Waay down south

Hi all ,

Some of you already know of our planned trip away down south, pretty much as far down as you can go before you hit Antarctica....
We are kinda cheating a bit as we will be flying into Capetown rather than biking there....
Plan is 3 days to acclimatise and get touristy stuff done, then 10 days of biking...
We will be on hired BMW GS1200...not our first choice but long story..
Anyway, Steve has started a blog which we will try and update along the way..
Here's a link to the blog Here, yes here.....click here ffs
We leave on Tuesday 15th October

In attendance will be
Stevecat  who has pretty much organised the whole gig
Gillybaby
Fatcat
Rosco
Dirt Bike Dave

Should make for an  interesting trip watch this space

Thanks Dave, it sure is "how low can you go"? Beats a Southern Softies ride out  

The bike choice was a bit of a classic Target Fixation, which no one wanted. The best sellers, in Europe, are available to hire. The Jap bikes have all been taken, umm.
Even going British didn't work out.

Na ja, dann ein Deutscher Panzer (Ah well, a German tank then)

Yebo yes, R1200GS's. However lots of people like them.

The bigger problem is being in a Rugby mad country in the semi finals. Have packed my Springbok jersey, just in case  

Have a great time guys & gals, will be following with interest, Is Rosco taking his top box of spares?

robertcains wrote:Is Rosco taking his top box of spares?

No, he’s leaving the Thundercat at home.

weasley wrote:

robertcains wrote:Is Rosco taking his top box of spares?

No, he’s leaving the Thundercat at home.

Emirates call center told me they don't allow motorcycles on the plane as part of hand luggage All I asked was can I take my crash helmet as hand luggage!

SteveCat wrote:Emirates call center told me they don't allow motorcycles on the plane as part of hand luggage   All I asked was can I take my crash helmet as hand luggage!

Wear yer lid as a hat

Some updates are available to read, more to come....

Just read you day's antics up-to day 8.

Yep, would of liked being there with ya all but timings didn't work out. Thinking of doing the family holiday there towards the end of next year with Linz and boy'o.

No one's converting to the BMW brands are they?
Roads as good as the Alps/Pico's?

Robcat wrote:Just read you day's antics up-to day 8.

The rest of the trip is still in draft, compiling pic, videos etc. will be published soon.

Robcat wrote:Yep, would of liked being there with ya all but timings didn't work out. Thinking of doing the family holiday there towards the end of next year with Linz and boy'o.

You can get ideas from what we did, it was a mix of tourist traps and our more familiar style ride outs (first full day ride out on our own we did well over 300 miles). I would avoid doing any of the dirt/gravel roads in a hire car, unless you get a 4x4 (generally car hire doesn't allow for non tar driving)

Robcat wrote:No one's converting to the BMW brands are they?

A definite no from me, and I think that was the general consensus. The bike did earn my respect off road though. I am sure the electronics saved me a few times from binning it.
The bikes came with huge knobbly tyres, quite interesting at first on the road, overall they turned out to be pretty good 50/50 tyres. It would have been rude not to use all the rubber, they were pretty trashed after 10 days. Some of us got good practice wearing out tyres at BigMac.
Buy a GS, no, rent again, yes.

I am sure we rode these bikes in many more conditions the average GS owner would ever dream taking theirs.

Robcat wrote:Roads as good as the Alps/Pico's?

This will require a long reply

Better!

Cheers for the reply Steve.

Glad that after traveling 6000 miles getting there, that the roads was all worth while but shame the tyres limited your/our kinda riding style.
But looking forward to reading the follow-up days while you was out there. We'll have a proper chat at the WM get together.

Did you do the Garden Route?
The safari's out there, they only take Dollar's as payment for entry?

We only did part of the Garden Route. However not enough to really qualify. Time was not on our side most of the trip as the itinerary was very ambitious, however we did achieve what a local tour operator told me was nigh on impossible.

All transactions are in South African Rand, they don't accept Dollars for any transaction. If you have found sites quoting Dollars then they are agents or international facing sites for the venue and are more than likely more expensive.
Around the Cape Town environ isn't the natural habitat for big game, or what is known as the Big 5. Private parks have brought animals in and the one closest to Cape Town, Inverdoorn, charges a small fortune.

We'll discuss it at WM, the game drive/safari, money etc and driving quirks like robots as well as dealing with 2,3 and 4 way stops streets. Think everyone has them licked now.

The bike choice and tyres was a compromise. Sure we could have stuck to all tar, as do many locals. Problem is hiring a road focused bike isn't easy and we weren't sure how we'd cope on the gravel.
We aced the hard earth roads, at times doing north of a ton The loose stuff was more tricky. You'll see the technical stuff in day 10 (teaser). Please don't tell the rental company  
There were some roads we'd have loved to have ridden on our own bikes and then there were some we'd never dream of taking our pride and joy's on.

Regarding security and the general feeling secure, only once I sensed an uneasiness from the group when we stopped to regain our bearings. It was on our first big rideout alone. Twice we stopped to do shopping near informal settlements and some of the occupants were in the mall car park hustling, but was as bad as it got.
Capetonians are notoriously laid back, however in the supermarket they bent over backwards to help. On the road all too often they saw the bikes approaching and pulled over into the yellow line to let us pass. Even with the police road blocks, cars were pulled over but we were left well alone.

One thing I forgot to mention about the GS, is the headlight, they must have asked Yamaha some advice on how to emulate a Thundercat, utter pants.

Marvelous info on your trip Steve.
We'd read that entrance to most safari parks was charged in dollars when folk arrived at them (Kruger, Addo) and thought it sucks to charge in that currency.
Wouldn't do semi off road in a car but looking at a touring based visit there with several digs for different nights with using either booking.com or airbnb.
Anyway, good to know your in site Steve and thanks again on how it went. Linz wanted to know if you'd had any infringement's with the locals so to speak but glad all went well for you all.

Robcat wrote:Marvelous info on your trip Steve.
We'd read that entrance to most safari parks was charged in dollars when folk arrived at them (Kruger, Addo) and thought it sucks to charge in that currency.

I've tried to find references to having to pay in $'s, not been able to. It is not legal tender, so am surprised. In other African countries that happens.
Addo and Kruger are both state owned, they may accept foreign currency as a prearranged agreement but not the norm. My first reaction to being asked for Dollar bills smacks of corruption, however I am cynical thinking the $'s are going into back pockets rather than the till.

If you're thinking Cape and Kruger you have a big trip planned, also be aware you best take malaria medication in Mpumalanga/ Kruger. It is my biggest regret never done Blyde River Canyon and the rest of area on a bike, might be too late now  Oddly though when talking with some locals at petrol stations, I was asked have you done God's Window?  That's up Kruger way!
I did do the area in a 1.3l CiTi Golf!  It's a Mk1 , the original box hatchback which is still in production there.

The group met a biking buddy whom I met when I was 18 or so and took us over the Franschhoek Pass both ways, he is dead keen on going into a partnership with me renting bikes Letting that thought settle in, one never knows

There are several GigaBytes of videos recorded, taking time to go through it all.

To kick it off a video of why riding a bike is so valid in heavy traffic, especially in Cape Town. So why didn't I fliter? Well, whilst I was on a bike, Dave was driving a Hyundai H1 van wearing his crash helmet so he could stay in comms with me. You'll see him @53seconds, and 3:30, I was so tempted



More to come, promise with less traffic.

There's no chronological order to my video postings. The previous was the second last day there.
This one is possibly one of our more technical off road rides, nearly a week into the trip.
I make no apology in the edit, or the lack of, it's the whole of the Mongeau Pass. It starts with me yakking about the national police vehicles having their base station name stuck on the van in an attempt to stop them from being driven 1000's km's from where they are supposed to be.

An insight to what we rode and the banter doing it...