in Rhodes checking out the local passes and ski resort if the weather allowed.
On Thursday afternoon the wife and kids headed down the coast to my favourite mother-in-law (ie: granny) and I was left to start the packing and polishing of the bike as one does before one gets it dirty. The aim was to leave EL around 06:00 on Friday which meant a 05:00 wake up. Schweet I will be in bed by ten feel refreshed and ready for good days riding – uuuhhh! At 00:45 I was reading the most boring article in the Times magazine in an attempt to put me to sleep. I did fall asleep eventually but woke up a couple of minutes before the 05:00 alarm went off – I think it was the anticipation of the day that lay ahead. This is the first time I have done an extended journey like this; most of my other rides have been day trips in close proximity to home.
05:30 tea has been drunk and the flask of coffee is loaded and we are off, well not quite! As I sling my bag, which is bursting at the seams, onto my back the zip pops open and all me sh#t hits the deck. Fortunately, after having repacked the bag, the second zip (two zip system) held everything in and woohoo we are off. Off 100 metres down the drive way when I realize that the new secondhand fox f3 boots that I bought from a mate can’t change gears. What now. I will ride to the petrol station up the hill, by then I should be used to changing gears in these boots. No chance, riding along Gonubie main road changing gear by hand and no clutch. Good thing there was not a lot of traffic out there at this time of the morning. Rethink, rethink, change of plan I will get my old hiking boots that I have used before. Back home, quick boot swoop and we are on the road again. Well not quite, obviously the minor adjustment that I had made to the gear level last night at 21:00 was not the right one, I could still not change gears with the old boots. Ok slow down, the excitement is over, just adjust the level back to its original position and forget about rushing off into the breeze.
Fine, all sorted and a quick breakfast at the folks (need to leave the house keys with them as they are feeding the dogs). Eventually leave Dorchester heights at 07:59 and we are off.
The chosen route takes through thornvlei and onto the N6 for about 5-6 km’s and then right turn towards Komgha. Intersect with the R something between Komgha and Stutt. Take a right after about 5 km’s towards Mgawali. Minor incident when a cow on the right hand side of the road got a bit spooked by the noise and decided to run in front of me. I just managed to clip its back leg lightly so no damage done to either party. Cross the Kei on an old concrete bridge structure and into the Transkei towards Tsomo. Nice riding here at the moment, roads are in good nick and quiet. Reach Tsomo, quick fuel stop, oil top up and sms to the wife who I think is a bit worried about her blued boy. Short trip along another piece of tar with an R number and then left towards Cala on another high quality piece of gravel. Top speed here. Nice bit through the forests. Up Cala pass and into Elliot. Here I pay GlenInk a surprise visit. I will tell you more about GlenInk a bit later as we did meet again a couple of times, I don’t think he was expecting to see me all four days of the weekend.
From Elliot I decide to go via Ugie and Maclear and up Naudes Nek pass and into Rhodes as time was still on my side. Wow the mountains here are assume. I think that the combination of the mountain air, the awesomenesss of the area which blew my mind and the rather smooth tyre caused me eventually to go into one corner a bit quick and landed the bike on its side (see photo). The tyre is for sale on the WD site if any one is keen. Bike and I were relatively unscathed and we pushed on. A little further up the drag Bang bang clank - ‘wtf’ – look in my mirror to see the exhaust pipe doing cart wheels behind me. We had pigeon sh#t welded on a new bracket that held for a fair old distance but the continous vibrations eventually meant it gave up. As every well prepared adventure rider knows, always take a spare exhaust bracket with you. I did have my temporary one that had used previously on me, so a quick repair and Naudes Nek was now in spitting distance. Got to the top what a relief, now it is all down hill from here with one or two turns. Ha Ha Haaa, not long after cresting the top I look back to see some missing luggage, in fact all of it. Quick u-turn and start the hunt for some bags. Found them all except for one crucial strap. Ahh! whats this, a friendly farmer with a bakkie heading in the same direction as me woo hoo again. Johan the friendly farmer helps me load the bags and it is off to Walkerbouts Inn- the couple of corners and level gradients that I was expecting never arrived instead it was sharp steep turns with a farmer in a bakkie chasing you on an unfamiliar road – F#@king scary. Well just about there. Oh no one more small incident; the bike started jolting like an engine problem – wtf now- the missing strap wrapped behind the rear sprocket, with the metal bit on the end circumnavigating my rear sprocket. Removed it and it was plain sailing after that ie: 5-6 km’s. Offered to buy Johan one or ten beers but he declined and headed home. What a day, screw the camping I deserve to spoil myself after that with a bit of B&B luxury. After looking at pic’s I can now see that sorting out the luggage earlier on would have been a good idea. The odd pull and pat was not enough.
Day 2
Let me just say that this day had less drama but it was not totally incident free.
Leave Rhodes at about 09:30 after breakfast head up to Tiffendale and then across to Wartrail. All very lekker riding. Then it was a right turn up to Lundeans Nek. Here I met HennieF who is a newbie on the WD forum. We had a chat, compared notes and then it was off. He was off to Rhodes and then Underberg for the day. He had suggested that the ride to Sterkspruit was very nice and I should consider doing it. I only went a little around the corner and then decided to turn back as I wanted to make it to Bastervoet Pas and back to Rhodes by night fall. All was going well until I got a puncture in the front wheel between Moshese’s Ford and Mountain Shadow about 5 km’s from the Bastervoet turn off. The tyre weld that I had had no pressure so was almost useless. Some people who stopped to help indicated the Mountain Shadow was about 10km’s down the drag. So there I was riding on a flat front wheel for 10 km’s. Old boy at the hotel helped me inflate the tyre, which seemed to be holding with the tiny bit of tyre weld that went into the tube. From this point on GlenInk became my best friend. I phoned Glen to check if he had the facilities at his spot to do tyre repairs etc. Yip he did so I was off to Elliot again. The tyre held for less than 500 metres from mountain shadow before it was flat. Oh well down the Barkely Pass and I quote the sign at the top – WARNING EXTREMELY DANGEROUS PASS PLEASE DRIVE CAREFULLY – now speed wasn’t going to be a problem with a flat front wheel. It was more likely going to be trying to keep the bike upright and the tyre on the rim. Well no dramas, I arrived ¾ of an hour later at Glen who had a compressor, patching kit and best of all, the tube from his IT. My tube looked like it had been filleted and therefore could not be repaired. I repaired the small punctures on the IT’s tube and fitted to my rim and Bobs your uncle and I was off back to Rhodes after a quick coke. Thanks once again Glen. I went via Barkley East and then Rhodes – 60km on an unfamiliar gravel road in the dark was not fun but did arrive back safely just in time for supper (another night in the B&B I deserve it again).
Day 3
I wake up early and decide to screw the rest of the trip I am heading back to EL. First problem slow puncture in the front wheel which means a tube change and looming rain/thunderstorms. I had a spare front tube with me so I changed that and the rain started pissing down. It looked as though I was set for another night in Rhodes when there was a clearing in the sky. The owner at the shop/petrol station said it was going piss down with rain on Monday too so that was my Q to hit the road. Well about 25km’s out of Rhodes and one moerse rain storm (check pic) klapped me (check other pic). Thunder and lightning, now I am not scared of water by I do sh#t myself for lightning. A family of 8 was recently wiped out by lightning in this part of the world hence me being a bit scared. So in the eye of the storm I parked the bike and scrambled up under a clay ledge in one of the cuttings. Eventually, bits of falling clay were enough to drive me out of my hiding place and on the road again. Fortunately the main part of the storm had passed, although I could still see lightning inside the clouds and I made it to Barkley East albeit a bit wet. I had some coffee at the petrol station and phoned Glen who said that it was clear down at Elliot and he and Ramkat were off for a quick ride to Indwe. I arrived in Elliot at Glen’s spot a bit wet and cold, gave him a call to see how they were doing and he suggested that it was clear in Indwe and that if I wanted to get back to EL the weather was clear. I declined his offer for me to push on and rather invited myself to stay over on his sofa. Thanks again Glen. Glen and Ramkat whipped up a good cholesterol free chips and gammon chops chow which went down well on all fronts. I was on the sofa ready to dos around 21:00 listening to the rain and wondering whether I would make it back to EL the next day.
Day 4
Nothing to much to report on this day. My only intention was to get home asap. There was one highlight and that was when I started my bike outside Glen’s flat whilst he was still dossing. Poor bloke looked a bit bleary eyed after surfing the WD page for most of the night (well I think that is what he was surfing) or maybe it was my snoring.
So there it is - an Eastern Cape trip cut in half by various incidents and a bit more tar than expected but nonetheless still a great experience.
Just a couple of lessons learned from my side (I am sure that the seasoned adventurers know this already)
• Make friends with GlenInk if you are in that area. – Thanks Glen for all your help.
• If you taking camp gear with you – use it as it is big and bulky and to haul it around is just plain stupid if you land up B&Bing for the trip
• If your rear tyre is fairly smooth do not try and get one more adventure ride out of it particularly if it is in gravel passes
• Check that the tyre weld that you have owned for 5 years but have never used does in fact work!
