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:
Justin, the babysnatcher:
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):
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.
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:
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 ot
Here are few highlights to whet the appetite:
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.
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:
Justin, the babysnatcher:
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):
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.
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:
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 ot
Here are few highlights to whet the appetite:
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
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Kaokoland 2018 - Day 1: Uis - Palmwag.GPX.zip170.5 KB
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Kaokoland 2018 - Day 2-6.zip400.1 KB
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Kaokoland 2018 - Day 7: VZP campsite to Puros.GPX.zip170.4 KB
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Kaokoland 2018 - Day 8: Huarusib north loop.GPX.zip113.6 KB
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Kaokoland 2018 - Day 9: Puros - Sesfontein.GPX.zip103.9 KB
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Kaokoland 2018 - Day 11: Sesfontein - Damaraland Camp.GPX.zip120 KB
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Kaokoland 2018 - Day 12: Damaraland Camp - Uis.GPX.zip122.6 KB