By Fourie Kotze
Monday
Naries Namaqua Retreat hosted us for the first two days of the trip (https://www.naries.co.za/). Located on the road bewteen Springbok and the West Coast, this haven offers luxury accommodation, surrounded by mountains and a herd of gemsbok on your doorstep.
The day’s stage took us down the Spektakelberg Pass, dropping from 800m to 420m in a matter of 8km. At the bottom of the pass, we turned North to tackle the original pas. Bliksem, this was extremely hard-going. Some stretches are impossible to ride, other stretches you can ride, but many of them have a gradient of 27%! We eventually made it to the top, but not before Lize invested in several pieces of property and paid for it in blood.
The pass was named after Simon van der Stel arrived at the top and looked across the valley, exclaiming: “Wat een spektakel”
Once at the top, you get to witness one of the most intriguing natural phenomena I have ever seen: the famous Schaaprivier canyon. This is where Suzette Louw runs the Nigramoep Slowliving Guest Farm. If you love hiking, good food and fun, get in touch with her – you won’t regret it. Please also note that this is private property and you will need a permit to enter the canyon. By the way, the ride through the canyon was spectacular!
From there, we made our way to Nababeep, a once extraordinary mining town. I went to school there and when I matriculated, there were almost 900 pupils in the school. The mine closed in 1989 though and the town is going backwards fast. Most of the houses are empty, the streets and buildings in disrepair and only a few shops survived. It is sad to see a once flourishing town falling apart.
From Nababeep it was a relatively easy ride back to Naries. Distance for the day: 90km. Vertical ascent: 2000m. Riding time: 7 hours.
Tuesday
Today was another long day in the saddle, although it was not intentional – we got horribly lost in the mountains and valleys between Naries and Nababeep.
Initially, we were on track and traversed a farm road that was supposed to take us to Spektakelberg again. But either I missed a turn off ( which is easy to do when you are in absolute awe of the natural beauty of the area) or the Garmin lied.
I knew that we had to keep on heading South, but at the same time, I realized that we were riding deeper and deeper in an extremely remote part of Namaqualand. Hats off to Hannele and Lize who never panicked
We literally crossed mountains and valleys, following faint tracks that have been in disuse for many years.
After almost 6 hours of riding, we rode into the tar road between Springbok and the coast: frpm there it took us 30 minutes to ride back to Naries. Distance: 72km, 1800m vertical ascent and 6 hours on the bike.
Time for bed now.