O
ur first trip together on the adventure
bike was the gorgeous Mpumalanga: Long Tom
Pass, Pilgrim's Rest, Bourke's Luck Pot Holes,
God's Window; the next Christmas holiday we
did the Maloti Route which follows the border of
Lesotho, starting from the Golden Gate National
Park; crazily in mid winter we ventured to the
Western Cape: Prince Albert, Cape St Francis,
following the old Apple Express railway,
Wilderness, Mossel Bay. Then a few years ago I
decided to venture off road on a Honda CRF230.
Even more recently saw me venturing out on tar
on my Duke. I am totally in love with riding. The
previous Christmas I did my first real big trip
where I rode my own bike. Nelspruit was our base
and we did some of the towns that we had done
previously in Mpumalanga as well as going to the
Swazi border and riding the incredible road to
Kaapsehoop where wild horses roam free. I felt
very proud to return to those few places we'd
visited before...this time on my own steam!
Back home though I'd been itching the entire
week to go out for a ride: this particular weekend
we decided on a combination of something
familiar and something different. We opted for a
start at Montecasino in Fourways and on through
The Cradle of Humankind, then Hartbeespoort
Dam (Harties to locals), Brits and our final
destination: Sun City.
Firing up my bike on an overcast morning which
gave us some respite from the searing heat
which we'd been recently experiencing, we
pulled off into a breeze which penetrated our
heavy kit and cooled our bodies. Those few
seconds when the bike's engine starts never fails
to set my heart thumping then as the minutes
tick by while the bike warms up a calm seems to
descend.