Damaraland
Race Dog
Prologue
An unsupported trip through South-West Angola on KTM EXC 500 Enduro bikes. That was what we wanted to do and that was what we were going to do. But first, introductions are in order. We (Myself, Heiko and Adrian) met through a riding group that did Sunday outrides, your typical gravel highway kind of thing. Here's us:
We're a pretty diverse bunch, with Heiko being a engineer by training who runs his own factory. He is also ze German in the group and a plan-maker of note. Adrian is a bigshot at a big blue insurance company, he's also a fitness nut doing ironmans and that kind of thing. He's also practically ancient, so he's a lot more mature, reasoned and calm than myself or Heiko. As for myself, I bring intelligence, decorum and some might say a sense of culture to the group.
Anyhow, I've been playing around in the rivers and stuff for a while, and this more technical riding is also what appealed to Heiko and Adrian. We started doing trips together on the big KTM's (990, 1090 and 1190 respectively). Damaraland, Kaokoland that kind of thing. Here's a video of a pretty lekker Messum / Damaraland one we did:
[youtube]<iframe width="854" height="480" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fN-J62B_IAE
It was after a Kaokoland trip last year, covering Van Zyls and all the other tough bits that we realised two big things. 1. We're totally over the whole gravel-highway thing and 2. We want to have more fun. Not that the big bikes aren't fun, but the sheer weight of them detract from the fun that could be had.
We thought about buying 690 / 701 class bikes but that just seemed to be half-assing things. If we're gonna go lightweight we were going to do it properly. We had a look at the options available to us at the time (basically Honda 250 Rally and KTM EXC) and decided on the KTMs. Naturally. Once the bikes were ordered we needed to get them sorted for touring, so we made a bunch of modifications, all documented in this monster of a thread - https://wilddog.net.za/forum/index.php?topic=219441.0
Next up was the fuel calculations. Being rather averse to dying it was important to get this right and not get stranded, so we did a bunch of tests (actually just excuses to go ride). We tested in sand, we tested on gravel. We tested consumption laden and unladen. The result was that each bike would have to carry 25L extra fuel, in addition to the 15.5L fuel in it's tank. Heiko, being a German AND a Engineer came up with this:
Then water - we settled on 7L per bike. Whatever space we had left was taken by camping kit and food. If I remember I'll do an exact breakdown of our kit and how we managed to spread the weight on the bikes.
With the kit sorted we did two installation trips - one a 400km gravel ride and one a more enduro type ride around the mountains and rivers here in Windhoek
[youtube]<iframe width="854" height="480" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0gYaBb_6Xg8
The bikes and our layout passed with flying colours, so now we had to settle on a route. I had two boxes I wanted to tick, namely the fabled Doodsakker and then I wanted to see if I could drink Flamingos empty. Heiko visits Angola once or twice a year, thus is familiar with all the "main" routes so he wanted to go as far off the beaten bath as what he could. As for Adrian, he heard the beer was free at Flamingo's so he would've walked there if necessary. The route outline we came up with looked roughly like this, with the proviso that we'd split off the main roads where we could.
As is often the case, disaster struck a week or so before departure. Adrian had to pull out due to some shit he had at work and no amounts of threats, promises of free beer or pleading could make him change his mind. So now we were two. Then roll-up to the morning where we were supposed to leave - Heiko does a last minute service of his bike and discovers the oil magnet plug is stripped (draai vas tot hy gestrip is dan so halwe draai terug, mos). So had to get a timesert done, which delayed our 7 hour drive to Ruacana till about 13:00.
Naais:
We loaded the bikes onto the bakkie and shot through to Ruacana, arriving at about 20:00. We booked into Eha lodge, who also allowed us to leave our car there free of charge for the week or so that we'd be gone. Naturally took a group selfie, including our absent riding buddy.
Hit the sack after that, I was a bit nervous but much more excited. Next morning saw us having to pack the bikes.
This took a bit longer than anticipated, with us filling up and only hitting the border post at around 12:00
An unsupported trip through South-West Angola on KTM EXC 500 Enduro bikes. That was what we wanted to do and that was what we were going to do. But first, introductions are in order. We (Myself, Heiko and Adrian) met through a riding group that did Sunday outrides, your typical gravel highway kind of thing. Here's us:
We're a pretty diverse bunch, with Heiko being a engineer by training who runs his own factory. He is also ze German in the group and a plan-maker of note. Adrian is a bigshot at a big blue insurance company, he's also a fitness nut doing ironmans and that kind of thing. He's also practically ancient, so he's a lot more mature, reasoned and calm than myself or Heiko. As for myself, I bring intelligence, decorum and some might say a sense of culture to the group.
Anyhow, I've been playing around in the rivers and stuff for a while, and this more technical riding is also what appealed to Heiko and Adrian. We started doing trips together on the big KTM's (990, 1090 and 1190 respectively). Damaraland, Kaokoland that kind of thing. Here's a video of a pretty lekker Messum / Damaraland one we did:
[youtube]<iframe width="854" height="480" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fN-J62B_IAE
It was after a Kaokoland trip last year, covering Van Zyls and all the other tough bits that we realised two big things. 1. We're totally over the whole gravel-highway thing and 2. We want to have more fun. Not that the big bikes aren't fun, but the sheer weight of them detract from the fun that could be had.
We thought about buying 690 / 701 class bikes but that just seemed to be half-assing things. If we're gonna go lightweight we were going to do it properly. We had a look at the options available to us at the time (basically Honda 250 Rally and KTM EXC) and decided on the KTMs. Naturally. Once the bikes were ordered we needed to get them sorted for touring, so we made a bunch of modifications, all documented in this monster of a thread - https://wilddog.net.za/forum/index.php?topic=219441.0
Next up was the fuel calculations. Being rather averse to dying it was important to get this right and not get stranded, so we did a bunch of tests (actually just excuses to go ride). We tested in sand, we tested on gravel. We tested consumption laden and unladen. The result was that each bike would have to carry 25L extra fuel, in addition to the 15.5L fuel in it's tank. Heiko, being a German AND a Engineer came up with this:
Then water - we settled on 7L per bike. Whatever space we had left was taken by camping kit and food. If I remember I'll do an exact breakdown of our kit and how we managed to spread the weight on the bikes.
With the kit sorted we did two installation trips - one a 400km gravel ride and one a more enduro type ride around the mountains and rivers here in Windhoek
[youtube]<iframe width="854" height="480" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0gYaBb_6Xg8
The bikes and our layout passed with flying colours, so now we had to settle on a route. I had two boxes I wanted to tick, namely the fabled Doodsakker and then I wanted to see if I could drink Flamingos empty. Heiko visits Angola once or twice a year, thus is familiar with all the "main" routes so he wanted to go as far off the beaten bath as what he could. As for Adrian, he heard the beer was free at Flamingo's so he would've walked there if necessary. The route outline we came up with looked roughly like this, with the proviso that we'd split off the main roads where we could.
As is often the case, disaster struck a week or so before departure. Adrian had to pull out due to some shit he had at work and no amounts of threats, promises of free beer or pleading could make him change his mind. So now we were two. Then roll-up to the morning where we were supposed to leave - Heiko does a last minute service of his bike and discovers the oil magnet plug is stripped (draai vas tot hy gestrip is dan so halwe draai terug, mos). So had to get a timesert done, which delayed our 7 hour drive to Ruacana till about 13:00.
Naais:
We loaded the bikes onto the bakkie and shot through to Ruacana, arriving at about 20:00. We booked into Eha lodge, who also allowed us to leave our car there free of charge for the week or so that we'd be gone. Naturally took a group selfie, including our absent riding buddy.
Hit the sack after that, I was a bit nervous but much more excited. Next morning saw us having to pack the bikes.
This took a bit longer than anticipated, with us filling up and only hitting the border post at around 12:00
