Rain in the Richtersveld and refloating the SAS Wildehond

[51Mobile]

 

[51Mobile]

We checked in and unloaded our bikes for a sortie to explore the old postal route.

 

[51Mobile]

There was no way we could access the route going clockwise, as the Doring river had completely destroyed any possible way to cross the river. We chose not to remember this the next day, and the effects of the flooding of the Doring river would come back to haunt us.

So we decided to try the loop counterclockwise.

 

[51Mobile]

daai pad op die bokant van gaganna pas ry ek glad nie as hy nat is nie. Kliphard en
so glad soos snot

Now you tell us!!!! We certainly slipped and slid around far more than was comfortable.

 

[51Mobile]

Arriving back at the camp

 

[51Mobile]

Wanna beer?

 

[51Mobile]

Some of the greatest newspaper headlines

 

[51Mobile]

Jarod enjoying the hospitality of the friendly attendant staff.

 

[51Mobile]

 

[Moridin]

The environment got the team's creative juice flowing.....

View attachment 853732

Robobunny?

 

[51Mobile]

Day 3’s plan was to get to Travelers Rest for the night, with a quick run to Clanwilliam for our fuel starved colleagues. This was PROVIDED we could get across the Doring River. Gus was very concerned about a Pont that was meant to be there. With the lashing the area had received in the past few weeks, the state of the crossing and or Pont were questionable. And we chose to forget the Doring river’s devastation we had seen the previous day.

The alternative was a +400km detour for which most of the bikes did not have enough fuel. First and foremost amongst these was Henry’s gas guzzling behemoth 990. The 500’s were not far behind.

It was a relatively quick ride to the top of the Uitspankraal pass.

 

[51Mobile]

The start of the descent towards the Doring river was spectacular.

 

[51Mobile]

 

[Fillmore]

subbed

 

[51Mobile]

The approach to the Doring river did not look encouraging. There was one aspect clearly missing . .. . . . . where is the pont?

 

[51Mobile]

Where is that pont? I am sure I left it here! Eish.

There was no sight nor clue of a pont. Now what?!

From the top of the pass, we had seen a blueish bit of something quite some distance from the crossing, and deep in a forest of thorns. The water at the crossing looked deep and felt very cold. The ambient temperature was around 17, with the wind making it feel far colder.

Most of the team were making plans to turn around and figure out how and where to get the fuel that would be needed to do the alternate route.

Downstream were some rapids, where the water was shallower. I decided to go across and see if I could find anything.

 

[51Mobile]

Rof because water is flowing and is cold....and I believe the pub there ran out of beers.....just joking

- i think we first flattened all the coffee they had! Probably

 

[DustySprocket]

- i think we first flattened all the coffee they had! Probably

I cannot recall the name of the guy from the lodge. He was so thankful to the bunch of "Rowwe Bikers" who have managed to salvage the pontoon out of the thick bushes that he promptly, on hearing our bikes, walked down to the river and offered us a free round of beers.

We were all suffering from the cold, so no-one took up the initial offer for a round of free beer and gulped down the coffee that a second round of coffee was needed.

Nice spot to get away from it all. They have a number of plastics to do outrides with, some nice, clean stand-alone rooms as well as a good braai / social area.

 

[McSack]

Great RR so far. Those postal route pics bring back some great memories of a KLR Clan trip through there quite some time back.I thought postal route was completely closed though. Still opportunity to ride it?

 

[Heimer]

Kyle pretorius. His name is on that sign you posted