Day 6 - Vuvu to Rhodes



Almost at the top - Lehanna you windy ....!

The two highlights of the short day 6 is the scaling of Lehanna's Pass up poorely defined goat tracks with hundreds of metres of mountainside on either side of the spine one follwows. It's a 4km hike a bike with 1000m of vertical ascent. It's tough enough as is but we were faced with gale force winds the whole way up. 

View from Lehanna Cairn


The winds were apparently gusting up to 80km/h at times which made the climb a scary endeavour to say the least. Hugging the ground with your head and praying for respite whilst clinging desperately onto your bike was the only way we managed not to get blown off that mountain - Holy smoke it was scary !!!

After 3.5 hours of climbing we crested the top a had a fantastic snow fight to relieve the stress - boys will boys !!! Nonetheless it was worth it for the views, the scary adrenaline rushes and the magnificent 10km decent down the other side of Naude's Nek Pass. It's spectacular riding and an adrenaline rush of a different kind.

Great sheets of clear ice hung metres off the roadside cuttings for the first few kilometeres down the mountain.Yep it was bloody cold up there because those sheets were still frozen at midday with the sun out ! The road is a series of switchbacks and you can see your mates whooping their way down at 60+ km/h only to slam on brakes at the hairpins !!!

Snow man at Tenahead Lodge

I wish there was a ski lift from the bottom back to the top. Maybe Dave Waddilove can convince someone to make a plan and then make another day on the Freedom Challenge that requires at least 50 trips down that pass !!!!

Can't wait to do it all over again next year... RASA 2012