Karoo - Day2 Leg15 -De aar

It had been a long road and a wonderful day, but when we got to De Aar, we still had to run around and try and find a place to stay for the night. Many of the places were full as some function in town, but we managed to find somewhere nice. we had to ride across town in a chilly 0 deg C to the restaurant, but that too was worth it. We had dinner and then went back to our B&B to sleep, so that we could do it all over again tomorrow. One thing we did notice about De Aar was the interesting furnishing colours and decor used in the B&B's.

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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Some interesting furnishings

Shiny black tiles in the bathroom

The other room

Interesting colour scheme - but warm, clean and comfortable

Karoo - Day2 Leg14 - Pink sunsets over De Aar

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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We'd made the last 150km in good time - this taken just outside De Aar

Earlier as the shadows were lengthening we found time to stop quickly

You can see the picture taker the shadows are so long!

Further down the road the shadows are almost reaching the horizon

The lighting in reality was incredible all around us - Pinks, yellows, etc.

Also it didn't come out in this picture but the setting sun on the road works signs was really bright

After the sun went down we just got pink everywhere

Beautiful calm after a long ride

Silence

Different colours in different directions

Karoo - Day2 Leg13 - More Victoria West

Victoria West is definitely a place that needs further exploration. We went in, took a few pictures, filled up with petrol and then off again before you could blink an eye, back out into the vast open spaces again on our way to De Aar. Because in the morning we had spent so much time on the dirt roads, by now we still had about 150km left to do and it was 16:50 and the sunset was around 18:00 or so, so cutting it rather fine in terms of light, but we had decided not to pursue the dirt roads and so it was tar from here on till De Aar.

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.

• http://www.africa4adventure.com/index.php/tour-routes/all-summaries 
• http://www.africa4adventure.com/index.php/reserve-menu-item
• http://www.africa4adventure.com/index.php/events 

 

Organising the next tank of fuel

Victoria West to De Aar via Britstown

Oops - noticed the time on the clock

Karoo Blue skies

Lovely old houses

Up the high street. remove the tar and telephone line and it would have looked like this in 1800

Back out into the open spaces again

On our Way to De Aar over patches of tar...

Karoo - Day2 Leg12 - Victoria West

Victoria West was the next town we reached. We were already tired after a very long ride for the day and we could have happily booked in somewhere and relaxed for the rest of the day, but we had pre-planned the route and still had to make it to De Aar, so that we could make it to our destination on time the following day. We had to get petrol and so looked around the first garage in the high street. The thing that struck us about Victoria West was all the varying Architecture of the place. It was very quaint.

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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• Check out the main website: http://www.africa4adventure.com
• 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.

• http://www.africa4adventure.com/index.php/tour-routes/all-summaries 
• http://www.africa4adventure.com/index.php/reserve-menu-item
• http://www.africa4adventure.com/index.php/events

Some interesting old houses as you get into Victoria West

All sorts of varying Architectures

Just before we got to the town - now on some tar road - we could see forever

Once we arrived at Victoria West, we first found this drying lake

Strange green algae in the lake

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Vic West is a pretty little Karoo town

The sort of place we'd like to have stopped and stayed in if we didn't already have a plan

A blue house? - not often you see those

Karoo - Day2 Leg11 - Loxton Rooi Granaat

We reached Loxton and needed to sit and rest and have a small coffee. So we found The Rooi Granaat in Loxton (The Red Pomegranate) which is a local coffee shop and restaurant. Before we knew it we'd been talked into a nice meal as well, which ended up being just fantastic. This adventure biking is hungry and thirsty stuff! We talked to the owners and they were telling us about a local movie that had just been shot there called Jakhalsdans, where some of the actual scenes took place in their shop.

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

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.

• http://www.africa4adventure.com/index.php/tour-routes/all-summaries 
• http://www.africa4adventure.com/index.php/reserve-menu-item
• http://www.africa4adventure.com/index.php/events

Parked up outside the coffee shop

Looking up from the coffee shop this is the view

Interesting decorations outside - coloured mops?

Wilna behind the counter of her "Red Pomegranate" Coffee shop

Apparently this shop was the scene of a recent local movie

Waiting for the coffee and chilling

The owners, also pictured in the Timeless Karoo book - getting famous!

Having my coffee

After fueling up, we head on out to Victoria West

Karoo - Day2 Leg10 - Antbear holes in the road

Not far out of Fraserburg, we stopped to get a picture of a pretty aged looking speed limit sign and then noticed just how close we may have come to a wipe out. Just a few meters on in the road was a massive hole, dug by an Ant bear, that even on an adventure bike if one had have hit this at 80kmph+ it could have spelled disaster! The hole was about just short of 0.8 metres in diameter and very deep. Anyway we thanked our lucky stars and carried on down the long and easy dirt road looking out more carefully for more holes.

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

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.

• http://www.africa4adventure.com/index.php/tour-routes/all-summaries 
• http://www.africa4adventure.com/index.php/reserve-menu-item
• http://www.africa4adventure.com/index.php/events

Either this is a very old sign or it gets hot out here - me thinks its the latter

Rich rides up to see whats up and why I've stopped

We'd stopped to get a picture of the cracked sign and noticed this massive Ant bear hole in the road!

Speaking about the hole - even on an adventure bike hitting that hole could have been a nightmare

On the open road like this you are going too fast to slow down

Beautiful opennes

Kitted up

More vast openness