Wheels
Pack Dog
- Joined
- Jan 20, 2010
- Messages
- 54
- Reaction score
- 0
- Location
- Umzumbe KZN South Coast
- Bike
- BMW R1200GS Adventure
I have been a member for a while now but this is my first contribution to the forum. I am a member of a small group of riders from the South Coast of Natal called BOBZ ( ballies on bikes) and we have just completed a ride through Lesotho. I have read there is a couple of Dogs who are planning a ride and thought this might help
Six of us left from Port Shepstone on the 3 March for a five day adventure, we started on the N2 to Harding before branching off on to rural roads, our first overnight stop was at Umzimkulu River Lodge just outside Underberg where we met up with one of our group from Greytown. Unfortunately when planning we were not aware of the Sani to Sea being held over the same time and accommodation was at a premium but the river lodge was great.
The weather changed our plans somewhat and it was decided instead of having breakfast at Sani Top rather to leave after breakfast in Underberg allowing time for the sun to hopefully burn off some of the clouds, this turned out to be a good decision. The border was a breeze, only passports were required no log books etc. The road to the base of Sani was fairly good but from there on things changed. This is my fourth trip up Sani twice in a 4X4 and my second trip on a bike and by far the worst I have ever seen it however with a few mishaps we all by what ever means we made to the top. Stand up, look up, choose your line and keep the momentum should get you to the top of this amazing pass.
URL=https://img175.imageshack.us/i/picture026l.jpg/]
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Once at the top the roads are pretty good but one of our planning errors was time over distance, speed is not your friend so when planning your ride give yourself plenty of time. We had the additional problem of a slow puncture and decided to rather use Tyre weld, bombs and many stops with a compressor and fix our problem at Katse that evening, this in retrospect was probably the wrong move. This slowed us quite lot and we created another problem by killing the battery on the 1200 we were using for the compressor and as you all should know with a dead battery you aint going nowhere. I finally towed the stricken 1200 with my 800 for the last 80ks to Katse arriving at about 7 pm. Just a heads up when riding between Sani and Katse, stone throwing by the young kids is a bit of a problem and there are a couple of concrete causeways with water one of them on a bend, this one was very slippery and one of our riders travelling at about 80ks went in at an angle on the turn and had a nasty fall, fortunately he and bike were able to continue. While picking up the pieces the locals informed us that this particular causeway had claimed a number of victims so beware. Accommodation and food were good and after a good night’s sleep woke early to do some repairs, the puncture was no problem but the battery a different story, fortunately we had met up with some guys from Avis and with their help managed to organize a battery to be brought from Maseru with one of their staff members. We again left late, with the 1200 in tow we met the Avis guy on the road, new battery fitted and off we went.
After a good days riding on some shall we say interesting roads arrived at Semonkong in the dark not cleaver, accommodation food etc was good and after an early night were ready to ride the following morning.
Our destination was Rhodes in SA via Telle Bridge, on the route we met up with a group from Cape Town, not sure if there were any Dogs amongst them.
Again another long day but some great riding once we had crossed the border back into SA, we followed the border with Lesotho through Lundins Nek and arrived at Rhodes at 7 pm, once again great accommodation and food at Walkabouts B&B and really good, friendly people. Our last day took us via Naudesnek and Pitseng passes back onto tar and home. Great trip
Fuel is not a problem in Lesotho if you cannot get or find a fuel station just stop at any village and they will direct you to someone who sells usually in 5 litre containers for anything from R8.50 to R9.50 a litre
I have been battling with the pictures so hope this works
Six of us left from Port Shepstone on the 3 March for a five day adventure, we started on the N2 to Harding before branching off on to rural roads, our first overnight stop was at Umzimkulu River Lodge just outside Underberg where we met up with one of our group from Greytown. Unfortunately when planning we were not aware of the Sani to Sea being held over the same time and accommodation was at a premium but the river lodge was great.
The weather changed our plans somewhat and it was decided instead of having breakfast at Sani Top rather to leave after breakfast in Underberg allowing time for the sun to hopefully burn off some of the clouds, this turned out to be a good decision. The border was a breeze, only passports were required no log books etc. The road to the base of Sani was fairly good but from there on things changed. This is my fourth trip up Sani twice in a 4X4 and my second trip on a bike and by far the worst I have ever seen it however with a few mishaps we all by what ever means we made to the top. Stand up, look up, choose your line and keep the momentum should get you to the top of this amazing pass.
URL=https://img175.imageshack.us/i/picture026l.jpg/]
Once at the top the roads are pretty good but one of our planning errors was time over distance, speed is not your friend so when planning your ride give yourself plenty of time. We had the additional problem of a slow puncture and decided to rather use Tyre weld, bombs and many stops with a compressor and fix our problem at Katse that evening, this in retrospect was probably the wrong move. This slowed us quite lot and we created another problem by killing the battery on the 1200 we were using for the compressor and as you all should know with a dead battery you aint going nowhere. I finally towed the stricken 1200 with my 800 for the last 80ks to Katse arriving at about 7 pm. Just a heads up when riding between Sani and Katse, stone throwing by the young kids is a bit of a problem and there are a couple of concrete causeways with water one of them on a bend, this one was very slippery and one of our riders travelling at about 80ks went in at an angle on the turn and had a nasty fall, fortunately he and bike were able to continue. While picking up the pieces the locals informed us that this particular causeway had claimed a number of victims so beware. Accommodation and food were good and after a good night’s sleep woke early to do some repairs, the puncture was no problem but the battery a different story, fortunately we had met up with some guys from Avis and with their help managed to organize a battery to be brought from Maseru with one of their staff members. We again left late, with the 1200 in tow we met the Avis guy on the road, new battery fitted and off we went.
After a good days riding on some shall we say interesting roads arrived at Semonkong in the dark not cleaver, accommodation food etc was good and after an early night were ready to ride the following morning.
Our destination was Rhodes in SA via Telle Bridge, on the route we met up with a group from Cape Town, not sure if there were any Dogs amongst them.
Again another long day but some great riding once we had crossed the border back into SA, we followed the border with Lesotho through Lundins Nek and arrived at Rhodes at 7 pm, once again great accommodation and food at Walkabouts B&B and really good, friendly people. Our last day took us via Naudesnek and Pitseng passes back onto tar and home. Great trip
Fuel is not a problem in Lesotho if you cannot get or find a fuel station just stop at any village and they will direct you to someone who sells usually in 5 litre containers for anything from R8.50 to R9.50 a litre
I have been battling with the pictures so hope this works
