Triumphrat

stanegoli

After dropping my Tiger off at the dealer for its' 12,000 mile service I flew off to South Africa on a two week visit.

While there I visited a friend who lives in the town of George on the east coast in the Cape Province. He rides a BMW1200GS. He had arranged a rental of a BMW Dakar 650 for me and we took off on a three day dual sport ride in the Karroo region.
The ride was fantastic, through some amazing country. The roads were mostly good quality gravel roads well maintained. There were some exceptions as you will see below. The area is awesome dual sport country.

The first major obstacle was a road that washed away in some recent flooding:


Large part of the Karroo is open, flat country


Climbing up over the Swartberg Pass


The next sequeunce of photos are from the journey to Die Hel ("The Hell") so named because the road is a challenge to cages





As a bonus we saw elephant, giraffe, nyala, springbok and eland (in fenced game areas) and baboons, vervet monkeys and one tortoise(!) in the wild.
A great place to ride. Will be returning for more of this some day

OKCTriple

How lucky are you! That looks like an awesomely good time.

__________________
Other bikes: 2006 Honda CRF250F, 2007 Suzuki M109R, 2007 Honda VFR800 Interceptor

HeyMan

That must have been a great time. Great pictures!

HeyMan

During the 3 days did you camp out? If so what were the hazards?

stanegoli

HeyMan we did not camp out.
The first night we slept at "Die Hel" in one of the original small settler houses that they now rent out to visitors. Quite rudimentary with no power or lights (except two small lights powered by solar). It was a good call staying there as they served us an excellent curry dinner plus we got a hot bath. We each paid $28 for room, dinner, beers and coffee in the morning - awesome deal.
There was a campsight a few miles before "Die Hel" that looked like a good place to stay. We would rank it as "primitive" if it were located in US. There was nothing wrong with it and would have been OK to stay there - although not sure if they had hot water there.

The second night we reached the town of Knysna where we stayed at a friends house.

Camping out would not be a problem provided of course you could find camp grounds conveniently located. We saw a number of camp grounds but honestly were not paying much attention to them.
Another alternative to consider is staying at a B&B. Saw a lot of those, especially in and around the small towns. They seem to have become quite ubiquitous in South Africa.

If anybody would like to plan a trip there feel free to PM me for tips on where to go, renting bikes etc.
The dollar and the English pound go a long way in SA and can make a trip there quite affordable. It is big country, wonderful riding and fabulous scenery. The geology in the area we travelled was quite stunning.
As I said in my original post, I will be returning.
:wink:

Catenaccio

Too Cool!

Cuppies

Hi Stan

Why didnt you come and visit us in Gauteng when you were over.

How did you feel about coming home ? Did you notice any changes?

Regards

Harty

HARTY

Hey stan

why arn't you answering my questions
I logged in as cuppies

Regards
harty

stanegoli

HI Harty,

My visit was brief and my time in Jozi was limited and a bit hectic. Had a lot to do, people to see etc.
Sorry I didn't stop by.

SA in general, and JHB particularly, have changed tremendously, even since I was last there two years ago. I can tell you that coming from good-natured Portland to JHB was quite a shock to my system - different culture dude!! The situation there is really dynamic and quite fascinating. Huge challenges, but also a lot of room for optimism. I could go on for pages about it.

My Karroo ride was so cool. Would go back in a hearbeat for more.
Never saw many Triumphs on the road, if any. Seems to me the traffic conditions in JHB make biking most hazardous!