Scatterlings of Africa - 2 Gourmet Garden

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I finished off my time in South Africa with a Gourmet tour of the Garden route.

www.sa-motorcycle-tours.com , found on the internet, provided a 1200GS,route maps and pre-booked hotels.

They normally run guided 11 day tours starting and ending in Cape Town with a pleasant combination of scenic roads and lovely hotels.
The hotels would be over budget for me if in the UK, but SA is so wonderfully cheap for us Brits - at up to 16 rand per pound. An excellent meal for four with wine is seldom more than £25 total!!! I had a glass of perfect house red, one of the nicest I have drunk, for 8 rand - just over 50p!!!

SA -tours is run by Tony France. A straight honest chap who was easy to deal with.

His tour notes are gloriously non-PC and certainly would not (should not) be allowed in the UK:
"If you find yourself in a shanty town (where black people live)........."
"When you go to a petrol station, black people will fill your tank"..........
"Be careful on roads at night as black people sleep on them and they are difficult to see"........... Unless they smile one feels like adding!


Day One:

Central Cape Town (V&A waterfront) to l'Algulhas

Easy 170 miles following the coast line, past the posh Cape Bay and False bay to Gordon's bay. Helderberg has a large informal settlement just inland from the sand dunes, then round Gordon's bay to Dolphin point when the road gets into its stride winding with Atlantic rollers to right and barren hills to the left. In September this is prime Whale watching country.


I rode the last 2 off road km to the southern most point of Africa - Cape Algulhas - where the Indian and Atlantic oceans meet.

 

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After a fine night at the Algulhas Country Lodge I rode across country to Swellendam. Good quality roads, wide sweeping bands and rolling farmland with ostriches made for rapid enjoyable progress.
The weather was warm but not intolerably hot.
After Mossel bay the garden route proper starts with inland lakes and large forests.
I lunched at Knysna - sharing a table with a retiree from Halifax.
The scenery is near perfect and some of the houses are the most expensive in SA - but still a steal by UK standards.
Night stop was at Laird's Lodge - excellent food and wine.

 

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Day 3 to Addo elephant park

Unfortunately heavy rains last year washed away many roads and the two tight mountain passes I had planned were closed, so a straight run up the N2 took me near to Port Elizabeth. The road runs through ancient indigenous stink wood and yellow wood forests.
Another large informal settlement bypassed, and a cheer out to my guardian angel who pointed out a spillage of grain 6cm thick on a corner - a definite high speed off close to the badlands if I hadn't noticed in time

Just outside Port Elizabeth there was a large off road race taking place.


Another fantastic hotel with four poster bed, huge room and a walk in shower big enough for an Ikea store!

Ace meal on a veranda overlooking a small lake busy with heron and frogs!

 

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Day 4
The weather changed to cold and raining with a misty run over the Wapadsberg and Naudeberg passes before clearing as I rode the planes.

I doubt I shall ever get used to slowing for troupes of baboon or get bored with the sight of zebra or giraffe wild by the side of the road.

The road opened out and I was passed by 6 guys out for a saturday romp - R1, fireblade, ZZR etc each taking advantage of the 20 km sightline to stray marginally over the 120kph speed limit

That night was in Graaf Reinet - something of a disappointment with nowt much apart from some Dutch architecture and the "Valley of desolation" which looked very desolate in the mist. The town itself had a "best get back to the hotel" feel after 4pm.

A "Load shedding" AKA power cut meant that all I could do was drink cans of beer by the candle light - och shame eh?

 

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Day 5

Took me across wide open spaces desolate and moon like. A strong lateral wind and cold temperatures meant the i-pod prozac fix was needed.

**** bollocks to BMW for their crap CAN bus technology. My Aerostich fleece is heated and a major secret weapon when the temp is down below 5'c. But of course with clever computers the soddin' bike will not recognise the plug and I was unable to benefit. So thank you BMW man for that cold day ******

The road went 105km between towns and for some stretches of 50km there was not one bend.

 

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Oudtshoorn is the centre of the Ostrich farming - so there are hundreds of them. Am I the only one who always thinks of "Fantasia"?

The Cango caves are as good as any I have been to. I met up with 2 dutch guys I had seen in Cape Town. They had ridden 600km through snow wearing jeans the previous day.

The Montana lodge was again lovely. Run by a german, there were 2 other german couples there - they were pleased I could join in in their language.

 

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From Oudtschhorn to Franschhoek was the best ride of the tour.
The road rolls between barren hills with occasional wide expanse views and runs by the Theewaterskloof dam which serve cape Town.

A couple of testing mountain passes - again with troupes of baboons before the touristy and chichi street of art galleries and restaurants.

Half way, in the middle of nowhere, is Ronnies sex shop. This has nothing (well little) to do with sex. Ronnie was planning a small farming shop by the road so wrote "Ronnies Shop" on the side. When he was away for a week, his mates added the "sex". Cars started to stop to look despite the fact that the place had nothing to sell, so Ronnie was persuaded to stock a few cold beers.

The shop has grown to a bar, restaurant, guest house and shop, all in a few years.

Ronnie himself is great company, and rather pissed off that he now has to work harder than ever servicing this monster he has created!

 

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Final day was a short one into Cape town before taking the plane back to Durban.

Anyone who has landed in CT airport and then been driven to the city will remember the vast informal settlement that stretches 10 km or so. I don't know if it will still be there for the World cup, but it must serve as a prick to one's conscience to see the abject poverty and filth hundreds of thousands of people are forced to live in.

So there you are, Africa.

Gets under your skin. After 9 weeks working and playing in Durban, Cape Town and Johannesberg I am now back in Wales. I have serious "heimwee" - a deep longing to be back on African soil. Throughout my time I had no security issues and never felt threatened. Everyone; black, white, indian or Afrikanas was delightfully polite and pleasant.

The country is beautiful, warm (usually) and damn cheap for us Brits.

Go enjoy!!