GG
Race Dog
Plan - ride with Sue (trusting wife) on our first long pillion ride to Katze with full panniers and top box of tent, food, sleeping bags (and thermal inners) and kit. Meet up with my brother there in a 4x4 and consider either a dirt route around the dam or the dreaded Kao.
We left on a freezing cold sat am the cold prompted lots of coffee stops along the way. Into Lesotho at 12 and the temp is - 2 on my 1200 GS Adventure computer which is flashing ice warnings like mad..like I don't know.&^%%$�£ it was cold. But then I did have alice cooper on the ipod so those beautiful corners just flowed past, low down, fast, cold but hey so much fun!
As we descend the pass Sue shivering behind me, the snow starts falling on my screen, I realise that the GSA screen and heated handgrips definitelly give me the heat advantage... but &^%$ its still fucking freezing.. no other description.
We explore the official campsite (lodge is full) and decide on the local bazut camp, covered sites and a warm fireside bar
And as if we planned it, the snow fell fast and furiosly, very beautiful
Despite the pubs best attempts
we still behaved like Pondos on payday and pretended that he amount of Jamesons consumed was to keep us warm. The Jamesons fueled choice was Kao or KO. Seemed like the rest of the world (mentioning no names) were flippin cold and heading to warm pubs in the RS of A..
It was cold but clear
and we headed to Kao followed by my brother Khonya and family in the bukkie...
The Kao route is about 45 km's long starting at Lejone on the Katze road and extending to a point on the Oxbow Mokhotlong route. I had done it before in a 4x and read this forums tales. Memory is not a friend.... and the rain had taken its toll on the road!
The first 20 odd km's to the diamond mine at Kao is beautiful and reasonably easy..lots of river crossings and steeps gravel ups and downs.
I had not switched off my ABS and as I came down one very very steep track Sue and i sliding forward on the seat, a battered Isuzu came up gunning it and all I heard was the rattle of my ABS releasing brakes and the complete lack of braking... i squeezed past cursing my stupidity!
Any experienced dirt rider will love it, the drops on the side drop 100's of metres to the river below giving spectacular views, then the road winds up the side of the river crisscrossing the river pretending to lead to some highlands meadow..
And then we discovered Kaos...
the road suddenly rises up the valley for about 5 km's pretending to be a road but actually a riverbed of rock. Sue walked and I challenged the first few hundred metres of track. The front wheel kept doing some odd wheelie thing as the panniers weighed down the back and lifted the front wheel.....
It got worse and worse and eventually Khonya and I would walk ahead clearing the larger looser rocks from my intended route (yeah right). Sue reluctantly jumped in the 4 x... and I forged on alone...
I walked the rougher bits grateful for long legs on the high GSA travel. Climbing huge rocks, I rode the clutch to the extent that smoke and stinking clutch surrounded me... A passing Bazut gazed at me as I recovered on a rock, clearly wondering if i was going to have a heart attack!
And then I took a deep breath, stood, leant slightly forward, prayed and gunned it. AAAAH what a machine, what a suspension. Once going and keeping just between stall and some gas the GS loaded to the hilt floats over the rocks, the front wheel bounces and tries to swing from side to side but the momentum and some power keeps it straight..the suspension is incredible, the bike stays straight and absorbs the rocks!
I was sweating but smiling and grinning as I gunned the monster and held on, suddenly confident, the 4 x fading into the distance. Miles ahead and tired I decided to stop, put my foot down and wham, loose rock underfoot big bike and a jump clear..
Fuck all the way to drop it here on flat ground and at standstill....
Once on top there is about 15km's of high flat and reasonably easy riding, very pretty with the left over snow and ice all around me.
Lunch at the river
and then the last 10km's are hard, rocky and what I called fucking cliffs but actually ledges, lean back far and by now rely on the suspension to take the bang... the track winds up the hills with washaways and patches of rock, by now easy stuff ...!
And then the end.... the sweat in my jacket was now freezing but hey I did it ... I will do it again but without the panniers and top box. I will also trust my bike ... there is no bike on earth which can take the hammering i gave that machine with the load it had and yet still seem peaceful and confident over the rocks... I came to love that suspension and to realise it was me not the BMW Adventure which needed help....
If you do the ride with a passenger, make sure shes fit, she will walk, even alone make sure you are fit, you will walk your bike, you will feel like you are in the rodeo, and finally you will then look up, stand up and give it a little gas and feel that baby float over the rocks!
The rest was a normal bike ride (is there such a thing?), the wind, the smells and the beauty of our land.... MAN I LOVE MY BIKE.... yes and Sue the HOT BABE who sat shivering behind me across the Malutis and did a fair bit of walking to!!
We left on a freezing cold sat am the cold prompted lots of coffee stops along the way. Into Lesotho at 12 and the temp is - 2 on my 1200 GS Adventure computer which is flashing ice warnings like mad..like I don't know.&^%%$�£ it was cold. But then I did have alice cooper on the ipod so those beautiful corners just flowed past, low down, fast, cold but hey so much fun!
As we descend the pass Sue shivering behind me, the snow starts falling on my screen, I realise that the GSA screen and heated handgrips definitelly give me the heat advantage... but &^%$ its still fucking freezing.. no other description.
We explore the official campsite (lodge is full) and decide on the local bazut camp, covered sites and a warm fireside bar
And as if we planned it, the snow fell fast and furiosly, very beautiful
Despite the pubs best attempts
we still behaved like Pondos on payday and pretended that he amount of Jamesons consumed was to keep us warm. The Jamesons fueled choice was Kao or KO. Seemed like the rest of the world (mentioning no names) were flippin cold and heading to warm pubs in the RS of A..
It was cold but clear
and we headed to Kao followed by my brother Khonya and family in the bukkie...
The Kao route is about 45 km's long starting at Lejone on the Katze road and extending to a point on the Oxbow Mokhotlong route. I had done it before in a 4x and read this forums tales. Memory is not a friend.... and the rain had taken its toll on the road!
The first 20 odd km's to the diamond mine at Kao is beautiful and reasonably easy..lots of river crossings and steeps gravel ups and downs.
I had not switched off my ABS and as I came down one very very steep track Sue and i sliding forward on the seat, a battered Isuzu came up gunning it and all I heard was the rattle of my ABS releasing brakes and the complete lack of braking... i squeezed past cursing my stupidity!
Any experienced dirt rider will love it, the drops on the side drop 100's of metres to the river below giving spectacular views, then the road winds up the side of the river crisscrossing the river pretending to lead to some highlands meadow..
And then we discovered Kaos...
the road suddenly rises up the valley for about 5 km's pretending to be a road but actually a riverbed of rock. Sue walked and I challenged the first few hundred metres of track. The front wheel kept doing some odd wheelie thing as the panniers weighed down the back and lifted the front wheel.....
It got worse and worse and eventually Khonya and I would walk ahead clearing the larger looser rocks from my intended route (yeah right). Sue reluctantly jumped in the 4 x... and I forged on alone...
I walked the rougher bits grateful for long legs on the high GSA travel. Climbing huge rocks, I rode the clutch to the extent that smoke and stinking clutch surrounded me... A passing Bazut gazed at me as I recovered on a rock, clearly wondering if i was going to have a heart attack!
And then I took a deep breath, stood, leant slightly forward, prayed and gunned it. AAAAH what a machine, what a suspension. Once going and keeping just between stall and some gas the GS loaded to the hilt floats over the rocks, the front wheel bounces and tries to swing from side to side but the momentum and some power keeps it straight..the suspension is incredible, the bike stays straight and absorbs the rocks!
I was sweating but smiling and grinning as I gunned the monster and held on, suddenly confident, the 4 x fading into the distance. Miles ahead and tired I decided to stop, put my foot down and wham, loose rock underfoot big bike and a jump clear..
Fuck all the way to drop it here on flat ground and at standstill....
Once on top there is about 15km's of high flat and reasonably easy riding, very pretty with the left over snow and ice all around me.
Lunch at the river
and then the last 10km's are hard, rocky and what I called fucking cliffs but actually ledges, lean back far and by now rely on the suspension to take the bang... the track winds up the hills with washaways and patches of rock, by now easy stuff ...!
And then the end.... the sweat in my jacket was now freezing but hey I did it ... I will do it again but without the panniers and top box. I will also trust my bike ... there is no bike on earth which can take the hammering i gave that machine with the load it had and yet still seem peaceful and confident over the rocks... I came to love that suspension and to realise it was me not the BMW Adventure which needed help....
If you do the ride with a passenger, make sure shes fit, she will walk, even alone make sure you are fit, you will walk your bike, you will feel like you are in the rodeo, and finally you will then look up, stand up and give it a little gas and feel that baby float over the rocks!
The rest was a normal bike ride (is there such a thing?), the wind, the smells and the beauty of our land.... MAN I LOVE MY BIKE.... yes and Sue the HOT BABE who sat shivering behind me across the Malutis and did a fair bit of walking to!!
