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Long way to Steytlerville December 2009 Part 1
Last year 2008 a group of us decided while we going touring lets get together in a town and celebrate new years together….we chose Calvina and what a gas we had…this year Shaun came up with the idea of Steytlerville,which suited me well as I had planned to finally do the Baviaans kloof and die Hel.
So plans where formulated for a ride as some folks where headed in different direction at different times….Shaun and I agreed to hook up in Patensie on the afternoon of the 23rd as the plan was to avoid too many tourists as ChrisL had said there where many 4x4s in the area and it gets busy…we thort the day before Xmas to do Baviaans wasn’t a bad idea
Skati and I headed out from Pretoria early on Tuesday 22nd to miss the Jhb traffic I decided to get out of Gauteng asap and we headed down the highway to Winburg from Winburg we took the road to Excelsior nice bits of gravel too. and all the back roads to Hobhouse then leka high speed gravel to Smithfield/Bethulie and on to sleep in Cradock for the first night aprox 900km…in Betulie I noted the outside temp at 42 degrees, we where in for a cooking good time
Church in Excelsior
Hennie Steyn Bridge Betulie
From the net
Compiled by: Trudie Venter ©
https://www.bethulie.com/interest01.htm
Hennie Steyn Bridge The construction of the Gariep Dam necessitated diverting the railroad to cross the Orange River south east of the town. The previous bridge serving both road and rail was demolished and in its place was built the Hennie Steyn Bridge, some 1121 metres long. It is said to be the longest road and rail bridge in Africa using 120000 cubic metres of concrete and 6100 tons of steel reinforcing in its construction. It was opened in March 1972.
Gariep Dam Gariep is derived from the San meaning “red water”. The decision to site the dam wall near Norvals Pont was a disappointment for Bethulie as it was hoped that it would be close to Bethulie. A delegation met the Minister to discuss the impact of this decision as it meant that Bethulie District would lose some 60% of its land area and it would also necessitate the construction of new road and rail links. The dam measures 360 square kilometres and has a shoreline of 435 km. The Oviston project feeds water via a tunnel some 80 km long to the Fish River. Construction was completed in 1972 and the official opening took place on March 4 1972. The name change from Verwoerd to Gariep took effect on April 1 1995.
In Cradock we stayed at Die Tuishuise it was very nice and had an aircon too so that made it awesome….lots of history and in the room was a book of stories of the history of Cradock
It used to have one of the biggest and oldest oak trees in the world apparently. Unfortunately the next morning we found out it was cut down by some dick after being hit by lightning, when we wanted to go see it.
Also I tried picturing the so called wool boom they had in the early 50s and some of these farmers driving Rolls Royce’s down the gravel rds, which apparently happened in those early years
Any way I found Cradock an interesting town and we took a quick drive around looking at the houses and eventually for the R337 to Pearston and Jansenville
Gravel start to the R337
I thought the R337 was one of the nicest scenic roads ive been on in a while lovely gravel road winding its way up and down mountains past remote farms and valleys
I remember thinking to my self these Eastern Cape riders are lucky buggers having this kind of playground in their back yard
R337 with Cradock in the distance
Pearston we got some real Karoo dry wors from the butcher for lunch and the ride ahead, what I noted was twice the volume and half the price vs. Gauteng….mmmm (won’t go there now)
Pearston Church
The road to Jansenville was uneventful besides an overtaking manoeuvre I had to make… riding the sand ridge at plenty fast in half dust to get by a horse and bakkie trailer…im very proud of my pillion Backseat rider not a squeak
From Jansenville it was tar to Uitenhage and then Patensie to catch up with Shaun and Liesl
This part was new for me and it was nice to take a sedate cruise through places I had never been before
It was not difficult to spot two bikes outside the little restaurant/shop and we joined up with our two friends after they had been on the road a few days before us. While having a coffee .a face popped through the fence and asked “who of you are Wild Dogs?”…we all sang in unison..”All of us” then introduced ourselves to Chicco from KZN and a brief chat on where to.. how long etc etc ive only met nice WD people so far and this was no exception
We met up with Shaun and Liesl
Patensie is quaint little citrus town with lots of B&Bs on the eastern side of Baviaans we stocked up at the Spar and headed for our B&B for a swim and a braai and its here Shaun taught me how lekker one can make Karoo lamb chops with just a lemon….absolutely delicious….
Next morning up nice and early for a hearty breakfast and the anticipation of doing Baviaans kloof for the first time
The most important thing I can say with regards to the Baviaans is this….don’t wait too long to do it like I did…This is an amazingly beautiful ride with breathtaking scenery and views absolutely ,awesome awesome awesome .Im going again soon!!
The terrain was dry as you know the area is going through one of its worst droughts in years…we only counted 14 water/tiny stream crossings beginning to end…very sad indeed when I see photos of others previous trips
Liesl impressed me no end with her ability on the 800GS especially considering her first off road experience was only in April and this the second time she doing the Baviaans already
Liesl on her 800GS
A point of mention I must say…no one told me or I cant remember if they did… when doing the Baviaans east to west when you get to the long pebble river crossing section stay right as there is a moer of a deep hole in the left lane at the beginning of the crossing….mmmm lucky for skati and I there was not much water and I can imagine a drowned GSA had there been…so if you read this you been warned
Another thing worth mentioning and ChrisL had eluded to this on the forum prior to us going…the Baviaans was fairly busy with tourists and 4x4s at regular intervals so be on the look out. I was surprised to see portable toilets placed strategically around the kloof…even the day before Xmas it was relatively busy
Liesl had insisted we head for the caves she had heard about previously and im glad we did as this was a wonderful experience Kraanzkop I think its called they have 5 enclosed caves for accommodation located about three quarters of the way through the Baviaans direction east to west and cheap think it cost us R80.00 per person
Don’t get put off from outside view and it beats camping any day
We had a leka braai and kuir with the supplies from the Patensie Spar. Nothing beats a campfire biking and friends
Next day Xmas day got off to an interesting start Skati and I depart first down the sand road to the main gravel and im in full Xmas spirit and enjoying the great outdoors also tonking it a bit windgat probably when all or a sudden there are two cars coming at me around the bend at this time of the frigging morning on Xmas day…what’s the odds???Lucky I remembered to deactivate my ABS…I hit the rear brake slide left up the sand embankment and fly past both of them….couldn’t help but notice only the second cars drivers eyes the size of dog balls….mmmm close call and unexpected, but a lucky break to wake up to the fact that what we do is dangerous and we don’t always get second chances
Baviaans is too nice to go flying through and it’s hard to stay focused on the road and not fixate on the stunning rock formations and scenery
Been there got the sticker
SEE PART 2 for the rest
https://wilddog.net.za/forum/index.php?topic=43222.0
Last year 2008 a group of us decided while we going touring lets get together in a town and celebrate new years together….we chose Calvina and what a gas we had…this year Shaun came up with the idea of Steytlerville,which suited me well as I had planned to finally do the Baviaans kloof and die Hel.
So plans where formulated for a ride as some folks where headed in different direction at different times….Shaun and I agreed to hook up in Patensie on the afternoon of the 23rd as the plan was to avoid too many tourists as ChrisL had said there where many 4x4s in the area and it gets busy…we thort the day before Xmas to do Baviaans wasn’t a bad idea
Skati and I headed out from Pretoria early on Tuesday 22nd to miss the Jhb traffic I decided to get out of Gauteng asap and we headed down the highway to Winburg from Winburg we took the road to Excelsior nice bits of gravel too. and all the back roads to Hobhouse then leka high speed gravel to Smithfield/Bethulie and on to sleep in Cradock for the first night aprox 900km…in Betulie I noted the outside temp at 42 degrees, we where in for a cooking good time
Church in Excelsior
Hennie Steyn Bridge Betulie
From the net
Compiled by: Trudie Venter ©
https://www.bethulie.com/interest01.htm
Hennie Steyn Bridge The construction of the Gariep Dam necessitated diverting the railroad to cross the Orange River south east of the town. The previous bridge serving both road and rail was demolished and in its place was built the Hennie Steyn Bridge, some 1121 metres long. It is said to be the longest road and rail bridge in Africa using 120000 cubic metres of concrete and 6100 tons of steel reinforcing in its construction. It was opened in March 1972.
Gariep Dam Gariep is derived from the San meaning “red water”. The decision to site the dam wall near Norvals Pont was a disappointment for Bethulie as it was hoped that it would be close to Bethulie. A delegation met the Minister to discuss the impact of this decision as it meant that Bethulie District would lose some 60% of its land area and it would also necessitate the construction of new road and rail links. The dam measures 360 square kilometres and has a shoreline of 435 km. The Oviston project feeds water via a tunnel some 80 km long to the Fish River. Construction was completed in 1972 and the official opening took place on March 4 1972. The name change from Verwoerd to Gariep took effect on April 1 1995.
In Cradock we stayed at Die Tuishuise it was very nice and had an aircon too so that made it awesome….lots of history and in the room was a book of stories of the history of Cradock
It used to have one of the biggest and oldest oak trees in the world apparently. Unfortunately the next morning we found out it was cut down by some dick after being hit by lightning, when we wanted to go see it.
Also I tried picturing the so called wool boom they had in the early 50s and some of these farmers driving Rolls Royce’s down the gravel rds, which apparently happened in those early years
Any way I found Cradock an interesting town and we took a quick drive around looking at the houses and eventually for the R337 to Pearston and Jansenville
Gravel start to the R337
I thought the R337 was one of the nicest scenic roads ive been on in a while lovely gravel road winding its way up and down mountains past remote farms and valleys
I remember thinking to my self these Eastern Cape riders are lucky buggers having this kind of playground in their back yard
R337 with Cradock in the distance
Pearston we got some real Karoo dry wors from the butcher for lunch and the ride ahead, what I noted was twice the volume and half the price vs. Gauteng….mmmm (won’t go there now)
Pearston Church
The road to Jansenville was uneventful besides an overtaking manoeuvre I had to make… riding the sand ridge at plenty fast in half dust to get by a horse and bakkie trailer…im very proud of my pillion Backseat rider not a squeak
From Jansenville it was tar to Uitenhage and then Patensie to catch up with Shaun and Liesl
This part was new for me and it was nice to take a sedate cruise through places I had never been before
It was not difficult to spot two bikes outside the little restaurant/shop and we joined up with our two friends after they had been on the road a few days before us. While having a coffee .a face popped through the fence and asked “who of you are Wild Dogs?”…we all sang in unison..”All of us” then introduced ourselves to Chicco from KZN and a brief chat on where to.. how long etc etc ive only met nice WD people so far and this was no exception
We met up with Shaun and Liesl
Patensie is quaint little citrus town with lots of B&Bs on the eastern side of Baviaans we stocked up at the Spar and headed for our B&B for a swim and a braai and its here Shaun taught me how lekker one can make Karoo lamb chops with just a lemon….absolutely delicious….
Next morning up nice and early for a hearty breakfast and the anticipation of doing Baviaans kloof for the first time
The most important thing I can say with regards to the Baviaans is this….don’t wait too long to do it like I did…This is an amazingly beautiful ride with breathtaking scenery and views absolutely ,awesome awesome awesome .Im going again soon!!
The terrain was dry as you know the area is going through one of its worst droughts in years…we only counted 14 water/tiny stream crossings beginning to end…very sad indeed when I see photos of others previous trips
Liesl impressed me no end with her ability on the 800GS especially considering her first off road experience was only in April and this the second time she doing the Baviaans already
Liesl on her 800GS
A point of mention I must say…no one told me or I cant remember if they did… when doing the Baviaans east to west when you get to the long pebble river crossing section stay right as there is a moer of a deep hole in the left lane at the beginning of the crossing….mmmm lucky for skati and I there was not much water and I can imagine a drowned GSA had there been…so if you read this you been warned
Another thing worth mentioning and ChrisL had eluded to this on the forum prior to us going…the Baviaans was fairly busy with tourists and 4x4s at regular intervals so be on the look out. I was surprised to see portable toilets placed strategically around the kloof…even the day before Xmas it was relatively busy
Liesl had insisted we head for the caves she had heard about previously and im glad we did as this was a wonderful experience Kraanzkop I think its called they have 5 enclosed caves for accommodation located about three quarters of the way through the Baviaans direction east to west and cheap think it cost us R80.00 per person
Don’t get put off from outside view and it beats camping any day
We had a leka braai and kuir with the supplies from the Patensie Spar. Nothing beats a campfire biking and friends
Next day Xmas day got off to an interesting start Skati and I depart first down the sand road to the main gravel and im in full Xmas spirit and enjoying the great outdoors also tonking it a bit windgat probably when all or a sudden there are two cars coming at me around the bend at this time of the frigging morning on Xmas day…what’s the odds???Lucky I remembered to deactivate my ABS…I hit the rear brake slide left up the sand embankment and fly past both of them….couldn’t help but notice only the second cars drivers eyes the size of dog balls….mmmm close call and unexpected, but a lucky break to wake up to the fact that what we do is dangerous and we don’t always get second chances
Baviaans is too nice to go flying through and it’s hard to stay focused on the road and not fixate on the stunning rock formations and scenery
Been there got the sticker
SEE PART 2 for the rest
https://wilddog.net.za/forum/index.php?topic=43222.0
