2,300km Solo Road Trip on the Suzuki GSX-S1000GX
By: Séan Hendley
In part 3, (you can read part 1 and part 2 here if you missed them), I left the beautiful and bustling town of George way too late to cover the distance I had planned for the day. Now why would i do a silly thing like that? Well, the Western and southern Cape is just that amazing to ride, so instead of riding straight up the N2 from Cape Town I detoured up the R62 to Ronnies Sex Shop, before heading down the Tradouw Pass, only wandering into George as the sun was setting.
So what? Well, I actually had some business in George and spent the entire next morning visiting local bike shops and still had a quick coffee with some very goos mates before heading over the mountain, but you will read all about that just now anyway.
Day 4: After an early brekkie at The Oakhurst Hotel, (I can highly recommend them), I popped in at Thundercycles for a look around and then wandered up to Garden Route Motorcycles to say ‘Howzit’ before meeting aforementioned mates from Sedgefield for a Coffee around 1pm. I will say this. Riding around George during morning rush hour and mid morning traffic is a lot more civilised…. And cleaner, than anywhere in Gauteng. Drivers are courteous, no litter or overflowing sewers, working traffic lights – by now I was getting used to all of this, but the scenery is beautiful beyond description and I nearly crashed a few times just gawping at the beautiful buildings, gorgeous gardens and the ever present mountains and greenery as I worked my way out towards the N9.
Then, it was time to tackle ‘Die Langpad’ through the Karoo, still entertaining the illusion that I could make it to Bloemfontein before it got really dark, just short of 800 km’s northeast of George, or 3 and a half tanks of fuel away at current consumption – range anxiety is a real thing when travelling solo.
Climbing up the Outeniqua Pass is flippen great, and had I had enough time I would have made a few u-turns and taken a couple of runs at it. And this can easily be said for every single mountain pass in the Western Cape that I have ridden to date – pity I never ever seem to have the time, maybe it is time for a bit of a semigration move.
Once over the mountain and out of the valley the scenery starts to change at first subtly then quite dramatically, gradually becoming less wooded and more open. The road becomes a bit straighter the further you go along. Less and less settlements and more wide open space between the mountains and traffic becomes almost non-existent.
Just before the turn off to Humansdorp and Joubertina I found a great Padstal that served deliciously fresh rooster koek and ice cold Creme Sodas at the foot of the Potjiesberg Pass. Then I was off to go tick off another little town I wanted to visit – Uniondale, still believing I could make Bloem by nightfall. A couple more passes came and went, by now I was watching the shadows extend, so I barely took note of each pass’s name, but all were absolutely a joy to ride.
Uniondale was explored as efficiently as possible with a quick ride through and a stop for a pic before heading up the Uniondale Heights Pass and onto to Willowmore and then ‘hanging cable’ along the N9 through the Karoo. I limped into Aberdeen on fumes and started puckering up as I rode through town without seeing anything vaguely like a fuel supplier of any sort. As the panic began to set in I noticed what looked like a long forgotten fuel station from the 70’s and prayed that it was still operational and had a dribble of fuel…. And my intercedings were heard and answered. I brimmed the tank, and then spent another 5 minutes coaxing all the air out one drop of fuel at a time to maximise range.
It was now knocking 4 pm, dark clouds were forming up ahead as I whipped out of Aberdeen and headed for Graaff Reinet. Just shy of Graaff Reinet I rode through a light shower, but more importantly just happened to spy a knob manning a speed camera and scrubbed off enough speed to dodge an evening at the local Blue Lantern Inn. A quick stop for the obligatory pic in front of the church and to re-secure my luggage, (the road had deteriorated since crossing into the Eastern Cape), and I was off – Balls to the Wall- out the other side of town and aiming for Bloem and managing to dodge another A-hole on a speed camera thanks to several friendly motorist flashing headlight in warning.
By now it had started to dawn on me that maybe I needed to reevaluate my goals for that day, Bloem was unlikely and Middleburg did not appeal to me even a little bit as it was still way too far from Bloem, which would mean an extra day on the road as I had business appointments in Bloem before riding back to JoBurg. So Coleberg was or even Gariep were my adjusted goals, but fuel range and vehicles without taillights crawling along in the darkness dictated Colesberg in the end.
I saw the last bit of decent light as I apexed Lootsberg pass, grabbed a pic and scurried along in the contemplative solitude of my helmet and the ever present puddle of light cast by the headlight of my faithful steed. And this was an ongoing theme for me throughout this trip, reminding me of how much I enjoyed the solace and meditation of that puddle of light. I had spent every night so far on this trip riding to my bed in with just the company of that halo – and I loved it! You can really do some proper soul searching and sorting things out in your head.
The Engen 1 Stop outside Coleberg loomed up in the distance like a beacon somewhere around 7pm, the flashing fuel gauge and several near misses into the back of tail light-less vehicles reinforced that Colesberg would be my overnight stop – oh yay. I grabbed a moerse beeg Cappuccino and some wi-fi at the Wimpy and started my search for acceptable digs and food. A mere 300m’s away was recommended at the Chargo Inn, and they had a good restaurant. Bargain! A quick call secured a reasonably priced room, 10 mins later I was booked and checked in and offloading the bike. A face wash later I was sitting in the restaurant with a cold “0.0%”, (yeah, that’s how I roll these days), and about 30 mins later my food started arriving. If you ever eat here, avoid the chicken wings, they are edible but unforgettable for their taste and texture which did not bode well for my burger main. However! That was unforgettable because it is possibly the best hamburger I have ever eaten- You have gotta go try one for yourself, they are amazingly good – I’m going back just for the burger.
Day 5: The last day saw me out of bed before the rising sun. I still had to cover the 230km’s odd to two meetings in Bloemfontein before heading for home near OR Tambo Airport in Kempton Park. To really up the challenge, I also wanted to swing past Gariep Dam, to check out the level after all the massive rains we had this summer – “should be fine…..?!?!?”, I assured myself nervously.
A quick breakfast, another refuel and I was off. Clear sunny skies did not a thing to stave off the late Autumn morning chill as I wandered around the outside of Colesberg into the climbing sun. A quick 45 kay burst down the N1 I turned towards Gariep, the N1 is in decent condition, but once I was on the district roads stranges dark patches started appearing on the road ahead, it was only when I almost bliksemed into one that I remembered potholes, 4 days in the Cape had almost diminished my memory of these wheel wrecking, accident causing salute to the current Governments ineptitude to govern – (❋side note: Did you know that the Provincial denotation on inland licence plates also alludes to the size of the potholes in that province? GP = Groot Potholes, MP = Moerse Potholes and FS = F❋❋k’n Slote!), and the frikkin ditch I nearly donnerd into quickly sharpened my reaction time and diminished my speed.
!Xhariep is a great place, a quiet little hamlet overlooking South Africa’s biggest fresh water dam volumetrically speaking at a capacity of 5,673,778,000 cubic metres when 100% full. When I stopped by it was around 112% full, that is 700 million cubic litres odd over capacity. The wall was overflowing and the Orange river was basically in flood downstream – quite a sight to behold.
After too much time buggering around Gariep, I made my way back to the N1 and a massive SAPS roadblock somewhere around Springfontein. Once that was cleared it was a straight run into Bloem, rolling into town and my first meeting around 11:30ish with the team at Sally’s for about an hour and a half before booming across town to BMW Motorrad Bloemfontein for a catch up. Another refuel and finally getting on the road to JoBurg somewhere around 14:30. By now the sniff of home was in my nostrils and I got on the gas only to be reeled in by kilometre after kilometre of road works almost all the way to the toll gate at Verkeerdevlei.
From there it was as fast as I dared to Kroonstad for another refuel and a late lunch early dinner around 16h30. I hit the road again just after 5 bells and played my favourite game of trying to beat the GPS’s estimated time of arrival. Traffic was KAK, light was failing fast, miggies were committing suicide on my visor en masse and the temperature was dropping rapidly. Two more toll gates whizzed by and then I was in Gauteng Friday evening traffic and in no mood to be trifled with. By now, I had become one with the Suzuki GSX-S 1000 GX and we scythed through Gillooly’s traffic and past the airport at breakneck speeds and got home just on 7pm around half an hour earlier than the GPS had predicted.
First thing Monday morning I made arrangements to get the GX into Suzuki East-Bikeshop Boksburg for its first service and to scrape the crust of miggies off the fairings. As you will recall, I picked the GSX-S 1000 GX up in Cape Town with zero clicks on the clock, first service or run in service is supposed to be at 1,000 kms with around 150 kms leeway either side, by this point I was well over double that. Fortunately this is a Suzuki Media Fleet bike, so they had made allowances for that – had this been my personal machine, my warranty would have been out the window.
Suzuki East did a sterling job as usual, the GX was as good as new and looked as neat as a pin – their wash bay and detailing team has to be the best in the country. We occasionally leave our bikes conspicuously close to the entrance of the wash bay when we pick up demo units, knowing full well they can’t bear to see a bike filthy – and it always works. Thank You guys and girls!
What a trip!
What a bike!
Was it the correct bike for this trip…..?
Keep an eye on this site for my thoughts on that coming up shortly.
Yes, I did all of that…. And much more on similarly great roads, if not better and definitely much nicer scenery – if you could imagine that.
Go check out Suzuki Motorcycles – they have a lot of great machines on offer, with something for everyone.
