Kreef
Race Dog
The first winter storms had hit the Western Cape (and the rest of the country) with a mighty chill and the mountain tops were covered in a blanket of snow. The next day (16 June) was a public holiday and the opportunity for a ride to the snow could not be missed, so a last minute planning a ride post was made.
The call for riding partners was answered by 4 brave souls. Savage on his BMW Dakar, Ice Man on his BMW Funduro, Snafu on his BMW 1200GS and myself and pillion on my Dakar. mmm... all BMW. Don't really know why no other brands were willing to join the fun >
We met up at the Engen one stop were I was just in time to see off the guys going to the EC Bash. I was VERY jealous! :'( I had woken up to the sound of rain on my roof and I was not pleased. But, as I was getting ready, the rain seemed to subside and the clouds opened up just a little bit... maybe today would be a good day yet. By the time left the Engen, the rain was completely gone and the sun started peeking out every now and again. This made visibility on the wet road quite bad.
We headed through to Wellington to cross Bainskloof. Even though the road was technically closed, there was alot of traffic on the pass. This was my first time riding with a pillion on the road and I must say I was loving it. The only other time I had ridden with a pillion was on a gravel road, at 20km/h and we came off around a corner. The bike landed with the pillion footpeg right on his foot and crushed several bones. This time I was going to ride much more carefully! Bainskloof started out slowly but as I realized that the bike handling was 99% the same as riding without a pillion, I started picking up the pace, just to see how the biked handled. I was finally over my fear of riding with a pillion.
We made our first stop just past the top of Bainskloof. The sun had now come out and it was turning into a beautiful day. The river was very high and fast flowing after the rain
The pillion. As you can see, the road was now gleaming in the sunlight!
Heading into Ceres, the traffic was hectic! Seems the entire Cape Town population came out to see the snow. By now the hands were freezing and my toes were numb, so we made a quick coffee break and then headed through to the Matroosberg reserve. We arrived so see a LOOOONG line of cars waiting to get in. Its times like these that I love my bike the most!!
And this was what everyone came to see:
I had planned not to do ANY offroad riding on this ride, but because it was so easy to ride with a pillion and because the rest of the grouped seems like they were very capable to handle some slippery terrain, we decided to head up a bit. There was traffic ALL over the place and again we were just flying past cars. We eventually stopped for some fun in the snow
Then it was time to head back. All in all, this was a very fun day out. Thanks to the guys who joined! Now please, post your photos!
The call for riding partners was answered by 4 brave souls. Savage on his BMW Dakar, Ice Man on his BMW Funduro, Snafu on his BMW 1200GS and myself and pillion on my Dakar. mmm... all BMW. Don't really know why no other brands were willing to join the fun >
We met up at the Engen one stop were I was just in time to see off the guys going to the EC Bash. I was VERY jealous! :'( I had woken up to the sound of rain on my roof and I was not pleased. But, as I was getting ready, the rain seemed to subside and the clouds opened up just a little bit... maybe today would be a good day yet. By the time left the Engen, the rain was completely gone and the sun started peeking out every now and again. This made visibility on the wet road quite bad.
We headed through to Wellington to cross Bainskloof. Even though the road was technically closed, there was alot of traffic on the pass. This was my first time riding with a pillion on the road and I must say I was loving it. The only other time I had ridden with a pillion was on a gravel road, at 20km/h and we came off around a corner. The bike landed with the pillion footpeg right on his foot and crushed several bones. This time I was going to ride much more carefully! Bainskloof started out slowly but as I realized that the bike handling was 99% the same as riding without a pillion, I started picking up the pace, just to see how the biked handled. I was finally over my fear of riding with a pillion.
We made our first stop just past the top of Bainskloof. The sun had now come out and it was turning into a beautiful day. The river was very high and fast flowing after the rain
The pillion. As you can see, the road was now gleaming in the sunlight!
Heading into Ceres, the traffic was hectic! Seems the entire Cape Town population came out to see the snow. By now the hands were freezing and my toes were numb, so we made a quick coffee break and then headed through to the Matroosberg reserve. We arrived so see a LOOOONG line of cars waiting to get in. Its times like these that I love my bike the most!!
And this was what everyone came to see:
I had planned not to do ANY offroad riding on this ride, but because it was so easy to ride with a pillion and because the rest of the grouped seems like they were very capable to handle some slippery terrain, we decided to head up a bit. There was traffic ALL over the place and again we were just flying past cars. We eventually stopped for some fun in the snow
Then it was time to head back. All in all, this was a very fun day out. Thanks to the guys who joined! Now please, post your photos!
