Four Frozen Foreskins do Lesotho 2014

[JMass]

Say...KTM rider wearing a BMW jacket? WTF?

He had a KTM jacket before we left, but thing was dripping everywhere, just like the bike, which is why he was relegated to the back  :biggrin: ot:

 

[Orko]

ot:

 

[JMass]

In all fairness, Oros (950) was the ONLY bike that never fell over or had an issue, blown head gasket et al.
Always thought that they where one of the best ADV bikes out there, frikken awesome bike, as long as you dont paint it pink  :deal:

 

[Bretts]

This is what icy corner looked like in July 2012. Looks like a lot of work has been done.

 

[neary85]

:spitcoffee:

Say...KTM rider wearing a BMW jacket? WTF?

im not confused  : im nostalgic, have to hold onto the few good memories i have of bmw  :biggrin:

In all fairness, Oros (950) was the ONLY bike that never fell over or had an issue, blown head gasket et al.
Always thought that they where one of the best ADV bikes out there, frikken awesome bike, as long as you dont paint it pink  :deal:

"Oros" is new to the family and have to say very happy! as Machete mentioned other than a bit of a weak bladder (aparrently i need to burp my bike  ) this bike was a dream come true on the trip!

 

[neary85]

This is what icy corner looked like in July 2012. Looks like a lot of work has been done.

DAAAAAMMMNNNNNN Now I am grateful of the condition we were able to ride!

 

[Mello]

Great report Mikie.  Looks like you guys had fun.
And, damn, that Triumph looks good!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Mikie]

, stopping again when we saw our first frozen waterfall. We were amazed, so much water frozen solid, it’s the first time in my life that I have seen anything like it, yes this place must get cold overnight.

Icy corner, I see they changed the road and channeled the water away from the road surface now. Previously the water iced over the road making for an interesting corner.

PS The pass is a easy to ride now that they worked on it. End last year we readied ourselves for the difficult pass and a few minutes later we were drinking beer.  ;D


PPS You might have been better off to overnight below the pass. Sani Top in such cold conditions is not always fun. The water freeze and then you have no showers or toilet flush.



Thanks for the great RR

Hey Frozen pipes and frozen foreskins go together like peas and carrots

 

[Mikie]

Great report Mikie.  Looks like you guys had fun.
And, damn, that Triumph looks good!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Yep, that Triumph is one sexy machine, even I will admit it, just dont hit her too hard.

And the  KTM, absolutely decent bike  :biggrin:

 

[Mikie]

Say...KTM rider wearing a BMW jacket? WTF?

He had a KTM jacket before we left, but thing was dripping everywhere, just like the bike, which is why he was relegated to the back  :biggrin: ot:

:laughing4: :laughing4:  :ricky:

 

[BiG DoM]

This is what icy corner looked like in July 2012. Looks like a lot of work has been done.

Indeed Sani is now a veritable highway compared to what it used to be.

 

[Dwerg]

Say...KTM rider wearing a BMW jacket? WTF?

He had a KTM jacket before we left, but thing was dripping everywhere, just like the bike, which is why he was relegated to the back  :biggrin: ot:

:laughing4: :laughing4:  :ricky:

That's probably where those meerkat tendencies come from. I'm not one to talk though. I ride a BWM and I have a KTM jacket

 

[Mikie]

Orko noticed something wrong with his bike, there was just no power, so we stopped, and deduced that his air filter must now be totally blocked with oil and dust, not much we could do at that stage, but we all took the stop as a chance to inflate tyres and stretch a bit

Just before Butha-Buthe we climbed up to around 3200m and after cresting the top we were faced with the most beautiful deep valley with an amazing road winding its way down around the mountain edges. Traces of salt are visible all over the higher roads, evidence of snow the weekend prior to our visit. The road carried on forever and we eventually got to the bottom at around 1200m.

Braaaaap!!

The border crossing was busy; we must have been there for at least 30 minutes. From there into Fouriesburg where we all needed fuel, we must have got to Fouriesburg at about 15:30, Clarens was next and we were hungry so off to find a bite to eat in the little town that was a dog show this weekend, guys on their Huyabusas and other hyper tourers circling the centre of the town doing burnouts and showing off, suddenly I was glad that we couldn’t find accommodation there, we ate quickly and shot off to Kestell, it was getting dark, part of the highlight of this leg was Golden gate, well we saw it, at the speed of light, guess we will have to go back sometime again, only one of us had ever been there previously.

Bikers need to pee too

Golden gate at sunset

The last stretch to Kestell was a nightmare, the wind was howling, we were constantly blown across the road, the KTM even attempted a game of chicken at this stage. We got to Kestell at 18:00 and checked into the Kestell Hotel. I have always thought these little dodgy small town hotels are, well, dodgy, but not this one, what a nice place, an old building but with an old feel which I liked and very well run, clean and comfy, and of course the bar is in the same building. We even had a garage around the back to park our bikes into. In future I actually want to stay at these hotels, for the price its well worth it.
The one strange thing about the place was a shower in the corner of the bedrooms, and the toilet down the hall. We had a braai for supper and then hit the bar and mixed with the locals. A fantastic evening was had by all.

Bedroom showers, all the rage in Kestell

FF stickers all over the place

Cant wait to be 18 so I can get on the pool table

The new barman

So here is the final route that we ended up taking in the end.

The red route was the planned route and the Green was the actual route, we made a good call opting for tar when we did, I don’t think we would have made the border had we taken the original route, suddenly the warning I was given before departing that 300km in Lesotho is like 900km in SA made total sense.  

 

[Mikie]

This is what icy corner looked like in July 2012. Looks like a lot of work has been done.

Holy Crap 

Thats insane

 

[Dwerg]

This is what icy corner looked like in July 2012. Looks like a lot of work has been done.

Indeed Sani is now a veritable highway compared to what it used to be.

I was also there in April 2012. Check out the step up in this pic. It's about knee height and the only oke who made it up unassisted was on an unloaded 250

 

[Mikie]

No wonder we found it so easy, the road really is in good condition now

 

[BiG DoM]

Looks like despite the ... ehhr hiccups and frozen foreskins ... you guys enjoyed your first Lesotho excursion.  :ricky: From experience one of the first rules of riding in Lesotho is to divide your average offroad riding distance by at least 3 (dependant on weather and what roads you are riding ... if it is Chiefs Trail etc possibly even more). Lesotho is just simply DIFFERENT and often unpredictable and going can be very slow. You are by no means the first riders to be caught out by this - some have found themselves in even more dire situations and you were on good roads and fortunate to be able to gap it to blacktop. We are blessed to have riding like this on our doorstep - guys who have not been there go and do it while there are still non-Chinesed roads!

PS: Re the GS bogging - remember Lesotho has ALTITUDE that often even a lambda sensor struggles with. Also if it was the air filter - this is why a good foam filter like the UNI is the only way to go. It filters better than paper, cannot get soggy and useless if it gets wet, and in this situation could have been pulled and washed and re-oiled.

 

[Mikie]

Looks like despite the ... ehhr hiccups and frozen foreskins ... you guys enjoyed your first Lesotho excursion.  :ricky: From experience one of the first rules of riding in Lesotho is to divide your average offroad riding distance by at least 3 (dependant on weather and what roads you are riding ... if it is Chiefs Trail etc possibly even more). Lesotho is just simply DIFFERENT and often unpredictable and going can be very slow. You are by no means the first riders to be caught out by this - some have found themselves in even more dire situations and you were on good roads and fortunate to be able to gap it to blacktop. We are blessed to have riding like this on our doorstep - guys who have not been there go and do it while there are still non-Chinesed roads!

PS: Re the GS bogging - remember Lesotho has ALTITUDE that often even a lambda sensor struggles with. Also if it was the air filter - this is why a good foam filter like the UNI is the only way to go. It filters better than paper, cannot get soggy and useless if it gets wet, and in this situation could have been pulled and washed and re-oiled.

Our initial plan was to do Chiefs Trail, but after some warnings etc we decided to give it a skip, which I am very glad we did, we want to do it in Summer sometime, when there is more daylight and when, if we have to, camping is no problem with the cold.

Orko's GS has a BMC on it, we suspect the engine oil combined with the amount of duct in the filter just seriously blocked it up

 

[Raka]

Nice ride report Mikie, I'll even consider taking you along next time, just that you can do the foto and writing thing afterwards ! :biggrin:

 

[Mikie]

Nice ride report Mikie, I'll even consider taking you along next time, just that you can do the foto and writing thing afterwards ! :biggrin:

:laughing4: :laughing4: :laughing4: Thanks Raka

Deal  :deal: