MuttsNutts
Race Dog
After our trip in December to the Eastern Cape with Enduro bikes, a few mates planned another trip with Enduro bikes but also included a trip with the DS bikes. To really make things exciting the Easter bunny recently left a 1200 Adv in my garden 
, Easter weekend was spent buzzing around the mountains of Wartail near Tiffendell with the lighter bikes, ( and cracking the case on my XT550 ), afterwich we packed the bigger bikes for 2 days in Lesotho
Our route took us anti-clockwise through Natal with a few unplanned detours
On the top of Naudesnek before descending, beware we found to our surprise that Rhodes to can run out of petrol
At the bottom of Naudes I made our first navigational porkup Note to self buy a GPS before any other bling, I took us left thinking it was the lower Pitseng road but after going to far down the track to turn back we discovered we were in wild country(Tribal/Communal land)
But how to get out is the question, well just head in the direction you think you should be :?
We found what we thought was a road which turned out to be no more than a cattle track, normal circumstances would make this path easier to cross than finding seats at a Stormers game :roll: but recent rain turned the red soil into a sticky sludge which packed the nobblies (Thanks goodness we both decided on these instead of more road orientated tires or there would have been groot k@K).
After a couple of close calls it was decided checking round the corners would be prudent
THe old Transkei has some of the most stunning scenery, Unfortunatly most of the natural vegetation was ruined by overgrazing.
Once back onto tar we fuelled at Mount Fletcher and headed for Matatiele and Cederville, Navigation porkup no 2, fortunatly for a helpful farmer we made it onto the Underberg road and onto Sani Pass, Just making the border by 13 minutes(Planning estimated 3 hours early)
This is on the way up, spot the Dakar on the middle piece
After what I was expecting to be a difficult climb which turned out to be quite easy we made the top while avoiding the incoming rain which threated to turn the climb into a rather sporting event
The plan to head South on the Sehonghong road past Quachas Nek onto Quthing,but after Navigation porkup 3 which saw us miss the turnoff and advise from a local driver who advised us on the Maseru road instead we made our way to Thaba Tseka, Once there we decided a "quick" detour to Katse was in order
Warning: On the road we encountered a number of youths intent on destroying their countrys tourism by throwing stones at us, One hit me on the back but luckily for him he missed the bike or he would have suffered a unfortunate ending :evil:
Nothing prepares you for the actual size of the Katse dam wall, while the dam is not big by world standards the wall still is, No picture can prepare you for its size, 2,3 Billion cubic metres of concrete was used in the wall, meaning a truck of cement from Ficksburg every 40 minutes during the couple of years of construction. If you get the chance, its a sight worth beholding
From there we raced back to Thaba Tseka and onto Maseru, the roads have so many curves a average speed higher than 50 is impossible. However in this section we covered 5 mountain passes which lasted almost 100KM 8) ,
In the background is the Mohale Dam, This road is being tarred to, I think it may be in preparation for the building of the new Mashai dam(Phase 2 of the Lesotho highlands water project) which will have a even higher wall than Katse
One of the pass names we crossed :lol: , Note this is a pic off the net
We got to Maseru just before nightfall and checked in the Lesotho Sun, The hotel is suffering from lack of patronage and maintainance but was a comfortable stay, The next morning we races back to the farm via Mohales Hoek, Telebridge border and then finally over LundeansNek
, Easter weekend was spent buzzing around the mountains of Wartail near Tiffendell with the lighter bikes, ( and cracking the case on my XT550 ), afterwich we packed the bigger bikes for 2 days in LesothoOur route took us anti-clockwise through Natal with a few unplanned detours
On the top of Naudesnek before descending, beware we found to our surprise that Rhodes to can run out of petrol
At the bottom of Naudes I made our first navigational porkup
Note to self buy a GPS before any other bling, I took us left thinking it was the lower Pitseng road but after going to far down the track to turn back we discovered we were in wild country(Tribal/Communal land) But how to get out is the question, well just head in the direction you think you should be :?
We found what we thought was a road which turned out to be no more than a cattle track, normal circumstances would make this path easier to cross than finding seats at a Stormers game :roll: but recent rain turned the red soil into a sticky sludge which packed the nobblies (Thanks goodness we both decided on these instead of more road orientated tires or there would have been groot k@K).
After a couple of close calls it was decided checking round the corners would be prudent
THe old Transkei has some of the most stunning scenery, Unfortunatly most of the natural vegetation was ruined by overgrazing.
Once back onto tar we fuelled at Mount Fletcher and headed for Matatiele and Cederville, Navigation porkup no 2, fortunatly for a helpful farmer we made it onto the Underberg road and onto Sani Pass, Just making the border by 13 minutes(Planning estimated 3 hours early)
This is on the way up, spot the Dakar on the middle piece
After what I was expecting to be a difficult climb which turned out to be quite easy we made the top while avoiding the incoming rain which threated to turn the climb into a rather sporting event
The plan to head South on the Sehonghong road past Quachas Nek onto Quthing,but after Navigation porkup 3 which saw us miss the turnoff and advise from a local driver who advised us on the Maseru road instead we made our way to Thaba Tseka, Once there we decided a "quick" detour to Katse was in order
Warning: On the road we encountered a number of youths intent on destroying their countrys tourism by throwing stones at us, One hit me on the back
but luckily for him he missed the bike or he would have suffered a unfortunate ending :evil:
Nothing prepares you for the actual size of the Katse dam wall, while the dam is not big by world standards the wall still is, No picture can prepare you for its size, 2,3 Billion cubic metres of concrete was used in the wall, meaning a truck of cement from Ficksburg every 40 minutes during the couple of years of construction. If you get the chance, its a sight worth beholding
From there we raced back to Thaba Tseka and onto Maseru, the roads have so many curves a average speed higher than 50 is impossible. However in this section we covered 5 mountain passes which lasted almost 100KM 8) ,
In the background is the Mohale Dam, This road is being tarred to, I think it may be in preparation for the building of the new Mashai dam(Phase 2 of the Lesotho highlands water project) which will have a even higher wall than Katse
One of the pass names we crossed :lol: , Note this is a pic off the net
We got to Maseru just before nightfall and checked in the Lesotho Sun, The hotel is suffering from lack of patronage and maintainance but was a comfortable stay, The next morning we races back to the farm via Mohales Hoek, Telebridge border and then finally over LundeansNek
