Amazing motorcycle adventures in Southern Africa: 03/01/2012

Saturday, 31 March 2012

Beach day rides from Cape Town - Scarborough

Google Maps Location: Scarborough near Cape Point
Type of beach: Some sandy spots but mostly rock.
Natural or commercial: Extremely natural and wild. Very un-commerical.
Access by car: Yes, car park and then walk onto beach. 10m
Free or paid: Free entrance.
Access: Easy, just walk down the gangplank from the car park onto the sand and rocks.
Surroundings: Completely Natural beach in a village surrounded by a nature reserve.

This beach, along with Misty Cliffs just down the road are two spectacularly natural beaches around and near the Cape Point nature reserve. Even though both beaches are not directly within a nature reserve as there are small villages with houses where people live, both villages are very small and not very busy and off the beaten track. The villages are surrounded by nature reserves and thus have the feel of living in a nature reserve. The beaches are protected by the nature reserves on both sides so remain very pristine and clean.

Scarborough is where B on the map courtesy of Maps.Google.co.za

Many Capetonians find the distance of 50km too far to ride out to for a day on the beach consequently the beach is usually pretty deserted except for a few locals from the village. if you are going down to the famous Cape Point Nature Reserve for the day, you could pass through this village, depending on your route, as it is one of the roads to get there. This is another reason it is little known because the Cape Point destination most people are heading towards is just past this so they never quite stop here.

A great beach for romantic photographs of weddings, etc.

Mussel shells washed up from the rocks

This place is fantastic for picnics and day rides on motorcycles. it is also used for scenic photography for things like romantic wedding pictures. These photos were taken on a recent photo shoot for a couple that on the morning of 2011-11-11 decided to get married at 11:11. It was all such a rush that they only ended up doing their true wedding pictures a little later.

This is a blog from Africa4Adventure.com. A short series on great beach destinations in South Africa based upon motorcycle rides to get there. Some are short day rides from Cape Town, others are much longer rides but if in Southern Africa and you are somewhere on the coast then are really good beaches to visit if you can find the time and are in the general area.

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if you want to join us we offer Southern African motor cycle tours on our list of tour route summaries are available, where we explore these sorts of motorcycle tour routes. Just choose one of our events and reserve yourself a place on one of the future motorcycle adventure safari events.

An idea of the size and extent of the Scarborough village

Beautiful clean fresh sea sand

Friday, 30 March 2012

Karoo - Day4 Leg4 - Windy Colesburg

Just before we reached Colesburg, a midday wind came up. It seemed to blow for about two hours then calm down again thankfully, as for us it was a cross wind and on a motorbike that's rather irritating. Since it was around lunchtime and we were hungry, we pulled into the Wimpy at the services on the N1 in Colesburg and had a bite to eat while we waited for the worst of the wind to pass.

There was a chap who sits there selling little homemade Karoo windmills and all of them were really spinning in the wind, so they work well! it's the sort of thing I would have bought to help out the chap and because it would look good at home in the garden somewhere, but unfortunately on a bike there is no room and it would just get damaged.

This is the daily blog from Africa4Adventure.com. A short series on the Karoo Motorbike tour we took on during September 2011. See the plans for the trip blog here: Planning a 6 day 2500km route through the Karoo maximising dirt

Check out and "like" our Facebook site: http://www.facebook.com/Africa4Adventure.MotorbikeTours
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Follow us on twitter @Africa4Adventur

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

Parked up at the Services at Colesburg

The wind was gusting and dust blowing - difficult to capture in a photograph

Little homemade Karoo windmills for sale on the side of the road -all spinning furiously in the wind

Later we reached Trompsburg - this graveyard at the side of the road in such a small town was a shock - AIDS? Not sure? Probably.

We reached Middelburg

Thursday, 29 March 2012

Karoo - Day4 Leg3 - Cross the Orange river

In what seemed like a flash we had reached the Orange river which is the border of the Free State province and the Northern Cape. It is amazing how quickly the Karoo comes up once you leave Bloemfontein. It started getting a little windy on this road and i remember riding at a bit of an angle across the wind for a while, but once we got to Colesburg we got inside for a bite to eat and waited for the worst to blow over.

This is the daily blog from Africa4Adventure.com. A short series on the Karoo Motorbike tour we took on during September 2011. See the plans for the trip blog here: Planning a 6 day 2500km route through the Karoo maximising dirt

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Charles blocks Rich's the view of the Orange river

Big wide river

Rusty bridge

Flat free state ends, back into the Northern Cape

Framed

Heading back down a road with cross wind buffeting us around a little

Wednesday, 28 March 2012

Karoo - Day4 Leg2 - Philippolis

We were glad we had taken the turn off the main boring N1 onto the back roads. It immediately got rid of all the traffic and endless roadworks. Ok so instead we got more potholes, but on an adventure bike that's not really too much of a problem. We saw two or three small towns, and unfortunately stopped in the wrong one for coffee (Trompsburg). We should have stopped in the next town called Philippolis, as it looked quaint and well kept. We both made a mental note of returning to Philippolis to get to know it better. Then we headed onto Colesburg which joined the N1 again.

This is the daily blog from Africa4Adventure.com. A short series on the Karoo Motorbike tour we took on during September 2011. See the plans for the trip blog here: Planning a 6 day 2500km route through the Karoo maximising dirt

Check out and "like" our Facebook site: http://www.facebook.com/Africa4Adventure.MotorbikeTours
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Centre of the village of Philippolis

Anthill city on the way there

We stopped to look at the burned veld

The road was also rather potholed and we had to keep a good look out

Burned veld on the way - note the anthills - normally not seen in the tall grass.

Little place we stopped for a coffee in in a small town called Trompsburg

Then we got to Philippolis where Laurens van der Post lived a famous SA author and political figure

Pretty large church in such a small village

High street Philipolis - we really needed more time to stop and take this in but time was ticking away

Wonderful old buildings

Back on the back road again toward Colesburg...

Tuesday, 27 March 2012

Karoo - Day4 Leg1 - Leaving Bloem

Well we pick this up two days of reveling, eating , drinking, fun and games later. With major hangovers we both gingerly get our bikes ready for the return leg. Needless to say, we planned a very simple tar road route to just cruise and not have anything difficult to ride.This means get on the N1 south towards Cape Town, and at Colesberg where the road splits, get off the N1 and onto the N9. We are aiming for Nieu Bethesda to stay over for the night.

After getting fuel on the outskirts of the city got onto the N1, but after not more than 80km later we hit the first "stop and go" road works where the roads are worked leaving one lane to share in one direction only. The traffic queues for about 15 to 20 minutes and then you get to go. We quickly got bored with this idea and turned off onto the first minor road we could find.

This is the daily blog from Africa4Adventure.com. A short series on the Karoo Motorbike tour we took on during September 2011. See the plans for the trip blog here: Planning a 6 day 2500km route through the Karoo maximising dirt

Check out and "like" our Facebook site: http://www.facebook.com/Africa4Adventure.MotorbikeTours
Check out our Blog site: http://africa4adventure-motorbiketours.blogspot.com/
Check out the main website: http://www.africa4adventure.com
Follow us on twitter @Africa4Adventur

Saying farewell to Luke and John

Richard joking about our next few hundred kilometers with a hangover

Bikes were all kept safe and sound in the garage

On the outskirts of the city, we stop at the garage for petrol

The view in the middle of the free state - miles of flat grassland

Lots of road work on various roads throughout the country. Here we queue on N1 for a one way traffic

Very shortly thereafter, we are now on the lesser roads after the nightmare of traffic jams

Monday, 26 March 2012

Karoo - Day3 Leg12 - Last dusty road

We were now on the last 150km before reaching Bloemfontein. We managed to maximise the dirt until about 85km outside of the city. This was our last stop to take some pictures, have a bit of water and see all was ok on the bikes. After that it was going to be a short hop into town and off to meet our old school mates for many beers and celebrations.

We won't bore you with the details of the actual two days Old Boys Reunion stay over. Tomorrows blog will be the return journey. Through Nieu Bethesda, Desolation valley at Graff Reinet, Willowmore, Prince Albert and down to the R318 out of Montague.

This is the daily blog from Africa4Adventure.com. A short series on the Karoo Motorbike tour we took on during September 2011. See the plans for the trip blog here: Planning a 6 day 2500km route through the Karoo maximising dirt

Check out and "like" our Facebook site: http://www.facebook.com/Africa4Adventure.MotorbikeTours
Check out our Blog site: http://africa4adventure-motorbiketours.blogspot.com/
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Follow us on twitter @Africa4Adventur

Checking the tread

Some buck in the far left distance

Tread ok here too

Soft top box still on and dusty!

Satnav / GPS very dusty

More Free State plains of grass

Other bike equally dusty after 1250km of about 85% dirt roads

Friday, 23 March 2012

Karoo - Day3 Leg11 - More buck & grass

One of the last stretches in the Orange Free State towards Bloemfontein, took us over flat flat land, past buck, and huge open fields of grass on long dusty roads. A nice easy ride and we could make good time on the dirt roads there. We needed to because we had to get to meet all our old school mates for a drink at about 6pm so we needed to get there around 4pm to park up the bikes and freshen up.

This is the daily blog from Africa4Adventure.com. A short series on the Karoo Motorbike tour we took on during September 2011. See the plans for the trip blog here: Planning a 6 day 2500km route through the Karoo maximising dirt