3 Dams - the trip before the trip.....final update done!

The club 3 dams/canopy trip starts on Thursday and I find myself in the position of ‘having’ to do a business trip to Nelspruit, Malelane and Letaba on the Monday and Tuesday.
Usually I would come back on the Wednesday, but instead of doing this I decided to stay in the area to wait for the rest of the 3 dams group to come up on Thursday and will meet them at their Thursday stop in Giyani.
In the meantime there are roads to be ridden while I wait for them.

Monday, 21 September 2009
Left Centurion on Monday at 7:20 am after filling up and checking tyre pressures.
Nice clean bike for a change and even clean boots – probably cleanest they have been since I bought them over 3 years ago – can’t see customers with dirty clothing!!




Because the daytime temperatures were shown to be in the mid 20’s to 30’s for the week with overnight temperatures being lowest 12 deg C I decided to only take the airflow jacket with – it has a pocket with a rainsuit jacket so I would also be prepared if it happened to rain.
The stretch from Centurion to Belfast was a chilly 16 deg C and needless to say, by the time I reached Belfast was quite cold – was too lazy to stop to put the rainsuit on so had to bear out the cold!!

After leaving Belfast the temperature quickly climbed to the high 20’s. Took the Schoemanskloof road through De Beers Nek and on to Nelspruit.






The smell of the orange blossoms were very strong and it is a pity that this cannot somehow be captured in a picture…





After seeing a customer in Nelspruit it was on to another in Kaapmuiden and then the last appointment for the day in near the Malelane gate to the Kruger Park. No tar roads to these customers…and now 36 deg C!





Instead of turning back to Nelspruit did a right turn to the Malelane gate to see if there were any crocodiles visible in the Crocodile River – I mean – that is what one would expect in the ‘Crocodile’ River isn’t it??

Well – I was not disappointed:











Even some birds to look at – the feathered variety…





...and of course the obligatory picture of the bike...


While admiring the crocodiles I kept hearing noises that I could not identify and on turning around to head back to Nelspruit I caught a far off movement out of the corner of my eye. Stopped to look and in the distance saw a herd of elephant.



On the way back towards Nelspruit I decided to detour to the Boulders road through the Crocodile Gorge Conservancy – nice narrow road with loads of sharp bends…












It’s amazing how everything flowed – smoothly but quickly and comfortly through the corners and everything was just perfect. The ride had been like this the whole day.
There is something to be said for doing a solitary ride now and again – no pressure to keep up with anyone or ride so that people can keep up to you, stop when you like, go as slow/fast as you like….it was an awesome day’s riding.

Then took the R358 to White River and on to Sabie for my stop for the night at the Woodsman.


Tuesday, 22 September 2009
Decided to leave at 7:30am the next morning to give myself ample time to gets to my first appointment in Letaba at 11am. The temperature was now 14 deg C and I decided to put the rainsuit jacket on to keep out the cold – remember I only had an airflow jacket!
Just as well – as I pulled out of the Woodsman it started to drizzle – and there was also a mist.

There is something magical about riding along on a bike in a fine rain and mist – beautiful.



On the way to Pilgrims Rest the mist was a real ‘pea souper’. About 20m visibility and wet roads through those twisties that are challenging enough on a clear, dry day.





The view from the viewpoint:





Stopped at Scotts Café in Pilgrims for a coffee and to make some telephone calls and then pressed on towards Letaba, up Robbers Pass.



Robbers pass









With all the mist it felt as if I had my head in the clouds…


Just over the rise, sudden clear skies and sunlight and the temperature quickly went from 14 to 24 deg C. - look at the time in the photos.


At this point I needed to get rid of the rainsuit and stopped in Ohrigstad to do so. By the time I was ready to roll again I realized that it was 9:45 and that I had 75 minutes to do the 140km to make my first appointment on time – I needed to push – no time to stop for photos.
So while John Lennon was belting out the merits of being ‘Crippled Inside’ in headsets I twisted the beasts ear a bit..

While John was losing control with ‘Jealous Guy’ I felt in full control and was easily sliding through the corners…trying to safely make up time.

By this time John was finding ‘Its so hard’ but that was not the case with the Adventure – the going was not hard at all…still no time for pictures though. While John was asking someone to ‘Gimme some truth’ the only truth I knew was that it was touch and go at this stage to make my appointment.

By the time I got to Abel Erasmus pass, David Bowie and ground control were trying to contact Major Tom. I was not in the air at all but solidly on the ground through the twisties – the Adventure was sitting in the corners solidly on the ground like a brick!

While Ziggy Stardust was playing his guitar to the spiders from mars I was through the tunnel and going down the other side onward to Letaba – time was now slowly on my side…then in a left hander felt the centre stand hit the tar - did not realise I was so low - need to watch those turns...

Went through a local township and there was a smell in the air that was not orange blossoms – at this stage Suffrogate City was being belted out but where I was it was more like ‘suffocate city’ – I needed to get away from this fast but had to watch out for the cows and goats along the roadway…

By this stage I was riding straight roads and had been able to up the speed considerably – could see the road far ahead/

50km to go and I now had 40 minutes…was looking better – and then – slow traffic – damn.

Pushed on and reached my customers security gate at 10:50am – still had ten minutes and about 5km to go in the estate – stopped at their reception at 10:55 – I had made it on time and had a really brilliant ride in the 65 minutes that it took me.






After my meeting I still had 35 minutes before the next appointment 10km away.

Decided to look for a high area to take a photo of the orange groves so turned right out the gate and looked for high ground.
Saw what looked like a derelict house on the hill and found a dirt road going in that direction. Found this shabby looking gateway and overgrown driveway and rode in.


This house had been a guest house and had obviously caught fire – was probably a thatch roof judging by the lightning conductors and looked like it was a lovely house in its day.
Now it was a burnt out ruin!




The pool had been filled in at some stage..


The view from what would have been the lounge








…and now….this..


View from the lounge to the front where I had come in the driveway


It was really sad to see.

Looking down the driveway towards the gate


Made the appointment with 5 minutes to spare and then went on to the Coach House where I would be staying for the next two nights.

Day three to follow after it has happened.....

Man, these reports on the” fly” are just great. Thanks Dave

........makes me want to start our trip “sommer” now

That area sure is one of my favourite parts of the country. Looking forward to the next episodes

Very nice - would love to be there

Wow! Thank you very much for sharing Dave. It seems as though you are having an amazing time on your own with only your bike and your music.... I especially liked the way you incorporated each song that was playing at the time into your trip report! A very very nice read! Thanks again! And enjoy the rest of the trip!

Great read! Can't wait for the long weekend to begin! Can this day go by any slower?

Looking forward to the rest of the report!

What a trip, Dave - pictures and all! Gee, those boots are shiny!

Glad you are enjoying the ride. Keep safe, and I am looking forward to the rest of the report, with pics

Getting more envious the more I read!!!!

Wednesday, 23 September 2009

The day greeted me with mist and drizzle – and 12.5 deg C.


Only got riding at 08:45 and most of the days riding was planned to be gravel roads. Decided to do a roundabout route starting at Leydsdorp where the GS Challenge was held last year.





Leydsdorp was originally the final stop for the coaches of the Zeederberg Coach Company on a route that started in Pietersburg and carried on through Haenertsburg , Agatha and Thabina to Leydsdorp.




Needless to say, if it ever was a ‘one horse town’ that horse is long dead!












Reception area in the hotel


and piano...


street scene....


It seems that the current owners are trying to market some of the buildings as a guest house.










….and I am led to believe that ‘the road gets better’.


It eventually did – maar teen daai tyd het ek nog nie ‘Genoeg’ gehad nie.



Took the Letaba Ranch road.

Did not see much wildlife – and this one flew off before I could get a better picture.


The ongoing road…


Stopped to take some off the rain jacket as it was now 20deg C- the highest temperature for the day - and the drizzled had now stopped.

Also took some pictures of some anthills – not sure what these vultures knew that I did not…








Townhouse complex??


Lonesome me...


Almost lost my bike..




This road was very corrugated for about 15km.




Eventually got back onto tar near ‘Die Eiland’ at the Hans Merensky Nature Reserve – still 60km to Tzaneen. Stopped at a garage about 30km away to inflate tyres and have some lunch – pap & vleis. Met Alwyn, the owner and ended up chatting to him about routes – tar and gravel – in the area.

He had planned the routes for last years GS Challenge and knows Jan du Toit very well. Says we welcome to contact him for routes in the area.

All-in-all a good day with some nervy moments with sand on the road – but eventually it was an automatic twist of the throttle to get through it. - and it got better!

Good learning experience where I could put some of the Country Trax training to practical use.

220km for the day of which 120km was gravel road.

Wow ... More! more!

Excellent! Looks like you had a stunning trip!

Thursday, 24 September 2009

This was the day I was going to meet up with the rest of the people at Giyani - but that was only later this afternoon - I still had a ride to do that would see me cover just over 560km for the day.

As was becoming usual for this week my day started in mist and drizzle.




After two hours the sun was shining and I was on my way to Beit Bridge.


I had decided that I wanted to go for a ride along the border fence between South Africa and Zimbabwe.
Here are some of the border guards on the other side of the fence.


One of the many Baobab trees along the way


and on the right the razor wire fence with the Limpopo River and Zimbabwe on the other side.


All along the fence I kept noticing secured gates that can give access to the river and ultimately Zimbabwe and this was puzzling me.

Eventually after about 35km I came across an open gate and saw a policeman on the other side. Promptly turned around and rode into the gate to ask him the reason for the gates. As I did so a guy on a scrambler rides up to me asking what I want.

It turns out he is a farmer in the area and when the fencing was erected they advised the authorities where they need gates to access the pumps that pump water to their farms.

He promptly took me on a 'tour' of the other side. Until two weeks earlier the Limpopo had been flowing - but not at the moment.

This is a picture of the Limpopo riverbed


In this one I am standing almost in the middle of the river with Zimbabwe on the right


The pump and borehole in the riverbed


The climb out of the riverbed


A photo from my bike of the river and Zimbabwe


The gate I had come through


The friendly policeman - bet he wished he had a patrol bike like this!!


Me on the inside of the gate


and on the 'legal' side


Lots of farms on this road - especially orange groves


In the middle of this picture you can just make out a buck standing on the riverbed


A view of 'no-mans land' on the way back.


After a quick lunch in Musina I arrived at the guest house in Giyani before the rest of the group so arranged to meet them at the garage to fill up so we could leave directly the next morning.

By the time they eventually arrived


I had stocked the Adventures 'cooler box' with some ice cold Heinekens that went down very well..


...and I think that these number plates sum things up very well..

Had a relaxing braai that evening




and the next day headed off to our next stop and canopy tour.....

but more of that in the thread for that trip.

Here is the link to the rest of the trip and photos:
http://bmwclubs.heavenforum.org/3-tvl-dams-september-09-f144/3-tvl-dams-and-canopy-tour-t1068.htm

Looks like you had a good time

Super!