Story By – Lance Rothschild.
So, I’m now officially Hardegat. You probably knew that already and I’m thus staring the blindingly obvious, but at least now it’s official.
On Sunday 9th February, together with my mates Gary de Menezes and Wayne Bester, I completed the 2025 Hardegat Challenge as organised by Johann van Tonder of Cape Adventure Bike Challenge (cabc.co.za). There were 2 options in the challenge: either ride 1000 km of tar road; or 650 km of mostly gravel road in a 12-hour period.
Ahead of the big day, Gary and I had collaborated on route planning. Gazza is a great guy to ride with as he has all the right equipment like an on-board information system which includes a GPS. I had plotted the route on my old Garmin Base Camp software, but I no longer have a GPS device, mine having been stolen out of a rental car some years ago. I had printed out a Route/Ride plan, which I kept on my Tank Bag. This was quite handy to keep me informed of the distances between the various points, but I was also secure in the knowledge that Gary had all the details onboard. (BTW, Gary has an amazingly good YouTube channel featuring some of the awesome rides he has done in this area. https://www.youtube.com/@Gazza13 .
We kept a constant watch on the weather for the days leading up to the challenge, but irrespective of the weather, the challenge was going to take place, and so at 04:30, Gary on his KTM 890 ADV R, Wayne on his KTM 790 ADV RR and myself on Baloo, my trusty KTM 1090 ADV R met just around the corner from my home to head off to George for the start of the challenge.
It was very dark at that time of morning and a light rain was falling making the riding quite intense and challenging. It’s one thing riding in the dark, but the rain added more drama to the ride. It only got light once we got close to George for the start from Garden Route Motorcycles.
The GRM team were up and about and as friendly as they always are – even this early on a Sunday morning. I had ordered a tube from them the day before and on arrival, Meghan and Vincent had it ready for me. GRM also provided free coffee which was very welcome seeing as we had gotten quite wet on the 90+kms from Plett to George. Wayne had a good chirp about how wet he was, but as this is a family-friendly forum, I won’t repeat it here.
At 06:00, the bikes started to leave on the challenge, and the three of us took our time, sticking our numbers on the bikes and just chatting in general, before heading off on our challenge. In total, the challenge drew 131 entries, 100 of whom opted for the 650 km dirt road ride.
At 06:00, the bikes started to leave on the challenge, and the three of us took our time, sticking our numbers on the bikes and just chatting in general, before heading off on our challenge. In total, the challenge drew 131 entries, 100 of whom opted for the 650 km dirt road ride.
The first photo stop on the Challenge was at Herbertsdale, and we selected to use the N2 and then turn off onto the R 327 to Herbertsdale. Whilst on the N2, the screws that hold my peak onto my helmet broke, so I was having hassles managing my peak at speeds, but I had no alternative but to continue with the challenge and make do for the day.
The section on the R 327 was very nice with some beautiful scenery and only a few light spots of rain, and we pulled into Herbertsdale and found a great spot to take our selfie, which we then posted to the group.
On the other side of Herbertsdale, heading towards Van Wyksdorp, we hit the gravel road. The crossing of the Gouritz River is spectacular and the climb on the other side is steep. There’s a great spot on the climb where you can stop and get a nice view of the river and the crossing. This stop is on quite an awkward slope and it was very amusing to see the different riding styles when people pulled off from this slope. There were some anxious moments for some, that’s for sure.
The rain abated for this section, but it was still cloudy and gloomy and comfortably cool – especially for riding. There’s a lot of open countryside and some awesome scenery on this road and thankfully not too much dust, so we made pretty good time.
Just after VanWyksdorp, we had to head off towards Rooiberg Lodge (photo stop #2) and then we were into the mountain section of the Rooiberg. We stopped at the top of the Rooiberg Pass for a breather and had a brief chat with family from Mossel Bay on their three Suzukis. I took a Selfie with the Rooiberg Pass sign in the background for the Turkana Challenge, and then pointed out that next to this stop is the “Gamkasberg Gebedstapel” which is a cairn of stones placed there since the 19th Century by travellers who would stop and pray there and deposit a stone/rock in gratitude for safe passage over the pass.
We then headed off to Calitzdorp in light drizzle and we stopped for fuel and some refreshments in the town. The next photo stop was the Swartberg Pass, and there were a few routing options to get there, but we elected to take the scenic, but shorter, route going past the Calitzdorp Dam and Kruisrivier over some fantastic roads right until we intercepted the R 328 which is the road up the Swartberg Pass.
As we ascended, it just got wetter and wetter with really poor visibility. We took the required pic at the Swartberg Pass sign and another at Die Top, whilst in the constant drizzle. As we headed over the Swartberg Pass onto the north side, we broke into clear sunshine and great weather. It was great to ride in the sunshine and warmer weather (and to get dry). At the bottom of the pass, we turned right and headed towards Klaarstroom (another photo stop). There was a very strong wind blowing on this section of the ride, but it was still lekker to ride with open throttles on this excellent tar.
We were hoping to stop for some sustenance in Klaarstroom, but the town was closed. Not even the hotel was open so after our photo stop, we headed onto the dirt road towards Willowmore. This is one awesome stretch of road – a veritable dirt highway – and we made excellent time between Klaarstroom and Willowmore. One thing about this road is that there are lots of drifts and in one section some very soft sand, so you do need to keep your wits about you. The one drift caught all three of us out and we stopped a few kms from there to compare notes. I most certainly felt Baloo bottom out on this drift, in fact I was surprised that my old body was still intact after this. At least I took comfort that both Gary and Wayne had experienced the same.
Moving further along this road, I saw two of the riders stopped by the side of the road (the one guy was on a Ducati Desert X) and they were watching a rather large tortoise cross the road. I’m glad that they had stopped to watch this as this made me slow down. It would have been a painful experience to hit this tortoise for sure.
We pulled into Willowmore and found an open restaurant where we lunched on toasted sandwiches and chips and had some cold drinks. After lunch, we refuelled and on our way out of town, we stopped for the obligatory photo, and then headed along the N9 towards Uniondale. My helmet peak was being a real pain in the butt, so I spent most of that section holding onto the peak with my left hand. We swept through Uniondale and were soon on the R 339 heading for Avontuur. Now this little road has some of the best twisties you could ever hope to find, and we had great fun. As we got to the end of the road and near to the Prince Alfred’s Pass, we started encountering drizzle again, so it was a quick right and then left onto the pass. The section from Avontuur to De Vlught was very rainy and we took it carefully, which was just as well as there were a few cars coming in the opposite direction.
There was a group of riders behind us and so at De Vlught, we pulled over to let them pass. Unfortunately, we didn’t have enough time to stop at Die Plaaskind Padstal as we were now chasing time in order to ensure our Hardegat qualification. Thankfully the Pass is in pretty good shape and we made good time on our way to Knysna. There were some sections where the road was snotty, particularly nearer Knysna where the soil is more clay-like. At Nekkies in Knysna, we stopped for our final pic at about 17:00. We had decided earlier (and cleared it with the organisers) that we were not going to go all the way to George only to have to come back to Plett, so we left Knysna and headed home.
It was an awesome day’s riding and my trip meter showed that we had covered 735 km on the day. And above all, we are now officially Hardegat.
