Just a note before I start the next day... We all felt that after the afkak the previous day up Ongeluksnek, that we would give the shortcut to Semonkong over "Plothond se pad" a skip. FYI, the river crossings through there are now not an issue anymore as the Chinese have built bridges over both rivers (Senqu and Senqunyane) - all visible on Google Earth. It also seems that they were preparing the road to connect those bridges to the tar of the A4, or at least that's what it looks like from the 2006 satellite imagery. Also, once in Semonkong, apparently some 4x4s had done the trip down and back up in one day, so this should really have been quite do-able for us. This would have meant a 130-odd km as opposed to the 360 we ended up doing.
Day 2: Letsie Dam to Semonkong (359 km)
We awoke to an awesome setting - calm lake, sun busy rising in the east, just the tips of the mountains around us bathed in light. Between the wind and cold, and the party of snorers, moaners and whimperers we had in the tents around us, nobody really got a great night's sleep.
peek-a-boo
Kom sonnetjie!!!!
We got breakfast going, and slowly everybody was getting themselves ready for another day - solitary walks up and into the mountain around us.
Breakfast of champions
We were approached by a herd of sheep, and as the morning progressed, we were eventually surrounded. This one very vocal little lamb kept blaring at us, so Her Stigness promptly walked up to it, sat down next to it and calmed it down. It must be a combination of her motherly instinct and farm upbringing, because eventually, once she got up and came back to camp, this little thing had obviously adopted her as its mother and was determined to come back home with us!
Shoo!!
The saying "as innocent as a lamb" was quite apt, seeing as we had some of its brethren going on the coals! It couldn't have been a couple of days old, but eventually Carrots took action, and delivered it safely back to its mom.
...after posing with it first of course
After breakfast and packing up (and Dwerg napping on his bike while we were at it), we were off, over a water crossing at the dam wall, and onwards into Lesotho.
It wasn't long - literally 5.0 km - and we stopped at a tavern for second breakfast ;D Really great to see Lesotho village life. They are highly dependent on their animals - horses and donkeys for transport, sheep and cattle for other provisions, and dogs for everything else. And everywhere you see people, you'll find cold beer!
After the beer we headed off in the direction of Mt Moorosi, Mohale's Hoek and Roma on the way to Semonkong.
Truly spectacular riding here...
More light refreshments in big bottles at mt Moorosi, and then we were on the tar. More awesome riding all along the Quthing river, all the way to Mohale's Hoek, where we filled up with petrol and other supplies.
This was a long day though - seemed like the tar was never-ending, but we pushed on all the way to Roma, where we were scheduled to top up with fuel again, before the dirt road to Semonkong.
However, the KTM wouldn't start... Carrots has an HID high beam, and Nightbreaker in his low beam, and I had seen his lights flashing quite a bit earlier, and had warned him about it. I had assumed that either the HID or Nightbreaker was drawing his battery flat, but we had to make a plan nonetheless. Some friendly oke at the petrol station where we had stopped guided me to the Trading Post in Roma, where the friendly and trusting owner lent us his jumper cables, with the idea that we would return them when we pass back through Roma. We got the bike jump started (with a little drama) and off we went.
They are busy redoing the tar road between Roma and Semonkong, with the plan to eventually tar it all the way. This makes for some really fast riding and a couple of surprises (wet surface, heaps of gravel, AWESOME gravel speed bumps, etc). There was also a bit of a hold-up where they had two backhoes lowering a bridge strut into place, blocking the bridge entirely. At this point Carrots was still under the impression that his battery was flat, so kept the bike running. This 5 minute wait turned into 15 minutes, and the temperature on the bike was climbing in the afternoon heat. Eventually he decided to just take it for a spin up and down the hill to get some air through the radiator, but then fuel was also a concern (through all the battery issues, he had neglected to fill up).
Once back, he switched off the bike and I was like 'oh...shit', ready to get on my knees again to get the thing jump started, but fortunately he was able to test the battery on the downhill, and everything turned out fine, so we surmised that it must have been the lights drawing the battery flat.
We had a quick snack (now effectively powdered eggs in my egg carrier) with some bully beef, mussels and crackers, the bridge was opened, and we headed off for the last stretch to Semonkong. Once again, the riding was spectacular, steep climbs and descents, switchbacks, and very good road surface, away from the setting sun.
Once at Semonkong, Dwerg lead us in - finally seeming to have worked out how his GPS works ;D The sun was about to set, and the beer at Semonkong Lodge was calling. And man, what a place.
They have a fully licensed pub and restaurant, the food was incredible, the beer cold, and the wine CHEAP! Our lodgings were also amazing. Understand that we had wild camped the night before, so our perceptions might have been a bit skewed, but it really was just an incredible relief to have come across this gem.
If you ever get the chance, please do support them:
Semonkong Lodge
www.placeofsmoke.co.ls
We checked in, unpacked, ate, had some wine, and then crashed into bed, in anticipation for our rest day.
We deliberately missed the dirt shortcut between Mohale's Hoek and Roma to make time
PS: I don't have many photos to contribute, as the camera I took with was wholly unsuitable for DS riding. You need something a lot more compact and easy to reach than the big thing I lugged along. OR you need to make a lot more time to stop for photos. Either way, fortunately the others were well covered in this department.
