German cartographer Karl Mauch would have approved. He was the man who first mapped the Sabie area in the 1860s, and nearly a century and a half later the German-built BMW R 1200 GS was put on the map in the same region.
When Mauch mapped the area in the 1860s, Long Tom Pass as we know it didn’t even exist. Instead there was a perilous track over the Drakensberg, east of Lydenburg, known simply as Die Hawepad. President Thomas Francois Burgers had dedicated the equivalent of R3 000 of the Transvaal’s budget towards establishing a route to the coast, and contractor Abraham Espag and his men had done most of the work with picks, shovels and black powder. In 1953 the present road was constructed, and 11 years later it was tarred.
The section of the current road between Lydenburg and Sabie is a motorcyclists’ heaven — long, flowing corners that can be sliced up at speed, with good visibility and not a ripple or pothole to be seen.
We’d ridden the BMWs from Johannesburg, using tar and gravel secondary roads, and by the time we arrived at Lydenburg we were in dire need of a couple of high-speed curves to clear the cobwebs away. Cruising at 140kph on gravel, with dashes of up to 180kph, may get the adrenaline going, but there’s nothing like a sweeping curve taken at close to the limit on tar to brighten up a motorcyclist’s day.
The big BMW excels in these conditions. The enduro-style tyres may squirm a little and the bike moves around a bit when pushed hard on tar, but the tyres never hint at letting go.
We blasted past Mauchsberg — named after Karl —and up Long Tom Pass, where our exuberant progress was brought to a sudden halt by a dense curtain of mist that limited visibility to a couple of bike lengths.
Long Tom Pass earned its name during the Anglo-Boer South African War, when General Louis Botha and his men retreated eastwards after the battle of Bergendal on August 27 1900.
The Boers placed two of their 155mm Creusot guns — nicknamed Long Toms — on Mauchsberg. A thick mist fell over the mountains that day, as it did while we were there, and the Boers retreated under this cover, stopping only to pour shot into the pursuing Brits before moving their guns down the treacherous old coach road that led to Lourenço Marques (today Maputo).
It was on to a section of this ancient track that we now manoeuvred our big BMWs, right at the top of the pass. There was a particularly demanding section of the old pass that the Trekboers christened Blyfstaanhoogte because it had to be navigated so slowly that one seemed to be standing still. I’d be surprised if it wasn’t the same three-metre wide, boulder-strewn ancient track we descended through the swirling mist, with a steep rock face on one side and a sheer drop on the other.
With the anti-lock braking system (ABS) switched off and the rocks below us damp from the mist, we edged our way downwards at a walking pace. Then it was on to the forestry road and a couple of cold beers at our camp.
After a night at Horseshoe Falls, we worked our way out of the valley and took to the tar yet again, en route to Nelspruit and Waterval Onder, where our ride came to an end.
What about the bike itself? Is it as good as the model it replaces, the R 1150 GS?
It’s better. The six-speed transmission swaps cogs crisply, and top gear is now a usable gear rather than an overdrive. Throttle response is lively, with buckets of torque available at virtually any engine speed. BMW has trimmed the bike’s mass by 12%, to just less than 200kg (dry) and squeezed a 15% increase in power out of the horizontally opposed twin cylinder engine.
Consequently the bike feels closer to the lovely little BMW 650 GS single than to the R 1150 GS when it comes to handling, and that means it’s far less tiring to ride over difficult terrain. I swapped bikes with one of the BMW staffers who was riding an R 1150 GS Adventure, and the difference was huge. The older machine felt enormous and clumsy. The R 1200 GS may not perform like a serious enduro machine off-road, but dirt riders who haven’t tried the beast will be surprised at just how far you can push it in the rough stuff.
For versatility I rate this BMW as absolute top dog. After all, there aren’t any other dual-purpose machines out there that come with a shaft drive, power-assisted ABS brakes (switch them off in the dirt, OK?), electrically heated hand grips, an electronic immobiliser, a height-adjustable windscreen, self-cancelling flickers, superbike handling through the twisties, a top speed of more than 200kph and a range of around 350km on a single tank of fuel.
The BMW R 1200 GS retails at R114 900.