CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 279 km round trip from Pretoria - roughly 3 h 57 in the saddle. On the way it passes 16 June 1976 - The Streets of Orlando West, Walter Sisulu Square, Sharpeville Graves site A and Sharpeville Graves site B. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,650 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Pretoria is South Africa's administrative capital, and it gets less attention than Johannesburg and Cape Town, which is part of its appeal. In October the city is painted purple by thousands of jacaranda trees, introduced from South America in the late nineteenth century, and the fallen blossom carpets the pavements. It sits in a warm valley under the Magaliesberg ridge, a little over fifty kilometres from Johannesburg, and its centre mixes Afrikaner history, colonial buildings and a lively black African present.
Read the complete Pretoria write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Pretoria is where the day begins. Next is 16 June 1976 - The Streets of Orlando West.
Orlando West looks ordinary at first: tidy brick houses, kids in school uniform, taxis hooting at every corner, smoke from braai stands curling over the street. It is in Soweto, about fifteen kilometres southwest of central Johannesburg, and on the morning of 16 June 1976 these were the streets where thousands of schoolchildren marched against being taught in Afrikaans. Police opened fire. Among the first killed was twelve-year-old Hector Pieterson, and the photograph of him being carried by an older student went around the world.
Read the complete 16 June 1976 - The Streets of Orlando West write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
16 June 1976 - The Streets of Orlando West comes up about 76 km into the recorded legs. Next is Walter Sisulu Square.
On 26 June 1955, some three thousand delegates gathered on a dusty open field in Kliptown, one of the oldest settlements of what became Soweto, for the Congress of the People. Police surrounded the meeting on its second day, but not before the crowd had adopted the Freedom Charter, the document that opens with the words that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white. Its ideas went on to shape the country's post-apartheid constitution. The field is now Walter Sisulu Square, named after the anti-apartheid leader and mentor of Nelson Mandela, and the charter's clauses are carved into stone around a monument at its centre.
Read the complete Walter Sisulu Square write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 83 km into the recorded legs you reach Walter Sisulu Square. Next is Sharpeville Graves site A.
On 21 March 1960, a crowd of several thousand people gathered at the police station in Sharpeville, a township south of Johannesburg, to protest against the pass laws, which forced Black South Africans to carry documents and restricted their movement. The police opened fire. Sixty-nine people were killed, many of them shot in the back as they ran, and many more were wounded. The massacre became a turning point: it brought the apartheid regime worldwide condemnation, led to the banning of the African National Congress and the Pan Africanist Congress, and pushed the liberation movement towards armed struggle. Today, 21 March is a public holiday, Human Rights Day.
Read the complete Sharpeville Graves site A write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Sharpeville Graves site A, about halfway. Next is Sharpeville Graves site B.
On the morning of 21 March 1960, several thousand people gathered at the police station in Sharpeville, a Black township beside Vereeniging in what is now Gauteng, to protest against the pass laws that controlled where they could live and work. By early afternoon the police had opened fire, and sixty-nine people lay dead, many shot in the back as they ran. The massacre made headlines around the world, led to the banning of the African National Congress and the Pan Africanist Congress, and pushed the liberation movements toward armed struggle. South Africa now marks the date as Human Rights Day, and the graves of the victims in the nearby Phelindaba cemetery are part of the memorial landscape, together with the police station and a small museum.
Read the complete Sharpeville Graves site B write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Sharpeville Graves site B sits at 149 km, about halfway. Next is back through Sharpeville Graves site A.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Sharpeville Graves site A write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Sharpeville Graves site A comes up about 145 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Walter Sisulu Square.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Walter Sisulu Square write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 200 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Walter Sisulu Square. Next is back through 16 June 1976 - The Streets of Orlando West.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete 16 June 1976 - The Streets of Orlando West write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through 16 June 1976 - The Streets of Orlando West, late in the day. Next is Pretoria.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Pretoria write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 279 km.
Pretoria → 16 June 1976 - The Streets of Orlando West is 76 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
16 June 1976 - The Streets of Orlando West → Walter Sisulu Square is 7 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Walter Sisulu Square → Sharpeville Graves site A is 60 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Sharpeville Graves site A → back through Walter Sisulu Square is 55 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Walter Sisulu Square → back through 16 June 1976 - The Streets of Orlando West is 6 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through 16 June 1976 - The Streets of Orlando West → Pretoria is 75 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.