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.
342 km from Randburg to Randburg, about 5 h 00 of riding. On the way it passes Sharpeville Graves site A, The stromatolite/basal fault plane site and back through Sharpeville Graves site A. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,600 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
In the early 1960s, Rivonia was a quiet farming area on the northern edge of Johannesburg, and Liliesleaf was a smallholding with a farmhouse, outbuildings and a thatched cottage. It was bought, through a front, by the South African Communist Party and used as a secret headquarters by the leadership of the liberation movement, including Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing of the African National Congress. Nelson Mandela lived here for a time under a false name, posing as a worker called David Motsamayi. On 11 July 1963, police raided the farm and arrested much of the leadership, seizing documents that led to the Rivonia Trial, in which Mandela and others were sentenced to life imprisonment. Mandela's speech from the dock, declaring an ideal for which he was prepared to die, became one of the defining moments of the struggle against apartheid.
Read the complete Liliesleaf write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Liliesleaf 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 89 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 171 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 Liliesleaf.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Liliesleaf write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Liliesleaf. That is the ride.
Liliesleaf → Sharpeville Graves site A is 89 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
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 → Liliesleaf is 89 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.