Memel Adventure Bike Trip

Getting to Memel is definitely not the most scenic ride, but once you get to Vrede then the riding gets a lot better, with the start of the hills. Memel is literally on the edge of the escarpment,. between the Free State and KZN and offers an abundance of riding up and down the escarpment. I based myself at the Memel Hotel, which had just been taken over by Rudi and his partner, both originally from Centurion. Rudi is a biker as well and rides a KTM 690, he took me on a short ride on the Saturday morning, before I headed up and down a few passes, which included Mullers Pass, Sneeuberg Pass and the infamous Normandiens Pass - this was the highlight. Once over Normandiens Pass then I hit a right, if I remember correctly the sign said Roodepoort, this is were the fun started, with a few rocky descents, crossing some marshy areas and overall just some great "twee spoor" riding. This was a part of the GPX route that I followed: This is the Memel Mountain Passes GPX Route File, which was what I mainly followed. It includes these passes: Donkiespass, Normandien and the Sneeuberg passes: Navigation: for this trip I used the Garmin Zumo XT, the route was created on Garmin Basecamp and then exported as a Track to overlay it onto the map. The Garmin Zumo XT was secured with our Garmin Zumo XT Locking Plate, ensuring that passersby can't quickly release the device from the mount.