Caledon River via the Mountain Kingdom

[sidetrack]

Photobucket is faarked up using cellphone connection so I'm just going to attach the piccies.

Thursday morning arrived and LouisXander and myself met up just of the M2, our destination for the day was Ramabanta where we would meet up with other dogs on route to the bash. Distance for the day about 500 km, nothing serious a liesurely cruise that we had the whole day for to complete (famous last words ..).

1- Riding ds bikes means you get to see all the little towns that you would normally never get to see and the small town folk usually are quite pleased to see you too  :biggrin: Just outside Koppies we took the first pic of the day, LX packed everything except the kitchen sink ! After Koppies it was of towards Kroonstad where we would stop over at some of Louis family farm for some proper breakfast.

2- The first dirt off the day leading to the farm house, the rain were yet to reach this part of the world.

3- After breakfast and some biking stories it was on towards Clocolan, not sure if the tracks were part of the farm or not but it made for some nice riding.

 

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This part of the Eastern Freestate turned out to be pretty flat, tweespoor made it's way across the veld with the odd deserted farmhouse appearing next to the road. I could see myself coming back and exploring some more of these roads, rocky in some places made a bit more interesting with the Strom handling it no sweat. On the way towards Clocolan I had a moment rounding a corner I drifted wide and as I opened the throttle the back spun around until I was completely sideways. The bike highsided and I made the perfect gat oor kop over the bars as myself and the bike landed up in a thorn brush. I was fine and the bike only had a cracked rear view mirror, it really does crash well  :biggrin:

 

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Just before Clocolan we came upon this farmhouse, a big sandstone house from yesteryear. The effort that went into building these must have been quite a feat. We went inside and the old oven, bath and sink were all still in place. It seems looting has luckily not made it to this part of the world yet. Reaching town it was time for a drinks break before heading for Labybrand and then onto Lesotho.

 

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Getting into Lesotho took all of ten minutes, I was still taking my passport out when the official said "no no just pay R20". Well I guess there are some advantages belonging to SADC or whatever it's called. Lesotho like most rural areas are a minefield of donkeys, sheep and horses and the ever present taxi's. The winding roads feels like ages to complete 20 km. Ah we would make Ramabanta with a couple of daylight hours to spare, only thing is when we got there it was totally deserted and nothing resembling backpackers or chalets at all. Picture the western movies where tumbleweed makes it way across the screen and you would know what we found ! Great we arrived at the wrong Ramabanta and according to the locals who barely speaks english the other Ramabanta was far and over the mountains ! So we set of into the sunset and with darkness upon us battled steep hillsides and rocky paths and then it started raining. The Strom had one fall climbing out of the river with the Anakees but for the most part we made it ok. Eventually the T4A showed the other Ramabanta and with a "cold beer" icon popping up we knew this had to be the place. We were there at last, beer never tasted that good and some stories of Lesotho at night and KLR's doing 157 km/h past a speedtrap made for some lekker k*k praat.

 

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Next morning dawned and taking a stroll around the lodge showed that it was truly a beautifull part of Lesotho, no wander everyone comes here to ride the Roof. The route for that day was basicly the same track we rode the day before and doing it in daytime made things much easier. The group getting ready to decend into the valley below. The group made some stops in search of beer although fridges are scarce around here. I had a puncture on the front wheel while coming down the pass, lots of helpfull dogs around though !

 

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After a enjoyable days ride through Lesotho we made it to the campsite with quite a number of people allready there with tents pitched. The setting was perfect with plenty of trees and soft sand to chill on at the rivers edge. Cono made a spectacular entrance and LS showed class arriving on a kickass bike  ;D WHS's Desert Express looked the business and there was a BM 450 X to check out.

 

[Zeff Cowboy]

Nice pics

 

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On Saturday I joined HHHusky, Major Tom and friend for a ride around Smithfield up to Wepener and back to the campsite. Some easy gravel around these parts, we stopped over at the Lord Fraser and despite waiting what seemed like an hour for our food it was superb, much better than instant noodles  Crossed the Caledon River when we came back and saw a guy flyfishing and catching some Yellowfish. Should have brought my fishing rod, the river seems to be teaming with fish despite the antics upstream  Another good days riding and a braai pack to look forward to, as Crazyporra would say "another kark day in Africa" !

 

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Sundays ride home started at around 7am, riding back with HHH and company our first stop was the Wimpy in Ladybrand for a BIG breakfast and then onto Hobhouse and Ficksburg for some dirt and a stop at an old sandstone silo. Crossed a bridge dating from 1920 and then back on the tar towards Sasolburg where I almost ran out of fuel looking for a petrol station (imagine that). The time passed all to quick with the next day being work as usual. Ended up doing around 1700 km riding Lesotho twice but had a great time and thanks to everyone who made this weekend a great success !

 

[GreenMamba1974]

glad to see a strom tackling lesotho and coming through.  did you guys find the strom holding you up at all?

thanks for posting, great RR and even better pics.

:thumleft: :thumleft:

 

[sidetrack]

glad to see a strom tackling lesotho and coming through.  did you guys find the strom holding you up at all?

thanks for posting, great RR and even better pics.

:thumleft: :thumleft:

The Strom did just fine, if you can ride any ds bike will go through there.

 

[GreenMamba1974]

glad to see a strom tackling lesotho and coming through.  did you guys find the strom holding you up at all?

thanks for posting, great RR and even better pics.

:thumleft: :thumleft:

The Strom did just fine, if you can ride any ds bike will go through there.

thanks, thought as much but was keen to know for sure.  some RR of lesotho have looked hectic and perhaps too much for a strom.
nice to know that me boney can handle it with the rest of them 

 

[BlueBull2007]

Great pics! Great ride too, thanks for sharing! :ricky:

Glad to hear you are ok after your off´s. 

Southern Africa really is a beautiful place.

 

[TerrorSA]

Great ride, thanks for sharing  :thumleft:

 

[letsgofishing]

Great report and pics Sidetrack  :thumleft:

 

[Mungo Park]

fantastic!! my keys are burning in my pocket

 

[Yefimovich]

Stunning!!

my keys are burning in my pocket

Amen To that!!

 

[bmad]

WOW  :thumleft: :thumleft:
:drif:

and i thought my Saturday ride was cool  :biggrin:

You have some seriously stunning photo's there  :thumleft:


Thanks for sharing..
...and making me jealous as well.

 

[Mungo Park]

mmmmmm,love the pics