Pom
Race Dog
Toe sliders and chicken strips.
This weekend saw one of our “Boys Weekend” away trips happen to the Eastern Free State. I personally love this part of the country, so I booked a guest house on a farm just outside Fouriseburg, with plans for a visit to Katse Dam on Saturday.
We left Friday morning, 3 mates on road bikes and myself, getting out of JHB and doing the trip around the Vaal dam to Oranjeville, Frankfort, Petruc Steyn, Bethlehem, Clarens for lunch. After lunch we checked into our lodgings at Pumula Guest Farm on the road from Fouriesburg to Caledonspoort. The accommodation exceed all our expectations when we were presented with a luxurious 4 bed, 4 bath house overlooking the Maluti’s, simply beautiful.
After much festivities on Friday night, Zagser joined us and a we made a late start to Katse on Saturday morning. Through the border post no problem, except one rider who’s passport had expired, and who had to turn back, but the other 4 of us headed into the mountains no problem.
The first 50 kilometers of road was quite boring, typical Africa really, small kraals, towns and fairly straight and conventional roads through Butha-Buthe, but after the towns faded into the distance, and the mountain passes rolled ahead all I can say is WOW! I have ridden roads bikes for years, but I have never ridden roads like this before, for almost a 100 kilometers the road bends, twists, rises, falls, switches back and forth and simply presents a rider with challenges one after the other, I was flabbergasted. Thrown into the mix, just for interest are donkeys, goats, dogs, pebbles, gravel and rocks, but not once did I feel out of shape, or threatened by the hazards.
It took almost two hours to cover the 100 kays, including smoke breaks and a puncture, and eventually we made it to the Katse Village Lodge, had a quick lunch and headed back. Here’s the problem, there are no fuel stations, at all between Butha-Buthe and Katse, there is one pump, on top of one of the passes, that was closed, that’s it. But in Africa, does as the Africans do, we wound up buying petrol in 5 litre GTX cans from vendors on the side of the road.
I personally really love riding twisty roads, and I like to corner hard, counter steer, climb off the seat and make the bike work, but this was the ultimate, by the time I reached the lodge that evening I had destroyed the toe sliders on my road boots, and done a fairly good job of wearing the sides on my new Anakees, and heads up for a DS bike, neither the K1200S, or the GTR 1400 with me could keep up, brilliant!
After a braai on Saturday evening, an early night in bed and a decent sleep we headed home on Sunday morning, that’s when disaster struck. My buddy Sean apexed a fast sweeping left hander perfectly, and connected a loose lying rock just on the yellow line, at 180 kph, the front wheel of his bike shattered instantly and down he went. After a slide of about 100 meters or so he stopped, but the bike careered off into the veldt and met it’s maker. By some miracle, and good protective clothing, Sean got up and walked away, his kit was destroyed, his bike written off, and he only had a few abrasions and bruises.
So yesterday afternoon we towed the bike back to JHB, courtesy of the good lady who drove from JHB to fetch us, and all got home safely.
In short, what a ride, the accommodation was first class, the company great, and the scenery stunning, I will be back to Lesotho shortly.
Pom
This weekend saw one of our “Boys Weekend” away trips happen to the Eastern Free State. I personally love this part of the country, so I booked a guest house on a farm just outside Fouriseburg, with plans for a visit to Katse Dam on Saturday.
We left Friday morning, 3 mates on road bikes and myself, getting out of JHB and doing the trip around the Vaal dam to Oranjeville, Frankfort, Petruc Steyn, Bethlehem, Clarens for lunch. After lunch we checked into our lodgings at Pumula Guest Farm on the road from Fouriesburg to Caledonspoort. The accommodation exceed all our expectations when we were presented with a luxurious 4 bed, 4 bath house overlooking the Maluti’s, simply beautiful.
After much festivities on Friday night, Zagser joined us and a we made a late start to Katse on Saturday morning. Through the border post no problem, except one rider who’s passport had expired, and who had to turn back, but the other 4 of us headed into the mountains no problem.
The first 50 kilometers of road was quite boring, typical Africa really, small kraals, towns and fairly straight and conventional roads through Butha-Buthe, but after the towns faded into the distance, and the mountain passes rolled ahead all I can say is WOW! I have ridden roads bikes for years, but I have never ridden roads like this before, for almost a 100 kilometers the road bends, twists, rises, falls, switches back and forth and simply presents a rider with challenges one after the other, I was flabbergasted. Thrown into the mix, just for interest are donkeys, goats, dogs, pebbles, gravel and rocks, but not once did I feel out of shape, or threatened by the hazards.
It took almost two hours to cover the 100 kays, including smoke breaks and a puncture, and eventually we made it to the Katse Village Lodge, had a quick lunch and headed back. Here’s the problem, there are no fuel stations, at all between Butha-Buthe and Katse, there is one pump, on top of one of the passes, that was closed, that’s it. But in Africa, does as the Africans do, we wound up buying petrol in 5 litre GTX cans from vendors on the side of the road.
I personally really love riding twisty roads, and I like to corner hard, counter steer, climb off the seat and make the bike work, but this was the ultimate, by the time I reached the lodge that evening I had destroyed the toe sliders on my road boots, and done a fairly good job of wearing the sides on my new Anakees, and heads up for a DS bike, neither the K1200S, or the GTR 1400 with me could keep up, brilliant!
After a braai on Saturday evening, an early night in bed and a decent sleep we headed home on Sunday morning, that’s when disaster struck. My buddy Sean apexed a fast sweeping left hander perfectly, and connected a loose lying rock just on the yellow line, at 180 kph, the front wheel of his bike shattered instantly and down he went. After a slide of about 100 meters or so he stopped, but the bike careered off into the veldt and met it’s maker. By some miracle, and good protective clothing, Sean got up and walked away, his kit was destroyed, his bike written off, and he only had a few abrasions and bruises.
So yesterday afternoon we towed the bike back to JHB, courtesy of the good lady who drove from JHB to fetch us, and all got home safely.
In short, what a ride, the accommodation was first class, the company great, and the scenery stunning, I will be back to Lesotho shortly.
Pom
Walked away from a 180km/h drop! Amazing! What was he riding?
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