It's a kinda magic - ShowMe South Africa

It’s a kinda magic

October 17, 2011
Lifestyle, Motoring, Offroad 4x4, Publications, Sports & Leisure, Travel

Text and pictures: Gillian Hine

Source: this article is taken from the October 2011 issue of Country Life.

I promised myself some time ago never to miss out on an opportunity to travel and experience new adventures, especially on a motorcycle. So I jumped at the chance to recce a new motorcycle tour into Lesotho.

I knew from the onset that the riding was going to be challenging, way beyond my capabilities as a rider, so the safer option was to ride with Darrell van der Merwe, an experienced and extremely capable on and off-road rider and the owner of GS Adventures Motorcycle Tours.

The Kingdom of Lesotho, as it is officially known, the country within a country, is akin to that distant cousin you’ve never made the effort to get to know.

Thankfully though, we had Glenn Jones from Malealea Tours to make the formal introductions. Without his kindness, generosity and knowledge, this trip would not have been possible.

The general association one has with Lesotho and bike trips is that of Sani Pass, Katse Dam and Oxbow Lodge, but the idea behind this trip was to open up brand new frontiers for the truly adventurous biker.

The first days riding on tar brought us to Ficksburg under cloud-filled skies, which always provide good on-board entertainment.

Sky TV if you will, watching the clouds as they shapeshift from giant teapots into dolphins and burn off into the blue. An added advantage to pillioning is that you get to really take in your surrounds while enjoying the thrill of being on a bike. Malutizicht Lodge provided a comfortable overnight stay, the mountains of Lesotho in sight. We both thought that we would be heading home in the morning due to the heavy rain during the night but thankfully the next day’s riding was dry, if eventful.

On the very pleasant gravel road to the Peka Bridge border post we got a puncture in the front wheel. Darrell, being the South Afri-‘can’ that he is, set about fixing it. A record six plugs later we managed to limp back to within 11 km of Ficksburg before we were laid cripple again. After some frantic phone calls and many hot hours on the side of the road for Darrell, we were able to get a new tyre, although it delayed our journey by a day.

Admittedly, our first impressions of Lesotho were disappointing. Flat tar roads and sprawling meadows led into the towns and we were soon engulfed by African suburbia. Thankfully, once we had turned onto the gravel our opinion began to change rapidly. I have pillioned off road over countless kilometres during the years and have found it to be often hard going but manageable. Little did we know that we were about to enter an entirely new realm of riding and pillioning.

The dirt road became a latticework of tar, potholes and wash-aways with steep ascents and descents, and great switchbacks opening up onto straight stretches. When asking about distances between places in Lesotho you are given answers in hours as the condition of the roads is always questionable. It took us almost four hours to cover 192km.

Semonkong, ‘The Place of Smoke’, gets its name from the haze of mist created by the Maletsunyane Falls as it plummets 186 metres into a spectacular gorge. It also plays host to the longest commercially operated single-drop abseil in the world.

A dark, mysterious track cut its way to the falls.The whole visual experience is staggeringly spectacular. Sometimes words seem superfluous as deep-rooted emotion takes over in situations like this and you can’t help but be moved.

The road to Malealea Lodge was particularly good and provided scenic wonders yet again. We ascended a narrow rocky path into the mountains with no evident tracks of vehicles, or anything else for that matter. Cliff faces on one side and sheer drops on the other; with no room for two-way traffic.

It was hard going and a little hair-raising, but absolutely worth it. The wow factor certainly came into play, and we were completely absorbed in the moment – mind, body and soul.

Malealea Lodge has a lovely village feel to it. It’s been in the Jones family since 1986 and is now run by Glenn’s sister and her husband.

The 60km to Mohale’s Hoek is a beautiful ride providing more challenging riding. The views from the Gates of Paradise are what you’d expect, and we paused to appreciate and reflect at this point.

Qaba (with a click) was an ancestral pilgrimage for Darrell as his grandmother was born there and her parents ran the local trading store, which is still in operation.

In her day they commuted by single horsepower; a far cry from the 1200 motorcycle her grandson is now riding. The road continued to snake its way through the mountainsides. At one point the mud became increasingly thick and difficult so I dismounted to allow Darrell to get through it unhindered.

The dirt road to Mount Moorosi chalets was littered with wash-aways and loose gravel, some of the trickiest riding for Darrell, but as usual he managed to take it all in his stride and get us down into the valley safely. It’s a very rustic little camp perched on a mountainside. It is self-catering but meals can be booked in advance – luckily for us they had been and were superb.

We climbed a staggering 1 000 metres in 21 km the next morning. We turned off on to a dirt road that would take us to the Sehlabathebe National Park. What a beautiful road – the craggy mountain rock faces gently morph into undulating hillsides that appear to have been draped in green velvet embroidered with incandescent wild flowers.

The entrance to the park is a little confusing as the signs have fallen over and nothing was clearly marked on the GPS either, indicating the remoteness of where we were. The surface of the road changed yet again to loose stone and shale. Clinging to the mountainside, we descended Dorothy-like down the ‘yellow brick road’. We were beginning to doubt the existence of anything, let alone our lodgings for the night. Then suddenly there it was in the middle of the valley – we were saved.

It is a place of ridiculous natural beauty, while the enormity of the surroundings, from the magnificent mountains to the lush, marshy grassland festooned with wild flowers, moves you on every level. It’s a natural art gallery filled with rock sculptures crafted by mythical giants for the pleasure of us mere mortals.

Our last night was to be spent in complete luxury back in South Africa, a truly wonderful way to end an extraordinary journey. I promised that I wouldn’t reveal the location of the last night as it will serve as the piece de resistance to what will be one of GS Adventures’ greatest motorcycle trips.

In Lesotho you can escape to a fantasy world of giants, fairies, healing crystal springs and majestic waterfalls. It is truly a magical kingdom.