Day 8 Kunene – Epupa 97km - D day...........We wake up on Day 8, thinking this will just be another challenging day in the saddle, but Nam had a few surprises up her sleeve......
As arranged we have a slow breakfast first, knowing that we need to fuel up on energy , but this comes at a cost, we knew we would sacrifice the cold morning weather by having breakfast first and we would start the day in the heat.....
Slow breakfast
Eventually we head out, at around 10:00 am that morning .......... we were told the first 20km will be easy and then it will get interesting.......
In the first 20km's all goes well , it always takes old Mad dog a couple of minutes to get into a rhythm and at a particular downhill he looses his cool for a minute , but makes it down eventually .......
(with some encouraging words from his brother ......a.k.a. screaming at your brother)
We take in the awesome scenery as we go along .........
(This is the Kunene River ofcourse)
There is some sandy patches as well
Some more rocks
Some small river crossings
All in all, just some amazing scenery.......... then came the uphills............
(My number plate removed earlier by back wheel spewing rocks......)
Eswee takes a bit of a beating on the very first proper uphill, we also get caught by the other group and they briefly assist us in getting up, it goes fairly easy, we notice that some of their guys is also overheating...... but we all soldier on , we meet up with them a few hundred meters later again and everyone whom is suffering is being cooled down by their mates.......
A few more uphills and some more rocks and old Eswee is totally out of it, he is really suffering, overheating etc. etc. he gives us a scare at the next stop and we decide to take a proper long breather to allow for recovery, we spend about an hour on the side of the road , just relaxing, and keep on pouring water on the okes ............
We tackle a few more decent climbs fairly easily, however my beast is spewing out rocks like a Gatling gun, so it is not advisable to be behind me, the weight of fuel water, parts , food etc. is also taking its toll, I somehow get the feeling that the poor back tyre must be taking a beating .....................and the fan is running all the time, the heat and the work of the machine is taking its toll
At the heat of the day in the middle of an uphill I stall my bike and drop it , we pick it up and with my luck it will not start .................. Battery dead ,
It is around 14:00 and the sun is moering down on us, at this point in time a letter gets drafted to KTM telling them to cool down the damn bikes without draining the battery, a lot of swearing takes place!!
We eventually get poor old Eswee's bike next to mine to jump it, it is at this point in time that another long letter gets drafted to BMW telling them that they should fit the battery at and accessible spot on the bike .......... We have to take of all of his luggage to get to the battery (and yes we know some smart ass will tell us to run a cable , blah blah blah!!)
After 45 minutes the beast awakens and I take off, I need to keep the bike going at all cost, so I race ahead for about 5km's in the heat, the fan remains on giving the bike little time to recharge, once I see a river crossing I stop to close up everything first, I also wait for the boys, I start filling up water bottles to cool them down, I feel extremely guilty for the pain I put them through ..................
They arrive a few minutes later and both the letters to KTM and BMW is sent off.......
All of a sudden the locals appear from the bush and we take photo's - Eswee is too tired to take a photo......
Based on our calculations we should be over the worst and we continue............
At some point in time we see this old victim on the side of the road............
We soldier through quite a number of uphills and take a last long breather before taking on the last 25km's, this we know should go quick based on what we were told........
Always trying to keep cool
Whilst taking in the scenery
Sandhond urges me to go a bit faster to push the group to make sure we arrive before sunset, I oblige and I fly through the next 5km's at exactly 20km's to go I get a flat!!!!!!!!!!
IMPACT puncture ...............Fark!!
At this point in time everyone is dehydrated , light is fading fast and we just want to get home .......... Myself and Eswee start changing the tyre , whilst Liam gets sidetracked and start talking about a caramel bar that melt in his bag, we blame his lack of coherency on dehydration, I ask him to fill my backpack full of water as I can feel I am not well.
We change the tyre at last and just before we fit it, we inflate it.................. only to find that we pinched the tube........... FAAARRRKKKK. We change the tube again, wasting precious water on the procedure.......... Liam/ Sandhond is still sidetracked. This time we do it slower and more cautiously as this is our last tube............
Done and dusted, fitted and perfectly inflate we head off...
For some reason we still get a few climbs eventhough we should be in the clear, we have a few small quick debates whether or not we are on the correct track as we see no other tracks from the other bikes..... but we still have mountains on our left and the river on our right.........
Some more uphills
At this point in time I try to drink from my backpack only to find old Sandhond forgot to fill mine............ bliksem!!
The beast takes a breather
12km's later we cross a large sandy patch , by know everyone is tired, and Eswee drops his bike and breaks his clutch lever...... patience is limited and we change that thing at the speed of light ............ everyone is drained , water is limited, no food etc. but at least we have only 8km's to go......
Clutch lever gone
We are all counting the last few km's and once we reach 96km's we start talking about the beers that we are gonna have etc. At 97km's we start looking for some sort of sign of some kind, at 98km's we are starting to doubt ourselves, at 103km's we realise we are in k*k.............
WE ARE LOST....................
We take out the GPS and try to orientate ourselves, and we realise we are way of course....... we can only see the general direction we should be heading in but the GPS cannot give us distance or anything as we are in the middle of nowhere.....
Light is limited and we all know the rule that one is not suppose to ride in the dark .................. We head of quickly, We give old Mad dog the chance to ride up front but with limited success...........
It is getting darker and darker and we still have no idea how much further to go, I keep on telling Mad dog it is not much further and he keeps on motivating for us just to stop, camp and sleep...... He rides cautiously as he knows there is no more parts ... clutch lever or tubes (ofcourse we can patch some tubes)
We keep on pushing and Mad dog wants to stop NOW!! It is dark and he wants to stop !! As I am about to admit defeat a 3 meter wide gravel road appears .............. and the GPS shows us our way home
21km's to go...........
We drive as slow as possible on the road , we know that this is the ideal time to make costly mistakes, most okes start relaxing and speeding up towards the end , but there is a lot of game on the road , we ride next to each other at 60km/h and once again start the conversation on the beers we are gonna have once we get to camp..........
Another letter gets sent to BMW for having the worst headlights in the world
A poor old rabbit runs across the road and Eswee rides over it ...... bunny killer
We make it to Epupa and pop into the first camp we see........ they are closed already but is willing to open the kitchen and makes a mean "russian and chips" for us, we buy a few cold drinks (no beers) and head off to bed,
Moeg!!
\
Get undressed
The owner must've felt sorry for us as they give us a half built bungalow on the waterfall and tell us to sleep there and then there is no need to still set up camp in the dark............ we go and have a shower, and off to bed ..................
What a day
The next day we will assess the damage.........
Topic: 3 Idiots take on NAM_KTM view (Read 6579 times)
