Spoonless
Pack Dog
Bright and early at 07h00 on a blustery 29 Dec 2007 Logie and I met at the corner of Nelmapius Rd and the R50. Already 24 hrs late thanks to the ripple effect of Nationwideâ??s escapades, our goal was to go up Sani pass, consume a few beverages there, and usher in the New Year at Katse Dam.
Both of us were on trusty pre-2008 KLRs and decided to take the free back roads, if they were a little bit dodgy even better! We headed roughly south easterly on the R50, until we encountered the R51, we hung a right and cruised past Benoni and Daveyton. Plucking up our courage we braved the wild frontier town of Springs, and eased past the retirement village that is Nigel. We had planned on obtaining breakfast at Balfour, however they have no franchise eating establishments there and we opted to push on instead of risking the remainder of the trip on a dodgy petrol station pie. Signs arenâ??t big in Balfour either, but we found the R23 which led us back on to the R51. Crossing the N3, the R51 turns into a smooth enjoyable dirt road that ends 8km later on the R54. Left and into grandly named town of Villiers across the single lane bridge over the picturesque Vaal river. No name brand restaurants either, so onto Vrede via the R103 and then the R34.
Vrede is roughly 290km from Centurion, which turns out to be just about my entire tank range! The reason for this turned out to be a combination of slightly under-inflated tires, and my brand new Kappa T714 panniers which treble the width of my KLRâ??s normally slender rear. By now we were both unsurprised and not put off by the lack of name brand food places. The Ou Hout coffee shop â??across the road from the spar net ander kant die kerkâ? has very good food, very good prices, and very attractive clientele! They also let us park our bikes in their premises instead of leaving them in the street.
Its now 11h30ish and is noticeably warm. So with all the bikes and riders now thoroughly sated we cruise further on the R34 past Memel, and onto Newcastle. Unable to resist the allure of name brand food we stop at Steers for some cooling refreshment. The N11 leads us past the curiously named Motel Mistake onto Ladysmith and Escourt. Reunited with the R103, we cruise through Mooi Rivier and hook a right at Nottingham Road to go to Lower Loteni.
The first 30ish km of the 94km to Himeville is a pleasantly twisting tar road, followed by an equally pleasant 60km of dirt before the final tar jaunt into Himeville. Previously I had done this tar road nocturnally with Glacier on a previous Wild Pups attempt on Lesotho. The road is far more spectacular by day! It has enough to keep one awake without being too scary. Occasional sand bits, loose rock, and ruts are tamed even by newbies like Logie and I. The road did have consequences: two cans of red bull were obliterated by the vibes in my tail pack and dribbled their wing-inducing elixir onto my exhaust. A Smirnoff Storm followed their lead and did the same.
PS I think the above pic is **AWESOME** Bravo Logie!
18h00 finds Logie and I settling into the famed hospitality of Himeville Arms and regaling stories and route information with the 4 riders and two pillions already there.
The second day dawns, our projected distance a mere 37km to, and up Sani Pass. Logie and I do a quick check of the bikes: tires, oil, brakes and chains. With rare foresight I pack my panniers with my clothes, sleeping bag, towel, underpants and other soft squishable items. Top up with fuel and then off to The Pass. The road has been graded in preparation for tarring all the way up to the South African Border post and so presents nothing more challenging than overtaking geriatrics in 4x4s.
Speaking of which, its seems adventure bikers are not allowed up Sani Pass, according to their signage as my two wheeled vehicle does not have four wheel drive...
After the SA border post Sani Pass changes character from a doting grandparent to a screaming, spitting, eye-gouging harpy of a mother in law - if youâ??re a dirt novice at least. The gradients are around 30 degrees, and covered in loose rock and sand, which succumb to call of gravity at the slightest provocation.
The idea here is to keep up your momentum because if you stop, you just slide backwards or easily lose your footing causing oneâ??s bike to no longer retain its preferable vertical nature. Three things prevent one from keeping a constant speed up the pass: geriatric 4x4 drivers going up the pass in low range, tight hairpin bends with precipitous edges, and a healthy sense of self preservation. Its entirely possible that proper instruction in off road riding techniques (which I will one day get) will allow one to overcome the final two obstacles. The third requires stopping at every bend and waiting for the geriatric to creep round the next bend and then swim up to it. Swim, because the front wheel largely goes where it wants causing the handle-bar-holding rider to look like heâ??s doing freestyle.
So Logie and I bravely tackled Sani Pass, it fought back. We both took a left and a right. Logies IMS tank soaked up the punishment, although at the expense petrol dribbling freely out of its overflow pipe when the bike was horizontal. My panniers, made turgid by my underpants, combined with my SW Motech crash bars to leave my bike unscathed too. With a final moral break after the last fall (my bike on the right) the Wild Pups defeated Sani Pass. Score: Sani - 4, Wild Pups â?? um more than 4.
An amount of cold crisp Maluti beers at Sani Top Chalets provides the perfect setting to discuss personal triumphs with other adventurers both of the 2 and 4 wheeled variety. The accommodation, service and food at Sani Top is with out fault. The crisp night sky over Sani Top is incredible with the Milky swath of stars slicing their diagonal Way across the heavens.
Day 3. New Years Eve. Logie and I are packed prior to breakfast being served at 07h30 and are away immediately after it. The roads in Lesotho are of the highest quality, and provide stunning scenery.
Its roughly 60 breath taking kilometers to Mokhotlong. Enroute we encountered a dead Toyota Hilux. We were stunned as this was generally regarded as impossible after the Hilux was proved invulnerable on the highly acclaimed Top Gear... documentaries. So David-from-Mokhotlong hops on the back of Logies bike and we earn some good road karma by giving him a lift 25km to Mokhotlong.
The Mapstudio 2008 SA Mapbook, is not accurate in its portrayal of Lesotho roads, infact its difficult to find any correlation between the map and reality. Erego our 60km estimate from Mokhotlong to Thaba-Tseka was out by about 45km, but whats 75%? The road is stunning with many unsettled sections, providing repeated scenic vistas around every corner and over every rise.
The road however, is not completely docile and the rider can enjoy sandy sections, steep rocky descents and ascents and the sudden appearance of 300kg of prime steak staring you down after a blind corner. Personally Iâ??m only good for around 300 grams of steak, preferably rump. I know when Im out gunned and so its best to pull over and let the herd/flock of leather clad steak, wool covered mutton, and goat-skin covered goat-meat have the right of way.
The Senqu river behaved itself, and we easily crossed bizarre low level bridge with the dodgy cement blocks running along its middle.
Thaba-Tseka eventually arrived much to our relief of the weâ??re-not-lost variety. However someone decided it would be a good idea to completely cover the perfectly good dirt road in fist sized chunks of grey rock. However a cold 300ml Coke can be bought for only 2.2 Maluti if one returns the bottle, so the balance of life is maintained.
On the other side of town, a non-signed turnoff leads to Katse. This is another scenic 60km stretch spent mostly high up on the sides of the mountain, with the cliff to oneâ??s right. The right hander hairpins in the valleys are superb, with a nice camber and transversely rutted, sand free inner edge which provides both good grip and corner speeds! The left handed hairpins on the edge of the spurs require more faith in ones bike, especially the ones with a negative camber.
10km before the end of the dirt, Katse Dam makes its first appearance on the horizon. At the tar turn left for Katse Lodge and the info centre both worth a visit. The food and view at the lodge is superb. If one can rent one of the houses the accommodation is incredibly cheap - R330 for a six sleeper! A tour of the dam is definitely worthwhile, especially at only R10pp. The bottle of champagne and the 5 surviving Smirnoff Storms were smuggled into Katse Lodge, and then the Katse club so as to be better able to appreciate the fire work displays and count down to 2008!
Day four, and its time to head home to Gauteng â?? land of towns that actually have petrol, name brand food and 3G coverage. The road from Katse Lodge heads down to the bottom of the dam wall, and back up the other side of the valley, in 60km of unbelievably breathtaking twisty tar passes! The road tops out between Ha-Tshone and Pitseng at the 3090m Mafika Lisiu Pass and the descent into Pitseng is a true motorcycling heaven!
Petrol at Pitseng, where the KLRs return their characteristic superb offroad economy of around 4litres/100km. The rest of the final day yields only the coma-inducing boredom of unveering Free State Roads. We exited Lesotho at Caledonspoort, relieved our dehydration at the name-brand-retaurant-free-hamlet of Fouriesburg and cursed the owners of Bethlehemâ??s Wimpy for not personally asking our permission to have it closed on New Years afternoon. Then itâ??s the R26 followed by the R34 (which at least provided an excitingly deteriorated detour around Reitz) all the way to Sasolburg, followed by the longest 50km stretch in the world to Alberton on the R59. Then itâ??s a flyby wave to Adventurerâ??s house, and N12 - N3 - N1 and home.
A great gravel adventure concluded, and already plans of the next are beginning to form. Is there an adventure riding anonymous group? I think Iâ??m addicted.
Both of us were on trusty pre-2008 KLRs and decided to take the free back roads, if they were a little bit dodgy even better! We headed roughly south easterly on the R50, until we encountered the R51, we hung a right and cruised past Benoni and Daveyton. Plucking up our courage we braved the wild frontier town of Springs, and eased past the retirement village that is Nigel. We had planned on obtaining breakfast at Balfour, however they have no franchise eating establishments there and we opted to push on instead of risking the remainder of the trip on a dodgy petrol station pie. Signs arenâ??t big in Balfour either, but we found the R23 which led us back on to the R51. Crossing the N3, the R51 turns into a smooth enjoyable dirt road that ends 8km later on the R54. Left and into grandly named town of Villiers across the single lane bridge over the picturesque Vaal river. No name brand restaurants either, so onto Vrede via the R103 and then the R34.
Vrede is roughly 290km from Centurion, which turns out to be just about my entire tank range! The reason for this turned out to be a combination of slightly under-inflated tires, and my brand new Kappa T714 panniers which treble the width of my KLRâ??s normally slender rear. By now we were both unsurprised and not put off by the lack of name brand food places. The Ou Hout coffee shop â??across the road from the spar net ander kant die kerkâ? has very good food, very good prices, and very attractive clientele! They also let us park our bikes in their premises instead of leaving them in the street.
Its now 11h30ish and is noticeably warm. So with all the bikes and riders now thoroughly sated we cruise further on the R34 past Memel, and onto Newcastle. Unable to resist the allure of name brand food we stop at Steers for some cooling refreshment. The N11 leads us past the curiously named Motel Mistake onto Ladysmith and Escourt. Reunited with the R103, we cruise through Mooi Rivier and hook a right at Nottingham Road to go to Lower Loteni.
The first 30ish km of the 94km to Himeville is a pleasantly twisting tar road, followed by an equally pleasant 60km of dirt before the final tar jaunt into Himeville. Previously I had done this tar road nocturnally with Glacier on a previous Wild Pups attempt on Lesotho. The road is far more spectacular by day! It has enough to keep one awake without being too scary. Occasional sand bits, loose rock, and ruts are tamed even by newbies like Logie and I. The road did have consequences: two cans of red bull were obliterated by the vibes in my tail pack and dribbled their wing-inducing elixir onto my exhaust. A Smirnoff Storm followed their lead and did the same.
PS I think the above pic is **AWESOME** Bravo Logie!
18h00 finds Logie and I settling into the famed hospitality of Himeville Arms and regaling stories and route information with the 4 riders and two pillions already there.
The second day dawns, our projected distance a mere 37km to, and up Sani Pass. Logie and I do a quick check of the bikes: tires, oil, brakes and chains. With rare foresight I pack my panniers with my clothes, sleeping bag, towel, underpants and other soft squishable items. Top up with fuel and then off to The Pass. The road has been graded in preparation for tarring all the way up to the South African Border post and so presents nothing more challenging than overtaking geriatrics in 4x4s.
Speaking of which, its seems adventure bikers are not allowed up Sani Pass, according to their signage as my two wheeled vehicle does not have four wheel drive...
After the SA border post Sani Pass changes character from a doting grandparent to a screaming, spitting, eye-gouging harpy of a mother in law - if youâ??re a dirt novice at least. The gradients are around 30 degrees, and covered in loose rock and sand, which succumb to call of gravity at the slightest provocation.
The idea here is to keep up your momentum because if you stop, you just slide backwards or easily lose your footing causing oneâ??s bike to no longer retain its preferable vertical nature. Three things prevent one from keeping a constant speed up the pass: geriatric 4x4 drivers going up the pass in low range, tight hairpin bends with precipitous edges, and a healthy sense of self preservation. Its entirely possible that proper instruction in off road riding techniques (which I will one day get) will allow one to overcome the final two obstacles. The third requires stopping at every bend and waiting for the geriatric to creep round the next bend and then swim up to it. Swim, because the front wheel largely goes where it wants causing the handle-bar-holding rider to look like heâ??s doing freestyle.
So Logie and I bravely tackled Sani Pass, it fought back. We both took a left and a right. Logies IMS tank soaked up the punishment, although at the expense petrol dribbling freely out of its overflow pipe when the bike was horizontal. My panniers, made turgid by my underpants, combined with my SW Motech crash bars to leave my bike unscathed too. With a final moral break after the last fall (my bike on the right) the Wild Pups defeated Sani Pass. Score: Sani - 4, Wild Pups â?? um more than 4.
An amount of cold crisp Maluti beers at Sani Top Chalets provides the perfect setting to discuss personal triumphs with other adventurers both of the 2 and 4 wheeled variety. The accommodation, service and food at Sani Top is with out fault. The crisp night sky over Sani Top is incredible with the Milky swath of stars slicing their diagonal Way across the heavens.
Day 3. New Years Eve. Logie and I are packed prior to breakfast being served at 07h30 and are away immediately after it. The roads in Lesotho are of the highest quality, and provide stunning scenery.
Its roughly 60 breath taking kilometers to Mokhotlong. Enroute we encountered a dead Toyota Hilux. We were stunned as this was generally regarded as impossible after the Hilux was proved invulnerable on the highly acclaimed Top Gear... documentaries. So David-from-Mokhotlong hops on the back of Logies bike and we earn some good road karma by giving him a lift 25km to Mokhotlong.
The Mapstudio 2008 SA Mapbook, is not accurate in its portrayal of Lesotho roads, infact its difficult to find any correlation between the map and reality. Erego our 60km estimate from Mokhotlong to Thaba-Tseka was out by about 45km, but whats 75%? The road is stunning with many unsettled sections, providing repeated scenic vistas around every corner and over every rise.
The road however, is not completely docile and the rider can enjoy sandy sections, steep rocky descents and ascents and the sudden appearance of 300kg of prime steak staring you down after a blind corner. Personally Iâ??m only good for around 300 grams of steak, preferably rump. I know when Im out gunned and so its best to pull over and let the herd/flock of leather clad steak, wool covered mutton, and goat-skin covered goat-meat have the right of way.
The Senqu river behaved itself, and we easily crossed bizarre low level bridge with the dodgy cement blocks running along its middle.
Thaba-Tseka eventually arrived much to our relief of the weâ??re-not-lost variety. However someone decided it would be a good idea to completely cover the perfectly good dirt road in fist sized chunks of grey rock. However a cold 300ml Coke can be bought for only 2.2 Maluti if one returns the bottle, so the balance of life is maintained.
On the other side of town, a non-signed turnoff leads to Katse. This is another scenic 60km stretch spent mostly high up on the sides of the mountain, with the cliff to oneâ??s right. The right hander hairpins in the valleys are superb, with a nice camber and transversely rutted, sand free inner edge which provides both good grip and corner speeds! The left handed hairpins on the edge of the spurs require more faith in ones bike, especially the ones with a negative camber.
10km before the end of the dirt, Katse Dam makes its first appearance on the horizon. At the tar turn left for Katse Lodge and the info centre both worth a visit. The food and view at the lodge is superb. If one can rent one of the houses the accommodation is incredibly cheap - R330 for a six sleeper! A tour of the dam is definitely worthwhile, especially at only R10pp. The bottle of champagne and the 5 surviving Smirnoff Storms were smuggled into Katse Lodge, and then the Katse club so as to be better able to appreciate the fire work displays and count down to 2008!
Day four, and its time to head home to Gauteng â?? land of towns that actually have petrol, name brand food and 3G coverage. The road from Katse Lodge heads down to the bottom of the dam wall, and back up the other side of the valley, in 60km of unbelievably breathtaking twisty tar passes! The road tops out between Ha-Tshone and Pitseng at the 3090m Mafika Lisiu Pass and the descent into Pitseng is a true motorcycling heaven!
Petrol at Pitseng, where the KLRs return their characteristic superb offroad economy of around 4litres/100km. The rest of the final day yields only the coma-inducing boredom of unveering Free State Roads. We exited Lesotho at Caledonspoort, relieved our dehydration at the name-brand-retaurant-free-hamlet of Fouriesburg and cursed the owners of Bethlehemâ??s Wimpy for not personally asking our permission to have it closed on New Years afternoon. Then itâ??s the R26 followed by the R34 (which at least provided an excitingly deteriorated detour around Reitz) all the way to Sasolburg, followed by the longest 50km stretch in the world to Alberton on the R59. Then itâ??s a flyby wave to Adventurerâ??s house, and N12 - N3 - N1 and home.
A great gravel adventure concluded, and already plans of the next are beginning to form. Is there an adventure riding anonymous group? I think Iâ??m addicted.
