3 Days Guided Drakensberg Mountains and Battlefields Motorcycle Tour in South Africa

Itinerary

Day 1

Riding the quieter Old Main Road, to your first stop at the interesting and infamous Comrades Marathon Wall of Honour, a mostly unobserved but amazingly interesting feature on your doorstep. Then, a short motorway positioning ride through Pietermaritzburg to Howick and then, back onto the old road with the next stop at the Nelson Mandela capture site and monument at Tweedie, Midlands, then to The Notties Hotel for breakfast.

On amazingly scenic roads, you pass through high country farmland and commercial forests with the route running parallel to The Drakensberg Mountains with the most beautiful and unlimited views of The Berg, until the first overnight at White Mountain Resort.

Day 2

The next day, you depart from breakfast riding the same gravel road with its Berg views and on to Spioenkop Mountain, where you enjoy the specialist services of accredited Battlefields guide Shane Spargo. Shane has a passion for Anglo Zulu and the Anglo Boer Wars and gives the most captivating and often animated account of this noteworthy battle.

The country riding from Winterton through Colenso and Weenen is easy going cruising where the scenery makes the miles melt away. You visit the Winston Churchill capture site and monument, until reaching the very biker friendly Imbabala Lodge at Muden. Here, if you’re lucky, the giraffe and zebra will come for their own ‘sundowners’ at a watering point directly in front of the lodge veranda.

Day 3

The next day after breakfast, it’s homeward through Middelrus and the Karkloof. This segment has less of the historical and landmark features but those are ‘substituted’ with enormous vistas on long stretches of unoccupied big country gravel and then into the scenic wonderland of The Karkloof, where a person would think that their dreams had taken them to the Yukon.

Bike information

The fleet is made up of Kawasaki KLR 650 adventure motorcycles, with exceptions being the Triumph Tiger 800XCx and the Triumph Explorer 1200 on special application only. The KLRs are an enormously popular adventure bike due to their reliability and uncomplicated ease of operation. While some might like the high tech aspects of biking, the KLR keeps it simple with no traction control, no ABS, braking, cruise control, etc. and this all means fewer breakdowns.

The KLRs are as comfortable on gravel roads and off-road as what they are on paved roads with safe speeds up to Adventure Bike Safaris' limitation of 110kph on either surface. The bikes have been purpose fitted with tall touring windshields which provide a tremendous comfort on the long haul and electrical points for powering cell and GPS. The KLRs have top bags / boxes and side racks for a fitting of pannier bags if required. The bikes all have fallen over protection bars for the bike with these bars taking the brunt of any incident. All bikes are equipped with a luggage so that a client is able to carry up to 104 liters of luggage.

Rental bikes - Kawasaki KLR 650 dual sport/adventure bike

The bikes are specifically made bush ready, with crash bar protection on the engine and sides, with rubber bumpers on the crash bars, engine bash plate, and bark buster lever guards.

Skill level

Beginner

• Can ride for 2-3 hours
• Minimal riding experience
• Assistance required
• Comfortable with curves and leans
• Basic experience with unsurfaced roads
• Short distance ascents and descents

This tour will take place in South Africa. The locations which will be covered are Kwa-Zulu Natal Midlands and the Drakensberg.

+−

During this tour, breakfasts and dinners will be served. The tour exclude a packed lunch for while out riding the trails, however, the guides see to it that clients are taken to a store in order to buy their own preferred snacks before going out on the trails.

• Cross-valley ziplining
• Hiking
• Historical sight-seeing
• River rafting

• Bike rental (if you choose 'rental bike' package)
• South African Department of Tourism registered guide
• Bike insurance for claims of 10000 ZAR
• Fuel with hire bikes
• Booking and administration fees
• 2 nights' accommodation
• Breakfasts and dinners

• All beverages
• Daytime snacks / lunch on trail
• Fuel and insurance when riding own bike

Recommended Airports

• A reservation requires a deposit of 50% of the total price.
• The deposit is non-refundable, if the booking is cancelled.
• The rest of the payment should be paid 21 days before arrival.