It's Thursday the 17th of November 2011 and i sent Anton a text message at 06:25am asking if he's keen to grab a quick cup at the local Wimpy bar as my brother, Chris, invited us for one before we break free from the hustle & bustle of the mundane...his response was a short and sweet sentence indicating that he's still asleep and not nearly ready to meet me in town yet and that i should rather just get to his house and we'll take it from there. i don't know why, but getting up for work is quite difficult, but adventure on the other hand - gets me going rather early for a non-morning person.
Finally Anton was ready and we decided to go for that milo & orange juice. Chris took this picture just before we left Knysna at 8:00am.
Adventure lurks around the corner
The route we took was 90% gravel.
We left Knysna and got on the R339, the Prince Alfred Pass that leads you out into the indigenous forest through to De Vlugt, then Avontuur and Uniondale, the Karoo town famous for its "ghost".
We stopped here for a quick bite.
Anton reckons i look like a criminal here...
Self explanatory.
De Vlugt
Anton's creative eye!
My Beauty
When we got to De Vlugt, just about 70km from Knysna, we discovered that the road to Avontuur was closed due to 9 construction trucks working up and down on the road and we were advised to take the detour via the Joncksrus road to the N9. Initially we were quite upset about this and asked if we could carry on riding to Avontuur at our own risk...we then decided that it's fine, the road is narrow as it is and with a bunch of trucks driving under the impression that they've got the road to themselves didn't sound too good after all. So, we took a left at De Vlugt and continued towards the N9 which is a beautiful road, it's just that it's a little bit more tar which we wanted to avoid, but all good. In fact, it's a very scenic road...for the two of us at least. So much so, that we were totally amazed by some stray sheep chilling in the shade provided by a tiny tree just off the road. We saw a couple of normal looking sheep and then we got to another bunch of happy sheep regurgitating in the shade, but one had strange bells and stuff around its neck which fascinated me, but more so Anton, as he decided to stop 30 meters later - i was still looking at this weird sheep, trying to figure out why he's wearing such a pretty annoying neckless, traveling at a comfortable scenic speed of about 60km/h when i suddenly saw my fascinated riding partner tremendously close in front of me, never thought he'd actually stop for a sheep, but anyway, i never looked either...i only had time to viciously swerve to the right, no time for brakes, i was right in line with his tail light. I swerved just in time to miss his bike with his one foot on the ground in a stationary position, but my left canvas pannier hit him solidly on his exhaust. Needless to say, i lost control and as the pannier stayed behind, the opposite was true for me and my bike! We both went the same way we were travelling, but we parted somewhere in between and i had a gravel sliding experience and ended up on the side of the road in a bit of pain, especially my left leg, as i obviously hit something on Antons' bike.
At first i couldn't believe it happened and feared that it would be the end of our trip - and we were both really excited about the little adventure and it really sucks knowing that a silly sheep and my lack of concentration changed life for us. By the grace of God, we were both cool. Anton didn't have a scratch on him and his bike was 99% the same, just a tiny ding in his exhaust and bread pealing out of his top box! i just had some bruising on my left leg and after a few minutes, i was good to go and helped Anton pick up the rest of the pieces. My bike had obvious damage, 3 of the 4 indicaters were off, my one mirror snapped off, the bike scratched & torn here and there, but mostly cosmetic...Anton managed to re-connect all my indicators and we used duct tape and insulation tape to re-position and support it, but they all functioned. What a relief!!! The trip is still on! We then found my pannier in the bushes with all its contents spread along the road. The pannier was torn off and completely open on the side where it should hang onto the rack, but with a few cable ties, we stitched it back to working order and just supported the weight with two bungy cords and it worked like a charm. Then we could laugh about it, because we were both okay and realized that we were extremely lucky...i remember lying on the ground checking whether my leg was broken or not, when i saw Anton taking a small hand held device out of his pocket and i thought he was going to phone our wives and i just appealed in a loud voice "no!! don't phone!!!" ...he then replied "i'm not phoning, i'm taking pictures!!" ...and here they are!
We found my pannier in the bushes to the right...as well as my Ginger Nuts, canned tuna and Cere's juices.
Anton eventually got my bike in a upright position!
Happy Camper
Hanging by a moment
Just as we finished repairing my bike, two cars came past...the first one with two obvious tourists and they gave us a friendly wave...the second obvious South Africans and they asked whether we are okay or need help...they just got 4 thumbs up from us...just in time!! We acted completely normal! We then got back on the bikes and headed straight to Uniondale's Agri to get some more cable ties and other handy fixing stuff. We also refueled there.
Outside Ghost Town Agri
We left Uniondale and took the Hartbeesrivier road about 15km outside the ghostly town.
After giving grumpy some water, we turned right on the Winterhoek road towards Steytlerville.
Anton filling up his water supply.
Bold Eagle!
Steytlerville's main attraction and picnic spot.
En route to Jansenville via the Mount Stewart road.
This photo was taken with a Nikon Coolpix S1000pj at f. 650gs Dakar and a shutter speed of 100km/h, no VR or tripod.
Once we got to Jansenville, we stopped at the local "pharmacy" to get some pills for my aching leg and discovered that the guy Anton wanted to see, went to Port Elizabeth...so i told Anton that i know some really good people that we could at the very least, go and greet just to give this very enjoyable detour some meaning. Pieter and Frances are the proud parents of one son and two gorgeous girls...sorry, no pictures allowed. Pieter and Frances both work at the local cop shop and Pieter is especially fond of guns and hunting, so i didn't want to risk it and my younger brother dated their youngest daughter and he really made life difficult for us there, if you know what i mean! Now they don't trust any guys with their daughters, even decent guys such as ourselves.
Anyway, so we parked there for a bit, had a nice chat and due to their connectivity (and i don't refer to their broad band ISP) but to all the people they know in all the right places. When we left there, we had written permission from Mr. Matthee and the whole Jansenville Rugby Union to legally pitch our tents on their field of dreams...i say dreams, but i mean nightmares, because you don't want to play rugby on that field, unless you enjoy going through what i went through back at De Vlugt where i crashed my bike...because that's what it would feel like to get tackled there!
Before we pitched our tents, we stopped here for a cold one...only 2 each...we're more for riding than drinking.
If you look closely, you can see Jansenville's B team on the field, they just finished practicing when we got there!
The designated camping area.
Anton preparing supper for us.
We were so hungry, we ate one of the B team players who got spear-tackled...
The night was long and the neighborhood dogs loud and uneasy. We even saw a bakkie with a green light who came to check up on us under the pretence of hunting "spring hase" or Jumping Bunnies (direct translation from Afrikaans) so we ended up chatting until 4am, then we slept 'til 6am and all the dogs were quiet, so Anton started barking with the intention to disturb their sleep, but no success!
Then we got ready, packed up and went to say goodbye to Frances and her pretty daughters and off we went to Steytlerville.
We took the same Mount Stewart road back.
Rigging!
Rigging!
What? RIGGING!!
Mount Stewart Algemene Handelaar...they only open at 9am.
Ring the guilt-trip, and they will come...i was just giving everybody a wake-up call.
Layered (if you use Photoshop, you'll appreciate it)
Frances arranged that we meet Jaques at the BKB so that he can just give us clarity on the road we must take to the Baviaans from there. Turns out that Jaques had a very nice farmer in his office when i pulled in there, Johan Marais, who farms out in that area, so he briefly gave me the quick and easy directions. Turn right, then stick to the right, right? Right!!
Johan Marais
Grootrivierpoort is an awesome road...the photo's don't come close to reality!
The type of road signs we love to see!
Plenty of water crossings to follow and it's really what we hoped for!
We experienced a full circle of weather conditions. As soon as we started to climb up this mountain, the mist covered it like a thick blanket, making it really interesting to navigate between the two track road with obvious signs of erosion...fun & games!
We were both feeling hungry and decided to look out for a suitable spot to make lunch...it wasn't raining hard, but consistently, so we needed shelter of some sort. We saw this building and at once we pulled in.
Notice that there's no burglar bars in front of the windows...very safe area.
Even enough space for our bikes!
Tuna pasta in the making...
Heading towards Patensie.
Beautiful in Baviaans
It's not a "hot pixel", but Anton... :-)
Notice the "top box"...it's silver/grey...it's meant to be black, but it's all the duct tape Anton used to fix it where my handle bar hit it when i crashed into him.
Classic! ...it worked.
Classic! ...it worked.
This is just awesome riding...really enjoyable!
Anton crossing with style!
The deepest water crossing we had to go through...
Anton didn't allow me to put my tent's rain cover over until it was dark enough in order not to blow our cover seeing that it's only a few shades lighter than his jacket!
What a legend camp site this was...soft grass, running water, peace & quiet...just what we needed!!
Preparing supper...meant to be steak...Steytlerville steak.
"Plaas Wors" from Steytlerville...friendly warning...don't buy it! We couldn't stomach it and we were hungry!!
After a meal, there's nothing like a good cup of coffee.
What a beautiful sunrise!
my Ninja-jump
All packed up and ready to move on to Uniondale.
My Nikon "go pro hero" in order to show you the video below of how we got to our "secret camp site".
About 20 or 25km outside Uniondale, i noticed my handling felt a bit weird, so i stopped to check...flat tyre!!! I had slime in my tyre, so it made it impossible to inflate with Anton's tyre weld but we just cruised slowly, with most of my weight shifted to the back of the bike.
Fortunately these guys had a spare "spook" tube and could sort me out.
My poor bike really took a hammering this time...but we still had loads of fun!
Potent little guy...
Home is behind those mountains...
When we saw these rock pools & fresh running water, we decided to stop here for a bit of a break, some snacks and our first bath for the trip.
Anton, clean again.
This is a public road and Anton had to dive back into the water twice as he was standing naked in the sun, trying to dry himself...
No cars came by when i was in the shower! And i had a little towel to dry myself!
Safely Back Home
My soft saddle bags totally ruined, but at least our cable tie stitching did the job!
My left leg is the only part of my body that took a bit of knock, but i was fine and i'm still amazed at how lucky we were!
Turned out to be a very cool trip.
