Richtersveld ECO Adventures

[Jock]

Dont know if it is ok to post this ride report here as we did the ride on ATV's (Quads), but these guys also cater for Dual purpose bikes!

After travelling from Nelspruit we met up vir Jan and his wife Antoinette at Khuboes. After setting up tent we all got together around the camp fire to meet the rest of the group and enjoy supper after briefing.

We left Khuboes after enjoying some coffee and rusks at the crack of dawn and travelled South towards towards Eksteensfontein via the magnificent Tierhoek camping site. This place (Tierhoek) is amazeing, I dont know how to describe it, its like a little hide away in the mountains.

 

[Jock]

After enjoying our pre-packed lunch boxes at tierhoek we continued to our refuel point, the town of Eksteensfontein.

 

[Jock]

From their we took Schalk's 4X4 Route to our camping spot in the Rooiberg reserve.

 

[Jock]

The morning of day two we followed co-ordinates to Kanikaip and appreciated the spectacular and contrasting beauty the Orange river has to offer, from their we backtracked to Eksteensfontein to refuel and enjoy a Richtersveldt lunch.

 

[Jock]

After lunch we followed the main route to "Helskloof Pass", which serves as the only link between Eksteensfontein and Vioolsdrift.

Here we build our own rock towers amongst the hundreds of rock towers build by other travelers that crossed the pass.

We also passed ancient petroglyphs or rock drawings that were done by Nama people thousands of years ago.

That night we camped at the Orange river and enjoyed a great potjie with traditional bread baked by Eksteenfonteiners.

 

[Jock]

The next morning we backtracked to Eksteensfontein and from their headed to our campsite via the Fluorspa valley. That night we camped in a dry riverbed under a full moon and it was just perfect. I knew the next say would be our last day in the Rightersveldt  :'(

The next morning we headed strait to Eksteensfontein to refuel and from their we rode the bikes all the way to Port Nolloth, where we stayed over before heading home.

 

[Jock]

Some more pics:

 

[Jock]

here is a link to a video of day one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbnK5Ycrr5A

They doing another ride at the end of August and I think another one in September. Their number is zero eight two five five four four five six eight or you can mail them at avandalen at telkomsa dot net

They situated in Struisbaai.

 

[GStry]

Thanks for sharing.  :thumleft:
Can you take Adventure Bikes into the Park? 

 

[Jock]

This isnt the park itself but the conservancy. The organisers have made a arrangement with the local people and they manage the groups, limiting the numbers to 20 people (including back up vehicles drivers), our group was 11 bikes and seven "back up" members and three "crew"

They are very strict with where one is allowed to ride etc and you must stay on the tracks, so no damaging of the enviroment allowed. But you dont need to stay in a tight group and do the follow the leader type thing, or "ducks in a row" riding. You get given the waypoints and navigate to the camping site, but we stayed together for safety sake, its a big place to get lost in beleive me, but we left huge gaps in between.

They really organized the trip well and all we basically needed to do was ride our bike and pitch our tents and enjoy the vastness of the area.

 

[GStry]

Thanks, Heading that way in September/October, will have to do some more research on it.

 

[Jock]

To the reserve or the conservancy?

Make sure you have the latest Tracks 4 Africa loaded, one can get lost their very easily and especially with the bikes run out of fuel. We went there last year and tried getting from Eksteensfontein to Khuboes via the Fluorspa valley, it looked like a nice dry riverbed all the way to Khuboes and we had just enough fuel plus a little bit extra to get to Khuboes.

We ended up in a dead end, even though we were following the gradient of the dry river bed, in other words if their would have been water flowing we would have been following it.

GPS showed Khuboes just 6km away, but infront of us was just cliffs.

We had to turn back and nearly ran out of fuel, with no food, no tents, not even warm clothing.

 

[Beemer Mike]

Jock, do you have and will you please post gps route? Looks like a couple of nice routes for us on the Year End Bash.
Thanks

 

[Jock]

Beemer Mike, I have the tracks that the GPS saved, but I would rather you contact Antoinette or Jan from Richtersveldt Eco Adventures and work something out with them.

They have met with the local headmen of the various regions in the conservancy and have explained to them and commited to them to manage the bikes in the conservancy. Please dont get me wrong, I know the wild dogs arent a bunch of hooligans and they respect the enviroment but the last thing one I would want is for bikes to get banned in the conservancy aswell.

It is such a special place, during one days riding of 100 odd kays one can go throught easily five different types of terrain with different vegetation and rocks, it amazeing!

And something we only realized on our return nearing "civilization" is the fact that not one night did we need to remove gps's of the bike or lock stuff away, never did we feel unsafe!


Speak to Jan or Antoinette on zero eight two five five four four five six eight

I am sure they can cater a ride to your specific needs.

 

[GStry]

To the reserve or the conservancy?
Make sure you have the latest Tracks 4 Africa loaded, one can get lost their very easily and especially with the bikes run out of fuel. We went there last year and tried getting from Eksteensfontein to Khuboes via the Fluorspa valley, it looked like a nice dry riverbed all the way to Khuboes and we had just enough fuel plus a little bit extra to get to Khuboes.
We ended up in a dead end, even though we were following the gradient of the dry river bed, in other words if their would have been water flowing we would have been following it.
GPS showed Khuboes just 6km away, but infront of us was just cliffs.
We had to turn back and nearly ran out of fuel, with no food, no tents, not even warm clothing.

Both if possible. Will need to take a closer look at it though.

 

[Jock]

Hope you enjoy it! Do lots of research, it really make it extra special when one has researched the area.

 

[Andy660]

Enjoyed you RR Jock.
I was lucky enough to have been to Eksteenfontein and surrounds on 2 occasions by bike and Know some people that live there , incl. the Dominee of the local Church there,
We did some awesome riding there too.
And it is a very special place !!

 

[Jock]

Andy, I have ridden basically everywhere in South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland and in the southern parts of Mozambique with quads and dual purpose bikes, haven't been to Botswana yet and nothing has ever compared to the Richtersveldt for me, it has just got a calming effect on you and just shows you how small and insignificant we are.

 

[Jock]

Day two video uploaded to youtube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUvCOYVEyRI

 

[Andy660]

I know exactly what you mean .Thats why I cant wait for our year end bash in October.

Those roads on the way to Kaboes , the dead end ones , we did exactly the same thing last year.Went all the way into that dead end valley and ended up on the wrong side of the mountain.

This pic is in Valley about 20km from Lekkersing.On virgin ,unridden , two spoor tracks, in the wilderness