Wednesday, August 17, 2022

DAY 15 LOST AND NEED PETROL. 209KM 11 HRS !

Ugab to Twyfelfontein but ended up in Palmwag.

Twyfelfontein is only 75km away, so will grab breakfast there. The ride out was through the river gorge and had to thread the front wheel through all the razor sharp rocks, but was a fun run till 1pm when 75 km came and went and I realized I had taken a wrong turn.

I tracked back to a camp I saw and nobody was there , but then a man appeared out of the rocks and a young girl. They told me to wait for the manager who should be here in an hour and he would be able to assist, they left and I waited. He got back and gave me 12 litres of petrol and told me just to follow the road straight N and I will end up on the C39.


The next 12 km is where I was handed my ass, it was all in a river bed, with thick loose pebbles and sand and I must have fallen fifteen plus times which exhausted me. At 31*C and my water down to half a litre and my Camel back empty it was a little disheartening and not knowing when thei was going to end. Each time I would have to remove my yellow dry bag, remove my helmet and jacket, sit and rest then pick up the bike,  strap on the dry bag and put on my gear and go again only to repeat it over and over. Physically drained and weak made it even harder to ride and that 12km took me over three hours.


Finally did get out of it and the rest was by no means easy as it was like riding on small round rocks and ever changing surfaces and it finally finished the 56 km at 7pm and then it was on C34 to Palmwag for an hour. Did not pass another vehicle the entire day. 


Not  having eaten the whole day I devoured a burger and a litre of beer and then had to go pitch my tent and shower. 
    Palmwag Campaite.

1 comment:

  1. Just out of interest, when you are sold fuel in these out of the way places by locals what sort of price do you get? When I ran out in the High Atlas, nobody seemed to know what the price should even be as they had barrels of the stuff and clearly didn't go often to buy it. I was charged LESS than the price in the next town!

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LAST RACE DAY 8th JUNE 2024

The race was postponed three times and finally got going at 1pm, only two laps, but the track is 37.7 miles long.