Lesotho ROCKS !!!!!!!!

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Groenie

Grey Hound
Joined
Feb 6, 2006
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Bike
Honda CRF-1000L Africa Twin
I have wanted to do Sani Pass ever since I got my KLR, but as my friend used to say: "Life is what happens when you're making other plans".
But just after the Bash, MM got tired of my nagging and said I better do it, and get it over with. So the planning started. I contacted the Lesotho guru, SGB, to hear what he could suggest. Thanx for the info, SGB and to the others that offered advice.

The plan we came up with was to sleep in Himeville on Thursday, do Sani Pass on Friday, Katse Dam on Saturday and the BIG one - Kao mines road on Sunday, and then back home on Monday.

So Thursday morning arrived, and I just finished some mods on Groenie, but I still had to work. I loaded, not packed, LOADED the bike in between finishing the last few pieces of work I had left and ten set off to meet up with D7.

Groenie fresh out the garage at KLR Central

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Our first stop was just past Heidelberg to fuel up. Yes Zonk, we saw some serious snakes.

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We decided to stick to around 5000 RPM for the tar sections to not strain the bikes too much. That gave us a cruising speed of 100-120. Top speed for the whole trip was 121 according to my gps. Going slow meant your ass would get the worst of it, so we stopped regularly.

Leaving GP behind

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And check what awaits us !!!

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Not long after we hit our first storm. This would be the last time I had dry boots. MX boots are great, but not built for touring in the rain.

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This is also where I started playing with the camera and would eventually have to discard plenty of my pics.

My partner in crime

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and our trusty steeds

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Dave's favourite place for a beer and a smoke - Windy Corner in the Van Reenen's pass

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The rest of the trip was WET and dark. As we left quite late and were traveling slow, drinking lots of beers wherever we got, the sun eventualy won the race and we were in the dark when we finaly reached our first section of gravel just outside Nottingham Road.

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This part of the trip was .....erm....interesting. Riding dirt roads at night is difficult at best, in the rain it's more so, but on snot it gets quite scary. One thing a KLR can't brag about, is it's headlight. Now put all that together and you have the makings of an adventure.
During the ride I felt my bike wallowing/wobbling quite a bit and thought I must have a flat. I signalled D7 to stop so I can check it out. First thing he sez as we stop is: I think I have a puncture. But as I get off the bike, my foot just slips away from the bike and it nearly lands on it's side. MUD! All over the bloody raod. Only about 1-2 cm deep, but ALL over the road. If it wasn't for the D606's we have on, we would have been in deep kark. I love those tyres!!!!! More about them later.

Reaching the turn-off to Sani. Tomorrow morning we are going up there. Blurry pic.

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Because of my fiddling with the camera, this happened quite lot.

We only reached Himeville at 22:00, just before they closed the bar. A room was booked and more beers ordered.

Friday's adventure will follow soon........ish.

Continued here
 
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