2020 Honda Quest

teebag · Nov 7, 2020

https://youtu.be/HoBfUVO3AqY

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Losper · Nov 7, 2020

From Specialised Adventures:

Honda Quest 2020 Day 2

It is now confirmed; Jason Bryden was casevac’d out to Springbok late last night with a suspected and later confirmed fracture of his left lower leg. We send our best and trust there’ll be a speedy recovery Jason.

The contest was designed with a day of settling in and finding their feet so to speak. But, today the easy bits were over and they were to be thrown straight into arguably the toughest day of the competition. It is the 136km of incredibly beautiful but seriously testing Namaqua Eco Trail.

There can be few more iconic desert trails, it often features in the top 3 Desert Adventures for both 4x4’s and Dual Sport bikes in South Africa. But because it has serious sand and technical rocky climbs, it doesn’t see nearly as much bike traffic as the 4x4’s. More so, for this reason, far fewer big adventure class bikes take it on.

The morning was a combination of astounding beauty of the stark desert mountains painted in their wealth of shades, and a trail that required full focus as some were being caught out and made an imprint of themselves on the Richtersveld.

The first of the days serious challenge, was just before midday when “Hell’s Cradle” was entered into. A near mile of sandy canyon twisting riverbed trail snakes between lurking rocks and boulders. Ironically, only one rider took a gentle slow tumble whilst in the meat of the canyon, but many had issues with a section directly after the required skills finish line.

Next up was “staircase to heaven”, a rutted narrow loose switchback climb with steep drop-offs for the unwary. The challenge was made more difficult when an Instructors bike picked up a slight case leak from a meeting with a boulder in the trail hitting the crash bar with enough force to bend it into the case. This unexpected issue created a new team test when the recovery and repairing of the bike was made the contestants’ responsibility to be observed under the watchful eyes of the instructors. They pulled it off fantastically.

The last 40km’s the pace picked up markedly as the trail opened up to vast late afternoon vistas as it curled its way around massive piled boulder mountains towards the national road that links Namibia to South Africa.

As if spending 7 hours to do 136km of grueling desert trails wasn’t nearly enough exercise, whatever the contestants may have held in reserve, was depleted with a short paddle against a howling headwind on the Great Orange River.

There was time for a celebratory beverage before a hearty supper - both not really touching sides – before the evening’s presentations by Nic Rossouw and Andre Bierman. Their topics were on Lake Malawi and the Bongo and Lord Derby Eland.

After a really full day of high adventure, as you would imagine, sleep came very easy after that!

What they don’ know, is that tomorrow they will be riding the Western side of the Richtersveld, an equally tough but far more rockier prospect. It’s definitely not getting any easier.

Video by Kalon films:
[youtube] https://youtu.be/HoBfUVO3AqY [/youtube]

Losper · Nov 7, 2020

.Photo's from Honda SA and Spesialised Adventures

Losper · Nov 8, 2020

Kobus Myburgh · Nov 8, 2020

Fenderbender said:
Chantal Burger said:

Jou post skep die indruk dat jy geen idee het waaroor dit gaan nie, die event is raw, real en unedited.

:imaposer: :imaposer: :imaposer: droom voort Kantel Newbie .

Click to expand...

Ek gaan jou nou nie verder probeer oortuig hoe uniek die Quest is nie. Loer gerus hierna indien jy dit nog nie gekyk het nie. Sit dan terug en geniet die RR, lewer gerus jou insette maar ek dink nie die is die plek vir negatiewe kommentaar nie. Net my 2 sente. Jy is ook welkom om my te bel indien jy vrae het, ek antwoord graag as ek kan - 083 vier 00 9066. :thumleft:

[youtube]https://youtu.be/03daDkzQF0g[/youtube]

Strongs to Jason Brydon, I’m sure he’s gutted at the moment.

**Edit - Ek neem aan jy weet Chantal het so bietjie ondervinding met die tipe goed. [emoji6]

Chantal Burger · Nov 8, 2020

Day 3

What a day!

“I wasn’t expecting it to be this tough!” – Jaco du Plessis, once he’d made it up the narliest climb for the day.

Much had been made of the day in the briefing; as opposed to yesterday where sand was the main dish and rocks the snacks, today it was very much rocks and climbs and more rocks and climbs with just a sprinkling of deep sand river beds for a little added variety.

The day started innocently enough with a gentle meander past river-side farms before turning away from the river and diving into the beautiful, but harsh Western Richtersvelds rocky mountains. And then…

Imagine riding through a vast mountainous desert quite far from anywhere, when around a bend is a forest of balancing stones, or cairns if you will. With not a single sign or notice to say what this is about, it seems the perfectly quiet place that invites one to reflect on one’s own place and space in the world and leave a memory of whatever needs to be left there. The desert had touched many in more ways than just the physical.

Literally right at that experience, the group turned down a little used track to head south for first a stiff warmup of fast open winding jeep track, interspersed with riverbeds and boulder dodging, then, short sharp climbs before the big test; a series of successively steeper climbs the last of which is an intimidating test of momentum and bravery.

The group chose to send the more capable riders up the run, so as to walk back down to spot and help for those who might struggle. The steep track is eroded, filled with large loose rocks, is mostly all off cambered and has a wicked, very steep, chewed up switchback right at the top.

The controlled torque and versatile suspension of the Africa Twin, with much adrenalin and sweat, saw all the riders celebrating overcoming this daunting task at the top, whilst eating freshly toasted jaffles cooked over an open fire.

Although technically all the teams are in a competition against each other, there is a very apparent, ever evolving spirit of Quest comradery amongst them.

The last 80km was fast flowing jeep track, a welcome change from the pace of the previous two days where the average overall speed was just over 20kph.

With still 7 grueling days left, it’s still anyone’s for the taking.