Day 4 - Polihali lodge to Chalets in the SkyLast day of our ride together, we had plotted a route that took us back to Orange via different route further north from the one we took day before and from there we wanted to follow dirt roads along Khubelu river back to Chalets in the Sky where I left my car.. We weren't sure if we will be able to make it up the other side of Orange, but that was the whole point of this trip - to explore new routes and see what happens.
Well, we have made it across the Orange valley and this is the route we have done:
The riding was similar to the prior day's one - combination of remote dirt roads and offroad sections along the river. The excursion along the Orange river solidified our intent to attempt the Orange river track sometimes in the future.
On the way from the lodge I have managed to get us lost for about 20 - 30 km on adjacent dirt road. I was quite astonished that these roads are there and yet nobody in biking community seems to know about them, let alone ride them. Get yourself out of Baviaans and start exploring off the beaten track, while it's still out there! It's not going to last forever...
Descent down to Orange, this time from the east:
Down at the bottom of the valley we came upon pedestrian bridge - the only bridge I could find later on across Orange between Thaba Tseka and A1. This was good to know as it gives an option off the beaten track when Orange is flowing strong and is not fordable, as was the case about month later when I found myself there again.
Aat the bridge we had little planning session looking at the coutour map on my iPhone and discussing whether we should try a possible ascent running south of our position, or follow the river for about 10 km north where my map was showing some kind of road starting on a hill relativel close to the river.
We (Losper) decided to head north and set-off. I have checked the southern option month later and with a bit of committment it is also doable. Following the river for 10 or so km means one thing - lots of river crossing as the flat riverbanks alternate on each side of the river.
I haven't seen willows that I'm so used to see back home anywhere else in Africa yet so it was a nice to see quite a few of them along the Lesotho riverbeds:
At one point, Losper, who was leading at that point got stuck properly in the muddy bank. I tried to be clever and tried different route made it about 200 meters further up and then got stuck even better:
So I left the bike there and walked back to help free Losper out of the mud. Once we managed that he in turn helped pull my bike out of my trench.
Further on we came upon a section of river where the flow was pretty strong over some gnarly rapids. We scouted possible route about, but there was a good chance for it to go badly wrong (not ideal in the valley many km from possible route out) as there wer big and extremely slipery boulders in the quite strong stream, so we proceeded with caution and pushed Losper and mine bike across with engines switched off.
Pieter scouting our to be route:
On the other side we had short break and then pushed on to the last Orange crossing of the day (there was still one Khubelu crossing awaiting later on). It took a little figuring out, but we made it to the other side with honour unblemished:
We could barely discern an old washed out road heading up the valley at this point. It was pretty steep and required a bit of commitment from me, but we managed to gun it up to the flatter part above and from there it was smooth sailing all the way to the Village Chief Road. Another crossing of Orange and new never riden route in the bag!
At the Village Chief road we turned north and cruised towards Mapholaneng on A1. On the way, Losper - big dam aficionado, made a detour down to a spot where they are about to start building new Polihali dam on Orange river. The descent was badly washed out and getting back to the road afterwards was a bit nervewrecking (for me anyway):
That is where the dam is going to be:
View from above over the future Dam wall spot:
After that we pushed on the Village Chief road until we came to another shortcut, this time over Khubelu river, that Losper wanted to try. It was pretty gnarly and I was running low on energy (or rather lazy) after 4 days of rock bashing so it took a bit for me to stop being a baby and suck it up. Which I did and it turned out to be a non-event:
After that we hit the dirt road following the Khubelu river north for about 40 km where we arrived back to Challets in the Sky for final night (for Losper, I was still to explore a bit more for a day or three on my own).
Here are few images from Losper so that he doesn't feel like his work was left out:
That is it - thanks for following. I have to say that Losper knows how to do ride report in style, like a gentleman without sweating it
I hope we will ride together soon again.
Topic: Mission: Finding the origin of the orange river (Read 3701 times)
