Adventure biking on KwaZulu-Natal’s back roads

Posted on 29 January 2020

Some six-odd years ago, Charley Boorman, one of the world’s acknowledged kings of motorcycle roadtripping, asked me, ‘Why is it that all great rides are always ruined by the last 45 minutes?’

I’ve had lots of time and kilometres on two wheels to reflect on his disgruntled observation. Actually, he didn’t use the polite word ‘ruined’ – and I realise that true bikers wouldn’t have it any other way. Adversity through being cold, wet, muddy (and in extreme cases, bloody) is what separates us from motorists in the grittiness of road-trip experience.

The early bird has all the fun – morning capers near Champagne Castle. Image credit: Rob Till

Charley’s words came back to me recently, but this time it was the first part of the journey that threatened to derail the rest. A group of us riders had flown in from around the country to King Shaka International Airport as guests of the BMW Motorrad rider-training academy. There we collected spanking new BMW R1250GS and R1250GS Adventure bikes for a trip through KwaZulu-Natal.

KZN is probably the best province in South Africa for roadtripping on an adventure bike. There are many places and things to see, and the distances between them (particularly in the Midlands) are not too far. There’s a variety of road surfaces, all of which were meat and beer to the new BMWs, and the degree of riding difficulty is generally up to the rider.

We loaded our spare gear into a backup vehicle (none of the bikes had panniers or top-boxes) and left gloomy Umhlanga midway through the morning, merging straight into fairly heavy traffic … never great when you’re getting used to a new bike and playing follow-the-leader in an unfamiliar city.

Classic Berg scenery on the R600 to Champagne Castle. Image credit: Rob Till

I’ve travelled the N3 between Durban and Joburg often, but this was the first time I’d branched off onto the R103 that runs roughly parallel to the highway. However, having watched the Comrades Marathon year after year on TV, the route felt strangely familiar because of the road signs: Cowies Hill, Fields Hill, Kloof, Hillcrest, Drummond and Camperdown.

The roads were tree-lined and good, and traffic was moderate. We leapt over the N3 at Howick and began the Midlands Meander proper. This famous route was conceived more than 30 years ago as a getaway for foodies, arty types, history buffs and adventurists. It comprises five separate (but often overlapping) routes within an area bound north and south by Mooi River and Hilton; Karkloof lies on the eastern border and the foothills of the Drakensberg are the western cut-off.

Big puddles and slippery clay made the riding near Karkloof quite tricky.

Right in the middle is Nottingham Road, a settlement of some 1 500 founded at the turn of the last century and named after a British regiment that was stationed there. We were just entering Nottingham Road when the skies lowered and it began to spit, but we were no more than damp when we pulled up at Netherwood Farm for lunch at Blueberry Café.

Netherwood is a working cattle stud, and Blueberry Café prides itself on its loo-with-a-view overlooking a paddock and a valley dotted with grassy hills. Many a diner has felt distinctly uncomfortable having a giant Angus bull leering through the floor-to-ceiling plate-glass windows while they’re in situ. Lunch stretched out a bit – highlight of the meal was the blueberry cheesecake for which the place is renowned – and weather conditions had worsened considerably. It was raining quite hard, though intermittently, and the mist kept thickening until visibility was down to a few metres.

In terms of discomfort and danger, the torment did not come close to what I had experienced with Charley Boorman back in 2013 when making his television series Charley Boorman’s South African Adventure. It had been a 150-kilometre, high-speed, zero-visibility, midwinter nightmare ride to Wilderness that prompted Charley’s remark when we eventually alighted, frozen and exhausted, at our guest house. Ask any motorcyclist for their most dreaded riding conditions and nine out of 10 will say ‘lack of visibility’. Fog and rain are a double whammy because not only are you effectively blinded (helmets unfortunately don’t have windscreen wipers), but the chances of losing control in any emergency braking situation and going down increase hugely.

Chris Modise chats up the stud cattle at Netherwood Farm near Nottingham Road.

Any exploration of the Midlands inevitably entails a certain retracing of one’s steps and, after leaving Nottingham Road, we headed south on the R103 through Balgowan and Lidgetton before skirting Midmar Dam to Howick and Pietermaritzburg, where we joined the R56 to Richmond. or ourselves at this stage but fun was not what we were having. With our sense of adventure at a low ebb, we encountered the first gravel stretch of the journey. From adversity comes expertise and we quickly learnt the capabilities of the new BMWs when we took to the grey grit through the forests between Richmond and Ncwadi. Our 45 minutes of misery ended almost immediately. The fog lifted and the sun came out, leaving us with just the odd shower. The rapidly drying roads were superb and our speed and confidence grew as we chased northwards with the Drakensberg mountains on our left.

An exhilarated, muddy mob re-joined the N3 near Estcourt on the last stretch to the Drakensberg Sun Resort, near Winterton, for the night. Built beside the R600 to Champagne Castle in the 70s, the hotel is a time-capsule example of the old Southern Sun hotels of the time. We ate as a group at the hotel, but my personal choice would have been 20 kilometres back down the road at the Thokozisa Restaurant (in a lifestyle centre of the same name) run by the Curtis-Setchell brothers, which is popular among tourists and locals year-round. The next morning was clear and a few of our party rose with the lark and got in some nifty off-road riding in the grounds of the hotel – quite a bit of it on one-wheel! But we still had a lot of ground to cover – 650 kilometres in total, about half of it on dirt, over two days. Backtracking towards Winterton, we then went on our own meander. The rule of riding back roads is to keep a visible landmark in a fixed relative position; in this case we simply ensured the Berg stayed to our right and, about 20 kilometres after passing Highmoor, we hit the road coming in to Nottingham Road from the west.

A big, mean BMW machine before the mud and dust.

After a quick break to fill up with petrol and a cuppa at Coffee and Life, we exited Nottingham Road and turned left to Bruntville and Treverton College. This took us to the Greytown road and the last stretch of tar for several hours. And it wasn’t long before we went really off-map for the most challenging part of the ride. There had been a lot of rain in the week preceding our visit, so there was no relaxing on the greasy clay stretches dotted with water-filled potholes and huge trucks carrying lumber. We turned off the R622 (Bruntville-Greytown) at Craigieburn Dam and, after a fairly fast dirt stretch, came to a fork where going right took us past the Karkloof Nature Reserve into Howick. Take this road only if you are familiar with the area and very confident of your off-road riding ability.

Going left at the fork will still give you kilometres of dirty fun in the forest but with much less chance of getting lost (there are no visible landmarks) before joining the R33 at New Hanover. Stop for lunch at the Amble Inn at Albert Falls. My colleagues raced back to King Shaka after their midday repast to catch flights home. I, however, having strapped clothes and cameras to the bike with bungee cords, took my leave at the junction with the N3 and rode leisurely northwards to Bergville and my favourite place in KZN, Three Tree Hill Lodge.

The new bikes nailing the grey grit roads around the Ncwadi forests.

I have a passion for military history and Three Tree owner Simon Blackburn ticks all the boxes when it comes to recounting tales of the many battles fought in the region. After an early morning hike through the veld, Simon and I headed for Spioenkop, the only Anglo-Boer War battlefield attended by three national political leaders in the making – General Louis Botha, journalist Winston Churchill and Mohandas Gandhi, who was a stretcher-bearer. We were alone and the emptiness of the battlefield – the silence broken only by cawing crows – made Simon’s narrative especially poignant.

Having hiked both a nature reserve and a battlefield in one day, I was perfectly happy to spend a second night at Three Tree Hill and had the pleasure of having one of the lodge’s two cats, Gin (the other, unsurprisingly, is Tonic) share my cottage for the night. Breakfast was an unhurried affair as I only had 160-odd kilometres to ride to Rorke’s Drift, almost all of it on good tar.

There are a couple of ways of reaching Rorke’s Drift but I took the N11 past Ladysmith to Glencoe – named after the glen in Scotland where English forces massacred members of Clan MacDonald in 1692 – and Dundee (R68), before hooking a right onto the R33 to Helpmekaar.

After the battle of Spioenkop, the bodies of the dead were piled into trenches and covered with stones. These raised and whitewashed graves are a haunting memorial to those who lost their lives.

From there it was an easy 20-kilometre stretch of dirt to Rorke’s Drift and another 20 kilometres to its ‘companion’ battlefield at Isandlwana. Both should be visited in the company of good storytellers to experience the full horror. The intensity is such, though, that I recommend doing them on separate days to avoid emotional overload. I checked in at the Rorke’s Drift Hotel and enjoyed a cold beer overlooking the Buffalo River, before riding the short distance to the hospital and provision depot where the battle was fought. As I arrived, the local choir was using the church at the site for practice. The hymn they were singing that late afternoon was in isiZulu but, quite ironically given the location’s history, the tune was God Save the Queen.

Plan your trip

Getting There
From Durban, the most direct route to the Drakensberg and Midlands is via the N3, but it’s more pleasant to branch off onto the parallel R103. The Meander begins in Howick, or Mooi River if riding from Gauteng.

Need to know

One of the beauties of motor-cycle roadtripping in KZN is that you can get everywhere on an adventure bike without being an expert rider. Luggage panniers and a top-box make riding a lot more comfortable and secure. For where to stay and what to do in the Midlands, go to midlandsmeander.co.za.

Stay Here

Drakensberg Sun Resort near Winterton has 78 huge en-suite rooms and vast common areas; enjoy Berg walks from the hotel. From around R2 000 pp sharing.
036-468-1000, tsogosun.com

Three Tree Hill Lodge outside Bergville is a bucket-list experience where you might encounter antelope on the way from dinner to your cottage. R3 240 pp sharing DBB. 036-448-1171, threetreehill.co.za

Rorke’s Drift Hotel

Rorke’s Drift Hotel is an old-style, value-for-money country hotel to which guests keep returning. From R1 500 pp sharing DBB. 034-642-1760, rorkesdrifthotel.com

Eat Here

Blueberry Café on Netherwood Farm has a small lunch menu, including a signature beef burger with chips or salad (R100). Don’t miss the blueberry cheesecake; R50 for a large, beautifully presented slice. 033-266-7132

Blueberry Cafe

Thokozisa is in the Thokozisa Lifestyle Centre near Winterton. Try the chicken schnitzel for R88. 036-488-1827

Nottingham Road Brewing Company is regarded as one of the best craft breweries in SA, producing the likes of Tiddly Toad Lager. 033-266-6728, nottsbrewery.co.za

Chocolate Heaven in Nottingham Road is a chocoholic’s paradise. 033-266-6870

Cleopatra Mountain Farmhouse for fine dining on Richard Poynton’s renowned cuisine, or a luxury stay from R1 250 pp sharing. 033-267-7243. cleopatramountain.com

Hartford House at Summerhill Stud offers elegant dining. Lovely cottages too, from R1 050 pp sharing. 033-263-2713, hartford.co.za

About the bike

The BMW R1250GS and R1250GS Adventure replace the 1200GS, one of the most popular and proven on-off road touring bikes in South Africa. As reliable and capable as the older generation is, it has been eclipsed by the Class of ’19. Having ridden both new bikes, I agree with a colleague that ‘these are motorcycles that anyone can ride well’. Apart from traditional elements such as balance and power-to-weight ratios, the ease-of-ride is largely due to the electronics that govern the bikes’ performance, particularly the braking and traction-control systems.

Words Jim Freeman