Môre, is dalk ‘n beter dag.

[tau]

We rode long and hard, until about 17:30. At this stage Nic and Tiaan turned around as their Iphone with all their pictures on fell out of the bakkie at one of the puncture stops. Yes we had plenty punctures, but at this stage it was normal. At least we were now fitting new tubes so the punctures stopped almost. The track disappeared over a dune an her I found my Eden .


Home for the night in the wilderness.



The men had a hard day behind them.




Tiaan had found his phone and his calling as a top support team with his brother Nic. As you can see it wasn’t easy.



Hans Boorman aka. Nic can post more pictures here and info about their eventful day in the bakkie.



Daai veraf kyk van sukses.



Attie se nat nuwe Hilux Dakar het so bietjie stof gevat.

Attie en Oom Stef het vir ons ‘n bos stort aanmekaar geslaan en ons het heerlik onse gatte gewas.



Nuwe Hilux het nou so bietjie karakter gehad. Die gasbottel met die gat in op die vuur om warm water vir die stort te maak.

Nick en Tiaan het weer gourmet gebraai en kos gemaak.



Heerlike aand teen die duin.

[weskus]

I ask John to wait and let me go through and take a picture as he comes through the fesh-fesh.. we had quite a joll and Eugene and Attie took quite a tumble to make the photos worthwile.. in Eugene's words. Ek kan nie die f@kken spore in daai babapoeier hoer-goed sien nie, ek't amper 'n asma'aanval daar binne gekry Gelukkig is dit sterk manne so hulle val goed

[weskus]

En so lyk 'n bakkie met 3000km odd op as jy hom vir jou pel gee. Dan wag die bikes nie lank vir 'n koue bier as hul gestop het nie..die Duitser het daai bakkie gery kêrels.

[Xpat]

Glad you guys enjoyed the Bots side👍

Im just surprised by the fesh fsh. I have done it last December and didnt have any. Im going again this December and hope some rain will make it a bit more palatable...

[Nimmo]

So 14:00 we reach a little village. The police stops me and asks where are we going. I reply Dobe border post. They replied that we are badly lost and on the wrong route. There is no road ro Dobe from there. I replied we wil use the cut lines and vet lines. They reply we cannot as we won’t make it. I ask if it is illegal and they say no but crazy.

It is 43 C and we reach the track Xpat sent us.... it looks just like the section North of Kaudum just more overgrown. Immediately we realise we are gonna be sweating bullets very son. We decide on a 10-15 km legs to give bakkies opportunity to catch up.

Within the first 500 m I realise the sand is like water. It doesn’t form a rut after a bike has been thru it just fills up again. The bikes are growling. The Africa Twin can run 3 gear most of the way and 2nd in real bad spots and 4th when it opens up. As with north of Kaudum we run at 60-80 km/h, this is plenty fast in such a remote area to crash and get hurt.

Every bump, corner or dune climb is more than just an obstacle the mental fatigue if “what if” I crash and get hurt weights down heavily on a rider. Or mechanical breakdowns, how do you recover the bike?

After 11 km we stop and it is carnage that arrives behind me....
Rickus and Eugene’s bikes are boiling and the fans don’t keep up. Weskus’s bike is boiling, but even worse the petrol in the fuel tank are boiling.



Eugene bike was also pushing fuel out of the breather. The road is very winding. It is as if the Botswana locals cannot drive straight also 2 tracks that merge and split all the time. Sometimes the left is good and other times the right. It is all the luck of the draw. Some tracks are blocked by trees elephants push over then you need to switch lanes which is 30 cm deep in a hurry. Fun fun fun!!!

Dewald - net as FYI - het hy ooit weer gekook na daai dag by Road Canyon?

[Flatout]

Lekker Manne!

Vêr te rof vir my maar altyd lekker om myself in te leef in ander se mallewales 

[Bokveld]

  Nee kyk,daai klomp manne kook nie sag nie.Ek geniet jul RR .

[weskus]

So 14:00 we reach a little village. The police stops me and asks where are we going. I reply Dobe border post. They replied that we are badly lost and on the wrong route. There is no road ro Dobe from there. I replied we wil use the cut lines and vet lines. They reply we cannot as we won’t make it. I ask if it is illegal and they say no but crazy.

It is 43 C and we reach the track Xpat sent us.... it looks just like the section North of Kaudum just more overgrown. Immediately we realise we are gonna be sweating bullets very son. We decide on a 10-15 km legs to give bakkies opportunity to catch up.

Within the first 500 m I realise the sand is like water. It doesn’t form a rut after a bike has been thru it just fills up again. The bikes are growling. The Africa Twin can run 3 gear most of the way and 2nd in real bad spots and 4th when it opens up. As with north of Kaudum we run at 60-80 km/h, this is plenty fast in such a remote area to crash and get hurt.

Every bump, corner or dune climb is more than just an obstacle the mental fatigue if “what if” I crash and get hurt weights down heavily on a rider. Or mechanical breakdowns, how do you recover the bike?

After 11 km we stop and it is carnage that arrives behind me....
Rickus and Eugene’s bikes are boiling and the fans don’t keep up. Weskus’s bike is boiling, but even worse the petrol in the fuel tank are boiling.



Eugene bike was also pushing fuel out of the breather. The road is very winding. It is as if the Botswana locals cannot drive straight also 2 tracks that merge and split all the time. Sometimes the left is good and other times the right. It is all the luck of the draw. Some tracks are blocked by trees elephants push over then you need to switch lanes which is 30 cm deep in a hurry. Fun fun fun!!!

Dewald - net as FYI - het hy ooit weer gekook na daai dag by Road Canyon?

Nimmo, nope, die fiets was ge'overfill daardie dag by die Canyon roadhouse. Die antifreeze vlek 'n merk in die reservoir en as jy met water optop belemmer dit jou bietjie. Ek het fiets in Grootfontein gecheck, omtrent 150mm water geneem. Vandaar het ons so 140-160km'h gekom en no problems. Olie op sy merk, alles klok-disselboom. Hulle is taai ou beer..Sommer iets simpel, op die R & s modelle het jy omtrent dubbel die 'air-intake'/of eerder lug beweging omdat daar heelwat meer clearance tussen die headlight en mudguard is. Sodra jy weer bietjie spoed maak kom die temp op die hoër modelle vinniger af as op die Adventure..My R suspensie lê in die garage. Sal nou een van die min R's wees met 'n ordentlike seat en ABS  wil volgende nwk suspensie fit

[Kerritz]

Rof en onbeskof!! Julle mag maar ouens. 

Sien uit na die res. 

[ClemS]

Sub 

[Crossed-up]

Absolutely epic trip and report - thanks!

[tau]

The troops where proper tired, but content to the maximum levels that feel good ndorfins will allow. You know like that silly giggle you have after a huge fright, well just like that just the opposite. Riders sitting next to their bikes drinking s beer staring into the sunset soaking up the madness of the day in a quiet setting. It was a thing of beauty seeing big strong men just sucking in the atmosphere. It was at this point that I was irritating everyone trying to get pictures of them in the moment getting called all kinds of horrible names...

Rickus sat back sipping on a beer and then told us the story that described the  trip for me at certain stages when it was just work, work and more work with the flats and overgrown roads and the heat.

It went something like this:

The farmer had a bad spell of problems and drought etc. He unfortunately committed suicide. He lived in town and not on the farm and somebody had to go break the news to his farm laborer looking after the farm out in the sticks.

The person bearing the bad news explained that the “oubaas” would not return to the farm as he had passed on to the old farm worker.

The worker asked how did he die and was told by suicide.

His reply was filled with shocked saying:

“ maar hoe het hy dan nie geweet dat môre ‘n beter dag kan wees nie?”

For me at this motorbiking zen moment in the bush sitting with an amazing sunset after a hard day it was the perfect story.

We all had an amazing nights sleep.

[tau]

We decided that the next day we will start at 06:00 to hit the sand whilst it was still cooler and the sand also cooler and less like water and more like soil.

We got up at 05:00 the next day and at 05:50 Eugene found his ignition locked due to all the sand and dust in the key hole due to crashing in sand and fesh fesh .

A quick blow with the bakkie compressor and we where of.

It was a cold 18C the sand was different, the bush was quit and life was great.



For the bakkies to keep up we stayed with our 10-15 km stops for them to keep up.







This section had heavy sand, but large sections was burnt. So eventhou you where getting caned by these branches you could choose different lines ahead of corners as you could see thru them.

The signs of heavy Elephant activity was everywhere and we had to go around a few trees blocking the road. This section was very dense and every shadow was an “elephant” for a split second.

[Snafu]

Snaaks om vir Weskus met meelgesig op so n trip te sien, sonder Bob in die rondte!

[tau]

All too soon we had 5 km of this left before we would hit the gravel and for all intents and purposes the long haul back home on gravel and tar. We stopped had a drink and experience the last of the bush. As we got ready to leave we heard a thre pop “ sheeeeeeeesh” and Weskus had a rear flat. The only puncture of the entire trip on a Mitas E-09 rear. This was after standing for 15 min. Get an E-09 of the bead is almost impossible. I have Motion Pro bead breakers, Weskus has Flying brick bead breakers. We had Rickus stand on his bike with the sidestand on the bead + the 2 sets of beadbreakers.....we just bent his stand. Oh and Rickus is a large person for those that haven’t met him. At last the bead came of. The “ new “ Michelin Ultra Heavy duty we fitted with the tyre in Gobabis has simply seperated the valve from the tube. We where running our tubes without lock nuts to prevent valves ripping if we had punctures. This happened when we stood still. My only puncture for the trip was also a Michelin Ultra Heavy duty front that had failed after hitting a log.



Just for interest Weskus never had a front flat using a TKC80 + Michelin 2.5 mm tube and not the 4.5 mm

I replaced my busted 4.5 mm Michelin with a secondhand 2.5 mm I had. With a TKC 80. It lasted all the way home and I only repinforced the tube due to a cut inmy tyre that scuffed the tube.

My rear wad the only rear on the trip to never puncture and it was a E09 with 2.5 mm Michelin 2.5 mm tube.

Yes luck of the draw in which track you where and if there was logs or rocks in the sand played a huge roll, but that the 2 tyres that never punctured was those fitted with Michelin 2.5 mm has to be a sign that they could take the abuse like a Ultra heavy duty, but survive the extreme heat.


A Mitas E09 with 4800 km on I carted the new one to Nam and back with a Ultra Heavy duty tube, that I fitted at home

[ChrisL - DUSTRIDERS]

Ek dink ons sal vir Weskus moet nuwe Dustriders stickers  stuur, syne is gaar geslaan deur die takke!!

[weskus]

Ek dink ons sal vir Weskus moet nuwe Dustriders stickers  stuur, syne is gaar geslaan deur die takke!!

Dankie ou Chris, ek is besig om die ou blink te vryf..stands te powdercote die works..net weer besef na die trip dat hul taai is en dat ek in elk geval te hartseer sal wees om met 'n nuwe fiets op sulke tipe plekke in te gaan..

[ROOI]

As ek ooit eendag lus kry vir daai roete verwys my asb terug na die  ride report 

[Hondsekierie]

Baie dankie vir n lekker lees (lag) met ewe mooie fotos van die pret.  Groot respek vir julle in daardie sand met daardie groot bikes.  John en Dewald - befok om julle manne weer saam in aksie te sien, so ook Attie.  Het hy nog daardie 950 met die goue Penta exhausts wat hy in 2012 Amageza gery het? 

@ Rickus - ek haal my hoed af vir jou dat jy met jou gewig daardie nou sandpaaie met tight draaie kon ry.  Ek weeg amper selle as jy en besef hoeveel harder jy moet werk as n man helfte jou gewig om daardie voorwiel uit die sand te kry.  Ek besef jy's n man wat sand mooi verstaan maar lyk of jy n fiksheid daar erens weg gesteek het tot dusver 

Weereens respek

[weskus]

Baie dankie vir n lekker lees (lag) met ewe mooie fotos van die pret.  Groot respek vir julle in daardie sand met daardie groot bikes.  John en Dewald - befok om julle manne weer saam in aksie te sien, so ook Attie.  Het hy nog daardie 950 met die goue Penta exhausts wat hy in 2012 Amageza gery het? 

@ Rickus - ek haal my hoed af vir jou dat jy met jou gewig daardie nou sandpaaie met tight draaie kon ry.  Ek weeg amper selle as jy en besef hoeveel harder jy moet werk as n man helfte jou gewig om daardie voorwiel uit die sand te kry.  Ek besef jy's n man wat sand mooi verstaan maar lyk of jy n fiksheid daar erens weg gesteek het tot dusver 

Weereens respek

Lekr man, ja Attie het nog dieselfde 950 met daai Penta shorties op, hy het 'n redelike groot "af" gehad met die 690 terwyl hy geoefen het vir Amageza 2013 wat hy na die ongeluk nie kon doen nie..