Collective RR - Namibia Tour June 2021 with Specialized Adventures

[twister]

The view from the top of the dune and then the view from the bottom. The Manchester shop has a decent supply of cold ones and we thoroughly enjoyed it

 

[twister]

The sun rises very late, because you are actually in another time zone. The view from my stretcher at about 07.30 in the morning

 

[Werner701]

Some more...

The stretch between Van Zyl’s Pass and Puros must rank among the best and challenging adventure riding two days anywhere in the world.
I absolutely love these two days because of the obvious challenge of the ride and because of the fact that the collective character of the group is exposed.
I was also keeping an eye on [member=26579]hartebees[/member] as he had to do my usual job, on the bike at the back of the convoy. Between him, Adriaan, Nic, Kamanya and Rickus they have assisted plenty riders already and I was proud. Proud of the fact that they were Quest veterans. I think everyone on this tour will give testament to the fact that these guys would do anything to make other rider’s tour more enjoyable at the drop of a hat. Thank you again guys.
Standing around the breakfast table early in the morning and observing the anxiety on the rider’s faces has become a habit of mine. You can literally see the blood pumping faster after the briefing.
The guys who have done this stretch before is inundated with questions and the newbies listen carefully, not wanting to miss out on any last minute advice that might make the ride more enjoyable, and obviously safer.
Between Johan’s “stoppie” and Jacqies’s willingness to go first (at an impossible decent at the viewpoint) it became clear that this group became lifelong friends in a matter of a few days. Everyone assisted everyone else at the step and the guys who fell along the way were congratulated with the same respect as the guys who butterflied through the tough sections.
I must admit that I was filled with envy and a bit of jealousy as we covered the stretch between the monument and the landmine bakkie – watching Jaco, Werner and Kamanya cutting sand in the Marienfluss was beautiful as you can see in Kamanya’s video.
Werner du Plessis (on the 300 Honda) impressed me on this day. After a fall that would have seen many other riders choose the bakkies 4 wheels for the duration of the day, he simply did not give up. I believe Werner started to enjoy sand riding on this day. A Tough bugger in the same mould as Johan Liebenberg for sure. Werner – if you ever read this – people like you and Johan inspire even the best of riders. This sport needs more Werner’s and more Johan’s.

Hardy, I could never have imagined that, as a kid having read all of the Hardy Boys books, I would one day have the privilege of meeting the real Hardy Boys. You, Kamanya, Adriaan,  Nic, Jaco and Rickus are adventurers in the true sense of the word and it is inspiring. Something that Adriaan said to me sums it up "..ons gaan soek dit." I have learnt that chasing the dream is only half of it, you have to try and even fall a few times to actually realise the dream.

As some of the other riders posted, I also find myself still day dreaming of the trip and can't wait till the next ride.

Thank you for an adventure of a lifetime Boys.

 

[Hardy de Kock]

Some more...

The stretch between Van Zyl’s Pass and Puros must rank among the best and challenging adventure riding two days anywhere in the world.
I absolutely love these two days because of the obvious challenge of the ride and because of the fact that the collective character of the group is exposed.
I was also keeping an eye on [member=26579]hartebees[/member] as he had to do my usual job, on the bike at the back of the convoy. Between him, Adriaan, Nic, Kamanya and Rickus they have assisted plenty riders already and I was proud. Proud of the fact that they were Quest veterans. I think everyone on this tour will give testament to the fact that these guys would do anything to make other rider’s tour more enjoyable at the drop of a hat. Thank you again guys.
Standing around the breakfast table early in the morning and observing the anxiety on the rider’s faces has become a habit of mine. You can literally see the blood pumping faster after the briefing.
The guys who have done this stretch before is inundated with questions and the newbies listen carefully, not wanting to miss out on any last minute advice that might make the ride more enjoyable, and obviously safer.
Between Johan’s “stoppie” and Jacqies’s willingness to go first (at an impossible decent at the viewpoint) it became clear that this group became lifelong friends in a matter of a few days. Everyone assisted everyone else at the step and the guys who fell along the way were congratulated with the same respect as the guys who butterflied through the tough sections.
I must admit that I was filled with envy and a bit of jealousy as we covered the stretch between the monument and the landmine bakkie – watching Jaco, Werner and Kamanya cutting sand in the Marienfluss was beautiful as you can see in Kamanya’s video.
Werner du Plessis (on the 300 Honda) impressed me on this day. After a fall that would have seen many other riders choose the bakkies 4 wheels for the duration of the day, he simply did not give up. I believe Werner started to enjoy sand riding on this day. A Tough bugger in the same mould as Johan Liebenberg for sure. Werner – if you ever read this – people like you and Johan inspire even the best of riders. This sport needs more Werner’s and more Johan’s.

Hardy, I could never have imagined that, as a kid having read all of the Hardy Boys books, I would one day have the privilege of meeting the real Hardy Boys. You, Kamanya, Adriaan,  Nic, Jaco and Rickus are adventurers in the true sense of the word and it is inspiring. Something that Adriaan said to me sums it up "..ons gaan soek dit." I have learnt that chasing the dream is only half of it, you have to try and even fall a few times to actually realise the dream.

As some of the other riders posted, I also find myself still day dreaming of the trip and can't wait till the next ride.

Thank you for an adventure of a lifetime Boys.

Lost for words...

 

[BuRP]

Day 9, eighth riding day

2nd night in Puros


No packing up the lot in the morning today, as we'd stay for another night here :thumleft:
Also not an early rise or departure as we'd ride the Puros canyon, another river canyon than the one we'd ridden through on our way here.
Those that needed a bit of petrol for the 70-odd kilometers topped up from the jerrycans, and we were off.

Puros ..... because the elephants are either in the riverbed we'd came through or in the Puros canyon, Hardy said we'd be guaranteed to see them today!
So, finally we'd see the big buggers, the notoriously temperamental Jabu included, and when we'd see them this would put paid to the rumour doing the rounds, at night around the campfire, that Hardy had pre-organized to spread truckloads of olifantdrolle along our route to convince us they are there ;D
In any case, once we'd reach the canyon's entrance we'd wait for the Hardy's cruiser to take the lead again, to warn us of ellies present.

So, off we raced, the distance to the canyon was wide open stuff - lekker!
This canyon has some water flowing through it, so this made for some splashing here & there - awesome for a change, and the rims may just wash off all the dust

Hardy went ahead, we followed at some distance, and this was repeated a few times because the riverbed we rode in was open hence fast on a bike... we simply caught up with the cruiser in no time!
Visibility of the banks is limited as there's greenery for Africa Puros - trees galore!
This made for quick progress riding wise which was fun, don't get me wrong here...... but we saw not even a glimpse of the closest living relative of the Dassie!
So much for Hardy's promise then..... and, come to think of it, we should have forced you to down a serious StrafDop that evening Mister!

Either the canyon ended or we exited it, I can't remember for the life of me.... but suddenly we found ourselves in a dry barren rocky hilly desert!
Here we regrouped for a while, I think it was Johan who had bought another plaas in the canyon and we waited for him to join us.
Maar, n mooi plaas Johan, goeie keuse, perennial water I believe?

Once back at camp we were to go fill up our tanks with petrol in Puros Hardy had prearranged to be there.
It was there too, phew, because without it we would have had a genuine problem!
This was conveniently sortof 'opposite' the famous local shebeen Manchester United, and of course we went there for a cold one once our tanks had been filled to the brim.

Andrew has already posted pics of the sanitizing station outside this bar, a rather primitive alien reminder of what this world has been reduced to, something all of us had completely forgotten about!
Plenty of kids were in attendance outside also, and of course us lot formed a nice distraction of the little they are used to :thumleft:

This was an easy day also called Rest Day, lekker!

 

[BuRP]

... and some more pics.

 

[BuRP]

Hardy, I could never have imagined that, as a kid having read all of the Hardy Boys books, I would one day have the privilege of meeting the real Hardy Boys. You, Kamanya, Adriaan,  Nic, Jaco and Rickus are adventurers in the true sense of the word and it is inspiring. Something that Adriaan said to me sums it up "..ons gaan soek dit." I have learnt that chasing the dream is only half of it, you have to try and even fall a few times to actually realise the dream.

As some of the other riders posted, I also find myself still day dreaming of the trip and can't wait till the next ride.

Thank you for an adventure of a lifetime Boys.

Lost for words...

Not me: Fantastic first post Werner  :thumleft: :thumleft: :thumleft:
You've set a dizzyinly high standard with it, so now carry on please 

Grappies tersyde, jy's n yster, hoop om jou weer erens trackside te sien :thumleft:

 

[Kamanya]

Day 9 Puros to Palm Wag

Another game of Camp Tetris



Imagine if you started every day like this….



There’s much space to contemplate the world.





After a long morning of cruising in ones thoughts, we filled up at Sesfontein. Here, there was the option to ride the easier route on the main gravel road to Palm Wag or hop off that road and do the 70km Kowarib trail. Jaco, Adriaan, Nick and Myself were last out of the refuel. Hardy was on light duty and hopped in the Unimog. Hennie jumped in the Cruiser and Rob with his sore ribs chose to see the track from the “comfort” of the cruiser.

Just before turning to the left onto the trail.



Hardy had warned that this trail was not for anyone who wasn’t utterly confident in sand as there are literally 40k’s of thick riverbeds to navigate on top of fesh-fesh, open plains and technical rocky climbs.

We hopped into the trail with the agreement that we’d stop every 30k’s to re-group. Up until this time, from Epupa I had only ever been at the back have fun helping others through and over the trail. There’s a great deal of satisfaction seeing guys just keep getting more confident in their riding. Also, I do tend to ride with a bit of pace from time to time, so to take things much slower and get to check out the scenery is quite rewarding.

Now however, it was just me and the trail. The first section is really unusual riding; the trail follows a river canyon, so the track snakes its way taking turns on the one side of the bank then the other. It’s like a big rollercoaster of tight turns, elevation changes and hopping into and out of a river bed. What also adds a little spice is that there were signs of elephant everywhere. So wondering if on coming around a bush one might come face to face with one does raise the heartrate a little.









Arty bark





The guys weren’t far behind



And Hennie wasn’t far behind them… I think Rob wasn’t having as much fun as we were.

Then after a serious amount of riverbeds, the trail hopped out onto a plain. This was terrific fun and super quick. It was really funny to see how others had messed up their corners and in one place did it badly enough to take a scenic route into a donga. I think it was Andre and ETS?

I didn’t get many shots, I was having too much fun, but the video has a little more of it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wgu7jHFCtWw&t=2s





It was here I had a tip over. I had stopped to get this shot, slipped on a rock trying to get off the bike and went over. My score to here was 2 down.



It truly is a gorgeous trail.

Back at PalmWag.







Notice the chain slider mod? It had come off at Puros and I’d made a new one out of plastic floor mat. Factory!



My bedroom



“Yussus! And then I nearly…”



2 of the guys did an extra 70k’s after a little “navigation error”. All well that ends well, but they were pretty lucky not to sleep out! I remember seeing their track at a turn in the riverbed that led the trail out onto the plain. I had been belting along and because the turn is so sudden I also overshot the turn and did a U turn. As I saw two tracks ahead of me going wrong, I wrongly assumed that it was one track out and then the same one coming back after figuring it out.

Unfortunately unlike all of us who were riding on the line in the GPS, the guy had his zoomed out so far he could see the whole of Namibia and was just having a ball on the trail. The other guy following hims GPS was broken, so he was just blindly following.

Ooooh



This trip utterly screwed with my low carb normal lifestyle…



I was in bed early. Lovely day

 

[big oil]

:headbang: 

 

[2StrokeDan]

Ene Meneer B. Steffels is altyd eerste op die sjebien se stoep.

En lyk my die brandende sigaret wag sommer vir hom daar.

Lekker ou Bart! :thumleft: :thumleft: :thumleft:

 

[petri oosthuizen]

WOW nice Pics and Report thanks :thumleft: :thumleft:

Those stone "men" statues intrigue me a LOT........how many are there, and who makes them?? They're very very cool :drif: 8)

 

[Hardy de Kock]

On this day I was worried that I may have picked up the dreaded Covid virus. I had a cold sweat right through the previous night and felt dizzy, nauseous and irritated that morning. I decided to drive alone in the Cruiser and to avoid any close contact until I found a way to establish whether I in fact have it or not. When we got to Sesfontein I called Hennie over the radio and told him that he would be driving back up though the Khuwarib Schlught in the Cruiser. I also asked him to take Rob with him, as I wanted to avoid any contact with an already injured man until I could have myself tested.
I am not sure Hennie knew what the hell was going on, but he gladly accepted as it would be his first time in the Schlught.
I drove the Unimog back to Palmwag and on my way there realized that I was having a bout of vertigo. Mine usually lasts for two days and I was not looking forward to the symtoms, having had it so many times before.
That afternoon the riders started to appear (all with smiling faces) and I remember being very relieved.
The vertigo curve struck at around 9 that evening and by the time I hit the stretcher I could feel that I was already over the worst.
I also remember that I felt very proud about the crew that evening The new guys did exactly what I asked them to, and the old team did what they always do,
In hindsight I realize that I never had any covid symtoms - I just fell prey to the fear that this fucked up disease spreads among us.

 

[Hardy de Kock]

WOW nice Pics and Report thanks :thumleft: :thumleft:

Those stone "men" statues intrigue me a LOT........how many are there, and who makes them?? They're very very cool :drif: 8)

Our team have so far counted 32. I believe there are/were 37.
Namibian Trevor Nott is believed to be the artist although he never confirmed or claimed it.

 

[petri oosthuizen]

Sal dit graag wil Google Hardy.....wat noem mens die "beelde"?? Wil graag al die posisies en so aan sien, BAIE nice!!!

Skuus man eks nou HEEL off topic op die nice Thread :

 

[Hardy de Kock]

Sal dit graag wil Google Hardy.....wat noem mens die "beelde"?? Wil graag al die posisies en so aan sien, BAIE nice!!!

Skuus man eks nou HEEL off topic op die nice Thread :

Lone men of the Kaokoland

Posisies word deur almal geheim gehou Petri.
Jy sien hulle raak of jy mis hulle, ek sal vir jou stuur wat ons het

 

[BuRP]

Day 10, nineth riding day

Puros to Palmwag


Right, today we pack up again and head to Palmwag (where we'd been before when coming up).
Johan's 690 had proved to behave well the previous day (only a single coolant topup required) so the 'mod' done to his bike (fan permanently on, plus coolant in the system lol)  seemed to do the trick.

The day ahead was on roads, but had an 'optional' loop in it - a riverbed with, according to Hardy, quite a bit of FeshFesh!
200km to Palmwag, or 272km's if the riverbed-loop was taken.
FeshFesh hmm?
If you dunno what this is, it's kinda brownish/yellowish Talcum-powder which only looks like sand but will not carry anything, not even a flea on it, the poor critter will versuip.... let alone a bike which will get swallowed, with a resulting dustcloud the size of a double decker bus.
Also, but admittedly in hindsight, Hardy underplayed the beauty and challenges this loop offered a little - so why sukkel eh?

I had just replaced my airfilter with a fresh one, and the prospect of washing it tonight wasn't an attractive one to me, let alone the fact that I thought all the available filteroil was depleted already by this time (because many washed their filters regularly).
"Aag no, why bother..." I thought, so I settled in mentally for the dirthighway route.

Along the way we'd encounter a village (forgot the name of course :-[ ) in which we were to fill up with petrol, so we did.
At the petrolstation (imagine a canopy of sorts under which 2 pumps, being all there!) a young knaapie came to me holding a clean clear sandwich plastic bag in which the absolute complete KTM sidestand assembly (dual springs, bracket, bush and even the screw!), and told me that someone had lost this.
I took it, looked at it, and the cleanliness of it all rattled me a bit - I'm from Gauteng you see, my automatic scammometer on high alert now .... but here, in this remote part of the world?
The young man also did not ask or beg for money, he just gave it to me and walked off to his friends... this isn't normal now izzit?
"Whoaa, YOU, stop, wait a second, hang on a bit here!" ... and the lad came back to me.
I handed him a Nam$ 50 note and thanked him, explaining that I was sure it was someone of our group (sheez, who else hmm? ) who had lost it, and that ALL of us were super happy he found it and handed it to us..... but such deserved a reward as these were important parts we needed, so Thank You Very Much?
I swear his initial reaction was a genuine surprise, but then happiness took over - Desereved & Well Done matey, good on you! :thumleft:

Anyway, I also stopped at a bar (Yes Danie, guilty as charged, it was the very first bar I saw!) for a beer, and a few others joined me here.
There's very little cold one's to have in this region you see, and beer I find is an excellent if not the best rehydrate one can get, especially when it's a cold one - it's warm there! :thumleft: :thumleft:
Refreshed I left, and this dorpie was big enough to have some guys begging for a wheelie to be pulled, so I tried to be nice to them

Then, having left the village somewhere quite a bit further along the dirtroad I saw a lone sign "Cold Beer" ...... and, because I was riding alone and didn't see any dust ahead of me I thought it a good idea to investigate to see if some of my fellow beeraddicts had not pulled in there!
I rode back a little to check for tyre tracks..... aww, none of them!
Ah well, turn my head to check for traffic, turn around - and loose my balance and tip over! ;D
I actually laughed all by myself, after having done all that distance I eventually fall over because of a need for beer!
Dunno, happens to the worst & best alike I reckon

I carry on, skip the turnoff to the loop and arrive in Palmwag without any incident or anything especially noteworthy, hence my few photos I made this day.
And I regret that!
Back at camp I hear raving reviews about that loop - exciting, challenging, fast stuff, no pesky game and above all, only two small feshfesh places which were easily circumnavigated...... shit, I missed that!
It was there, and then!, that I decided never to listen to Hardy during this trip anymore!

Look, I get it, he's the one ultimately responsible for things that may go wrong, it's all 'his' baby so to say.... but I'm not there to miss the best bits due to avoiding a little risk, no way Jose!
Talking of which, enter Mike and Johannes
Johannes without GPS hence following Mike, and Mike with his GPS set to (again lol) a scale of 'Namibia entirely visible in the screen' :
The story goes like 'we were hammering it in this riverbed' and 'after a while we did see no tracks anymore' (this "while" was only some 70-odd kilometers.....) to 'then we set the GPS to a more sensible scale and saw that the camp was only 128 km from us' (the entire detour was a distance of 72 km's!) ;D ;D ;D
Anyway, with luck and more luck (hey, zero skills here ma chinas ) they made their way to the camp, and they made it on vapours in the tanks, I think Mike's bike was spluttering by the time they made the petrol station

All that ends good is good though, and we had a nice eve at the camp!
The sidestand assembly turned out to be Pieter's :thumleft:

 

[petri oosthuizen]

Sal dit graag wil Google Hardy.....wat noem mens die "beelde"?? Wil graag al die posisies en so aan sien, BAIE nice!!!

Skuus man eks nou HEEL off topic op die nice Thread :

Lone men of the Kaokoland

Posisies word deur almal geheim gehou Petri.
Jy sien hulle raak of jy mis hulle, ek sal vir jou stuur wat ons het

GROOT asb!!! :thumleft: 0 8 3 3 8 4 1 4 7 1

Thanks vir Thread, BAAAAAIE nice :drif:.....my jongste lat is saam met my pel tans op so Nam trippie, "Live the Journey" toer, hulle slaap vanaand by Timo's Guesthouse, die pics sover lyk unbelievable :drif:

 

[hartebees]

Bart, you will have to go back to see the Khowarib Schlugt and Klein Serengeti - no question about it. For me it was the most enjoyable riding day of all. Unfortunately I forgot to charge my GoPro batteries the day before but I'm sure [member=16093]hugmin42[/member] has some footage to share.

 

[BuRP]

Bart, you will have to go back to see the Khowarib Schlugt and Klein Serengeti - no question about it.

You're very correct indeed, I'll straf Hardy by booking another one of these - did I mention 'awesome' anywhere in this thread yet? - trips in the near future.
Buuuuuuut, I think I'll schlepp some likeminded friends along then, so HKGK! 

 

[hugmin42]

Bart, you will have to go back to see the Khowarib Schlugt and Klein Serengeti - no question about it. For me it was the most enjoyable riding day of all. Unfortunately I forgot to charge my GoPro batteries the day before but I'm sure [member=16093]hugmin42[/member] has some footage to share.

Also had a flat GoPro and the riding was so much fun I didn't bother to stop and check if the battery was flat. Think I might have the first 1km or so, but non of the riverbeds or klein Serengeti.