Day 11
Concerned that I will freeze my balls off in the tent, I put on all the thermals before going to sleep the night before. The temperature turned out much warmer and I woke up in the middle of the night cooking in the sleeping bag, and had to take all the clothes off again.
The first thing in the morning was once again a bit of problem fixing - trying to figure out how to reattach broken handguard. The day before when I made it up the viewpoint dune I stupidly dug the rear wheel into the sand and when I needed to turn around I had to pull the bike down on the ground and turn it there, breaking the handguard in the process. This annoyed me no end as handguards are absolutely critical accessory for bush riding, which I still planned to do quite a bit on the way back. Here is why - my handguards after the Bots bush section:
This time my inner genius didn’t visit, so I just took the broken handguard off and threw it away. Will have to stick to the right tracks from now on - I still had right handguard. After that I went for breakfast, packed up and set-off.
Ais Ais camp:
This was again a liaison day trying to make decent distance on the way back to the Bots dunes. The tentative objective for the day was Koes - which is a bit off to the north from the shortest route back to Bokspits, but I wanted to have a look see around there as Vis Arend and Rickus here on the forum told me about some very juicy looking dune tracks around there. I picked random D roads heading in that direction and set-off. I stopped at the Canyon Roadhouse to fill-up petrol and then continues east.
The roads I picked were not particularly scenic farm roads, but Namibia is OK even in its ordinary disguise:
I was following a massive storm, which became clear when I reached Kalahari proper again south of Koes. Big swathes of land on both sides of the elevated road were flooded. I just hoped the storm reached Bots again as it will make those dunes so much easier to ride.
Flooded Koes pan:
I have arrived to Koes at about 1 pm. It was hot and the place was very quiet - it turns out they close most of the businesses for lunch break. I headed to the garage to fill up and asked about Rickus (WD and main organized of the Koes Pan Rally - happening right this weekend if I’m not mistaken), who I knew was the owner. He was on a lunch break so I just filled up, parked in the shade of the nearby tree and bought some drink and snack from the nearby supermarket that was already open.
Sitting in the shade munching on the snacks I conversed with the local kids who were clearly in for some handout, but not pushy about it. I gave them whatever I didn’t finish and just as I was about to move on - I was considering riding some dirt road to Twee Rivier in the search fo dunes - I was approach by a giant of a man. Sure enough it was Rickus and after short chat he took me into his house to show me where exactly are the dunes (incidentally, they were exactly where I was going to go) and booked a chalet for me with a farmer he knew up near Twee Rivier. I was a bit concerned about time - it was almost 3 pm (it gets dark there way before 6) and I had 40 km to the start of the dunes and then about 70 - 90 km loop through the dunes to navigate, but Rickus felt confident that with the current rain I will manage just fine. So I set-off.
The first 40 km was a good gravel running across one big dune field - that vintage Kalahari up and down roller coaster you can often see on the pictures from the Desert Run (which just passed through there day or two before me). Then I came to the turn-off to the dune detour, which I took straight away as the sun was getting low. The tracks was fantastic - that vintage red sand double track running along and across the Kalahari dunes. And Rickus was right - the heavy rain made riding the sand a cheating. After tentative start I was soon gunning it in the 5 - 6 the gear close to 100 kmh and enjoying every second.
The sand dune route was basically U shaped run 30 - 40 km south east, then 10 km or so north east and then return leg north west of about 40 km. The riding was fantastic until I arrived to the turn back north west. I knew I’m going to run into problems once I will have to ride deep sand double track against the setting sun, but still it was rough. I couldn’t see anything (I have sunscreen on my trial helmet, but it is too short to be of any use), so trying to stay in the track was almost impossible, I had to slow down to just lugging 2 - 3 rd gear and still had ‘oh shit’ moment every 100 meters or so. I was basically riding blind trying to feel my way through in the absence of vision. It took me forever to navigate those 40 km and by the time I reached the dirt road connecting Twee Rivier to the Mata Mata border post and gate to Kgalagadi NP, it was completely dark and I was knackered. After short break I rode towards Mata Mata on a long beam (my short bean didn’t work) looking for Terra Rouge - the farm Rickus booked me in. It took quite a while to get there, but when I was already considering bush camping on the side of the road, I finally found it.
Owner - Peter if my memory serves me right, has a sheep farm there surrounded by red dunes sea and rides XT660Z. Rickus even mentioned that he is considering inviting bikers to his farm and taking them for the trips through the dunes - if anyone here may be interested, you definitely will get your sand fill there.
Peter provided me with one or two complimentary beers, took me to the chalet and I settled in chuffed to have finally roof over my head after two days of freezing/cooking on the ground. I was so elated that I even cooked. Chilli con carne (can of Texas bully beef with chilli + can of beans).
Route for the day:
we decided to leg it to Klein Pella on the main dirt road (me riding the still flat front wheel). I will go back again to do the whole N4x4...lovely part of the country.
