Cape Town – Shortly before midnight on Friday, January 21, Pretoria resident Jason Kilian (48) stopped his BMW 1200 GS Adventure motorcycle just past the Augulhas Lighthouse, at the southernmost tip of Africa after having ridden solo for 2 050 kilometres from the most northerly point in the country.
The non-stop ride started at 03:00 on the banks of the Limpopo River at a point slightly further North than Musina – with the first 10 kilometres or so on farm dirt roads before meeting up with the tarmac on the way to Alldays, Messina and down the N1 to Pretoria.
“It was a fantastic adventure,” says Kilian who runs a company called Modderbok Adventures that tailors off-road adventure outrides for motorcyclists.
“We live in a fantastic country and it is so worthwhile getting out there to see it. This trip came about because Covid totally decimated the tourist industry. My background is as a lawyer so I went back to law and hated every minute of it.
“I wanted to get out and do something that had not been done before and came up with this idea of riding from the northern tip to the southern tip of the country in one day.
“I worked it out and mapped a route that, although 25 kilometres longer than the shortest possible route, kept me on decent roads with back routes that bypassed tolls, which just hold you up. I need to average 85,5 km/h for the journey in order to make it inside the 24 hours and, in fact was able to average 115 km/h for the trip that took 20 hours and 30 min.
“I needed five stops for petrol and am glad this BMW 1200 GS has a 30-litre tank. Still fuel consumption had to stay around 7,0 l/100 km so that also dictated the speeds I was able to do.”
Kilian says the final 400 kilometres was done in the dark.
“Although I did not have any support vehicles or people riding with me, friends and supporters called me on my cell regularly to ensure I was still wide awake and we had live tracking running for most of the time so people could see exactly where I was.
“I was extremely fortunate in that the traffic was light and I hit some rain and wind only on the approach to Pretoria. Other than that, the weather was perfect.”
However, it is perhaps wise to throw in a “Don’t try this at home” disclaimer as driving or riding fatigued for a lengthy amount of time can certainly be dangerous.
Source: The Write Idea
Keyword: 2050km adventure: BMW GS rider crosses SA in just one day