Monday, 30 April 2012

Karoo - Day5 Leg12 - Farm Arch

On leaving the little village of Mount Stewart, we went down the gravel road and five minutes out of town found an interesting farm entrance. It was in the shape of an arch. made of stone. Very tall and thin, but very unique, we'd not seen any other farm entrance like this in the whole country. We wondered if it signaled a wild game lodge or something other than a creative farmer? There were no signs so we left thinking it must have been a farm but none the wiser.

After that we were back out in the wilds and twisty gravel roads which essentially followed a river. One of the things we saw appearing more and more was twisted rock formations in the cliffs from ancient upheavals.

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
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.
Farm entrance arch
Was it a game farm? no signs to tell
Shape good for motorcyclists - we should fit through!

Road winds off into the distant hills


Crossing a river


Heading towards the big mountains

Rock formations appearing in the cliffs


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Friday, 27 April 2012

Karoo - Day5 Leg11 - Mt. Stewart Dorpie

Once off the tar we discovered a little "dorpie" (village) that obviously used to be a station and shopping hub for the local farmers. It looks like when the station stopped and the whole town ground to a halt as well. There is a rather impressive church in the town, way too big for the number of houses in the area. it is presumably still used by all the farmers in the area as it seems to be in very good shape. We had a look around and then continued off down the road.

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
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.

Not much happening in this "dorpie"

Impressive church based on the fact that there are only about 5 buildings in the village!

The stop sign towers over the village

Cawoods established in 1937 by the looks of it

Mount Stewart station

Five minutes later our town tour was complete




We were not sure if anyone actually lives there or not - didn't see a soul

We carry on back into the Karoo semi-dessert

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Thursday, 26 April 2012

Karoo - Day5 Leg10 - Open Road 2 Gravel

From the Valley of Desolation our next destination was to Steytlerville, but via some of the back gravel roads. To get there we first had to pass through Graaff-reinet and on tar down to a small place called Jansenville. From there we did gravel to Steytlerville.

As you can see it was rather flat with long straight open roads, both tar and gravel. But loads of sunshine, space and freedom which is exactly why we enjoy doing all this motorcycle adventure riding.


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
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.









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Wednesday, 25 April 2012

Karoo - Day5 Leg9 - More flowers

On the way back down the mountain we stopped to get more pictures of the orange and yellow flowers. I'm afraid this is one of those times where it just looked much better in real life than these pictures seem to show now. Also when you are immersed in nature and traveling you seem to get closer to it somehow and appreciate it a lot more than usual.

We spotted some small Duiker further up the hill but they are so small and camouflaged in the distance and move so quickly that getting a picture would just look like a photo of the bush.

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
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.









Spot the Duiker in this picture? I thought not.



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Tuesday, 24 April 2012

Karoo - Day5 Leg8 - Rock Throwing

How can you put a sign in front of two guys at a cliff face saying "Don't even think about throwing rocks into the valley below!" particularly with nobody watching? he he he. Just in case you were wondering, we behaved ourselves, on the off-chance there were actually any hikers down in the valley below on a Monday morning at 10am. But it made for some nice picture opportunities.

The whole place is quite spectacular and leaves you feeling on top of the world. We could literally see our destination (Swartberg Mountain pass) some 200km odd away in the distance

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
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.

That's exactly what this sign makes you think! It hadn't occurred to us until then.
Gives a new meaning to "Long Way Down"!

Ok now it's just getting silly - we had a good laugh




One of the viewpoints. A cold wind had come up and it was freezing there


Definitely rock structures very similar to Giants causeway


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Monday, 23 April 2012

Karoo - Day5 Leg7 - Rock formations

This is South Africa's answer to the Giants Causeway in Northern Ireland. Well, sort of. Not in the sea but high up in a set of mountains. These dolorite pillars have remained in tact while everything else softer around it has eroded away, leaving an impressive catherdal like structure 120m high off the valley floor.

Not easy to photograph as it is deep as well as wide. These were our attempts below.

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
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.













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