Kaokoland: a perspective from a pink bike

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Zanie

Race Dog
WD Supporter
Joined
Jul 19, 2014
Messages
702
Reaction score
137
Location
Table View, Cape Town
Bike
Honda CRF-250 Rally
The motivation

Ever since I “downgraded” to a smaller bike (from a F650GS to a Honda CRF250L Rally), I’ve been eyeballing the more extreme routes and tours to be found on this forum. Maybe I was ready?

Lance seemed to have faith, so we signed up for the April 2019 Specialised Adventures Kaokoland and Damaraland tour with Hardy and his team.

The months dragged by. We tried to fill time with off-the-beaten-track trips.

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Lance sat with a problem. He has three bikes (which doesn’t seem problematic at all!), but none of them were ideal for the up-coming trip. His 2-stroke KTM won’t make it, his BMW G450X has no papers and questionable reliability, and his 800GSA is a tank. Lance can ride sand well. He will survive Kaokoland on the 800GSA, but will he have fun surviving?

Lance in the sand on his 800GSA:
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I sat with a problem. Sand is no longer my nemesis, but I still struggle a bit even on the smaller bike. The Rally is also relatively heavy for a 250, which can be felt in technical areas.

I didn’t quite make it here:
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I found a solution in the unlikely form of a pink bike: my Honda CRF230F. It makes sand a breeze and is over 40kg lighter than the Rally. I have been stress-tested in technical stuff on this bike and the conclusion is that I will survive while having more fun.

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The bike also appears unbreakable; unlike its rider!

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This freed up my Rally for use by Lance. Therefore he didn’t have to consider getting another bike (I’m not sure how he feels about this!). All he needed to do was try to keep additional damage to a minimum. The major existing scratches on the Rally are already thanks to use by Lance…

Lance adventures on the Rally:
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A WhatsApp group was started for the April tour group, where we virtually met Duncan, a.k.a. MNET – you may need a decoder to understand his typing! Duncan is also based in Cape Town, so we arranged that we travel together to Windhoek, the starting point of the tour.

We bumped into the real-life version of Duncan at a funduro. It seems that dirt bike riding is a pastime for those who prefer the lesser-travelled roads on the larger bikes.

The up-coming trip finally started to feel real when we had to pack. We spent two solid evenings packing until midnight.

Kaokoland survival kit bought for the trip:
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FYI: The steel putty was already in our inventory.

The night before we left for Namibia, we met a strange creature: a KTM disguised in green!

My two bikes shared a trailer with this imposing specimen:
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On the way!

The next morning, we set off at a prompt 6:30. No-one wants to be late for a holiday!

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Breakfast was 2 hours and roughly 200 km later at Kardoesie, a gem of a place on Piekenierskloof Pass.

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Duncan fielding some last work calls:
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Extinguishing road-side fires:
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The middle of nowhere claimed its first victim:
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Lesson: Never tackle an extensive trailer session without new tyres. Lance has learnt this before, during a dirt bike tour to Transkei. Duncan has now received this wisdom as well. He was well-prepared though. The guys implemented a pronto wheel change.

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The border crossing into Namibia was longer than necessary, at 1.5 hours, because their road tax system was down. As retribution, we implemented tax evasion (for the bikes) by stating that all will be used off-road only. This could have bitten us in the backside if we had a difficult official on the way back into SA, but we were lucky on our return trip.

Each bike’s VIN was carefully checked. I am forever-grateful that my pink Honda, though not road-legal, was bought with full papers and I had it registered in my name. According to discussions with the officials, it seems tricky, if not impossible, to bring an unregistered bike into the country (legally).

After 11 hours on the road, we reached Savanna Guest Farm, roughly 50km north of Grunau. Costs averaged about R650 per head, including accommodation (rooms, not camping), supper, drinks and breakfast. This is great value for money when considering the setting and the all-you-can-eat buffet of home-made food options – made for just the three of us!

Savannah Guest Farm:
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There is a swimming pool to the right of the grassy area:
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An intriguing local:
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The next morning, the guys increased the trailer tyres’ pressure, given the 3-bike load.

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Yet no chances were to be taken. We did not have a spare anymore… Hence, we stopped in Keetmanshoop for two new tyres. The spare, used yesterday, was removed and kept as a spare. We wanted brand new tekkies on the trailer!

Aside: If you want super-quick service, try TrenTyre. We’ve never seen a tyre fitment done at that speed. Tyre change x 2 and payment took 15 minutes!

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Synchronised fire extinguishing:
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We were on the road from 8:30am and arrived in Windhoek by 4pm. After a long day, we finally got to meet the Specialised Adventures team and the rest of the crazies on the trip. The mix of bike brands led to friendly ribbing, starting well in advance of the tour:

The Hondas:
CRF230F: Me (Zanie)
CRF250L Rally: Lance (LanC)
XR650L: Abel (Bloed en OMO)
XR650L: Johan
XR650L: Hennie R
XR650L: Hardy (Hardy de Kock) [crew]
XR650L: Ian (xrforlife)
XRV750 Africa Twin: Gordon

The KTMs:
690: Duncan (DrunkenDuncan)
690: Brian
500: Henk (chopperpilot)
500: Bertie (Straatkat)
640 Adventure: Kobus (Kobus Myburgh)

The lone rangers:
BMW G650 X-challenge: Craig (dirt rat)
Suzuki DR650: Pete (P.K.)
Kawasaki KLR650: Hennie D (Oubones)

In air-con boxes:
Janco & Sammy [crew]
Jannie & Beatie
Gené [crew]
Chantal [crew]
Elsabe
Diesel (trip mascot in the form of a Rhodesian Ridgeback puppy)

Same as the Kobus / Henk ride report, I’ll use real names, aside from Oubones, to distinguish him from the other Hennie!

Some of the crazies were crazier than most: Oubones started his trip with a bike ride from Hammersdale (KZN) to Loxton, Craig rode all the way from Cape Town to Windhoek, while Johan’s pastime includes learning how to catch and relocate snakes (including cobras and a black mamba), just because.

Most of the group had loaded their bikes and either rode in convoy with Hardy’s team from Loxton, or flew up.

So much bike porn:
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Poor Bertie’s riding boots and kidney belt went missing, compliments of Air Namibia. Kobus took him on a quick shopping spree to remedy the dire situation.

Speaking of dire, this was the tone of the ride briefing warnings from Hardy to try to keep us all alive (a huge responsibility) until the end of day 11. The whole gamut was covered: from death by tetanus, to death by lions, death by elephants, death by dehydration, death by fesh fesh, and death by stupidity (the most likely one, I’m sure). Each was illustrated with vivid real-life examples.

There was time for light banter nevertheless:
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All of us stayed in Safari Hotel, in shared rooms. All, that is, aside from Brian, Pete and Hennie R, who had gone ahead to Spitzkoppe for an extra night of star-gazing in brotherly togetherness. They took along a boiled egg for rations. We’re not sure whether they will survive. Death by starvation was not covered; neither was it a real threat throughout the rest of the trip thanks to Gené, Chantal and Sammy.

Lance and I shared a room with Duncan. I learnt to use my ear-plugs that night. The MNET decoder switches to a drone of unintelligible input at night!

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