Dave & Dot's 10 day ride to the Cape

[Dave S]

Just a warning - this is a long report with lots of photos. If you dare to read this, pour yourself a drink and relax!

Then venture on...

We started our trip on the day after Christmas.

Day 1, 26 Dec – Centurion to Upington

Our first day was going to be a long 800km so we had an early get away at 6:45 which saw us working our way to our first stop at the Ventersdorp Wimpy for breakfast.
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Carried on our way and just before Kuruman was pulled over by the traffic cops for a general check – had a chat to the guy about bikes, speed travelled on the open roads etc. When asked what speed we usually do on the open road I knew he would know I way lying if I said 120km/h so I told the truth and said that we usually travel at 140km/h on the open road (Thank goodness he did not glance at the maximum speed travelled on the GPS!!).

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After stopping at the Kuruman Spur for lunch we carried on to Upington. Were getting a bit tired by then so stopped about 80km from Upington for a rest.
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Did not have any accommodation booked so when we got to Upington I did a check for accommodation on the GPS. Dorothy’s ultimatum was a room next the river so the River Bank Lodge looked a good bet. Our room overlooked the river and was about 5m away from it.
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Had supper at Bi Lo Bistro – excellent food and good prices too.
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Then decided on a ride through Upington at night to look at the Christmas lights.
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Good to see the town ‘cocking a snoot’ at Eskoms power saving. Why should everyone spoil things and not have some festive cheer because Eskom management does not have the ability to plan!! There were Xmas lights in most towns we went through on our trip.

The sunrise from our room was spectacular!
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Day 2, 27 December – Upington to Stompneus Bay
The next morning after a good breakfast we were on our way. We decided not to go through Springbok as we did that route on our way to the Buffalo Rally earlier this year so opted for the Keimoes, Kenhardt, Brandvlei, Calvinia, Vanrhynsdorp route.

Keimoes has about three single lane bridge crossings. Stopped to take some photos.
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The road to Kenhardt is full of birds nests on the telephone poles. This is because there are no trees in the areas for the birds to nest in.
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Lots of flowers along the way..
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After filling up at Kenhardt we had a 140km stretch to Brandvlei. Stopped for some photos on the way and could not believe the amount of water in the veld. They had obviously had some good rains in the Karoo.
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Stopped in at the Windpomp Restaurant in Brandvlei for something cold. Is apparently owned by the Afrikaans singer, Wynand Windpomp. Also met some Harley riders there on their way to Springbok and then back to Cape Town.
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Decided to get moving as todays stretch was only a tad shorter than Day 1.
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We also saw a twister in the distance - not your usual dust devil but a twister that seemed to extend to the cloud base.
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Next stop was at the post office in Calvinia
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and then on to Vanrhynsdorp via Vanrhyns Pass. Man what a nice pass with some tight corners.
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Dorothy in one of the corners.
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Could not believe that in Vanrhynsdorp we could not get anything to eat at a restaurant that was closed for lunch and two take-away shops. Then found the Namaqua Restaurant at the BP garage and had lunch there.
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Then it was onto the N7 to Piketberg via Clanwilliam.
Stopped at the Olifants River crossing for a break.
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....and Clanwilliam Dam
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At Piketberg we took the R399 through Velddrif to Stompneus Bay where we would stay for 3 nights.
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Dinner was next door at the Sunfish Restaurant.
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Day 3, 28 December - Britannia Bay area
Spent the day looking around the area with a stop at the Shelly Point light house
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and the Shelly Point Country Club for lunch.
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Then took a ride to Vredenburg, 30km away.

Dinner was at the St Helena Hotel.
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One thing I must add – so far the service at all the restaurants we ate at was top notch – much better than in Gauteng!! Stopped in at the Sunfish restaurant for night cap – only got out of there after 1am after some weary travellers arrived there at about 10:30pm. We decided to sit with them and help them quench their thirst after a long day on the road.

Day 4, 29 December - Vredenburg, Paternoster.
Arrived at Paternoster for lunch and eventually found the only petrol pump to fill up.
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Have to love the Cape sayings..
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After a good lunch rode back to St Helena Bay in 38deg temperature and stopped at the St Helena hotel for some cold ones.
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Nice view from the veranda of the yachts passing by..
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Dinner at Sunfish again and then an early to bed for an early morning start to Dorothy’s dad in Pringle Bay.

Day 5, 30 December – Darling, Millers Point Boat Club, Pringle Bay
The plan was to visit Evita se Perron in Darling but we did not realise that Darling only woke up at 10am! We got there at at 7:30am.

Rode through a misty Vredenburg all the way to Darling.Managed to find a restaurant open for breakfast – The Marmalade Cat.
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Dorothy with the cat..
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Then it was back on our bikes...
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Next stop was a quick family visit then on to Green Point Light House – oldest light house in South Africa built in 1824.
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From here the plan was to meet some of the Think Bike forum people for a braai at the Millers Point Boat Club from 2pm onwards – did not plan on staying for the braai but decided to make a stop to say hello – made the mistake of going via Chapmans Peak, Ou Kaapse Weg to Simonstown.
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The traffic from Simonstown along Baden Powel Drive to Gordons Bay was even worse and we eventually got the Dorothy’s dad at 6:30pm.

More than five hours of actual riding to cover 350km for the day!!

Day 6, 31 December Botrivier, Houhoek Pass, Theewaterskloof Dam, Franschhoek, Sir Lowry’s pass
What a nice days riding – found a stunning pub/restaurant at the station in Botrivier – an old shed converted to a restaurant with all the seating being old train seats and all the décor being from trains/stations.
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...wee crossing and all.. ;D
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..and some pictures in 'theme'
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Definitively worth a visit if you in the area.

From here to Houhoek pass (was so good that I did it twice!!).
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Then on through Elgin to Theewaterskloof Dam. Met a rider going the other way
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When we got to the bridge at the dam we saw two guys standing on the bridge in shorts only – wondered what they were up to when suddenly they jumped into the dam from the bridge. Must be a new Cape Town pastime!!
Here you can just see them in the water below.
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and a closer picture of the jumpers..
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With the impromptu show over we headed to Franschhoek via Fransschoek pass for lunch. Typical tourist prices here and the only restaurant where we had bad service!
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Then a quick ride up Sir Lowry’s pass to Pringle Bay and then New Years Eve dinner in Bettys Bay.
Dorothy setting up the camera for a timed photo
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Day 7 – new years day was spent walking on the beach at Pringle Bay and generally relaxing. Managed to get a ride in though when I went to the shop in the evening.

Day 8, 2 January 2008 – the ride back home – first stopover in De Rust for the night.
Started off the day looking like rain
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and by the time we got to Riviersonderend there was no doubt
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..rained until Suurbraak, sunshine up Tradouw’s Pass to the Country Pumpkin in Barrydale.
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why didi the chicken cross the road in Suurbraak..
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..to get to the other side of course!

Dorothy setting up the camera again..
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..at Drupkelder..
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Riding Tradouw Pass..
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The R323 through Garcia Pass to Riversdale was as lovely as ever with bright sunshine.
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Once through Garcia Pass we hit the rain again. The Riversdale side was dark and wet - looking back we could see the sunshine we had come from.
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The trend to be was that on the seaward side of the mountains we had rain and as soon as we crossed inland we had scorching heat – go figure!

Cape St Blaize lighthouse at Mossel Bay was the next stop
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..and from there we hit the highway to the Outeniqua Pass as it was getting late.

….and you guessed it!! Rain from the turnoff just before George all the way up the Outeniqua pass. Once on the Oudtshoorn side of the pass – hot weather.
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Found accommodation at a self catering guest house called Bergsig
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..and went for a brilliant dinner at the Plough Restaurant.
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Day 9, 3 January 2008 – Meiringspoort, Beaufort West, Kimberly, Christiana
You got it right again – Meiringspoort in the pouring rain!! Not fun especially as there was a lot of traffic through the poort.
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Breakfast in Beaufort West and we then took the split at Three Sisters to Kimberly – good choice as there was hardly any traffic.

Found a nice guest house, Die Wingerd in Christiana and ordered pizzas in for dinner.
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Day 10, 4 January 2008 – a short ride for the day of about 420km had us home at about 12:30pm.

Our last bridge crossing..
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We were eventually back home after and eventful 4 235km of riding.

[Renier]

Good to hear you had a safe trip.
You and Dot are hellaofa brave to tackle Upington and the Central Karoo in the middle of summer

[Dave S]

Strangely enough it was not that hot in the Karoo region - it only got hot on the West Coast.

Your previous recommendation re the pictures does not seem to work this time - really frustrating!!

[Renier]

What we won't do for friends ;D
5 boshtlejties wine later

The solution to the "space in the directory name problem" is to set up your Photobucket directories so that there are no spaces in the directory name.
Makes life easier, but if you feel you must have spaces in the directory name you have to replace the "%20" which appears in the directory name code after you have posted it, eg.
"West%20Coast%20-%20Dec%202007"
carefully
with a space when you paste the link here so that it reads
"West Coast - Dec 2007".

[Dave S]

Thanking you kind sir - and you didn't even invite me to help with a bottle or two!! ;D

[leroy]

Dave - cannot open the pics - will have to organise a braai to see them - might then be able to add the few bottles of wine Renier alluded to. LeRoy

[johangt]

Great report! We visited a couple of places you did and we never visited the same place for eat or sleep! It just shows you, we can travel our country year after year and never know it all!

Like I said to Ina this morning, it is like having dinner at the Mossel Bay Yacht and Boat Club. You cannot say that I have done it once and now I do not have to do it again. It is always great and you always find new people and incidents to fill your memories.

Thanks for all the photos. I am now more convinced than ever that we should set up something like Routes 2 Travel, Places 2 Stay and Places 2 Eat. I am going to try something in Recommended Places. If it does not work, I can just delete it again.

O by the way: It was not Escom that messed up our electiricity, it was our government that gave electricity to everybody and did not listen to Escom's warnings. Bheki eventually apologized to the consumers and Escom.

Johan