Day 5 Kakamas - Klein Pella 280KM
I left Kakamas around 8am, headed past Augrabies and Riemvasmaak. I took a quick ride down to the natural hot springs in Riemvasmaak, nobody was around and I came across two man made pools obviously fed from the hot spring. It was baking hot already so decided just to take a few photos and left. There was a nice little challenge on the way up which the 500 handled with no problems at all. I passed a bakkie making its way down and he mentioned that the natural rock pools were just a little further on so unfortunately I must have missed them, oh well next time
The riding from there was very pretty, narrow sandy jeep tracks curving their way through the rock formations, from there I crossed over the river and ride some long stretches of gravel roads with the occasional farm gate. Somewhere in the process I lost my tent so I guess i’m now confined to guest houses (not a bad thing).I had planned to camp a few nights on the trip but after long hot days sometimes its just better to have some comforts, another problem with being solo and in very remote places is that if I had camped I would have probably been the only person in the campsite which wasn't the most appealing idea. Once I made the left turn on the road down to Pofadder, I had 26Km of the thickest sand I’ve encountered on the whole trip, I had to stand and stay on the throttle the entire time to prevent my front wheel from getting sucked in, after that my arms and legs were finished. I refueled in Pofadder and headed to camp. Klein Pella is another gem of a find, nestled in rocky outcrops, its the largest date farm in the southern hemisphere or so I'm told. It was so hot that I had a swim and retreated to the air-conditioned room and ended up napping most of the afternoon. It was so unbearable outside that even sitting on the shaded patio was not an option. I hydrated and got as much rest as possible as I knew the next day would be demanding as I would be doing the Namaqua 4x4 route as well as the Road To Hell.