DIRT AND TRAIL APRIL 080PG AND COVER A4 CMYK

Blyde River Canyon...
Spectacular.
O
game farms, so we saw giraffe, impala
and wildebeest munching away on the
side of the road. We found routes out past
the legends Golf estate and back on to tar
towards Potgietersrus. A quick stop for
a cup of coffee to get the caffeine levels
up at a quaint little spot, the Baobab
nursery – an interesting place for sure
with all sorts of nick-nacks on sale – be
sure to give their sexy signboard a little
drukkie as you go in. The road is great –
thick bushveld, no potholes and you can
send it all the way. A brief stop in Potties
for a more detailed map – and a copy of
Dirt and Trail magazine (yup no modern
technology on this trip…) and we headed
out on a back road that would bypass
Polokwane town. I cannot tell you exactly
where we found it, but we did find a great
gravel trail that cut out a long chunk of
tar, all along the base of the Steelpoort
mountains. We did turn off onto a smaller
road at one point – but the sand was very
thick – not that we are woosies, but we
figured that international riders who have
no off-road experience would not really
appreciate the fun…
Most of the bushveld surrounding
Polokwane appears to be well inhabited,
so we did not want to venture too far off
the beaten paths. Eventually we found
our way on the freeway that runs past the
platinum smelting plant. We hit a right
towards Louis Trichardt and had to stop
in for a pic at the massive Peter Mokaba
stadium that was built for the Soccer
world cup. We have to wonder if it is not a
white elephant…
From there we headed along the road
past the massive Zion City Moria church.
If you have travelled that way, you’ll know
that there were big road works always
going on. Great news: Almost done – and
the road is great. We stopped opposite
the church – they were still cleaning up
– a massive task given how many people
visit over the Easter weekend. Once you
go past Moria – you are in motorcycle
Nirvana, the mountain passes through to
Tzaneen are unreal. We stopped in at the
Iron Crown pub for some refreshments
– and then took a little ride through
the switchbacks to the breathtaking
Debengeni falls. Our overnight was at
the beautifully situated Magoebaskloof
ruskamp. Well situated, but the last time
that it had an overhaul was in 1965…
cheap but - very rustic. We wandered
across to the Pot and Plough pizzeria that
evening – great place!!
Day 3 took us from Magoebas, right
through Tzaneen. We found some more
excellent dirt trails, and the sweeping
Crossing over Tzaneen dam
- watch out for Hippo...
Legends golf estate...
44 MAY 2015
1505 DT Givi tour.indd 44 2015/04/25 8:51 AM