Kevin Liddell
Pack Dog
I was keen for another Lesotho trip. After some research I worked out a route which included Matebeng Pass and the Village Chief North track. I made it clear on our various rider groups that this was going to be a technical ride and only experienced riders with suitable bikes and some technical skill need apply. I was hoping that this description would dissuade unsuitable riders and attract the right ones. It worked. The bikes - Yamaha XT 660 (Mark), 2 x KTM690 (Gareth and Marco), 1 x KTM950SE (Ralph) and me on my KTM 525.
In preparation I sent out my usual packing list to everyone, which would help the guys who hadn’t been on this sort of trip before.
Our route would be: Afternoon 1 (Friday 16th March): PMB to Hela Hela where we were to meet the Durban guys. Day 2: Hela Hela to Katse Lodge via Sani and Village Chief Road. Day 3: Ride around Katse Dam. Day 4: Katse to Sehlabathebe via Thaba Tseka and Matebeng Pass. Day 5: Sehlabathebe back home via Qacha’s Nek.
Having booked the accommodation, sent out the tracks and lists, I turned my attention to getting my 525 ready. If I couldn’t find a luggage system in time I would have to either find a way to secure an ATG bag to the bike or take my 990 with it’s soft pannier system. Neither option was attractive, since I had an idea of what was to come.
I decided on the Giant Loop Coyote system which only holds 39 litres of kit, but would best suit the 525 and my riding style. Chris from Flying Brick pulled a rabbit out of the hat and a few days before we were due to leave, it arrived.
I was amazed at how well the bag fitted but soon realised I would have to leave half my stuff behind. It’s quite a satisfying exercise, and since we were not camping, it would make it easier.
In the meantime the rain kept coming, and it was looking very wet in Lesotho. I discovered that my mate LenvR was leading a ride to Katse on the same day we were due to go, but their route was more gravel and tar orientated.
Here is my loaded bike before I left.
Worth noting is my dodgy 2 litre fuel bottle and syphon pipe, and my First Ascent bag which would have to work as a handle-bar bag for my camera, power bank etc. A conventional handle-bar bag would not work because of the shape of my medium range tank & cap.
I had never ridden the 525 at night so I clean forgot to check the focus of the headlight, an oversight that would turn around and bite me for the next three days.
We were to meet at Highover camp, Hela Hela on Friday.
The others were already there when Mark and I left PMB at 4:30pm on a Friday afternoon in the rain, taking the road to Richmond before hitting the gravel to Hela Hela.
The road was mayhem, cars broken down, accidents, people driving like idiots. To make things worse, it got dark and I travelled the last 40km behind Mark’s XT which fortunately had more lighting than Heathrow terminal 4.
We were kitted in our bright orange rain suits, but by the time we got there we were fairly wet, boots, helmet, gloves especially.
Came up with a novel way to dry gloves.
What Ralph neglected to tell us was that there was only one double bed left which Mark and I had to share. Say no more. After a few beers I could have slept anywhere.
DAY 2
Next morning we kitted up in rain gear and headed for a very wet and rocky Sani Pass.
https://youtu.be/CnWaBAQEH_8
As you can see by the video we were revelling in the conditions, and it didn’t take long for us to get up to the top. Nevertheless, having not travelled the Village Chief before, I suggested to the guys we skip having coffee at the Sani restaurant and push on. Am I glad we did that.
After a few km in the mizzle (mist / drizzle) we emerged into bright cloudless skies and our spirits soured. Gunning it up black mountain pass, Marco was popping long wheelies standing up. Respect.
Half way up we saw a bunch of bikers on the side of the road, it was some of Len’s group. One of the okes was on a 1290 and was shredding it up and down the pass. I suppose I would do the same if I had a 1290.
Politely declining the poffered Old Brown Sherry bottle, we set off again. The river down the other side of black mountain was pumping. This was a taste of things to come, a Lesotho I had never experienced before, with every non-perennial stream and orifice running, loads of mud puddles and river crossings. It was green and there was hardly any dust. We were soon to discover the downside - the passes, like Sani, were severely eroded by the rain. Can’t win ‘em all.
We filled up at Mapholaneng on the A1, and proceeded along the Village Chief road, the first section of which was familiar to me since it was the section common to all the Village Chief Routes. Once we got to the fork, we took the northern route. It wasn’t long before we realised how rural this was going to be. Initially it was easy going, lots and lots of puddles to go through. At one point we stopped for a stretch and noticed smoke coming out of Marco’s luggage. His aftermarket pipe was directing hot gasses onto his luggage and flicker, melting both. His T-Shirts were smouldering so they were discarded.
We made a plan to support his bag with a bike-crutch (see later), which worked but not well.
After another few km the road deteriorated into a loose rock strewn track. I thanked my lucky stars I was on my 525, and having ridden rocks a fair amount I made it up and down these technical sections without binning it. Marco, who I have to commend for depth of character and determination, was not good on rocks. Not standing, no momentum etc.
Long story short, he had a bad off and hurt his ankle badly, but carried on regardless. It was so bad he could hardly walk the next few days.
At times on the Village Chief road I was convinced we would be sleeping in a hut that night, especially when it started to get dark & rained again. We finally got through, Gareth managing to do this to his brake pedal:
I got half the Village Chief on Video before my batteries gave up and it got dark:
https://youtu.be/QnoQCM9GNsE
For the second time in 2 days I had to travel the last 30km behind Mark’s UFO 660.
We rolled into Katse at 7:30pm, after nearly 12hrs on the road. Met up with Len who’s crowd was also staying in the bungalows with us. After a quick shower we hit the restaurant and caught up with everyone’s stories.
DAY 3
The next morning I was up early along with Mark and Ralph. We had some coffee and admired the scenery.
Len’s group had a 4x4 with trailer as backup vehicle, mainly for their beer and ABS. The trailer had collapsed suspension so a plan was made with an old tyre cut in half..
We said cheers to Len’s crowd of hooligans who set off into the rain towards Semonkong.
Today was a rest day with no hectic routes planned, just a simple easy ride around Katse’s east and west bank. With most of our kit in our rooms, and with good (cool and overcast) weather, this was a fantastic day. I cannot stress enough how awesome the west bank of Katse dam is.
I had seen a video on you tube, posted by CraigH, of this steep concrete twee spoor going up the hillside behind Katse Village, used to service the communication masts up there. Naturally we had to do it.
On our way back to the village, Mark and Ralph got lost and found themselves in a local shabeen.
DAY 4
The next morning at breakfast we got chatting to some 4x4 folk who had come down from Semonkong where they reported the river had swelled and flooded the low level bridge at the lodge to the point where it could not be crossed. I wondered how Len was doing.
Once again we hosed down our bikes (sorry CT folk), and lubed our chains. As I pulled my 525 over onto it’s side stand, it snapped off with a loud “KLACK” and fell over. I had been warned about this. I was to spend the rest of my trip looking for walls and trees to lean my bike against, both are hard to come by in Lesotho. I will also be ordering the strong aftermarket sidestand from the US when I get the chance.
We set off on the road to Thaba Tseka which was in a pitiful condition afer the heavy rains.
Filled up at the chinese fuel station on the hill and proceeded towards Taung, where the turn off towards Matebeng Pass was. The Semena River, which eventually becomes the Senqu river was pumping, like I’ve never seen it before. I wondered what lay ahead since there was a low level bridge ahead. I couldn’t recall if we were to cross it or not…
We took a break to admire the river when we got to the new bridge on the A3, and no sooner had we stopped then a couple of bikes followed by a support vehicle pulled up.
While the guy on the 990 proceeded to replace his rear wheel bearings (I mean who carries spare wheel bearings?), the Oom in charge told us how they had camped at the low level bridge the previous evening and could only get through that day once the river had subsided a bit.
We pressed on and took the right turn towards Matebeng, a road less travelled.
We got to a place where the road suddenly improved, it was a brand new gravel highway. Well this was like an early Christmas gift to Mark, Ralph and Gareth who vanished into the distance on one moer of a scratch. Myself and Marco were alputtering along behind them when I realised we were off course, and had somehow missed the turning to Matibeng Pass. (Turn out it isn’t signposted). We would never catch them, so we waited and waited. Not wanting to do Matebeng in the dark, the two of us turned after waiting for 30min.
Well, the boys went all the way up the new pass, apparently the new road to Quacha’s Nek, before they realised we were not behind them. They caught up to us eventually and I had to give them a little talking to about riding responsibly in Lesotho.
Eventually we found the start of Matebeng, which was a rather beautiful camp site created by the gent who first cut Matebeng into the mountain.
Matebeng was washed out and parts of it were literally rocky river rides. Marco’s riding had improved ten-fold in 3 days in spite of his now very swollen ankle, he had listened to our advice of standing on the pegs and keeping momentum.
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180506/fa5d0c8b704a9e4a61f9d50f35f14bac
.jpg
If you can see the antenna on top of the mountain, this is where you crest Matebeng Pass.
https://
uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180506/c442117f11dc724a74edcb9b746a772b.jpg
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.
com/20180506/80f6316e93bedd4b3f9295b2820c732b.jpg
Here is a Video of Matebeng Pass:
https://youtu.be/hTe_er1gv3g
Once again I was very happy to be on the 525 and the drawbacks (Hard seat, no wind protection, knobby tyres etc) of taking a bike like this pale into insignificance when presented with a technical section like this…
The strange thing about Matebeng is that it is actually a mountain, not an escarpment.
So you go up the one side, have a very little flat bit on the top, then plummet down again. The east side is well maintained and easy to ride, probably because this is the way used to do maintenance on the towers at the top.
The top section was a bit Sani-like with plenty switchbacks, but the lower section was river crossing paradise.
Once we got back to civilization, we found a chinese shop and re-fueled our bikes out of 5 litre cooking oil containers, and bought some stuff at the shop.
Ralph got bored waiting for us to re-fuel (he has a 24 litre Safari tank on his 950SE) and went to find a shabeen, where we joined him.
We know our accommodation was close, but had to ask the locals again, as well as phoning the person who did the booking (for directions). Turns out the village of Thamathu (Pronounced Tomato) was where we needed to be. On route we passed the Sehlabathebe National Park, which had been fully booked, and once again I ended up riding in the dark, following Ralph this time. The Thamathu Lodge is nothing more than a few huts at the end of a 4x4 track. However, it was beautifully run with clean linen, flushing toilets and hot showers. Bliss. Turns out the owner and his managers were there, shooting drone footage of their horse trail business, where they take customers from Underberg backpackers into Lesotho and back again, all on horse back.
XXX
After a rustic meal whipped up by Marco (a chef by profession) and some red wine we retired to our 3 double bunk rondavel for the balance of the night. Having arrived in the dark, we were blown away by the morning scenery.
XXXX Thamatho Lodge
DAY5
Homeward bound, we filled up again at the Chinese shop and topped up the oil in our bikes. At least the guys read that part of my list. We now headed for Ramatseliso’s Gate, and it was quite strange to ride along the escarpment with views of KZN to the left, much lower, and mountains to the right into Lesotho. Once we got to Rama’s gate I suggested doing Losper’s “Tsoelike Loop” and coming out at Quacha’s Nek. I turned out to be a bit of an anti-climax compared to the likes of Matebeng, and the road was in very bad condition to the point of not being able to enjoy the views. In spite of this, I still managed a few good pics.
XXXX
After our descent into KZN, we filled up with Steers and Fuel at Matatiele and went our separate ways, us PMB guys elected to go via Underburg to get home. For the first time in the trip, I arrived home in daylight!
Round-up:
1. The Giant Loop Coyote luggage system is a winner. Nothing got wet or dusty. I could not feel it at all on my bike, it sat very planted and never came loose.
2. I did 25 hrs on the 525. This is more than expected.
3. We had no punctures!
4. Best thing I took was a big power bank, it charged my phone and camera.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
In preparation I sent out my usual packing list to everyone, which would help the guys who hadn’t been on this sort of trip before.
Our route would be: Afternoon 1 (Friday 16th March): PMB to Hela Hela where we were to meet the Durban guys. Day 2: Hela Hela to Katse Lodge via Sani and Village Chief Road. Day 3: Ride around Katse Dam. Day 4: Katse to Sehlabathebe via Thaba Tseka and Matebeng Pass. Day 5: Sehlabathebe back home via Qacha’s Nek.
Having booked the accommodation, sent out the tracks and lists, I turned my attention to getting my 525 ready. If I couldn’t find a luggage system in time I would have to either find a way to secure an ATG bag to the bike or take my 990 with it’s soft pannier system. Neither option was attractive, since I had an idea of what was to come.
I decided on the Giant Loop Coyote system which only holds 39 litres of kit, but would best suit the 525 and my riding style. Chris from Flying Brick pulled a rabbit out of the hat and a few days before we were due to leave, it arrived.
I was amazed at how well the bag fitted but soon realised I would have to leave half my stuff behind. It’s quite a satisfying exercise, and since we were not camping, it would make it easier.
In the meantime the rain kept coming, and it was looking very wet in Lesotho. I discovered that my mate LenvR was leading a ride to Katse on the same day we were due to go, but their route was more gravel and tar orientated.
Here is my loaded bike before I left.
Worth noting is my dodgy 2 litre fuel bottle and syphon pipe, and my First Ascent bag which would have to work as a handle-bar bag for my camera, power bank etc. A conventional handle-bar bag would not work because of the shape of my medium range tank & cap.
I had never ridden the 525 at night so I clean forgot to check the focus of the headlight, an oversight that would turn around and bite me for the next three days.
We were to meet at Highover camp, Hela Hela on Friday.
The others were already there when Mark and I left PMB at 4:30pm on a Friday afternoon in the rain, taking the road to Richmond before hitting the gravel to Hela Hela.
The road was mayhem, cars broken down, accidents, people driving like idiots. To make things worse, it got dark and I travelled the last 40km behind Mark’s XT which fortunately had more lighting than Heathrow terminal 4.
We were kitted in our bright orange rain suits, but by the time we got there we were fairly wet, boots, helmet, gloves especially.
Came up with a novel way to dry gloves.
What Ralph neglected to tell us was that there was only one double bed left which Mark and I had to share. Say no more. After a few beers I could have slept anywhere.
DAY 2
Next morning we kitted up in rain gear and headed for a very wet and rocky Sani Pass.
https://youtu.be/CnWaBAQEH_8
After a few km in the mizzle (mist / drizzle) we emerged into bright cloudless skies and our spirits soured. Gunning it up black mountain pass, Marco was popping long wheelies standing up. Respect.
Half way up we saw a bunch of bikers on the side of the road, it was some of Len’s group. One of the okes was on a 1290 and was shredding it up and down the pass. I suppose I would do the same if I had a 1290.
Politely declining the poffered Old Brown Sherry bottle, we set off again. The river down the other side of black mountain was pumping. This was a taste of things to come, a Lesotho I had never experienced before, with every non-perennial stream and orifice running, loads of mud puddles and river crossings. It was green and there was hardly any dust. We were soon to discover the downside - the passes, like Sani, were severely eroded by the rain. Can’t win ‘em all.
We filled up at Mapholaneng on the A1, and proceeded along the Village Chief road, the first section of which was familiar to me since it was the section common to all the Village Chief Routes. Once we got to the fork, we took the northern route. It wasn’t long before we realised how rural this was going to be. Initially it was easy going, lots and lots of puddles to go through. At one point we stopped for a stretch and noticed smoke coming out of Marco’s luggage. His aftermarket pipe was directing hot gasses onto his luggage and flicker, melting both. His T-Shirts were smouldering so they were discarded.
Long story short, he had a bad off and hurt his ankle badly, but carried on regardless. It was so bad he could hardly walk the next few days.
At times on the Village Chief road I was convinced we would be sleeping in a hut that night, especially when it started to get dark & rained again. We finally got through, Gareth managing to do this to his brake pedal:
https://youtu.be/QnoQCM9GNsE
For the second time in 2 days I had to travel the last 30km behind Mark’s UFO 660.
We rolled into Katse at 7:30pm, after nearly 12hrs on the road. Met up with Len who’s crowd was also staying in the bungalows with us. After a quick shower we hit the restaurant and caught up with everyone’s stories.
DAY 3
The next morning I was up early along with Mark and Ralph. We had some coffee and admired the scenery.
I had seen a video on you tube, posted by CraigH, of this steep concrete twee spoor going up the hillside behind Katse Village, used to service the communication masts up there. Naturally we had to do it.
DAY 4
The next morning at breakfast we got chatting to some 4x4 folk who had come down from Semonkong where they reported the river had swelled and flooded the low level bridge at the lodge to the point where it could not be crossed. I wondered how Len was doing.
Once again we hosed down our bikes (sorry CT folk), and lubed our chains. As I pulled my 525 over onto it’s side stand, it snapped off with a loud “KLACK” and fell over. I had been warned about this. I was to spend the rest of my trip looking for walls and trees to lean my bike against, both are hard to come by in Lesotho. I will also be ordering the strong aftermarket sidestand from the US when I get the chance.
We set off on the road to Thaba Tseka which was in a pitiful condition afer the heavy rains.
We took a break to admire the river when we got to the new bridge on the A3, and no sooner had we stopped then a couple of bikes followed by a support vehicle pulled up.
We pressed on and took the right turn towards Matebeng, a road less travelled.
We got to a place where the road suddenly improved, it was a brand new gravel highway. Well this was like an early Christmas gift to Mark, Ralph and Gareth who vanished into the distance on one moer of a scratch. Myself and Marco were alputtering along behind them when I realised we were off course, and had somehow missed the turning to Matibeng Pass. (Turn out it isn’t signposted). We would never catch them, so we waited and waited. Not wanting to do Matebeng in the dark, the two of us turned after waiting for 30min.
Well, the boys went all the way up the new pass, apparently the new road to Quacha’s Nek, before they realised we were not behind them. They caught up to us eventually and I had to give them a little talking to about riding responsibly in Lesotho.
Eventually we found the start of Matebeng, which was a rather beautiful camp site created by the gent who first cut Matebeng into the mountain.
Matebeng was washed out and parts of it were literally rocky river rides. Marco’s riding had improved ten-fold in 3 days in spite of his now very swollen ankle, he had listened to our advice of standing on the pegs and keeping momentum.
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180506/fa5d0c8b704a9e4a61f9d50f35f14bac
.jpg
If you can see the antenna on top of the mountain, this is where you crest Matebeng Pass.
https://
uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180506/c442117f11dc724a74edcb9b746a772b.jpg
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.
com/20180506/80f6316e93bedd4b3f9295b2820c732b.jpg
Here is a Video of Matebeng Pass:
https://youtu.be/hTe_er1gv3g
Once again I was very happy to be on the 525 and the drawbacks (Hard seat, no wind protection, knobby tyres etc) of taking a bike like this pale into insignificance when presented with a technical section like this…
The strange thing about Matebeng is that it is actually a mountain, not an escarpment.
So you go up the one side, have a very little flat bit on the top, then plummet down again. The east side is well maintained and easy to ride, probably because this is the way used to do maintenance on the towers at the top.
The top section was a bit Sani-like with plenty switchbacks, but the lower section was river crossing paradise.
Once we got back to civilization, we found a chinese shop and re-fueled our bikes out of 5 litre cooking oil containers, and bought some stuff at the shop.
XXX
After a rustic meal whipped up by Marco (a chef by profession) and some red wine we retired to our 3 double bunk rondavel for the balance of the night. Having arrived in the dark, we were blown away by the morning scenery.
XXXX Thamatho Lodge
DAY5
Homeward bound, we filled up again at the Chinese shop and topped up the oil in our bikes. At least the guys read that part of my list. We now headed for Ramatseliso’s Gate, and it was quite strange to ride along the escarpment with views of KZN to the left, much lower, and mountains to the right into Lesotho. Once we got to Rama’s gate I suggested doing Losper’s “Tsoelike Loop” and coming out at Quacha’s Nek. I turned out to be a bit of an anti-climax compared to the likes of Matebeng, and the road was in very bad condition to the point of not being able to enjoy the views. In spite of this, I still managed a few good pics.
XXXX
After our descent into KZN, we filled up with Steers and Fuel at Matatiele and went our separate ways, us PMB guys elected to go via Underburg to get home. For the first time in the trip, I arrived home in daylight!
Round-up:
1. The Giant Loop Coyote luggage system is a winner. Nothing got wet or dusty. I could not feel it at all on my bike, it sat very planted and never came loose.
2. I did 25 hrs on the 525. This is more than expected.
3. We had no punctures!
4. Best thing I took was a big power bank, it charged my phone and camera.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
