Lesotho Boogie Woogie

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Xpat

Grey Hound
Joined
Feb 24, 2011
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AJS (all models)
Introduction

First of all - boogie woogie: Tony who initiated this trip came up with that and the rest of us born after the WW2 just assumed that it’s a made up noise he probably uses to endear himself to infants. Back home, quick interweb check revealed it actually has meaning. Here an excerpt from Wikipedia: “Boogie-woogie is a musical genre that became popular during the late 1920s, developed in African-American communities in the 1870s”. Now it started to make sense taking into account how ancient and African Tony is - it was clearly a subconscious flashback to his youth and he expected a lot of knee action on this trip. He wouldn’t be disappointed.

Here a video example of Boogie-woogie:

[youtube]https://youtu.be/8of3uhG1tCI[/youtube]​

Just to be sure - for those who may want to skip this enlightening video I would like to point out the second comment below this video: “The blonde isn't wearing a bra.  I know that isn't important in the scheme of things; but, I seldom scheme at things...”...

Tony (TK in WD lingo) came up with the idea of this trip and he roped in his usual riding partners - Bertie (Straatkat), Greg (GregF) and Henk (Chopperpilot). I was invited to join in later on when I returned back from overseas.

The initial plan was the typical thorough Tony job: we will trailer bikes to Clarens and have 4 days of riding around there. Knowing that for some in the party 4 days of riding (+ 2 days trailering there and back) is an opportunity that comes about once in a decade, I wasn’t thrilled to waste 4 days around Clarens which is a nice weekend destination for heavy tourists with artso pretenses, but doesn’t have much to offer to a lowly DS loving bunch like us.

So I suggested an alternative that would provide for more meaty and exquisite DS riding - 4 day loop starting and ending in Katse dam:

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The plan was to trailer to Katse and from there ride as follows:

Day 1: Katse to Mohale, following track I have plotted last year offroad over the mountains.
Day 2: Mohale to Semonkong, including Jockstrap and Baboon’s passes
Day 3: Semonkong to Thaba Tseka via Mantsonyane shortcut
Day 4: Thaba Tseka to Katse following some new routes I found last year, including river track all the way up to Katse dam.



I expected some resistance due to longer commute (Katse vs Clarens) and the more technical nature of the route, but the plan seem to have been quickly accepted. Not long after though Henk pulled out stating family reasons, but I couldn’t help wondering if it wasn’t the new route that swayed him to stay away… :pot:

I checked with Bertie who I expected to be a bit apprehensive and managed to calm him by explaining that there isn’t any bit too difficult for him to ride - maybe with some help from us in few places. Which I was kind of semi-confident about - the individual bits were all doable, I was just not sure what will happen when we will string them all together into 4 solid days of riding without any rest in between.

Then I checked with Tony. I knew he procured two non-running 525s over that last year (I guess in a hope that them may breed him brand new 500 if he leaves them alone or some such) so I expected him to bring one of the 525s. But it turned out none of them was working yet (nor the attempt at farming 500 came to fruition yet), but no worries, said Tony, he will bring his TE610. Which is what I was worried about. While Tony, older than me and yet still way stronger physically and mentally, could probably wrestle that whale through each individual day, I knew it would become a major liability for him in 4 days of solid riding. He didn’t want to budge initially, but I eventually managed to sweet talk him into rather bringing his Beta 400 with a Coke bottle or two for petrol to extend the diminutive range. Granted, that Beta thingy will be the sore on the eye in otherwise purebred orange 500 lineup (and will end up sucking some of their blood as we will see later), but at least it was light.

I didn’t bother calling Greg - he is the type who given the choice of perfectly fine steep pass made out of coconuts sized sharp rocks and nearby vertical cliff will go for the cliff every time. I actually hoped he will bring his TE630 to even out the playing field a bit. He did not, so the final score was 3 x KTM 500 & 1x Beta 400.

Henk was still out, so I checked with Losper if he doesn’t want to join. He was keen, but eventually couldn’t make the dates, so we at least tortured him by sending lots of photos of pretty passes as we were riding them - Lesotho back & beyond seems to have much better 3G coverage than most rural SA.

With that all settled we were good to go and set to meet up at Katse on 29th of November for a start next day.

The perpetrators:

Bertie (Straatkat) - on the right:

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Tony (TK):

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Greg (GregF):

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And myself (that would be Martin since I outed everybody else):

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Edit: Attached are the GPS tracks for the routes we took each day.
 

Attachments

  • Day 1 - Katse to Mohale.GPX
    471.7 KB · Views: 82
  • Day 2 - Mohale to Semonkong.GPX
    189.8 KB · Views: 80
  • Day 3 - Semonkong to Thaba Tseka (Short route).GPX
    475.3 KB · Views: 99
  • Day 4 - Thaba Tseka to Katse.GPX
    329.1 KB · Views: 93
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