Upington to Askham and back to Upington

Just a day trip. The ride was up to Askham and back. No particular reason other than it is very rural, a good road and close to the Botswana border. Also very isolated.

It was hot, 37'C (which is not hot by local standards) and lowest was 34'C. That's too hot for me but while any rural ride on open roads is good, it could have been better.

Askham is a small settlement, mainly farm supplies and a single fuel station for travellers heading further North to the game parks.

Upington is known for it's enormous solar power plant. You can't miss it from pretty much any direction. It is a tower with mirrors reflecting sunlight onto the tower. Very very bright. Built by a Spanish company. This certainly is a good place to put it, being the Kalahari desert.

The business hotels are fully booked in Upington. On enquiring why it is so popular, I was told that it is because Upington is the regional government hub. Local government staff make up most of the hotel bookings.

Not a problem, there is plenty of accommodation and I checked into a nice lodge on the banks of the Orange River. What a surprise find. I've never been greeted by a tame Kalahari Springbok on arrival at a hotel before. The animals are really cute.

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Upington to Britstown

Time to head further South. It's still hot, around 34'C.

A good road, a few fuel stations along the way. Initially the road followed the Orange River valley. It's noticeable by all the cultivated land. Various vineyards and crops growing. The road deviates away from the river valley after a town called Prieska.

From then on it's open land but quite different from the vast open areas further North. There is more green vegetation. The road also cuts through more terrain with corners and sweeping bends through the hills. That's interspersed with long straight sections but the road is in excellent condition.

One of the sights from the road is birds nests. The Weaver birds make nests on power cable poles, telegraph poles, trees and pretty much anything that is off the ground. Some of the nests are huge and take over the entire object they're built on.

There are some roadside settlements along the way, between the bigger towns. Unfortunately, the settlements don't seem to be developed with any form of refuse disposal, the plastic waste is just thrown into the surrounding countryside.

Britstown itself is a small place. One hotel and a few guest houses. The main road runs through it bringing some money to the town.

The accommodation was a converted jail house. Nicely done but pretty basic. Gaps and holes in the door edges and high level open vents allowed plenty of mosquitoes in. It had a free-standing AC unit which did blow cold air but was way too underpowered for a room that size. The room was clean, quaint though. It was also unattended. Booked in guests make a phone call to gain access to the yard. A WhatsApp message was sent before arrival giving a key-box code etc. No staff on site. It wasn't a great stop and what with barking dogs, heat, mosquitoes etc. sleep wasn't really an option.

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Britstown to Bloemfontein

Another good ride. Varying road conditions but all paved. Some sections with wheel sized pot holes. I was on extra alert for on coming cars and trucks swerving to avoid pot holes.

The road crossed the Orange River a couple of times on single track steel bridges. I'm not sure when they were built but I'd say with certainty that the bridges are older than me. It just brings a feeling of rustic character to the ride.

The route went through De Aar which is a tiny place in South Africa but the name is well known as it has the second biggest rail distribution yard. It's a transport hub. It also has an enormous solar power field. Rows and rows of solar panels stretching for what seemed like miles.

This is Ore country. Not sure what type they're carrying but trucks going in both directions continuously.

At one remote junction there were some kids in the road, gesticulating wildly. I could see they were filling in pot holes and requesting a donation for their efforts. I stopped to have a chat and make a donation. I didn't have change so the donation was probably way more than they were expecting and they seemed delighted.

It's something I saw on the West African ride as well. On sections of road that have become difficult or impossible to pass, locals make a small bypass around obstacles like water holes or fallen trees and charge a toll to use their bypass. Quite enterprising.

Bloemfontein is a city. Riding through the suburbs it looks clean and tidy. The city centre is just like any other with traffic, litter and noise.

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Bloemfontein to Welkom

Leaving Bloemfontein on a Monday morning was less congested than I'd assumed it would be. Clear skies and good roads.

Only a minor detour to go past the New Tempe airfield. That's not the main commercial one, it's more general aviation, flying training and crop spraying aircraft. Interesting place, not least because it also had a very well prepared motocross track next to it.

Back on the main road it was a smooth ride through farming country. Miles and miles of immaculate crops. Known as Mielies in SA or Corn and Maize elsewhere. Sunflower crops as well.

Leading into Welkom the road passed the local airfield. Unlike New Tempe, this one looked unused and largely derelict although there were some newer buildings and possibly the runway was still in use.

Welkom looked clean, tidy and maintenance crews could be seen. It's not a big town and doesn't have a large selection of hotels etc. Accommodation was in a Guest house which was fine, if you don't mind a bathroom light which was motion activated and set on a 6 second timer!

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Welkom to Standerton

The Guest house was in a clean upmarket part of Welkom. Leaving the Guest house on a clear and sunny morning the properties all looked their best. Neat walls, electric fences and green lawns.

Some of the road maintenance is pretty labour intensive. A crew laying tar by hand. Not sure how the process works but they seemed to have some type of tarp to smooth the surface over.

Being a small town it didn't take long to get into the country and onto the open road, cows grazing on the road side.

South Africa does have toll roads and the N3 between Johannesburg and Durban is one of them. I'm sure it's a fast route but I wasn't looking for the fastest route anywhere, in fact quite the opposite, I was looking for the scenic back roads. Setting Google to avoid toll roads and motorways helped with that.

I avoided the N3 but that did mean riding on unpaved roads. The shaking and vibration on unpaved roads doesn't make for the best ride but it is rewarding being in remote areas.

Not much traffic but the odd vehicle does kick up dust. Getting past one truck in particular was tricky as there was so much dust it was difficult to know what was on the other side of the dust.

Standerton is a busy little town. Accommodation was in a Guest house. Just like in Welkom the Guest house was in a quiet upmarket part of town, not far from a shopping arcade with supermarket, restaurant, garage and various other shops. That's one of the reasons SA is such a good place to tour. There are great facilities with fully stocked supermarkets, including refrigerated goods.

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What apps do you use to book/look for your accommodation along your route?

Thanks 9w6vx.

My preference is just to look for a hotel in a town when I'm ready to stop riding for the day. That way you can just walk into reception, see what the place is like and hopefully they have a room available.

That's not always possible as the hotels may be full or smaller towns may not have hotels.

B&B's and Guest houses in SA often require advance bookings. Probably due to security issues.

In those situations any of the usual booking sites can help. Booking.com seems to be the most reliable. In SA there is also a site called LekkeSlaap.co.za which, as a direct translation from Afrikaans means NiceSleep. LekkeSlaap.co.za is like a local AirB&B site.

I tried Hotels.com but they took money for a hotel which didn't exist and they did everything they could to avoid a refund. As it was a straight fraud, it became a major issue and they were very unpleasant to communicate with. I would advise avoiding Hotels.com

I haven't had any problems approaching hotels directly or using Booking.com or Lekkeslaap.co.za

Standerton to Fourways

The day didn't get off to the best start. After loading the bike and getting ready to go, I noticed the back tyre was flat. Not much I could do other than to speak to the Guest house owner, explain the problem and ask if I could stay a bit longer while I fixed the puncture.

He was very helpful and came out with a bowl of water (for finding the leak) and washing up liquid (to lubricate the tyre and help it slip off the rim). Together we took the tube out but even using the water and soap we couldn't find the leak, so just put it all back together and put a bit of air in using my bicycle pump. That was good enough to get to a garage and pump it up fully. It seemed to hold air although I did wait 30 minutes and checked the pressure again before setting off. Maybe the valve leaked. Removing it and reseating it while taking the tube out may have helped.

Standerton is close to Tutuka Power Station, one of many large coal fired power stations built in the 1980's. At around 3.6 GW it's an impressive place. I was keen to ride out and have a look at it.

There are conveyor belts crossing the countryside to bring coal directly to the power station. The distribution distances in SA are also long. 765 000 volt lines are used and that voltage requires some large pylons to get sufficient insulation.

Getting closer to Johannesburg the scenery changed to rough industrial sites, mine dumps, grooves pounded into the roads by heavy trucks and just generally more commercial activity.

Riding on SA roads is fine but traffic flow works differently to say the USA or Europe. With power outages and general lack of maintenance traffic lights may or may not work.

If the lights have failed then the junction is treated as a 4 way stop. If the lights are on but not working properly it also becomes a 4 way stop. But then there are also unofficial people who help out by directing traffic at some junctions, even though the lights may be on. They do it for money donations from drivers. It's a local thing!

There is a hijacking risk while stationary at a junction so some drivers don't like to stop, red signal or not. Have a look at the white car in the photo below. The light was red but they didn't stop, not sure they even slowed down. Just ride defensively and assume cars won't stop.

On reaching Fourways it was back to the usual craziness and pace of everyday life in SA.

The trip didn't work out as intended due to the bike breakdown. Taking it across the border to Namibia and Botswana would have been risky. That's a ride for another trip.

I'd have to figure out what to do with the bike though.

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Posttree,

Thanks for sharing the info. I am learning the info from your trip so that I know what to expect when I do my own South Africa trip.

Unfortunately I am not so handy with the bike as yourself and that complicates things to ride solo.