After the lunch break we crossed the bridge and hit the track climbing up the valley on the other side. The bottom part is the steepest and there are one or two places that can catch one out (last time I was here I got stuck on one of those and spent quite some time getting unstuck - but I was on my own). This time we all managed to clear all the obstacles without too much drama and made it to the flatter upper bit quickly:
The flat bit was the end of the toughest bit, but there were still few workouts before we made it to the village and jeep track on the top of the range:
Greg and the track we came down on behind him:
We took a breather at the top of the ridge, being hackled by the locals with their usual vocabulary of 'give me something' and 'sweets':
The jeep track from there follows the ridge mostly north all the way to Mantsonyane about 40 km away. While much easier than the Senqyanyane river crossing it is still a workout and can catch one out in few places:
Interesting track on the other side of the valley, maybe some other time...
Few km before Mantsonyane, the track connects to the dirt road heading south east towards villages deeper in the valley that side. I have plotted our route that way as there is another abandoned and very rocky service road there connecting to Thaba Tseka and bypassing tar from Mantsonyane. That was our original plan, but by the time we arrived to the crossing it was way past 3:00 pm and Tony and I were knackered. Greg, who was there first didn't wait for us and rode out straight towards the service road (which is another 30 km away).
Tony and I weren't keen to follow, so we just laid down at the crossing and waited for the youngster (he was youngest of the group in his early 40s) to realize that we really don't want to do it, which took him quite a while. He eventually turned back and returned and all three of us rode down to Mantsonyane where we located local petrol seller and filled up:
With that sorted we jumped on tar A3 and cruised over the high pass to Thaba Tseka about 50 km away. We have arrive there just as the sun was setting, filled up again at the chinese petrol station and got to the Motherland guesthouse. Bertie was already there - though he arrived only shortly before, as the tar road is much longer than the shortcut us three took (plus he got lost).
We had dinner at the guesthouse and retreated to our rooms for early night - the three days of rigorous riding were starting to take its toll on us.
Topic: Lesotho Boogie Woogie (Read 6730 times)
