Stormer
Race Dog
Here goes a first time ride report.
After keeping â??she-who-must-be-kept-happyâ? happy, I got to do a little ride. I had about 2 hours to ride. Phoned a friend but he was busy with lunch at the mother and couldnâ??t come. So here I go. But where to? Didnâ??t want to do the Harties/Brits thing. Too many Sunday afternoon drivers. Pretoria East is too far. It is going to take about half an hour just to get there. The only other place that I could think of was the cradle. I have been in the area before but not the cradle itself.
Here is the time and kilometer reading just be fore I left.
Took the old Pretoria West/Sandton road to the Minavonie circle. Right on Ruimte Avenue towards Diepsloot. Took the â??other N14â?, the R114 to Muldersdrift.
I have done the road a few times up to the robot at the Lion Park. The taxiâ??s was not too bad. The trucks during the week are worst but being a Sunday there were none. The portion between Malibongwe and Beyers Naudé was a first. Turned right on Beyers. Some kiloâ??s down the road I turned left onto a gravel road. Thought maybe it will get me to the N14 just past Krugersdorp. Alas the road lasted for 500m and then ended at a lodge. Had to turn around. This was my first gravel road experience so I was a bit apprehensive.
For a first time I did not put it down nor had a â??momentâ? but I were also only doing about 50. My total off road experience on a 2 wheeler. 1 km.
Here is a view towards Pretoria from Beyers Naudé.
Got to the T-Junction.
Right towards home, left towards some more riding. Turned left. There were 2 other riders standing next to the road having a smoke. They were one of the few riders that returned the greeting. Made me think. There is sometime an advantage to smoking. It is forcing you to stop. For the non smokers like me I have to force my self to stop and take some photos and not just keep riding and looking.
Here are some pictures from the Kromdraai road.
Got to the Sterkfontein caves. I was about halfway through the riding time and decided to have a quick drink. The coke was quite reasonable priced. R8 at Steers, R6 at Spar, R5 at Sterkfontein. Maybe I should visit them more for the cheap coke.
Photo from the visitors are.
Next choice.
Fast road via Krugersdorp, nice road via Hekpoort. Hekpoort here I come.
Turned right on the D400 past the CSIR Radio Space Research Centre. Here are some photos just before the centre.
Here are the satellite dishes. I wonder if theyâ??ve got DSTV?
Just after I left home I realised that I have left my rain suite at home. It rained Friday afternoon, big parts of Saturday and early Sunday morning. What are the changes that I will stay dry. Well I took the chance. Seeing this I wondered again about staying dry.
Here is a little rock formation just after the CSIR.
I got to the T-junctions with R512. Now where to go? Right towards Broederstoom and be back home on time or Left towards a T-junction to turn right to Broederstroom and be back home on time. Well I turned left. When I got to the Peacanwood 4 way stop I know that I was wrong. However I saw this.
It was at this turnoff.
Anybody know anything about this place?
I turned around back to where I got from, this time getting to Broederstroom. Here I encountered the dreaded Joburg drivers on a Sunday afternoon driver to Harties. Boy but they cannot drive. Luckily they all turned off on the R512 towards Lanseria. I kept going straight towards the Hennopsriver drive (R511?). At the four way stop a 1200GS overtook me. The old ballie (I think if I saw the face correctly, registration number NU 1??????) had a pillion as well. I thought that I will try and stay with them to see what kind of line they take so that I can maybe learn from them. We had one uphill where they left me behind. After that we had traffic with a car between us. We just had to follow the speed of the traffic. I was second last in the queue of cars. There were a Z4 behind me. A vehicle in front of me, then the old ballie and then another 5 or 6 cars. Suddenly the ass@#$% in the Z4 decides to overtake everybody. There is no space for him anywhere but still gives it a go. He only got past GS and then had to push a place for him in the queue. So he scored 30 or 40meters, the d@#$. After that no other incidents back home.
Total time: 2 hours 23 minutes
Distance: 178.3 km
As a last thought. What is the story with Sunday riders? During the week about 60% of riders either greet first or returns the greeting. I am mostly the one to slow to return the greeting. But today of the 10 to 12 riders that came from the front only 1 returned the greeting.
Cheers
Stormer
After keeping â??she-who-must-be-kept-happyâ? happy, I got to do a little ride. I had about 2 hours to ride. Phoned a friend but he was busy with lunch at the mother and couldnâ??t come. So here I go. But where to? Didnâ??t want to do the Harties/Brits thing. Too many Sunday afternoon drivers. Pretoria East is too far. It is going to take about half an hour just to get there. The only other place that I could think of was the cradle. I have been in the area before but not the cradle itself.
Here is the time and kilometer reading just be fore I left.
Took the old Pretoria West/Sandton road to the Minavonie circle. Right on Ruimte Avenue towards Diepsloot. Took the â??other N14â?, the R114 to Muldersdrift.
I have done the road a few times up to the robot at the Lion Park. The taxiâ??s was not too bad. The trucks during the week are worst but being a Sunday there were none. The portion between Malibongwe and Beyers Naudé was a first. Turned right on Beyers. Some kiloâ??s down the road I turned left onto a gravel road. Thought maybe it will get me to the N14 just past Krugersdorp. Alas the road lasted for 500m and then ended at a lodge. Had to turn around. This was my first gravel road experience so I was a bit apprehensive.
For a first time I did not put it down nor had a â??momentâ? but I were also only doing about 50. My total off road experience on a 2 wheeler. 1 km.
Here is a view towards Pretoria from Beyers Naudé.
Got to the T-Junction.
Right towards home, left towards some more riding. Turned left. There were 2 other riders standing next to the road having a smoke. They were one of the few riders that returned the greeting. Made me think. There is sometime an advantage to smoking. It is forcing you to stop. For the non smokers like me I have to force my self to stop and take some photos and not just keep riding and looking.
Here are some pictures from the Kromdraai road.
Got to the Sterkfontein caves. I was about halfway through the riding time and decided to have a quick drink. The coke was quite reasonable priced. R8 at Steers, R6 at Spar, R5 at Sterkfontein. Maybe I should visit them more for the cheap coke.
Photo from the visitors are.
Next choice.
Fast road via Krugersdorp, nice road via Hekpoort. Hekpoort here I come.
Turned right on the D400 past the CSIR Radio Space Research Centre. Here are some photos just before the centre.
Here are the satellite dishes. I wonder if theyâ??ve got DSTV?
Just after I left home I realised that I have left my rain suite at home. It rained Friday afternoon, big parts of Saturday and early Sunday morning. What are the changes that I will stay dry. Well I took the chance. Seeing this I wondered again about staying dry.
Here is a little rock formation just after the CSIR.
I got to the T-junctions with R512. Now where to go? Right towards Broederstoom and be back home on time or Left towards a T-junction to turn right to Broederstroom and be back home on time. Well I turned left. When I got to the Peacanwood 4 way stop I know that I was wrong. However I saw this.
It was at this turnoff.
Anybody know anything about this place?
I turned around back to where I got from, this time getting to Broederstroom. Here I encountered the dreaded Joburg drivers on a Sunday afternoon driver to Harties. Boy but they cannot drive. Luckily they all turned off on the R512 towards Lanseria. I kept going straight towards the Hennopsriver drive (R511?). At the four way stop a 1200GS overtook me. The old ballie (I think if I saw the face correctly, registration number NU 1??????) had a pillion as well. I thought that I will try and stay with them to see what kind of line they take so that I can maybe learn from them. We had one uphill where they left me behind. After that we had traffic with a car between us. We just had to follow the speed of the traffic. I was second last in the queue of cars. There were a Z4 behind me. A vehicle in front of me, then the old ballie and then another 5 or 6 cars. Suddenly the ass@#$% in the Z4 decides to overtake everybody. There is no space for him anywhere but still gives it a go. He only got past GS and then had to push a place for him in the queue. So he scored 30 or 40meters, the d@#$. After that no other incidents back home.
Total time: 2 hours 23 minutes
Distance: 178.3 km
As a last thought. What is the story with Sunday riders? During the week about 60% of riders either greet first or returns the greeting. I am mostly the one to slow to return the greeting. But today of the 10 to 12 riders that came from the front only 1 returned the greeting.
Cheers
Stormer
