Day 2… “The Hell”Up at daybreak, I packed my bed roll, chewed some tobacco, drank some strong open fire coffee, saddled my steed and moseyed on outa that dustbowl town… (should read: rolled up my state of the art -15 degree sleeping bag, packed my Himalayan tent, puffed on an e-cigarette while drinking my instant cappuccino before a long hot shower…
I did leave pretty early though; Prince Albert was mostly sleeping as I thumped through the neat, clean streets; the streets in a lot of these small towns are 4 lanes wide, not because of traffic, but a throwback from the days when they needed to be wide enough to turn an ox wagon.
As mentioned above, I was heading for Hell; more accurately “Die (The) Hell” as the little settlement deep in the Gamkaskloof valley is known. The valley was settled sometime in the mid 1800s by a few farming families and pretty much stayed isolated until 1962 when a road was finally built into the valley. There was one donkey path and a foot path, but no other access until then. The people here lived a simple farming life, mostly subsistence and a little trading when they could get produce out by donkey. After the road was built, within 30 years all but one of the residents had moved out. The area is now managed by Cape Nature and the original farm houses have been restored and are for rent. There is no mains power so they have simple solar power setups for lights and gas stoves for cooking, bliss!
The road in, starts near the top of the Swartberg Pass and winds its way down for roughly 40KMs between the mountains, following the valley.
I had no reservations or the (apparently) required motorcycle permit but decided to take a chance and hoped that someone might still be around on Sunday. The ride up to the turnoff is a gravel mountain pass blessed with magnificent views and some hairy switch backs… By now I’m pretty comfortable on the dirt with the Enfield and have accepted that she doesn’t handle quite like my KTM (EXC) used to, but the slower pace in these beautiful areas makes up for all that!
That road sucked!
That is not to say I didn’t relish every second of it, but it was bad! After one stop for a drink in the shade after about 10ks, I pulled out my tyre repair kit and spare front tube and packed it close at hand! The front wheel impacts on the rocky/stony sections gave me a couple of heart stoppers where I waited for the inevitable pfffffffft!
Surprisingly, after around two and a half hours, I rolled into “Hell” and it was “as hot as…” Luckily, the little trading store cum restaurant still had the owner hanging around after breakfast (they close at 1200 on Sunday). Within 10 minutes I had in my possession: Keys to my farm house, 4 Karoo Lamb Chops (for dinner), a “roll” of farm sausage (boerewors) for lunch, a large green salad, half a loaf of freshly baked farm bread, 6 beers, 2 chocolates and some sodas… for less than 30 bucks USD!
Because of my early departure and relatively short ride for the day, I could chill and enjoy the tranquility of this remote place; while I had plans to head down to the river for a swim, I ended up hanging around the farm house tinkering with my gear, reading, having a few cold beers and generally just relaxing… More bliss! There’s no cell reception down there either, only one land line at the nature office in case of emergencies.
I collected some firewood in the afternoon and by dusk had a fire blazing, ready to tan up those lamb chops! If you ever find yourself in South Africa, do yourself a favor and get hold of some Karoo lamb; life changing stuff!
Overall, this was an awesome day, in a very special place; I will definitely do this again, maybe for a day or two next time when I can explore the valley a bit more.
Here is a link to short pic video of the route: https://www.dropbox.com/preview/Gamkaskloof.mp4?role=personalDay 3 Outa the hills…I woke up happy and chilled before the sun; enjoying my coffee out on the stoep (veranda) where I imagined some old oom (uncle) doing the same a hundred or more years ago, only he was getting ready to work his fields and I was making my way south towards the sea…
In a way I was sad to leave this special place and its somewhat strange but romantic history; the road out is the same way as in so I geared up and hit the stony trail just after 6:30. I took the ride back a bit slower, enjoying the cooler air of the early morning and before I knew it, I was back at the turn off to continue over the Swartberg pass and onto Oudtshoorn.
The Swartberg pass is still gravel but well maintained, even so, I took it easy being careful to prevent the dreaded front wheel wash out on these slippy tyres. I stopped at the viewing point for some photos and sure enough, some crazies on bikes (the man powered kind) were coming up the opposite way; respect to them for that climb!
I stopped off in Oudtshoorn for some fuel and to try find some new flip flops (until now I’d been wearing my black riding boots with board-shorts as “casual wear”, great look!) It was then that I discovered a glaringly obvious design fault in my setup… Until now it was mostly small towns and actually being on or with the bike, but stopping to enter a store or mall, or walk down the street left my bike and all my kit completely exposed and sadly, in the bigger towns, opportunistic theft is rife. So I bailed on the shoe shopping and pushed on down the R62 (again), having ridden this route on a previous trip. I wasn’t sure where I would stay for the night but was enjoying the riding and the stops along this cool stretch. I stopped at Ronnie’s Sex Shop (a bar/restaurant, not a real sex shop) for a break and some refreshing banter. After some excited discussion between the locals at the bar, the rest of my route had been decided by them!
On the above recommendations, I took the Tradouw Pass through the mountains following the river of the same name; this pass is a motorcyclist’s dream, with long cambered corners and stunning scenery! This pass has the kind of curves you find on a ‘50’s pin-up girl; gentle, comfortable and seductive… I found myself rolling on the throttle a couple of times: right up to the point that I touched the stand in a sweeping curve! As I’m sure many will agree, that grinding noise is heart stopping the first time you hear it! It was the curves…
The historic town of Swellendam was in shooting distance of tomorrow’s ride, so, that was it… A couple of cruises up and down the [very quiet] main road, some juice and a quick Google search and I found an old school hotel for a good price (I should’ve camped but wanted an early start the next day, so canned that idea.)
Swellendam produced [a shiny new pair of flip flops]!! Took those babies out for a spin that night! I actually had dinner at the hotel restaurant and chatted to a Dutch couple (who never even commented on my new shoes!)
The bike was relegated to the front of the hotel which faces the street; I had to remove anything valuable and pre-tipped the night watchman to keep an eye; it made me pretty uncomfortable and wouldn’t do it again. I am busy building a set of [lockable] panniers and top box as I type this!