Capie and Vaalie taken for a ride by dodgy Russian

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Xpat

Grey Hound
Joined
Feb 24, 2011
Messages
5,149
Reaction score
76
Bike
AJS (all models)
OK, I’m Czech actually, but most people here do not understand the difference (even though we provided one of the giants of the modern SA society - Radovan Krejcir) so I may as well stick with the Russian for better effect.

I have been on sabbatical for a while now focusing on what I like most - doing bugger-all intersped with riding. After spending some time riding Lesotho and Botswana last November and December, I had to choose where to next. I ride mostly solo, but surprisingly enjoyed  quite a bit the Botswanian stint with my mates from Europe - must be getting old or something. So I decided to give this group riding thingy another try and tested waters with my usual riding compadre - Bertie (Straatkat on WD). He was keen so I decided to show him the best Southern Africa has to offer - north-western Namibian combo of Damaraland and Kaokoland.

I have ridden there few times before so it wasn’t the obvious choice, but after reading MaxThePanda’s report from their ride there last September, I realized that I have missed some nice juicy areas in Damaraland on my prior trips, such as Little Serengeti and Valley of Desolation. Also Hardy de Kock gave me tips of some alternative routes that I haven’t done before - like Robbie’s pass. So I wanted to rectify that and also introduce Bertie to the area.

Bertie was so keen that he bought and kitted brand new second hand KTM 500 just for the trip (he may keep it now though). The only problem was that about half a year ago he fell off a table while making a phone call (cell coverage on his farms is not ideal) and hurt his knee. After trying the standard remedies - positive thinking, reiki, healing crystals and tarot cards reading without success, he resigned himself to a life of misery and pain.

Which I wasn’t keen to deal with in Hoarusib river so I have put serious pressure on Bertie to look at some - admittedly far-fetched - alternatives, like going to see a knee doctor. Who confirmed after FMRI scan that his knee was indeed broken and needs an operation. Bertie was able to get the op scheduled only week before planned departure, so I thought the Nam trip is over and went for a ride to Lesotho. But Bertie is made of tougher stuff and to my surprise told me few days after the op that he is going.

While all this was happening, Justin (JustBendIt here on WD) contacted me for an advice on Kaokoland trip. Spurred by his mate’s MaxThePanda’s trip he wanted to organize a group of Capies for their own trip. I made a mistake of mentioning that we might be heading up there. So he dumped the idea of organizing his own group straight away (knowing full well that about 100 people would sign up in blood straight away, just for all of them to dump him day before departure using some superficial excuse like family or work or some such) and started selling himself as a pillar of society, beer loving Boy Scout, great cook and love connoisseur.

I’m a picky bastard and normally wouldn’t agree to take someone I don’t know on a trip of this magnitude. But I knew that Justin has finished Amageza couple of times indicating he could ride better than Bertie and me combined, and also seen somewhere that he is better with spanners than Bertie and I (I’m useless). And I remembered laughing a lot while reading some of his ride reports, so figured we might be just able to hang together for two weeks trip. In other words I agreed.

Pictures of the crew:

Bertie, the ladies man:

41349314541_204fe08629_b.jpg


Justin, the babysnatcher:

26477735907_cd03a37fb4_b.jpg


And the dodgy Russian - as you can imagine he is not too keen to be photographed, but I managed to source through my channels this low quality selfie (you may want print it and hang in the nearby Pick'n'Pay to warn off his potential victims):

39550949670_c4f4750307_b.jpg


Oh yes, and all of us will be riding the new benchmark for adventure riding, basically the best bike out there full stop - KTM 500. You might disagree or argue with that, but that is all you can do about it.

40465038645_e865aae074_b.jpg


With group settled, I have planned and distributed the route and everybody got their gear and themselves ready for departure. I choose Uis as the starting point and arranged with Basil - owner of the Brandberg Rest Camp - that we can leave our cars there for the next two weeks. We were to meet there on 4th of March and had to set-off day before as it is long 2 day commute - about 1800 km for Justin from Cape Town, and about 200 km less for Bertie and I from Joburg across Botswana. The commute went to plan and we met up at Spitzkoppe, from where we drove together last 100 km to Uis.

A-team packing and on the way:

26477715917_e3eb525799_b.jpg


41306520072_0f8905ebac_b.jpg


The reserve team coming from the south (us Vaalies didn't know Mazda makes bakkie, as we actually care about what we drive in - Cape hippies clearly not so much  :pot:)

39540407600_3f159bf0a1_b.jpg


Here are few highlights to whet the appetite:


39540661840_a8706a056b_b.jpg



26477774867_a5f2388f9c_b.jpg



41349096661_65670db579_b.jpg



39540650320_6aa02d80c1_b.jpg



27477636618_8befe76142_b.jpg



This is going to be mostly a picture report. I have way too many pictures even after final cut so your bandwidth may take a strain. And I am lazy and short of time to comment too much (unless Justin or Bertie take over…) so I will try to let the pictures tell most of the story.

Also, I am leaving for another trip this week, so will start now, but finish only when I’m back sometimes in May, sorry about that.

Attached below, are the GPX tracks of the routes we have ridden on this trip.
 

Attachments

  • Kaokoland 2018 - Day 1: Uis - Palmwag.GPX.zip
    170.5 KB
  • Kaokoland 2018 - Day 2-6.zip
    400.1 KB
  • Kaokoland 2018 - Day 7: VZP campsite to Puros.GPX.zip
    170.4 KB
  • Kaokoland 2018 - Day 8: Huarusib north loop.GPX.zip
    113.6 KB
  • Kaokoland 2018 - Day 9: Puros - Sesfontein.GPX.zip
    103.9 KB
  • Kaokoland 2018 - Day 11: Sesfontein - Damaraland Camp.GPX.zip
    120 KB
  • Kaokoland 2018 - Day 12: Damaraland Camp - Uis.GPX.zip
    122.6 KB
:happy1:

Oh ...you're Czech ...I thought you were just retarded
 
JustBendIt said:
:happy1:

Oh ...you're Czech ...I thought you were just retarded

Not the best of days to find this report, but anyhow. Thanks. Shall enjoy immensely  :lol8:

Baie mooi fotos sover
 
VaalBaas said:
JustBendIt said:
:happy1:

Oh ...you're Czech ...I thought you were just retarded

Not the best of days to find this report, but anyhow. Thanks. Shall enjoy immensely  :lol8:

Baie mooi fotos sover

My opening comments are very much tongue in cheek - I made a new friend for life in Xpat and we shared an amazing trip together  :thumleft:

I have not seen his photos yet ...and I can't wait

I will chip in here and there with my own ramblings and photos
 
JustBendIt said:
VaalBaas said:
JustBendIt said:
:happy1:

Oh ...you're Czech ...I thought you were just retarded

Not the best of days to find this report, but anyhow. Thanks. Shall enjoy immensely  :lol8:

Baie mooi fotos sover

My opening comments are very much tongue in cheek - I made a new friend for life in Xpat and we shared an amazing trip together  :thumleft:

I have not seen his photos yet ...and I can't wait

I will chip in here and there with my own ramblings and photos

Yeah, don't worry, I will get back at you soon enough...  O0 >:D
 
Day 1 - part 1
(pictures in this episode can be viewed at better resolution here: https://flic.kr/s/aHskyFq9p9)

The plan for the day was to make it up to Palmwag through some of the best scenery Damaraland has to offer north of Brandberg, including section of game rich Ugab river, Land Cruiser hill and tracks running past Doros crater and near Valley of Desolation:


27475924208_502a463fbf_b.jpg


The day before we settled into the Brandberg Rest Camp, off-loaded the bikes and packed up all the gear we will need for the next 12 days. Basil, the owner if the Rest Camp and avid biker, gave us advice about some of the routes we were planning to ride and we had the first dinner together.

In the morning we parked our cars in the Rest Camp carports, had breakfast, geared up and set-off. Bertie was very quiet so I checked what’s up and he admitted to being anxious about the riverbeds and sand we were going to hit soon. He is perfectly capable in dirt, but refuses to stand at any cost which can become a problem in the long sections of deep sand.

I probably didn’t help much, informing them the night before that we are going to hit the most dangerous part of the whole trip - section of 10 - 15 km of Ugab river - straight away. Ugab north of Brandberg mountain can be quite dodgy as it is overgrown with dense vegetation and there are plenty of dangerous crickets living there, including the elephants and lions. Last time I tried to ride there I ended up abandoning bike in the middle of the riverbed and beating Usain Bolt’s best times up a rocky outcrop. In Sidi Crossfires.

16655615982_eb4e0d4017_b.jpg



16469169530_4f47ceaf9e_b.jpg



So there was a good reason for concern and I pondered for a bit the chicken route running across a dune field away from the river. But I decided to stick with the plan for few reasons. First of all, Basil told us that elephants have moved upriver and are not in the area. Second, we were on lightweight 500s that are joy to ride in sand even sitting and agile enough (unlike Tenere above) to turn around in a hurry should be bump into grumpy elly. I would be the scout through the area and told the other two to stay way behind should I run into trouble.

With that little encouragement we set-off from Uis heading 30 km or so on the dirt highways to the White Lady Campsite, where we hit the Ugab river.


26296397437_34cb216f23_b.jpg



26296422297_16e2cd4ac9_b.jpg


Soon enough we reached the dodgy narrow section of the river and as you can see yourself from the tracks, straightaway found out that Basils intel was outdated. There was plenty of fresh elephant spoor. And the place was greener than I have ever seen it (this will be common theme throughout the whole trip) so visibility was very limited. We proceeded with caution giving whatever was lurking out there enough time to move away.


40272873885_02deff0c54_b.jpg



39358345650_2bf6f8e76f_b.jpg



39358355570_f5bb4c7836_b.jpg



40456242314_42224e7bc4_b.jpg


Soon enough we came upon long flooded section running through dense reefs. I went to check it out while the other two waited behind and it got deep very quickly. Not keen to drown bike in this jungle where one can feel the eyes watching his back, we found an alternative tracks heading north away from the river. This detour brought us back to the river further downstream where the river was wider and water less.


27295124308_409549e921_b.jpg



27295146948_130a9ae60d_b.jpg



39358448810_501f80fa20_b.jpg



26296521767_3cd9ed9d37_b.jpg


I am a big believer in natural order of the things. While I was supposedly the leader of the group as I was there before and planned the route, by now it became pretty clear that Justin was by far the fastest one of the bunch and keen to ride fast not that bothered by the scenery. I on the other hand was the slowest, because I was stopping frequently for the pics. Justin had GPS and the tracks (I insisted that everybody must have GPS and the routes I have sent, so that if we split either by accident or by decision, each of us can find our way out), which is perfect for this kind of scenario so I send him ahead, with Bertie (who is not keen GPS user and thought he forgotten his at home - he found it few days back at the bottom of his day pack) riding between us. We have more or less stuck to this riding order for the rest of the trip, allowing each of us to enjoy the aspects of the trip each of us liked the most.

The track I plotted run unbeknownst to me away from the river on the Brandberg side. I haven’t been there yet so I wasn’t complaining and enjoyed the scenery only this part of Namibia can offer.


41169136411_56a3335996_b.jpg



40456339524_7e71a7bbc1_b.jpg



41169145581_69360ed6a1_b.jpg



39358542350_ec1b548e35_b.jpg



40456393234_878fb4ef44_b.jpg


At one point I caught up with Bertie who had a little mishap, being helped back to his feet by an Austrian guy in 4x4 whom I have met 3 months ago in Kasane, Botswana. He was very envious of my 500 in Kasane, and doubly so here (he used to work in KTM and as a bike guide in Alps). Small world.

We eventually reconnected to the river, at the point where we were going split from the river heading north up a T4A ‘Not Recommended’ track that will bring us up to the ‘Land Cruiser Hill’ sitting at the top of a dunefield.


40456406904_c26d9dcc93_b.jpg



41124700242_b8d10dc332_b.jpg



26296603847_903d1ebb81_b.jpg


Track up to Land Cruiser Hill - not recommended by T4A, as far as I'm concerned - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED:


26296618727_3de14ddda1_b.jpg



40273180375_e7c488b7a5_b.jpg



26296657707_2689f52ba4_b.jpg



40456511984_30d801e0c3_b.jpg


We have made it to the top of the dunefield and took a short break, before pushing onto the sandy plain ahead.


39358718780_1a5eb64acd_b.jpg



40273257035_02ab318799_b.jpg


Location, location... would pay good money for this one:


40273280215_d2cd6ecc53_b.jpg



40273297355_e1a75f3f9e_b.jpg



41124873542_737baacdb6_b.jpg



41169399561_ed19569e9f_b.jpg


Brandberg - highest mountain of Namibia delineating southern boundary of Damaraland (I think):


39358814150_005ac52333_b.jpg



41169431271_bb3beee84e_b.jpg



41169621811_9419f1e26f_b.jpg




 
Whuaaww .......... another great RR in progress ............ :thumleft: :thumleft:
 
Day 1 - part 2
(pictures in this episode can be viewed at better resolution here: https://flic.kr/s/aHskyFq9p9)

Now on the high ground above Ugab, we continued across the sandy plains intersped by rocky sections west towards the Doros crater:


40273365955_7f7ae9c9b0_b.jpg



40273394575_56948345c4_b.jpg



27295594848_1d5498801a_b.jpg



26296839657_d55c63a98b_b.jpg



40273432275_30d0522d77_b.jpg



26296880747_2aa8ca8352_b.jpg



41125052662_6a974338f0_b.jpg



39359035050_15bd036541_b.jpg



We came upon an old abandoned settlement with car wreck nearby which brought out the boys hiding in Justin and Bertie:


41169687151_5649223245_b.jpg



41169695971_874675a84c_b.jpg



41125163782_47b3cc9130_b.jpg


Despite his morning anxiety, Bertie was doing fine. He took a tumble here and there, but all laughing matter and nothing serious. However after having to lift his bike for umpteenth time Justin had a good look at Bertie’s luggage and spotted the problem. In his attempt to not put too much load on the subframe, Bertie had his Coyote back mounted too much to the front, which together with the tankbag that he foolishly brought with wedged him into fixed position without any possibility of movement so important while riding offroad. So we stopped at the most convenient shade and Justin helped Bertie to rectify the problem by moving Coyote further back (annoyingly though there was nothing we could do about the tankbag - it was going with us all the way).


39359130360_cc1a75d96e_b.jpg



26297002137_d7e1a8ec22_b.jpg



41169754191_cdd7aa330d_b.jpg



40456998364_46e2425794_b.jpg


Once done we pushed on soon hitting the rocky high plains near Doros crater:


41169821951_13ccb9f5f0_b.jpg



41169830501_c9353c8c87_b.jpg



41125350512_06737911b0_b.jpg


Bertie with Doros crater in the background:


40273796215_bbcc2e14b9_b.jpg



27296151988_959525f635_b.jpg



41169916031_1b6c18ca55_b.jpg


Within 10 - 15 km of the last stop we stopped again at little dry riverbed for lunch break. It took me a bit by surprise as I usually do not like to linger out in the sun in the middle of nowhere during the day depleting my water reserves and tend to focus on making it to the destination, or at least the place where there is water available. Also stopping in the middle of the ride gives body wrong signals - it’s time to chill - and it came to bear when Bertie did and I almost did fall asleep. I would have much preferred to have eaten if necessary (I usually don’t eat during ride - just morning and evening) during the last stop when we adjusted the luggage. But this was our first day and we didn’t discuss any of this upfront as we were just getting to know each other, so no biggie - I just made a note to lobby later for minimizing number of stops (by which I mean real stops, when you climb off the bike and take your jacket off and generally get into chill mode - not quick stops to take picture or two, which is one of the objectives of these trips, at least for me) in order to get to the destination earlier and rather chill there. That all said, the scenery was quite alright:


40273854695_4f36b59394_b.jpg



40273862335_4ca6e648d8_b.jpg
 
Top