Sani Pass

[EssBee]

Looks like I'm to kick off the ride report again....I'm tired I don't feel like typing so this is gonna be short....I'm sure others will add.

Left Pinetown at 6.30 under CliveG's kind guidance, showing us a predominantly offroad route to Richmond, where we met Philemon and JonW. From there we all proceeded further, stopping at the Umkomasi river where we split, the remaining 5 of us to venture on to Sani.

Well...I've been up the pass 3 times before by other means, but, today it was really gnarly and muddy...it was a blast!!! Had a quick beer at the Highest Pub, and descended back down to Himeville for lunch. Joined by KTMmer, Malibu and Smithey.(!) Was good to meet you guyz!

Then us 3 Durbanites went on our own quickest way back. 486kms later...shoo.

 

[EssBee]

Oops...I screwed up....here's the image I intended posting where you see the duplicate:

 

[Rieks]

Nice!

 

[LeonDude]

Nice one! Would love to see some pics of the pass itself.

 

[shark_za]

Did you guys make it back to Nottingham Road?

I had breakfast in your valley, well at the top of Botha's hill at some gun shop / coffee shop that was biker friendly.
Now thats close to heaven for me.

Then got a few mini kegs at the brewery at Rawstons. You guys are spoilt !!!

 

[Dakota]

Nice  :thumleft:

 

[JonW]

Howzit EssBee

Nice to meet up with some of you Durban based Wild Dogs at last.

After leaving the meeting spot in Richmond we headed out towards Hella Hella and stopped for a break on the Bridge over the Umko just before the pass.

My mate philemon on the bridge

Check how the railings on the bridge behind him have all been sawed off and removed, no doubt to be sold as scrap for a couple of rands. Expect to read a 'Minibus plunges off bridge -15 dead" report in the newspaper in the near future.

Husky on his KTM640

From there we headed up the pass, and took some really nice dirt roads to Creighton, then past St Appolinaris hospital, to Centocow and onto the tar road between Bulwer and Underberg where we stopped for a break.

From there stayed on the tar for about 4km, the turned off onto the dirt road to Pevensey. You could see that there had been a bit of rain, but the road was very good.

Had a nice little water crossing on this road

Postbox handling the water crossing on his TTR with ease

The Pevensey road takes you right to the Sani Pass road, which is in the final stages of preparation for being tarred. This was sadly probably the last time we will ride the section to the hotel before it is tarred.

The section between the hotel and the south African border post was very muddy from all the rain lately. This is the first time that I have ever encountered mud here, it is usually very rocky. All I can presume is that the contractors doing the road construction have dumped tons of sand on the road in preparation for the tarring.

The border post went smoothly, although it was more crowded than I have ever seen it.

Just after the SA border you have this little water crossing. Here is philemon cruising through, with an rental Yaris stuck on a rock in the background.

The bottom half of the pass was rocky as usual, but the top 3 or 4 switchbacks were in fantastic condition, smooth as anything, obviously been graded recently.

Some pics of the guys on the pass:

We encountered this guy walking up the pass with a bunch of firewood he had obviously gathered at the bottom of the pass. So next time you are complaining about some small issue in your life, just be thankful you don't have it as tough as him

After a beer at the top we headed back down without incident and met up for lunch with Smithey and Malibu at Himeville Arms for lunch.

Said goodbye to the Durban boys after lunch

Then philemon and KTemmer and I took a different route home to the others, we went back on dirt through Loteni, then Impendle, Dargle and back to Hilton.

Thoroughly enjoyable trip, good to meet all of you

 

[Ganjora]

the dude with the firewood is a sly bastard.  he's been loitering on the pass since Groenie and i were last there.  (check out Groenie's report: Lesotho rocks!!!  it's under the roll of honour.)

classic ride though.

 

[JonW]

LOL....so because you saw him a year or two ago he is now a "sly bastard"  ???

He certainly wasn't "loitering" when we saw him, he was making quite good progress up the pass  and didn't trouble us at all.

 

[LeonDude]

Thanks, those photies of the pass is nice.

 

[shark_za]

haha, not loitering, living.

He does see loiterers most days riding up the pass, drinking beer and f-ing off again.

 

[SGB]

Nice, good to see some familiar faces and places  :thumleft:

 

[Malibu]

It was super meeting up with you guys!  What a suprise... standing in the Passport Q at the top to return to the bottom, you hear your forum name being called...  :thumleft:

All the tourists in the Q thought it was just too incredible...  :biggrin:

 

[GundaGunda]

Great Ride guys,

mmmm - time for me to do it again -just need to do a bit more Durban "project development"

aka "suck up to clients in Durban"

 

[EssBee]

Geeze, I really must have been tired last night....missed this pic.

 

[Smithey]

Was great to meet you guys on Sunday. What a surprise to find other dogs at Sani top.

Trying to remember all your names was a task and a half  :deal:

 

[Postbox]

Was great to meet you guys on Sunday. What a surprise to find other dogs at Sani top.

Trying to remember all your names was a task and a half  :deal:

You cant remember because of all those bloody Hand grenades you were putting back  ;D ;D

 

[EssBee]

OH, so it's YOU with the Cyanide and Happiness signature.....fkn hell, that's my favourite 'toon!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Postbox]

Some more Pics of the Ride  :ricky:

A big thanks to JonW and CliveG for leading us and all the guys for doing the trip, from Durban to PMB and From PMB to Sani and back.
It was a real awesome ride. :thumleft: , And I would like to do many more rides with you guys.
Sorry for the late upload of pics  :-\

 

[Postbox]

Some More pics on the way up  :ricky: