hartebees
Pack Dog
Jimbo at Palmwag.
Jy het een persoon vergeet:
Daai ou wat altyd dankie kom sê na elke ete en elke dag se ry.
Daai ou wat altyd seker maak ons lag
Daai ou wat elke jaar eerste sy toergeld inbetaal nog lank voor ons vir hom ń faktuur gestuur het.
Daai ou wat altyd alles in sy vermoë doen om die toer vir ander mense lekkerder te maak.
@ETS - Dankie vir alles
Plekke soos daardie deel van die Hoanib is iets wat mens dalk, as jy gelukkig is, 'n handvol keer in jou lewe ervaar. Dis hoekom niemand daar gejaag het nie.
Bart - jy is iets tussen Spike van “Nottinghill” en Breyten Breytenbach se ouer en meer rebelse boetie, en ons is bitter dankbaar jy toer saam met ons.'tbc' means 'tis bleddie cold'!
Stealing the names Jaco mentions because I dunno them, when hurrying over the wiiiiide sandy plains towards the Geinas mountains the temperature dropped markedly - so much so in fact that I was getting really cold, and was considering to stop and don my plastic bag I always carry to keep my core warm by taking off the wind.
This was marvellous riding - glorious sand, flat, hardly a hurdle in sight so everyone did a good clip here, and towards the end, where we would regroup under the tree (note the 'the'!) on the left hand side the temperature had risen again to warmish. The unmissable tree was there of course so we all stopped there.... but for Johan who as per his habit raced past, oblivious to anything but the horizon!
Jaco reeled him back in.
Then the riverbed followed with indeed quite a bit of game, and this was dispatched with via our stop&race style typical for us inbreds. Some ellies present, also some buck so no doubt there's lion frequenting there - which noone of us saw anywhere that day, let that be clear!
Then out of the river onto empty undulating rocky paths, past some parked game-viewing vehicles full of tourists who did not greet or reacted to us, they just stared.... I'm sure we must have come sortof out of the blue as the most-improbable thing they were expecting to see there in that vast desolate landscape!
We rode past exceptionally well-behaved, let that be said, and I really need some way more convincing arguments than only an SMS to believe that they were seeing lion there .... but hey, maybe they had some really potent binoculars?
Anyway, our route turned more tricky quick.
Nice stuff initially, but our 'work' was carved out for sure!
I remember (no pics, sorry) a relentlessly-long (what, 15km?) and relentlessly-strenuous jeeptrack which had to be followed, too much rocks & shrubs next to it to venture out of it, but worse still, one had to follow one track of the two.... which each consisted of deepish V-shaped coarse gravel, no doubt the result of the many 4x4's driving there over time.
Too slow won't work, and too quick also isn't advisable, and the various snake-like grooves/marks of others - and of me now, I had quite a number of 'moments' there also of course - were proof that this wasn't too easy going!
Long too, rather warm already, so a rest when it relented to just a rocky path was quite due... a breather, some water and a smoke.
Jaco joins me here and asks what I think of the track today - and gets 'dis n kak pad' from me.
He's highly upset: 'You can't tell Hardy that, he's done SO much work for us to be able to ride here!!!!' was his reaction
Well, jammer boet, dis donners moeilik om te navigate, daai los kak vir so lang is nie aangenaam nie - have I ever mentioned I'm somewhat assertive? I am!
Then Hardy & Chantal join us, and next the singlemost rememberable thing (for me, let wel) happens: they suggest I get into the cruiser and Hardy will ride my bike 'because I'm tired', their reason being that for the first time on the trip I now ride at the back of the group!
So, I surely may??
Hardy laughs when I say that I'm not tired - which I was not, and forget about me surrendering my ride's seat!
Sure, I had worked a bit so needed a break... but that's completely different than knacked or klaar or why, in fact I've been my fittest ever on these trips!
So.... nice try U2, but no cigar, I'll (of course!!) continue to ride this trail!
I later heard that this Crowter trail also is called the Unforgiven Trail .... an appropriate name due to the lenght, through exceptionally varied terrain most of which is difficult to navigate - in a 4x4 mind, so on a bike one's work is cut out, and take 'relentless' literally here please!
Oh, before I continue - I will do this same track again Hardy, with pleasure even, and yes, that includes that kak stuk met daai diep V-shaped gravel!
So I leave them and continue, and boy, 'rocky' takes on a whole new meaning there!!!!
Crisscrossing though the landscape, alternating from barren to sparsely populated with trees and shrubs, mostly rocky but also some sandy bits littered with lurkers... 'varied' is a gross understatement here. Sorry, no pics from me of this bit...
This is the part where Lion roam, remember please, hell, it's a Lion Conservancy nogals, so one keeps a perpetual eye out for anything that moves here, this all during negating the bad bits with half an eye on the GPS to see where one is supposed to go...
Didn't see the bakkie anymore but found Kobus somewhere, plus some others... which made me conclude that some must have taken a slightly different route there where the track allows for this, and were now behind me.
Anyway, we pass the 'gate' (just a building, didn't see any fencing) and are waved through - which means we're close to Palmwag Camp.
Ah, a cold beer would look good now.... so we arrived soon at our camp, and strangely enough most found the bar on autopilot!
"This was a good day one had to work for!!" seemed to be the general consensus, and even Martin on his half-aborted 990 made it without any hiccups - better still even, he picked up a piece of some bok's vel and beautified his fairing with it along the way! You're a nutter bru, but well done
I think it's a pity we didn't see any Lion though, in this area we crossed which is dedicated to them mainly... so I'll have to do this bit again!
Hope there's a 'next time' Hardy, and sure, no pressure....
Pic is logical order as per my phone - and if there's a few from others inbetween then blame my WhatsApp working again at Palmwag!
Zoom in, there's an elephant somewhere on the right in that riverbed's overgrown shoulder.
View attachment 836036
Hierdie is baie cool!
Lyk soos n refuel punt in die Dakar RallyView attachment 836036
Hierdie is baie cool!
Twyfelfontein se Puma vulstasieLyk soos n refuel punt in die Dakar Rally
nee, dit was flippen warmHierdie is baie cool!
You are on Day 11 at Brandberg. Going to wrap up my writing with Day 11 and 12 in a moment.Oh! I forgot about Day 9? (the rest day)
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