Rallye Raid

.

The view from my tent this morning:



It was another cold cold night. I had a good night's rest though.

One of my neighbours tents:



Matilda forgot one of his tops on his tent and this morning it was frozen solid! Andre holding it up:


(Photo by Matilda)


(Photo by Matilda)

Showers provided some welcome warmth as well as a hearty breakfast. The guy in the shower next to mine told me that his bike (as well as others) slept out in the mountains somewhere that night. They simply couldn't recover all the bikes the previous day. Well this is marketed as a hard core event. I'm just glad my pride & joy wasn't one of the bikes damaged on the first day.


(Photo by Gary)

Some bikes getting ready for today's ride:



A lot of people that covered long distances to get here decided to leave today already and get a head start home.



Today's Route included Lundeans Nek (which I already did on my January trip) and Jouberts Pass which I disparately wanted to ride. The majority of our group was among the riders who decided to leave today already though. After two days of pushing and pushing they wanted to get in a scenic ride in this wonderful area as well as cover some of the km's on the way home.

Gryph has not seen either of the passes on today's ride so we decided that he'll leave on the ride and do the whole thing while I'll see the guys off and then ride round to Lady Grey to meet up with the group and ride back via Jouberts Pass.

Our guys packing:

The Cape Town XR guys getting ready to leave.



The duallies setting off:



This took a lot longer than I anticipated and by the time I could leave it was way to late to do the ride and be back for the games of the afternoon. Damn! I'll just have to come back to this area again.

Meanwhile Gryph had a good time on the ride. Some of his pics:

Lundeans Nek:


(Photo by Gryph)

Some rough sections:


(Photo by Gryph)


(Photo by Gryph)

Jouberts Pass:


(Photo by Gryph)

Joubert’s Pass, opened in 1914, was build by farmers, of which five were Joubert (hence the name), to enable them to reach their farms over the Wittenbergen. This scenic drive over the mountain meets up with the main road from Lady Grey to Barkley East, a circular route of approximately 70km.


(Photo by Gryph)


(Video by Gryph)

I hope to come and ride this pass myself soon. Maybe on the trip to Sani Pass.

Meanwhile the riders started returning and the games began!

Slow race: KTM950 vs BMW1200GS vs KTM990 vs XR650:
(Andre of Honda George on the XR650)



Long jumps: These were practice runs. In the eventual competition the run up would be much shorter.

KTM990:



XR650:



Slow race: TransAlp 700 vs Tenere vs KTM990



Barrel race: KTM950SE vs TransAlp 700 vs KTM990 vs KTM990



And the TransAlp won!

The same race as shot by Gryph:



This angle shows by what margin the TransAlp pulled away from the more fancied litre class bikes. One thing is certain, this weekend showed that the TransAlp 700 is not as far off the pace of the more "serious" DS bikes as some might think. It's a very capable bike indeed and a great all rounder.

KTMJedi of the WD forum doing the long jump. This man can ride!



Yamaha Tenere:



KYM990:





KTM 640:





GS800:


(Video by Gryph)

Wheelie competitions:



Obstacle courses:


(Video by Gryph)


(Video by Gryph)

The longest jump I saw for the day was Hoofseun of the WD forum on a CFR230. The ribbon on the ground shows the record jump for the day.
(To be fair he did have a helluva run up).



While the games were on some of the returning riders also packed and got a head start on the long ride home.

Some of the broken bikes around camp:






(Photo by Gryph)


(Photo by Gryph)

The party was more sedate the last night. There were a lot less people and those who were there were tired I guess. Out of our group of over 20 Gryph and I were the only ones left.



There was a hypnotist show tonight and we went to bed right after.

Neither Gryph nor I had to go home just yet so we decided to take the next day and ride some of the passes we missed out on the first day and head in the general direction of George in order to minimize the distance on the remaining days.

After having missed out today I was itching to ride more passes tomorrow. Especially the Bastervoetpad Pass.






Source: Joubert’s Pass

.