The free state or The Orange free state, to give it it’s old title, is a province with a history. It was a Boer settlement, the Orange river forms the southern boundary and the Vaal River forms part of its northern boundary. It is situated in the Highveld plateau. It slopes from 1,800 meters in the East to 1,200 meters in the west. Agriculture forms a large part of the province, fruit and maize being the main crops, but it also has rich deposits of minerals. It produces 30% of Africa’s gold and is the 5th biggest gold producing province in the world. It is also rich in coal deposits, and this is heavily mined. The coal is mostly transformed into oil and other petroleum products. The roads are dominated by huge ore carrying trucks carrying coal to the refinery in Sasolburg. There are also a lot of diamond mines in the area.
For some really stupid unexplainable reason I really liked Ladybrand. It is a nondescript local town, but it had a certain charm. These are the real local towns as opposed to the touristic ones that cater for the hordes of national and international tourists on a daily basis. This time in Ladybrand I got talking to a few of the locals and it was great fun. But leave I had to.
My next destination was a town called Clarens, the jewel of the Free State, as it is known by. This is a so-called artistic town were a lot of artists live. I was really curious. It was a short run of 2 hours and 152 Kms.
On arrival I was immediately hooked. I had stopped to search accommodation and as it just so happens it was outside the Clarens Bakery. They had loads of cakes, so I settled down, in their garden, with a pot of tea and a long doughnut cake filled with cream and jam and my mobile phone. I wanted to do a post and upload a photo album, so I needed good Wi-Fi.
I decided on a nice little guest house that offered good Wi-Fi and secure parking. I had got a really good deal on that guesthouse via booking.com. It was nicely secluded with a beautiful view of the mountains and more importantly it was within walking distance of the bakery. Good Wi-Fi in the mountains is bad Wi-Fi anywhere else, but yep, we take what we can get.
Clarens was a really nice, neat little type of village. Mostly centered around the village green. Every other house was either a restaurant, gift shop, craft beer brewing establishment or a guesthouse. Objects de art were mostly antiques piled up around the front of the premises. This varied from small antiques to old cars and tractors.
Kinda neat. BUT unfortunately, there were no Veggie restaurants, and the normal restaurants didn’t really cater for the veggies. I was really surprised at that as I thought that with it being an arty type of town it had to have loads of veggie alternatives. Anyway, it offered the chance to post and to walk and to have a nice big sticky cream bun. I have to admit that the last photo album was going really slow and I just managed to hit the enter button 5 minutes before load shedding. Load shedding is Afrikaans for total black out. The power goes off in different areas at different times. This guest house didn’t have any back up power on the Wi-Fi router, so black out was black out. I have an app on my phone telling me when load shedding is in the town where I am. Load shedding is a big problem in South Africa and the people are really getting angry. It has been going on for over 8 years now. There is a chronic lack of maintenance on the power stations and on the whole infrastructure in general. The shops and petrol stations see their profits being eaten away by the price of the diesel that they use to run the generators during load shedding. Believe me it is a real problem in this country, and it is getting worse.
Just down the road from Clarens is the Golden Gate Highlands National Park. I wanted to spend a night there. The park is home to some really spectacular sandstone rock formations and some very good driving roads and hiking trails.
I camped on the campground at the Glen Reenen Rest Camp and Chalets.
The view from my tent was spectacular in the evening. As the sun went down there was a light show on the sandstone rocks, the colors slowly creeping up the side of the mountain, being chased by the encroaching darkness. Really beautiful. That night I was also treated to a spectacular night sky.
Next on the Agenda was a town called Graskop.
I wanted to ride the Panorama Route, an area around the Blyde River Canyon, this is the 3rd biggest canyon in the world. Some of the attractions along the way were God’s window, the Pinnacle and Bourke’s luck potholes. Unlike the other large canyons this is a green canyon. It is overgrown with vegetation.
In Graskop I had by pure chance stopped at a pancake restaurant, as once again I needed to search accommodation, preferably in walking distance of the pancake establishment.
I met two English bikers there. They had passed me on the road, so we shared a table and a chat. I was also in contact with a Dutch guy who had moved out to South Africa to live. He had a house in a town called Hoedspruit, close to the Blyde Canyon. He had invited me for the night and a ride around the area the next day. I decided to ride up there and visit the sights on the way. Unfortunately, there was a load of low cloud and God’s window was covered over.
I rode around a few of the other attractions and returned to God’s window as the sky was clearing up. It was a really nice wee run, and the scenery was spectacular.
On the way up to Hoedspruit on a twisty road I saw a red Land Rover approaching and as it got closer I saw that it had foreign plates… Swiss. As we drew alongside each other we both hit the brakes… It was Joel from Switzerland. I had spent New Year on a camping site in Semonkong, Lesotho and camped beside her. What a coincidence and a happy meeting. She immediately told me about a place that she had found called Hippo Water Front Lodge on Krokodilrivier. This was a must for me. I met up with Richard and he treated me to dinner.
I told him about the Hippo Lodge and a plan was forged. We both decided to go there. The next day we loaded the bikes up… well I loaded my bike; Richard was just going for the night so a tank bag and a change of underwear was all he needed. The lodge had chalets so no camping. Richard took the lead as he had a route planned out. It was a good ride.
Unfortunately, Google maps sent us down an offroad track that was deteriorating with the Km. This was okay on a light unloaded bike but not on a fully loaded tiger. But all went well. I lost control in a deep patch of sand but that was just by the lodge gates. Sand and a fully loaded bike do not go well together.
The lodge was really nice, we got a good deal on a two bedroom chalet facing the river.
There were Hippos, loads of them in the water so it was worth it. On internet there was supposed to be a restaurant at the lodge, but it was closed. Luckily, I carry food on the bike so we made dinner for ourselves. At night the Hippos come out of the river to graze on the lawns of the lodge. The chalets were built up on stilts, so we were safe. Hippos are very dangerous animals. More people in South Africa are killed by Hippos than any other animal.
The next day we exited Hippo lodge the right way and after about 1 km of reasonable dirt road we made it to the asphalt.
We were heading up to a town called Barberton. This town became famous in the gold rush of the 1800s reaching a peak in 1885 when it was booming. But there is more to Barberton. The mountains around the town contain some of the rarest rocks on the planet. There is a Geo Trail, that offers you a glimpse into what the earth was like over 3 billion years ago. The Barberton Makhonjwa Mountains comprises 40% of the Barberton Greenstone Belt and contains some of the best-preserved volcanic rock. It is also one of the oldest geological structures dating back over 3 billion years. It is an open record of surface conditions, meteorite impacts, volcanic activity, the forming of the continents and a history of early life.
We rode it together and during that ride I decided that I wanted to see more so a couple of days later I rode it again, alone. This time stopping at the designated stops.
I met up with a group of South African bikers having the all-important Sunday Braai. They were all locals from Nelspruit. We had a good chat and a good laugh; they had a super sense of humor.
Riding the Geotrail gives you a small glimpse into how the world must have looked billions of years ago. I really lack any understanding of geological science or rocks, but it was kinda impressive. You can share in this ride by clicking on the photos in the like named photo album. Sorry that I can’t give you any actual info on the different rocks but the info signs were faded and didn’t come out to good on my photos.
Monday morning and it was time to load up the bike after a nice 3-day break and head to the Swaziland (ESwatini) border. The road was running through some really fine fruit producing countryside. The border crossing went really quickly and easy… Hassle free and then we were in Swaziland. But that will be another post.
Thank you for taking the time to read the post, looking at the photos for commenting and in short for sharing the ride with me. It is much appreciated. So now it’s time to settle down in your favorite chair with a nice wee cup of tea and a nice cream cake and click your way through the like named photo album on my Facebook page if you are on Facebook:
Facebook Photo Album The Free State, South Africa
Until next time Hasta le Vista amigos.