Dirt Busters. Deon Meyer
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in practice.
This guide will also help you to buy a touring bike – whether new or second hand – that best suits your needs, budget and ability, as well as the right accessories. And there’s advice on how to adjust your bike for easier and safe riding.
An oft-repeated refrain at Jan du Toit’s Country Trax Off-Road Riding Academy in Amersfoort is: ‘There’s too much to remember. Do you have any printed material that covers all these interesting principles?’
We aim to provide just that in this book.
And then there are Adriaan Oosthuizen’s amazing photographs to illustrate the beauty and atmosphere of this lifestyle.
But, there are also a few things this book is not … It is not a correspondence course for dirt and off-road bikes. That is why the subtitle describes it as a guide. It is nothing more or nothing less than that. Dirt Busters won’t turn you into the Big Gravel Guru overnight, no matter how many times you read it. What it should do is increase your understanding of what it takes to control a big dual-purpose bike on the dirt.
A good course offers more depth of theory than our book (some principles simply cannot be explained effectively on paper) and of course the value of practice is priceless. So we strongly urge you to complete an official, accredited off-road course after you read this book. And then spend enough time in the saddle. There is nothing like practice to hone your skills – and make them become second nature.
Or do the course first, and then read the book. But do the course. Please. Even better, do the course two or three or four times. And read the book again. Keep riding, learning and reading. Because, as Jan always says: ‘Repetition is the mother of skill.’
Our grading system
We have ridden all the routes in this book ourselves. Some fairly recently, others a few years ago. The photos accompanying each route description in this book were also taken on that particular route.
These are by no means the only dirt roads worth exploring in South Africa. (On a recent tour of the Eastern Cape we realised once again how many incredible roads there are to discover.) These are also not the only ones we explored, but they are definitely our favourites.
The trouble with untarred routes, of course, is that traffic and the elements can change a tame gravel, dirt or farm road into a monster overnight. Even normal use – and lack of maintenance – can result in serious changes in the degree of difficulty over a few months or years. On the other hand, sometimes an adventurous rough-and-ready route might have been repaired since we last rode it – you might find a highway where we had a wild ride before.
In the former GS Challenge Jan du Toit and I (you will hear a lot about Jan in this book) had the wonderful experience of developing routes for our participants. And one of the great lessons we learned was that, despite our best efforts in indicating the difficulty level of routes, we were never entirely successful. Riders’ skills – and their perceptions of them – differ.
Even when we demarcate a road as a ‘1’ – easy, in excellent condition – there are always sneaky, hidden turns and hills, local traffic, and farm and wild animals to catch you out.
Another dilemma is that some of the routes include servitudes that are often controlled by farmers. Seasonal livestock moves, outbreaks of animal diseases, theft, or misuse of the through-routes sometimes cause farmers to lock the gates. As a result we can’t guarantee the condition of, or access to, all the routes.
So the grading system we offer for each route is merely a guideline. We hope you will use common sense for the rest.
1 Excellent, easy gravel road, with a predictable, even surface, and little evidence of a sandy central ridge (or ‘middelmannetjie’).
2 Gravel road with the occasional spot where you have to be careful – expect an aardvark hole or two, central ridge in the road, hardened mud tracks or potholes.
3 A farm road presenting a technical challenge. Here and there you’ll come across a gully, drift, serious pothole, sandy spot or deep ruts.
4 A track requiring much skill: steep, stony up- or downhills, long stretches of loose sand, difficult water crossings, large stones, loose stones, unexpected ditches or dongas.
5 An adrenaline-charged route for the exceptionally skilful with impossible gradients, unexpected, hidden and very dangerous rocks, stones, sand, mud and water. You could injure yourself seriously if you don’t know exactly what you are doing. Never attempt such a route alone; preferably in groups of three or more very experienced riders.
GPS, maps and software
Electronic navigation has experienced one revolution after the other over the last decade – to the benefit of road users everywhere. Cellphones with GPS and map software are gaining ground at an astonishing rate, while GPS manufacturers are multiplying daily.
The disadvantage is of course the Babel-like confusion of standards, platforms and programming, complicating the electronic availability of the mapping of our routes.
We use Garmin products – and their MapSource program. All our routes are compiled and tested with Garmap’s SA Topo maps (specifically Garmap SA Topo 2011 – which is in our opinion their most accurate work to date), and we recommend this software for anyone who is serious about adventure motorbikes. It is based on the 1:50 000 topographical chart of Southern Africa, and does automatic routing, even for obscure farm roads.
You can download all of this at www.deonmeyer.com/bike/bike.html.
Lastly, the kilometre markers are based on the distance from the starting point, which is provided with each route description.
Part 1
The roads
to adventure
To Hell and Back
It’s still hot, but Die Hel is not what it used to be. Nowadays you can saddle off, make yourself at home in an easy chair and quench your thirst with a variety of drinks. And, if you have the presence of mind to phone ahead, you can sit down to a plate of boerekos. Oh, and the old proverb gets it all wrong. The road there is not paved – and certainly not with good intentions. It’s passable when dry, a good gravel road, which for 90% of the way is not at all difficult. But then there is the other 10% …
But let’s begin at the beginning. Die Hel is actually Gamkaskloof. And it is still one of those destinations that the South African adventure rider regards as something of a trophy: if you haven’t been there yet, you can’t really talk on equal terms with The Experienced.
One of the best ways to do this ride is to spend a night in Oudtshoorn before you start so that you have plenty of time to explore the Kloof. In fact, you can also sleep over there in one of the old houses with their thick walls and twilit coolness. Last time we approached from Van Wyksdorp. We first crossed the Rooiberg Pass, enjoyed coffee and the best apple tart in the Little Karoo at Calitzdorp, then took the Groenfontein road to the Swartberg Pass.
It was my first trip with photographer