Barrydale and surrounds - on dirt!
Hi Gill
Thought that I would share this info with the club member's.
Suzuki South were asked to launch the V-Strom Adventure Club (Cape Division) and we decided to launch it with a ride to BARRYDALE. We met at the Caltex Fuel Station in the V&A Waterfront at 07h00 on Saturday 12 February 2005 and had invited seven riders to join us, keeping the numbers low to enable us to manage the group easily.
Our ROUTE entailed some dirt/gravel with the emphasis being the dirt section between MONTAGU and Barrydale. We took to the N1 with high expectations and then the N7 ? Durbanville ? Philadelphia -Wellington route. At the back of Durbanville there is a dirt/gravel section which is pretty easy and all was going well on a 5,7km (a perfectly straight) section and I had stopped at a T-Junction and pulled off to the side of the road (OUT OF THE WAY OF DANGER). Just as well because one of the rider's (Rusty Christopher) on a Dl650 got a cramp in his right leg (brake foot) and was in such agony that he failed to STOP at the T-junction but fortunately there was an escape route entrance to a farm and promptly fell over. We ran over to help him and not knowing what had actually happened we went about picking up his bike and he then explained his situation. Upon realising that he was not having a heart attack or anything serious we did what any caring biker would do under the circumstances......We BURST out LAUGHING !!!!!!
Without hesitation we rushed off to Wellington and met up with Peter and Jacqui Cowman and proceeded to Bain's Kloof and re-grouped at the pump station half way point. Well.......we waited and waited.....eventually Geoff Kite (Bmw 650gs) ROLLED UP WITH A RATHER SHEEPISH grin on his dial and confessed that he had gone into the FIRST turn a little bit too hot and ran off the tar without any damage, but luckily Peter Beldekeno was playing Tail-end Charlie and helped him on his way.( we all know by now that Sidestand is not into any type of Charlie business.)
Without any further incidents we had breakfast at the Wimpy in Ceres and topped up fuel and headed towards the N1 via a newly discovered Pass which was great. We?ll share that with NOMAD'S shortly.
On the N1 we turned off through the KOO-VALLEY (another two passes) to Montagu for re-fuelling and a cold drink (it was 30 degrees +) and we prepared ourselves for the back road trip to Barrydale. (I had not done this route for 3 year's) and being 1pm now I wanted to get a move on because I had no idea how long it was going to take because of the group's relative inexperience on dirt but as it turned out, they happened to be a great group of folk to ride with.
We sukkeled through the sandy bits somewhat but managed OK and it actually added a bit of spice to our ride and if we had not had to do an extra 80km because of a de-tour we might have finished the day too soon. We arrived at RONNIE'S SEX SHOP to wait on the guys to re-group and it was one beer that went DOWN very well !
We stayed over at the Pumpkin Patch and settled down for a good nights rest after dinner (at Bistro Blues) (but not before a little bit of HIDING THE RIDING GEAR!) We all slept well on Saturday night !!
PART 2..........
SATURDAY NIGHT AT BISTRO BLUES.........I am sure that everybody was in the mood for a bit of a party, after all it was an action packed day with a bunch of stranger's and one knows what to expect....... Well I can tell you ......motorcycling breaks barriers ..bar none!
One quickly forgets that these are mostly people that have never even met each other until this morning and yet by supper time you feel that you are among friends that you have at least known for ages and I have experienced this many times in my travels, a heart warming experience believe me. We had booked the table at Bistro Blue's in Barrydale and I can assure you that the majority of us were tired after a long day having started off at 07h00am that day and personally I was BUSHED. Well does anybody know Peter and Jacqui Cowman? Party Animal's !!!!!! After most sane people were fast asleep, what was Peter doing? Showing the local cat's choir how it is really done.....guitar and all. (
this is the rumour anyway.......)
Sunday morning we all made as much noise as possible so as to help Peter wake up Jacqui as we were all warned that she is NOT an early riser but obviously we made enough noise because in no time at all there was Jacqui packing the motorcycle and urging Peter to get his arse into GEAR! We or should I say I, was under the impression that the PATCH only served breakfast from 09h00am but I was wrong! Derrick and his crew called us to eat at 08h00 am and we responded.
What a nice breakfast they serve and all included in the inexpensive rate of R125-00 PP......B&B..! Thank you Derrick!
We were on the road again by 09h30 and guess what?.........Tradouw Pass.....WOW...every time! We survived this one without incident and filled up with fuel at Buffeljacht One Stop and this is the where Peter, Jacqui and Geoff decided that they had had enough gravel the previous day and preferred tar for a change and I do not blame them at all. Yeserday was tough for them and we gladly let them off the hook and agreed to meet up with them at Bredasdorp for a frostie and off we headed for some more gravel but this time on roads more suitable to big touring bikes because you can GOOI- IT a bit because of the excellent condition of the roads probably because they are on the main tourist route.
We, that is myself, Peter Beldekeno (KTM 640) Rusty Christopher (DL650) Rodney Claase (DL 650) Roland Kirsch (BMW 1200 GS) set off to Malgas to take the PONTOON across the Breede River which is always fun no matter how often you do it. It is a unique experience. We made Bredasdorp and met up with the gang, had a frostie and in no time we were on the gravel again through ELIM and Stanford, on tar again to Hermanus and P.B myself and Roland took the back road through to Grabouw via that shitty road (badly corrugated I mean) to avoid the frustrating speed limited coastal road to Rooi Els and we all met up again at the very bike friendly Gordon's Bay Yacht Pclub (sic). We enjoyed another frostie or two and bade our farewells promising to meet up again....except Sidestand who suckered the NOMAD'S committee into joining him for a beer at LANNER'S Landing as they were on their way back from MOSSEL BAY and enjoying lunch at ROBERTSON.
Jeslaaik it, but these GOMAD'S have rubber arm's, ne!
Well I was now satisfied and decided to call it a day and managed to drag the GOMAD'S out of the pub and we all went our separate ways and I will let you know about the next ride......
Check out the V-Strom site at suzukisa.co.za and click on the ADVENTURE CLUB SECTION for future rides.
Yours in SUZUKI
Graham Johnson
