Travels through God’s own motorcycle country

[MaxThePanda]

I just spoke to Fritz at Palmwag and he confirmed the following:

Nam government issued a restriction on motorcycles in the Hoanib river and the Crowter trail.
They are busy constructing notice boards which must be up by February 2018.

This is terrible news. For the amount of bikes that do/have done this route it seems a bit petty, but I guess it was inevitable... sigh... From the tracks we saw the badly behaved 4x4s do far more damage to the vegetation/landscsape.

 

[MaxThePanda]

Jirre, you have got to tell me where you bought these long johns. LOVE IT!!!!!

Besides a broken leg and abandonment of the 690, this looks like a super fun adventure you guys had together.

Thanks for the good read.  :thumleft:

The Midge has tiny, wee, short arms and mine-shaft deep pockets, so I'm betting he inherited these from his late father, who bought them circa 1953.

 

[MaxThePanda]

MTP, need an advice pls. How bad was your fork leak on 500 when you decided to push on? And were you able to stop it somehow?

Looks like i busted fork seal on 500 in cotton mud in Savuti marsh, and need to decide if i can push through delta or bail. Thank you.

Hey XPat - sorry, haven't looked at this thread in a while. I actually noticed the bleed on day 1, and so rode the entire trip on them. I didn't try stick anything in there, partly because I was afraid of making the problem worse, and partly because I didn't have a suitable material. It was only on one leg, and to be honest we weren't racing and the fork handled fine for the rest of the trip. I had tendon surgery when I got back so haven't been on the bike since, or repaired the problem - it needs to go to Martin Paetzold.

I was lazy, and this was entirely my fault. I had just bought the bike, and despite the extremely low hours I really should have had the forks serviced. I wouldn't do a trip like this again without full neoprene gaiters on the forks - I see Lyndon Poskitt was even using them on his Dakar bike this year!

 

[Xpat]

Bike noise and these probably not ideal

If there are 10 bikes a month there, I would be surprised. And I have passed all of them on my 2 trips on bike there and they seemed pretty chilled provided you gave them wide berth and showed some respect:

[youtube]https://youtu.be/Aco2G34gspI[/youtube]

Note: name of the video and subtitles are wrong - this is Hoanib river, not Huarusib, I didn't do my homework on rivernames properly when I did it.

 

[MaxThePanda]

If there are 10 bikes a month there, I would be surprised. And I have passed all of them on my 2 trips on bike there and they seemed pretty chilled provided you gave them wide berth and showed some respect:

I think it comes down to respect. We gave the ellies we saw a wide berth and allowed them to move off slowly and they didn't seem stressed at all. Look, bikers don't have to best reputations, and some have probably behaved badly and ruined it for everyone else, but the same applies to 4x4s. This part of Namibia is one of the last great wilderness areas still open to us... enjoy it while you can - but respectfully! - it's not going to last forever.

 

[Chrisl]

I just spoke to Fritz at Palmwag and he confirmed the following:

Nam government issued a restriction on motorcycles in the Hoanib river and the Crowter trail.
They are busy constructing notice boards which must be up by February 2018.

I was waiting for this, sad thing is how much of the sound that bothers the animals are made by bikes and how much are made by quads?
I have a feeling we being punished for the sound that sounds the same but is not the same vehicle and is not ridden in the same way.

 

[Xpat]

I don't think there were many quads in that area. I think Sesfontein lodge used to organize quad rides down the Hoanib (massively stupid move), until only of their guests got killed or maimed by elephant and then they stopped. I asked them about it when I was there, and they pretended nothing like that happened, but I remember reading about it somewhere.

So - while i agree on quads being annoying contraptions, I do not think you can blame them for it. I think it is the rich loadge owners in the are working their long fingers. They never liked dirty bikers around - I was told once or twice when on bike there by some Safari vehicle that it is off limits to bikes, which it wasn't. You just need to visit that expensive lodge in Purros once on a bike, to get a feeling how much unwelcome you are there. None of that natural friendliness you usually encounter in the remote areas between humans regardless of their status.

 

[Chrisl]

Xpat i know of people carting quads up on weekends from Windhoek and the coast, but maybe your right could be the lodges wanting a certain type of client.
BUT what about the renthal bike group from Europa that is also dirty and smelly but swipes a gold card when he rocks up? Are they treated the same way as a single rider like you rocking up?

 

[Xpat]

Xpat i know of people carting quads up on weekends from Windhoek and the coast, but maybe your right could be the lodges wanting a certain type of client.
BUT what about the renthal bike group from Europa that is also dirty and smelly but swipes a gold card when he rocks up? Are they treated the same way as a single rider like you rocking up?

I can almost guarantee you people who ride bikes - regardless of their nationality - don't end up in those lodges. For example in Purros all of them go to Community campsite or their adjacent Bush Lodge. Those lodges up there cater mostly for fly-in clients who book long in advance, like real gentlemen who have their life planned out properly. They are not interested in walk-in customers of any kind.

Let's face it - if somebody is riding Kaokoland on bike, regardless of their financial status they will prefer to rough it as sleeping in a cozy airconditioned room/tent is just not conducive to sweating it in deep sand among elephants next day. I have met group of about 20 German/Austrian/Swiss bikers there, and they were all camping all the way. And I'm sure they could have afforded the lodges.

 

[stroke her]

River closures is bad news :xxbah:

I am so glad that I finally got off my arse and rode them last year.

In a way though it is bitter sweet...as by the looks of it I will not be able to ride them again. FFS

 

[Chrisl]

All about money in the end. :deal:

 

[MaxThePanda]

I've heard that fancy lodge in Purros taking a lot of stick. When we arrived at Purros we'd almost run out of cash (yeah.... cough...) and had a DRZ with a broken radiator, so we asked around for help there. It was around 5pm, and the guests were out on a game drive, but the staff were actually quite welcoming bearing in mind the filthy, low rent state of our appearance. We sat around the pool and had a beer, and then they set us up with one of their 4x4s to guide us to the petrol depot in the 'city' centre (haha).

To be fair - they are high end, and if people are paying $800 per night or something for a small, exclusive experience, it probably isn't reasonable to have some dirty bikers hanging out at the pool and abusing the place when they don't intend to actually stay. They were actually pretty helpful. Even gave us an egg for Tom's radiator, that the chicken **** was too scared to throw in.

On the other hand, the guide from the Wilderness Safari's Lodge we (or just Tom did) bumped into on the Crowther was downright rude. And that's after some of their other guides had been extremely friendly and taken us to see some elephant from the river banks. I think it's just luck of the draw...

 

[Hardy de Kock]

I've heard that fancy lodge in Purros taking a lot of stick. When we arrived at Purros we'd almost run out of cash (yeah.... cough...) and had a DRZ with a broken radiator, so we asked around for help there. It was around 5pm, and the guests were out on a game drive, but the staff were actually quite welcoming bearing in mind the filthy, low rent state of our appearance. We sat around the pool and had a beer, and then they set us up with one of their 4x4s to guide us to the petrol depot in the 'city' centre (haha).

To be fair - they are high end, and if people are paying $800 per night or something for a small, exclusive experience, it probably isn't reasonable to have some dirty bikers hanging out at the pool and abusing the place when they don't intend to actually stay. They were actually pretty helpful. Even gave us an egg for Tom's radiator, that the chicken **** was too scared to throw in.

On the other hand, the guide from the Wilderness Safari's Lodge we (or just Tom did) bumped into on the Crowther was downright rude. And that's after some of their other guides had been extremely friendly and taken us to see some elephant from the river banks. I think it's just luck of the draw...

None of the two companies mentioned have any more right than you do to that area Ian.
The "fancy" lodge at Purros has hiked their prices and they only now accept fly in clientele. (on flights chartered by them)
I requested a dinner quote for a Dakar group that I am taking their soon, and their price was R1,000 a head. (For ******* dinner :imaposer
They market their lodge in Europe as if they are the only beings in the area, and therefore their attitude.
Wilderness Safaris is actively raping governments throughout Africa. They will discourage anyone not making use of their services for the same reason as the clowns at the above mentioned lodge.
In all fairness, the biggest concentration of lions and elephants are to be found in the Hoanib. Really glad you guys and Xpat got to ride it before the closure.

 

[maria41]

Absolutely amazing ride report. Thanks for writing. Also full of very useful info.
We will be in Namibia this summer ( winter down there  ;D).

Certainly a lot of food for thought.

Cheers,

 

[Mooch]

Awesome report!  :thumleft:

 

[Brakenjan]

What a great read!! Thank you so much MaxthePanda for the time and effort to write this report - I enjoyed it thoroughly.

And thank you to isitutu too. I wouldn't have seen this report if he wasn't selling his bike.  :biggrin:

Finally, thank you for the Dan Carlin podcast recommendation - loving his stuff!!!

 

[Piemps]

What a great read!! Thank you so much MaxthePanda for the time and effort to write this report - I enjoyed it thoroughly.

And thank you to isitutu too. I wouldn't have seen this report if he wasn't selling his bike.  :biggrin:

Finally, thank you for the Dan Carlin podcast recommendation - loving his stuff!!!

Dito !! also caught on to this because of the 690 classified.  Absolutely loved reading this RR and am now gutted that it's over