A Pictorial Trip Report of the West Coast in Various Shades of Sepia

Aka: APTRWCVSS
23 – 25 February 2007

We left home at 19:45 on Friday and headed up to Britania bay near Paternoster. After a fantastic weekend with friends at their holiday home we headed back to Cape Town via some interesting dirt roads. Just thought I’d share it with you.



Saturday afternoon. I turned down the suspension and lowered the seat so that Zanie could scoot around on her own. We really need to get her, her own bike soon.



Between Vredenburg and Velddrif is a dirt road that connects the R399 and the R27. Dead straight and rock hard with a layer of loose sand on top. One of those roads where you ride either 20km/h or a 120, anything in between feels disturbingly wobbly.



Where the R27 crosses the Saldanha/Sishen rail, is a small Spoornet service road. Nicely overgrown and fast surface. Private property - Permit required but not checked.



We tried to closely follow the Berg River by riding various farm roads. Most ended inside private land and we were obliged to turn around.




Farm roads




The road between Velddrif and Hopefield


Streets of Hopefield


NG Kerk, Hopefield


Fleeing Ostriches



We turned off the beaten path and went in search of the bridge Offroad Adventurer and his group recently visited.














Found it! Thank you Gregg for the map and directions


Berg River running it’s winding course to the Atlantic




Piketberg, Velddrif, Aurora, to the tar


Traffic




Gate. Close me and prove yourself



We revisited Goedverwacht. I came here a few weeks ago in search of Piet Skiet and wanted to show my wife the interesting little town.


Mission Dealer


Mission





Road between Moorreesburg and the R45 (not the R311). Fast gravel with one or two rutted, sandy patches.



The road between The R45 and Darling has the most interesting surface. Four mostly 3cm deep sand lanes divided by three 10cm deep sand middelmannetjies. Now and then the sand would get deeper and I would be forced to pick a less rutted surface. Crisscrossing the middelmannetjies is easy but getting the bike’s tail to stop wagging is not so easy.


‘ello there


Cow racing in Darling


The only thing better than Cow racing is of course cow surfing


They also offer nipple tuning for the less adventurous.



All the pics were taken by my darling wife on our compact digital. The photos were colour adjusted and cropped to better translate what we felt when riding across the nostalgic landscapes.

Route info: Britannia Bay to Cape Town
348km taking approximately 6hours (lots of stopping and wasting time…just the way we like it)