MaxThePanda said:
Hardy had warned us off the Hoarusib River - one of three riverbeds he said were particularly dangerous on a bike because of poor visibility and prevalent lion and elephant. In retrospect I’m glad we didn’t take that route to Puros - with how our day was going we’d definitely have been attacked, and the views and terrain approaching from the other angle were magnificent. But I’d still like to ride it - it looks the bizznizz.
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Hmmm, I have to say I differ on this one. And - if I understand correctly the route Quest guys took, even Hardy did take the party through Huarusib. I agree that the section downstream from Purros (Purros Canyon - which I'm interested to see if you did) is potentially risky, as it gets narrow and you have to navigate sections of dense vegetation with very limited visibility.
But the section upstream from Purros, is a wide valley with very good visibility of potential hazards and enough room to avoid it safely. And you can either ride riverbed (which is wide and very transparent) or ride on the side of the river on very lekker winding double track, where you can see river to one side, but are mostly riding out in the open (with few detours to the river).
And as far as I know (and I think Hardy may disagree on this one), there are no lions upstream from Purros. I have ridden it 4 times and always made sure to get the latest cricket intel from the locals. And the message was always clear - no lions north of Purros. I have tendency to believe them as you will often meet locals walking along the river and even kids playing soccer right next to it (and they do respect lions - they have abandoned one village in Huab river due to very high lion danger). Yes there is high probability of bumping into elephant, but your chances to see it coming are much bigger than in Ugab (that is tricky one), Purros canyon, or Huab river - part of which you have already ridden on the way to Sessfontein (if I understood your route correctly).
That upper section of Huarusib is absolutely fantastic (sorry, that horribly corrugated D3707 is no match whatsoever) and the pass between Khumib and Huarusib is also something special to behold. But at least you have something to come back to 8)
Now I'm really curious whether you did the Purros canyon - because that is the really dodgy one (right after Ugab IMO). If I understand it correctly, Quest guys also had to get out of there half way through when they bumped into aggro elephant.
And that luxury lodge in Purros - avoid as a plague! They really like to mix only with people with private jets. There is very friendly and relatively cheap community lodge (right next to the campsite) if you go that side again and do not fancy tenting.
