Addendum: South Africa – the week that never was (1 of 2)

The ‘unfortunate’ start to my big trip last year meant that the South African element of my riding ambitions remain unaddressed. Heading back a week before a family Christmas gathering has given me the opportunity to put that right.

Lesotho and Swaziland were alas unrealistic in the time available but my original planning had included the Swartberg Pass, a high gravel road mountain pass through the Swartberg Mountains, Die Hel (“The Hell”), a hairy 37kms cliff edge ride down into an isolated valley the was cut off from the outside world for about 100 years before a ‘road’ was built in the 1960’s, and Baviaanskloof a nature reserve paradise in the Baviaan Mountains in the Eastern Cape.

Somewhat ironically I had ultimately decided against doing these on the big trip as they were supposed to be tough and I didn’t want to bust up my bike (or myself) in the first week. Which made them absolutely fair game on for a standalone back-fill trip.

Day 1: Friday 8 December (skills and spills…)
I found my 220kgs bike a heavy beast to handle in the rough stuff in Africa so booked a training day to brush up on some skills. It’s in Grabouw, north east of Cape Town, necessitating an early start as I ride 2 hours to get there for 9am, crossing the stunning Franschhoek Pass on route and noting the shocking lack of water in the main reservoir for Cape Town. The reason for the current water restrictions is very apparent and represents something of a challenge for the Western Cape. The drought impact is compounded by the increased demand for water following significant migration within South Africa.

The course turns out to be both helpful and enlightening. I hit the dirt 3 times during the day: you don’t do your best learning when things are going well, but I leave with the confidence I need to tackle what lies ahead.

I spend the night in Caledon, a small town on the garden route. I get chatting to the owner of the one restaurant in town. He’s a biker himself and has recently visited Baviaanskloof, pronouncing it “good to do but I won’t do it again”. The underlying implication was that he was a bit out of his depth on his 1200cc BMW, which I clock but try not to let feed my own anxieties over whether I am biting off more than I can chew.

Day 2: Saturday 9 December (…..riding the hills)
Saturday morning I ride the 100kms or so to Swellendam, a picturesque old town, where I have agreed to meet Chris at a petrol station. We ‘met’ yesterday when he replied to a post I’d placed on a South African motorcycle forum to say I was riding in the area and up for company if anyone fancied joining me.

Chris turned out to be lovely guy, a similar age to me and having left Cape Town and corporate life a decade or so back to set up and run a local IT business with an emphasis on getting by and a good work life balance. The plan is to ride though the mountains on gravel roads to the wine town of Calitzdorp, from where he’ll take the tar road home. When he hits the first gravel road at 100kmph it takes a little mental adjustment for me to keep up, but he leads me through some corking scenery to the tiny and remote village of Van Wycksdorp where we stop for lunch and a good chat.

The best however was still to come as we cross the Rooiberg mountain on a rough but stunning mountain pass and drop down into Calitzdorp around 4pm where we say our goodbyes.

I check into my B&B, sit on my stoop with a complimentary glass of port from the vineyard I am looking at on the other side of the road, before grabbing a shower and wandering down the road to the local restaurant.

Over a beer and bowl of pasta I get chatting to Peter and Lisa a couple from Port Elizabeth. They are both pharmacists who run the pharmacy division of one of Africa’s supermarket chains. They are a lovely couple who are envying my day’s riding. They had intended to come by bike too but it was too windy in PE so they had come by car instead. Their daughter wants to being an actuary and is applying to KPMG (my employer and loosely my field) so we find some unusual common ground. It is also nice to discuss KPMG in a more positive light; the firm are in hot water here for being too close to the Ghupta family who are part of the Zuma cesspit of corrupt African politics. We have a great evening chewing the fat and swap details for when I am in PE or they are next in the UK.

Day 3: Sunday 10 December (views and phews)
Sunday brings a new riding buddy. I have agreed to meet Brian, another guy I ‘met’ on the forum. He gave me a lot of helpful advice when putting together my route plan. Besides that, all I know about Brian is that he is 67 and his forum avatar is the Israeli flag with an associated “right to exist” slogan. This could be interesting.

Brian turns out to be another great guy. We never got to the Israeli flag thing so I am still none the wiser. He brought along two mates of his, Tony, probably a similar age and Paul, younger but also retired.

L-R: Paul, Tony, Brian, me

We ride another beautiful gravel road from Calitzdorp to the Swartberg Pass and then ride up and down the pass to Prince Albert on the other side. It turns out to be really easy riding but the views are stunning (more views to follow when I’ve finished processing the video footage).

We stop for lunch in Price Albert and I get to know the guys a bit better. Brian was given 2 years to live 5 years ago. Initially it was brain cancer, now he suffers from lung cancer. He rides at the front to avoid the dust but otherwise you’d never know. I love a ‘can do’ outlook.  I don’t find out much about Tony who is quieter, other than he used to be a motorcycle racer in his youth. Paul is a more extrovert character, living 10 months in Johannesburg and 2 in Mossel Bay, he has 15 motorbikes amongst his many toys and explains he has no kids so he and his wife are committed to living out a life of pleasure.

We touch on politics and taxation but I have belatedly learned in life to try and walk a mile in someone else’s shoes before I make my judgements. I actively want to pay my tax; it is a privilege to be able to contribute to a national health system and a national education system. However I may feel very differently if I thought my tax was just getting creamed off by corrupt and greedy leaders.

Mountain passes over for the day, I just need to ride the 100kms or so to De Rust in the next mountain range along. I had intended to do this on the main tar road but the guys suggest a gravel alternative. This turns out to be the hardest road of the entire trip for me. Completely flat and straight, we are barrelling along at 100kmph or so when it suddenly turns sandy and I can feel the front and back wheels sliding simultaneously. When this happens every instinct makes you want to close the throttle but doing so will almost certainly cause the bike to crash. In fact to create stability you have to accelerate. This I force myself to do, but when opportunity permits I come back to 50-60kmph to give me a bigger comfort margin from the many further twitches that follow. Tony and Paul continue but Brian kindly stays with me through the next 20-30kms at my pace until we hit the main tar road. There was absolutely no pleasure for me in that last half an hour but I get through. It’s times like this you realise you are more emotional and less rational that you think you are. The physics of momentum mean it’s fine; every natural instinct says its really not!

The day ends with a drive down through the Meiringspoort Pass, a beautiful twisting tar road through the mountains into the town of De Rust where I say goodbye to my riding pals, booking into my B&B and let go of my sandy tensions with a cold beer and a delicious chicken and avocado pizza.

The legendary Baviaanskloof tomorrow…