Rain in the Richtersveld Two.0 - Desolation & Dunes

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Paul, well, I am not sure what ritual Paul was busy with. Maybe he felt that if he lay in the dirt sufficiently, he would fulfil his quota of doing so for the day.

Whatever it was, it worked! Paul skipped down Holgat river like it was the N1.

 

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Once we had got everyone focussed on the task at hand, we rolled out of Oewerbos for the ride of a lifetime.

 

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We headed West along the Orange River, and then turned into the Nababeep National Park, for a track that runs right along the river. This track is a mélange of the sum of all fears for anyone on a motorbike - well for me at least.

It started with deep silt, nice fine silt, nice and deep.

That gave way to rocks, carefully graded to have the same sizes in each area. Ok when they are all fist sort of size, less ok when we are at adult head sort of size.

Then deep coarse sand. And on it went. It threw everything at us and it was glorious riding!

 

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See! Silt deep enough to catch the indomitable Lohan.

 

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Once our forearms were on the brink of surrender, the track ended. We headed out in search of Holgat river.

 

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The track out wandered along, across, in, in and across all manner of dry river beds. Each nice and twisty to keep our speed down.

 

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Those dots are not bugs, but bikes. Insignificant in this majestic wilderness.

 

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Last year this valley looked like a scene from Avatar. This year the rains had not been quite as kind.

 

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Down the other side it was off to Eksteensfontein.

And there is was - Rain. Gus never fails, get some friends together, get on our bikes - and it will rain. Even in the most unlikely places.

 

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Time for rain gear.

 

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The cold and wrestling required to get us this far had developed a hunger that demanded attention.

The shop owner was somewhat apprehensive when he saw us descending on him. It turns out that some days prior to our arrival a group of bikers had arrived and ridden their bikes straight into his store.

Some of the best riding available to us in on the vast tracts of community owned land. Come on guys, let's have a smidging of respect for those around us and in particular those over whose land we are privileged to enjoy our beloved sport.

 

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Our hunger pangs successfully warded off, with a little warmth infused into our bodies it was time to duel with Holgat river.