A Motorcycle tour of Limpopo and Mpumalanga, South Africa

(Part 3)

Author: Steve and Carole Eilertsen. stevei@icon.co.za

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 Mpumalanga is the inland capital of motorcycling. It is very scenic and has an excellent infrastructure with fast smooth roads winding through the mountains.

Continuing our bike tour we traveled south from Tzaneen. We powered our big BMW trail motorcycles off the 42°C Lowveld and up the escapement via the JG Strydom Tunnel. In the summer months the Lowveld is not a place you want to be without a roof, sealed windows and an aircon. The air becomes so hot that even breathing is difficult and every piece of skin must be well covered. Above the escarpment however the air is at least 5° cooler, the vegetation is greener and the roads a lot more interesting.

There is so much so see and do in Mpumalanga that even a two week holiday may be a bit short. Tourism and touring is the backbone of this area which has every conceivable type of activity on offer. Seeing as our caption for this motorcycle tour was the "Friendship Tour", we intended to visit old friends who live and work in Nelspruit.

The latest edition (number 13) of Coast to Coast i.e. 320 pages of backpacker accommodation and touring operators. A pdf version can be downloaded from their website. Email them here

Our first night however we stayed at a backpackers in Hazyview i.e. Thika Tika, a citrus and nut farm 5km out of town. We simply choose the place out of the publication called "Coast to Coast" which lists all the backpackers in Southern Africa. The facilities were everything the publication claimed them to be . . . the owners however were inflexible and unhelpful with regard to the rigid check-out time of 10am the next day despite the bunkhouse being empty. To their credit however they did go to great pains to protect us  . . . from having our stuff stolen from our room!! They  warned us to sleep with the door locked and all the windows closed. Now here is the thing . . . it was 28°C at 10 o clock that night!  The room did not have an aircon or a fan. Inspection of the door showed that it had been broken into from the outside, with the door still locked - the damaged lock barely worked and the wooden doorframe was still splintered. Car owners were warned to park their locked car outside their window with the alarm activated and all valuables removed.

(Did I say that Thika Tika is on a farm? )

Gasping for air and with the wardrobe pushed against the damaged door we finally got to sleep only to be awoken by blaring music. It was 12:30am. We endured the racket for 5 minutes before I went looking for its source. It came from the owners house 20m away from the bunkhouse. They were sitting in the kitchen but the noise came from the empty TV room in another part of the farmhouse. They apologized and I stomped off to try to get back to sleep. We saw nothing of our errand hosts the next day and we left before their damn compulsory check out time.

This is written not to put you off backpackers. We have had great experiences before with them. I should have said "thanks, but no thanks" before I checked in - Hazyview has loads of accommodation.

Instead of killing a few hours at Thika Tika waiting for our friends to arrive home from work we spend the rest of the day at Mac Mac pools, 15km outside Sabie.

Mac Mac Pools is one of the many many attractions in and around Sabie, Graskop and Pilgrms Rest. It is simply a picnic spot with not even a kiosk. It is ideal for just soaking up the sun, swimming and sleeping - all day!

Mac Mac Pools, some beers, some grub, your woman - sorted!

And a chance to take some pics and play with our new digital camera!

After catching up with our Cruiser riding friends in Nelspruit we headed for Kaapsehoop, a old gold rush town 30km outside of Nelspruit. Similar to Pilgrims Rest, this town is more suited to locals with excellent restaurants, pubs and craft shops. Besides a number of easy strolls and day walks there are a number of activities on offer of which horse riding is the most well known.

The entrance to Kaapsehoop set among the strangely coloured rocks characteristic of the area.

Kaapsehoop does a lot of trade on its so-called "wild horses". Horses?, Yes, wild? I don't think so!

The beautifully restored houses of Kaapsehoop were no match for my beautiful BMW
1100GS motorcycle, so you will have to see them yourself when you visit.

A short walk out of the town is the escarpment allowing you to look over the Lowveld
towards Mozambique in the distance.

Going home. Another awesome motorcycle tour on our trusty BMW bikes.

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