NoelineT
Puppy
- Joined
- Jun 7, 2010
- Messages
- 45
- Reaction score
- 0
- Bike
- BMW F650GS / Dakar
10 days, 4 bikers and one awesome adventure in Lesotho!
Day 1 - High Spirits, long roads and itchy throttle hands
Distance traveled: 950km (Bakkie with trailer) / Min altitude: 0km / Max altitude: 1270m
Day 2 - “I fell! Why didn’t anybody take a photo?!” - Riaan
Distance traveled: 300km / Min altitude: 1270m / Max altitude: 2500m
Day 3 - Camping inside the river’s flood-line - not our brightest moment...
Distance traveled: 280km / Min altitude: 1430m / Max altitude: 2560m
Day 1 - High Spirits, long roads and itchy throttle hands
Distance traveled: 950km (Bakkie with trailer) / Min altitude: 0km / Max altitude: 1270m
| “So we’re leaving here at 6am, ok?” Those were the words that had us at R-O-V-Rat’s doorstep Thursday evening already. Friday morning, rolling out of bed took a little longer for Oom Eikeboom than the rest of us, but, true to his words, the wheels rolled just before daybreak. Fitting 2 people into the backseat of the SuperCab Ford Ranger was surprisingly easy and we settled in for the the trip. The Veldskoen Padstal was a welcome sight and our breakfast stop. 
Refueled (us) and secured (the bikes) we hit the N1 to Beaufort West. From there it was straight through to Bethulie with a couple of driver swaps along the way. 
11 hours and 950km later we finally found Ou Vellies Bike-packers on the other side of Bethulie, a welcome sight indeed! We were warmly welcomed by Peter & Annette and their stunning venison pies and muffins. 
After unloading the bikes, we packed the bakkie away for it’s 9 day stay in Bethulie. The bikes also had a roof over their heads for the night. 
|
Day 2 - “I fell! Why didn’t anybody take a photo?!” - Riaan
Distance traveled: 300km / Min altitude: 1270m / Max altitude: 2500m
| Murphy’s Law #324 - “Warn other people enough times about a danger to look out for and you will forget about looking yourself” Just after 8 we departed Bethulie under heavy, grey skies. 
Annette had insisted I don my rainsuit when we left the Ou Vellies and, as she’d predicted, the rain started soon after we left. 
We stopped in Zastron for some breakfast and a new rainsuit for Riaan. Here we discovered the biltong and everybody stocked up for Lesotho – we’ll be needing our protein  
Our next stop – Telle Bridge border control. 
My first impressions of Lesotho was the overpowering smell of passion fruit – we later found the plant responsible – people and taxi’s. This soon changed to beautifull scenery and water everywhere! Our first obligatory police roadblock went without a hitch and the winding route to Lake Letsie started. 
Riaan had warned us endlessly about the slippery watercrossings – probably the only surface I haven’t fallen on, yet – so when I heard a crash behind me I immediately stopped. We all rushed to make sure he was ok, in the process forgetting to grap a photo. He was understandibly upset... 
When we reached Lake Letsie, our camping spot for the night, the rain let up only long enough for us to put up tents. By 7:30 we were all in bed and mostly passed out. 
|
Day 3 - Camping inside the river’s flood-line - not our brightest moment...
Distance traveled: 280km / Min altitude: 1430m / Max altitude: 2560m
| Daybreak had us up and the bikes reloaded a little slower than the day before. First destination for the day – Ongeluksnek Pass. It sounded very ... encouraging – I should have guessed what we were in for by the huge grins the guys were sporting. 
About a third down, Charl and Cornelis decided to go all the way to the bottom while Riaan and I slowly made our way back to the top of Lake Letsie. They caught up with us in no time at all 
Hopping back on the A4, we continued our journey to Mphaki. 
Around 4 we decided to call it a day – the guys sped off into the bundu’s looking for a suitable place to camp while I made sure the road stayed exactly where it was. They found a beautiful spot right next to the river and we pitched camp for the second night. Disgusted with ourselves for being in bed so early the previous night, we attempted a social evening in Riaan and Charl’s tent – we were only in bed by 8:30 this time. A thunderstorm had started making itself heard by nightfall and Cornelis had instructions to shout if he started drifting downriver! 
|
