Day 1 - Middelpits - Two Rivers - Molopo Lodge
(240km, 180 km of sand)
I woke up feeling better and finally fully keen to hit the desert. During the night there was a heavy storm, which I took as a good sign as the sand would be compacted and easier to ride.
I settled the bill, jumped into the car and drove 30 or so km to Middelputs border post, where I arrived just as they opened for business at about 7:30 am. I crossed the border without too much hassle and drove into the Middleputs town looking for the police station which I found after an enquiry or two. Police chief kindly agreed that I can leave my car there for the next few days and I parked under awning in the fenced police parking lot. The reason I took the car into Bots was the lack of petrol available in the area west of Tsabong (if you get lucky you might get petrol in Middelputs - but it's not guaranteed, so I decided to leave my car with two ful jerry cans positioned roughly in the center of my area of interest, which gave me convenient temporary base for the exploration.
Cops helped me to unload the bike and I geared up and set-off. I was quite chuffed with my progress so far as it was still before 9:00 am, and in all mu chuffness forgot to take my bike documents, which I realized withing first 10 km just as I was to turn off tar and into dunes. Grudgingly I turned back - I needed the papers with me in case I may need to cross back to SA to get petrol in Askham or Two Rivers - gunned it back, grabed the papers and was on my way again about 20 minutes later.
The objective for the day was Two Rivers, which is a big camp at the entrance of the Kgalagadi NP, about 180 - 200 km away over the dunes. The camp is part of the NP so off limits to bikes, but I hoped to be able to sweet talk my way in for an overnight, and more importantly to fill up at the petrol station they have there. It was a long shot, but worth a try.
Here is the route I ended up riding - the blue line in the map:
Here is it again on satellite image:
First 10 - 15 km from Middelpits was on tar until I came to village named Khuis, where I turned off tar and onto a dirt road, that very quickly morphed into sandy double track. I settled very quickly into the swing of things and cruised comfortably heading west. The track run across low dunes and flat plains, and the sandy landscape alternated between light red and yellow/white, with scrub bush providing spatterings of green:
About 20 km in I came upon cattle post, which I diligently marked in my GPS for an emergency - the guy there had water available. For some reason all the cattle posts I found were situated on big sandy plains - I suspect that for some reason that is where the water is easily available.
), and second of contrast between high definition and low definition tiles in the images:
