Second day 2nd leg - Malagas Pont over river towards Witsand

This continues the series of my Motorcycle Adventure travels from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth which is the first goal, over a two day period. Details of the whole trip here.

So day two like day one had the odd wrong turning, mainly because I was so interested in the surroundings I wasn't concentrating on the route properly. Also my Sat Nav is not mounted, I keep it in my jacket and it's too much of a time waster to keep stopping and checking. I've learnt now when to check it though and will definitly purchase a proper mounted one now.

After breakfast I headed down the correct road and very shortly came out at the Petrol garage I needed and for the Pont over the river, which I was very much looking forward to. I first filled up and noticed a nice little hotel over the road which I explored, but forgot to take some pictures to show you (sorry). I will visit it again in the future so more pics eventually.

Here are the pictures of one of the last ponts I am aware of in South Africa. I remember as a kid going over a few in the Kwa Zulu Natal area as there are so many rivers and hills there and in those days the road infrastructure was not very mature. This was my first pont since I was a kid. Here are the pictures:

Arriving at the Pont - difficult to take a picture with both hands on a downhill while leaving the bike running I discovered

They bring the pont closer and we can drive on

They drive the pont manually by walking down the side pulling on the fixed cable across the river

Charged us ZAR 13 about GBP 1.20 or USD 2 to cross on the Bike. Cars cost 3 times more

Hard work to get the momentum up but after that if didn't appear to take much effort to get us across

They must be pretty fit doing that all day every day. Mind you it's not a busy road.

View of holiday homes along the river banks.

Stopped her to confirm the directions on GPS/Sat nav

Now for the trip to Witsand beach

Having done my first check on the Sat nav and knowing the route to follow was "first right, first right, bear right" I just carried on. I ended up turning onto a Farm road on one of the "first rights" as it was as well maintained as this one above and so didn't bother to check the Sat nav again. Mistake. I ended up going something like 10km on someone's farm before reaching ever narrower and narrower tracks until I ended up in a corn field overlooking the river I'd just corssed on the pont! F...

On the bright side it was the best part of the ride as it had interesting turns, tracks and ramps. I was racing along having fun, then had the joy of doing it all over again on the way back! Great an extra 20km on an already very long ride for the day. I also had to avoid an apparently angry farmer chasing me on a tractor yelling and asking me what I was doing on his farm. Fortunately a Dakar can out run a tractor in even in second gear, so no problem there.

Finally reached Witsand having travelled an extra 20km, but a great leg of the day.

More tours on our list of tour route summaries are available, where we explore these sorts of motorcycle adventure tour routes. Just choose one of our events and reserve yourself a place on one of the future motorcycle adventure safari events. 

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Second day's 1st leg - De Hoop to Malagas for breakfast

This continues the series of my Motorcycle Adventure travels from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth which is the first goal, over a two day period. Details of the whole trip here.

So this time I managed to get up earlier and I was on the road at exactly 8am, the tent and bike packed, helmet cam rolling. I thought I'd get some breakfast along the way.

My immediate goal was to get to Witsand (the Afrikaans for "White Sand"), but that never happened quite as easily as I thought it might. One has to find the only place to cross the river for miles to be successful.

The blue route was where I had to go, but when I got to the trading store where the blue line meets the red one, I carried on instead of turning left. Mainly because on the other side of the road is a trading store that serves breakfast and I was wondering if I should stop there, so missed reading the sign showing the correct directions.

These are some of the pictures on my way out of De Hoop and up to Malagas:

Typical Karoo type scene - Windmill, water resevoir and farm gate.

Blue Cranes - the national bird of South Africa in the fields. The bike scared them there were many more that flew off, others hid just over the hill out of sight.

Swellendam Mountains in the far distance

Road perfectly enjoyable on the Adventure Motorcycles

Unbeknown to me there are actually three places people in the area call Malagas, you can see two of them on the map. One at the junction (where the trading store is), one on top where the pont crosses the river and the third is at the sharp bend in the river which the red line passes.

Eland running away as they heard the bike

Actually as you will see there are some nice holiday houses there situated alongside the river. I thought the pont was there and then thought well it must be further on just over the next few hills, so carried on quite some way until I came to some Eland farms. Here I met a local farmer who kindly explained the 3 different places to me. It was nice seeing the eland farms however.

I then drive back past the trading store and decided to pop in for breakfast as it looked inviting.

Malagas on the river - a good place to stay for river activities

Pan of the small holiday village of Malagas

My well deserved Bacon, Egg, Boerewors, Tomato & Coffee

Another beautiful day in Africa

Well fortified by the excellent breakfast and newly acquired proper directions, I set off for petrol and the pont across the river.

More tours on our list of tour route summaries are available, where we explore these sorts of motorcycle adventure tour routes. Just choose one of our events and reserve yourself a place on one of the future motorcycle adventure safari events. 

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First day's 7th leg De Hoop restuarant and Campsite

This continues the series of my Motorcycle Adventure travels from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth which is the first goal, over a two day period. Details of the whole trip here.

I'd finally arrived at the end of the first day's travel, rather tired and weary. I went to setup the tent so as to settle down for some food and wine at the restaurant, but for the life of me could not find the campsite as there were road markers to everywhere else except the campsite. How many signs to the "camp manager's house" were really needed I wondered having seen about three?

I went into the reception and found someone who could direct me to the campsite but their directions were so vague I ended up having to come back again and clarify! Third time lucky, and I nearly ran into a lone tall ostrich on the now rather dark road.

Finally I found the camp area but then could not find any campsite that had a soft grass area for a small one man tent. Most people were there in 4x4s with fancy roof tents, fold out trailers or canvas 4 bedroomed houses with jacuzzi's (not), etc. I realised I was going to have to simply sleep on solid rock hard gravel, with only a sleeping bag. I was too tired to care really.

Then I pulled the tent out and all that appeared was a sleeping bag, a tent outer rain cover and some pegs and poles. The base actual main tent part was missing! All I could hope for was that the tent inner was in my sleeping bag. Fortunately it was and I breathed a huge sigh of relief and pitched the tent. I'd had someone else wash and dry and repack my tent and sleeping bag from a previous trip to Mozambique. Made mental note to check before hand in future. I freshend up with a shower, change of clothes and went to the restaurant.

This is where the surprise of the day hit me. I was offered a 3 course set meal, which I didn't really think I needed, not feeling hungry enough since I'd had a large lunch. The idea of a nice steak and some red wine and sparkling water was what I'd imagined. They could only do the three course meal but the waitress said it was excellent and so I went for it. WOW! I am so happy I did, it was fantastic!

A five star meal like you'd have expected in the middle of a good restaurant in Cape Town or London. I can't remember what they called the starter but it was incredible. Then the main coarse was a beef dish where the beef was melt in the mouth soft and so tasty, the apparently not so hungry me polished it off in no time aided by a few glasses of red and a litre of spakling water (I was really dehydrated). Still found room for desert - a melba dish and a double espresso.

Picture taken on my mobile phone

I had planned to setup my laptop and mobile to do some tweeting and blogging, but through it would spoil the ambiance if I got it out in this environment, but any way I was tired and needed sleep.

In the morning I took a few more pictures so you could see the campsite in the day-light.

Some visitors to my home

Nice hard floor in the tent!

View from the front porch

Beautiful - right in the Africa Bush proper

I very reluctantly left without even popping down to the sea in the morning, as i knew I had a long way to go again today. I had even further to go today than yesterday as I'd not managed to make it half way the first day.

More tours on our list of tour route summaries are available, where we explore these sorts of motorcycle adventure tour routes. Just choose one of our events and reserve yourself a place on one of the future motorcycle adventure safari events. 

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First day's 6th leg - Dirt road to De Hoop Nature reserve

This continues the series of my Motorcycle Adventure travels from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth which is the first goal, over a two day period. Details of the whole trip here.

Next on this leg was to turn off onto the R317 and head towards Bredasdorp on the gravel road, a trip of 113km assuming you take all thr correct turn offs! The plan was to head through Bredasdorp and out the other side. As it turned out I took the wrong turning right and did an extra 20km of unnecessary travel.

Here are some of the pictures of this leg of the journey.

This is the lovely tar road to Arniston - I did the extra 20km on it before I checked the sat nav!

This is what I'd been wiating for the Gravel roads for miles

As you can see they are in pretty good shape for an easy ride

Although not obvious here, there was a strong 55km/h side wind that was making me drive at an angle on the dirt, and the long shadows meant there was not much day light left.

The magnificent view as you reach the first crest of the hill from the entrance to De Hoop Nature Reserve. You can see right down to the sea.

To the right is the Vlei and if you look carefully you will see the main camp along the river banks.

There was an abundance of various types of buck grazing all over near the main camp

I was surprised they didn't seem to mind the motorcycle too much and I could get quite close.

De Hoop on this trip was certainly not done justice on my behalf. I believe a few days needs to be spent here doing the nature trails along the beach and through the bush to really absorb the beauty of this splendid place. I arrived just as the sun was setting and had to leave first thing the next day, but the food was amazing. The next blog will tell of my food surprise.

More tours on our list of tour route summaries are available, where we explore these sorts of motorcycle adventure tour routes. Just choose one of our events and reserve yourself a place on one of the future motorcycle adventure safari events. 

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First day's 5th leg - Gansbaai waves

This continues the series of my Motorcycle Adventure travels from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth which is the first goal, over a two day period. Details of the whole trip here.

Next on this leg was to aim for Gansbaai and then onto the R316 past Pearly beach, where the gravel begins. I arrived in Gansbaai and thought it would be a good place to fill up the tank as I knew it was getting late and that I would only do another 170km or so before reaching De Hoop nature reserve.

After filling up with petrol, I couldn't help but notice that the wind had picked up and that there was a lot of spray and mist coming from the beach. I thought I'd investigate. Gansbaai appears very much like an indistrial working & fishing village, rather than a picturesque town.  I drove down to the harbour and saw massive waves coming in and breaking on the rocks.

This is the view I got from up on the hill behind the harbour, nice place for adventure motorbikes to find, you would need a 4x4 to do the same.

These waves were really big as I was a good 200m from the beach and the waves were breaking quite far out. The pictures probably don't do them any justice. 

 This one is big, bearing in mond it is probably the best part of 400m away from the camera.

The spew they were kicking up was also looking great with the wind blowing it up off the waves.

This is a picture showing the distance I was away form the waves.

More tours on our list of tour route summaries are available, where we explore these sorts of motorcycle adventure tour routes. Just choose one of our events and reserve yourself a place on one of the future motorcycle adventure safari events. 

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First day's 4th leg - Hermanus sea views and shop

This continues the series of my Motorcycle Adventure travels from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth which is the first goal, over a two day period. Details of the whole trip here.

Next on this leg was to aim for Hermanus. Since I'd done a blog on Hermanus perviously I decided to aim for a different beach called Langbaai, located on the map below its about where is says 7th St.

So far the whole journey had been on tar, but the motorbike and I were fast getting to the point where we were going to be getting onto the gravel roads.

I noticed just how lush and green it all looked after having just driven through the fire damaged area some km's earlier.

This is Langbaai beach taken from the start of the Walker Bay Nature reserve walking trail.

I stopped in here to take a look at the whale viewing site where in the southern winter and autumn months the whales come to rear their young.

Looking towards Walker Bay Nature reserve

On the way out of the car park, I noticed this kooky arty shop and thought it might be worth a visit at some later date when time was on my side.

It had all sorts of interesting items on display.

Next stop was Stanford and then on to Gansbaai. More to come next time....

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