Miles
Pack Dog
The original plan was Niekie and his Daughter on a trip to Sutherland to see the stars and explore the area, however his group grew to seven people and Sutherland was experiencing the first signs of the ecconomic turn, nothing available for the long weekend.
So change of plan and accommodation was arranged at a farm 60km from Graaf Reinet.
Our group consisted of Niekie and Family (Carin and two kids Nieke and Willie) myself, Jan from Dwaalboom (80km west of Thabazimbi) and Riaan from Klerksdorp who joined us in Bloemfontein. Carin and Willie driving by car.
We left Friday afternoon from Niekie's house in Sasolburg for Bloemfontein 1Stop and on to Tom's Place 40km down the N1, a clean place but not bike freindly and deposits are required for too many things to mention, they do have a resturant with beer at half the price of Coke. We went back to the rooms and spoke bike and other interesting subjects, while trying to drink a complete jar of Jacobs coffee, we did not succeed.
The next morning we rode down to the almost dried out Tierpoort dam to take some pictures, well the owner almost had a fit and was quite pissed off to say the least, if you have a 4x4 it would not be a problem as I saw about ten vehicles in this area, what's the flippin difference.
We then travelled to Gariep Dam to have a look at the sights before going to Colesburg for brunch at the Wimpy.
After this we gave up on the tar and took to the dirt roads for a much better view of the country, this was much better with fantastic roads, very smooth and long. We rode dirt all the way to Middleburg for fuel and then through the Eureka Highlands Nature Reserve and round the back down to Nieu Bethesda
Nieu Bethesda was very interesting, saw the Owl house but did not go inside, went to the local brewery and tasted the ale's (some interesting folks live out in these small towns, err genoeg said)
It was a windy day and the clodes started rolling in, we had a good rain fall that night.
We then had to leave as we still had to ride 60km to our second and third night's accommodation, all dirt over the N9 to the most fantastically restored 1800 farm house.
On arrival at the farm we did not expect what we saw and were truly transformed with amazement. No electricity, no phone or cell phone signal, not even radio signal so we missed the rugby, shame.
The donkey used to make hot water was the best I've every seen we added more wood to the fire as it looked a bit small, and wow was that water hot, we produced supper heated steam(Hello Eskom biuld some of these - cheap to run)
The vice mounted to a tree stump, some say it was last used to carry out repairs on a KTM.
The rest of the house was also great each with our own sleeping area.
It started to rain so we made the braai in the kitchen, also see the oven for baking bread, the stove and fridges worked on gas, oh! and the water from the windmill pump.
We made a great dinner after a long day of adventure, and polished the two bottles of wine which Jan carried in his tank bag.
The next day we rode a long way round to Graaf Reinet 60km on spectacular dirt roads, we must have crossed about 30 streams over the whole weekend. we stopped in Graaf Reinet for breakfast at the Wimpy, see pic of the famous church.
We then travelled over the pass towards Murraysburg before turning left on a long way round back to Nieu Bethesda for lunch.
Before lunch we did the good biker thing and changed the tyre on a Toyota for some nice Dutch people.
Well long weekend in Nieu Beshesda is a bit much for some of the residents to handle as far as catering, at the brewery we were told our lunch would take about an hour, "ha" "ha" an hour they only served a cheese platter how long does that take, they only had about 15 people to serve. So we left and went to to resturant, which only had four other people at one table, they also warned us of slow delivery, it took on hour and fifteen minutes for our Karoo lamp chops to arrive. Quite good but time means nothing in this town. We even moved tables while waiting.
Did I mention this was a slow town.
After lunch we headed out on a different route back to the farm, with great veiws and stopped at an abandonded railway station.
On arrival back at the farm we cleaned up and packed for the next morning early start, a chicken braai was on the menu done outside while watching the most amazing stars.
All arrived home safe on Monday, Great weekend.
So change of plan and accommodation was arranged at a farm 60km from Graaf Reinet.
Our group consisted of Niekie and Family (Carin and two kids Nieke and Willie) myself, Jan from Dwaalboom (80km west of Thabazimbi) and Riaan from Klerksdorp who joined us in Bloemfontein. Carin and Willie driving by car.
We left Friday afternoon from Niekie's house in Sasolburg for Bloemfontein 1Stop and on to Tom's Place 40km down the N1, a clean place but not bike freindly and deposits are required for too many things to mention, they do have a resturant with beer at half the price of Coke. We went back to the rooms and spoke bike and other interesting subjects, while trying to drink a complete jar of Jacobs coffee, we did not succeed.
The next morning we rode down to the almost dried out Tierpoort dam to take some pictures, well the owner almost had a fit and was quite pissed off to say the least, if you have a 4x4 it would not be a problem as I saw about ten vehicles in this area, what's the flippin difference.
We then travelled to Gariep Dam to have a look at the sights before going to Colesburg for brunch at the Wimpy.
After this we gave up on the tar and took to the dirt roads for a much better view of the country, this was much better with fantastic roads, very smooth and long. We rode dirt all the way to Middleburg for fuel and then through the Eureka Highlands Nature Reserve and round the back down to Nieu Bethesda
Nieu Bethesda was very interesting, saw the Owl house but did not go inside, went to the local brewery and tasted the ale's (some interesting folks live out in these small towns, err genoeg said)
It was a windy day and the clodes started rolling in, we had a good rain fall that night.
We then had to leave as we still had to ride 60km to our second and third night's accommodation, all dirt over the N9 to the most fantastically restored 1800 farm house.
On arrival at the farm we did not expect what we saw and were truly transformed with amazement. No electricity, no phone or cell phone signal, not even radio signal so we missed the rugby, shame.
The donkey used to make hot water was the best I've every seen we added more wood to the fire as it looked a bit small, and wow was that water hot, we produced supper heated steam(Hello Eskom biuld some of these - cheap to run)
The vice mounted to a tree stump, some say it was last used to carry out repairs on a KTM.
The rest of the house was also great each with our own sleeping area.
It started to rain so we made the braai in the kitchen, also see the oven for baking bread, the stove and fridges worked on gas, oh! and the water from the windmill pump.
We made a great dinner after a long day of adventure, and polished the two bottles of wine which Jan carried in his tank bag.
The next day we rode a long way round to Graaf Reinet 60km on spectacular dirt roads, we must have crossed about 30 streams over the whole weekend. we stopped in Graaf Reinet for breakfast at the Wimpy, see pic of the famous church.
We then travelled over the pass towards Murraysburg before turning left on a long way round back to Nieu Bethesda for lunch.
Before lunch we did the good biker thing and changed the tyre on a Toyota for some nice Dutch people.
Well long weekend in Nieu Beshesda is a bit much for some of the residents to handle as far as catering, at the brewery we were told our lunch would take about an hour, "ha" "ha" an hour they only served a cheese platter how long does that take, they only had about 15 people to serve. So we left and went to to resturant, which only had four other people at one table, they also warned us of slow delivery, it took on hour and fifteen minutes for our Karoo lamp chops to arrive. Quite good but time means nothing in this town. We even moved tables while waiting.
Did I mention this was a slow town.
After lunch we headed out on a different route back to the farm, with great veiws and stopped at an abandonded railway station.
On arrival back at the farm we cleaned up and packed for the next morning early start, a chicken braai was on the menu done outside while watching the most amazing stars.
All arrived home safe on Monday, Great weekend.
