Day 6 Klein Pella - Port Nolloth 568KM
Knowing that it was going to be a long hard day in the heat I was up and on the road by 5:15am, it was such a beautiful time of the day as the sun had not come up yet and there were all these beautiful shades of color in the sky. My plan was to get through the first portion of the Namaqua 4x4 trail and reach the road to hell by 8am while it was still relatively cool. The Namakwa trail is by far the best riding I’ve done so far on the trip, narrow sandy jeep tracks all the way with sandy rocky riverbeds and the most spectacular scenery, if one thing would bring me back this way it would be this trail. It was only 7am and things were already getting hot, I made my way to the road to hell and started the infamous pass. The pass was quite tricky in some places but not unridable, there was lots of loose rock on the downhill section where I had to take it slow but all in all made it to the rivers edge unscathed. I sat under a bush for some shade to catch my breath then made the return stretch back up and over. By this time I had managed to attach my enduro jacket to my luggage to try cool off a bit. The road up took a bit more effort going up the loose rock but in about 10-15min I was done and on my way to Vioolsdrift. My GPS was playing up and kept on wanting to take me direct to Port Nolloth and not through the Richtersveld to Alexander Bay. In hind sight this was not a bad option
I found my way up to Vioolsdrift and had to cross the boarder into Namibia to get fuel as there was nothing on the South African side. The boarder was pretty painless but still a lot of admin just for fuel. I stopped at an engine and had a wimpy breakfast and sorted out my GPS to take me on the originally planned route. Headed back through the border and along the orange river to the Helskloof/Nababiep nature reserve. This is were things got testing. I finished my water in my hydro pack as I entered and there was nowhere to top up, It was hot as hell and no shade in sight, of course the worst scenarios were running through my head, what happens if I break down?
I just pushed on knowing that the trail will end eventually. The track was very demanding and with lots of thick sandy riverbeds to navigate and rocky sections, eventually i made it through and entered the Richtersveld. The scenery changed almost instantly but still no water in sight. I saw a water tank on the right but didn’t want to chance it and get a stomach bug. To my luck a Toyota Fortuner was heading my way. I waved them down and it was four guys sipping on beer on their way to watch rugby in Vioolsdrift. I asked for water and they kept trying to feed me beer, but eventually managed to get 1liter of ice cold water to put in my hydropak and a piece of dried wors. This at least put my mind a peace and I carried on. I was riding along the boarder of the Richtersveld as it is a world heritage site and I’m sure well protected. The roads were long and windy with every blind rise having a bend on the other side meaning if I didn't slow down I would end up going straight off the road. Halfway in I could feel this cool ocean air, I knew I was getting close to my destination. Once I exited the heritage area the landscape began to change to sandy desert dunes, I made my way to Alexander bay and eventually arrived at 14:00. I refueled rode around and quickly realized its not a place I would like to spend the night, its more like an old mining town. I checked and Port Nolloth was only 80KM on so I headed down the main road to a lovely beach cottage named Voetbaai Guesthouse. I was exhausted, went out to have quick meal then passed out for the night.
Topic: 6500KM around Mzanzi on a 500EXC (Read 7701 times)
