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

Day 5 - Mahlekolenyane to Vuvu



Ongeluksnek - Early morning

It was a memorable day firstly for the extremely cold start, secondly for the fantastic jeep / singletrack riding on top of Blackfoutain and finally for chasing the light through the Vuvu valley. We left early because it is a long hard days riding and one has to get into the Vuvu valley by at least 2pm to make it out before dark.

 

On Black Fountain

We crossed frozen vlei's, bogs and a river @ 5:30am ! We gingerly pushed on for a while before all of us realized that we could not change gears at all because the river crossings mud and water had frozen the working parts solid. Not only that but our shoes and laces had frozen solid as did the water in our exposed waterbottle tubes !!! Fiona's jockey wheels froze solid too so she couldn't even ride in the gear she was stuck in. No warm wee was available to unstick it so Andries lit some paper and got it unstuck that way !  

On Black Fountain

Black Fountain was AWESOME - It's a spectaclular piece of track on top of a huge mountain. We came off the mountain about 4 kms too soon down a 300m cliff face. It was a scramble of note thru trees, kloofs and wattle donga's to the plain below. From there it was only Fiona's keen navigation skills that got us back onto a track and to Tinana mission. The other group that split from us at the top got there quite a bit ahead of us !

It was still a long way to go with another protage before the Vuvu valley turn off. What an awesome 4km singletrack off a mountainside down to the river ! 

Vuvu Valley

We go tto the turn off very late and decided to risk the 13km hike thru the valley up to Vuvu anyway. It's a maze of valeeys running off the main valley with numerous streams and two main rivers coming into it. Get it wrong and you sleep there ! We were tired but soldiered on and found the right paths, stayed high above the river valley floor and the stubby mielie fields. There is a goat track up on the ridge which is way easier than following the river path. We therefore made good time and climed out onto the donkey track a few kilometers on just as the sun was going down. From there it was a few short km's to the Vuvu school.  

Accommodation is the villagers own huts and one certainly see's how fortunate we all are here in the big cities. Sleep and a few serious snores was a fitting end to a very tiring day... 

Day 4 - Masakala to Mhalekolenyane



Queens Mercy Plains

Day 4 is traditionally a short day at around 56km. After leaving Masakala rural guest lodge one heads down off a ridge towards the main road running into Matatiele. A few kilometers on after turning off the main road we headed onto the Queens Mercy plains/wetlands. It's a spectacular sight looking out across kilometers of grass plains to the snow covered mountains in the distance.

It's also some great mountainbiking and lunch at the Queens Mercy store was a welcome relief after a warm mornings riding. After leaving the store we again headed up a mountain.



Nontlanhla


   From there it's another short stretch to get onto the ridge from where we bombed down the mountainside on steep hair raising goat tracks followed by a fast rolling "sleep pad" - a wide drag strip track made by the locals when they drag wattle firewood off the mountain.



We crossed more rolling hills, another river and then joined the road up to the Mhalekolenyane rural guest lodge. Nontlanhla makes the most amazing vetkoek for tired and grinning riders alike every year. Hot vetkoek and honey - Wow AWESOME !!!