Lesotho Sky 2011

Words by Hannele Steyn-Kotze and Fourie Kotze
For more info, go to bookings@agamacamp.co.za

Namaqualand on a Mountain Bike (Namaqualand by Mountain Bike)

In 2010, I had my first taste of mountain biking in Namaqualand when we took a group of cyclists on a five-day trip through the rugged beauty of the north-west corner of South Africa. That trip started and finished in Springbok and along the way we would stop over at places like Goegap Nature Reserve, Hondeklipbaai on the West Coast and Agama Luxury Tented Camp near Garies. It left me with an indelible memory of the flowers, mountains, blue oceans and endless mountain bike trails; there was absolutely no doubt that I’d be back.

This year’s trip took almost a year to plan, even though we were only going to spend two days on the bikes. Part of the planning included travelling to Agama twice, to scout for routes that would take us off the beaten track and into the heart of Namaqualand on roads and trails that few people had the privilege to cycle along. Tracks4Africa played a major role in the planning phase and with Johann Groenewald heading the project, they provided us with the most amazing and accurate route maps.

It was with huge anticipation that our little convoy of cars left for Agama on 9 September 2011. We arrived at the camp an hour or so before sundown and even then everybody realizsed that we were in for an experience of a lifetime. Surrounded by fields of orange, yellow, white and a multitude of other colours, it was a kaleidoscope that only Mother Nature could create, and suddenly Coenie de Villiers’ song, Namakwaland, made sense to me.

En ek sprei my kelkiewyn karos, waar die horison die môre los en iewers staan 'n kokerboom knie- diep in die geel en droom.
Namakwaland se veld hou nuwe jaar
Kom kyk hoe hotnotsriel 'n vygie daar
By-plek, vry-plek, Nababeep my ghantang
Kom proe hoe soet 'n ghoukom hier kan smaak …

Agama is hidden in a secluded gorge and it was a hive of activity as Victor Burke, his wife Linda and their two children, Karien and Buck, were getting everything ready to host 12 mountain bikers and their two back-ups for the next three days.

With the sun just setting, a huge bonfire in the boma beckoned us to get comfortable and we enjoyed a nine-litre bottle of 2000 Beyerskloof Reserve that had been kept and matured for this occasion. The food served that evening was fit for a king (and his queen).
The next morning, after stuffing ourselves at breakfast, we mounted our bikes and were eager to set off on our journey of discovery. The 83km round-trip took us over huge mountains, through secret valleys, three river crossings and past amazing rock formations, before stopping halfway for lunch at Twee Riviere, a small village between Kamieskroon and Leliefontein. Here we were treated to the best curry vetkoek that I have ever eaten!
After that it was back in the saddle to ride over terrain that I am positive no bicycle has ever gone before. Many of the roads were merely trails carved by herds of sheep and goats over the decades, and we were told that the Khoikhoi walked these trails back in the old days. This was mountain biking heaven and one particularly gnarly downhill made me realise that this was probably the best mountain biking terrain in the whole of South Africa.
All along the route we witnessed first-hand Namaqualand in all her glory. A little tip is that if you are riding towards the sun, you may not understand what the fuss is all about. But as soon as your back is turned to the sun, the full phantasmagoria of thousands of yellow, white, orange or purple flowers will astound you. The flora is characterised by a phenomenal variety of daisies, but there are also violets, pelargoniums, mesembryanthemums, gladioli and numerous other species. Down one of the mountains, the side of the trail was literally covered with aloes and Quiver Trees (Kokerboom), so named because the Bushmen used the fibrous branches as a quiver for their arrows.
After six hours of incredible riding our first day ended with a rush of adrenalin down a mountain trail that takes you right back to the valley floor and a little river that meanders towards Agama. Afterwards we sat around and did what mountain bikers generally do after a day in the saddle: cleaned the bikes and talked non-stop about the day’s riding.

That evening we feasted on home-made chicken pie, lamb casserole, veggies and freshly-baked bread, topped with a thick layer of korrelkonfyt (grape jam). The last of the Beyerskloof was given a send-off around the fire after supper, where we reminisced about the days of good music, bell-bottom trousers, shirts with collars reaching down to the pectorals and an impromptu display of disco dance floor moves by Mr. Hilton Foster.

The nights at Agama are wonderfully quiet and the stars seem so close in their brilliance that you feel you can actually touch them. There is no electricity in the camp and light comes with the compliments of lanterns and romantic candles. It was bliss to roll into the superbly comfortable beds and let the sounds of the veld transport you to dreamland.

Our second and final day saw us back in the saddle straight after another scrumptious breakfast. Much of the 74km of riding was spent on the farm where Agama is situated and for more than three hours we were treated to the never-ending marvels of Namaqualand in the springtime; carpets of wild flowers, huge herds of springbok and eland, lizards of all shapes and sized and the ever-inquisitive dassie (rock rabbit).

Once off the farm, the route took us along the road between Klipfontein and Soebatsfontein, the only road that did not have our back-ups lamenting from the Land Cruiser about aching bodies. We passed the famous Bethel’s Klip and continued to the top of a huge mountain, where we stopped just long enough to munch on Linda’s homemade fair of bread and korrelkonfyt, whilst reveling in the superb panoramas.

After that lung-buster, the road back to Agama was easy, passing through Karkams and back down the same hill as the day before. A quick lunch followed and then it was back in the car for the four-hour trip to Cape Town.

Most of the roads and trails mentioned in this article are not open to the public and were used with the permission of the farmers in the region. However, from August 2012, mountain bikers will be able to ride and explore a vast network of trails that will be marked and graded for their riding pleasure.

Namaqualnad MTB Tour 2011 & 2012

Every year I conduct a MTB tour in Namaqualand during the flowering season at Agama Tented Camp.
2011 is already fully booked, but book now for 2012 to avoid disappointment.

Overland Challenge

Now, the word challenge is correct. Last year when I heard about the Overland Challenge, I thought to give it a try this year as I have done the Desert Dash in 2009 and that is 40km longer!!

I was once again taught never to get too big-headed, as you always get humbled J

It was with great excitement, but also a little trepidation that I left for Montague the day before the race.

My sponsors from SLUDGE, Chris and Rene Gouws, were there to second Fourie Kotze and myself. We were the only solo entries … that must tell you something…

The preparation the evening before is quite something as you have to cater for food for a whole day. I was making sandwiches etc, when the race organizers, Mitzi and Louis, arrived with the information that we will get the route map 15 minutes before the start the next morning, but not to worry, as it is difficult to get lost!! Okay, so sleep well after that news, but at least, where else do you get that kind of service where the organizers come and see you in person?

At 08h00 the Saturday morning we let Montague and got lost in the first 10km J Fortunately, Mitzi was there to direct us and we could carry on.

Everything went well until after the second water point when we hit the BIG climb of the day. The 4x4 track took us straight to the face of the mountain and this was where the “fun” started…

After 3hours, we were still trying to get off the mountain and by now a few of the teams were with me, also trying to find the road leading off the mountain.

Finally after walking down a valley with my bike on my shoulders, we found the next water point. By now it was already 3 in the afternoon and with only 70km behind us, there was still 220km waiting. It became a mental thing and I had to focus really hard to keep my sense of humour (can you eat that??)

Despite all the hardship, this was truly a beautiful route and I could at least see some of it before darkness fell. The jeep track through the Anysberg Nature Reserve was something special to experience on a bicycle.

It was an extremely dark night, clear skies but no moon. It becomes almost hypnotizing to follow the beam of your light for 7 hours, with the only human contact your back-up at the feeding stations. Finally after many almost “giving ups”, I arrived in Montague at 02h00 as the second solo and 3rd overall in the race.

The next morning the organizers treated us to a wonderful farm-house breakfast and great prizes and told us the good news that next year, there will be no navigation, but a marked route.

I will certainly be back; many thanks to Chris and Rene and Mitzi and Louis.

Transalps 2010
Coming down a mountain in Italy	Cycling in the snow

MTB WORKSHOPS

I do mountain bike workshops as well as nutrition presentations. If you are interested in having me do one for your club or group, please e-mail me

Faith Fund

FREEDOM CHALLENGE: 2007

“Living on a prayer”. There is no other way I can start this article, but with these words of a famous Bon Jovi song. 20 days and many prayers long, I can look back on one of the most amazing, soul searching, soul enriching and definitely toughest event of my life. I thought I was mentally strong, but to stay mentally strong while you have to almost mentally switch off, shows you a whole new perspective on that. But let me start at the beginning: When David Waddilove (and I’ll tell you a little more about this man later), called me 3 weeks before the start of this race, I have just heard about the Freedom Challenge once before and knew nothing more about it, but that it was a trial from PMB to CPT that people can go and ride whenever they want to. David wanted me to help with nutrition advice on what to feed these “poor, no I know, “mad”, entrants, because the previous year they lost too much body fat. I was of course very interested, but because there are not yet funds to pay people he jokingly offered an entry to which I immediately jumped (the forever opportunist). Little did I know……. He asked me to give him a week to find a sponsor that turned out to be an amazing sponsor from Cutters/Husquervana.

They paid my entry plus gave me extra funds for equipment I would need. So 2 weeks before the start I REALLY started to find out what this race was all about: 2300km from PMB to CPT, unsupported (carrying all your clothes, spares, food on the go, running shoes, extra tyre, etc, etc) in a back pack. You have 26 days to complete it in and there are 26 support stations where you are allowed to send a 2 litre ice cream container with stuff that you think you might need at that time (extra tubes, batteries, socks, toothpaste, energy bars and drinks for each day, etc). At these stations you are guaranteed food, a bed and a shower. You can stop for as long as you want or for as short as you want. Most of them are farmhouses with wonderful people opening their homes to us and some are smaller type guest houses, but you won’t find more hospitality in a 5 star hotel! I had to start shopping ASAP, get my bike serviced that Jacob and Leon of CMC took such great care of, pack my containers (26 of them), study the maps (yes, you have to navigate very carefully, not to spend hours and hours being lost, as David found roads and mountains in this wonderful country of ours that only the Voortrekkers might have seen J And then he did the maps in Greek, because the more I looked at them, the more I knew that I am off to a great holiday somewhere up in Africa J My friend, Tim James, a SAA pilot (finished second), told me that I can cycle with him and look after his nutritional needs and he will navigate. Who better to navigate than a pilot? Now I was really getting scared though, because I realized with a popped disk between my 4th and 5th vertebrae and no navigational skills and no knowledge or real preparation of the race, I was in for a test of my life….little did I know! I started packing my Adidas back pack with the build in bladder for water and soon found that to pack two sets of cycling kit, outer shells for the snow, clothes to wear at the support stations, shampoo, face wash, soap, deodorant, running shoes, spare tyre, spare brake pads, cables, casings, chain breaker, patches, multi tool, tubes, baby butt cream (loads of it!), all kinds of pills for all kinds of emergencies, bandages, space blanket, cell phone, bible, money (yes, even that starts to weigh some), was bulging my back pack way past what it was designed for. And another surprise was the trackers + their chargers that they handed out at the pre race supper. These were essential though as David and crew knew where we where most of the times and so could friends that wanted to check our progress on the website. I’ve been racing competitive sport (athletics, biathlon, duathlon, X-country, triathlon, road cycling and mountain biking) for 28 years and thought I’ve done and seen it all, but little did I know……! Excited, but very scared and looking like an adventurer (I had to fly in the clothes I was going to wear for the next at least 26 days at the support stations, cause no space for extras), I boarded the plane to PMB. The pre race supper was all good and we ate as much as we could, but you could sense the nervousness. We each got our Pofadder race jersey and got told that each support station will be supplied with Biozest health drink, Rose’s nougat and rose’s fudge as well as Squirt chain lube. Also, we can stop and sleep at these stations and there will be food, showers and “padkos”. Most of them would be farms and we would be out of civilization for at least the first 15 days, so not to expect any shops, etc. The next morning at exactly 07h00 (and as the only woman, I was late), we left the PMB city hall. The group had to ride together until we were out of town and entered the Nature reserve. What a difference it makes to ride a bike with an 8kg back pack on your back!!!! The saddle feels harder, standing up feels ridiculous and going down a technical section, requires a lot more skill than normal. As an incentive, we got warm butternut soup halfway to support station one. This would be the last sympathy of the race.

This first stage was beautiful, but surprised us with a long heartbreaking climb towards the finish at Allandale. Tim and I got there in the lead and received a hearty welcome with soup, lasagne, coffee, bread, etc and a bunch of great people. To my unsuspected surprise, Tim told me to hurry up, empty my 2litre container, grab my “padkos” as we need to get to support station 2 before dark. I realized the reality of staying with my navigator, was to stick to his game plan and that was not going to be a walk in the park! We left in good spirits though, but as night started to fall, we got to a very difficult navigational piece and spent around 3 hours in a forest, trying to find what the map instructed us to do. (You are not allowed to take short cuts, but must follow the given maps and text) (The trackers saw to it that we did do just that otherwise you would get a time penalty). We eventually arrived in the small town of Donnybrook at around 19h00 and asked at the police station to be locked up in the cells so that we could sleep as the next piece of riding also had very difficult navigation in it and would be impossible in the dark. The police didn’t want to lock us up, so we ended up checking into Donnybrook Inn. An amazing little hotel that hasn’t seen a lot of guest lately, but the owners were lovely people and invited us to have supper with them. After an interesting evening, a cold bath and a good sleep, we left at 05h00 the next morning. Martin van Daalsen joined us after experiencing the same trouble in the forest and Glenn Harrison had to spend the night in the forest after cycling around for hours as well.

The next couple of days were a constant cycling of between 12 and 15 hours a day, stopping at support stations only to eat, wash our faces, fill our bottles until late at night when we got to a station and slept over. It was a quick shower and wash of only other pair of cycling kit, couple of hours sleep and to carry on, most of the time feeling a little like a zombie. Thinking back, it was like going through my days and nights in a sort of a haze, wanting to constantly giving up, but knowing that I cannot and will not and couldn’t allow myself to mentally go soft. Physically everything was hurting and mentally you had to be strong but at the same time almost switch off to any kind of feeling sorry for yourself or thinking to much of how tough this was.

The people at the support stations were like angels that gave you food and shelter and most of the times, you had to say thank you and good bye at the same time, as we were trying to cover as much as possible before the weather predictions of snow in the Stormberg came true. We covered Allandale, Ntsikene, Masakala, Makolonyane support stations with our only sleepover at Makolonyane mission station. Nitsikene saw to an interesting piece where we had to climb over a ‘koppie/mountain” to get to the support station. All of a sudden 15km of cycling became 15km of carrying your bike on your shoulders while climbing up this koppie. Wew had to leave there in a hurry as we had to find some difficult navigation before nightfall and just made it, thanks to Tim’s skills.

From Makolonyane we were joined by Martin van Daalsen again, as well as Glenn Harrison and Lee John. The 5 of us had to navigate through some awesome single track, cow paths, to eventually split up and arriving at Vuvu support station in drips and drabs at about 9 at night. This was one of the hardest stages and finished with a 20km “unridable”, but surviving through it, rocky piece of road. Also one of the most memorable stations as we arrived at this tiny school with no electricity, 20 fantastic and friendly Zulu people, cooking us coffee, chicken, samp, “potbrood” and cabbage on their coal stoves. Inside the classrooms, the smoke was killing your eyes, but outside it was almost zero degrees….so guess where we stayed? The shower (note, only one!), was half a kilometre away and was an amazing invention of Robs’: a sail with a shower head that pumped the water from a bin. The water was boiled on a fire a couple of metres away. I washed the necessary while freezing, but it felt like 5 star luxury! After supper, we were given a family to walk home with and what a humbling experience to be given the best bed in a house, hand build and mud plastered. From there almost nothing possessions, these people opened up their homes for us. I got a bed made of lusern and plastic and I got given the thickest, warmest blanket ever. I stayed with an old Zulu woman, that treated me to the guest toilet paper (the glossy pages of the newspaper J) and a Zulu prayer early the next morning. Breakfast was the left over curry chicken and potbrood. No appetite for curry chicken at 4 am, but the bread was lovely! We left, having to find a cow path that would eventually take us up a mountain where it would stop, leaving us to climb with our bikes on our shoulders over a mountain range that I would have thought before you need some of the best mountaineering equipment for. 5 hours later, having covered about 500m in altitude, but only about 5km, we descended into the small town of Rhodes down Naudes nek. A quick lunch and we were off to cover another couple of support stations. Again, from here I just pedalled my bike in that Zombi mode and forced myself to look at the most amazing privileges of seeing nature in so many ways. I saw the sun come up and go down, I saw the moon come up, the Milky Way and the moon disappearing again. I saw all kinds of yellow little eyes at night and many kinds of wild life during the day. My mind played a lot of games and we were riding in silence as we were all hurting and hitting a lot of lows. I was living on my prayer and at some stages even praying for my bum to stop aching so much. The cold was cutting into my finger tips and toes during the late night hours and early morning hours and crossing the rivers, my Seal skin socks was a blessing and I can honestly say that they work. I’ve never eaten so much in my life and you literally stuff your face at each stop, only to start eating your “padkos’ an hour later on the bike. You know that you have to continuously hydrate with energy drinks and eat energy bars. Thank you so much to PVM that has taught me almost all about nutrition, so that that was the one thing that kept me going physically, in a lot of ways. Nutrition is my passion and is a big part of what I do for a living, so I was also experimenting on a race like this.

While we were physically struggling, you were constantly reminded of the beauty of our country and the roads David made us find that we had to cycle, not a lot of people will ever have the opportunity to even see. And after all, we were doing one of the things we liked most,…cycling! We went through the Zebra mountain reserve, Anysberg Nature reserve, down the Osberg mountain trail, over the Stormberg Mountain and through ankle deep snow just before Pearston. Because of the snow, it was difficult to navigate and I found myself on the wrong mountain cliff and had to eventually be helped down by Martin and Tim. Thanks you guys! Arriving at Bucklands support station in the Karoo, having had 3 hrs sleep, I decided that it was time to let Martin and Tim go as I was for me, missing another part of this wonderful experience and that was to also enjoy and drink in the absolute beauty of all. Lee John was in the lead at this stage, but at our arrival, we got told that he had bad mechanical problems and hasn’t arrived yet. The other two knew that this was given on a platter and I knew that my decision to stay behind and wait for Lee was confirmed. Living on a prayer again!

For the first time in many days I had the opportunity to bath, wash my clothes and bike, eat slowly and sleep a little….it was heaven. It was also a very difficult decision, as I am very competitive, wasn’t finding it hard to keep up with the cycling of Tim and Martin, but was just not enjoying the constant rush anymore.

At last Lee arrived with an amazing job on fixing his wheel with duct tape and plaster, but very tired of not sleeping the night before. We decided to rather leave early the next morning and start chasing on rested bodies.
The next stage was to Cambria and saw to one of again hardest stages because we had to navigate carefully and cross 10 rivers in approximately 10km. We did this early evening through freezing rivers. The next morning, we were ready to go, but then a big mechanical failure struck. It was pouring with rain, but with all our layers of clothing on, as we were about to leave, Lee John saw that his bike was broken in two!!
……fortunately, Lee John is an engineer and with “bloudraad” (luckily all farms have these), he had it tied together in 4 hrs.

Now we had to live on a prayer that it would last and go cover the Baviaans Kloof in pouring rain. After this, you cover some km’s before you get to the 15km Swartberg pass from Prince Albert and into the Gamkaskloof that takes you to the well known Ladder (a 1km long , steep single track over the mountain). It took us 4hrs to climb up this 1km (a huge mental test)

The next couple of days were a little different in the fact that it changed to more ridable district roads with less navigation, but constant pedalling. We covered a lot of support stations at one time and pushed through to Kasra that is the last second last stop. Here we regenerate again, bathed, ate and slept before we tackled the second last stage. It is a 75km ride, but takes about 5 hrs. We took this fairly easy, because we knew that the last stage was clearly going to be the toughest.

The last stage is known as the killer of all sense of humours! Stettynskloof!!!
You enter the Stettynskloof dam and you can only do so between 3 am and 8 am and then you have to find a tiny foot path, cross 3 rivers and then all roads and paths and imaginable trails stop! If it is light enough, you will then be able to see in the very far distance a mountain crest that you have to get to and get over with your back pack, running shoes and bicycle on your shoulders! It looks completely impossible and heartbreaking, not to mention mind blowing and a physical killer.

Lee and I entered it at 3 am exactly with Jannie shortly on our heals and chasing. Strategy had to come into play as we wanted to finish more than 30min ahead of him not for him to be given the same position (3rd) as us. This is a race after all! It took us 11 hours of climbing, crawling, pulling, falling, swearing, crossing icy waters, swamps, rocks, trees, Hakia, silver fern , humour failures, rain, thick vegetations (bikes on shoulders don’t easily go through two trees, one meter apart).

At one point, Lee John had to push me up a rock for me to pull up the bikes and hang them on a branch and then pull him up, for us to carry on. A bad choice of route, got us caught up in a swamp and it took us 1hr to move 20metres while we were being scratched by thorns and learning new languages.

Lee John became one of my life time heroes, when he had to climb down a cliff where I was hanging to lift my bike off my shoulders, so that I could pull myself up and over. While I was hanging onto these two grass polls, I was thinking that if I let my bike go, I will be able to get out of the trouble and pull myself up, but then I can’t finish the race. If I keep on hanging on, I wonder at what point does a human being decide to let go and fall? ?….
Finally we made it to the top, saw the jeep track down on the other side and knew that there was now 35km of two hard climbs, some navigation to go and then we will be at the finish!

It started to rain and our food was finished and I could feel my energy levels drop, but funnily enough, you find some sort of strength somewhere in your body to push on. With legs shaking from all the climbing, shins that were bruised from the rocks and hands and feet numb from the cold, we carried on over Du Toitskloof pass to Ashanti wine estate where the finish was.

One of the best pictures I’ve seen greeted us as we came round the last corner and that was our friend’s faces. After 20 days of focussing on each pedal stroke and each step, with a lot of sleep depravation, you physically and mentally, just crack and all of a sudden you cannot give one more step.

Eventually in this race , you let go of pain, you let go of thoughts of comfort, you let go of shampoo, deodorant, soap, all excess weight (I kept my floss, toothpaste, toothbrush, face wash and moisturizer and bactroban), but the rest didn’t matter anymore as “important” things become unimportant in the bigger picture. You find a different kind of mental state and strength, you find another, deeper side of your soul and you appreciate all living souls more! You realize how amazing just a friendly smile at the support stations can be and how good a cup of instant coffee can taste when you have sworn never to drink plastic coffee again. You realize how blessed you are to have all your comfort back home, when a lot of people live like what you encountered as not comfortable, every day of their lives and how easy they give from their little to you. When you are shivering from the cold with all your Adidas layers of fancy clothes and some people have to live everyday in weather conditions like that with half of the clothes that you have. You learn how to look at God’s creation with more gratitude than before. You learn how to make peace with pain, fear and cold and you learn how to live on a prayer!

Thanks to all my sponsors whose products made this trip much easier, Adidas, PVM, Trek, continental, Squirt, Biozest, Polar, Willie Engelbrecht cycles, Pain Gone pen, and then the ones that helped as one time sponsors, CMC cycles, Pofadder, Seal skins, Roses nougat and fudge and last but not least; Dino of Husquervana/Cutters that paid my entry and costs.

Thank you so much to all the fantastic people at the support stations; Allandale, Banchory, Jennie’s guest house, Leon en Rika, Louise en Johan, Hestelle en Rune, Alda en Elsa, Rudi en Annie, Christo en Ronel, oom Theuns van Draaifontein, Ragel van Bucklands en al die Horns, Mev Fourie van Anysberg. Julle was so ongelooflik goed vir ons.
Thank you so much to my friends back home; Claire, Ryan, Gill, Jock, Sean, Liesbet, Nikki, Miles, Fourie, Leanne, Craig, my family.

Then to my back team, Claire that always believed in me and Deon for your constant kindness and help J. To Tim for helping me for the first couple of days.
Then , a special thanks to Lee John that rode with me from Bucklands to the finish, navigating us through everything, saving my life in Stettynskloof, teaching me about my bike, showing me an amazing lot of integrity and becoming a very dear friend for life!!, and last but not least, David Waddilove, for showing me that nothing is impossible!