Doug
Grumpy Old Man
- Local time
- Today, 04:21
- Joined
- Mar 22, 2006
- Messages
- 449
- Points
- 52
- Age
- 75
- Location
- Boksburg
- First Name
- Doug
- My Ride
- '08 T100
I'd love to start this by saying thay I couln't sleep so I got up and went for a ride but that wouldn't be strictly true as I'd been planning this for a while.
You foriegners, that's non South Africans, may be aware that South Africa consists of nine provinces, a bit like the states of the U.S.A.(we also have eleven official languages but that's another story)
I've been wondering for a while if anyone has been able to ride through all nine in one day, so having a spare day or two, I thought I'd give it a try.
Ideally, it would be best to do a complete loop around the country but that wouldn't work out geographically and so I started at one end and ended up at the other, sort of.
This had to be done in high summer as I wanted to avoid riding in the dark, we get some strange things on the roads here at night!
Okay, so I hardly slept the night before. I believe that Lindbergh had the same problem the night before his solo transatlantic flight, just thought I'd throw that in for perspective.
Left home, that's Boksburg, the centre of the known universe, at 04h00 CAT and arrived at the start at 05h00. For convenience I chose to make the start the Carousel casino/hotel north of Pretoria as it's closest to the first provincial boundary.
You can follow this on Google Maps if you like.
From the Carousel, which is in NorthWest, go north on the N1 to the next offramp, cross the N1 and come back down the other side heading south, now you're in Limpopo.
Carry on south on the N1 and you'll soon cross into Gauteng.
That's the quick and easy bit, three provinces in about thirty minutes.
Carry on down the N1 'till you're through the central Gauteng mess and pick up the N3 towards Durban.
After Hiedelberg, abeam the Vaaldam, you'll pass through a section of Mpumalanga.
Carry on down the N3 and at Villiers you cross the Vaal river into the Orange Free State.
Carry on further down the N3 and at Van Reenen you cross into KwaZulu-Natal.
Now you have to backtrack to Harrismith and take the N5 west through Bethlehelm and Senekal and then turn South on the N1 again past Bloemfontien 'till you get to Gariep dam. If you turn off the N1 here and go through the villiage of Gariep and across the dam wall, you'll pass through a part of the Eastern Cape.
Get back onto the N1 going south and you're now in the Northern Cape.
Carry on south and about 60km south of Richmond you cross into the Western Cape.
Dunnit!
Stats;
Total distance 1355km
Riding time 12h 19m
fuel used 63.4 litres
average speed 108.7 km/h
Fuel consumption 4.7 lit/100km
These figures are from the Trophy's on board computer, I didn't do the maths.
Now the question is, does this qualify for some sort of Iron Butt award, and has anybody done it before?
You foriegners, that's non South Africans, may be aware that South Africa consists of nine provinces, a bit like the states of the U.S.A.(we also have eleven official languages but that's another story)
I've been wondering for a while if anyone has been able to ride through all nine in one day, so having a spare day or two, I thought I'd give it a try.
Ideally, it would be best to do a complete loop around the country but that wouldn't work out geographically and so I started at one end and ended up at the other, sort of.
This had to be done in high summer as I wanted to avoid riding in the dark, we get some strange things on the roads here at night!
Okay, so I hardly slept the night before. I believe that Lindbergh had the same problem the night before his solo transatlantic flight, just thought I'd throw that in for perspective.
Left home, that's Boksburg, the centre of the known universe, at 04h00 CAT and arrived at the start at 05h00. For convenience I chose to make the start the Carousel casino/hotel north of Pretoria as it's closest to the first provincial boundary.
You can follow this on Google Maps if you like.
From the Carousel, which is in NorthWest, go north on the N1 to the next offramp, cross the N1 and come back down the other side heading south, now you're in Limpopo.
Carry on south on the N1 and you'll soon cross into Gauteng.
That's the quick and easy bit, three provinces in about thirty minutes.
Carry on down the N1 'till you're through the central Gauteng mess and pick up the N3 towards Durban.
After Hiedelberg, abeam the Vaaldam, you'll pass through a section of Mpumalanga.
Carry on down the N3 and at Villiers you cross the Vaal river into the Orange Free State.
Carry on further down the N3 and at Van Reenen you cross into KwaZulu-Natal.
Now you have to backtrack to Harrismith and take the N5 west through Bethlehelm and Senekal and then turn South on the N1 again past Bloemfontien 'till you get to Gariep dam. If you turn off the N1 here and go through the villiage of Gariep and across the dam wall, you'll pass through a part of the Eastern Cape.
Get back onto the N1 going south and you're now in the Northern Cape.
Carry on south and about 60km south of Richmond you cross into the Western Cape.
Dunnit!
Stats;
Total distance 1355km
Riding time 12h 19m
fuel used 63.4 litres
average speed 108.7 km/h
Fuel consumption 4.7 lit/100km
These figures are from the Trophy's on board computer, I didn't do the maths.
Now the question is, does this qualify for some sort of Iron Butt award, and has anybody done it before?
