1 Dec 2007 - My first bike trip

Although I owned several motorbikes over the past 13 years, I only used them for short distance commuting. Then in October 2007 I bought myself a BMW F650 GS Dakar .

On 1 December I joined a group of BMW drivers from Cape Town on a trip to Wupperthal. They all belong to the Cape Town BMW motorcycle club. The team consisted of three BMW 1200 GS, five BMW 1150GS, two BMW F650 GS Dakars, a normal BMW 650GS, 1x BMW R80 GS and a Honda African twin

I met up with the team in Ceres. First we had breakfast at the Wimpy. One of the riders had a flat rear tyre on his way to Ceres and first we waited for the tyre to be repaired.

We topped up with fuel at Ceres and Prince Alfred Hamlet, which is only about 10km out of Ceres. From Prince Alfred Hamlet we went up the Gydo Pass. As I already mentioned from one of our Karoo trips earlier the year, the views from the Gydo pass is spectacular. I found that riding in a group with a motorbikes limits the times I can stop to take photographs. Thus this report will have far less photographs than my other trips.

At "Op die Berg" we turned right into the Cederberge. The road is tar for another 9km and then become a gravel road. You can either turn right towards "Klein Cederberg" or continue with the road towards Wupperthal.

Where the tar stopped we all stopped to deflate the tyres for the gravel road and to get a briefing from the trip leader. We received some welcomed advice on how to drive on the gravel road. We were also warned that the views on the road is spectacular but that there are some sharp bends and if you look around too much you might get a nasty surprise.