cloudgazer
Grey Hound
- Joined
- Oct 9, 2007
- Messages
- 5,135
- Reaction score
- 5
- Bike
- BMW F650GS / Dakar
Thurs 9th Sept 2010
Dawn!
The sun rises above the distant mountains beyond Cape Town, painting the sky with magnificent Manet-like pastels. Pinks, blues, oranges, and the purple of fading night are punctuated by tiny clouds.
It was the most spectacular dawn one could imagine.
And The Cloudgazer missed it.
As usual he splashed on his clothes as he spilled out of bed at a civilized hour.
Today was no ordinary day, it was Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year, but there was no way The Cloudgazer would be going to synagogue. What better way to start the new year than by taking a bike trip? It was time to shake off the shackles, leave the stinky city behind, time to forget about stupid strikers, and ridiculous governments. It was time to discover the Legend of Baviaanskloof: a place that has reached near mythical proportions in the DS riding community. This weekend The Cloudgazer and his gang would discover the magic of this legendary place for themselves…. Or would they?
The Cloudgazer originally planned to do this trip solo, but once he set a date and put together an approximate plan and route, his mates decided to join him.
Loki, the mischievous demi-god, in whose company anything could (and probably would) happen, would join him. As would Bald-Eagle (named for reasons better not mentioned in decent public places) and New-Guy, one of Bald-Eagle’s mates. New-Guy quickly became part of the pack, and has since been christened Mr. Fixit.
The plans were set, and the big day finally dawned… we’ll pick up the story a couple of hours after the aforementioned sunrise.
The Fantastic Four:
Mr. Fixit (New Guy), Bald Eagle, Cloudgazer, Loki
I should have known my plans were going out the window the night before when Bald-Eagle called and told me his bike wasn’t starting. He was having trouble push starting it. I told him to try jump starting it, which worked… kind of… the bike would not hold it’s charge.
New-Guy’s bike was only arriving by courier from JHB at 07h30, and we were planning to leave by 09h00… that didn’t happen!
By the time we got his 1200GS, had breakfast and push-started Bald-Eagle’s bike (for the first of many times) it was after 10am.
I’d plotted a nice meandering 500km route to Amber Lagoon near Oudtshoorn.
But on the dirt roads before Swellendam my GPS suddenly got very confused, and lead us down a road that came to an abrupt end. A moment later it showed the road just a few hundred meters to our left, so we followed that. But then it showed a different road.
WTF?
I dunno what form of electronic drugs a GPS can take, but it was obvious my device had overdosed.
Bald-Eagle had his first little off of the trip, and managed to bend his footpeg’s bracket. This is where an excellent multi-tool proved it’s value. A nicely shaped 2kg rock knocked the peg back into position. His bike was still not starting of it’s own accord so we had to push him.
While trying to navigate the strangely moving road we encountered an area of soft sand, and Bald-Eagle stalled a couple of times.
We got tired of push starting his bike and made him walk it out the soft stuff to a firmer area before giving him a hand again. This was getting ridiculous now. It would be stupid to attempt Baviaans with his bike in this condition. We’d have to make a plan.
Mr. Fixit - doing it in style.
Bald Eagle's turn.
We finally navigated our way back to the N2 and raced for Swellendam, hoping to get a new battery. While Bald-Eagle was missioning we had a lovely lazy lunch at a very pink place. Really good though!
Getting lost in the farmlands and having a double lunch in Swellendam put us massively behind schedule, so instead of following the meandering route I’d devised we chose the most direct route to our destination.
Unfortunately we didn’t get there till after dark.
We were too buggered to bother setting up our own tents and opted to stay in the safari type tents on offer. Amber Lagoon is a very beautiful place and comes highly recommended.
How the hell did my little tent become so spacious? And will you look at that, two pillows!!!
We planned to get an early start the next morning… Day 2 was going to be a big day.
Baviaanskloof!
Finally!
AWhoooHooo!
DAY 2:
The day dawned as day’s usually do with the sun peeking over the horizon.
There was no need to match the Sun God’s vim and vigor though. We figured any bike shops in Oudtshoorn wouldn’t open before 08h30 anyway.
We found a place that had a battery, and we went for breakfast while they fitted it.
Hello, can you hear me? Is this thing working? You’ve been a wonderful audience.
After breakfast Loki and Mr. Fixit decided they wanted waffles…. The first sign that things were not gonna go according to plan. Again!
It was time to make a move. Baviaanskloof beckoned.
We twisted throttles and headed for Willowmore, where we filled up and bought our food and drink for the night. This time it was Bald-Eagle that wanted to stay for lunch. I insisted we eat on the road, we still had a long distance to cover.
Aw come on Bald-Eagle said we’ll only be half an hour.
Yeah right!
The other guys also let their stomachs make the decision for them.
We rolled out of Willowmore an hour and a half later. Grrr.
It was already after 13h30. We’d never make it to Bruintjieskraal today. Our bloody stomachs had scuppered our plans to do Baviaanskloof today.
We decided to change our route by reversing our plans, we’d go north around Baviaanskloof on the T2 route to Patensie today, and do Baviaanskloof tomorrow. I don’t know what made me think it would be a simple fast ride on wide gravel highways.
This is NOT the way to pack your bike. Bald Eagle lost the pineapple within 500 metres of starting on the gravel, and his camping stool and cap disappeared not long after.
Another problem was that the GPS showed a different road to the one on a paper map we had. We ended up taking a couple of wrong turns, losing valuable time. So we decided to put our faith in the paper map only, screw my temperamental GPS.
The roads were incredible, and the scenery stunning, but these were not the gravel highways I was expecting, and it was fairly slow going. As the afternoon wore on the weather started turning, the clouds descended and a light rain fell upon us. I hate to say it, but those clouds meant we were riding into a serious shit storm.
It looks beautiful, but it really wasn't.
It’s obvious that it had been raining in the area for a few days cause suddenly the roads were totally sodden and slick. The water wasn’t draining! At first it wasn’t so bad, and then all of a sudden it was. It was like trying to rollerblade on ice.
Bald-Eagle took a tumble on a fairly steep descent, and him and his bike simply slid for over 10 meters on the road. It was actually quite comical. He came off two more times on the next ascent.
While we helped Bald-Eagle, Loki went on ahead to scout the road. He came back with a grim report. The next descent and ascent were much steeper and longer, and we had no idea how long this would continue for. By now it was after five, and there was very little hope of making Patensie. In fact, make that no hope whatsoever.
We decided to turn around and head for Steytlerville about 60kms away.
We did the last part of the journey in total darkness. And the one thing I learnt is that the headlight on the Dakar is totally useless. With the high-beam on you can kinda see something’s on either the side of the road, but really not much at all. And with the low beam you can barely see 10 feet ahead of you. I thought I had all the farkles my bike needed. Obviously not, a new headlight is a definite must.
It’s kinda frightening riding dirt roads in the dark. I couldn’t see the middelmannetjies, couldn’t read the terrain. I felt like a blind man at Teasers.
Wet, cold, muddy and completely drained we arrived in Steytlerville at about 7pm. The first place we saw was the Royal Hotel, and that’s where we stopped. Our budget camping weekend was ruined!
But the rooms and hot shower more than made up for it.
It was almost 10 by the time we ate, and after 11 when we crawled thankfully into bed.
We’d been beaten by bad planning, horrible weather and treacherous roads.
Hmmm, not bad. Not bad. Not as cozy as my tent, but I guess it’ll do.
To be continued...
