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.
294 km from Soweto to Soweto, about 4 h 42 of riding. The stops in between: Sharpeville Graves site A, The stromatolite/basal fault plane site and back through Sharpeville Graves site A. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,650 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
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 is where the day begins. 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 comes up about 65 km into the recorded legs. Next is The stromatolite/basal fault plane site.
Microbes made this. That is the surprising thing about stromatolites: the layered, domed structures that look like cabbages turned to stone are the fossil remains of mats of bacteria that lived in shallow water and trapped sediment, growing layer on layer. They are among the oldest evidence of life on the planet, and the rocks around the Vredefort Dome in South Africa carry some very ancient examples.
Read the complete The stromatolite/basal fault plane site write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 147 km into the recorded legs you reach The stromatolite/basal fault plane site. 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, late in the day. Next is 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 at 16 June 1976 - The Streets of Orlando West. That is the ride.
16 June 1976 - The Streets of Orlando West → Sharpeville Graves site A is 65 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Sharpeville Graves site A → The stromatolite/basal fault plane site is 82 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
The stromatolite/basal fault plane site → back through Sharpeville Graves site A is 82 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Sharpeville Graves site A → 16 June 1976 - The Streets of Orlando West is 65 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.