Kroonstad "cabin fever" ride

We have been kidding for around 4 weeks now, prior to which our fire season was in full swing.  My chances for getting out and about have been minimal.  Well, non-existent actually.  So earlier this week, seeing as we have only about 25 ewes or so to go and things are sort of under control, I decided to schedule a backroad ride to Kroonstad, about 150km from the farm.

Thursday dawned absolutely beautiful:  no wind, no rain, glorious sunshine.  And this after some heavy rain and a bit of hail the day before.  Early out of bed (no change there), had a cup of tea, made my small traveling flask and off I went.

That's me getting the ATGATT on while Os streches his legs.

 

Nothing like about to set off on a summer morning

 I like to take it nice and easy when riding.  Life is such a rush at the best of times, always got things that have to be done by a certain time or deadlines that have to be met that to just dawdle along is lekker.

Took the back roads toward the Schoemansdrif dirt and soon was in the hills near Vredefort.  It was idyllic, with no other vehicles in site.  I took it really slow (1st gear) over the Vaal river and stopped to take a lot of pix.  The Egyptian geese, Herons, Blouapies, cormorants and other wildlife all chilling out in the early morning sun.

Last bit of tar

Beautiful early morning farmlands of the Koepel

Looking upstream along the Vaal River at Schoemansdrif

I pretty much felt like this too! Free as a bird

Looking downstream.  Oh ja, that's my bike in the pic ;)

From here it pretty much had rained really hard the previous few days so the road was nice and firm with not much mud but plenty of signs of flooding over the road.  Along the road I passed this old cash store with sheep blêring in the backyard and not a whole lot going on. Such a nice change from our rushed lives.  Even the shop door was only open a crack.

Reitzburg winkel - iets uit 'n ander era

It was such a nice ride through some thornveld and then later on, onto the open Vrystaat vlaktes.  In places it had rained damn hard the previous day/night and I was glad I hadn't ridden through here the previous day.

Soon it was time to stop for my tea and rusks.  No ride is complete without my flask or my stofie for a brew up along the road.  Best part of a trip.  Except of course the riding itself :)  Saw this Secretary Bird right next to the road and I braked (not too hard due to the mud) but by the time I had turned around and got back he had walked off a way into the veld already. I looked for the other one as they are normally in pairs but couldn't see it.  Such beautiful birds!

 

I got to Kroonstad around 11h00 and drove around looking for a nice place to have breakfast.  I try to support private businesses as much as possible and was looking for a place out of town really to preserve the free feeling I had.  Not much luck though so I drove into town to the Tourism Info place in the old town hall. Beautiful old sandstone building.  Here Alta - nice friendly white woman - showed me around, gave me maps and booklets and told me all about the place.

The old Raadsaal dates from 1863 and the photos of each mayor and town clerk from that era adorn the walls.  Only the first 2 pix have a different chair than the actual one still standing there!  And those date from the first 2 years of the raadsaal.

 The woodwork is all being restored and the paint scraped away, lead glass panes are being repaired but the going is slow as all money is from donations only.  This despite funds being budgeted from the municipality but that never comes out where it is meant to. 

 After a lekker breakfast at a small nursery in town, I hit the road again in high temperatures around 30 degrees.  I had opened all my jacket vents and also changed into a T shirt before leaving.

This last pic is a pretty place along the Rhenoster river where I made a quick sitrep call to the farm.

All in all a lekker day out!

Luggage options

I did quite a bit of searching and browsing feedback from other adventure bikers regarding luggage options for adventure trips.  Personally,  I didn't like having pannier frames permanently on my 800GS and in any event it seemed that hard panniers were prone to breaking (both the rider and the bike) in the event of an off.

While I really like the Kriega range and it has had very good reviews almost everywhere I have looked, it is very expensive here in South Africa. The Giant Loop Great Basin saddle bag was also a consideration, has also got very good reviews almost everywhere I looked as well as from guys I spoke to but I decided against that as they tend to scratch the paintwork on the bike.

I eventually decided to go mostly with the Wolfmann range.  Very well made and thought out as well as being flexible for different types of trips. The Enduristan roll bag is another luggage option I use and I went for this rather than the Wolfmann setup because of the TPA material used in the Enduristan range.  This is a lot easier to roll closed when it is cold than the vinyl more commonly used.

Some pix below:

Wolfman Wolf Tail bag, Enduristan Medium bag and Enduro Carry All bag.
Tied down securely with 2 x Rokstraps.

Soft luggage mounted on F800GS

The Wolfman Wolf Tail bag takes a lot of stuff ...

... and mounts really securely, even on dirt