Day 11
Night before next section, I bumped into Martin again and he was keen to join me on the ride to the source of Orange river up on Drakensberg escarpment. Obviously I was glad to have a partner, especially one who knew the route and unlike me was very competent rider comfortable in Lesotho mountains. On the other hand I was a bit anxious about the pressure as I will not be able to chicken out at will as I do when I ride on my own - the key secret of my survival on my trips on which I way too often tend to find myself way out of my depth.
I haven’t slept much that night partially due to old age insomnia and partially due to the loud party that was going on in the nearby restaurant. In the morning I felt a bit tender and considered chickening out preemptively straight away. Eventually I decided to stop being a baby and give it a try. The plan was to ride to Mont-Aux-Sources on the SA border, follow escarpment south - east towards source of Orange river and then cut down to Chalets in the Sky lodge sitting at the bottom of the valley about 10 km east of Letseng mine.
We set off after early breakfast at about 7:00, starting with the track to the Mont-Aux-Sources, which by now I have already done twice. I focused hard on sticking to my own tempo and avoiding chasing Martin to not fuck myself up straight away. The beginning was a bit tentative but eventually I relaxed and got into the swing of things.
Soon we made it to Mont-Aux-Sources on SA border (as well as delineating border of KZN and Free State) overlooking top of Tugela Falls in Royal Natal NP escarpment.
Judging by its French name I expected Mont-Aux-Sources to be majestic graceful mountain - it turned out to be a little rocky outcrop seen at the top of the escarpment behind us:
Here we turned right and followed impressive top of the Drakensberg escarpment south east towards the source of Orange few dozen km away. Martin was riding upfront scouting easiest routes for me to follow and the progress was really good. The riding was relatively easy - speaking in cross country Lesotho terms here - mostly big rolling hills and valleys on the high plateaux on top of Drakensberg - rocky for sure, but wide open allowing one to choose easier line if he run into problematic section. I even started to believe that I may actually have a chance to finish this one - unlike the fiasco on the prior attempts towards Monantsa.
The scenery was fantastic - I’ll let the pictures tell the story:
Against my expectations, after crossing few valeys and passes, quite soon we made it to the ridge on top of the valley where Orange originates. It would have been easy to descent down to the source, but I could see that Martin was keen to push on and make it to the Chalets in the Sky as soon as possible to avoid getting caught by the storm up high there - the clouds weren’t threatening yet, but they were getting some momentum. I have contemplated splitting off and heading to the source for sleepover, but it was early - still before noon and I decided not to push my luck and stuck with Martin.
Source of Orange river is down in that valley - the white bit:
Which was a good thing - Martin did know why he was pushing. While the ride so far was quite manageable, we still had to descent along a steep valley down to the Chalets in the Sky - which Martin knew about and I didn’t. We have made it to the top of the descent at about noon and after shortstop turned right down the valley leaving the cattle tracks my plotted route followed behind. First 2 km or so were nice easy descent in third gear down wide valley, but once it narrowed down the situation changed quickly.
So far I was riding on the wave of elation from the great progress we were making and now pretty much sure that I’m going to finish this one - I was feeling great and strong, like I haven’t been riding for 5 hours Lesotho mountains. But pretty much within 10 - 15 minutes of hitting the steep and tricky (for me) off-camber, my energy was gone and I turned into hopeless zombie. We had only 2 - 3 km to go, but I seriously doubted I will be able to make it. I knew I can walk the bike, but that was very tiring and I had no energy left. I contemplated just camping right there and pushing it down next morning, but Martin didn’t consider it good idea as - should I get caught up by rain there - I would be more or less fucked.
Instead he cheered me up, rode up and down the slope (like it was flat) looking for easier alternatives for me and eventually we swapped the bikes - he took my 500 with luggage and rode it down more or less like his 300. On the other hand I half walked and half ridden his 300, which felt like a bicycle compared to 500 - I was surprised how small it was, as I had 2009 300 before the 500 and remembered it to be considerably bigger. That said I have to say (and Martin also commented on it) that much more precise throttle on 500 did eliminate some of the advantage that 300 had - and I’m sure taking the luggage off would help even more.
Eventually we made it through the 2-3 km off-camber section to the outskirts of the village on the Khubelu river and then rode the big dirt roads another 3 km to the Chalets in the Sky, which we made at about 2:00 pm. I was really chuffed to make it through and thanked Martin profusely for dragging me through.
The only thing was - apart for that 2 - 3 km off camber section the whole 70 km or so loop was very manageable. My original route didn’t descent to Khubelu river valley, but followed cattle tracks along the ridge down to the Orange river valley to the east. I was curious whether that route wouldn’t be easier as if it would the whole track would be feasible for average bimbo like me on dual sport bike (i.e. plated enduro). So I decided to come back next day and investigate that to get some closure on the whole Orange river loop.
Martin has organized a guy from Afri Ski to come and fetch him with bakkie, as he didn’t have enough petrol to make it back. I was going also back for one last night and to fetch my car. As he seemed to like 500 a lot I gave him 500 to ride back to Afri Ski and I got a ride with 300 in the bakkie.
On the way back to Afri Ski once we climbe out of Khubela valley seen in the picture:
I have to say, I was really glad I didn’t chicken out in the morning. The credit of course goes to Martin who found the best possible routes and basically carried me and my bike over that off-camber descent.