Ridefast July 2021

UPDATED
Going hell for leather through the Karoo on some
updated BMW’s
Last month you would have read about Glenn’s adventure with Suzuki in the Karoo and
seen the spectacular photos from that trip. Well, it would seem the Karoo is the place to
be … and believe you me if you haven’t ridden a bike here, you haven’t experienced South
Africa at its best. BMW invited us along to join them on the media launch of one new
model and one updated model and flew us into George for a whistle stop tour of that part
of the Karoo on their new bikes. Landing just before 6pm in a wet, windy and cold George
was a bit of a shock to the system after leaving in a fairly mild and sunny Gauteng winters
day. We were bundled into a bunch of fancy BMW X5’s and taken to the ‘OuBaai’ for a
presentation and dinner and overnight digs…
The bikes we were there to ride were the all new BMW R1250RT, the updated GS 1250
and 1250 adventure. The route for the RT’s was to be out past Hartenbos and Mosselbay
and over Robinson Pass through the Karoo and Oudtshoorn to our lunch in the ever
gorgeous Karoo. Then it was a swap onto the GS’s for the return ride over Montagu Pass
via the Outeniqua Hop and back into George. Sadly, we had to keep a wary eye on the
clock because we all had to be back on the plane home by around 5pm and thus had to
run full “Hell for Leather” mode in both directions which was quite entertaining, (read –
underwear soiling), because Mother Nature decided to water her Karoo garden most of
the day.