Sharkie's Drakensberg Escarpment GS Trip

I have been wanting to do a GS Trip for some time where we ride all the mountain passes going up and down the Drakenberg escarpment, between Memel and Oliviershoek pass. In my research with various Map books, Tracks 4 Africa and MapSource I have found 9 passes in this stretch, namely (from north to south): Muller’s Pass, Normandien Pass, Collins Pass, De Beers Pass, Van Reenen (Railway line), Van Reenen (N3), Middledale (Tintwa) Pass, Bezuidenhoudt’s Pass and Oliviershoek Pass.

The plan was simple, start at the top and ride one down and the next one up and so on. This is what actually happened: (I added pictures at the end of this report)

I left work at 12pm on Friday 11 July and made my way to Heidelberg via the N3. At Heidelberg, I took a little back-road via a short dirt road under the N3 in order to avoid the De Hoek Toll Plaza. I kept to this back-road all the way to Villiers. Then I took the R26 to Bethlehem, through Clarens and Golden Gate to arrive in Harrismith. In Harrismith I met up with Sephton, a longtime friend of mine, on his Kawa KLR650. We stayed over at his house in Harrismith.

A cold, wet, misty and rainy Saturday morning greeted us in Harrimith. We made our way onto Muller’s Pass on dirt roads. I misjudged the “slippery” dirt road and had a “little fall”, nothing major, just a broken indicator. By this time the weather had cleared up and it was a beautiful clear winter’s day. Muller’s Pass is just a dirt road going down into Natal, not difficult at all. We made our way to Normandien Pass, and I felt that my rear wheel was not behaving the way it should. We stopped, and found that I had a rear-wheel puncture. We sprayed some “Tire-Fix” and we were off again. Normandien Pass is spectacularly beautiful. It cuts through the side of the Drakenberg, and is quite steep at places, but nothing a 650GS and a KLR650 couldn’t handle with ease. After Normandien we went down Collins Pass and up De Beers Pass. Both were uneventful, and had very good dirt-road riding. De Beers Pass is in the process of being tarred. At the top of De Beers we decided to head home and see if we can get my rear tyre fixed. Luckily I always carry a spare tube for both tyres with me. We got the new tube installed in Harrismith and we were ready for the next day.

Again a VERY cold and misty morning greeted us on Sunday morning. We decided to wait until the mist cleared up a bit before we leave, so we got onto the dirt roads a bit later than we wanted. We headed to Middledale (Tintwa) Pass via Swinburne. On chatting to Sephton’s dad the night before, he informed us of a rough 4x4 track leading down the escarpment, between Tintwa Pass and Van Reenen’s Pass, called the Sandspruit Pass, this track would lead us pass “Die Verlore Vallei”. Well, it sounded like fun, so we decided we will give it a bash and see what happens!! We were VERY happy we took this little track. Die Verlore Vallei is stunningly beautiful and the track is very rocky and steep at places, and A LOT of fun!! We later found out that the only way in and out of “Die Verlore Vallei” is via a very, very steep 4x4 track. We will try this next time round!! At the bottom we made our way to Geluksburg and up Tintwa Pass, the pass is tarred and the tar on the pass is in good condition. You cannot really call the stretch above the pass “tar”; it is more “dirt road with patches of tar”! but nice to ride. We made our way back to Harrismith, and I left for Pretoria, again via Golden Gate. The road through Golden Gate is just THAT good to ride.

All in all I did 1443km; it was good fun, and a trip to remember.

Highlights of the trip:
Golden Gate
Normandien Pass
Die Verlore Vallei
Sandspruit Pass / Track

Lowlights:
Clarens being turned into a Golf Estate
De Beers Pass being tarred


Photos:

The trusty steed in Golden Gate


Brandwag Rock and the 650GS



Off the main road in Golden Gate.


The stunning Brandwag Rock


Sandstone Valley in Golden Gate


Oops !! Never nice to see


Base of Normandien Pass


Normandiem Pass cutting through the Drakensberg


On the way to Collins Pass


The bikes at the top of "Die Verlore Vallei"

Can anyone help me as to why it cuts off the right hand side of the pictures ???

Very nice!!

awesome report and pics. Thanks for sharing.

Yes I have also noticed the pictures get scaled down on the right hand side. Must have something to do with the width of the page - think the pictures might be too big to fit and the forum page automatically resizes it but only on one side.

Ok,

That makes sense, thank you MadnohB, I thought I messed up somewhere as this is my first post with pictures.

It is unfortunate though, on some of the pics, very nice pieces were cutt-off.

But I guess readers will "get the picture"......

I have just tested it. If you resize the orignal to a width not exceeding 800 pixels, the uploaded version should be fine.

example



and with that ladies & gents.........drum roll.......I'm not a slow coach no more

What a way to get to 50!!!

So you are a REAL BIKER !!!

Sharkie wrote:The bikes at the top of "Die Verlore Vallei"

That looks very familiar. I think I might have been there some time ago. Have a very silar pic somewhere in the journals. Do you have a GPS co-ordinate for the valley/road???

The exact spot where this picture was takes is:
S28.45578
E29.33328

The Sandspruit Track runs
from:
S28.47109
E29.31762

This is the turn-off from Tintwa Pass (on the way up).


to:
S28.49221
E29.38144

That mountain in the backround is Swinburne / Rensburgskop

Hi Sharkie,

GR8 Report and thanks for sharing.

Very nice - thanks. I also fell somewhere near Harrismith.

First take a photo before you pick up your bike? Gotta love it!

There, now I have fixed up the problems with the photo's.

I just had to organise my "photobucket-profile", it was in a bit of a mess, so the photo's on the forum was a bit screwed up!!!

I just cannot get the one of Normandien Pass to work, I re-sized it to the same as all the others, MadnohB, could you please give me hand on this one?

Thanks !!!

Sharkie wrote:I just cannot get the one of Normandien Pass to work, I re-sized it to the same as all the others, MadnohB, could you please give me hand on this one?

Is it the one you labelled " Normandiem Pass cutting through the Drakensberg" ?

If so, it works fine on my computer. If I download your picture, It looks exactly the same as the posted picture

Yes, that is the one.

On my computer it is smaller than the others.

Well, it's not the end of the world, at least one can make out the picture, and it is not cutt-off on the right like the old ones

Thank you for the help !!

Just to make sure, I have checked it with screen resolutions 1440 x 900 and 1024 x 768. On both the pic is the same size as all the others ie 640 x 480

Anyone else find the "Normandiem Pass cutting through the Drakensberg" picture to be smaller than the others in the same post?

I am also a bit confused.....

Maybe it is my laptop, it is a 2006 model HP, maybe I must get myself a 2008 HP2 !!!

MadnohB wrote::

Anyone else find the "Normandiem Pass cutting through the Drakensberg" picture to be smaller than the others in the same post?

No all your pictures are the same size on my screen. Update to HP2. That will fix all problems.

Thanks Sharky. I am now so "lus". I think we need to do this trip next year as a club GS ride. What does the others think?

I am in!

Good to know,

I am busy planing another trip to the Eastern Free State which will include the following: Lichen's Pass, Bezuidenhoudt's Pass, Tintwa Pass, Sandspruit Pass, Mike's Pass, Oliviershoek (maybe), Van Reenen's Pass on the railway service road and Normandien Pass.

This can easily be done on a week-end, while taking off only a Friday afternoon.

We can extend the trip to include Sani Pass, but then we would have to add one additional day.

Who would be interested ???

Hmmm.... sounds fantastic! When do you plan to do it?
Also depends on the amount of damage that my GS will take on the challenge...

What about BEFORE the GS Challenge ??

I am already shaking my little piggy bank - so many things I haven't got that I apparently need for the challenge. Aside from that, my wife has recently taken up scuba diving...