Lesotho Quick Cold Fast Blast

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Lesotho Quick Cold Fast Blast

The great thing about other people’s RR’s is that they are often just what we need to stop with the excuses and get out there even if it’s just for a Sat & Sunday!

I appologise in advance, this RR will come in drips and drabs during the day, between work (yes I know my priorities are up to pot).

I had accidentally found a “lodge” on Mapsource a few Kms out of Mokhotlong, with a nice little stretch of T4A 4x4 track to get there, so the route and overnight accom was sorted.

JHB – Mooi River, Himeville, Sani, Molumong
Molumong, Oxbow, Calendons poort – JHB.

The requirments were simple - One-up, as little luggage as possible and get the Tar stretch to Mooi River over as qiuick as possible so we could make the most of the twisties to Himeville and then Lesotho. After all we had about 1,200 KMS to do over the 2 days.

At very short notice 4 of 8 invited WDs headed down to Lesotho, Briggsy, Pistol, Jules and myself. With work pressure time constraints, the plan was to leave Westrand 5.am Sat and be back Sunday by night-fall.

Jules was first to say “Bugga That!” and asked / told / begged the boss, Li, - he was taking Friday to take a Solo dirt ride down to Himeville. Pistol was next and managed to slip out of the office after pretending to do some work Friday morning and joined Jules at the Himeville Arms Friday Eve. Which left me and Briggsy to leave 5.am Sat.

Come Jules, lets start with your Friday run!

 

[Pistol]

My trip down on tar saw me get 451km on a full 33L tank - just running out of fuel at first Mooi River toll - was not going to stop and pay, but eventually had to as the bike cut out - casually walk over and pay the lady R9-00 - go back to the bike - lay it on the left hand side for a few seconds, start and go 1km to nearest fuel station - shew!!!!!

Must have been going a bit too fast!! :-[

 

[Jules]

As Mike said I was very quick to make a plan for Friday and spend the whole day "touring" down to Himville.

I plotted a winding route to take me all the way from Home to Himville and doing my best to keep off tar at all costs.

I kitted up in my best cold weather kit and set off, Left home at 6am and 8 degrees C. (I Fitted this nice little temperature gauge to my Ten specially for this trip, Its a R95 Game jobbie that has a internal and external sensor, Internal sensor gives me the Temp behind the dash in the sun while the external sensor gives me a reading right under the headlight in the full force of the cold wind.) Things were nice and cosy till I hit the first dirt outside of Vanderbijl and quickly saw the temps drop all the way to 1 degree, It dropped so quickly my mirrors and visor fogged up totally within a second, A quick clean with some anti fog and a picture later and I was on my way.

Hold your hand up to the screen and feel the cold!

YES Its that F^%#ng Cold

I soon realised that at anything over 6 degrees I was very comfortable but below that was bordering on unpleasant!


As I had no set schedule I took my time and enjoyed myself
I am so used to always having a group behind me to take care of that it was very relaxing to be all on my own, I found myself riding slower than I normally do as I was vary aweare of the fact that If I fall I'm on my own!

A quick stop to enjoy the early morning farm noises

Unfortunately my camera battery died at this point, I had forgotten to charge it the night before, I made a quick call to Pistol to ask him to swing past my place and pick up the charger before he left in the afternoon. (Turns out the battery died from the cold but I didn't bother to check it again till I arrived in Himvile where I found it still had some charge left. )

My next stop was in Harysmith for some hot coffee and a big brunch,

From there I wound my way to Himville making one or two shebeen stops along the way  , Eventually I arrived in Himville and checked into the Backpackers and headed to the Pub to await Pistols arrival.

All in all a spectacular days riding (7 hours on the bike!)

Pistol arrived at around 5ish and we spent the rest of the evening in the pub filling up on good food good beer and good conversation!


We got to bed at ........ No idea but We were VERY clever at this point.


Pistol decided he might fall out the bed in the night and decided the Cot looked like a better option

Say No MORE!

He must have gotten a little hot during the night as this is what I saw when I woke up!

Thank god for the towel!!!!!!

We had a good Breakfast at the Arms packed up paid the bill (bar bill was rather scary!) and chilled out while we waited for Mike and Biggsy to arive.

This was about an hour before I woke up!

Pistol "is it Beer O Clock?"

 

[madmike999]

Looks so good already, bring it on!

 

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5 am departure from Ruimsig me and Biggsy.

The temperature on the N3 was kind to us, hovering between 6 – 8 deg C mostly, and at its worst was down to 0 between Warden and Harrismith for a bit. What was planned to be a Splash and Dash turned into a Wimpy Mega coffee and lekker hot breakfast  - 20 minutes later we were ready for the road to Mooi river.

FFFffff Fokken Koud - said Briggsy

 

We climbed off the N3 before Mooiriver, took some back farm roads to Rosetta and happened to stop so that Briggsy could get rid of his Mega coffee  - just then a Farmer (Mike was his name) stopped by and introduced himself and checked if all was OK and if we needed anything. Now that’s KZN farmers for you!!!


I had forgotten what an enjoyable ride it is from Rosetta to Himeville continual twisties, starting Tar and then becoming gravel. We should have taken loads more pics, but just couldnt get ourselves to stop, it was too much fun.

Oh and of course we wanted to get to Himeville ASAP (You know what happens when you leave Jules and Pistol un-supervised at a pub).

As we arrived in Himeville, we were heading for the garage when we were flagged down by the two red eyed monsters.  So It was first a few beers and then off to fill up.

 

[nreyneke]

Lekker!!!  :thumleft:

 

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Then it was good-bye to Himeville and  we headed for Sani. A few minutes on the Sani road and Pistol sees what looks like it could be a shabeen and he is off his bike and enquiring about beers. It was evident by the way he was dragging his feet and his slumped shoulders that alas no beers!!!

Pistol Enquiring if we could buy beers!!

Normally we just ride straight past these old ruins. If im right, it was the old border post years back? Anyone know for sure?

Jules had cleverly used is headset mounting to affix his camera to the jaw piece of his helmet!

Now it was a case of just enjoying riding the road up towards the pass. So we go out quite hard and fast and after a few minutes of arm pump and heart rate while hanging onto the beast, Jules comes past (I could hear him chuckling) and vanish effortlessly into the dust on what looked like a very nimble large red rock rabbit. Very impressed with the 660!!!

Soon we stopped to take in the Sani views and secure Jules’s Tool tube with some cable ties which was taking strain with Jules’s pace (anything in the slightest that looked like it may get him airborne, Jules would head for).

And then another stop to sort Briggsy’s protector and allow Pistol to make space for more beers. All while listen to Pistol moan that we hadn’t had a beer for 30 Minutes!

 

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So if you’ve been up Sani in winter after snow / cold weather, you know about “Icy Corner”.  It is truly an awesome and beautiful sight, as can be seen here!

I take a walk and go look for a line we can ride and Pistol says out my way, no time for that we gotta get to Sani Top for a beer!!! Where’s your camera when you need it!!!!


No worries though, Jules got it on video so I’m sure he’ll post it here later!!

Pistol the comic gives a hearty round of applause to a passing 4x4 who makes it down, incident free. The look of total (WTF) of their faces when seeing the ATGAAT clad motorcyclist giving them a clap (obviously oblivious to the fact that he himself was face down under his bike a minute before).

After that, we all made it up incident free and headed for the Top.

 

[Jules]

Yip I got Pistols "moment" on video, Still need to sort the video and post it.

Pistol "What, No beer!"

Some Pictures of Icy Corner

The Next one

View back down from Icy Corner

 

[Smithey]

I r Jealous    :thumleft:

Keep it coming lads.

 

[Pistol]

I r Jealous    :thumleft:

Keep it coming lads.

Hey Smithey, we passed through your town late yesterday on the way back, sorry we did not stop :

 

[user 5710]

Freaking awesome RR

Subscribed  :happy1:

 

[roxenz]

Looks like it was a good weekend boys!  Congrats and thanks for getting the posting going so quickly!

 

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Sani Top.

Compulsory Group Pic at the Sani Top Sign!

We had all assumed we would have Cell signal from the SA border post so we could make the last calls, or set on Roaming. This was not to be, so the good thing was that none of us had contact with work etc. after Himeville. The bad thing is we had to explain to our wives on Sunday afternoon!


At the Lesotho Border post, it was Jules who had to start explaining why he was “Still” in Lesotho since Feb according to his passport. The more serious the chap became (he even used the words “this is serious”), the more jokes were made and comments of “lock him up” more beer for us.

Jules insisted that he never saw the Border official sleeping under the tree when he left in Feb. Im not sure if there was a hope of a note being slipped his way but the official gave in after a few minutes and stamped him out and in and off we headed for the pub.

Pistol was himself again full of smiles and his great humour, cause he was 10 paces away from an endless supply of beers. But he did have his mumble about the R15 bucks a beer at Sani Top to which the local reminded him “well where else you gonna buy a beer?”

Obligatory Pic

I have to share this with you. We’re in the Pub together with a few tourists and Sani Locals. An old chap is standing near the bar with a manila envelope in his hand hanging next to his leg, addressed to a Mrs Penny Jacobs (or who ever – I cant remember the name). Pistol obviously spots the envelope / name as he walks in and announces Loudly to the pub “Mrs Penny Jacobs??”


Grampa bear spins around with absolute astonishment on his face and says “Who What,  splutter splutter, and says to Pistol how do you know Penny, to which Pistol replies, she my Mom!! Grampa bear holds up the envelope and said “really that’s amazing – I got this envelop address to her”.

Well My Fuck - I had to bite my lip and pinch my leg it was so funny. Even the Japanese (I spik no erish) tourists got it before Grampa Bear realized what was what.

 

[Wheelman]

Nice RR guys.  Those old buildings were a Trading and Hitching post in the old days when they still used pack donkeys and horses to get supplies up the pass.

 

[Jules]

Snow fall on Sani Top! 

Fecking Huge Snow Flakes!

The Red Rock Rabbit!

The Pub

 

[Smithey]

I r Jealous    :thumleft:

Keep it coming lads.

Hey Smithey, we passed through your town late yesterday on the way back, sorry we did not stop :

No problemo, this dawg was camping in Parys the weekend and would have missed you Sunday :imaposer:

 

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Nice RR guys.  Those old buildings were a Trading and Hitching post in the old days when they still used pack donkeys and horses to get supplies up the pass.

Tx Wheelman - I googled it to find the history of the Good Hope Trading Post. Not much detail yet, but I see there was a proposal (accepted it seems) in 2003 to re-locate th SA border post to that site. Wonder what came of that.

 

[rubiblue]

awesome area to ride!
Thanks for pics and split RR.

 

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Surprisingly it was Mr. “I need another beer” Pistol who after only a few beers said common chaps lets move on and head for our overnighter. (I think he was just miffed about the R15 beers)

We left Grampa Bear, “I spik no erish”, some American tourists and a bunch of British guys about to descend the pass on MTB’s at Sani top and we headed for Black Mountain.

After a few KMS settled on the route - I got that feeling for the first time this ride!!  – that ripple of goose flesh, that feeling of realisation that your are “in a happy place” loving every second.

On our way up Black Mountain

This section of Lesotho is weirdly attractive in a baron almost lifeless kind of way.

Ja maybe its just me but Black Mountain has a section where a feeling of eeriness, loneliness and sorrow pops into mind – I have been here a few times over the years and its always there!

And then once over the top of Black Mountain, the icy breeze and brush with emotions is now klaar,  the fun playtime begins on the decent. Jules and the Red Rock Rabit just vanished down the pass to the point were we couldn’t even see his dust anymore – I can only imagine his ear to ear grin.

I had stopped to get some pics on the way down (cause is was just fucking awesome if you just look), Pistol pulls up next to me, looks down the valley and says ‘’Fucking Awsome”

Pistol making some dust. Note no sign Of Jules dust can be seen!

Then Briggsy stopped next to me and gazed down the valley. I assumed he was taking in the beauty – think I was wrong – he was probably checking out the best racing line on the way down (wiff his road tyres nogal). You can take Briggsy outa the Race but you can't take the race outa Briggsy