Following our tour of Kerala India in 2006 Gerry, Owen, Terry and Ian decided that it would be a good idea to have another motor cycle trip to foreign parts and following a deal of debate the Western Cape of South Africa was settled on. After the decision was taken to book the trip Terry’s Brother Lee asked to join us so that there were 5 riders.

 Having looked at a number of tours we decided that we would book our own flights and accommodation, but would hire bikes via H C Travel.

Accommodation was found via the internet at Melkbosstrand a seaside town about 25km up the Atlantic coast from Cape Town, a bungalow that had the potential to sleep 8 people (4 bedrooms 2 of them doubles). We all agreed that the bungalow was excellent and that it fitted our purpose really well.

DAY 1 Thursday 15^th February.

Flights were booked with ebookers on South African Airways scheduled flight 221 outward 20.15 on Thursday 15^th February from Heathrow and flight 220 return 20.55 on 23^rd February from Cape Town International. Both flights left to time and seating wise were relatively comfortable, however on the outward flight we were next to the toilets and spent a quite disturbed flight as a result  of people waiting to use the toilet. For the return journey our seats were very good, but we had a family with a screaming child in the row behind us, so that we did not get much sleep on the way back – I guess crap happens.

Tea by the pool

Tea by the pool 2!

Ian being laid back, and surfers at Melbosstrand

DAY 2 Friday 16^th February.

On arrival in South Africa we were met by a pre- booked mini bus operated by Legend Tours which took us to Melkbosstrand, where we spent the first day settling ourselves into the bungalow and getting to know the local geography, shops etc. As nobody wanted to go out to eat (we were all very weary) we had a KFC takeaway – yes 7,000 miles for KFC – and some tins of beer. We went down to the beach during the afternoon and had a beer in a beachside bar and worked out what was where.

Cape point

Cape of Good Hope

DAY 3 Saturday 17^th February.

 Saturday sees us getting picked up by a local taxi to take us to Constantia to pick up the hire bikes, we had elected to ride BMW R1150GS's, the plans changed as when we got to the pick up point standing in the garage was a K75 and Terry changed to this as it was a lot lower than the GS’s. Once the administration paperwork was done the owner of the bikes led us out of Constantia as far as Simons Town and put us on the road to Cape Hope. The days trip took us along the coast from Simons Town to Partridge Point and the entrance to the Table Mountain National Park. On the way down the coast we stopped off at Boulder Bay for lunch and to see the penguin colony. Riding on down to Cape Point through the Table Mountain National Park we saw very little wild life although the scenery was magnificent. Once we arrived at Cape Point baboons were in abundance. Whilst at the point we viewed “The Cape of Good Hope” and caught the vernacular to the viewing point, spending about 1 hour at the top. Following a light lunch we started the return journey back through Scarborough, Sun Valley, Woodstock (how many Woodstock’s are there in the World), along the spectacular Chapmans Peak drive, this part of the journey was awesome. The road down from Chapmans Peak, along the coast at the base of Table mountain is stunning. We continued our journey through Llandudno and Camps Bay. It had been our intention to follow the coast road on through to the Cape Town Waterfront, however, the traffic was very bad so we took the alternative route over the mountain past the cable car station and central Cape Town to join the R27 up the West Coast and back to Melkbosstrand.

Total mileage for the day about 170 km.

Bolder Bay Penguin colony

From the Saturday through to the Thursday we went down to a restaurant on the beach front for our dinner, where we were looked after with good food, beer and wine, and superb friendly service.

DAY 4 Sunday 18^th February.

 Setting off at about 9 O’clock we rode across to the N7 and headed north for Clanwilliam passing through Malmesbury, Moorreesburg, Piketburg and over the Piekenierskloof Pass with its breathtaking views. The ride took us through open bush, dairy land, arable land fruit groves, some tea plantations and low mountain country, along the route we stopped several times to rest and take some photos and arrived in Clanwilliam at about midday. Having ridden about 195 km our first stop was at the filling station to take on fuel, whilst there several locals spoke to us about what we were doing and one couple told us that the best lunch in town was at the Aquatic Club and gave directions on how to get there, at this point we were becoming aware that not many tourists go to Clanwilliam and that the locals are very friendly. Not surprisingly we went to the Clanwilliam Aquatic Club for lunch sitting on the veranda overlooking Clanwilliam Lake, formed as a result of the dam built across the river, excellent lunch a friendly atmosphere and spectacular views made this another great experience.

The Aquatic club

Watching the waterskiers at lunchtime.

After lunch we set off to Lambert’s Bay another journey with spectacular views, but for the first but not the last time we found that we were riding through very heavy cross winds, riding at 120 to 130 KMH made the riding quite challenging. Once at Lambert’s Bay we set out to follow the coast down to St Helena Bay through Leopoldtville, Elandsbaai and Dawrskersbos on roads that show on the map as being tar sealed, but alas once we got to Leopoldtville the road was sand and dirt and signs were non existent, having made it down the coast to about Noordkuil (we never saw any sign of the place) and with no signs to guide us, save one that showed the road we thought was the coast road as being closed, we took what we thought was a southerly direction, no about half hour later we found that we were back at Leopoldtville having travelled a circle, after finding that the GPS we had with us had also “run out of road”. Following discussion we spied a sign and decided to take the route to Piketburg and take the N7 south to get back to Melkbosstrand (it was getting quite late in the afternoon by now), here again we found ourselves on unmade road for about 7 or 8 km but were able to make fairly good progress. Just when we thought we were doing well we encountered “African style road works”, something not to be missed by anyone going to South Africa, long stretches of controlled one way traffic with 10 to 20 minute waits before being allowed to get going. The process of monitoring traffic on these works was to have controllers at either end and monitors about every ½km all in communication by radio and although traffic on this road is light the system did cause quite a lot of delay. Once on the N7 we rode back to Melkbosstrand without incident.

Total mileage for the day around 585 km

Looking for a Tea shop!

Lunch in Franshoek

DAY 5 Monday 19^th February.

 Monday sees us off to the winelands, again we set off across to the N7 and up to Malmesbury where we joined the northern end of the “Garden Route”, skirting Wellington and Paarl the road was quite scenic with mountain views to our left, at Klapmuts we stopped at a roadside restaurant for tea/coffee (yes the tea in South Africa is excellent as good in fact as at home). After a break we rode on to Stellebbosch where we missed the sign for Franshoek and spent a little time getting back on track, so far the ride was scenic, but from Stellenbosch to Franshoek was even more spectacular and took us up over the mountains and the Helshoogte Pass, long winding bends had us in our element with the BMW’s performing well. Franshoek was our lunch stop and proved to be an excellent choice; the restaurant we chose had a seating area outside under a grove of trees.

After a nice salad and cups tea and a brief look around we left making for Worcester, passing the Huguenot Memorial as we rode out of Franshoek, our route took us along the R43 through Villersdorp and some very scenic countryside, mostly vineyards although we did see some lakes created by the dams in the area, we stopped at Villersdorp as there was a sign showing that we were entering the “Worcester Area” and Ian wanted to get his picture taken alongside the sign as Worcester UK is where he lives. At Worcester we made our way to the N1 for the ride back, this took us down through the very scenic mountains to the Huguenot Toll Tunnel (18 Rand, about £1.30p), once through the tunnel we picked up the R304, unfortunately missing the turning we intended to take so that we did a loop through Malmesbury where we stopped for a break, before picking up the N7 south and back to Melkbosstrand. The ride from the Huguenot Tunnel to Malmesbury was again very scenic, but once again side winds made for some hard riding.

Total mileage for the day about 420 km.  

DAY 6 Tuesday 20^th February.

 Today we had a split in the group Ian and Owen went off on the bikes to Hermannus and the rest of us went by taxi to Cape Town for the day.

 Arriving in Cape Town at the V&A Waterfront we had an hour in the shopping mall and then went on a bus tour of the City and up to Table Mountain, as the queue for the cable car was quite long and we were on limited time to get back for our return taxi at 3 pm we were not able to go up the mountain. The bus tour was very interesting and took in lots of places of interest; I think we were all somewhat surprised at how small the Anglican Cathedral was, we were impressed by the castle. Cape Town is a very clean and so far as we could see safe place, interestingly we saw “Big Issue” vendors at a number road intersections. Another interesting thing that we observed was a motorway interchange that ends in mid air, it would appear that the designers got it wrong so that the two ends do not align.

Cape town from the foot of Table mountain

Once back at Melkbosstrand Terry and Lee went out on the bikes, they said that they went up the West Coast and across through the Township of Atlanta which is about 20km from Melkbosstrand, so they probably did a trip of about 75 km.

Ian and Owen went up to Worcester through Cape Town and over the Du Toitskloof Pass and from Worcester to Hermanus, a trip that we all did on day 8 so more of that later.A total 0f around 500Km

More scenery,

out on the plains

Scenic rides towards

the mountains

DAY 7 Wednesday 21^th February.

Back in the saddle today we head up the West Coast to St Helena Bay on the way passing through the West Coast National Park, where we saw some Ostrich and a fair few Tortoise, a mixture of very flat lands scrub and undulating countryside. At St Helena Bay are the salt pans, where sea water is put into shallow lakes and the water evaporated to leave the sea salt behind. We also stopped for lunch here in a restaurant in what had at one time been some sort of factory or warehouse. After lunch we made our way towards Porterville, this journey was quite scenic in parts taking us through Piketburg. At Porterville we stopped for fuel and a quick look around, again we found that we were off the tourist track and very much in a rural working town and where once again the people, an integrated community were very friendly. Owen was running short of Rand so he went to the local bank to change some sterling, which took some time due to the large amount of administration involved in the transaction.

Back on the road we set of along the R44 to Gouda, which we fringed on the main road, the ride down was again splendid with views of the mountains in the distance. From Gouda we headed back to Malmesbury taking in the Bothmas Kloof Pass, tight bends and splendid scenery. At Malmesbury we stopped for tea having seen “The Malmesbury Restaurant” which turned out to be a supermarket without a restaurant. Whilst parked we got into conversation with a chap from Porterville in general chat about the area. Anyway after a break we carried on back to Melkbosstrand down the N7.

Total mileage for the day about 425 km.

DAY 8 Thursday 22^nd  February.

 Thursday was to be our last day of touring so we decided based on Ian and Owen’s experience on their trip to Hamanus that we would do the same trip together. Setting off from our base we went out through Philadelphia on the R304 and picked up the N1 heading for Worcester, approaching the Huguenot Tunnel we left the motorway and took the old road over the mountain pass Du Toitskloof Pass stopping at the top for some of the most spectacular views of the entire trip.

Once over the mountain we continued to Worcester where we went into the centre of the town, which was very much a township, although the outskirts were very opulent, as a result of the state of the place we did not stop and carried on down the R43, another road with spectacular views. As we came into Villiersdorp we found a roadside restaurant and stopped for tea/coffee, the owners had a tractor museum adjacent, unfortunately it didn’t appear to be open, although there were several machines on the grass adjacent to the car park.

A shot for MCN in Du Toitskloof pass

The restaurant had a farm shop where one or two of the group made purchases of South African wines.

From Villiersdorp we continued down past Threewaterskloof Dam, Hawson and Onrus arriving at Hermanus in time for lunch. We managed to find a very nice restaurant overlooking the sea and had a really nice lunch.

Our return journey was along R44, the coast road through Klienmond, Betty’s Bay Cape Hangklip, Pringle Bay and Gordons Bay, where we stopped for a break and photo opportunity.

From Gordons Bay we went through Strand picking up the N2 into Cape Town where we joined the R27, turning off along the coast road through Bloubergstrand and back to Melkbosstrand. Once again the scenic beauty along the coast was splendid, the road following the coast which is a mixture of sandy beaches and rocky outcrops. Total mileage for the day 500Km

DAY 9 Friday 23^rd  February.

This was to be our last day in South Africa so that we had to pack bags, get the bikes back to Constantia and transfer to Cape Town International Airport for the flight home, we had booked a taxi to follow us to Constantia with the luggage, however, the Taxi Driver decided that we should be better following him. Leaving at just after 1pm we set off down the R27 and across the city suburbs to Constantia. After depositing the bikes the taxi took us to Cape Town International Airport where we arrived at about 3pm, our flight not being until 8.55 pm. During our time at the Airport we did the usual duty free shopping and had a plastic meal.

Mileage to return the bikes 50Km

Passing the bookcrossing book from Bulgaria

DAY 10 Saturday 24^th February.

The flight home started at 8.55pm on Friday and left to time, our pre booked seats we reasonably comfortable and we settled in for the almost 12 hour flight home thinking that we would sleep most of the way, how wrong we were, in the row behind us was a young by who was to make sure that little if any sleep was had by anyone within earshot, he screamed all the way from Cape Town to Heathrow, apart from this the on board entertainment system failed after the first couple of hours – never mind we got back safe and sound if a little tired.