VO505 Rory & Anneen completed their Long Rider Challenge between the 9th & 10th Jan 2025 - starting and finishing in Gauteng.
Rory narrates the Tale of Two Travellers:
On 9 January 2025 Anneen and I began our 1st VOG Challenge, The Long Rider.
When discussing the challenge, we looked at various routes, and decided on the KZN route as our best option. Our goal was to travel down to Peels Honey Shop in Howick and then back home in the 24 hours allotted for the challenge. We also planned that we would complete the bulk of the route on day one, as well as the minimum requirement of 1000kms - which included Van Reenen’s Pass, twice during daylight hours and would then stop off for an overnighter at the Bergview Engen 1 Stop accommodation.
On Thursday the 9th January at 10:38 we began our challenge.
The route took us from our home in Weltevredenpark, travelling northwards via the Western Bypass round to the N3, where we then proceeded to Villiers - with our first break after 160km. After downing toasted sarmies and fizzy sugar drinks for us and fuel for the bikes, we started our next section of our journey which took us past Harrismith and over Van Reenen’s pass down to the Tugela Engen 1 Stop. This is where we took our second break and refuel after 375km. We had a break for the bodies and bums, took a few pictures and then headed to fill the bikes again. We checked our jackets and made sure that all slips, zips and clips were secured before making our way through our next section, which would be Mooi River through Howick and our turning point - Peel's Honey Shop. Somewhere between Tugela Toll Plaza and Mooi River, the wife realized that our bank cards for the next toll plaza were not in their secured spot of her cut. After a quick stop on the shoulder of the road, it was determined that they were lying somewhere between Tugela Plaza and where we had pulled over. A few giggles, some colourful words from Anneen and we were off again.
We made it to our halfway point at Peel's honey where we stopped for a quick picture. Just some advice to anyone who is looking at using this route, the entrance to Peel's is not bike friendly and I was able to make it down on the Multistrada but Anneen’s Diavel would have gotten some damage on the bottom due to the dip from road to sand. We had at this point reached a distance of 516,8 km from our starting point, arrival time 16h28. So after about 5 hours and 50 min, we had covered half the distance that we were aiming to achieve that day.
We began our return trip and stopped at Mooi River Engen 1 Stop to refuel the bikes.
Our next section would take us back up Van Reenen’s pass to Harrismith where we had booked accommodation for the night at the Mountainview Inn at Bergview Engen 1 Stop. The sunset while driving through Van Reenen’s was somewhat picturesque with views of our country’s beautiful landscape.
We arrived at our overnighter at 18h57, having completed 726 km in 8h19 min - covered with bugs, a little muddy and wind swept. We checked in, changed and headed to dinner at the nearby Spur with some well-earned ice-cold beer. Then it was off to bed early for the last section of our challenge - HOME!
We were up at 6 am and ready for the home stretch - to complete the 1000km before our 24 hours were up.
After topping up the bikes, we left Harrismith at around 06:30 am and made our way up the N3 towards Villiers, which was our final fill up point - 882 km from our start.
We then proceeded Northward around the western bypass towards our final destination. To make sure we had comfortably completed the distance we added a 40km loop from Gordon Road back to Rivonia Road and then back to Gordon Road, which allowed us to reach home at 09h55 on the 10th January, having completed 1069km in 23 hours and 17min.
We received our challenge medals on the 12th January 2025 Breakfast Run, presented by Vice Pres, Dawid Fourie and Pres, Werner Britz.
Thanks for allowing us to share our experience!
Rory & Anneen Guthrie
VO505
Comments