PART 1 - AFRI SKI & SURROUNDS
First part of the trip unfolded around Afri Ski (AS), which I ended up using as a base for a week to explore the tracks along the Drakensberg escarpment. Here is the map of the area:
Here is the link to the map on the Google maps server, should you wish to zoom in or out: https://drive.google.com/open?id=14B1kH9i_3IzodD53Cxq9eUVpBi4&usp=sharing
The route starts in Sunniside farm where I left initially my car (B on the map), follows down to Monantsa border crossing through a double track crossing Golden Gate park and then connects to the cattle tracks (the red line) I planned to follow along the Drakensberg escarpment. There are two staked out connections that would allow to get to Afri Ski for some R&R if needed - just so that I had some options to get out without having to backtrack all the way should the trail prove too difficult (in the original plan I wanted to follow the cattle tracks all the way down to source of Orange river and then more or less follow the river to Mokhotlong without detour to AS). One following Tsahlanyane river and connecting to the main tar road between Butha Buthe and Mokhotlong just to the north east of the Moteng pass, and the other - preferable as it was dirt all the way - following a mountain bike trail running along the mountaintop between Mont-Aux-Sources and AS.
So as already mentioned, I left my car in Sunnyside farm who were happy for me to leave it there for the next two weeks and rode off towards Monantsa on the 2nd of November. Sunnyside farm is a nice place where time seems to flow slower and is highly recommended if you are looking for a bit of old school hospitality in the area (or just need to leave your car somewhere
). Here few pictures of the place:
From the farm I rode through the Golden Gate on the main tar for about 20 km, then turned off south onto a very eroded double track running all the way to Monantsa village and adjacent border crossing.
Here is 500 on the border fully kitted out. I have to confess that deep in my heart I was chuffed with all the luggage hanging all over - deep down there clearly is still some of the old GS fatty left, who enjoys nothing more than lots of things hanging off his steed. I will regret those feelings very soon - and yes, I have been warned by Ian upfront.
Once pass the border I pushed on the main dirt road that follows the Caledon river west to Butha Buthe. I have never done this road and was surprised how rough and washed out it was, as I knew this is frequented by people on big adv bikes.
After about 15 km I turned off the main road up the valley and the road got immediately way rougher - but it was still some kind of dirt road. I passed the Lesotho Defence Force base (grand sounding name for what it was) and few more km up the valley at small settlement I turned right on the cattle paths following the spine of the huge mountain raising up east.
And just within km or 2 the things started going downhill - except for the track of course which kept going up and I could see was about to get way more steeper and off camber. The track was a red dirt cattle path running along the spine of the mountain with rocks thrown if here and there to keep it interesting. It was quite a bit off camber in places, but so far didn’t look like something I should not be able to ride. And yet, I was battling badly with the traction. The rear wanted to step off camber at slightest provocation and wouldn’t hook up in rocky sections leaving me rear-ending the rocks on number of occasions, instead of pushing me over as I expected. I had on brand new Metzeler MC360 tyre, which by the look of it should have been more than capable dealing with the track, and yet provided very little traction.
Frontal view:
And the rear view - the track continues along the mountains to the left:
The lack of traction left me feeling very tentative exactly at the moment when the commitment was the order of the day in the face of much steeper and worse - more off-camber sections further up. I gingerly pushed up the track until I came to a quite rocky section - or what I considered very rocky section at that time - by the end of this trip I probably wouldn’t even notice it and just gunned it through. I thought I can bypass it by going downslope off the track and then gun it up small dip further up.
Well, getting downslope was easy. Getting up wasn’t - it was impossible. It was uphill and I had zero traction with rear tyre just digging trenches deeper into the mountain. I was completely perplexed by this, as - though no roof competitor - I have cleared sections like this before many times without batting an eyelid.
I had to manhandle the bike out, repeatedly picking it up and putting it down again and dragging it on the ground to face right direction and then walk it back on track where I came from. This kind of exercise drains one’s energy stores on open mountain side in 2.5 km altitude double quick and I ended up exhausted gasping mess. One thing I have come to learn very viscerally on this trip is that energy conservation is everything if one wants to actually ride those mountains. And anything else than efficient riding, like walking recces, trying to get bike unstuck somewhere on the offcamber ledge (or in the rock garden) drains ones batteries triple fast. Of course I knew that already intellectually , but tasting heart attack in your mouth has a way to bring clarity to that understanding that brain just cannot match.
By this stage I had pretty good idea (and I’m sure most of you had for a while) what the problem is - stupid tyre pressure. I was riding with fully inflated tyres at about 2 - 2.5 Bar as I thought that is what one needs to ride in rocks to avoid pinch flats. Not conducive to good traction. Just to make sure I called Runner and he in his usual polite manner explained that I’m an ***** and should be actually riding at about 0.8 - 1 bar pressures. That is what roof guys ride - or they would if they would use tubes, which they don’t.
So once I caught my breath again I lowered the pressures and turned straight uphill to test it properly. I knew from my track plotting that I would be better off riding up on the top of the ridge rather than following this increasingly off camber cattle track. And a herdsman I have met said exactly the same thing so I decided to give it a go.
The lower pressures did they magic and the bike was climbing up like scalded donkey. Very soon though I have run out of relatively easy low grass section and run into a part with big big rocks and grass knolls all over the place. Again, at later stage I (or rather 500) would clear that one without too much sweat, but at this stage, lacking experience and fearing I might flip the bike at any moment, I chickened out and stopped.
Devoid of energy and commitment I knew it was done. I have made about 2 km or so of tough-ish stuff and had another few dozen to go and it was very clear that the riding is going to get much tougher pretty soon. So defeated I turned tail and headed down the mountain.
But it wasn’t all doom and gloom - facing now the full enormity of what I was attempting to do it was clear some changes are needed. The tyre pressure was the clear one and now sorted, but I also had to get rid of some of the luggage. IanTheTooth told me that I should be riding only with back-pack and no luggage, but that wasn’t to happen. I’m not good enough to be able to get myself out of tight spot quickly in tricky terrain should I get stuck somewhere - be it because of weather turning quickly or just because I got behind obstacle that I cannot easily get over in the opposite direction. So I need the safety of the camping gear to give me freedom to explore deeper into the mountains. Otherwise I would never dare to venture far away from safe base - which basically means I would have to be riding within easy walking distance of AS, should I need to abandon bike stuck in a tricky section in a hurry.
But it was clear I was carrying too much crap - the most obvious example was tankbag. I like to carry one for my camera gear, but it was getting in the way big time and I had to get rid of it, even if it meant leaving camera behind (which I did - all the images in this report are from iPhone). Part of the reason I was carrying too much was that I planned to live off the bike for the next two weeks as I do on my other trips. The easy way to alleviate this was to have a moving base from which I can venture out for day or three on the bike, but return to to replenish my stores and get clean clothes - and get some R&R. In other words take the car, load it up with stores and have it as a base strategically positioned for each leg of the trip. Which is exactly what Ian recommended in my preparation thread - but hey, I learn best from my own mistakes.
So I retraced back to Sunnyside farm, where they were naturally surprised to see me after all the fuzz I made about leaving the car there for two weeks, loaded up the bike and gear and got ready to set-off again next day for another attempt.
Next day I drove to Clarens where I bought food stores, jerry can, filled up on petrol and headed out to Lesotho via Caledonspoort. I was heading for Afri Ski, where I arrived in the early afternoon, just before a nasty storm - which I came to learn is regular occurance here this time of the year - hit the surrounding mountains.
First part of the trip unfolded around Afri Ski (AS), which I ended up using as a base for a week to explore the tracks along the Drakensberg escarpment. Here is the map of the area:
Here is the link to the map on the Google maps server, should you wish to zoom in or out: https://drive.google.com/open?id=14B1kH9i_3IzodD53Cxq9eUVpBi4&usp=sharing
The route starts in Sunniside farm where I left initially my car (B on the map), follows down to Monantsa border crossing through a double track crossing Golden Gate park and then connects to the cattle tracks (the red line) I planned to follow along the Drakensberg escarpment. There are two staked out connections that would allow to get to Afri Ski for some R&R if needed - just so that I had some options to get out without having to backtrack all the way should the trail prove too difficult (in the original plan I wanted to follow the cattle tracks all the way down to source of Orange river and then more or less follow the river to Mokhotlong without detour to AS). One following Tsahlanyane river and connecting to the main tar road between Butha Buthe and Mokhotlong just to the north east of the Moteng pass, and the other - preferable as it was dirt all the way - following a mountain bike trail running along the mountaintop between Mont-Aux-Sources and AS.
So as already mentioned, I left my car in Sunnyside farm who were happy for me to leave it there for the next two weeks and rode off towards Monantsa on the 2nd of November. Sunnyside farm is a nice place where time seems to flow slower and is highly recommended if you are looking for a bit of old school hospitality in the area (or just need to leave your car somewhere
). Here few pictures of the place:
From the farm I rode through the Golden Gate on the main tar for about 20 km, then turned off south onto a very eroded double track running all the way to Monantsa village and adjacent border crossing.
Here is 500 on the border fully kitted out. I have to confess that deep in my heart I was chuffed with all the luggage hanging all over - deep down there clearly is still some of the old GS fatty left, who enjoys nothing more than lots of things hanging off his steed. I will regret those feelings very soon - and yes, I have been warned by Ian upfront.
Once pass the border I pushed on the main dirt road that follows the Caledon river west to Butha Buthe. I have never done this road and was surprised how rough and washed out it was, as I knew this is frequented by people on big adv bikes.
After about 15 km I turned off the main road up the valley and the road got immediately way rougher - but it was still some kind of dirt road. I passed the Lesotho Defence Force base (grand sounding name for what it was) and few more km up the valley at small settlement I turned right on the cattle paths following the spine of the huge mountain raising up east.
And just within km or 2 the things started going downhill - except for the track of course which kept going up and I could see was about to get way more steeper and off camber. The track was a red dirt cattle path running along the spine of the mountain with rocks thrown if here and there to keep it interesting. It was quite a bit off camber in places, but so far didn’t look like something I should not be able to ride. And yet, I was battling badly with the traction. The rear wanted to step off camber at slightest provocation and wouldn’t hook up in rocky sections leaving me rear-ending the rocks on number of occasions, instead of pushing me over as I expected. I had on brand new Metzeler MC360 tyre, which by the look of it should have been more than capable dealing with the track, and yet provided very little traction.
Frontal view:
And the rear view - the track continues along the mountains to the left:
The lack of traction left me feeling very tentative exactly at the moment when the commitment was the order of the day in the face of much steeper and worse - more off-camber sections further up. I gingerly pushed up the track until I came to a quite rocky section - or what I considered very rocky section at that time - by the end of this trip I probably wouldn’t even notice it and just gunned it through. I thought I can bypass it by going downslope off the track and then gun it up small dip further up.
Well, getting downslope was easy. Getting up wasn’t - it was impossible. It was uphill and I had zero traction with rear tyre just digging trenches deeper into the mountain. I was completely perplexed by this, as - though no roof competitor - I have cleared sections like this before many times without batting an eyelid.
I had to manhandle the bike out, repeatedly picking it up and putting it down again and dragging it on the ground to face right direction and then walk it back on track where I came from. This kind of exercise drains one’s energy stores on open mountain side in 2.5 km altitude double quick and I ended up exhausted gasping mess. One thing I have come to learn very viscerally on this trip is that energy conservation is everything if one wants to actually ride those mountains. And anything else than efficient riding, like walking recces, trying to get bike unstuck somewhere on the offcamber ledge (or in the rock garden) drains ones batteries triple fast. Of course I knew that already intellectually , but tasting heart attack in your mouth has a way to bring clarity to that understanding that brain just cannot match.
By this stage I had pretty good idea (and I’m sure most of you had for a while) what the problem is - stupid tyre pressure. I was riding with fully inflated tyres at about 2 - 2.5 Bar as I thought that is what one needs to ride in rocks to avoid pinch flats. Not conducive to good traction. Just to make sure I called Runner and he in his usual polite manner explained that I’m an ***** and should be actually riding at about 0.8 - 1 bar pressures. That is what roof guys ride - or they would if they would use tubes, which they don’t.
So once I caught my breath again I lowered the pressures and turned straight uphill to test it properly. I knew from my track plotting that I would be better off riding up on the top of the ridge rather than following this increasingly off camber cattle track. And a herdsman I have met said exactly the same thing so I decided to give it a go.
The lower pressures did they magic and the bike was climbing up like scalded donkey. Very soon though I have run out of relatively easy low grass section and run into a part with big big rocks and grass knolls all over the place. Again, at later stage I (or rather 500) would clear that one without too much sweat, but at this stage, lacking experience and fearing I might flip the bike at any moment, I chickened out and stopped.
Devoid of energy and commitment I knew it was done. I have made about 2 km or so of tough-ish stuff and had another few dozen to go and it was very clear that the riding is going to get much tougher pretty soon. So defeated I turned tail and headed down the mountain.
But it wasn’t all doom and gloom - facing now the full enormity of what I was attempting to do it was clear some changes are needed. The tyre pressure was the clear one and now sorted, but I also had to get rid of some of the luggage. IanTheTooth told me that I should be riding only with back-pack and no luggage, but that wasn’t to happen. I’m not good enough to be able to get myself out of tight spot quickly in tricky terrain should I get stuck somewhere - be it because of weather turning quickly or just because I got behind obstacle that I cannot easily get over in the opposite direction. So I need the safety of the camping gear to give me freedom to explore deeper into the mountains. Otherwise I would never dare to venture far away from safe base - which basically means I would have to be riding within easy walking distance of AS, should I need to abandon bike stuck in a tricky section in a hurry.
But it was clear I was carrying too much crap - the most obvious example was tankbag. I like to carry one for my camera gear, but it was getting in the way big time and I had to get rid of it, even if it meant leaving camera behind (which I did - all the images in this report are from iPhone). Part of the reason I was carrying too much was that I planned to live off the bike for the next two weeks as I do on my other trips. The easy way to alleviate this was to have a moving base from which I can venture out for day or three on the bike, but return to to replenish my stores and get clean clothes - and get some R&R. In other words take the car, load it up with stores and have it as a base strategically positioned for each leg of the trip. Which is exactly what Ian recommended in my preparation thread - but hey, I learn best from my own mistakes.
So I retraced back to Sunnyside farm, where they were naturally surprised to see me after all the fuzz I made about leaving the car there for two weeks, loaded up the bike and gear and got ready to set-off again next day for another attempt.
Next day I drove to Clarens where I bought food stores, jerry can, filled up on petrol and headed out to Lesotho via Caledonspoort. I was heading for Afri Ski, where I arrived in the early afternoon, just before a nasty storm - which I came to learn is regular occurance here this time of the year - hit the surrounding mountains.
