masehare
Race Dog
- Joined
- Oct 26, 2010
- Messages
- 991
- Reaction score
- 24
- Bike
- BMW F800GS
Toorwater has been on Deon's bucket list for a long time now, so we eventually found a weekend that would suit all involved. I would join him and his son, Gideon, on this trip. The T4A maps helped with the route planning, although I feel the the Openstreetmaps would have sufficed. The plan was to use De Rust as a base and do a circle route, coming back via Meiringspoort. We took the small bikes which meant carrying extra fuel for the bikes with the standard sized tanks.
The bikes were carted on the back of a bakkie to our base at Tonnelkop and we arrived at 21h30 on the Friday evening. A quick braai and a beer and it was off to bed to be fresh for the trip the next day.
We set off early-ish, stopping in De Rust to fill up the bikes and a couple of 2 liter Coke bottles as extra fuel. Then stopping at some train stations on the way (CLICK FOR LARGER PICS):
Rooikop station:
All too keen to comply when you ask "Pose like a gangsta!":
Some of the terrain at Barandas station:
Filling up at Toorwater station:
We first checked out the catholic church (Immaculate Mary) before taking on the poort:
And the derelict warm bath resort. This water is quite warm and pumping out at a rate that would make a Capetonian jealous:
We chose to ride between the tracks:
In the poort rest stop. The poort is about 10kms in length. Driving on the tracks was quite an art. The first km, we could not keep our feet on the pegs as the track ballast was low and it turned out into a bumpy ride. After that it became a bit better, but the ballast rocks still made the bikes unstable. A good speed was about 40km/h. There is nowhere to drive other than on the tracks - the river bed is quite low down and strewn with huge boulders.
After the poort we kept going North past Vondeling, following the road to get back to the N12.
This guy was HUGE!!
A farm yard on the way back to the N12. All this was neatly packed on the yard, probably been there a couple of years. Not a soul in sight:
The bar at Klaarstroom. They now have petrol and an offsales too, but only at certain times of the day.
Back at Tonnelkop:
The route we were supposed to take is attached. But we accidentally took the Soetendalspoort pass North. Which was a blessing in disguise as it's a beautiful road, crossing the river plenty times. All in distance was 221km. About 191km to Klaarstroom where we could get petrol for the first time.
The bikes were carted on the back of a bakkie to our base at Tonnelkop and we arrived at 21h30 on the Friday evening. A quick braai and a beer and it was off to bed to be fresh for the trip the next day.
We set off early-ish, stopping in De Rust to fill up the bikes and a couple of 2 liter Coke bottles as extra fuel. Then stopping at some train stations on the way (CLICK FOR LARGER PICS):
Rooikop station:
All too keen to comply when you ask "Pose like a gangsta!":
Some of the terrain at Barandas station:
Filling up at Toorwater station:
We first checked out the catholic church (Immaculate Mary) before taking on the poort:
And the derelict warm bath resort. This water is quite warm and pumping out at a rate that would make a Capetonian jealous:
We chose to ride between the tracks:
In the poort rest stop. The poort is about 10kms in length. Driving on the tracks was quite an art. The first km, we could not keep our feet on the pegs as the track ballast was low and it turned out into a bumpy ride. After that it became a bit better, but the ballast rocks still made the bikes unstable. A good speed was about 40km/h. There is nowhere to drive other than on the tracks - the river bed is quite low down and strewn with huge boulders.
After the poort we kept going North past Vondeling, following the road to get back to the N12.
This guy was HUGE!!
A farm yard on the way back to the N12. All this was neatly packed on the yard, probably been there a couple of years. Not a soul in sight:
The bar at Klaarstroom. They now have petrol and an offsales too, but only at certain times of the day.
Back at Tonnelkop:
The route we were supposed to take is attached. But we accidentally took the Soetendalspoort pass North. Which was a blessing in disguise as it's a beautiful road, crossing the river plenty times. All in distance was 221km. About 191km to Klaarstroom where we could get petrol for the first time.
