Riding in Lesotho

[lilgman]

There hasn't bee much action on this corner of the forum for a while, so I decided to share. I recently purchased a Big Boy 250 for use in ministry in Lesotho, Africa where we are missionaries. (Basically a Hawk 250 but with the balanced motor from a Bross 250 from what I can tell. More on that here:

)

I saw in several posts that people in the Eastern USA struggle to find good places to ride. Lesotho isn't like that. Basically you can go ANYWHERE as long as you don't go through plowed fields or through a person's fenced yard. (The whole country is communal open grazing.)

Saturday I got an itchy foot (or something) and went for a ride up the donga (I guess that would be a eroded ravine, caused by over-grazing of the communal land!) that is below our house. I ran into a couple little waterfalls that were too steep for my riding skills so I had to find a way out and go along the top of the ravine some places. I didn't ride that far--I suppose 4 miles each way, but I had a lot of fun.

Here's a few pictures.


That's the little water falls that was too much for me to go up.



There isn't much perspective in this picture, but the slot it the rock is about 30 feet/10 meters below where I was standing. I want to go there and have a look after a cloud burst sometime!



This was a pretty spot, I thought.



The trail got too tough for me beyond the rocks, so I turned around here.

[culcune]

Wow! Beautiful scenery! Please keep posting photos of Big Boy in the wild!!

[Its_not_a_honda]

Really like the ride report. Give more updates as you continue to enjoy your balanced Hawk!

[lilgman]

After unexpectedly spending 9 months in the USA, we're finally back in Lesotho. I've been catching up on maintenance on all the mission vehicles including the BigBoy motorcycle. It served well in our absence. I noticed a little looseness in the steering head set, so tightened that bearing up a bit more. Other than that, it was just routine maintenance--oil change, clean and oil the chain, etc. I also installed a folding shift lever since I've bent the solid one up a few times on rocks. With all the maintenance done, today I went for a ride.

First off was visiting a missionary friend and taking some books to him. This gave me a chance to try out the saddlebags a friend and I made. They worked fairly well. (If you're interested, here's that thread. https://chinariders.net/showthread.php?t=26951 )

It's a lovely time of year in Lesotho--spring! And we've had some great winter rains and snows (usually the dry season) so things are actually looking a little better than normal. I stopped to take pictures of Mr. Paschales' peach trees near the village where my missionary friend lives.



He was pretty surprised with a white man on a motorcycle stopped and asked if he could take pictures. We visited for a bit. Of course he couldn't pass up the opportunity to ask for me to sponsor him so that he could take his garden up a notch or two and go commercial with his produce. Nice guy, though.

[lilgman]

Great! My picture uploaded just fine.

From there I went on up the road to the Metolong Dam. It's been completed for years, but I've just never stopped to actually look it over. The friendly security guard wouldn't let me stop to take pictures of the actual dam, so I borrowed one from their website.



Here's one of the reservoir and top of the dam wall.



I crossed the one-lane road over the dam wall and continued on a semi-improved dirt road towards the front range of mountains.



And an obligatory picture of the Big Boy on another one-lane bridge (no friendly security guard to stop me from taking pictures here!)



I had a great time even though two-thirds of the trip was on asphalt.

[JFOlivier]

Hi Lilgman, taken your bike down the Sani pass yet. What is your elevation where you are and whereabouts are you. I spent quite a bit of time camping in the Drak Gardens area also Loteni and also the Sani pass area from the Natal side of course. Been around the Free state side a little and also around the Transkei side. Some on horseback as well. Nice to hear of China riders in Southern Africa.

[lilgman]

Hi JFOlivier! No, I haven't taken the bike very far away at all. I'm wanting to, but there tons of places to explore within an hour of home, too! Lesotho is a paradise for dirt bikes and dual sport! We went over Sani pass with our Hilux quite a few years ago and really enjoyed it. We are also talking about going to Sehlabathebe, but I need to do some mechanical work on the Hilux to make sure it's up to a trip into remote places like that. It has right at a half million kilometres on it.

Most of my experience has been here on the western side of Lesotho. We live about 15 km outside of Maseru to the south. It used to be at least 45 minutes to town, but now it's not even 20 minutes if there's no traffic. We live at around 1600 meters which looks like about 5250 feet above sea level. The area where I was riding was a little higher--maybe 5700.

Sounds like you've had some great experiences in the Drakensberg/Maloti mountains! What brought you to South Africa/Lesotho?

[JFOlivier]

I was born in Durban in 1944, ended up off shore sailboat racing then built a boat and left Durban in 1990 then left Saldhana bay in February 1991 visited the mid south Atlantic islands Brazil and most of the Carribean before settling in America in about 1995- 96 retired now in the Northern Neck of Virginia and have a Lifan X-pect to play with when I get bored.

[lilgman]

That's quite a life, JFOlivier! I didn't pay much attention to your "handle" and just saw Oliver. Now I see Olivier.

[JFOlivier]

Lilgman, My nick name is Johno but that name was taken so instead of coming up with some other name which like passwords I would not remember next time I logged in, I just went in with my initials and surname. So The ier is a bit of a give away.

[lilgman]

Last week was a busy one for me, but by mid-afternoon Friday, I pretty much finished up my preparations for the weekend. Saturday I would be gone all day teaching at a seminar for pastors and church leaders, and Sunday I would be preaching at a small church an hour away--both long days. I decided to clear my mind a bit by riding the motorcycle to a cave/overhanging rock ledge that has rock art in it.

A quick broad-brush history lesson on this part of the world: The San people (often called Bushman, though that may not be politically correct.) are thought to be the original inhabitants of this part of Africa. They were of the stone-age and depended on hunting and gathering rather than planting and herding. Their language is very unique with many clicking sounds. The current inhabitants of Lesotho came later. They had learned to make iron tools and weapons, and depended on planting and herding cattle. They assimilated the San people into their culture, and some of the clicks of the San language made their way into language that is still spoken here.

Local people tell me that San people inhabited the cave. The name of the area is Malimong which means "the place of the cannibals." I do not know if the San were the cannibals, or if that was the later iron-age people. I also have not been able to find out how long ago it was that the San people lived in the cave. I think it is somewhere in the area of one to two hundred years ago. The paintings are quite old. A ten-year-old shepherd boy showed them to me a few years ago, and I was excited to go back and take pictures.

The ride was enjoyable--about 22km (~13 miles??) of unmaintained gravel road. I travel it fairly often in a 4x4 pickup for ministry and health work. It takes about an hour. On a motorcycle it takes half as long--a much more comfortable way to travel!



The cave/rock ledge is in a canyon near a waterfall on the Mpetsana river. This time of year (dry season) there is very little flowing water. There is a lot of water in the sand, however. (The first time I came here, I got in some NASTY quick sand and wore myself out trying to extract myself. I was washing the sand out of my pants, socks, and boots when the shepherd boy showed up and led me to the cave.) You can't see the cave in the picture above, but it's around the center of the picture, and probably 30 feet above the base of the canyon. I was so excited to see the rock art, I forgot to take a picture of the cave!

I would have never noticed the rock art if someone hadn't showed it to me.



The archaeologists and anthropologists among us may have a stroke, but if you throw a cap full of water from your water bottle on them, they look like this:





At first I thought the red figures in the first image were giraffe--a species that did not live in this area in recorded history. On closer examination, I realized that they are actually people--I believe San people. Notice the emphasis on the strong legs for running!



Speaking of the Bushman or San people, this flowering bush is called Hlahla-Baroana, which I believe can be translated "the little Bushman's shrub." When it blooms, it's always a welcome sign that winter is coming to an end.

Sorry, no motorcycle pictures this time!

[lilgman]

The only thing profitable that I've done so far today is to make a clean motorcycle dirty. I had a nice little off road ride around the area where we live. We have had LOTS of rain for the last month, so there's been LOTS of erosion. This water crossing isn't going to survive another hard rain, I don't think.

[lilgman]

Sadly no motorcycle riding, but we and several other missionaries took our kids on a field trip yesterday. My daughter found a stone-age arrow head. I am fairly sure this would be leftovers from the Bushman/San people who inhabited Lesotho before written history in the area.



Here's one of the other side.

[Magician16]

I've found a lot of American Indian tools over the years. This looks like it was probably used as a skinning tool or scraper.

[lilgman]

Thanks, Magician16. It's our first time to find anything like this.