ianhogg
Race Dog
- Joined
- Apr 24, 2010
- Messages
- 1,510
- Reaction score
- 31
- Location
- 34 Stanbury Street, Proserpine, QLD
- Bike
- Kawasaki Versys
Drakensberg Grand Traverse – by motorcycle
Sub: Southern Drakensberg Traverse Bushmans/Sehlabathebe to Sani Top 75km
I’m sure many of you would have read about the Grand Traverse, a six day 200km long hike along the top of the escarpment from Mount aux Sources to Bushman’s Nek and wondered if this would be possible on a motorbike. Others of you will have wondered when you go in at Sani why you have to ride almost 100km inland before you can head South to Quacha’s Nek and why you can't go a more direct route. Well, you wouldn’t be the only ones, myself and Fred (an alias, Fred does not want to be identified by name or image on the internet) have been planning an escarpment edge ride out on Google Earth since 2012 and more recently I mentioned this to Iain and Stuart in Matatiele who had wanted to do the same thing for probably a longer period of time.
The problem is that it is not flat at the top. There are no paths and for the whole ride you will be working your bike over boulders, grassy & heather humps interspersed with significant climbs over rock steps and valleys. The most significant obstacle in this ride is Mashai ridge. From the escarpment there is a 4km cliff on the North side culminating in a saddle at 3265m that you can get a bike (or a sheep) over. If your bike dies on you, you will have to kiss it good bye and start walking and depending which part you've got to it may be more than one day's walk.
The four of us had set a date in stone a while ago. It had to be a weekend when Fred was flying into Natal for a couple of weeks. In retrospect, we couldn't have chosen a worse weekend if we'd tried. It is the time of year of the shortest days and coldest nights and over this weekend a cold front had brought snow up to Lady Gray and on the day of our ride the evening forecast was for -7 degrees and a dusting of snow. Just to make it worse Stuart had family issues to deal with and had to drop out a couple of days before.
Ian and Stuart have done the real work on this trip. The pair of them had recce'd from their farms to the Mashai Ridge, the most difficult part of the ride, and when their wives were doing a charity walk up Sani they rode from Sani Top to Majoe Matso pass finding on the way back a very useful bridle path along the Sani river.
Iain had also found a cottage for hire in Sehlabathebe village called "The Croft" which was kitted out with beds, bedding, gas stove, kitchen equipment and big wood burning stove. The only thing that we took a bit of time to locate was the key to the long drop and our poor driver was just about to explode by the time he found it. This meant we were already 2 hours further ahead than if we'd started at Iain's farm " The Meads" and driven through the border at Ramatseliso's Gate.
Attached: the route in blue and pictures of the croft, Stuart and Iain recce in grey
Next: the ride
Sub: Southern Drakensberg Traverse Bushmans/Sehlabathebe to Sani Top 75km
I’m sure many of you would have read about the Grand Traverse, a six day 200km long hike along the top of the escarpment from Mount aux Sources to Bushman’s Nek and wondered if this would be possible on a motorbike. Others of you will have wondered when you go in at Sani why you have to ride almost 100km inland before you can head South to Quacha’s Nek and why you can't go a more direct route. Well, you wouldn’t be the only ones, myself and Fred (an alias, Fred does not want to be identified by name or image on the internet) have been planning an escarpment edge ride out on Google Earth since 2012 and more recently I mentioned this to Iain and Stuart in Matatiele who had wanted to do the same thing for probably a longer period of time.
The problem is that it is not flat at the top. There are no paths and for the whole ride you will be working your bike over boulders, grassy & heather humps interspersed with significant climbs over rock steps and valleys. The most significant obstacle in this ride is Mashai ridge. From the escarpment there is a 4km cliff on the North side culminating in a saddle at 3265m that you can get a bike (or a sheep) over. If your bike dies on you, you will have to kiss it good bye and start walking and depending which part you've got to it may be more than one day's walk.
The four of us had set a date in stone a while ago. It had to be a weekend when Fred was flying into Natal for a couple of weeks. In retrospect, we couldn't have chosen a worse weekend if we'd tried. It is the time of year of the shortest days and coldest nights and over this weekend a cold front had brought snow up to Lady Gray and on the day of our ride the evening forecast was for -7 degrees and a dusting of snow. Just to make it worse Stuart had family issues to deal with and had to drop out a couple of days before.
Ian and Stuart have done the real work on this trip. The pair of them had recce'd from their farms to the Mashai Ridge, the most difficult part of the ride, and when their wives were doing a charity walk up Sani they rode from Sani Top to Majoe Matso pass finding on the way back a very useful bridle path along the Sani river.
Iain had also found a cottage for hire in Sehlabathebe village called "The Croft" which was kitted out with beds, bedding, gas stove, kitchen equipment and big wood burning stove. The only thing that we took a bit of time to locate was the key to the long drop and our poor driver was just about to explode by the time he found it. This meant we were already 2 hours further ahead than if we'd started at Iain's farm " The Meads" and driven through the border at Ramatseliso's Gate.
Attached: the route in blue and pictures of the croft, Stuart and Iain recce in grey
Next: the ride
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Exactly what I thought.
