Collective RR - Namibia Tour June 2021 with Specialized Adventures

[Kamanya]

Day 7 Marble Camp to Pouros and rest day’ish

More’





The politest camp dogs I’ve met





No man! That’s Chantal whose actually the Boss, I’ve no idea what the dogs name are.

Getting my shit on. The older I get, the creakier I am and the more this stuff is a life saver



A prank, notice it?



Briefing





The artwork of the Kaokoland

https://www.travelnewsnamibia.com/news/mysterious-lone-men-kaokoland/





But onwards








Not bad for a lunch spot after a dash of river beds



Pouros in the Distance. This valley is quite amazing to ride through. The way the richness of colours come through really can’t be described or pictured. The video sort of gives some hint, but still, you’ll have to go see for yourself.



Amazingly there were lots of game in here















The group waiting at the first of the River Bed. It is prudent to all go through together as there are elephant here (there’s ample evidence of them all over)





[member=3042]ETS[/member]



Some minor fixes whilst waiting





Then onto the fun bits. It truly is a magical place to ride





Then later, it was sundowners and a shot of OBS



A stone for a missing old riding buddy.









One of the locals…



It’s a horned adder. Not dangerous, just unpleasant if you don’t heed his warnings



Also, if you look closely, there’s about 15 Giraffe down there. These galleons of the desert, majestic and so seemly calm






Then later a little humour. Nick had finished his rear and needed to swap it out. E12 for an E09. Both of those Mitas tires are quite capable of reducing big men to tears even when you have a garage and tools handy. Out in the field, they can be near impossible without impeccable technique.

Hennie was laughing at Nick and Hardy’s struggles when even a landcruser over the deflated tire wouldn’t get it off the bead. He claimed to easily swap them with the right know how. And so the bet was on.

Hardy had to eat his words and shake Hennies hand. Let it be said, Hennie sweated for that handshake though.



Another day with not a single thought or sight of a facemask. Bliss

Some great riding and fun times

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QodhX9sWwfg

 

[Kamanya]

Day 8 Pouros to Pouros – a lovely little loop with a bit of everything.

Come on! Who doesn’t like French toast with all the options?





The briefing for the loop



Then onto the magic for the morning





The sprocket, looking like factory!



Iconicism









Then the funny’s…

See them?



Nope neither did I.

Johan was directly in front of me by about 30m when the track hopped out of the river and onto the bank taking a right turn around a bush and into some fesh-fesh. When I came around the bush, all I could see were the 2 riders who’d been ahead of Johan wating for Rickus who was throwing up a dust storm of fesh-fesh battling to get through.

Where was Johan!!!??

I stopped and looked back at Jaco who was riding sweep and had just come around the bush in confusion and shouted to him, “where’s he gone?”

“What?!”

“Where’s Johan!?”

“He was ahead of you… Ah, I hear something from the bush!”

“What!”

“He’s in this bush!!!

“Fuck! No way! Cool!”

Johan had somehow buried himself about 5 meters back into thick riverside bush. As we ran over to him, he was staggering out. Jaco later said he was sure the guy must be dead or nearly dead as it looked like he’d gone right through a tree.




Watch the video for the hilarity. Johan had somehow escaped injury. Amazingly, in trying to get his bike out, his gear lever came off and was found. A miracle in and of itself. A small bit of mechaniching once we’d caught up to Hardy and all was well again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8N-yUsNfdNk

950’s are not kind to even the toughest of tires



The ships of the desert again.



Then the adrenaline bit for the morning. See that dune in the distance?



It’s a beast. There’s 4 riders down there. One on the way up the other 3 are those specs.













That dune is about 400m high. The slopes to it start about 4k’s away and the last 500m just goes from steep to stupidly steep. I tried twice and made it 5th highest up. Next was Pieter, then Ets with some serious gymnastics, Andre made a really good go of it on the 450 and Niclaus’ 990 got to within 30m of the summit. It’s a formidable bit of sand. Getting onto the top of it requires sneaking around the side of it which is still a fair bit of effort.

It is stunning up there.

Then waaaaaay down there is the local shop.

Covid times requires sanitation procedures be observed, even in waaaaay out places like these…





And then some well earned refreshments and some excellent banter







But back home, some domestics had to be sorted. Washing day. The locals were asking $10 per item. I’m kind of stingy, but the thought of anyone having to handle my skid marks motivated me out of shame to do my own.



The earlier rock to the toe on Day 3 was not looking to bad either





Then 300l had been previously ordered by Hardy that we had to go fill up on







I enjoy getting kids onto the bikes. It’s the first one that is the hardest to convince, once one goes, it’s hard to stop them swarming for a turn. In my mind, it can’t be a bad thing imprinting a good experience of two wheels onto an impressionable young mind for later. The world would be a better place if more people rode is my philosophy.



And then more beer



Then, the end of the day cherry on the top…



There’s some epic dune climbing video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZTroN6qXNk

 

[frankmac]

Stunning pics and videos.

Maybe the prank was in retaliation of those ANC socks of yours.  :biggrin:

 

[Gumba]

Every day a thought pop’s into your head , such company of different souls is a blessing. From strong Boer , to soft souti.
From chimney smoking oil engineering mechanic.and rubber armed hardware shop owners. Like minded regenetive farmers to doctors with no pain threshold, good business men that can ride and some battle. Dakar dreamers to Bitcoin dreamers. Life skills teachers to wedding teachers, gps fundies to follow the track specials.
Till one day we bump into each other may you all be blessed with good health, never stop laughing. May the riding gods keep the rubber side on the road for you all ! A pleasure meeting you all .

 

[Nicolas Rossouw]

[member=10935]BuRP[/member] I still think the KTM9x0 is the best bike for this trip  ot: just ask Nick

Yes yes and again yes... I would not do it on a different bike... I had a hell of a joll on my 990...

Sent from my MAR-LX1M using Tapatalk

 

[Kamanya]

[member=10935]BuRP[/member] I still think the KTM9x0 is the best bike for this trip  ot: just ask Nick

Yes yes and again yes... I would not do it on a different bike... I had a hell of a joll on my 990...

Sent from my MAR-LX1M using Tapatalk

Considering that both of you fell in XXXXL pot when young, relatively speaking, you're both actually on 690's.

 

[Hardy de Kock]

Stunning pics and videos.

Maybe the prank was in retaliation of those ANC socks of yours.  :biggrin:

Definitely

 

[Hardy de Kock]

Every day a thought pop’s into your head , such company of different souls is a blessing. From strong Boer , to soft souti.
From chimney smoking oil engineering mechanic.and rubber armed hardware shop owners. Like minded regenetive farmers to doctors with no pain threshold, good business men that can ride and some battle. Dakar dreamers to Bitcoin dreamers. Life skills teachers to wedding teachers, gps fundies to follow the track specials.
Till one day we bump into each other may you all be blessed with good health, never stop laughing. May the riding gods keep the rubber side on the road for you all ! A pleasure meeting you all .

Great post Mike  :thumleft:

 

[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 @Hartebees 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.

 

[Kamanya]

Stunning pics and videos.

Maybe the prank was in retaliation of those ANC socks of yours.  :biggrin:

Definitely

Jaaaaa Swaaar

 

[ETS]

Every day a thought pop’s into your head , such company of different souls is a blessing. From strong Boer , to soft souti.
From chimney smoking oil engineering mechanic.and rubber armed hardware shop owners. Like minded regenetive farmers to doctors with no pain threshold, good business men that can ride and some battle. Dakar dreamers to Bitcoin dreamers. Life skills teachers to wedding teachers, gps fundies to follow the track specials.
Till one day we bump into each other may you all be blessed with good health, never stop laughing. May the riding gods keep the rubber side on the road for you all ! A pleasure meeting you all .

:thumleft: :thumleft: :thumleft: :thumleft: :thumleft: :thumleft: :thumleft: :thumleft:

 

[Rickus]

Every day a thought pop’s into your head , such company of different souls is a blessing. From strong Boer , to soft souti.
From chimney smoking oil engineering mechanic.and rubber armed hardware shop owners. Like minded regenetive farmers to doctors with no pain threshold, good business men that can ride and some battle. Dakar dreamers to Bitcoin dreamers. Life skills teachers to wedding teachers, gps fundies to follow the track specials.
Till one day we bump into each other may you all be blessed with good health, never stop laughing. May the riding gods keep the rubber side on the road for you all ! A pleasure meeting you all .

Fokkit Mike, you almost brought a tear to my eye with this..you have summed it up perfectly!!!...I personally felt it was a great group and would not have changed or wished for anything more on this trip...I still have Kaokoland Blues !!!!

 

[BuRP]

Day 8, seventh riding day

Marble camp to Purros


First coffee, and after a week one tends to know who's who around the coffee plungers - which make 3 mugs each so queue's tend to be short
Of course Rickus (he proved to be the main pyromaniac of the group ) had awakened the fire in the riverbed again by chucking some wood on the ashes, the embers still hot - awesome braaiwood everywhere there :thumleft: Bleddie lekker to warm your arse in the cool morning Swaer, dankie vir alli vure!

A short distance lied ahead so no specific rush, some 107 km's only.
We checked Johan's 690 again for having coolant and Yay, all was well still!
I urged Johan to check every hour: first the little tank's level, and top it up (like in FULL! (and I know this is not correct...) ) if the level had gone down, and if empty then fill the radiator first, then the lil tankie. He would do this, and we put a water-filled coke botteltjie in his backpack for this purpose.

After a lekker brekkie we left Marble Camp, and with it we left the rocky technical bits behind.
The previous day this was a little bit of a surprise to find - after riding the vaaaaaaast Marienfluss almost open sandy plains just about anywhere you like this gradually changed to 'more trees' & 'various tracks' (all leading to the same destination if not place, in typical Africa fashion ), and then it became one track however rocky... with here and there downright narrow passages some of which were tricky even, and rocky for sure!
The landscape opened up and again some vast & fast terrain presented itself - grrrrreat!
With it come stunning views of course, and I hope my pics below do it some justice.

We were told we're in the middle of the Lone Men area, the famous sculptures placed seemingly random over the Namib Desert.
By his time I'd missed a few already so was eager to 'spot' one myself.... but a few others had stopped already, at the foot of a rocky slope on which an indeed lone figure stood out!
Wrought steel roundbar holds the rocks/stones like an exoskeleton to depict a man in a position, this time a walking figurine carrying his few possessions on a stick over his shoulder - very recognizable indeed, true and unexpected art in a desert! ;D
There's quite a few to be found when one takes the time or has the eye for this, but unfortunately some bastards steal them too apparently :-[
Dankie Jaco vir jou pos met fotos van almal wat ons langs die roete gesien het :thumleft:
Dit wys vir my ek is blind as ek op n bike is :

After this little rocky intermezzo more fast&vast stuff.
Note the thin silvery grass in the pics - this place must look even more awesome if there have been recent rains... which was not in our case!
I know Hardy has some pics of this, perhaps post some here?

Somewhere along the way I found a large white Ostrich feather.... which I stuck under my seat to wave to all & sundry along the way

Anyway, roundaboutish lunchtime we gathered under a big tree along a wide rocky riverbed.
Namboerpal Rickus starts a fire, in the hope Hardy will be persuaded to braai a worsie once they'll get there.
Some birds prove to be not shy at all, and come visit us to find out what we're doing there.... maybe they were hoping for some scaps, or were also hoping for an impromptu braai?
Hardy refused to sacrifice his wors though, and I reckon it would not have been enough for us all.... ah well, no braai then! ;D

But, from here on we would enter the riverbed with lots of greenery, and the cruiser would go ahead here.... to spot elephants and warn us if so!
A bull named "Jabu" roams these areas you see, and he's notorious for hating anything human related and will attack with the least of provocation.... or just for the hell of it, and a bunch of unruly noisy tattood pierced and colours-wearing bikers on Harleys apparently are his fave targets!
Luckily noone of us was on a Harley, so we had a chance - helped by Hardy biting the bullet, and armed with a radio to warn our biked chaperones who would flock us if not stop us.

So, off we went!
I'm sure we all were in anticipation to finally see the big ones, I mean their shit had been just about everywhere, ranging from old&dry to superfresh&wet still, but they had eluded us.

Somewhere the route goes up a barren hill off which, again, stunning vistas are had, of the bit you've done and of what still is to come!
My (and hopefully other's) pics just give an impression of this, but a pic is just that.... best is to go see for yourself.
Also, of course my pics 'pause' here.... because, once one descends into the overgrown-on both-sides riverbed one is wary to encounter 'Jabu' around literally every tree - and yeah, Hardy had gone ahead, but geewizz, he can't look everywhere can he, and miss a few ellies?
He can, no argument here, so one's wary and careful there, and at least my riding must have shown that
Sure, we were supposed to remain a group, but for whatever reasons this didn't work too well :
Too many tracks at times, and also, riding literally around trees & bushes (behind some of which more than one elephant could be lurking...) is perhaps less attractive than diving into the actual riverbed where one has more of a view ahead plus one can hammer it there.
Speed kills hmm?
Nah, sometimes that's just safer, and waaaaaaay more fun in any case :thumleft:
So I did, YEEHAAAAAA...... and found out I wasn't the only one there
Johannes proved to have similar ideas, and because we are men we diced each other.... I know, immature and childish, save me your criticism, we both know we're not quite grown up yet so we did!
Have I mentioned "awesome" yet?
Twas!
Quite some speed where one can see 'enough open', and less so if there's something (like trees or rocks or..) where it's wiser to throttle down a bit.
Suddenly an open bit where two guys sell souvenirs!
We stopped, and Johannes bought something because 'these poor chaps make zero with almost no tourists here' - well done Mate! :thumleft:
Heading off we crossed over to the Right riverside, more open and a bit undulating, and here our dice was On properly ;D
Jumping over the lower bits, swerving around the sparse trees and driftwood, gewoon lekker jaging at proper speeds, fantastic.... until I saw a raised green JoJo tank somewhere leftish inbetween trees out of the corner of my eye - "Oh wait, the Purros lodge's here somewhere innit?" :-[
It was, so our reckless unsavory immature behaviour was over, and we trundled into the lodge's perimeters....

Here we found a number of buildings all in a neat setup - extra lekker because we would stay here for two nights!
We put our beds under shading next to the various cabins in which the decent ablution was. There were beds too there but these were off limits, unless you wanted to pay for these extra. None of us did (or did Rob perhaps? I dunno, he may have...) though, all was very well indeed.
The perimeter of the camp was packed with dry thorny bush to keep the vermin out, ellies and cats etc, so all was good.

Early day still, so some spannering took place too.
Someone's rear tyre was changed, some chains were adjusted, and I changed my by now dusty airfilter for a new one which I carried in my luggage.
Johan's 690 only had needed a liiiitle topup once and proved fine. The fan ran permanently, and that dreaded red 'engine overheating' light had not come On again, not even once.... and it still purred like a kitten, the bike did not miss a beat! :thumleft:
As much as I was glad for Johan I still could not imagine how this was possible after what it had gone through but so be it, luck seemed on our side!
Werner on Rob's 300 had come through very well too, and I hunch that he, especially after this day, was glad he rode something a bit more manageable than his 701

Before sunset we all went to the Nelson Mandela Koppie (I know this is the wrong name but I cannot remember it anymore, but 'my' nomer will provoke enough so that someone will correct me here : ) for a sundowner.
This koppie allows one to look quite far in all directions, it is a well known viewpoint in Purros.
The way we had come was stunning to see, and in total some eleven giraffes roamed the river (for a drink) and the open desert both, in  the latter the bull led some cows to a lone tree for a bite we saw..... amazing grace in the desert's setting sun!
No Strohrum with rosyntjies but a good old fashioned OBS - and Hardy jou bliksem, bring MORE of this stuff next time will ya?
A little addertjie kept us company up there, a reminder that it is warm there, die slange loop daarso.

We descended and rode back just before the real dark set in, to our camp where a genuinely awesome meal was prepared - and devoured too, make no mistake here, this was an awesome day!
Ah, No, no elephants seen, but tomorrow..........

 

[BuRP]

.... more pics

 

[BuRP]

... and more

 

[BuRP]

.... and moremore

 

[BuRP]

.... and my last ones.

 

[BuRP]

As this lot is written after all have long time resumed their lives at home, at work and within their usual surroundings (Hugo excluded, the bugger's still in Nam - you lucky git you!  ) I have to owe up something.

Yesterday-eve I brought Braham his bike back (I went to pick mine up and had space for one other bike, so did...), and during the unpacking of my kitbag I saw the box with spares I had in there, like fuelpump assy, brakepads F&R, wheelbearing kits plus a spare (used but still prime) set of clutch plates for my 500.
I put those back with some other stuff and put the clutch-kit on top of another used set of my 701 I thought...... but that box was marked "500"!
Huh?
So I examined the clutch-kit I had brought..... and found out I had packed the spare 701's set!

Werner my vriend, ek is verskriklik jammer, rerig - maar ook bly dat ons nie die set in jou bike gesit het nie!
Toe Rickus jou bike by Epupa Falls oopgemaak het was dit duidelik dat die ding ge-grenade het binnekant, met schrapnel oorals IN die enjin, en n quick plate-swap sou net vir n tydelike fuse gemaak het voor jou enjin opblaas, dit kort rerig meer aandag as net dit.

So ja, ek's jammer - maar ook bly dat dinge so geloop het soos dit het  :thumleft:
Ek's oortuig jy het n beter "ry"-trip gehad danksy Rob se ligter asook makliker 300 mountaingoat, en jou 701 het niks meer oorkom as wat onder jou eie gat gebeur het nie.
Maar ja, steeds dof van my, ek wens ek kon iemand anderste blameer.....  ;D

Anyway, let this be a hint for a next time: demand I unpack any spares I have for you to scrutinize them  :thumleft: :lol8:

 

[twister]

Puros - the view from Jan Joubert koppie is truly amazing

Cellphone reception at last.

The desert when you cross the river at Puros

 

[twister]

The rest day at Puros. Riding the puros canyon loop in the canyon and then through the desert back to the campsite