DIRT AND TRAIL APRIL 080PG AND COVER A4 CMYK

Best pancakes in Graskop...
Beautiful - Debengeni falls
Twee spoor concrete
through the forest.
tar roads are beeee-udiful! We found a big
baobab – and a little ghost town. Our route
carried along all the way through to Swadini.
It’s a great ride! We stopped in at Swadini
just to take a pic or two – man we live in a
beautiful country.
Then the push was on – we wanted to get
through to the Kruger Park in time for an
evening game drive – so fuel economy flew
out of the window as we headed via Graskop,
through to Hazyview to the Kruger gate. Man
– it’s a great ride, rolling mountain passes
and the roads are in great condition. Just a
word of warning - pasop for livestock on the
roads – it seems that the fences have all been
rolled up. ALSO – the road towards Kruger is
not wilderness any more – a small town has
sprung up next to the road, so watch out for
taxi’s and all sorts.
Our overnight was at Sabi River Bush Lodge
on the banks of the Sabi river – clean, comfy
and relatively inexpensive. The staff are great!
That evening, we booked for a game drive
and spent a few hours in the back of an open
truck checking out the bokkies. Something
sad happened that only Kyle and I noticed
sitting at the back. We heard the chugga
chugga of a chopper behind us. Looking back,
we saw a load attached to the bottom of the
helicopter. We took a snap and though nothing
more of it. When we got home, we zoomed in
on the picture to see that the load was in fact
a rhino suspended in a net. It is terrible what
is going on in SA.
Our last day was a bit of a whirlwind because
we were rushing to get back to the Big
Smoke. It is so easy to understand why
Mpumalanga is our biking capital. Forests
whizzed by in a blur as we hit the road
through Sabie and across Long Toms pass
towards Lydenburg. Man – it’s fantastic, no
other word for it. Dullstroom on a Sunday
afternoon is the furthest thing from a
sleepy town –the Harley’s had invaded. The
eateries were packed and traffic ground to
a standstill… being on adventure bikes – we
zipped along the sides eliciting some scowls
from the more road oriented crowd.
A quick blitz through to Belfast for a burger
at Steers, – and then the great trek along the
freeway all the way back to Jozi.
Man – even with all our political worries – we
do live in a beautiful country.
The bikes:
3 different bikes and each handled this trip
beautifully. We’ll start on the little one and
work our way up.
Blyde Dam...
Danny found a stunned little fisheagle on
the road just outside the kruger park...
The JG Strydom tunnel - a landmark in the
lowveld...
46 MAY 2015
1505 DT Givi tour.indd 46 2015/04/25 8:51 AM