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.
285 km from Vereeniging to Vereeniging, about 3 h 48 of riding. It goes by way of 16 June 1976 - The Streets of Orlando West, Human Rights and back through 16 June 1976 - The Streets of Orlando West. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,650 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
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 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 65 km into the recorded legs. Next is Human Rights.
Pretoria's Union Buildings stand on Meintjieskop, a low ridge looking over the city, and from the terraced gardens you can see the whole sweep of the South African capital spread out below. The sandstone buildings, with two wings joined by a curved colonnade, were designed by the English architect Herbert Baker and finished in 1913, to house the government of the newly formed Union of South Africa. For decades they were the seat of white minority rule. On 10 May 1994 they became the setting for the inauguration of Nelson Mandela as the first democratically elected president, and with that the meaning of the place changed.
Read the complete Human Rights write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 142 km into the recorded legs you reach Human Rights. 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 Sharpeville Graves site B.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Sharpeville Graves site B write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Sharpeville Graves site B. That is the ride.
Sharpeville Graves site B → 16 June 1976 - The Streets of Orlando West is 65 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
16 June 1976 - The Streets of Orlando West → Human Rights is 77 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Human Rights → back through 16 June 1976 - The Streets of Orlando West is 78 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through 16 June 1976 - The Streets of Orlando West → Sharpeville Graves site B is 65 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.