Game Reserve on Harley

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Friday 23rd March

Early start this morning to ride the 140kms to the private Aquila game reserve. We are up at 6.00am and start the bike at 6.30am. The morning is overcast but the forecast is good. After leaving Cape Town we pick up the N1 motorway to travel North East heading for the Hex mountains. After about an hour in the saddle the weather starts to clear ust before entering a tunnel at the base of the mountains. 3kms later we emerge into bright sun and spectacular scenery that continues to amaze for another 70kms to Aquila. I’ve got to say they don’t do road works by half in SA. They close half the carriage way and get you to wait for 20mins until all the oncoming traffic has cleared. We finally reach Aquila at 9.05 about 30mins later than expected and rush breakfast to jump onto the safari jeep at 9.30. I (matt) have a bit of a dodgy stomach today, think it’s all the fruit I’ve been eating (Yes Mum fruit!).
We head off into the reserve at 9.30 and the first animals we see are Springbok (SA National Animal) and Ostrich which can run like hell and cause serious damage to humans! During the drive we see 3 of the big 5 (which incidentally are not based on size but on how dangerous they are to a hunter and how difficult they are to kill LION, LEOPARD, ELEPHANT, BUFFALO & RHINO). We also see Zebra, Giraffe, Hippos, Black Wilderbeast (whose tails incidently were used for fly swatters) and other Animals with wierd names. Our safari guide “Louise” was quite brilliant and really informative. We arrive back at the lodge about two and a half hours later for lunch which I can only describe as incredible. The choice and variety of food was amazing, I just wish I hadn’t had a dodgy stomach. After lunch we wandered around the other enclosures including Crocodiles and Cheetahs and we were fortunate enough to enter the Cheetah enclosure to stroke them and have our picture taken with them. The Cheetahs had been bred in captivity and were very tame.

Unfortunately, and we can only laugh now, Kirsten (while taking a photograph) tripped and fell into the Cheetahs bath and got quite wet and very embarrassed. Luckily we met a nice couple from Chester who had antiseptic cream and plasters and kindly attended to Kirsten’s cuts.

With no major damage done, and everything patched up, we got back on the bike and traveled an alternative route back down the Hex Mountains via Ceres. They really like their straight roads in South Africa, they go on for miles without traffic. Just the occasional Goods Lorry. We stopped for fuel in Ceres, a major fruit growing area which seemed to be quite poor, very black, and run down. For any bikers out there, the road between Touws River and Ceres (R46) and Ceres to Paarl are great.

We then continued back to meet up with Marli, and had a quick glass of wine (Boland Kelders) at Marli’s new apartment in Brackenvell before heading back to our Guest house in Tamboerskloof (Cape Town) thoroughly exhausted. We had ridden nearly 500 kms and got somewhat burnt.

We had take out Pizza for dinner (which we didn’t eat) and fell into bed.

We have to return the Harley in the morning and although I/We enjoyed it, I wouldn’t do it again. I’ve done it now, and would probably ride a BMW in the future.

Ta Ta for now M & K.

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Photos

Matts on Harley
This is taken on the way to the Hex Mountains and the Aquila Game Reserve.

M & K at Aquila
This is taken at Aquila Game reserve of our safari truck!

Rhino with calf
This shows one of the female rhino's with small Calf.

Giraffe by Road
Giraffe munching away. We were fortunate to get really close.

Elephant at Aquila
This is a young male elephant of 10 to 12 years.

Cheetah Enclosure
Picture of K & M in Cheetah enclosure

Aquila Game Lodges
Aquila Game Lodges