Biking in Cape Town : A breakfst run from Cape Town to Franschhoek
Hi Guys!
It has been ages since my first post on Steemit mainly because work has been hectic so which limited my time quite a bit. Now that I have a bit of a breather I would like to share one of my favourite ways to unwind and that is riding my bike. Not a bicycle but a motorcycle, a Triumph Street Triple R to be exact!
I bought the bike a few months ago after about 5 years of not riding and man, it feels so good being back in the saddle again. I absolutely love this bike, definitely the best and most comfortable one I have ridden to date. The freedom riding gives you is hard to describe to someone that hasn't ridden before, so hopefully this post will give you a glimpse into what it is like :)
The Route
https://goo.gl/maps/U5CfdxUtGmu (Google Maps Link )
Cape Town ( N1 )
Franschhoek( R45 )
Villiersdrop ( R321 )
Worcester ( R43 )
Back onto the N1 towards Cape Town.
Du Toits Kloof pass(R101)
Back onto the N1 towards Cape Town and home.
The total distance was a little under 300km.
The Breakfast Run
The morning of the run was a bit overcast and the threat of rain was in the back of my mind, regardless, we met and the BP garage in Pinelands at 8am and set out from there. Best thing about the early morning is that there are hardly any cars haha.
Joining me on the ride were 2 of my friends and my brother ,all relatively experienced riders.
The bikes we were riding were as follow.
Our Bikes
2009 Triumph Street Triple
2005 Aprilia Tuono
2013 Triumph Street Triple R
2009 Suzuki GSXR
We left Pinelands and jumped onto the N1 heading towards Paarl, this road is rather boring up until the turn off that heads towards Franschhoek.
Franschhoek
It takes about 40minutes to reach Franschhoek from Cape Town. Franschhoek is situated in the Cape Winelands and it's an amazing place, there are so many things to do there, from wine tours, fine dinning ( 8 of the top 100 restaurants in the country are found here ), visiting markets, hiking etc.
If you feel like a weekend out of the city or if you are from overseas I definitely recommend visiting it.
After arriving in Franschhoek we stopped at the Essence Restaurant and Coffee Bar, shortly after we arrived several other biker groups joined us for breakfast.
The restaurant has free wifi, food is good and fairly priced.
After a good breakfast and a lot of bike talk we said goodbye to everyone and headed towards Lambrechts Road. This road has some decent corners and a few that sneak up on you if you are new to the road. At the top is a very cool look out point that gives a great view of the Franschhoek Valley.
What a great road and view!
From here we made our way to Villiersdorp , passing the Theewaterskloof Dam. We have been in the grips of a drought over the last few months and the water levels here are depressingly low, its been on dry winter unfortunately.
The turn-off from the R45 onto the R321 gives you about 8km of straight road to stretch your legs if you are feeling a bit naughty :)
Villiersdorp to Worcester
We stopped off at the shell in Villiersdorp as our bikes were getting a little thirsty. The ride from hear is quite mellow, its a relatively straight road to Worcester. The mountainous scenery is great to look at.
Du Toits Kloof Pass (Old Road)
Instead of taking the Huguenot Tunnel ( Which would have sounded amazing with our bike cruising through there ) We took the R 101 over Du Toits Kloof Pass. This is also a very cool winding road which has a great scenic view of the entire valley below. If you are lucky you might run into a troop of baboons who could care less about cars or bikes haha.
Naughty Baboons
Homeward Bound
After heading down the pass we get back onto the N1 back towards Cape Town, the bonus besides the scenery about Du Toits Kloof is that you get to skip the toll road which is about R39 for a car or bike :)
There is nothing much to tell about the route back so I will leave you with this video from my brother's vlog
If you dig the video give it a like or subscribe :)
Cheers until next time!
Really awesome post! Well written and comprehensive information. Cool video at the end as well ;)
Thank you bro :) I hope to document many more :)