MRK Miller
Pack Dog
To ride a motorbike is awesome. To ride a motorbike on some less traveled road in the heart and beauty of God's creation, is even better. To be able to share it with someone who does not have the same opportunities where they live, well let's just say, it was a honor. Mick is from England, send here by his company to come and install masjienery my company has acquired. Now like they say all work and no play makes Jack, in this case Mick, a dull boy. A weekend is discussed and as it may there is a long weekend on hand. A Saturday is worked in to get the Friday of. So the trip gets moved on a week earlier. I also have to amend my route as we now have a day in hand and Bakkers pass pops up on my radar. Mick arrives at my house the Friday morning with a rucksack only and I am slightly surprised. As a tourist from England I was expecting slightly more luggage, as it is commonly known they do things in style. All be it the fact that we do not plan on camping.
Around 07hoo after greeting my loved ones we take to the road. Mick who has not been on a motorcycle since teenage, lets the bike die on the first few corners, but as we hit the open road, settles in well to the Klr which is a pretty simple bike to ride. We head first for Cullinan where we though to get some coffee to fight of the worst cold. Mick was also complaining about no feeling in his fingers, as the gloves he was using I reckon was more suited to summer riding. To our dismay the Kfc was being renovated, so no coffee to be had there. So onward we pressed for Maloto. We are lucky as we see our first game just outside Cullinan, and I think to myself, this is going to be a good one. Mick is here for the adventure, but also to see game in there wild environment. We reach Maloto turn off without incident, and take the rode left, to where we would get the Pienaars river-Rust de winter junction. We have also encountered some game on this road, but all at a distance. I use the quiet road to get some photo's of Mick settling in to the bike and enjoying the trip, since it started warming up as it does when you move north.
As we start the decent down to the valley a awesome sight welcomes us. Some fog has created a blanket over the valley, with only the highest tree tops being able to get there tops above the blanket. So taken by the by the seen like something you would only imagine in a movie from Robin hood, I forget to take a picture, till I was in the fog and it was too late. The fog is pretty thick, a dark by color, and soon to my dismay, a few drops are felt. Please God if it be, let it not rain this weekend, although I know we need it. After a fifteen minute stint in the wet the fog clouds open up and we are into sunshine. Thank you Lord is all I can reply in humbleness.. We reached the turn off to Pienaarsriver in good time and lean left into the turn. I did not want to stop here as there was a place further on down the road I wanted to stop for a photo session. We reached the mystic monkey and feathers zoo , and stopped for a picture of the one who guarded the gate.
Must have taken who ever created this beast a good bit of time to get this done. From there it was off to the N1. On the way we had warthog who though the KLR was really slow, and wanted to take it on, but soon turned into the bush when he realized his mistake. The N1 took us to the R516 wear we would stop for breakfast at Toeka road store. Fine place to eat this.
We both decide on the traditional breakfast, just to keep it simple. After breakfast I give Mick a chance to browse the curio shop. We see some more game as we exit toeka. From there we make our way to Warm baths (Bela Bela) where Mick lets the bike die a couple of times more at a few of the multitude stop streets that are at just about every intersection. Having made it through Warm bath ( Bela Bela) we head for Nylstroom (Modimole). It is always a awesome road across the mountain's. Again we see some game, but also again some distance away. Some springbuck, blue wilde beast and impala.
As we enter Modimole I see a familiar face busy selling her merchandise next to road. Aunt Susan, my dad's new companion, after my mother's passing.
She kept him going which in turn giving us some extra time with him. We stop for a photo, quick hallo, few bites to eat, mainly health rusks for breakfast, and to discuss the possibility of giving my dad a surprise visit the Saturday late afternoon, depending on the time it takes us to finish the route. We say our good buys we head for the first gas station, where we fill up. From there we stop at the main checkers centre where we stock up for supper. Each to his own.
As we exit the checkers centre we turn left in the direction of Naboom spruit (Mokgopong) till we get the Grootfontein turnoff. There we lean left into the turn once again to start our circle route. Mick's first taste of gravel. A nice solid foundation with a lot of loose stones, that makes the bike feel a bit loose. The road was pretty busy, taking into consideration it was Friday afternoon and business as usual, so I did not expect to see game early on the road, allowing us to concentrate on negotiating the loose gravel. It was a nice hard under surface with lots and lots of loose stones. Some small and some bigger. We took an easy pace to allow Mick to get use to the gravel, while I tough I was getting some footage of him on the action cam which never materialized.
It is dry, very dry, with dust covering the trees every where. Riding behind the dust also gets into the mouth, which then dries out quite quick. We did however see quite a lot of baboons along the way but they were really illusive and we could but try get a photo. They are worse than the big shot actors when they are caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.
We reach the first of two lookout points on this piece of road, and spend some time absorbing the stillness, and the awesome view, of what one would call the valley,
Around 07hoo after greeting my loved ones we take to the road. Mick who has not been on a motorcycle since teenage, lets the bike die on the first few corners, but as we hit the open road, settles in well to the Klr which is a pretty simple bike to ride. We head first for Cullinan where we though to get some coffee to fight of the worst cold. Mick was also complaining about no feeling in his fingers, as the gloves he was using I reckon was more suited to summer riding. To our dismay the Kfc was being renovated, so no coffee to be had there. So onward we pressed for Maloto. We are lucky as we see our first game just outside Cullinan, and I think to myself, this is going to be a good one. Mick is here for the adventure, but also to see game in there wild environment. We reach Maloto turn off without incident, and take the rode left, to where we would get the Pienaars river-Rust de winter junction. We have also encountered some game on this road, but all at a distance. I use the quiet road to get some photo's of Mick settling in to the bike and enjoying the trip, since it started warming up as it does when you move north.
As we start the decent down to the valley a awesome sight welcomes us. Some fog has created a blanket over the valley, with only the highest tree tops being able to get there tops above the blanket. So taken by the by the seen like something you would only imagine in a movie from Robin hood, I forget to take a picture, till I was in the fog and it was too late. The fog is pretty thick, a dark by color, and soon to my dismay, a few drops are felt. Please God if it be, let it not rain this weekend, although I know we need it. After a fifteen minute stint in the wet the fog clouds open up and we are into sunshine. Thank you Lord is all I can reply in humbleness.. We reached the turn off to Pienaarsriver in good time and lean left into the turn. I did not want to stop here as there was a place further on down the road I wanted to stop for a photo session. We reached the mystic monkey and feathers zoo , and stopped for a picture of the one who guarded the gate.
Must have taken who ever created this beast a good bit of time to get this done. From there it was off to the N1. On the way we had warthog who though the KLR was really slow, and wanted to take it on, but soon turned into the bush when he realized his mistake. The N1 took us to the R516 wear we would stop for breakfast at Toeka road store. Fine place to eat this.
We both decide on the traditional breakfast, just to keep it simple. After breakfast I give Mick a chance to browse the curio shop. We see some more game as we exit toeka. From there we make our way to Warm baths (Bela Bela) where Mick lets the bike die a couple of times more at a few of the multitude stop streets that are at just about every intersection. Having made it through Warm bath ( Bela Bela) we head for Nylstroom (Modimole). It is always a awesome road across the mountain's. Again we see some game, but also again some distance away. Some springbuck, blue wilde beast and impala.
As we enter Modimole I see a familiar face busy selling her merchandise next to road. Aunt Susan, my dad's new companion, after my mother's passing.
She kept him going which in turn giving us some extra time with him. We stop for a photo, quick hallo, few bites to eat, mainly health rusks for breakfast, and to discuss the possibility of giving my dad a surprise visit the Saturday late afternoon, depending on the time it takes us to finish the route. We say our good buys we head for the first gas station, where we fill up. From there we stop at the main checkers centre where we stock up for supper. Each to his own.
As we exit the checkers centre we turn left in the direction of Naboom spruit (Mokgopong) till we get the Grootfontein turnoff. There we lean left into the turn once again to start our circle route. Mick's first taste of gravel. A nice solid foundation with a lot of loose stones, that makes the bike feel a bit loose. The road was pretty busy, taking into consideration it was Friday afternoon and business as usual, so I did not expect to see game early on the road, allowing us to concentrate on negotiating the loose gravel. It was a nice hard under surface with lots and lots of loose stones. Some small and some bigger. We took an easy pace to allow Mick to get use to the gravel, while I tough I was getting some footage of him on the action cam which never materialized.
It is dry, very dry, with dust covering the trees every where. Riding behind the dust also gets into the mouth, which then dries out quite quick. We did however see quite a lot of baboons along the way but they were really illusive and we could but try get a photo. They are worse than the big shot actors when they are caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.
We reach the first of two lookout points on this piece of road, and spend some time absorbing the stillness, and the awesome view, of what one would call the valley,
