RAW, a great 8 days riding

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Kamanya

Andrew to most
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Location
Cape Town, deep in the lentils
Bike
KTM 990 Adventure
I’ve known the Richtersfeld quite intimately for many years; I spent 8 years of student life guiding trips on the Orange and have been on it from Onseepkans close to Pofadder all the way to the Fish River near Rosh Pina. I find that part of the world very calming and beautiful. I always feel very comfortable there. The nights are magic, the skies are carpeted in stars so thick that it is possible on windless nights to be able to easily see without the aid of a torch.

I don’t care too much for 4x4’ing, so till now the only opportunity to see anything of the Richterfeld has been from the gunnels of a canoe. Nick & Wouter from Wildthing along with KTM Cape Town got together just so that I could expand my experience of the Richtersfeld from a bike, a rare opportunity.

But, getting there is 700k’s of pretty boring tar. Not an option, so I put out feelers for who would join on a trip up trying to stay as close to the coast as possible all the way to Alexander bay before turning inland to Wildthings camp.

This was the story
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This is a video of the trip paired down to a few minutes, hard to get it all in and give a feeling for the trip.
RAW, 8 days of great riding


We met up at the Sunset beach Engen at 8.30 on Tuesday;

Eric and Nardus had already slabbed it from the Eastern Cape the day before. Jacko and I were the Town clowns who’d rolled out of bed that morning.

Paternoster was breakfast, a good solid full English one with Eastern Cape coffee. I don’t drink coffee much but Eric introduced me to this. I like it a lot!

I had spent more than a few hours gathering info on the trip from other people who’d ridden the coast and scouring Google Earth and Garmap. From Paternoster there was a great little sand track that cleared the cobwebs.

Elands Bay was impossible not to have another coffee in the Hotel and then from there up the railway line and onto the sand road to Doringbaai. I have a friend that has a house with 8km of beach, unfortunately no one was home to abuse the privilege of their hospitality and beg another coffee.

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It was here that I found out that my camera gave up the ghost, my cat had pulled it off the counter just before I was about to leave so from here on all my photo’s are from my cell and the good ones come from Nardus.

The original idea was to either camp or B&B on the way up, the west coast being the west coast makes camping a chilly affair so the B&B option was going to be the evenings choice.

If you ever want to stay here, I recommend the other bar at the beginning of town for food and drink and find somewhere else to stay. The attitude of the younger lady who ran the accommodation side left a very bad taste. She was arrogant, rude, humourless and had no idea of customer service.

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Jacko and I know each other from 2 or three drinks and meals. Eric and Nardus I have ridden with once in Hogsback but only really know them through their online personalities. So the first evening was the sniffing out dance that new friends make. Many a trip has come undone due to a personality clash or different agendas, expectations or objectives. So far though, things were pretty smooth and quickly being lubricated further.

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I had warned them that my intent for the trip was to make as many turns off the beaten path as my fancy took me. For me, as I felt that as I had put the trip together there was a certain leadership type of responsibility that can make me less prone wandering off the sort of agreed track. I discussed this with them, Eric and Nardus both almost simultaneously retorted rather practically that they fully expected me to do a bit of exploring and if I got a bit too up my own bum and pissed them off, they’d just turn off and part ways.

A WTF moment.

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Due to the above mentioned hostess we were forced to sleep 3 and 1. Eric got the one and we got to share. Nardus and Jacko had to snuggle and I got the cot.

Next morning, Eric’s shock, that new fangled air thing that BM have, was really squeaking badly and as he was going on a month long tour once we got to Vioolsdrif he was on the phone to his closest BM dealership. His friendly BM dealer asked him to get to Veldrif to get a bike dealer there to look at it so that if it was a problem a new shock could be couriered to the border post in time for him. The plan was to get onto the Eco trail that starts at the mouth of the Oliphants river. We would go slowly along that and find a place to chill and Eric would catch up after his detour.

Immediately the coast is very wild and desolate, not the place to break down. The riding was great with the odd stretch of sand. Only real signs of life are the odd sheep and the ever present holes and mounds left by the diamond diggers.

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It was around here, that he got us... and he’d thoughtfully bought some iced coffee for us!

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As the day wore on the sand tracks became thicker and more difficult, but the scenery is stunning. There were massive swells pounding the rocks and shore and just kilometre after kilometre of great riding.

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Somewhere about mid afternoon, Jacko took a huge tumble. We’d settled into sort of order in the deep sand riding. There are only the two jeep tracks and the two guys who go first get the easiest time of it. I find sand fun to ride and was trying to ride last as it was pointless hogging the best of the sand. The other 3 were swapping around. It was on one of the sections where Jacko was third and riding in Erics tracks. I was right behind Jacko and had a grandstand view of the crash. Unfortunately my helmet cams remote battery was flat and I missed it all. Actually I missed the whole day because of this. A serious let down.

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In sand when the bike starts to swap ends, it starts as a gentle sway and within two oscillations ends as a vicious highside. Nobody rides one of those out. The bike flung Jacko down the track and flipped landing on its handlebar.

A crash does things to your head and for the next few hundred meters he was not as smooth as he’d been. After we’d gotten onto some solid ground another check of the bike revealed a loose flicker and worse a cracked handlebar clamp.

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The bars were moving in the clamps and after a quick torque’ing they were tighter but it played on the mind. At first he was sure his trip was over and that he’d best just ride out and go home. But after he’d cooled down a better plan was hatched; We’d ride out the day and get to the Groen River Mouth and camp there, Jacko would then ride out to Garies the next day and on to Springbok and have it welded and meet us at Wildthings on the Friday.

I really enjoyed this stretch, if you are comfortable in sand it is a must do. Actually even if you are wary of sand, there is always escape routes that lead you to a parallel gravel road that has less sand.

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It wasn’t long before we’d gotten to Groen River Mouth, a more uninviting place to camp would be tough to find and with Garies a mere 70k’s away on good gravel, well, it was a chip and putt and we were...

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Another night of getting to know each other better was pleasantly passed. A quick note; both pool tables slant wickedly north.    

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So, Jacko got to lie in, I got to lie down whilst filling the bike. Fortunately, though I had both caps open, I’d yet to fill the tanks so nothing was spilled.

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We’d decided to cut the corner and get back on the trail close to Hondeklipbaai rather than going back to the river mouth. It was a highlight of the trip. We sat at a waterfront restaurant and did another breakfast and coffee, this time it came in oversize mugs. It was a fun few hours. I like Hondeklipbaai

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In a tough world things can be rough, these guys were fixing a starter motor on the beach

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The plan was to get onto the Shipwreck trail north of Koiingaas, unfortunately we missed the turnoff somehow and only got to do a 10k stretch of it. Some unfinished business has been left for me the next time I go up there.

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Port Nolloth was going to be the next place to sleep. Eric knew of a house letting business in McDougalls Bay just 3 k’s south of Port Nolloth.

After settling in we went back to Port Nolloth for a quick bite to eat and meet some of the locals.

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Eric doing his over the shoulder coy look.

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All you really need to know was that we met the locals, debated some philosophical viewpoints, whipped the locals at pool and made a dent in the bars Stroh Rum supplies and got back home about 3.30am, debated a bit more and then the debate ended apparently, with me falling asleep mid sentence on the couch somewhere around 4am.

It was a long ride the next morning to Alexander bay. Eric was keen to stay for another night as he had felt that we hadn’t really met all the locals the night before. But myself and Nardus had seen or rather drunk enough.

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One thing about this part of the world is the huge impact that the diamond mining has made here, its bordering on criminal. Go check out Google Earth. A real pity. They have these massive holes and mine made mountains and every now and then a rehabilitation sign in front of a 200m square piece of ground that has been flattened and has some green wind sheet to protect the replanted flora. It’s an affront and only serves to highlight just how hypocritical big money is. You can’t ride on the beach but you can push a wall of sand hundreds of metres into the sea and strip mine the beach to the bed rock all the way inland for, in some cases kilometres?

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Here, they see fit to just start digging right where the road goes through

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Eric and Nardus’s plan all along was not to go to the RAW. They were to leave us at either Port Nolloth or Alexander Bay and ride the Richtersfeld on their own. Eric’s wife was due to drive up to Vioolsdrif on the Friday to join him for their epic and Nardus was going to ride back on Sunday to the Eastern Cape. Due to some bureaucratic issues Eric’s wife was only going to make it up on the Sunday. So we loosely agreed to meet again at the Widlthing camp later that day to see if Nick and co would take the riff raff.

After a short attempt at trying to get into Oranjemund, I was on my way to Wildthing via crossing into Namibia  at Sendlingsdrif.

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I had a go at riding up the Fish River for a few k’s and then up the Gamkab river

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and out the back to visit my old friend Carlos at the Felix camp. If you ever have the opportunity the road on the northern side of the river back to Vioolsdrif from Rosh Pina is a stunning piece of road.

Next the riding...
 
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