halfjack Posted July 30 Posted July 30 www.bicyclesouth.co.za have a great variety of routes in the western cape and afield. Its a very informative website.
capediver Posted July 30 Author Posted July 30 13 minutes ago, capediver said: Oooeerr...that's a spanner! DOI – Transport Infrastructure – for 2024/7/17 @ 16:00 DR1487, Uitkyk pass, Stop and go in places https://www.westerncape.gov.za/department-of-infrastructure/files/atoms/files/20240715_DOI_Transport Infrastructure_HOC_17H00.pdf
capediver Posted July 30 Author Posted July 30 8 minutes ago, MongooseMan said: Agreed, but at least the video gives a nice view of some of the climbs, which are hard to put into perspective otherwise. Ja, great video of the route!
capediver Posted July 30 Author Posted July 30 31 minutes ago, MongooseMan said: Well the Ceder race folks are having a weekend recce out there this weekend, so we'll see by next Monday whether they managed to use it or not https://www.instagram.com/p/C95Ob3xKKgO/?img_index=1 Keep us in the loop, I only plan doing it late Sept but would be great to get heads up on any major changes in the area!
MongooseMan Posted July 30 Posted July 30 Just now, capediver said: Keep us in the loop, I only plan doing it late Sept but would be great to get heads up on any major changes in the area! Will do, I'm not doing this weekend, but am heading to Oasis for 3 nights the following weekend to get some gravel and climbing in the legs ahead of the main race in October. Plan is to do out-and-backs from Oasis, using it as a base. So will do the Groot Rivier Hoogte pass, before turning around and heading to Wupperthal, and then back to Oasis Next day is to the bottom of Algeria and back. Last day is one way to Op die Berg, where I'll jump in the car. Milosh 1
capediver Posted July 30 Author Posted July 30 4 minutes ago, MongooseMan said: Will do, I'm not doing this weekend, but am heading to Oasis for 3 nights the following weekend to get some gravel and climbing in the legs ahead of the main race in October. Plan is to do out-and-backs from Oasis, using it as a base. So will do the Groot Rivier Hoogte pass, before turning around and heading to Wupperthal, and then back to Oasis Next day is to the bottom of Algeria and back. Last day is one way to Op die Berg, where I'll jump in the car. Excellent! I see the Wupperthal to EselBank is also closed according to that report so that shuts down the big climb loop suggested by @BuffsVintageBikes....hoipefully all will be back to normal by Sept/Oct!!!!🤞
MongooseMan Posted July 30 Posted July 30 The nice thing about my weekend plans is that, as long as I can get to Oasis, I'm fine. If a road is closed on a ride, I'll just turn around and go get the distance somewhere else. The advantage of not doing a loop (this time 😀) For those wondering, my 3 days: Day1 (first up and down of the Ceder245, then back to Oasis to pick up my companions, who will hopefully have had breakfast by then. We'll roll out towards Wupperthal and back again) Day2 (First 55k of the Ceder140, to the bottom of Uitkyk, and back again) Day3 (Oasis to Op Die Berg, first 60k of Ceder245) DJR and BuffsVintageBikes 2
BuffsVintageBikes Posted July 30 Posted July 30 I do that once a year as well @MongooseMan 🤙 Oasis is the perfect base for a training camp. Cheap accommodation, great food and a beautiful area to ride a bike (both mtb & motorcycle) MongooseMan and Rowl 2
MongooseMan Posted August 4 Posted August 4 On 7/30/2024 at 3:19 PM, capediver said: Keep us in the loop, I only plan doing it late Sept but would be great to get heads up on any major changes in the area! Seems they made it round fine yesterday https://strava.app.link/B3YFHvB5MLb Currently holding thumbs and crossing fingers and toes that next weekends front stays south and doesn’t make my trip a wet one 🤞
capediver Posted August 4 Author Posted August 4 1 hour ago, MongooseMan said: Seems they made it round fine yesterday https://strava.app.link/B3YFHvB5MLb Currently holding thumbs and crossing fingers and toes that next weekends front stays south and doesn’t make my trip a wet one 🤞 Excellent! So I would assume the route CW down to Op Die Berg and back round to Citrusdal is no problem!?
capediver Posted August 4 Author Posted August 4 On 7/30/2024 at 3:06 PM, capediver said: Got me one of these for this occasion... Final piece of the puzzle.... Kom, Oli4 and BuffsVintageBikes 3
capediver Posted August 4 Author Posted August 4 A bit of inspiration from a relatively unknown and unwatched series (to me anyway!)....Richard Hunt adventures in some of the harshest gravel roads in the Northern Cape, some great shots of a major route along the top of SA! The pain and rewards of riding where no man has ridden! peetwindhoek, DJuice, justinafrika and 1 other 2 2
MongooseMan Posted August 4 Posted August 4 33 minutes ago, capediver said: Excellent! So I would assume the route CW down to Op Die Berg and back round to Citrusdal is no problem!? I’ll tell you next week 😁 capediver 1
MongooseMan Posted August 9 Posted August 9 On 8/4/2024 at 7:30 PM, capediver said: Excellent! So I would assume the route CW down to Op Die Berg and back round to Citrusdal is no problem!? Drove to oasis yesterday. Road from op die berg to oasis is fine. We rode to the top of uitkyk pass today. River is flooded just before the Wuppertal turnoff, so you’d need to go the other way (turn left 3k from oasis). We only discovered this on our way back, so we were 5k from home and had to turn around and do a 20k detour 🙈 https://www.strava.com/activities/12104255047 BuffsVintageBikes and capediver 1 1
capediver Posted August 10 Author Posted August 10 (edited) 17 hours ago, MongooseMan said: Drove to oasis yesterday. Road from op die berg to oasis is fine. We rode to the top of uitkyk pass today. River is flooded just before the Wuppertal turnoff, so you’d need to go the other way (turn left 3k from oasis). We only discovered this on our way back, so we were 5k from home and had to turn around and do a 20k detour 🙈 https://www.strava.com/activities/12104255047 OK!!! So the crossing where the Krom River goes into the Matjies River is flooded? How bad is it, I mean is it restorable or is that it for that section and detour is now permanent? PS the pics on that Strava link...gravel looks pretty sweet!!! Edited August 10 by capediver
MongooseMan Posted August 10 Posted August 10 10 hours ago, capediver said: OK!!! So the crossing where the Krom River goes into the Matjies River is flooded? How bad is it, I mean is it restorable or is that it for that section and detour is now permanent? PS the pics on that Strava link...gravel looks pretty sweet!!! Yes, that’s the spot (3.5km from Oasis) No idea how long it’ll take to fix, you could always phone oasis on the day and find out. You really don’t want to get there and then discover you can’t get through, going back up that hill was less than pleasant. Rode from Oasis to Op die Berg today, and then towards Ceres (until my friend in the car caught up). Some proper climbing in the first bit (4.5km, 321m; followed by 15km, 661m; both with pitches of 16-18%). Then nice rolling gravel before some tar to Op die Berg and a lekker headwind downhill towards Ceres https://strava.app.link/oeZQ4rK4WLb given the impending rain, and likelihood of more flooded roads, we called our “training camp” a day early in favour of a Sunday at home. Still got 2 decent 90km days out of it (1600m & 1800m of vert respectively) with lots of gravel saddle time. BuffsVintageBikes 1
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