Yskoud innie karooo

The next engagement is a little bit crazy, but I'm only a spectator so not too much to worry about there.

Vic (the chick) has a screw loose and is doing the inaugral Speedo ice swim in Fraserberg. 600m, no wetsuit and the dam is 4'C. Real lunatic fringe, but lewis pugh seems to have made it a bit more mainstream. Expecting some real cheer from the locals, we will probably start braaing at 8am, just to keep warm.

Nicely on my way there, I've stopped in for two days at my old roomie's folks farm. Because it used to be a post office and rewatering station when people went to George by horse you can find Seekoegat on most maps south of beaufort west. Wonderful hospitality as always and such a lekker plek om te kom kuier.

Had plans of doing some plaas riding, but yesterday was miserable. Rained all day and we had three kudus to chop up anyway.

Snowed overnight on the swartberge and hit minus seven. So maybe round noon I'll go for some skaap chasing. Then its off to the metropolis of Fraserberg via the bustling city of Leeu-Gamka.
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Coast2karoo

Well I've taken a bike rest day, and am shifting focus inland. There be some farms to explore and sheep to dodge.
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Home and dry

Well at the lookout deck, which isn't quite home yet, nor is it dry now that the beach is totally gone!

Another funfilled day with some unexpected surprises.more to come later
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Mini fail times two

So I went east.went through a rad valley, almost canadian with steep cliffs and pines the whole way.

But the R339 sucked with all the traffic.

So I tried an alternate route through uplands(off my maps now, so googling directions for guesswork).ended up being a dead end-the farmer at the end was cool, but said he'd prefer I didn't try go down the bitou river cliffs.

Back to tar. At least I can see home, and the beer at lookout
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Lunch 2

Sitting at diepwalle station, waiting on a cheeseburger and chips from the community restaurant. Awesome sunshine and looking out over the forests to the sea, contemplating the afternoon routes.

So far I've basically done the first half of the knysna mtb long route.two monster climbs that I walked.on race day I'd be done by now, but been stopping for lots of views and pics. And picking up energy sachets.;-( The backpack slows me down too.I asked very nicely if I could go around gouna, but quite glad they said no-it looked rather hectic to say the least chasing up the knysna river gorge.

I can either do the famous petrus se brand and then harkerville red route, followed by some guesswork to plett to avoid the N2. Or go north and along the R339 and pop out in the bitou valley.

Plan a has some lekker singletrack,but I've done it all before.mmm, there's my cheeseburger.time to munch and decide
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Top of the hill

At simola looking back on knysna.bit of a late start(merits of staying at a vibing backpackers??) but still pretty chilly. Frost last night.

Time to go down down down to gouna
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Day 1.....of 2

Early start after a late world cup final. Pity robben chose the wrong time to not fall over for once,that's all I've got to say.

We were on the road by 4 and I found myself alone at the garden route mall waiting for the light(only a dinky headlamp in the bag).

My plan was to do the 'seven passes' old route from george to knysna, with as much legal forestry detours thrown in.
Thing is I didn't even know where to go, as I was starting 'off my maps' and hoping to find signs to saasveld college. When I eventually stopped procrastinating the cold away I found it so damn easily and it was all tar.infact I got worried that the whole route was tarred and my idea was a joke. took me two passes to hit dirt near wilderness heights turn off. The bonus was that the weather circus got the morning showers wrong and it was clear blue sky with snowcapped peaks to the north.

I got to woodville trading store and had a great chat with the engaging owner. My energy efficiency advice on his store and home were compensated with a slice of chocolate cake and a squeegy bottle(my water bottle was near mossel bay by now).

Then it was up the hill to bergplaas forest station to see if I could explore their forests. Turns out its all good and open for just ten bucks,but they just don't advertise it. My other idea was to ride from louvain in the north through the ou voortrekker pass to here, looked much easier on the map. I had a good effort trying to convince a forester that pine trees help cause the area's water shortage. Dead end since they are the largest 'provider' of water in the community.

Surprisingly the tracks on the maps were about 95% accurate which makes forestry navigation doable. The pockets of indigenous forest normally coincided with the really steep bits, and criss crossed the outeniqua trail now and then.

I ended up a little bit adventurous and bombed down a huge valley only to find the road flooded.I half backtracked before canning that idea and getting stubborn. hikeabike of note ensued, with me moving very quickly to avoid detection.

I heard a cat in a tree. Purring away. It was the sillhouette of a loerie, who knew they sounded like that?!I'd like to back it up with proof, but the blackberry doesn't come with a zoom lens.

Now having a lot of fun, but well behind schedule I shifted it down the hill to the forestry village of karatara. Enuff said earlier.

Karatara pass was short but some sweet sweeping turns. Homtini pass a bit later was the deal maker. Plunged down without scrubbing the brakes much.it was a long walk out and I eventually got on top and it was a long gradual fall to phantom pass, the final one. The odd thing is the route is punctuated by tar at its extremities, no doubt from the commuters who escape the rat race, but not as far as hitting the dirt. There are a lot of quirky houses round here, there must be some real characters lurking in these woods.

Phantom pass was another great descent with some blind fast corners. I managed to pull over the knysna bridge in fading light, and hit paydirt at backpackers #2. Recommended island vibe was full, so lake superior it was. No hot shower, but the huge braai made up for it. Great to shoot the sh1t with all the foreign travcellers, but such a pity the locals running the show are so clueless about local issues. Oh the mistruths spread around the globe now.

Tomorrow might be a later start.gonna try old cape road up to simola and then gouna forest to diepwalle for lunch. Then prince alfred pass till the R339 turnoff takes me to plett where my car is chilling.
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Late lunch

Of course I bit off more than was chewable. Took the 7passes route till woodville(what a name for a forestry station). Then hit bergplaas and got a R10 permit to hit their forests. Pointed the bike east and shot.

It was awesome.

Some nice overlaps with outeniqua trail(now on to do list) with amazing indigenous forest. Had to do a semi-legal hike a bike as one road was flooded,didn't fok around with the river crossing.

Popped out at a dorpie called Karatara,appears to be the previous regime's solution to the 'poor white problem'. Lunch is yummy fresh rolls,john west spicy packed tuna and double cheese doritos. Washed down with limited edition fanta kiwi apple and lemon. Champion meal.

Did 3passes before my dirtscursion, and only skipped on, so three more to go.

Enjoy!
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On the road

A flippen early start, as the lift was leaving at 4. Meant I had to wait for first light at george mall for about 30minutes.

In the darkness managed to forget waterbottle. Didn't realise that the road to saasveld college has nothing on it, so no bp express for anything till hoekwil I guess.

Taking the 7passes route to knysna,if its tarred and siggnposted the whole way I'll have to find some detours.

First little valley brought me to shivereens at the bottom and reminded me I've done a half marathon on the other side. Oh well!

Here you can see my bike. So far so good.
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Brrrrrrr

Weather report is partly miserable and freezing. With late showers. Attached you can see the snow covered outeniquas. Pic is from near the compass on attached map. Not my main map(I do have the 1:50 000) but is a good reference.
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The ruff plan

After a few weeks of following people riding at different speeds from maritzburg to diemersfontein, I got the urge of the trail tugging at me. I'm doing mba this year, and even though they work us pretty hard, we get a bit of free time now and then. That time is now.

Finding myself in Knysna(more on that later) and needing to be in Fraserberg next weekend(more on that later) I figured some garden route and karoo tripping was in order.

I haven't got a full plan yet, but am seeking out local knowledge first. I threw everything together in about 20minutes but its a little scary how much technical gear I own now.

Being a student and unemployed(12months and counting!) I've toned down the bike arsenal-by adding another bike. I've mothballed the santa cruz for the year and built up a singlespeed, mostly from bits and pieces around. The frame is a Kona Colin Mcrae limited edition, and I kinda reposessed it from a london tube station(more on that later).

Needed to get rid of a drivetrain squeak,and since my time and expertise were running low I took it to my closest bike store. John O'Connor cycles in Mouille Point. Yes I know, a bike store on the golden mile! Got to be the fanciest location(next door to peperneros), but they got it all together chop chop and its now the shiniest bike I've ever had.

On the way I popped into the department of land surveys(see pics) its such a great place and has a cool little museum section of olde equipment. I have all the maps I need, but forestry sections change their roads. A lot!

Still got a few options to play with, but we're looking at 2days, and most likely wilderness to plett, all on back roads and through the rest with a map and a compass.I have my gps; but without maps or tracks on it, its more of a recording than a navigational device.

The weather is not looking very good for monday, so waterproofing is going to be a chief concern. Otherwise the main issue is getting logistics down, but with and a to a to b route I think I'm done.
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Some outback riding

With 6 months of hard mba graft and not much riding, it's time to go explore. Looking at doing 2 or 3 days in knysna/george area. And then some sheep herding in the moordenaarskaroo.

Going with the singlespeed on this trip, time to teach it some manners!

Current plan looks to be george 2 plett,with a stop somewhere most likely knysna. Anyone got some info from epic days of open trails?

Will of course update from here.
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Day 6 - Bringing it home

Well we slept inside for once, even if it was a stationary bus. The perfect timing was that the wind had howled the whole night, and hadn't stopped when the son rose. We had our last breakfast and got an escort through the forest as Kumie and Vera were going fishing(and had a dog to collect).

Hard going into the wind on rough roads

Leaving the bluegum forest we got the full realisation of the wind we had to ride into. The road was a terrible loose shale too. So the going was slow. I think there might even have been looks of lets call for the lift going round the group. We had ridden on the dam shore, and eventually pulled off onto a firebreak. A rough firedbreak at that. Things went from bad to worse to fynbos. The map was a sea of white nothing, but my gps had a track going south through it. Riding became impossible as we pushed through head high fynbos. Trying to find the way through ended up with four long faces and me assuring them it was passable. A compromise was reached with the group sitting and me heading on foot to see what lay over the slight ridge ahead of us. I'd been told the route was simple, it was proving nothing like it.

The fynbos slog

I emerged to a 2.4m gamefence, which was beautifully manicured up to the mountain and down to the road. Crossing it was impossible, as the top third was unsupported and the wire threads were taut. On returning, I found what was left of the firebreak, just sparser fynbos. I gave a few options to the crowd, the main being that just 20minutes through the bundu was our way over a fence. Reluctantly they followed, mutiny imminent. We decided to try follow up the mountain and maybe get away over as the fence became less uniform. A solid post arrived soon enough and I scaled it easily enough, taking the bikes one by one.

don't try this at home



Now that we were definitely looking at a delicate situation, I called David Waddilove(Freedom Challenge founder) to discuss the property and route. Luckily he knew exactly where we were, and gave us the go ahead and the manager's contacts. In passing he told us to watch out for buffalo!

Phoning the boss
We got the group over easy enough, but were very cautious in negotiating blind rises and corners. A small herd of eland stayed ahead of us for the next hour, and we kept our height before running down past the magnificent homestead. Somewhere along the way the wind died to nothing.

The view ahead of the fence


From then on we went out of the Elandsberg property onto provincial roads, and kept an eye up on Groenberg, the conical mountain that looks down on Wellington. We would be passing this on the saddle that seperates it from the aplty named Limietberg range. No doubt a little bored by plugging away on the wide roads we found a shady spot at a farm gate for some brunch. By now we were one meal short of home, so all the leftovers were getting decimated. Tuna sachets that had travelled 500km were demolished in no time.



The riding got a bit more interesting when we turned off through the Rooshoek property. It's a mix of soft sand and gum forest but totally quiet. We found a great stream to refill in the stifling heat before hitting the big climb of the day, the saddle we'd seen from afar. The pecking order had been long established with Damon and Kathy up front and us other three keeping company in the rear.




We emerged to the crest with the Wellington valley below us. To get there it was all downhill. The oakdale equestrian estate was rather special, those horses get some proper TLC. The route took us down to the trailhead of the Welvanpas network. Being a hot day, I demanded we stop in at the cafe and took advantage of the koeksister and coke combo deal. By now we were in a built up area dn flitted between farm tracks and town roads. Finally coming through Wellington itself we turned past the massive NG Kerk and took the final turn to Diemersfontein.


We checked in at security and found our way to a nice shady tree to unwind and finish the rest of the food stocks. What more could we do to pass the time as our lifts arrived than hit the winetasting?

Big thanks go to Dirk and the venture bus, as well as the Smyley bunch for getting us all home. We did consider just bedding down in paarl and riding on into monday!

Day 5 - Singletrack, Shoppping and Swelter

A constant lie on the trip that yesterday was the hard day and today was the easy one. It took 5 rounds of this charade before my game was up, but luckily I got to fool the gang with two things. Muesli with fresh(ok, long life) milk, and the promise of the 's' word. Nope; not sleep, soccer or Steers, but singletrack – the holy grail of mountain biking. Sure Rob had found a flowing section with infinite curves and banked corners the day before, but this was the real deal, Eselfontein.

First we had to get there, and our route was a yellow highlighter on the 1:50 000 map with some secret paths. We got going at first light and could see our break in the ridge to head to. Much stuffing around later and we finally took the easy obvious route there. On the way Damon did his Tumbleweed nickname some justice and wiped crossing a wet granite river rock slab. His bruised ribs turned out later in an x-ray to be fractured, but he was more worried about the crack in the phone(and the bike, 'Simone' was fine). Ceres is a special valley, sure it's got lots of juice factories, but where fruit farm meets mountain foothills it's quite something. Luckily this is the path we trod. Anyone ever heard of Lakenvlei dam? Didn't think so, but it is a large and dramatic sluice that holds a river back from it's path through the Hex River Mountains. We got to descend towards it and the smiles were on with some rocky jeep track and a compulsory bunny hop over a bunny shaped rock that came round a corner with all surviving.
Lakenvlei dam

A few debates about how to cross the valley aiming for the trees on the other side saw us holding a high line through the crops and coming to a slight fynbos portage. The farmer said it was cool, the wekkers thought we were crazy. On the other side the horizon revealed more of the same, another picturesque valley. We skirted along the treeline and followed the furrow to Hoogland packing sheds. Skipping past a few dams we finally got to the escaprment of sorts that looks down onto Ceres town itself, 20km in the distance. With Legend now chomping at the bit to get onto the trails we took some wrong turns but finally got onto a marked course, even if the arrows were backwards.

Deon Malherbe has been running mtb events on Eselfontein farm since 1992(he says), and has arguably the finest trails in the greater cape area. He builds them with a motorcross bike and they are spectacular to say the least. But don't just listen to me, go find more here www.eselfontein.co.za.

Freeze frame of awesome downhill


We had our trails chick leading the charge down, taking all the pretty lines and big drops. She inspected the big !Danger! drop, and rode it, full bag and all. The boys put their egos in their packs and walked. Squealing at the rear was Damon doing his best to avoid every rock and bump. Much swearing ensued, so much so that he skipped the dark forest section and waited for us under a tree at the farm gate.
Looking down to esels

If this trail route is adopted, you can guarantee this section will be a highlight.

With time ticking towards noon and still not near halfway we chose the boring route into town. What an experience, seeing a saturday morning Ceres with the usual boland mayhem. Sneakily the Spar is past all of this, and we did the big shop for the trip. Stocked up and all the cravings catered(fried chicken and soft serve from the Steers) we found a shady tree by the golf course to eat enough food so we could fit it all in.

Despite all the good its done for our sport, I'm not the biggest fan of the Cape Epic. I think it's overpriced and overhyped, but my viewpoint on mountain biking is biased since shifting from the XC routine of chasing a rear wheel up a hill and racing down the otherside. I prefer to stop at the peak and take in the view, pull out a camera and appreciate where my bike has brought me. Another bugbear is that while the Freedom Challenge has established 2300km of accessible route from KZN to Cape Town on one volunteer's passion, the Epic has not (to my knowledge)opened a single kilometer of trail for Joe Biker and me. Luckily I won't be able to say this for long.

There is but one way into Ceres from the Cape Town side, the Mitchell's Pass. It winds alongside the Breede, and its disused railtrack reminds of times gone by before major trucking. Since Epic 2010 spends 3 days in Ceres, the railtrack is to be cleared and swept. It'll be 15km of gradual rise mtbing with sweeping views. This helps our route greatly, but we chose to avoid the gadoonk gadoonk of the rickety rails till that time, so took the tar pass instead.

The approach into Wolsely had some townships skirting, and saturday afternoon might not be the best time to do it, judging by the sideways sloping pedestrians. Pulling into Demars fietswinkel to get our R10 trail permits for the Kluitjieskraal section, we had a fat chat with the tannie in the shade. She warned us of the bobbejane and tiere(baboons and tigers, later corrected to leopards).

Being another stinky hot day, the welcome relief of the shady pine forest was very needed. The intention was to actually ride up the pass to the plateau and descend down into waterval nature reserve via the Suurvlak plantation. It's a bit of a roundabout loop but spectacular. This is not really feasible with the proposed accomodation stops as this day would end up being way too long and tough. With this in mind(this is a test ride, remember) we skirted the base and took the red route split. It still climbs a bit up the foothills, and there was some moaning about this from the peleton.

Coming into the CapeNature section, we had our mind on the Nuwekloof pass option. We'd had a quick peek on the train trip in, and had two options. Scout the derelict old pass, which roughly follows the rail line. The new pass was built in 1965 and is probably 5km further(and on busy tar, which is naturally to be avoided at all costs!). The two are split by the Klein Berg River, share a thought for these water drops who end up in Veldrif. Just an hour earlier the ones we saw travel all the way to Witsands, 400km away.

The 'problem' with the old pass
With some casual discussion with Jan from opposite the Tulbagweg stasie and much peering over locked doors it appears the old pass is not accessible. By jumping some tracks and under a fence the much confirmed bridge is indeed no longer and a more creative way will have to be found through. Reluctantly we gave up and followed the tar, which gave us a solidly windy passage through the kloof.
The team heading up the path to Silwerfontein with a blustery voelvlei behind
(Being a sailor) I've spent many a weekend at Voelvlei, the wind blows there nonstop. From the moment we arrived till 18hours later and we were 10km away, it didn't stop. What's worse is that we probably could have sneaked a shortcut along the inlet furrow instead of doing the two sides of the triangle I had tracked. We did get to ride along one of the two damwalls, it's a massive body of water and is filled by the diverted Klein Berg, not having a natural river through it. It was a real grind into the block headwind, and quite a relief to pull up to the Silwerfontein farmhouse. It's a tastefully constructed Cape dutch building but only 16 years old, the yellowwood inside also a reminder of times gone by. We got all arrangements sorted with Kumie the organiser (and some cold cold water) and headed into the bluegum forest to our overnight stop, the much talked and debated double decker bus. That's exactly what it was, and is permanently there for their hiking trail. We had all ten beds to ourselves and got busy emptying all the emergency rations into the pots(being the last night). We had a visitor in one of the farm dogs and much debate ensued whether she should sleep in or out of the bus.
Legend and the hot buss

She survived outside, keeping the much vaunted snakes at bay.

Day 4 - contrasts

Today was always going to be the big one, die groot baas of the trip. By now noone takes my estimates seriously. Everything is either 3 or 20 km. Today was a thumbsuck of 90km. Thank the pope I actually chopped 30km off the end and moved the finish point from eselfontein to matroosberg nature reserve.

Jannie had shown us halfway up the jeep track around the back of the swartberg mountain. It was steep, rocky and a dicey call. I slept on it and decided to rather play it safe with so much more to come in the day, so we went the alternate route on farm roads to the south.

A now clockwork early start and grey skies got us to the tar R318 without fuss and we got the paceline going. A chance meeting along the way and we had hooked up with a cycling Dirk Uys,the owner of Nadini - another prospective stopover in the area. His wife coordinates functions at the nearby Matroosberg station, a restored white elephant with a rail tunnel below it that has escaped its earmarked demolition.

For the first time in days we had signal, a sign that the N1 and civilisation was near. Our crossing point on the great north road was Karoo1.com - another spot with some serious paint thrown at it recently. We were clearly not quite fitting in this 5star spot, but got down to the important discussion of how the hell we'd find a way down the waterfall/kloof that Smuts got his commando through with brits chasing him.

With coffee and full sunshine on the way, I turned down the first offer of breakfast. The second one we took with both hands, and got waited hand and foot for a good half hour. Quite possibly the best scrambled eggs I've ever had, the 2hours old oatso easy a distant memory.

The kloof itself was a bit of a no show in the end. Basically a three stage waterfall, the first two a tight scramble. This ended in a sheer 10m+ drop. Not gonna happen. It did however give view of a dramatic sheer cliff/amphitheatre. There's also a ridgeline across the valley that drops from higher but at a more agreeable angle.

The cliff could be a future option, with the correct equipment this bike abseil would be a feature highlight. The ridgeline was a gamble of an option with some possibly sketchy boulders. To do it unsighted with a bike on your shoulders was just a bit too irresponsible with plenty of kms still to go later.

So it was back to the tar, on the N1 too. Just like the brit troops we'd skirt the hex river mountains and would rejoin at the R46 junction. It flew by, with albino springbok, aquila Big 5 lodge and kleinstraat military base all on the way. It's big mountain country, with sheer faces and peaks all around

We left the tar to find our way up the verlorenvalley. Another stunning property, our second 1812 house. Being midday we ended up waking Tiekie the farmer, but got free hand in the cherry shed. Further up was a huge great dam and the perfect lunch stop. For once we couldn't quite find enough shady trees and gave the customary snooze a miss.

One hallmark of this area of ceres is the multitude of dams, you're never far from the view of water. Makes the nav easier too.

We explored a few interesting approaches to Erfdeel, our camping spot for the night, but ended up using the main dirt access after some bridgeless river crossings.

One of the bonuses of the trip was our resupply at this point. Travelling in isolated spots means you never come past a woolies. Apart from clearing out the tuckshop at Leeuwenboschfontein on day 3, we'd not seen a shop since the Laingsburg OK. Everything had been carried, and we'd cooked pasta, rice, couscous etc on an MSR stove.

Erfdeel is better known as Matroosberg Private Nature Reserve and includes two campsites and a lot of mountain tracks, including the cape ski club area, Waldo had arranged for a braai and breakfast pack from the local pick n pay for us. We felt like kings, with our (warm) coke and chips round the campfire.

We had done a lot of km, over 100, and had a long session. Our reward was the bed of the trip, a large collection of pine needles and oh so comfy.........