A quick round trip.

It was some time in January when my brother’s wife decided a 4 week trip to her family in the UK was in order.  FREEDOM for the Stockwell brothers, Chris & Graeme, to get up to some good, clean fun!  Not much encouragement needed and with a virtual limitless amount of time available the planning started.

OK, OK. This bikes on the train to Cape Town and drive home via interesting roads and sights thingie seems popular and is fairly well documented. Done, departure date 09 Feb.  ride home via some mountain passes, garden route and the coast to KZN somewhere before heading for home again.  Round trip, in the saddle, about 2500KM – hmmm…. Not much really when you consider some Sunday breakfast runs can top out at 7-800km?  Ah well never mind, will be interesting and on roads we haven’t seen for years so should be good, budget = about R5k each + 10 days including the trip by train.

Gra on the GS, going home after a trip discussion.

4 weeks to go but…   Wait, Wait ,Wait, this is going to be a great trip but the final run home will be on familiar, boring roads?  Maybe we should reverse the route and take the train home. That way if we are buggered and lazy towards the end we will have plenty of time to recover on the way home, Done.

2 weeks to go but…..   Wait, Wait, Wait, if we budget 10 days and only 2500km somewhere we are going to end up with lots o days to spare? OK, plan to ride home again. Not too happy about trusting the bikes to the Railway dudes anyway and we can still rail em if needs be at the end of the trip. Done.

1 week to go and…   Wait, Wait, Wait, if we are going to ride home maybe we should get the looonnng boring bit out the way before the fun starts? A quick blast to Cape Town and then casual enjoyment of the scheduled route? Sorted, still only about 4000km but now starting to sound more like an adventure.

Luggage, Hmm ? The GT has panniers and both bikes have soft luggage for the back.  Hell, should be plenty. I mean how much can you use on a 10 day trip in the saddle?  Lets face it, you are going to be buggered most days, limited socialising and you are not going to church! It’s agreed, each has his soft bag and 1 pannier. The GT can handle this no problem and we don’t want to load the GS too much anyway as there is already a performance differential on the long road.  Cool, meet at 06:00Hrs. at the local petrol station in Benoni.

Problem No.1. at the meeting point at 06:00 and guess what?  It’s raining, actually torrential downpour would be a better description. You cant see 50M down the road and we are a little disappointed after all the anticipation. What to do, what to do? Sod it, we are already soaked and who knows if this is going to stop anytime soon? Off we go, worst case scenario we’ve had enough in 2 days and we turn around. But for now – head for the hills, YeeHaa!

We figured the N12 east would be a more interesting, less boring alternative to the N1 South and so off we go. By Potch the rain had subsided to a drizzle but to get there had been rough. Riding in the rain is not a major hassle but when visibility is that poor and in heavy traffic its just not fun.  Both the GS and the GT couldn’t give a monkeys for the rain but I get the feeling I am a little better off than the GS as the adjustable screen and fairing do seem to keep most of the wet out for brief exposure but extended rain still gets in everywhere.  Coffee at the Wimpy and back on the road looking forward to drying out a little if we can find the edge of this cloud cover. By Wolmaransstad clouds still heavy but starting to dry out a little. Fuel and back on the road heading for the best collection of pot holes in the land – must be a friggin guiness world record!  This is where they keep the stock for the rest of SA I think?

Kimberley/cruise control. Cruise control/Kimberley, hmmm – this GT is something else. Adjust the screen up, set the cruise control on about 160kph, slide back onto the pillion, cross your arms and make sure you don’t fall asleep in the zone!  A 20 min. stop for fuel, nicotine, caffeine, sustenance and a stretch and off again. Man life is great and the bikes are eatin this up.

Strydenburg – don’t blink, smoke break, fuel etc. and starting to feel it now. Not that we have done a hell of a lot of kays but I think the rain riding and the still damp clothes are taking their toll. We decide to push on one more town and see if we can find a half decent place for the night.

Britstown, better known as Skilpadvrekvandorsfontein. Aha, a hotel, with a sign outside saying R100-00 per person per night! And garages for the bikes! Excellent – we check in. There are 2 of us and so dinner will be R80-00 we are told. Room not great, we share, but still this is a bike trip, not a tourist holiday.  Couple of beers and a snooze before dinner and Bob’s your Uncle. I decide to take a walk around the town, about 12 blocks, and manage to find 2 young aspiring muggers. Shame, they got a lot to learn before they venture forth to Joburg so I managed to convince them to laugh it off, unfortunately those buggers run faster that I was prepared to, so ensuring they really got the message was not an option. Still the local cop watched the whole thing and didn’t think it was his problem either so what ever, just like every other service provider in SA at the moment!  Dinner was Karoo lamb, and was fantastic. We offered to settle our account as we couldn’t wait for 7 for breakfast but were told it would be no problem to sort it out early.

Gra getting ready to leave the Hotel in Britstown, obviously used to be a lovely art deco building, back in the day.

Cool, a good nights sleep and up at  05:00Hrs. for shower, pack and to sort out the bikes. No sign of anyone? Cant get a cup of tea, disaster, cant pay the bill, more disaster, and getting irate now. Eventually decide to leave R400-00 and a business card with the only person we can find, a cleaner, but all of a sudden she decides, in her infinite wisdom, that wont be enough so we wait. The receptionist / cleaner / cook / bottle washer turns up at 06:45 and informs us our bill is R680-00!!! Only R80-00 of that is drinks so we have a little discussion but eventually pay and get the hell out o Dodge.

It takes about 3 kms or 10 min.s to settle into the saddle and hit the Zone, this is where the feeling that all is well in the World settles over you and a feeling of inner peace and contentment takes over and a smile of note sets onto your face as the bike slowly starts to devour the kilometres again, life is good.  The GS is happy to cruise along at about 150 or so but the GT’s ass is itchin and those northern cape roads are are shoutin “EAT ME”.  Not a problem, within 30 min. I overtake the guy that left the hotel a half hour before us and the GT is now neally as happy as I am. Cruising at 200, with occasional bursts to 230 for the sweeping corners, seems to be the comfort zone for these roads.

At Beaufort West various cops were called by their buddies in Three Sisters and pulled us over a few times as “somehow???” bits of sticky tape had found their way onto our number plates. We got away with a lecture a few times and were soon back in the Zone.

Target for the day was Montagu via Rooihoogte and Burgers Passes, a word of warning – I read the Bark essay article and  went flying into these !!! they are both in the process of being resurfaced and getting 300kgs of GT, plus 100kgs of me plus luggage sidyways after about 700km in the saddle is very interesting, believe me!  Montagu was busy and looked very touristy and pretentious so we pushed through to Swellendam and found a gr8 self catering place for R150-00 each.  Food, beer and Bed finished off us and the day and we hit the sack early once again.

Up and outa there by 06:00 saw us on the road to Barrydale via Tradouws pass and an appointment for breakfast at the Country pumpkin as recommended by Bark essay.

Gra at Tradouws pass.

A gr8 pass built by the legendary Thomas Bains.  This one falls into the “schoolgirl” category - firm and fun, but really tight in places! The GS cruises through the twisties with ease but the GT needs a little space to get around. However once the tight bits open up a little the GT comes into its own on the sweeping curves and your centre stand can once again be used as a temporary third leg.

Barrydale is literally just up the road and breakfast was good. The road out is a good ride and just 27km down the drag is the compulsory stop and pic as below.

Compulsory stop and Pic at Ronnies.

The R62 is a gr8 ride and hitting it early in the morning meant we were fresh and ready and able to take maximum advantage of the route.

We hit Oudtshoorn mid sat morning and getting into the traffic after 3 days gr8 ridin was a pain in the butt. The weather was sweltering and we just wanted to get out of town and in the Zone again so we fuelled and bailed ASAP, taking the N12 and N2 to George.

Dropping down into Goerge on the N2.

Once again there are boat loads of road works in the area but we were soon on our way to Knysna & Plet. We arrived in Plett and found the canvas peeking through on the GT’s back tyre? I had talked to the agent in Jhb about replacing the front but we both thought they were good for the trip. I called BMW on call to see if they could put us in touch with someone in Plett but they told us to either go on to PE or back to Knysna. Having an aversion for heading in the opposite direction to my destination we pushed on to Humansdorp.

Taking the alternative route at Storms river via Grootrivier and Bloukraans passes (both schoolgirl passes) we once again learned that the GS outshines the GT in the tight twisties, not to say we had problems, but in places you feel you are doing a U turn on a narrow road and this is a bit of a mission on the heavy GT.  In Humansdorp we found a very good little B&B for the night and I made some calls to the BMW guys in PE to try and make a plan to get a tyre and have it fitted early Sunday morning.

Once again we were too early to have breakfast but by 08:00 we were in PE and shopping around for a tyre. Thanks to one of the club members there we were sorted and back in the Zone by about 10:30 so not too bad.  This was a tricky day as we either had to stop in EL or make a big day of it and push on for Port St. Johns.

By the time we arrived in EL we realised that the time buggering around in PE and the heat on the road necessitated beer so we decided to call it a day and popped in at a friend in Gonubie for beer, a braai and a place to crash.

Next day found us on the road by 06:30 again and off to Umtata. We had about an hours rain on the way but the road was nowhere as bad as we expected in terms of animals on the road etc. By the time we hit Umtata for coffee and fuel we were virtually dry and took of on the R61 to Port St. John in good weather and high spirits. Once again the road was good and most enjoyable. We hit port St. Johns by early afternoon and the last 20 min. into town is a fantastic piece of full throttle twisties we did several times to get the hang of.  We checked into Lilly’s lodge for the night and it was a little expensive at R300-00 each but we each had our own room and the bikes were parked right outside the door so what the hell.

Gra & Bikes, parked right outside the room at Lilly’s in Port St. Johns.

Hot as hell and ready to relax a bit we took up residence on the veranda at Lilly’s and helped them get rid of some very cold ones that were taking up way too much space in the fridge.

The Author helping Lilly’s to dispose of a few cold ones.

What an amazing coincidence? It’s February the 14^th and all we have to do today is ride up the road to Durban to spend the night with my Lady friend!!! Everyone’s a winner. Having made plans to have flowers delivered to her office during the day I was looking forward to a warm welcome that night?

Not having a long day ahead we breakfasted at 07:00Hrs., settled the bill and were on the road by about 07:30Hrs.

Now you need to listen up Guys! The best road in SA is a 31km stretch of the R61 from Port St. Johns to Lusikisiki. Do it over and over till u get it right! Also I would suggest hitting it on the uphill, as we did, and at about the same time of day – Why? Because for those of you who have been to the Isle of Man to watch the TT road races you will think you are a competitor on the mountain stretch. The R61 will be lined with hundreds of kids on their way to school, all cheering you on.

Now, there are those who will tell you there is a brand new tar road from Lusikisiki to Port Edward? We couldn’t find it and none of the taxi drivers we spoke to believed we were not on drugs when we asked em? Go figure!

On to Flagstaff, Bizane and Port Edward, this is also good riding but shortly thereafter it’s kak highway all the way to ND.

The following day we took the alternative route out to Empangeni and then great riding again to Melmoth and to Vryheid. We were scheduled to overnight in either Vryheid or Dundee but deciced to push on for home.

Bottom line – 3878 km in 6 days of pure unadulterated pleasure. If any1 needs further info give me a call, hell I will probably beg you to let me ride with.

Rgs

Chris & Graeme Stockwell

Benoni.