Blyde Canyon Run – 16th December 2011
It was about 27 bikes and 48 people that gathered at the Engen garage next to Carnival City for the ride that morning. The weather was great, for once the weather report did not accurately predict the weather and it was a cloudless sky that greeted all of us. We had a few first timers on the ride this time, always great to see new faces and also nice to see the “old” friends again. As normal with my rides we left a minute past the hour and headed to our first rest spot the Sasol Plaza on the N17 just outside Secunda. The roads to this break are very good, not much traffic and no potholes. There is however a bit of road works still going on but no “stop ‘n goes”. A “fast group” set off at a moderately faster pace than the rest, this luckily broke the group up a bit. Some of the “not so fast” people landed up in this group and had their job cut out for them in trying to keep up, not knowing that they had landed in the wrong group. Andre – next time have a long hard look at the leader!!!! That was not me.
The Sasol Plaza is not a big place and a big group of people descending on the Steers could cause a few hiccups so I would suggest that a big group does not arrive hungry here, it could take a while to feed everyone. The stop was a bit longer than planned, not that too many people moaned, but we did hear the bell rung by our resident Teacher - Antoinette, so we donned our helmets and mounted the bikes and set off at a leisurely pace, we had all day to do the ride and I don’t think the group was in too much of a rush. In general the road was good; the traffic was fair and the weather great. The road through Bethal is no more a nightmare; the road around the horrid little town has been completed. You need not tussle with coal trucks and massive potholes anymore. It is actually quite pleasant to circumnavigate the town now. Our next stop for the two P’s – Petrol and a Pee was just outside Belfast. This was a faster stop as I think a few of the riders were on the hungry side and Dullstroom was visible on quite a few GPS’s.
Talking about GPS’s, a word of advice – don’t upgrade your GPS a day or so before you lead a group on a weekend ride. I did this and somehow both GPS’s (mine and Anne’s) had the same error. If you did not pass over the marker/waypoint it would not let go off that marker and wanted you to first go over the exact spot, I had a GPS tell me to U-turn for over 250kms already. I simply had to cancel the route and ride “blind”, although I never told the group this!!! Luckily I had recced the route and new every inch of the route and most of the potholes also!!! So in future, upgrade, test it, and then go out and lead a ride!!! Once home I reloaded the upgrade and it cleared the problem on both the GPS’s.
As Harries Pancakes could not/would not book seats for us, we had to split the eating and regroup after lunch to head on our final leg to the Canyon. Lunch done – the traditional Pancake (what else?) we re-grouped and headed north again. The temps had picked up and it was nowhere near the temps as shown on the weather report. No rain and no clouds.
We headed through Lydenburg and headed out on the Origstad road to the turn off to Pilgrims Rest then onto and over Robbers Pass. This road has been fixed and there were no problem patches anymore. Before we left Dullstroom I had a few questions about Robbers Pass as it was notorious for the potholes and loose tar, a few of the chaps did not quite believe me and took Longtom instead. Robbers Pass was one of those passes I stayed off for many years as I had a bad experience on one of the turns and never tried it for some 5 years. After my return to Robbers I cannot understand why I stayed off it for so long. It is a great pass with some good scenery and nice bends, there are however two bends that are a bit on the tight side and should be negotiated with some care, other than that it is a great ride, if you have not tried it, now is your chance to try it. The first timers succeeded and enjoyed it, although some of them “woke” themselves up on some of the turns. Just concentrate, use you GPS and enjoy it. All too soon we passed Pilgrims Rest and headed up and down the pass to Graskop. This is a “ugly” bit of road, narrow and bumpy, not something I would turn around and try from the other side, it is one of those passes you just have to do to get to Graskop from Pilgrims, not one you put on your “to-do-list”.
The road down was slowed up by a logging truck and plenty cars, not something you could pass here. It was so slow that one of the newbie’s on the ride, Henry, took out his camera and even took some pics while riding. One interesting pic was of two black helmets with the names Kakkies and Vlooi on the back. The real identity will remain a secret for now, until I can work out how those names came about, I have an idea but not sure if I could print it, for fear of being sued, so we will leave that for another ride report once I get to know them better!!!! After what felt like forever we pulled into Graskop and took a leg stretch before we did the final few kms to the Canyon.
So far it had been a great ride with no incidents of any kind and nobody getting lost, with such a big group that is not easy, let me tell you. What I did find, and found that it works, at least 1 km from a turn (major turn) I start to slow down and bunch up the group – I “rack em and stack em” this lets even the back enders see that the group is turning, I prefer this, rather than letting the 2nd rider being the marker for the turn, I also only do this at turns or before entering a town to keep the group tight. The other reason is that the 2nd rider is Anne and if she had to wait for the last bike, we would loose comms and it is murder trying to get the comms connected again, so method in my madness. It works for me!! Keep the group tight also stops cars pushing in between the bikes; this is very dangerous when that happens. I also try and only pass cars/trucks when I can take a whole bunch of bikes with me, not hopping one bike at a time, filling gaps between cars/trucks. If you lead a group you must think of the whole group the whole time, you are responsible to get everybody to their destination safely and relaxed. No use racing with a mixed group as many of the group are not hardened riders and are not saddle/riding fit. I can ride for a full day but there are those that feel that 2 hours is “forever”!!!
We arrived at the destination and booking in was painless, thanks to the staff at the desk. There were no wrong chalets, well none that I heard of. With keys in hand we set off to find the chalets. For some this was the most difficult part of the ride, no GPS would help you here, we had bikes whizzing up and down looking for the correctly numbered chalet. By nightfall everybody had at least found their correct chalets. All the chalets where pretty decent, clean and well furnished with all that was required for a two night stay. The bike parking was right at the front door in a garage, which most of the people prefer. It is never great to park your bike more than a few feet from your accommodation. Even the view from the carport is something worth looking at, all chalets had a great view and not one chalet blocked the view from another due to the slope of the accommodation. Most of the group started unpacking and sorting themselves out for the evening. Friday eve was a free for all, some braaied and some went to the restaurant. The shop had all the required foods and spices for a braai and that was our meal of choice for the first night.
One word of warning here – Baboons!!!! It was a word you would hear mentioned in quite a few conversations over the next few days. They made off with quite a few rations from the chalets in the next couple of days. It is no use just closing the chalet door, you had to LOCK them. We witnessed, on a few occasions, that the leader of the group of baboons would walk up to the door, try the handle, if locked would then try the windows, if all locked he would move to the next victims chalet. Let one door not be locked, they would raid the kitchen with lightning speed, even with you inside!!! They are a real pest and were not scared of people and did not simply back off when someone chased them. I would imagine that if cornered, they would attack and cause quite an injury. But baboons aside, it is a great place to stay with all the amenities you could want, try it you may like it.
Our row of chalets congregated around one braai area and set down for dinner that night, food and company was great. You talk about the ride, compare rides and discuss bikes, it is great when like minded people get together and discuss a common subject, let alone a common bike. Conversations don’t often move over to “other” bikes, other than to point out faults. It is never a late night on a bike ride, they can say what they want, but BMW riders are there for the riding and not for the drinking or partying, tomorrow is another hard ride and everybody retires long (long) before the clock strikes 12, hell, even long before it strikes 10!!!! Next morning is another 09h01 start to a ride around the area.
The Saturday ride is smaller than the first day’s ride, not that the people don’t ride, but groups split into alternate routes and head their own way. We headed off with quite a few bikes in convoy 15 or so on that mornings ride. We headed towards Graskop – Hazyview – Sabie – Graskop – Canyon. The ride back to Graskop is made up of long sweeps where the throttle could be left wide open, if you so chose to or in this case a gentle ride, taking in the sights and smells from the area. Avoiding the odd heard of cattle along the way. Graskop was refuelling time before we headed to Hazyview. The road from Graskop to Hazyview goes through a pass with some nasty turns but spectacular scenery. Road surface is pretty decent and the odd glance down ensures a great ride.
Now the next leg to Sabie I had never done before, not even on my recce. This was the notorious “22” all the super scooters talk about it; this is the bit of road they trailer their bikes to Sabie for. They don their leathers and tear up and down this stretch of road. From the Hazyview turn it is nothing to write home about, I was wondering why anybody would want to even ride this road, it was boring, it rough, it was not great at all. I even thought I had taken the wrong turn...... but then looking at my GPS I noticed a distinct change in the turns ahead. Now I saw why they rode this road!!!! It was great. Now to enjoy this bit of road (22 kms of it – hence the name) I had to get Anne moving out of her comfort zone and to push it harder than she had ever ridden previously. This is where the comms came into their own; I spoke her through the turns and immediately could see the gap appearing between her bike and the next bike behind her. Not that we would whip a super scooters arse, but we took that bit of road at a fair rate of knots!!! Anne did not say much and I had to prod her for a response now and again, just to make sure she was still okay. When we reached the end, which is Sabie at the Woodsman, I felt great and still had adrenalin pumping, so I can just imagine how Anne felt. Was quite a while before she got her heart rate down and was able to talk. The smile said it all!!! If you like a fair bit of speed and excitement.....try the “22”, add that to the list, if it is not on the list yet and if you have not done it yet.
The Woodsman is also one of those “biking” places, they serve great food and it has a hotel attached to the restaurant that is a great place to stay if you are a biker that is as it is full of them. Now you would think it is rowdy and one big party at nights, well think again, after 20h00 you won’t find many souls wondering around, but come 06h00 you will hear the bikes starting up and that goes on the whole day. A good place to sit and relax before you set off again on the next leg of the ride.
Graskop is always a stopping place and of course pancakes usually make it onto your plate somehow. It was here that it was decided to see the sites around the area, Gods Window (the easy lookout) and some of the falls. Ronnie and Antoinette took over the lead from here, first stop Gods Window.
On a clear day, as it was, the view is really special, you can see for miles and just standing there makes one feel great that we can ride around and see these sites, they can say what they want, SA is a great place to be in. We do have some awesome roads to ride, things to see and places to stay, it must be one of the few bike friendly countries where you don’t travel at a snail’s pace and have cops pulling you off all the time. We seldom are stopped in road blocks, not sure if it is because we ride BM’s or what? Sight seen; now the water falls!!
On the way to the falls the group somehow split up a bit, at the T-junction, some went left and some right. Being so close to the Canyon I decided it was a free for all and each one could find their own way back. A smaller group headed to 3 Rondawels lookout, another good site to stop for some pics. We even had a marching band there for some light music. Not something I organized, I am not that good!!! But if some of the people thought that, I won’t help them out and let them think I organized it. By now it was pretty warm and was time to head back to the coolness of the lodge. We had been out and about from 09h01 and it was past 14h00 as we saddled up for the last couple of kms to the lodge. I am sure the roads ridden were new to some and the sights worth the ride to most if not all.
The dinner that night was at the restaurant, the traditional sit down and get your riding gift, or as I said in the e-mail – “if your arse aint in the seat, you don’t get your gift”. I am proud to say I had the full 54 people turn up for the dinner, even if a few turned up for their gifts only. We had our Mr & Mrs Xmas, not the fattest Father Xmas I have seen, but certainly the fittest Father Xmas I have ever seen, we also had a couple that was chosen as the cutest couple in their matching tracksuits, now he could have been a good Father Xmas had this certain gentleman the beard, he already had the perfect stature!!! The gifts I think were appreciated by all and the food was enjoyed by all, there was definitely not a shortage or selection of food. Again as is seen on all the rides, by 21h00 the restaurant was cleared and the people headed back to their chalets for the night.
The next morning would be our last and it was back home for most of us, a few lucky ones set off for a few days more riding up to the Kruger Park, some left a bit earlier to beat the heat. Our planned departure time was 09h01 via Burgersfort onto Lydenburg and then onto the highway home – shortest route usually.
Patricia - Anne – Ariana – Pat (Avril, not in pic)
The people started arriving at the departure point around 08h00 and the usual pics were posed for and the normal bantering and joking could be heard, We got the lady riders together, except one. We had 5 lady riders on this trip, always great to see the ladies riding their own bikes, come on all you ladies out there, join us on the next ride, let’s see how many can muster up the courage to ride their own bikes. It was quite a fair sized group that left that morning on route home. Some tired; some well relaxed but hopingly all enjoyed themselves.
The ride via Burgersfort is actually a great road to ride, not a well ridden road as most of the bikers did this for the first time. The pass near the end of the ride about 20km from Lydenburg makes it a great ride, before you get back on the more ridden roads again. We stopped off at Lydenburg so certain ladies could buy their Buff Caps and have a quick P-break. The planned stop was again Dullstroom to finish off the weekend. Here is where most groups break up into smaller homeward bound groups, each choosing those living in their general area. We said our farewells, wished our wishes and headed home.
Another weekend behind us, for some, the first and hopingly NOT their last. Anne and I would like to thank all those that joined us for the weekend and we hope to see all of you soon on another club ride. Thanks for being a great bunch. Have some good rides but always ride with care so we can ride together again soon. Our next ride was already planned – a small group of us (Anne, Myself, John, Jenny & Pat) had planned a ride down the West Coast leaving the 23rd Dec and returning 2nd Jan 12. So there is another ride report on the way soon.
A special thanks to Dave Grant for donating his shirt, off his back, to Anne, just because it had a pic of an R on it – much appreciated.
Written & Organized by
Wymoth & Anne