Home / Bike Rides / Karoo Bike Ride - Oct 2012 275
Day One of our bike trip through the Karoo up to and including Ladismith... this was an easy leg on tar road via Barrydale. We stayed at Die Withuisie which was a single cottage wedged between two vineyards on a farm outside Ladismith. The moon was so bright that we took a moonlit walk to the farm dam that evening (and I recorded a short video clip of the frogs that were calling loudly)...
Day Two of our bike trip through the Karoo from Ladismith to The Hell.... ride to Oudtshoorn was on tar with good weather and we had lunch in Oudtshoorn... after leaving Oudtshoorn we headed for the Swartberg Pass. Here we left the tar road and climbed steeply up the gravel road but light rain had set in and low cloud meant that at the higher altitudes we were in thick mist with a visibility of about 20 metres. We did manage to still find a geocache on the way before we turned off onto the road towards The Hell.... this road is about 48km long and despite a light drizzle, a few shallow river crossings, and some tight turns the road was pretty good until the last sharp descent into The Hell.... what a road - it was largely single vehicle width with 170 degree tight turns and descending very steeply. Most of it had to be ridden in first gear to prevent the brakes over heating and with no barriers on the side (and a pillion) I could not chance over balancing on turns... But despite this we got down without any mishap.... The REAL excitement started on Day 3 on our way out (something we will probably never forget)...
Day Three of our bike trip through the Karoo... travelling from The Hell to Sutherland. What a battle to get out of The Hell after heavy rains overnight had severed the only telephone line, flooded the streams, and turned the gravel roads to very slippery wet clay where even your boots could not get any grip. Remember that the first mountain pass road out of The Hell is basically a single track (with no walls) that climbs steeply upwards with 170 degree switch back blind turns (bad enough in the dry, and a nightmare in the wet). But that road was not the worst of our problems... the wet clay for about 30km onwards had to be negotiated mostly in 1st and 2nd gear with Chantel walking some stretches as we could either not see around corners or I was struggling to keep the bike upright... one stretch was so slippery that when the bike veered left in the soft clay and my boots had no grip, I deliberately dropped the bike against the tall sand wall on the side of the road to prevent falling and struggling to pick the bike up without any grip for my boots... the cloud was at least high so we had good visibility.
Finally we cleared The Hell and got onto the beautiful Swartberg Pass that winds through the majestic Swartberg Mountains. What a stunning road and the gravel was more sandy and in better riding condition.
From there through Prince Albert (where we had a pricey and very long to prepare roll) and on to Sutherland. Chantel got a big shock in Prince Albert when she could not find her wallet with R600 in it... she was pretty down all the way to Sutherland where we eventually found the wallet in a small bottom pocket of her jacket. The road to Sutherland was not the one we originally intended to travel as the GPS had routed us along the N1 and the tar road to Sutherland but we had lost a lot of time getting out of The Hell so this did make up some time. Sutherland had a freezing 14 degree wind blowing but the friendly townspeople made up for this. The guest-house owner even put 1L of milk in the fridge for us, and the Perlman House Restaurant not only had great food at very cheap prices, but also very friendly owners and even the pub crowd kept greeting us....
Day Four of our bike ride through the Karoo.... Started with a guided tour of the NG Church at Sutherland where we also saw the graffiti left by English soldiers during the Anglo-Boer War. Before leaving we met up with guy who was recovering his motorbike after having crashed on the gravel road from Middelpos... a freezing cold wind was blowing when we left Sutherland. We did find two geocaches along the road to Matjiesfontein...
Weather was warmer when we got to Matjiesfontein and we were lucky enough to see the Blue Train arrive there on it's weekly stop. This also means a special 10 minute bus tour is done for the passengers and we were invited to join the tour. The guide also showed us through Lord Milner's residence. We saw the Royal Daimler from 1947 in the Transport Museum and also found some old railway carriages to explore at the museum.
After Matjiesfontein we headed to Jagerskraal Farm where we stayed our last night.
Day Five and after a big farm breakfast with home-made bread on Thursday morning we headed back to Cape Town with a great tail wind behind us. We did try to find a geocache near Touws River but were not successful. The only incident on the way back was passing through De Doorns we saw the truck in front braking and come to a standstill... I was about to go past it when I saw local residents on the foot bridge warning us to turn around... ahead about 100 metres I could see people on the road demonstrating (about lack of government service delivery). We did a quick U-turn and headed back along the N1 to detour via the town itself. At the entrance to the town the traffic police had just set up their road block to close the N1 and re-route traffic through the town.
- Matjiesfontein - Double berth compartment
- Matjiesfontein - plate on old carriage (SAR Salt River 1935)
- Matjiesfontein - kitchen in old railway carriage
- Matjiesfontein - 4 berth sleeping compartment
- Matjiesfontein - woodwork in old sleeping carriage
- Matjiesfontein - passageway in sleeping carriage
- Matjiesfontein - sleeping compartment showing bed folded away
- Matjiesfontein - emergency stop on old railway carriage
- Matjiesfontein - kitchen in old railway carriage
- Matjiesfontein - sleeping compartment 3rd class
- Matjiesfontein - old railway carriage
- Matjiesfontein - toilet on 3rd class carriage
- Matjiesfontein - another old carriage (dining car 3rd class)
- Matjiesfontein - Woordwork on dining car 3rd Class
- Matjiesfontein - Dining Car 3rd Class
- Matjiesfontein - plate on old railway carriage
- Matjiesfontein - Built by The Birmington Railway Carriage & Wagon Co Ltd Smethwick England 1927
- Matjiesfontein - old sleeping carriage
- Matjiesfontein - inside old railway carriage
- Matjiesfontein - door on old carriage
- Matjiesfontein - Print of Proud Lady SAR Class 15F No 1024 built by North British Locomtive in 1937
- Matjiesfontein - looking into dining car
- Chantel at the Country Pumpkin in Barrydale.... very biker griendly and the owner Derek came over to chat to us... we also enjoyed a live singing performance by a passing church choir who stopped there briefly
- Stappies Cordier House where we stayed in The Hell
- Matjiesfontein - wash basin in sleeping carriage
- 3 Course supper from the restaurant with the sparkling wine we brought with
- Matjiesfontein - inside steam loco
- Close up view of old GPO phone pole from 1950's
- Matjiesfontein - old steam locomotive
- Matjiesfontein - Steam Loco plate no 987
- Typical empty caravan stand... very neat and tidy
- Entrance to caravan stands
- Oupa Piet Mostert's House
- Going for a walk along The Hell Valley
- Ablution block for caravan stands
- Pietjie and Hester Swanepoel's House
- Caravan Hettie for accommodation.... aparently towed in with a 4x4
- Old cast iron poles for phone lines
- Peacock
- Road to Hell....
- Old car
- Entrance to Nature Reserve and Gamkaskloof Valley known as The Hell
- Old ox wagon
- Drinks by the fire
- Old GPO poles made in London
- Another view of the restaurant and shop
- Kitchen in house at The Hell
- Donkey's used for the 4 day trail
- Bathroom with disabled facilities
- Remains of an old ox wagon
- Lovely old stove
- Solar power for the houses in the Nature Reserve
- Us in The Hell
- Old abandoned car
- Old machinery
- View out of the bathroom
- Stappies Cordier House History
- McCormick-Deering
- Sign that greets you before reaching the shop
- Road through The Hell
- Entrance to the shop
- More solar panels
- Restaurant and shop in The Hell
- Final descent into Die Hel... you can see the trecherous turns and steep winding narrow road
- Narrow road for the final descent
- Old abandoned car
- No Fracking Signs at Prince Albert
- Jagerskraal Farm - Cottage where we stayed
- Better part of the road into Die Hel... still reasonably dry so no slippery clay
- Matjiesfontein - View from balcony at Lord Milner Hotel
- Matjiesfontein - Railway Museum
- Old Graveyard at Sutherland - Trooper D Burnett of the 5th Lancers died 1901
- Jagerskraal Farm - View from Cottage
- Matjiesfontein - Old Petrol Pump
- Matjiesfontein - International Hearse from 1936 with a 6 cylinder straight side valve engine
- Matjiesfontein - Standard Bank Museum
- Matjiesfontein - Inside the coffee shop
- Jagerskraal Farm - Very bright stars but managed to catch this on 25 second exposure
- Matjiesfontein - Chevrolet (Master) Hearse from 1938 with a 6 cylinder straight engine
- Matjiesfontein - Sign in old Post Office for sending of telegrams
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