Riding in the TA!

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So the new TransAlp has to be ridden in. It's a process where you have to take it easy so I decided to make a scenic ride of it. I needed an easy scenic route of appropriate distance and decided that Baviaanskloof fits the bill perfectly.



That's how the whole thing started...

I asked on the Wild Dog Forum if any Eastern Cape Wild Dogs would be interested in having some beers in Patensie on the Saturday evening and the rest, as they say, is history. Slowpoke came up with a brilliant camping spot and before we knew it we had a mini-bash in the making.

Soon there were 7 Wild Dogs from the Southern Cape joining me on this ride. At our weekly drinks meeting we discussed our plans when Cassie showed up. He wanted to join but was afraid his XTZ125 would not keep up, so he decided to take the bike through to Patensie on his bakkie and meet us there. He'd also carry all our luggage. The plan was set!

So without further ado - here is how my ride-in ride unfolded.

The characters in this Ride Report:


Trailrider - Honda TransAlp


LGF - Honda TransAlp


GrysAlp - Honda TransAlp


Dusty - BMW 650GS


Pad - BMW 1200GS


Smidty - Suzuki V-Strom


Smithy - BMW X-Challenge



Cassie - Yamaha XTZ125



TerrorSA - Yamaha XT660


Kampies - Triumph Tiger


Slowpoke - BMW 800GS











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Grootrivier Poort

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Some were up earlier than others this morning.

Scenes around the early morning campsite:



Cassie's sleeping arrangements:



The rest of the camp waking up:



GrysAlp's setup - how cool is this?



All loaded and ready to go.


(Photo by LGF)

Heading out - today we ride Antoniesberg Pass / Groot rivier poort. Unfortunately TerrorSA could not join us today but Slowpoke and Kampies took the lead to show us around their back yard.






(Photo by Slowpoke)

Regroup at the Telkom tower.



Kampies' magnificent Tiger. Man that's one sweet bike! And the sound...



Heading out towards Antoniesberg Pass. There were sections here with big loose rocks and the heat increased the movement between the rocks and made it even more "slippery". That's my story and I'm sticking to it!



We took it slowly on the loose sections. At one stage my back wheel slipped out and I was thrown off-line and ended up going off the road. I had to make my way back to the road over rough terrain and through a ditch. No-one stopped to help, but more importantly, no-one stopped to take photos of my predicament

I stopped to refocus after this episode and got some footage of the other bikes coming down. Funny how you never see the conditions of the road on photo or video.



Antoniesberg Pass:







Crossing the "Groot rivier" (Great river)


(Photo by LGF)

And another stop to escape the heat.



Riding out the other side you ride into the Karoo.









Steytlerville:



The exceptionally wide Main Street of Steytlerville was designed at the time to allow ox wagons to turn around. These days the street is decorated with the coats of arms of families associated with the town and area.

Lunch at the Hotel:


(Photo by Slowpoke)


(Photo by Slowpoke)


(Photo by LGF)

The temperature reading after lunch - 41.5 degrees Celsius. It was hot and we still had 250km to go in less than 4 hours. The only option was to slab it home:



The heat was incredible. You'd ride in 40+ degree heat and still hit "heat pockets" of extreme heat. I read in the paper later that some 250 Ostriches died in heat that exceeded 50 degrees!

Another stop on Potjiesberg Pass en route back to George:



And Montagu Pass brought to close what was an unforgettable ride. This is how you ride in a bike in style


(Click on map for larger image)

I have not laughed this much ever I think. What a great group! Thanks to Slowpoke for the organizing and everybody else for an unforgettable weekend!







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