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Walking out of the Quach's Nek border-post I tilted my head against the gale-force winds, to see orange pieces of plastic on the ground...strikingly similar in colour to the bikes indicators.
Yep, the wind was strong alright, and had blown the bike over, much to the bemusement of onlookers.
Battling against the wind, we rode through the beautiful landscape Lesotho provides to Sehlabatebe National Park. It was a long ride, and tiredness prevailed. After looking up the loose-bouldery track, and ranting that I wasn't Alfie Cox (three times Paris-Dakar motorbike champion that I met in Bulungula), we carried on. In retrospect we shouldn't have. With an approximate combined weight of 400kg, we slid going through a muddy-waterhole, badly spraining Gwen's ankle which was caught under the pannier of the bike.
Two days of R'n'R followed at the Khotsa Lodge. Think of cold, then of Old Brown Sherry to warm you up. That's pretty much the R'n'R story, with little excerpts of riding in the snow to a local food store for supplies, and the shebeen, sleeping in the tent in 5cm of snow, sliding off in the snowy-tracks and breaking the remaining mirror...
Riding back into South Africa, acting
on Alfie Cox's advise to get new tires (that actually had tread!), we ended up at the Umphiti hostel in Pietermaritzburg. If anyone is going to Pietermaritzburg I totally recommend this place. The owners go out of their way to make you feel at home.
Two days of 600km rides followed, heading towards Namibia across the middle of South Africa. The scenery was stunning, always changing. From the Drakensburg ranges to rolling green hills, to vast plains reminiscent of the Great Plains in the U.S.A, to roads so straight through the desert it felt weird making a turn when it was necessary. We broke the journey in Bloemfontein, which turned out to be an un-necessary shitty experience due to an irate hostel manager at the Navel Hill Backpackers. He was so rude to us (continually!) that I didn't even waste my energy speaking to him anymore, and hope anyone reading this doesn't stay there because he doesn't deserve our hard-earned money.
It was great to cross into Namibia and feel that we were finally getting somewhere on our long journey to Europe. I really enjoyed the friendliness and hospitality of the South Africans though, and judging by the
Caught by surprise!
A chilly night indeedovertly friendly Namibian border-officials, we were in for the same treat.
The sand/gravel roads in Namibia are pretty good, probably better than the ones in New Zealand, but you still have to watch out for the freshly graded soft-sand that covers disguised potholes lying beneath! Especially when the surrounding scenery is as beautiful as the Namib Desert. One of the highlights of the trip so far was riding along the desert roads at the same speed as a herd of Springbok 'springing' along in front of us for ages.
We had an extended stay in Fish River Canyon (which lays in the south of Namibia) to rest Gwen's ankle, and also my ribs, after I pulled an intercostal muscle. Not a bad place to rest though, with a 160km long canyon at your doorstep.
Leaving Fish River Canyon we headed to the coastal town of Luderitz. The desert cross-winds were truly amazing, with sand blowing across the road completely obscuring it for long stretches. Walking through the German architectured streets of colonial Luderitz is a great way to break-up any desert ride. As is riding into the virtual oasis town of Helmeringhausen after a long, hot ride,
Breakfast scene
The new tent - you can't beat yellowie-orange though! battling against the desert-winds. You’ve got to love cold beer, Bratwurst and salad on a day like that!
Still riding through the desert, we stopped to camp at a German castle in the middle of it. Don't ask me why German Baron Von Wolf built his castle out in the Namib Desert in 1909, but I'm glad he did. It would have to be the most beautiful area we've camped at to date...possibly due to the huge amounts of tree-shade and welcome lack of sand-storms!
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