The Plan: Karoozin' 2011 - Day 12

Last day of the tour and I thought it would be great to head into the Karoo for a last time and take some of the back roads and eco trails.  It'll be a fairly short trip, so we might take a detour or two.  I think it's also National Arts Festival when we're in Oudtshoorn, so we probably don't want to be heading in there in the middle of the day.  There are heaps of eco trails around, so we might spend some time exploring these.

We'll overnight in Oudtshoorn and the next day we'll take the bikes back really early.  All done...  :(


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The Plan: Karoozin' 2011 - Day 11

Yes, almost done.  :(

So, we'll probably just loads of farm roads today, but two things worth mentioning.  One is the Vlees Bay Eco Trail.  From what I've seen it looks like loads of fun.  It's a sand dune fun park!

Then, we'll head north to do the Attakwaskloof Pass.  This has been an old crossing from the coast to the inland since the late 1600's.  Before that it was used by elephants.  It's now quite popular with 4x4 and adventure biking enthusiasts.

From there we head south to Hartenbos, our pit stop for Day 11. Hartenbos is a popular holiday spot near Mossel Bay.  We might even have some time to go and do a bit of shark watching.


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The Plan: Karoozin' 2011 - Day 10

For day 10 we'll be doing a bit of a loop north to Montagu and onto the Wine Route, and yes, will be stopping for wine, but no, we won't be drinking it just yet.  I'll have David Kramer's Montagu ready on the MP3 player.  This is tradition in our family, when going through Montagu.  Love it.

Instead of taking the R62, we'll head out north-west on a dirt road and then loop back towards Barrydale for a graze at the Country Pumpkin.  We'll take the back roads through to Riversdale and then south to the pit stop for Day 10 in Still Bay.


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The Plan: Karoozin' 2011 - Day 9

Today, if there weather's good, we'll head into the city to ride around Cape Point.  It's a nice ride, but I always feel it's more for road bikes.  If the weather's bad, we'll probably head directly south.  After Cape Point, we'll head east, hugging the coast.  I've never taken this road before, so I'm quite keen to see what the scenery has to offer.  We'll head through Hermanus, one of South Africa's more popular holiday spots and on to Cape Agulhas, the southern most point of the African continent, and photo opp time.  Agulhas will be our pit stop for Day 9.


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The Plan: Karoozin' 2011 - Day 8

Today is a rest day, so we're doing the touristy stuff.  We'll try and visit a nearby game reserve.  Not sure where yet, but I'm thinking Aquila Game Reserve would do just nicely.  We're spending the rest of the day lazing about.


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The Plan: Karoozin' 2011 - Day 7

Day 7 and we're off to Ceres.  A slower day again.  We have more than enough time to stop and take in the scenery.  First stop will be Clanwilliam where we'll stop for a bite and fill up the bikes.  The next 200km or so will be void of any population, so we'll be safe and get the bikes ready.  This section will go through the Cederberg Wilderness Area.  We'll then take the R355, joining up with the R45 into Ceres.  Ceres is an extremely fertile valley in the Bokkeveld.  The surrounding mountains often gets snow during winter and it becomes quite an attraction (with South Africans not being used snow).  We'll sleep over in Ceres.


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The Plan: Karoozin' 2011 - Day 6

Day 6 and we head towards the West Coast town of Lamberts Bay.  First stop at Hondeklip Bay, which is a popular holiday spot.  This is just south of a massive diamond mining area.  We wanted to go and see Port Nolloth first, but looking at the time it'll take us to get to Lamberts Bay, we'll probably give that a skip.  This will be our first bit of coastal riding.  We'll be taking a road hugging the coastline.  Looks promising.  We might have to head inland to Bitterfontein to get some fuel.  I see that the bikes can easily do 400km on a tank, so I think we'll be just fine.  Then on to Lutzville and Vredendal.  From there we're heading over to Lamberts Bay for the night.  We might pop in at Bosduifklip restaurant for a graze.  We went there as a family for dinner when I was still at school and we all still talk about it at home.  It was absolutely amazing.  Lamb on the spit, loads of lobster and great side dishes.  Check out the menu and prices.  Insanely cheap.

End of Day 6.


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The Plan: Karoozin' 2011 - Day 5

Day 5 will be a pretty simple ride to the northern most part of our trip, Springbok.  How can you do a trip in the Karoo and not go to Springbok?  The name Springbok has a special place in the hearts of most South Africans.  A springbok (Afrikaans for jumping antelope) is a medium sized gazelle and also the national symbol associated with rugby.  Springbok is a town of about 10,000 people in the Northern Cape.  We won't be seeing the world famous veld flowers that transforms the countryside in spring, but we certainly will see the quiver trees used by the Bushmen to hold their arrows.

We'll keep this bit simple so we can get some time to recover from all the tougher sections we've had in the previous three days.  I would though like to see some of the Boer War blockhouses and other fortifications in the area.  I'll do a bit of research before we head out there and put some waypoints on the GPS.


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The Plan: Karoozin' 2011 - Day 4

Day 4 will start off with us making a bit of a detour to go and ride the Ouberg Pass.  We'll head through Sutherland (famous for its observatories and cold weather), but instead of going north, we'll head south on the R354 for a bit and then turn off just before the R356 turn-off.  This road takes us north towards the Roggeveld Mountains and the Ouberg Pass.

After that we'll do a combination of the R354 and a couple of back roads, all the way to Calvinia for for the night and end of Day 4.


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The Plan: Karoozin' 2011 - Day 3

Starting day three we'll head out to De Rust, a small town just east of Oudtshoorn. It's a bit out of the way, but it's a great place for brekkie and getting ready to tackle the Swartberg Pass and The Hell.  We'll take the Oudemuragie road to the Swartberg Pass.  Via the Swartberg Pass, we'll head into Gamkaskloof, which is more affectionately known The Hell.

From there we'll head past Prince Albert.  My granddad lived here for some years.  Although I can't remember that much of the time he lived there, I still have a fondness for the town.  It's a beautiful little town.

From Pins Albert we'll head towards the N1 highway, cross it and take some of the back roads all the way to Merweville.  Merweville is a small little town in the middle of nowhere.  There's no sealed road leading to it.  My brother-in-law has a farm nearby (but they've moved to Australia as well, so there's no chance to go and stay over) and my nephew was baptised in the Merweville church.  I've only been there once before for a church fete, so I'm hoping we happen to stumble across another one while we're there.

Merweville will be our stopover for Day 3.




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The Plan: Karoozin' 2011 - Day 2

I have to break this into two maps because of a missing connection where Google Maps doesn't have a section of road, but I'm 100% sure there is one.  More about that later.  We're starting day two at Jeffrey's Bay in the Eastern Cape, heading north towards Baviaanskloof.  Baviaankloof road was built between 1880 and 1890 by Thomas Bain, South Africa's most famous road engineer.

From there we'll be heading past Uniondale, where we hope to meet up with the Uniondale ghost.  :)  We'll be taking the back roads to Louvain Farm to start the Duiwelsberg (Devil's Mountain) ox wagon track.

So, the destination below stops at the missing section of road.  I really look forward to this part of the trip.  Having been on Bergplaas plantation several times to do GPS work, I've often been told of this track and I've seen the start, thinking it'd be great to tackle that on a bike.  A bit of history on the track (Bonniedale Farm):

Duiwelskop was described by the early explorers and travelers as the most difficult pass to cross in the 18th century.   Many an ox wagon crashed down the steep cliffs alongside the pass pulling their oxen down with them.   However, Thomas Bain realigned the pass in 1864 and the present 4x4 track follows this alignment along the Western slope of the mountain, rather than over the summit.  The pass was regularly used by timber merchants transporting timber to Graaf-Reinet from 1776 to 1869.   The opening of the Montagu pass (1847) and the Prince Alfred pass (1867) was the final knell to this pass.   On 3-11-1778 the first recorded wagon crossing was made by governor Van Plettenberg, traveling South from the Langkloof.  For todays 4x4 travelers the Duiwelskop pass features magnificent views of the Garden Route and the Indian Ocean, the original tracks of ox wagons and the unparalelled beauty and characteristic smell of mountain fynbos.   The 30km trip starts at the farm Louvain and ends at Bergplaas.


With a description like that, how would you not want to conquer it?

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So, from here we pass through Bergplaas plantation, an active forestry plantation and one of the oldest in the Southern Cape.  I want to head back via Wilderness and Kaaimans Pass and into George, where we'll probably just stop for a quick bite.  Then the last stretch for day two will start with Montagu Pass.  This pass was built by Henry Fancourt White, an Australian road engineer.  The pass was the first (in South Africa I assume) to be constructed exclusively by convict labour, built between 1844 and 1847.  The original toll house is still there.  It's a beautiful stretch of road and apparently has it's own ghost.  We'll be overnighting in my old home town, Oudtshoorn.

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The Plan: Karoozin' 2011 - Day 1

We're planning the first day to be from George to the surfers Mecca, Jeffrey's Bay.  We'll pick the bikes up from Schroeder BMX in George, pack the panniers and head off via the old Knysna Road past Saaveld Campus.  I studied forestry and lived and worked here for a while, so I'd like to quickly stop and take a look around and see how things have changed.  We'll head through to Knysna and probably have a bite to eat.  Then we'll get an old work colleague of ours at Plettenberg Bay.  He'll probably join us for a small section of the trip on his trail bike, but that's not been confirmed yet.  We'll then go past the Bloukrans Bungi Jump, where I'll see if I'm brave enough to take a plunge.  It's the world's highest commercial bungi at 216m!  My mate's already said he's not doing it, but I'll see if I can persued him.  Then, from there it'll be an easy ride on farm roads past St Francis Bay on to Jeffrey's Bay.  We're not going to push ourselves on the first day as we'll need to get to know the bikes and I don't see the need to tired after just one day.  It's a holiday after all.



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Karoozin' 2011

So, first proper post.  Our tickets are paid, the bikes have been booked and we're starting to plan our first big trip overseas.  Well, it doesn't feel that 'overseas' to me as we're heading to South Africa in March to do a 12 day self guided tour around the Western and Northern Cape.  We're aiming mostly at the Karoo, Little and Great.  We'll also be tackling the West Coast, Cape Town and the South Coast, with a little bit of Eastern Cape thrown in for good measure.

Joining me will be Brien Armstrong, a good mate of mine, with whom I've been doing weekend trips with and dreaming of big trips over the last two years.  We're renting two BMW F800GS from Schroeder BMW in George, but aside from this, it's all we've got planned at this stage.  The idea is to use this blog to document the planning and report back on the ride and experince.  And hey, if nobody wants to read this, then so be it.  I do however invite people to send comments and I hope this blog helps to be an inspiration to others who'd like to try the same.

I'm going to start off with planning the trip using Google Maps.  I'll post a map for each day.  When we've completed the trip, I'll post comments, photos and videos along the route.