Two wheels, no shortcuts.
Nick has spent two decades exploring South Africa on two wheels — with a loaded rolltop kit bag behind him he followed the kind of routes that separate a holiday from an adventure. His travels range across the length and breadth of the country, from remote back roads to routes most riders never find, though it's the drylands of the Karoo, Bushman land and the Kalahari that keeps pulling him back.
Often accompanied by rally like route notes, as well as the bikes and gear that got him there. Nick recounts the moments — good and bad — that only happen when you're exposed to the elements on two wheels.
(Bo-Karoo — written in 2007 for BIKE SA) Nicholas Yell takes his new bike - and his mates on their big Beemers - on a 4 day back-roads odyssey through the vast reaches of the Bo-Karoo. Despite getting lost many times they almost find themselves in the process. Nico and Francis couldn’t believe their eyes […]
(Doringbaai, West Coast — written in 2013 for Sawubona) Adventure motorcycling is one of the fastest growing leisure activities in South Africa and the world, providing an exciting and novel way to explore countries as riders go off-the-beaten track in pursuit of adventure. Nick Yell tells of his trip through the Tankwa Karoo and the […]
(Overberg on a Triumph 1200 Explorer — written for Offroad & Adventure in 2012.) In the half-light of Mike Hopkins’s workshop parking lot, it looks like a stealthy black beast, just waiting to pounce. In fact, no matter which angle you look at it from, the new Triumph Tiger Explorer 1200 is one seriously muscular […]
The “Stone” and I sat in the elevated cave overlooking Baboon Point at Elands Bay. At our backs were several hundred handprints – thought to be part of a San tradition of drawing spiritual powers from the rock face or marking places of particular religious significance. Also depicted on the walls of this great gallery […]
I’d ridden past the sign to Die Mond many times. But I’d always been careering off to a destination far beyond this much vaunted stopover at the foot of the Hottentotsberg in the Tanqua Karoo. Itching for a short weekend ride, I decided to check it out and try out some new dirt tracks I’d […]
The big machine came to a practiced emergency stop a few inches from my left toe. I didn’t flinch. Bravado is a prerequisite greeting between old biking buddies; especially when his bike is almost five times more powerful than yours. After months of persuasion, my old S.A.C.S school mate, Ian Huddlestone — a.k.a the “Stone”— […]
(Written for BIKE SA in 2008.) If you are sick and tired of the crime, unreliable electricity, lack of good governance and thinking of leaving the beloved country, perhaps it’s time you bought yourself an adventure motorbike and toured SA. Nicholas Yell and his mates took a trip through the Eastern Cape recently and were […]
“Sjeez, I just can’t believe my bike’s died like this,” exclaimed the “Stone”, sweat and exasperation dripping from his contorted face in equal measure. We’d stopped for the mandatory roosterkoek brunch at the Buffeljagsrivier BP petrol station just outside Swellendam when disaster struck. After filling the bikes with petrol, David “Sempei” Lowe and I had […]