NAMIBIAN HARDCORE VOLCANO RUN - Completed

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Stevie

Race Dog
Joined
Sep 11, 2009
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Location
Fourways - Gauteng
Bike
Suzuki DR350
Well here goes, Jimbo's HARDCORE Volcano run - Mount Bruckaros Namibia.

To avoid too much confusion a few points must be clarified about strange names and even stranger spelling.

In the prelude to the run, Jimbo had in normal understated fashion put together a very good set of rally notes for all participants.

Firstly it came about that we spelt Brukkaros with a double "K" - only when we got there did we see the correct spelling  - we still preferred  the  double "K".

Jimbo's notes also referred to the Nabian road tax payable at Aroab. One of our sharper eyed participants picked upon it and the name just stuck - "Onward to Nabia" just had a more romantic ring to it - so Nabia it will forever be (at least for these 3 adventurers)
The Nabian salute - not altogether politically correct in some circles - provided much mirth and a good picker up when things got a bit too tough, hot and hardcore.

Jimbo's introduction quoted below:

A bald recital of events, without prejudice, fear or favour.

Seven days, and six nights with no predetermined destination for each day.  Main ride from Mafikeng to Mount Brukkaros in central southern Namibia.  Return to Mafikeng by different, but similar route.  Approximately 1300km each way.  The dates were chosen to provide mild nights and reasonable day time temperatures, and to coincide with the period of full moon.


...sounds like a lekker outride with some mates - piela, knock it over and klap a few beers under the stars every night.... - ja right  :eek:

As the RR fills a page or two, bear in mind that there are very few action photos and even though the pics are of dusty riders around their bikes, the distances and terrain covered between pics tested us thoroughly.
Most times I was more than relieved to have just made the next rest point.

Chris's intro below

I think it is probably a dream of most guys to do a motorcycle trip into Africa. You can picture yourself on one of the big adventure bikes riding off into the African sunset. Recently, my dream came true as I joined a group of friends on a 2700km trip from Mafeking along the Botswana border into Namibia and to the Brukkaros Volcano Crater and back, a trip spanning 7 days and plus minus 400km per day.

So after the usual preparation phase synonymous with a trip of this nature - Jim and I left Fourways just before 07h00 on Friday morning - destination Mafikeng, the arranged meeting point.
Unfortunately no escort dogs as work commitments kept the boys shackled behind their desks.

The trip to Mafikeng was uneventful apart from a heavy head and crosswind that saw us being buffeted for most of the ride northwest.
We also had a moment when we unintentionally started too early from one of the roadwork stops and had to make ourselves very small as the trucks and busses bore down on us on the very narrow single lane with no regard for our predicament.

My little scoot had developed a thirst that is quite uncharacteristic so had to stop at Coligny to fill up. Jim took the time to adjust his hydrapack

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Chris was keen and ready when we arrived

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The boys from Lichtenburg arrived not long after and the route notes were handed out.
the first section was to Ratlabama about 20km of tar. Then off into the villages that are dotted around this area. Jim threaded our little safari of 9 bikes between the homes and before long we were on the border fence..... lekkerrrrr....?????  
.... :eek: and then Jim took off at speeds I struggle with on dirt roads - wtf??? does he want us to keep up at those sort of speeds.

I was riding second with Chris shepherding me. I gave myself a decent dust gap and tried to hang on to Jim's rapidly disappearing  taillight - futile.
The ride was fast and exhilarating and I soon found my rhythm although I was still intimidated by the speed Jim was putting down.
(a word of respect here to the dog on the V-Strom with road tyres that was right behind us at each stop - I don't know how you did it, but you did it very well)

After a million turns, big eyes and clenched knuckles we arrived at Pitsane for a re-group and re-fuel.
The Sasol was out of fuel so the next leg to Bray was going to be touch and go - for those of us that had not filled up at Mafikeng - the adventure had started.

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Jim's summary of the day:

Day 1.
Left Fourways 07h00 via tar road to Mafikeng.  Adverse head winds and stop / go road works on sections to Ventersdorp.  Arrived at Mafikeng 10h45 and met Chris, Renier, Gerard, Mike and three others from Lichtenburg.  Handed out Route Schedule to Gods Warrior for him and his followers.  Carried out a short briefing at Nandos, and left Mafikeng en-mass (9 riders) for the border fence at Ramatlabama at noon.  The border fence has an un-maintained 4 x 4 track on the SA side which is used occasionally by SAPS to do border patrol.  One can be pretty much assured of not encountering any vehicular traffic.  The track was mainly dry flood / mud plains with some sandy patches, sometimes no track at all and plenty of corners.  There was no petrol at the station at Phitsane, which rattled a few riders.


Chris summed day 1 up

The day finally arrived for the adventure to begin. We all met at Mafeking on the first leg of 258km to Bray. Now I was an average motorcrosser in the late 80’s and also did a handful of enduros in the early nineties but I was not entirely prepared for the first leg. Luckily we followed our leader Jim who was teaching us as we went. The first lesson we learnt was that speed was your friend in soft sand and the faster you went the more stable you were. (Very hard to translate this from your brain to your throttle hand).  

Note to all:
Jim's first lesson - if you don't keep up you get left behind

(Fixed header-RobC)
 
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