noble steed
Race Dog
So, the plan was to meet Red Adventure on his easter trip, join him up Sani and past Katze, out lesotho at Ficksburg, then continue alone around the western border down to Barclay East, and finish up through Rhodes and over Naudes neck.
Unfortunately, things first went wrong when Red left the wrong number for me on the forum, so the unexpected little delay could not be communicated, and they left up Sani without me. Not to worry, I'd just continue up myself, and if I got stuck was carrying full camping gear so could fend for myself...
The trip up to Sani was cold and misty, had to stop twice to add more layers to my gear, but when I eventually left the tar it had warmed up quite nicely. Got to the gravel around 9am, mist lifting, and started enjoying myself
The roads just past the hotel, leading up to the border post
And leaving South Africa! Never done this before on a bike. Or in a car, for that matter...
Just past the border post immediately ran into some herdsmen tending their livestock. The animals have right of way, it seems.
From then the ride started to get more fun, stopping to admire the view, passing a few cars who thought they needed to be in low range right from the bottom of the pass. As the mist lifted it was really beautiful!
And shortly thereafter I suffered my first lapse in concentration. On a perfectly good section of pass, with only odd rocks strewn across the road, I dodged one only to hit the bigger one just behind it. Shouldn't have been admiring it so closely, then I'd probably have missed it
It was here that I realised I couldn't pick up my fully loaded bike by myself. So I unloaded it, popped it upright, pressed the big GO button, and... nothing. After 15minutes of checking fuses and wandering what went wrong, I got things working after dusting out the side stand switch and all was well again.
As the road climbed higher I realised riding 4x a year does not keep you bike fit, and needed to rest every few hairpins. Gave me more time for photos though!
And so I continued to climb. As I reached the rockier top section, I missed my planned line and got the back wheel stuck in a donga. Luckily I was quite effectively blocking the road, so a taxi was forced to send two men to help me push the bike out. 50m after the donga I hit another big rock. Well, all the rocks where big by that stage, I just didn't manage with sufficient forward momentum after coming together with said rock, and had a little slip up. Again, as the taxi could still not pass me, someone politely helped me lift the bike. I decided I'd unload luggae to tackel the last bit, and walk down to retrieve it.
And then after some more eventful climbing, about 3 U-turns from the top, I bounced off something towards the downhill edge of the road, over-corrected a bit too sharply, and gently laid the strom down across the road. After managing to extract myself from beneath it, I found I could not lift it, as it was sloping downhill, and my arms felt a bit like jelly by that stage and could not lift anything. However, the next 2 taxis past decided they could drive around me without having to assist me in lifting the bike, and so it lay there for about 20minutes leaving a little oil trail down the path. Finally a run down taxi helped me lift it up, wqas grateful for their help.
I decided to go fetch my luggage, but my forearms where so cramped up I could hardly even drag it up the road the 70m or so, needed to rest every 20m. Got back to the bike and found that apart from the sudden lack of oil, the clutch was also slipping. So I took a break and took some more photos.
Some friendly passers by advised to free-wheel the bike back down the pass, but my arms where so weak I didn't feel confident in not steering the bike off the mountain. SO I called for help, and in less than 2 hours, help arrived! (Thanks for your help with the help, Operator). Loading the bike on the back of the bakkie simply involved driving the bakkie off the road so that the loadbed was level with the road, and then somehow driving the bakkie back onto the road again.
So now I'm left with the frustration of almost doing Sani pass! Next time I'll leave the camping gear, find a riding buddy and get that lesotho border control stamp in my passport! Maybe next month ;D
So now just have to rustle up some new indicators, unbend my twisted sidestand bracket so that I can actually use my sidestand, and figure out whats rattling at 6000rpm. Then I'll set a date for round 2!
Unfortunately, things first went wrong when Red left the wrong number for me on the forum, so the unexpected little delay could not be communicated, and they left up Sani without me. Not to worry, I'd just continue up myself, and if I got stuck was carrying full camping gear so could fend for myself...
The trip up to Sani was cold and misty, had to stop twice to add more layers to my gear, but when I eventually left the tar it had warmed up quite nicely. Got to the gravel around 9am, mist lifting, and started enjoying myself
The roads just past the hotel, leading up to the border post
And leaving South Africa! Never done this before on a bike. Or in a car, for that matter...
Just past the border post immediately ran into some herdsmen tending their livestock. The animals have right of way, it seems.
From then the ride started to get more fun, stopping to admire the view, passing a few cars who thought they needed to be in low range right from the bottom of the pass. As the mist lifted it was really beautiful!
And shortly thereafter I suffered my first lapse in concentration. On a perfectly good section of pass, with only odd rocks strewn across the road, I dodged one only to hit the bigger one just behind it. Shouldn't have been admiring it so closely, then I'd probably have missed it
It was here that I realised I couldn't pick up my fully loaded bike by myself. So I unloaded it, popped it upright, pressed the big GO button, and... nothing. After 15minutes of checking fuses and wandering what went wrong, I got things working after dusting out the side stand switch and all was well again.
As the road climbed higher I realised riding 4x a year does not keep you bike fit, and needed to rest every few hairpins. Gave me more time for photos though!
And so I continued to climb. As I reached the rockier top section, I missed my planned line and got the back wheel stuck in a donga. Luckily I was quite effectively blocking the road, so a taxi was forced to send two men to help me push the bike out. 50m after the donga I hit another big rock. Well, all the rocks where big by that stage, I just didn't manage with sufficient forward momentum after coming together with said rock, and had a little slip up. Again, as the taxi could still not pass me, someone politely helped me lift the bike. I decided I'd unload luggae to tackel the last bit, and walk down to retrieve it.
And then after some more eventful climbing, about 3 U-turns from the top, I bounced off something towards the downhill edge of the road, over-corrected a bit too sharply, and gently laid the strom down across the road. After managing to extract myself from beneath it, I found I could not lift it, as it was sloping downhill, and my arms felt a bit like jelly by that stage and could not lift anything. However, the next 2 taxis past decided they could drive around me without having to assist me in lifting the bike, and so it lay there for about 20minutes leaving a little oil trail down the path. Finally a run down taxi helped me lift it up, wqas grateful for their help.
I decided to go fetch my luggage, but my forearms where so cramped up I could hardly even drag it up the road the 70m or so, needed to rest every 20m. Got back to the bike and found that apart from the sudden lack of oil, the clutch was also slipping. So I took a break and took some more photos.
Some friendly passers by advised to free-wheel the bike back down the pass, but my arms where so weak I didn't feel confident in not steering the bike off the mountain. SO I called for help, and in less than 2 hours, help arrived! (Thanks for your help with the help, Operator). Loading the bike on the back of the bakkie simply involved driving the bakkie off the road so that the loadbed was level with the road, and then somehow driving the bakkie back onto the road again.
So now I'm left with the frustration of almost doing Sani pass! Next time I'll leave the camping gear, find a riding buddy and get that lesotho border control stamp in my passport! Maybe next month ;D
So now just have to rustle up some new indicators, unbend my twisted sidestand bracket so that I can actually use my sidestand, and figure out whats rattling at 6000rpm. Then I'll set a date for round 2!
