Lesotho Bike Trip - Mike diary and photos

DAY 1: 15^th July: Pretoria to Bethlehem

• Depart Elardus Park 10h30
• Tar road to Delmas
• Dirt road to Devon
• Lost luggage on the dirt road – braai grid is still on some bloke’s farm
• Dirt road to Greylingstad
• Dirt road to Villiers
• Tar road to Frankfort
• Dirt road to Reitz
• Dirt roads into Bethlehem
• Loch Athlone has closed its camping site – resort has privatised.
• Supper at Nix Pub
• Negotiated good terms for the penthouse suite
• Drinks and pool at the local nightspot
• Nice warm bed at Nix

DAY 2: 16^th July: Bethlehem to Afriski

• Depart Bethlehem 10h00
• Tar to Clarens for breakfast – Marinus lost his keys – fortunately had a spare
• Dirt road to Fouriesburg – filled up with petrol
• Into Lesotho at Caledonspoort border post. You actually have to pay R5-00 to park your vehicle while you complete the necessary forms.
• Climbed the Malutis on reasonable roads. Butha-Buthe
• First signs of snow – stopped for pictures a few times
• Roads full of ice, but had been treated with salt
• Beautiful frozen waterfalls – ideal time to mix a drink.
• Stopped at New Oxbow lodge – no camping so we enjoyed a Maluti (lager)
• Stopped at Afriski at about 17h00 – nice pub.
• Pitched our tents in the veld – place is still being developed
• Spent evening in the pub with the locals and the developers
• Plenty of Brandy with Pieter v/d Berg who is developing the log cabins and golf course

DAY 3: 17^th July: Afriski to Katze

• Woke in the tents with all water and cold drinks frozen solid
• Marinus had his sleeping bag frozen to his tent
• A quick tinned breakfast and back on the road
• Got petrol on the road to Mopholaneng
• Followed a road marked 4X4 vehicles only – they mean it
• Beautiful views up in the mountains.
• Only did mountain passes – terrible “roads”. You wind up the mountain, stop and take in the view, wind down again and cross a stream or river.
• Konrad dropped his bike in old mud ruts – I came around the corner to be met by a dust cloud and Konrad rolling down the side of the mountain – fortunately not a drop-off, as they do not know about roadside barriers.
• Only 1 indicator damage and a few scratches on the bike – and the bruised ego, the first of many!!!!
• Marinus was next with 2 indicators, a few damaged panels and a broken wind visor, his first of 6 falls for the day. He eventually ended up with no indicators, 1 mirror, a broken clutch handle and a broken visor – serious ego damage.
• His most spectacular wipe-out was only witnessed by Werner who followed him around a bend in time to see him attempt to cross a river on his side. He ended up under the bike with the river flowing over him and through his bike and luggage.
• Werner then proceeded to put his McGyver tricks to use, fixing the clutch handle with duct tape, spanners and cable ties. This held for the rest of the trip.
• At some stage we must have lost the road, because we ended up on something resembling a mountain goat track. Myself and Werner managed to organise our own ego knocks on this stretch, me climbing the mountain and him descending. Fortunately only the ego’s were damaged and not the bikes.
• The dark caught up with us while we were trying to cross a river in a deep valley with no road in sight
• A bit of chat with a few locals who thought we were stark raving mad (even though it was them who had been smoking the local flora), and we were sort of sent in the right direction.
• Eventually reached a tar road at Seshote.
• We decided to push on even though it was dark and drove into Katze Village sometime before 9 that evening
• There was no camping so we had to book into the lodge for the night (phew). A few Maluti’s later and everyone was feeling much better. The staff opened up the kitchen again and made us a few hamburgers, lifting the spirits even further.

Day 4: 18^th July: Katze to Sehlabathebe

• We woke to the most amazing view from the lodge which is built on a peninsula almost surrounded by the dam.
• It took a while to get the bikes started in the thin air and cold, but once up and running we hit the road again, this time aiming for the Sehlabathebe National Park, the only one in the country.
• The tar didn’t last long and we soon found ourselves on dirt tracks in the mountains again. Same old up, down, through the stream and up again.
• The route was via Thaba-Tseka, Mohlanapeng, Taung, St Theresa, Mashai, Sehong Hong, Molaoa and Matebeng with the passes all being in the region of 3000 meters
• The Basothos in the rural areas are absolutely amazing. There are no trees in the place being so high up that most of the country is above the tree line. There is a proliferation of primary schools and these also provide just about the only signage you get in some areas. The people are generally friendly but you get some who are inclined to take a shot with a stick or stone as you go past – fortunately none of them had a good aim.
• We headed East for the Park. Sehlabethebe itself is a small village with minimal facilities. We did not stop but headed into the park and managed to find the “lodge” they advertised on the map.
• The caretakers seemed surprised to see us but had no problem in opening up and showing us the place – an old house which had been extended to resemble a large rambling add-on.
• At least they have a fireplace (5 Maloti’s for the fire) and the family room with 4 beds for 200 Maloti’s. (Maloti = Rand)
• The lodge also has gas lights and geysers, so we could each have a nice relaxing bath and then relax in front of the fire.

DAY 5: 19^th July: Sehlabathebe to Port St Johns

• A reasonably early morning with the wind howling around the lodge saw us back in Setlabathebe looking for petrol. We got some interesting pictures of the rusted out hulks of the ex-petrol pumps.
• The locals referred us to the local supermarket which was run by an Oriental bloke who looked as if he had run away from some major crime in the east. He could speak no English or Sotho and you had to point to whatever you wanted and wait for him to ring it up on his till to see how much it cost.
• After much gesticulation and the eventual intervention of his shotgun-toting security guard we managed to explain that we were looking for petrol. After we had each paid the required R6-50 per litre for our 5 litres, he shouted at a woman in the store who promptly disappeared and came back from behind the building with a filthy 5 litre bottle filled with a liquid of dubious origin. We first filled up 1 bike to see if it would die a smoky death before filling up the others.
• Bushman’s Neck is the closest border post, but fortunately we met someone who advised us that it was for pedestrians only, so we set off along the Southern Border for Qacha’s Neck.
• Once again it was a harrowing piece of road where at times you just had to hold on, slide and hope you stopped before hitting something solid at the bottom
• There were again some beautiful views along the way and we actually managed to get up to third gear in some places along the valley bottom.
• The only vehicles we saw in these areas either were 4X4’s belonging to the more adventurous dealers, or those belonging to the World Food Program or some other UN agency.
• The route was via Moshebi, Hill Top, Tsoelike, Ratsoleli and Hermitage Mission.
• We rejoined the main road a few km’s before the border and went through at Qacha’s Neck with the minimum fuss and bother.
• The first stop was at the Sunnyside Tavern where we could enjoy an ice-cold quart
• From there we managed to do good time, going through Matatiele, Cedarville, Kokstad, Fort Donald, Ludeke, Ndakeni, Koloni, Flagstaff & Lusikisiki and pulled into Port St Johns at about four in the afternoon.
• We drove around a bit and ended up at The Green House (so named for obvious reasons). The “owner” of the establishment was a strange chap with one arm and shoulder missing. We managed to clear the dust out of our throats before moving onto Amapondo Backpackers at second beach.
• They had a nice camping spot with a great view of the sea and we set up camp there before settling down for a braai and a few drinks in their well stocked pub.

Day 6: 20^th July: Ports St Johns

• We had decided to stay for 2 nights, so only took the bare minimum for a day outing around the area and South along the coast
• They have the most amazing view from the elevated PSJ airfield over the river mouth. The airfield is on the Southern head overlooking first beach and is one of those where you have to pre-arrange to have the local livestock chased off the strip before you can land.
• We moved on down the coast towards the Unmgazi river mouth and on the advice of some PSJ locals ended up at a place called The Kraal. It is a sort of back packers but like a lot of places around the area it seems as if some people arrive there and never leave.
• We had the only 4 beers they had at the place (I suspect they are more into other forms of hallucinogenic substances), then moved on back to PSJ with Tyre Weld keeping 2 of the 8 wheels sort of inflated.
• Back to Amapondo for a quiet evening in the pub, trying to stay semi compis-mentis among the semi-sweet aromatic fragrances which are par for the course.

DAY 7: 21^st July: PSJ to Bulwer

• We headed back along the same route to Kokstad and then turned north to Franklin, St Gregory’s, Creighton, Donnybrook and on the Bulwer.
• The ride took most of the day and we arrived at Wild Sky adventures backpackers and paragliding lodge in the late afternoon.
• Myself and Werner pitched tents and Konrad and Marinus offloaded in a log cabin as their girlfriends were due to arrive the next day.
• We had supper at Nip Inn and turned in rather late

Day 8, 9 &10: 22^nd to 24^th July: Bulwer/Underberg

• 3 peaceful days with the other travellers getting some good paragliding in.
• I spent the time between the paragliders and Ian & Karen Maddison, who are farming just outside Underberg.
• Also got a tandem flight with the owner of the outfit, Hans Fokkens.
• There are some great country pubs in the area such as the Nip Inn, the Bird in the Barley and the Duck and Puddle, so we did our bit in keeping the local economy ticking over properly.
• The 2 girlfriends left for PTA on the 9th after a breakfast run to Underberg and a last flight.

Day 11: 25^th July: Bulwer to Little Switzerland.

• We followed the eastern edge of the Drakensberg National Park. Good to be back on the bikes again after 3 idle days.
• The route took us past Shiyabantu, Kamberg,Kwa Monkonjane, Hlatikulu, Kwa Dlamini to White Mountain where we stopped for lunch.
• From there we travelled further north to Bergville for petrol and a break before moving on the Little Switzerland.
• There is no camping at Little Switzerland so we moved back a few KM’s to a camping ground at ??????? with a fantastic view of the Amphiteatre.
• A decent pub supper and a few drinks and we headed off to the tents.

Day 12: 26^th July: Little Switzerland to Pretoria.

• We skirted the Sterkfontein Dam on the West and wound our way to Harrismith.
• From there we crossed over the N3 and took back roads in the direction of Verkykerskop passing Vrede and Ascent before crossing from the Free State into Mpumalanga at Robberts Drift.
• We then went through Holmdene, Bosmansfontein and Devon before taking on the last petrol in Delmas and heading back to “civilisation”