bobnob's solo adventures (big dial-ups beware)

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bobnob

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so with my victoria falls trip getting canceled due to work issues etc i had to do another trip to make up for it.

with the added public holiday what better time to do a trip (and the work gave me 2 days in lieu for cancelling my other trip)

so i have lots of time and dont even have to put in leave! ;D

up until 3 days before i left, i had no clue where i was going

so i got clearance for namibia and lesotho

trailrider invited me to stay over with his group of bandits in baviaans - so that settled it - i'm going to do baviaans and lesotho!!!

here is my trusty bike all packed and ready to go!  ;D

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notice the nice new red jerry can

wanted to leave early on the saturday and hit the dirt just past hermanus and follow it all the way to mosselbay/george. well as per usual with me i did not pack a single thing the night before and i only left cape town closer to 1pm-ish

so - nothing exciting happened on day 1 - i just shot down to mosselbay on the n2. got a little bit of rain but nothing major.

getting to mosselbay i decided to stay over at the point caravan park. very nice clean caravan park, right on the ocean.

so i pitched my tent made some grub and hit the sack all set for the actual trip to start the next day.

early morning packing - have a busy day in front of me

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the light tower just above the caravan park

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but first - you need to have some coffee and the breakfast of champions (oats-o-easy)

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left mosselbay and headed over to trailriders hood - had a gentle cruise through george (made the mandatory cappuccinos stop) and then set of for my first dirt of the trip

at the montagu pass turn off

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the area is very beautiful and well worth the detour if you are in the area

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then took the paardehoek or whatever that roads name is - kinda got lost or shall we just say i took a couple of wrong turns and ended up further away from oudtshoorn than i anticipated

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finally got to oudtshoorn and stopped for some lunch (stopping and taking photos and taking in the beauty of the country side takes up a lot of time)

was pretty cold so i had some lekker butternut soup and bread

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then i headed towards the cango caves and startup the the swartbergpass (have i mentioned that i just love the swartbergpass - absolutely gorgeous - have done it a couple of times and will do it a couple of times more)

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then head back towards oudtshoorn via meiringspoort (yeah yeah i'm took the real long way round to baviaans!)

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after the floods a couple of years ago they really upgraded meiringspoort (i have not been in meiringspoort since before the floods)

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filled up at de rust as well as my lovely 5l red shine new jerry can and hit the tar road towards willowmore/uniondale

then hit the dirt and it was starting to get dark so i let rip and while jaaging down the road i saw a shadow chasing behind my bike - mmmm that looks very odd?

i had a CAPTAIN SLOW moment - the one bungee cord slipped out and the jerry can filled with fuel got smashed to pieces on the dirt road...

luckily it never got tangled in the rear wheel - that would not have been pretty!!!

anyway long story short - i got to bakkrans where the food was just about ready

here operator is enjoying his last evening with firebucket

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our accommodation for the night was very good

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let me just say between trailrider, eisbein, letsgofishing and operator we had a choir of snorers

operator and eisbein is the tw 200s of the snoring world - you hear them but its all cool

trailrider is the like a harley davidson - man thats some serious noise but deep down you can get use to it

letsgofishing - he is like a MAN truck on exhaust brakes coming down sir lowry's pass, you just cant get use to his snoring!!!  >:D

some more photos

our bikes

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operator and trailrider having discussions

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bakkrans has the coolest setup

2 caves oppisite each other a couple of meters away with trees between the two

the one cave is the sleeping and braai area and the other cave contains the loo and shower

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the view from the shower

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the view of the camping cave coming back from the little boys cave

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group shot

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operator and myself doing the exchange of firebucket

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i then left the group and headed into baviaans

baviaanskloof is absolutely stunning - if you have not done it do yourself a favour and do it as soon as possible - you wont be sorry!

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i stopped to take a photo and a klr with pillion comes past me, low and behold the pillion is someone i met 2 weeks earlier at a meeting! just shows you how small the world is.

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some more pics

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coming around the corner it suddenly turned into peak hour traffic on the n1

its at the first water crossing - everyone was waiting to get across

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here i just came through the first water crossing

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some dude coming through the second water crossing

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some shots

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i then made my way to patensie (still had to get to east london)

but first head for port alfred

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handing firebucket over to InsiderDirtRider

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left port alfred in the dark and headed for east london - still had to go and have some sushi with my sister in law.

the next day i head for himeville - i decided to just shoot up the n2 to kokstad and then head for underberg and then himeville

it was very very very very cold!

the fog over the kei river was hectic here is a before the fog and after the fog (you can see the fog/clouds in the background of the second photo)

it was heavy and on the one hair pin turns a mazda 323 was smashed into the mountain - must have happend the night before

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came across this funny sight - dont know how they will explain this to the baas  ???

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apparently they dont use trucks in the eastern cape to transport livestock

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the next 2 photos shows you just how cold it was (leeu koud!)

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i stayed over at the himeville arms in their backpackers rooms

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must admit i did check up on the forum and read the report on sani with all the snow and i was rather nervous

i'm a sexy bugger so early in the morning  :-*

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i headed of towards sani

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in the background at the lowest point of the mountain is sani

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the south african sani border crossing

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i had everything ready - papers from bmw finance, insurance everything and they did not even look at the bike - gave them my passport - one stamp - 2 sec and i'm on my way

the south african border sits at the foot of sani and the lesotho border is at the top

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the famous 4x4 lesotho hi-ace's

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came across these 2 guys from canada - they have been walking for 3,5 days - through the woods. camping when it gets dark etc.

they were going to visit a friend in western lesotho. walking, hitching lifts, etc. respect!

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sani is stunning and with the snow it was brilliant!

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coming up to the one corner i wanted to stop to take some photos - the road made a 180 degree turn and the angle of the road was pretty steap - so what happend?

well you guessed it - the dakie started to lean towards the side where i could not touch the ground and i went down like a sack of bricks

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i got the bike back onto its own 2 wheels - not the easiest thing if the bike is lying down with the wheels in the air

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the last couple of hundred  meters was very steep and very muddy. with all the snow that had melted and the constant 4x4 traffic the road was more like a WWF wrestling ring and the rear trailwing is not the greatest in the mud.

at the top

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again at the lesotho border post no checking of anything - stamped my passport paid my R4 road tax and i was set

saw these guys outside the pub

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anyone on the forum?

photos dont do lesotho justice the mountains and valleys are so fast. rivers everywhere. the people are very friendly never in my life did i have to wave so much.

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did i mention that it was cold?  :D

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the dirt road from sani to mokothlong (spelling) is stunning

the tar road to the north starts out as very good and then when you get close to the diamond mine the road just turns to *@#^$#

80km (more or less) of the worst tar road you have even seen!

potholes the size of man holes 8 of them next to each other - repeated over and over and over and over

and then the road suddenly became perfect and i found it, yes i found it - motorcycle nervana!

;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

the best road ever - i wished for a superbike!

motseng pass 60km from butha-buthe (+/- 70km) from fouriesburg - this pass can be reached by any bike - great tar road all the way.

the number of hair pin turns is just amazing and the banking of the road.

the road will drop and turn at the most amazing angles - jacko if you read this it is well worth a ride report with some superbikes for topbike (just watch out for animals on the road) (ps jacko if you go i wanna go to  ;) )

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i then had some dinner in fouriesburg - and headed for bloemfontein

and then the next day went home (bloemfontein to cape town)

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what did i learn?

1. dont forget your winter gloves
2. dont forget your buff
3. everyone should do a solo trip every now and then - it clears the mind and is good for the soul






 
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