Book 2: 1st Bike trip to Lesotho (Sani)

This idea started just after I bought my Suzuki V Strom. I wanted to get a good feeling for the bike and a friend of mine suggested we do a 2 day trip down the Drakensberg and on to Lesotho via Sani Pass. We started of at 04:00 on a Satuday at the Engen 1 stop outside Villiers and rode over Frankfort and Bethlehem to Clarens. Just before Clarens we stopped at the Ash River outfall. This is where the mighty Katse Dam's water finally leaves the mountains on the way to Gauteng. In Clarens we had breakfast at the Moerdyk inn.


We left and rode through the Golden Gate National Park and past Sterkfontein Dam over Oliviershoek Pass to KZN. At Mooi River we turned of to the mountains and what a lovely route to Underberg and Himeville it is. Long sweepers and beautifull countryside. At Himevill we filled up before we headed of into the mountain. Here we left the tar road and headed up a pretty bad gravel road to the ZA border post 35km away. Between ZA and Lesotho border post it is 8 km of quite steep 2 spoor track up the mountain with the last bit very steep and tight switch backs.

Finally to the top we were welcomed and booked in at the Sani Top chalet. We were 2 of only 4 people staying over. We had the whole backpackers for ourselves.


During the night it started snowing leaving us with the most spectacular white surroundings the next morning. It was cold, let me tell you. We decided to push through Lesotho and exit at Fouriesburg but that was stopped short as the higher we climbed the thicker the snow got and eventually we could not get through.


Had to turn back and down Sani again. Got to Himeville 14:00 Sunday afternoon and then took the road back to Sasolburg about 650km away. Got home about 20:00 that evening. What a wonderfull trip and a lekker bike.

Cheers