Favourite Rides

Now that the weather is improving my mind starts playing with motorbike trips, I start thinking about rides we can do and rides we have done. I replay favourites and make plans to do them again and it is a long time since we have been to Barrydale, to stay over at the "Country Pumpkin".

The ride from Saldanha to Barrydale is 344kms so that is an easy day's ride and we have done it several times; the first part is Saldanha to Riebeek which takes about an hour and is the boring part of the ride because most of it is on straight roads, in fact the first hour out of Saldanha in any direction is boring and whenever I have to change my back tire the middle is worn thin and the sides still look brand new. I make a point of saying to the mechanic who is changing my tire "That's the problem with living in Saldanha, it's a long way to any interesting roads." in case he thinks I am a chicken rider who can't corner.

After Riebeek we get into good biking country through Hermon, and then Gouda and the lovely "Nuwekloof Pass" where the road winds through the mountains and you have to look out for baboons foraging on the verges. It's about 75kms through some lovely country to Worcester but unfortunately the road is incredibly busy with 18 wheelers avoiding the toll road. This is not so much of a problem on a bike but you still have to be careful.

We usually have breakfast in Worcester, either at the "Whistlestop" at the one stop, or at the "Dros" restaurant in the town, this depends on what time of the day it is and whether we want a beer with our breakfast or not! (Usually we do!)

Worcester to Ashton through Robertson is a nice ride, it's a good road and we ride it fast; it's about 65kms of wide tar with a yellow line shoulder and most of the cars pull off to the side when they see the big red machine's bright headlights coming up behind them - and so they bloody well should!

I've mentioned in an earlier post about the ride from Ashton to Swellendam, one of my favourites and if you haven't read about it bloody well go back and have a look!

Ashton to Barrydale, however is on the R62 which is a wonderful biking road;

As you can see past me it is a lovely wide road. First from Ashton you go through the amazing "Kogmanskloof Pass" with the hole in the rock (also mentioned in a previous post!) then ride slowly through Montagu, where the famous hot springs resort is, because I have seen speed traps there. After that you are on the open road and it is about 65kms to Barrydale, this is a thoroughly enjoyable road with some wonderful scenery and after about 50kms you will see the "Karoo Saloon" on the right hand side, this is well worth a stop for a beer and the last time we pulled in there was a good biker scene on the go with some wonderful rock and roll music.

From there it's a short hop to Barrydale and the Country Pumpkin; R150 per person bed and a fantastic breakfast! The last time we did this trip we went back to Montagu but then we took the fantastic R318 which winds its way though the Koo valley and has two fantastic passes; the incredibly sharp and steep "Burger's Pass" and the slightly more gentle "Rooihoogte Pass" in it's 70 odd kilometre length. Just look at this picture, this was taken near the top of the "Burger's Pass", doesn't that make you just want to get out on your bike and ride it? How boring would that be in a car? The R318 comes out on the N1 about 50 kms from Worcester and you have the choice of going to the left and heading back the way you came or you can go right and after 12kms turn left onto the R46 and head for Ceres, about 75kms with another Pass; "Die Venster" (The Window). The absolute Piece de Resistance though is "Mitchell's Pass" after Ceres, an unbelievably beautiful ride down the mountain to rejoin the R46 through Gouda and Hermon.

After I have done that ride I am happy, I know that I have about an hour and a half to Saldanha and I settle in to a comfortable cruise. Usually Janet is asleep by then and we arrive home relaxed and refreshed after some wonderful local biking.

The dart run

Saturday thankfully dawned clear and calm after gale force southerly winds all day Friday and most of the night, we were both expecting a lousy day leaning at an angle into the wind all the time. We were up early, Fatcat let me sleep until six which is a good late time for me though Janet would have liked a bit longer. We got on the road just before eight and were at the rugby club in Vredenburg by just after 0815 and well in time for a really enjoyable breakfast at R25 each prepared by the CMA (Christian Motorcycle Association.)They are a wonderful bunch of people and their tea and coffee tent at all of the big rallies is a real life saver, it is manned (personned?) 24 hours and I am usually there in the early hours of the morning for my first cup of coffee.

By the time we were all ready to leave, after throwing the first dart of the day someone counted 42 motorbikes which was an excellent turn out for the "Meeulanders" club and the procession of bikes heading down to the Paternoster Hotel was very impressive.

Janet had four attempts at throwing the dart and eventually scored a four and then decided that she was going to withdraw from the competition so as not to cause too much of a delay in the line!

I tried to limit my alcohol intake from this point as we had another five places to visit so I drank Windhoek Light which is only 2 percent alcohol as opposed to my regular Castle which is 4,5 percent. That way I figured I could drink 24 of those and still be fine! It was a good festive scene and the "Meeulanders" tried to keep the timing tight so that we would not be too late getting back to the final venue. We arrived at the "Rooikraans" pub at around 11.15 where we threw the third dart and there we were able to buy a boerewors roll for R10 which went down well, a good idea to eat at regular intervals, this also helped to counteract the alcohol so I had another Windhoek light!

From there we rode through to the Hopefield Hotel, that was a nice ride in an impressive convoy and the column of bikes cruising into Hopefield must have invoked feelings of the biker gangs of old when people hastened into their homes and locked up their daughters!

The Hotel owners provided a snack table, part of which consisted of whole shell peanuts and it wasn't long before these were flying through the air as the biker scum started throwing them at each other. A good time was had by all, including the Hotel owners who must have had a good cash injection on what would normally have been a quiet Saturday morning.

Look at this mob! That pub is very rarely so crowded, only when the bikers organize something.

From there we went to "Vlakvarkgat" but first I had to make a detour and drop Janet off at home, she had had enough and was late for her afternoon nap, by the time I got back to the bush pub they were playing the most amazing music; good heavy metal rock from AC/DC one of my favourite groups so I had another beer.

The next venue was a place called "Die Wingerd" in Vredenburg, I had never been there before and was pleasantly surprised to see that it was a very nicely established dance club. I threw my fifth dart and had my fifth or sixth beer and then went home to have some coffee and wake Janet up, I also put the bike away. It had been a pleasant day but a little long, Janet and I returned to the rugby club in the bakkie just before 7pm but that was mostly because I still had bar tickets which I had bought that morning and which I obviously didn't want to waste.

All in all it was a successful day with a good amount of money raised for charity.

I've said this before and I'll say it again; bikers are good folk, what other groups get together so often to raise money for charity? And bikers know how to party, and with forty two or so bikes on the road there were no accidents which was wonderful because we have had our share of bike accidents in the area recently.

Sparkling wine and baby Yellowtail

It has been a very good weekend, maybe I should start a bit earlier because actually we had six people around on Wednesday evening for a lodge catering meeting. I did a lamb potjie and it turned into a very enjoyable and quite late evening. Then on Thursday we were invited to a neighbour's house for a braai, they had recently been to the Isle of Mann to watch the TT races and we chatted about motorbikes and looked at their photos late into the night.
Friday night we were in bed at eight o'clock!

Saturday morning after our bath we decided to go for a late breakfast/early brunch as I had a lodge meeting that afternoon so we rode through to Dwaarskersbos, a little village (cluster of homes) on the coast on the other side of Velddrif. About 40kms from home but it was a very pleasant ride, it was a very hot day and after a good breakfast we cruised home. Again just nice to be out on the bike.

Today we had the day free so we decided to have a bath again and decide what we were going to do, it's always easier to plan the day in the bath with the bottle of JC. As usual though we have the squabble over which glass has the most wine in, it's almost like it has to be sorted out like children "Ok you pour and I'll choose first!"

As can be seen here, Janet's glass on the right has clearly got far more wine in it. There are two glasses each like this so that's easy, it's when it comes to dishing out the last bit that the trouble starts!

As this picture clearly shows; the glass on the right, Janet's glass again has several millilitres more than mine, so next week I will have the glass which is half full and she will have to have the one that is half empty! Fair's fair! Anyway we had a good discussion and we decided to go to Don's "Beira Mar" again for lunch, I thought it would be nice to contact Frank and get him to go along as well so we arranged to meet at the airstrip at the turn off to the R27 at 1145. I suggested a ride out to "Vlakvarkgat" for beer and then we would ride through to Saint Helena Bay to the restaurant.
Janet had another idea; she said "Frank's going to be late, I would rather go directly to Vlakvarkgat and get pissed, rather than get pissed off waiting for him at the intersection." !!! Bit of a rough chick this! As it turned out we were a bit late and he was waiting for us. We had a cold beer at the bush pub and then a pleasant ride through to Saint Helena Bay, there is a narrow dirt road down to the shore to get to the restaurant and if you didn't know about it you would never guess that one of the very best eateries on the west coast was down there. I love this place and we have now been several times and as luck would have it they had whole baby Yellowtail on the menu again!

It was the most amazing meal, Frank had the same and he also enjoyed it although he doesn't get as fully involved with his meal as I do; when I'm finished there is only a little bit of skin left because I eat just about everything including the eyes, the cheeks and all of the tasty little morsels of flesh in and around the skull. As you can see, not a hell of a lot left there! We had a very pleasant afternoon and left at about three o'clock. It was calm and clear but slightly overcast and I really enjoyed the ride home, after we said "Goodbye" to Frank in Vredenburg I got that familiar feeling on the bike that is so hard to describe, but it is like comfort; being fully in tune and at one with the machine and wanting to just stay on it and carry on riding. As we cruised along I lifted my visor and turned my head slightly towards Janet, she knows that this is when I want to say something and she leaned her head in against mine, all I said was "I'm looking forward to our trip." She squeezed her knees against me and said "Yes!" and I think she got it too - that feeling. Our bike trip is not too far off now, it starts on the 10th of November; our 35th wedding anniversary! I can't believe we've been happily married for so long, she's happily and I'm married!

Saldanha - East London - Saldanha

This is going back a bit, reminiscing again but I can't help going back over the good trips;

On Wednesday 12th April 2006 at 4pm I had that familiar keyed up feeling in the pit of my stomach which is always a prelude to a long trip on the motorbike; I clipped the voluminous luggage into place and headed off to pick Janet up from work. We had both organized an extra two days off over the Easter weekend and were really looking forward to six days on the road.
We were going to visit family and friends in East London, two years ago we had done exactly the same trip on our 1983 Honda Gold wing 1100 but this time we were travelling on our two month old BMW R1200RT and I was interested in the comparison between the two bikes.
It was a beautiful calm evening as we headed East with the sun slowly setting, turning the sky gold and crimson in my rear view mirrors and our shadow getting longer on the road directly in front of us. We were soon cruising at a very comfortable and effortless 150kmh with the big red machine eating up the kilometres. Saldanha to Mooreesburg didn’t take long, always a bit of a boring ride until you get into the area around Riebeek and then through the wine country to Worcester where we stopped at the Dros for a very welcome beer.
My first favourable comparison was that I did not have to fill up at Worcester, still plenty of fuel in the tank. By the time we had finished our beers it was twilight and the last 48km section to Robertson was an absolutely magical ride; it was a balmy evening and the moon was a huge pale orb rising over the mountain range. The road is excellent, there was not too much traffic and what there was we swept powerfully and majestically by, most made way for us and the ride was over far too soon for my liking but we had previously booked accommodation at the Grand Hotel.
The following day we wanted to be in Port Elizabeth early enough to spend some time with our friends so we were glad to have just over 260kms “under our belts”. We had a very pleasant evening, a comfortable sleep and a good breakfast and saddled up just after 8am for the next long day; some 770kms. Robertson to Ashton and then onto the R62 which goes through the beautiful “Kogmans Kloof” where we stopped for our first road photo in the very picturesque hole in the rock. From there we rode through Montagu and then onto the lovely stretch of road running through to Barrydale where I filled the tank after having travelled 344kms and there was still about three and a half litres left. No time to stop and say “Hi” to our friend Derrick at the “Country Pumpkin” but I did give a blast on the hooter as we went past, maybe on the way back. We blasted up the pass out of Barrydale and were soon speeding along the R62 on our way to Ladismith, also too early to stop at “Ronnie’s Sex Shop”, the well known bar about 20kms out.
We were still getting used to the bike but so far I was thoroughly enjoying the way she handled; she felt firm and steady in the corners, well planted on the road and there is plenty of power available. Is there any better way to travel? We don’t think so.
The 77kms to Ladismith passed in a pleasant blur, there was no wind and it was a warm and sunny day, on to Calitzdorp through the “Huisrivierpas”, very enjoyable but too short and not really enough time to turn back and do it again. By midday we arrived in Oudtshoorn and stopped for a couple of beers at the Spur, I parked the bike out front and we stood in the beer garden drinking our beers while we relieved sore saddle muscles.
We pressed on after a good break, the 33km stretch towards George to where the R62 continues was extremely busy so it was a lot of slow riding with short bursts of speed to get past the heavy vehicles and lines of impatient motorists, soon we arrived at the intersection and all the “cagers” turned right to go to George, we turned left onto the virtually empty R62 and accelerated happily up through the gears until we were back to our cruising speed.
On our last trip on the Gold wing we arrived at Avontuur on our reserve tank only to find that there was no service station so we were forced to make an unplanned 13km detour through Uniondale Poort to Uniondale for petrol, what a fantastic ride that 13km is! A winding good tar surface cut through the hills, the sand coloured bluffs high above almost seem to touch each other in places, you don’t have much time to appreciate the spectacle as you have to concentrate on the myriad sharp turns but after filling up with petrol and the inevitable beer or two at the local bar where the bar tender regaled us with stories of the famous ghost, we wound our way slowly back to the R62 so that we could appreciate it.
This time there was no need to make that detour as we still had plenty of petrol, I considered doing it anyway but decided against it, we sped past and pressed on to Joubertina. Eating up the mileage on a pleasant day; 70kms to Joubertina on an almost deserted, good surface road and then another 73kms to join the N2 near Humansdorp. Here we encountered a bit of wind, but only about 100kms to go and we had made good time but it was time to join the traffic again.
We arrived at our friends home at about 4 o’clock, spent a very pleasant evening and after a good sleep we were ready for the short 300km trip to East London. We took it fairly easy out of Port Elizabeth so as not to fall foul of the revenue collectors. I was able to wave at one front flashing speed camera, I wish I could get a copy of that picture; it would have been a good one!
Once you turn off the N2 onto the R72 which follows the coast through Alexandria, and Port Alfred you can open up again, since we were last there two years ago the road has been greatly improved and it was a real pleasure to ride. There was not much traffic and what there was certainly didn’t hold us up, we were able to maintain our favourite cruising speed and thoroughly enjoy the winding, undulating coastal route.
We stopped for a decent breakfast in Port Alfred, had a bit of a break and after refuelling the bike we headed off again. What used to be quite a difficult ride on a narrow badly surfaced road over the Chalumna pass has now been made into a real joy for bikers. There are long uphill and downhill sweepers, mostly wide open and the road is wide and well surfaced, certainly much faster than it used to be. There is a yellow line shoulder on both sides so you have plenty of room to play with and after a thoroughly enjoyable morning we arrived in East London at about eleven thirty.
We spent a lovely long weekend with friends and family, had many braais and beers and caught up with family news. It was a happy time but all too soon it was time to leave. At least our trip home was going to be a part of the whole weekend not like having to climb into a car or an aeroplane, I was eagerly anticipating the ride. Here's me with my late, lovely Mom.
The visit over we said our goodbyes and made ready to leave on Monday morning – up early, our destination Mosselbaai and it was raining! Not raining hard, but the sky was ominously grey and the forecast was not good but hey, we’re bikers, we drink the rain – bring it on!
Out of East London the sky started clearing and as we thundered over the Chalumna pass again the road surface was dry but I could see the heavily laden sky to the South and West of us and I knew that we were in for it! We had a lovely ride through to Port Alfred but after that we started getting the first wetting from the edges of the clouds hanging low and dark over Alexandria and as we rode into that little village the skies opened up and dumped on us!
We already had our rain suits on, but it wasn’t long before the rain was starting to trickle down my neck and my boots and gloves were getting wet. We stopped outside a small general dealer and bought two styro cups of awful coffee, there is no café in that forsaken little dorp.
From there on it rained steadily and heavily, we were still able to cruise quite confidently but it was cold! As we joined the N2 we met up with another couple on a black BMW R1200RT who had come through from Grahamstown, quite a coincidence because we hadn’t seen many bikers at all. We rode together for a while to Port Elizabeth and then we peeled off into the city and they stayed on the freeway, we waved goodbye to each other as we went our separate ways, we had organized a breakfast at our friend’s house but I would have liked to have met those two people, had a chat to find out if they loved their bike as much as I loved mine.
It wasn’t long before our damp stuff was in our friend’s tumble dryer, we took our boots off to try and dry them a bit and after a superb breakfast and a bit of a break we were ready to hit the road again. Our friend suggested that Janet put plastic bread packets over her socks before she put her shoes back on and this worked very well, even though her shoes got very wet her feet stayed dry for the rest of the day.
It was not a very nice ride that day, I was disappointed because I love the Garden route but it rained and rained and the road was extremely busy with “cagers” on their way home and driving like maniacs in the extreme conditions. It was a tough day, I wasn’t able to relax very much and it was cold, thank goodness for heated hand grips! The day passed in a damp and gusty blur, we stopped for another cup of coffee and a bit of a leg stretch at the petro-port but the place was crowded and we didn’t want to stay long.
We passed through Plettenberg Bay, Knysna, Sedgefield and Wilderness, all usually favourite places to visit and to ride through, but not on that day. Each of those lovely little towns was bursting at the sodden seams with impatient motorists.
We arrived in Mossel Baai in the mid afternoon and our friends had a roaring fire on the go, Janet and I warmed ourselves gratefully after changing out of our damp clothes, we put our boots and gloves near the fire to dry out for the next day. We had a pleasant evening and it rained itself out that night, by eight o’clock on the Tuesday morning the sky was clearing and it looked like our ride home would be a good one. We rode away at 8am with the sky clearing more and more the further we went and as the morning progressed the sun began to warm us, our spirits were high and we settled in to an enjoyable day on the bike. By mid morning we pulled into Swellendam and found a nice restaurant with some tables and benches outside where we had a very welcome and hearty breakfast with a couple of cold beers.
The rest of the day was familiar countryside which started out with one of my favourite rides; that superb section of the R60 from Swellendam to Ashton, what a lovely piece of road that is! Wide, excellent surface with wide open sweeping corners, what more can a biker ask for?
As we swept around a lovely fast right hander and headed down a small dip we came upon a queue of cars stuck behind two extremely slow camper vehicles, they did not have the space to overtake the two diesel belching behemoths but I did! We swept past the whole queue and headed off over the hill, I was grinning hugely as I imagined some of the clenched teeth comments from the frustrated motorists, I reckoned it was their own fault if they wanted to travel by car.
The rest of the day went by like that, sun and wind and power literally at my fingertips, the tar road flashing past inches below my feet and no other way in the world would I rather travel. Soon we are going to do it again, look out for us on the road – and wave when we pass each other.
The return trip was 2562kms, interestingly we did 67kms more this time but used 25,4litres less fuel than on the Goldwing and we travelled consistently faster on the BMW. This all equates to 16km per litre as opposed to 13,4km per litre on the previous trip – I’m happy, so's Janet!

All my bikes

I was going through my photo albums and I thought it would be interesting to gather all of the photos of the motorbikes that I have owned over the years, it was an interesting exercise because I discovered that if I count all of the scramblers and three wheelers the big red machine is number ten! This is interesting because I have been reading something interesting about "the power of ten." - but that's for later. It's interesting how many times I have used the word "interesting"! Don't you find that interesting?

Check this one out! This was my first ever motorbike; a "Jawa Manet" I think it was 150cc and man did I think I was the business on that "scooter", seriously macho! But check out the wheels, they almost look like mags, or is that spokes you can see? It wasn't a bad bike but when it broke down for the umpteenth time after I joined the BSAP I eventually left it standing on the side of the road until someone removed it.

This was my next motorbike, I rode a lot of British bikes in Rhodesia during my Police service; Matchless 500cc singles and BSA 650cc twins and the new Yamaha 350 (?) when they first came in, but when we moved down to Durban in 1974 we bought the Suzuki GT750 and we did lots of happy mileage around Natal. In an earlier post I told about "an embarrasing incident", that was on this bike. We enjoyed it, it was pretty fast but it had an uncomfortable tendency to wallow in the corners.

My first 3 wheeler was the Honda 175cc which was great fun, a real sporty machine which was great on the beaches of the Transkei when we moved to Idutywa in 1976, I traded that in and bought the 200cc shortly after,This was a nice machine in that it was big enough to carry the four of us, I modified the seats so that Janet could sit behind me and Christie and Simon could sit on the sides over the back wheels, we travelled for miles along the beach like that.

At that time I also bought my Suzuki DR500s "thumper" on which I did a lot of exploration of the Transkei, I had a wonderful time and it is only in retrospect that I realise how dangerous that was; I used to go off into the bush for the day completely on my own, no body knew where I was and if anything had happened I would have been completely alone, no cellphones in those days!

This was my first attempt at true COOL! Not doing too bad hey?

Next was a brand new Yamaha 1.1 in 1982, my first new motorbike, these two pictures were taken at the Buffalo Rally in Port Elizabeth, probably in 1983. This was the bike on which we did our most enjoyable tour; 8760kms around South Africa in one month, definitely a story I will tell here later.I bought this beauty in about 1985 while I still had the Yamaha, it was a 1983 Honda Goldwing and shortly after that I sold the Yamaha for R3000, which was what I had paid for it! We did some great trips on the 'wing but I sold it prior to going overseas on a business trip and for about ten years we were without a bike while Christie and Simon were growing up. As you can see from the above photo, in spite of how cool I looked in the rally photos with the Yamaha, I hadn't quite got the cool thing going properly, I mean for f*%#'s sake look at the jacket, slacks and shoes!This 1982 Goldwing came next, for which I paid R22,000! It was a very enjoyable bike and we travelled a lot with it, the only problem I had was that it was not an "interstate" which means that the previous owner fitted the luggage himself and did a crap job of it, I had endless trouble with the mounting brackets. However, I managed to sell it for R30,000 - can you believe that?We decided it was time to upgrade and I went for this Kawasaki Vulcan 1500, a big mistake! I fancied the American look and although Janet was very comfortable on the back I could not get used to the whole setup of the bike, I didn't like the fact that I was sitting on the base of my spine with my feet forward, this meant that I could never lift my butt from the seat while we were riding. Also it had a very small petrol tank with a range of only about 150kms, most of the towns in South Africa are more than 150kms apart! It had only three gears, and this was the very bike that let us down with a dead battery on the way to Barrydale one day - mentioned in a previous post.

Which brings us to our tenth motorbike; the big red machine, a thing of beauty. The BMW R1200RT.

Siyabonga fun day

The day started well; with a bottle of JC Leroux in the spa bath, there we made our plans for the day and we discussed our upcoming two week bike trip in mid November. If you remember I said we were going to hire a Harley for one day, well I have shelved that idea and we are going to do the whole trip on the big red machine, that's what it's for afterall!

Now however I am thinking about heading up the west coast road to Vanrhynsdorp and then taking the R27 through Calvinia and Williston and heading across the Upper Karoo to Kimberley. The way back will depend on how long it takes to get there and also how many days we decide to stay. This is also an exciting part of a bike trip; the planning. I love sitting over a map sipping a beer and working out a route, preferably through unfamiliar country, it adds to the anticipation.

Today the local bikers supported the "Siyabonga foundation"; it is a type of hospice for aids sufferers as well as mentally retarded people and the terminally ill, and they held a fun day to help raise funds. We all met up at the bike shop in Vredenburg where we were able to have a beer. From there we all rode to Siyabonga which is just outside of the town and the parade of motorbikes caused a lot of excitement amongst the many children who were there, it was lovely to see them posing on my bike taking pictures of each other with their cellphones, just about every child had a cellphone!

We spent about an hour there entertaining the children, we had a look through the wards and were very impressed with how clean and tidy everything was, it is a sad place though, all of the patients are there because they cannot afford to go anywhere else and they need the help. I believe the bikers did their bit, but there was no bar there so it was soon time to leave.

We rode through to Velddrif and had a couple of beers and a lunch at the Riviera Hotel. After a nice ride I dropped Janet off at home for her kip and I went to the Drop Anchor bar, a biker bar in Saldanha for one more beer.

It was great to be out on the bike again, it seems like ages since we have been anywhere and I really enjoyed it even though the wind was blowing strongly from the south east. They say it is going to be even worse tomorrow, I think we'll just have a quiet day tomorrow with a lunch at Don's "Beira Mar" restaurant, I haven't tried the "espetada" yet, Janet says it is delicious and it certainly looked good when she had it last time; garlic butter dripping down the meat onto the rice and chips!