Day 2 dawned and D7 was already up and getting impatient I, on the other hand, take quite a bit longer to get going in the mornings.
The mountains we will soon be tackling
A few pics of the not-so-clean-anymore bikes.
We finished the last few left over beers for breakfast, packed the bikes and settled our account, scooted off to fill the bikes and came back to stock up on some more beer. I should have named this report - Lesotho Shabeen Run.
Now to get up Sani. The road going there is as beautiful as you can get. And it would only be getting better.
We also had the opportunity to take a pic of the mud that caused our troubles the previous night.
See how easy the knobbies go into it? Imagine riding on that at 80k/h at night.......
Almost there, move yer ass!
D7 enjoying a few water splashes.
Mountains everywhere you look. We would not see another piece of flat earth until the Freestate on Monday.
and streams everywhere.
Everybody that ever went up Sani has taken a pic at this spot, so did we..
But I love waterfalls, so I took plenty pics of them
and had a beer at most of them
even took one of the little fairy spring
But we still had a long way to go to get there...
So, saddle up and let's ride.
At some stage, the river decided to take to the road. Here's one for Trailrider - an uphill watercrossing!
It does get boring, all this beauty......NOT!
More boring ruggedness...
and more of the same....
and up and up you go, untill you get to the fairy spring. What a great spot to have a break!
Lesotho was still coming and this dude really got me wondering about what lay ahead. He walked up to us and just stood there, staring at us. It was sort of unsettling.
But we had a mission and nobody was going to stop us from spreading our wings. Here D7 practises his technique before taking the leap.
We were almost at the top, just one or two more beer breaks to go, so it was time to reflect on where we came from.
Looking down for a change
And suddenly there was no climbing to do anymore, we had reached Sani Top. By this time we were at our friendliest and the border guards just waved us through with a quick stamp in the passport. It was time for another beer, this time a big one.You can't carry quarts on the bike, only cans. If you look at the Sani border post on Google Earth, you'll see a caravan just outside the perimeter. Just across the road is a hut that sells ice cold beer for R7 a quart. We immediately availed us of their hospitality and started meeting the locals.
We came across a bunch of Beemers down in Himeville. They pulled out just as we were replenishing our liquid supplies. We told them to wait up top so we can have a beer or two, but they were gatvol of waiting for us and decided to go down before the rain got heavier.
Now I also have this pic in my collection! Another pic everybody who has ever been up.....blah blah blah......same old boring stuff all over again.
By this time, I had done more than enough riding for the day and decided to hang around in the bar while D7 went exploring.
Plenty more beers were consumed and my friend Albert and his mate Gert joined us for the night. He had heard about my Lesotho plans and decided to arrange his trip so we could meet at Sani. They had entered Lesotho from the south that morning and did some hard riding to meet us. We arranged a bed at the backpackers, had a great dinner and I was in bed by 9.
Sorry, but all pics taken on that night came out very blurry. Dang camera....
The last 2 pics of day 2.
The Backpackers
and D7's weapon of choice. Mighty handsome machine.
So what do I think of Sani?
Glad I did it, will do it again and still need to do it from the top down. Awesome riding through even more awesome terrain. The ride up is a reasonable test of your abilities and can be done by relatively inexperienced riders. Just relax, take it slow and appreciate the scenery.
No, they haven't tarred it yet and won't do for some time to come. Even if they do, there are sections which will prove impossible to tar.
Day 3 - the start of my love-hate relationship with Lesotho - follows here.
Topic: Lesotho ROCKS !!!!!!!! (Read 27944 times)
