Knopkop's Solo

What a stunning trip and amazing photos. Absolutely beautiful part of the world.

Bliksem maar nou maak jy my lus…

This looks a bit hardcore for a GSS (GS Solo that is). May be the safer choice will be to go the Sani option. I am thinking of going up Sani and crossing Lesotho from west to east.

I worked in Lesotho as a student in the 90’s on the replacement houses. That was all the houses that were below water level of the 4 dams in the Lesotho highlands project. Those people needed to get relocated to higher grounds.

Later after studies, I was involved again in the building of the ring road around the dam. This was a government project and all work was done with local resources. We thought that the dam will take decades to fill up at that time but after good rains it was only a few years. We were still doing construction when the dam overflowed.

I visited the dam at least 3 times as a tourist after that and once on the GS with the BMW club in 2008. We did a dam wall tour which is not to be missed.

Your excellent report brings back lots of pleasant memories. Thank you so much.

I think it is time to visit again. I just need to find the perfect route for the 1200. Any ideas?

Hi Danie,

Thanks for the compliments!

To cross Lesotho from East to West, or West to East on the 1200 will be no problem.

From Fouriesburg to Katse is very good tar all the way. From Katse to Thaba Tseka is 60km of good gravel road, level 1 and 2 stuff, no issues.

From Thaba Tseka it is 35km to the split between the road to Sehonghong (which I took) and the road to Mokhotlong. The road to Mokhotlong is 67km from this spot to where you meet the A14 (main road to Mokhotlong via Afri-Ski), then it is 10km left, or north, to Mokhotlong or 45km right, or south, to Sani Top.

The road from Thaba Tseka to Sani is good gravel, level 1 and 2 stuff. I know of very newbie riders that did this without any problems.

The hardest part will be Sani Pass itself, I read that is has been graded in the last few weeks and that is is a piece of pie now. We should have done Sani over Easter THIS year!!!

Fuel is available from garages in Butha Buthe, Hlotse, Leribe.

Close to Sani, fuel is available after Seshote here: S29 18.642 E28 32.514

In Thaba Tseka fuel is available from the tankers you see next to the road, I filled up here: S29 30.908 E28 35.663

Fuel is also available in Mokhotlong.

Just a note on fuel, there is no unleaded, after Leribe, only super. No problems with using super, just stuffs up the CAT, but we don't really want the CAT now do we.

So from Fouriesburg to Sani Top its is 366km of which 165 is tar, the rest good gravel.

Remember, Lesotho does not have a flat or straight piece of road longer than 100m So I would suggest you do this trip over two days. 366km in Lesotho is a VERY tall ask.

I did 387km in one day, I was on my own, so I did not have to wait for anyone and it took me 11 hours.

But to answer your question, YES it is very doable on a 1200.

Go and do it !!!!

Thanks KK. You have basically planned my trip.

Now for some finer detail. Where is the best place to overnight in Lesotho? I guess the 2 schools of thought will be on the time available. If you have a full day to start off you can do west to east as it will take you longer to get to Sani’s foot as apposed to Fouriesburg, but then again the same applies for the return trip. Fouriesburg is just over a half day from GP. I know that close to the Katse dam wall is some overnight possibilities but am sure that there might be some options closer to Sani top. So a 3 nighter will be perfect? One in Underburg, one in Fouriesburg and the other somewhere in the middle of Lesotho.

One other option will be to camp??? I have camped once before in the south at some waterfall (the highest in Lesotho) but do think it is a bit risky.

KnopKop wrote:Hi Danie,

The hardest part will be Sani Pass itself, I read that is has been graded in the last few weeks and that is is a piece of pie now. We should have done Sani over Easter THIS year!!!

TOOOOOO Late my friend !!!!
You have to live with that FOREVER.....rsrsrsrs

Perske, when are you planning to do it????
Probably this newbie is interesting in !!!

That was before the rains...

Danie,

I would suggest you leave Pretoria early and klap it to Fouriesburg, 350km, so lets say about 4hrs. If you leave at 6am, you will be in Fouriesburg at 10am. It took me about 3.5 hours to Katse, but I took it VERY easy. So you will be able to reach Katse by 4pm, after a nice easy ride.

Sleep over at Katse Dam, the next day you can take your time to Sani Top, have lunch there and then go down Sani and sleep over in Notties or Himeville.

Then klap it back to Gauties the next day.

...and take an extra bash plate or two

...and locktite all your bolts & nuts