He was a troublemaker

Polish golden autumn.

This entry begins in Męcikale. It has absolutely nothing to do with the trip to Lesotho, which is its main theme, but I don't know why - the combination of these two places makes me laugh a bit.

So I'll just mention that there's no prettier time of year than autumn, or October to be exact. Before the eternal darkness sets in and dog shit hides under the park leaves. Golden autumn ends the moment you catch a cough on an evening walk.

This short post is also another attempt to do something on the blog in a consistent way. A regular publication – monthly. I deeply believe that nothing will come of it, but whoever doesn't try, doesn't lose. Or something like that.

Highway.

I recently bought road wheels at Dandy Horse. It turns out that the exact same bike after changing the tires from 35mm off-road to 32mm road becomes a completely different bike. It took me about 4 years to discover this. Too bad - I thought thate you will have to buy a road, and unfortunately it makes no sense at all in the context of this experiment.

Pelotons

I also recently made a few attempts at riding in a peloton. Every peloton – road, gravel, forest, off-road, who-knows-what. After a few “near death experiences” I started to doubt myself. Fortunately, a trip with the “old crew” restored my faith in myself. Riding in a peloton with strangers is more hardcore than Ethiopia and Uganda combined.

Let's get to the point of this post. This story begins more seriously in the spring, a few months earlier, somewhere near the Ethiopian town of Sheshemen. I tell Robert then that Africa is cool, but I've had enough and we're not going back there for another year. Then we can think about it. We also arrange another trip then, at the beginning of autumn - now, as you read this.


The plan is going great, the summer is over, I change jobs, I have zero days off to use. I'm browsing Instagram sitting in... let's say the garden. A photo pops up, I send it to Robert as a joke and we basically already know what happens next. Somewhere in my head there's a hope that we'll land in Colombia in early October, but we both know, deep inside, in our stomachs, that it's not true. The only thing that saves the situation is that flights to Lesotho are unimaginably expensive. By expensive, I mean 8k+ PLN.

"PROBLEM"

Imagine sitting on your couch and someone tells you, “you can go bikepacking anywhere in the world,” like 3 times a year, with your buddy or buddies. And by any, I mean completely any. Thanks to a few good ones, a few bad ones, but definitely a lot of really fuchsia decisions, I have such an opportunity. What is worse, there are also few countries that I would rather not visit. Perhaps Congo (although I would probably like to, but I am afraid), North Korea (ideologically), maybe South Africa (because I am even more afraid than Congo) ... The famous dilemma of the candy store.

 

It's a beautiful dilemma, but also a very difficult one. It's more difficult with each trip, because the bar is set higher and higher. It's not about the bar of something that can impress someone (I guess). It's just about the slightly uncomfortable but satisfying feeling of doing something different, something new. There are many places I haven't been to with a bike yet, and yet I feel like I've already been. A trip to Japan It's wonderful, sitting in front of a comfortable desk I can plan it down to the minute (true story, as Sylwia, who rushes to the train station seconds before the Shinkansen departs, will confirm). What's more, when I go there, I know exactly what I want to see and what to expect. Of course, I write many times that all the most interesting things are actually seen between what you want to see - mainly thanks to getting around by bike. In trips to slightly more exotic places, the whole trip comes down to such moments. Everything is an unknown.

And on this smooth note I move on to the statement that while in the case of departure to Taiwan, to the States, to Japan, or even Norway, I can plan quite meticulously like this... in 3 days we're landing in Johannesburg and that's the only thing I know about the upcoming trip.

How did that happen? I don't know, but the photo I mentioned above definitely has something to do with it. During one of my other sessions in the... garden, I was clicking around on Skyscanner. It turned out that there were excellent connections to the largest city... of the Republic of South Africa, and from there to the border of Lesotho it's only a few hundred kilometers.

The adventure begins where the plan ends

The plane takes off on November 1st in the morning and returns on November 11th in the evening. I take 5 days off, I'm away for 11 days. The plan is perfect, let's go for it. I'm flying to a place belonging to "TOP 5 places I would like to avoid in my life”. This is also where the problems begin, or maybe not…

We buy tickets a little over a month before departure. Do you know how many things I have managed to plan since then? Zero. Well, maybe clicking a few passes on Komoot and checking where there is civilization. Or maybe not so much "there" as "you can expect it". You can't plan anything on such a trip, because you will look in vain for bikepacking reports on the Internet. At least in the format that interests us: asphalt/easy terrain, riding without a tent, just a little over a week. It was similar with Ethiopia - it seems that normal people do not go on cycling holidays to such places. Almost every report is a fragment of a description of crossing the whole of Africa, or circling the world on a bike.

If you follow any bike travelers, you probably know that a week-long bikepacking trip has only one thing in common with such an expedition: a person and a bike. We can't afford a week of delays because of weather or formalities. We don't take enough luggage to spend the night in the wild or carry enough food for more than one day of comfortable living. A plan would be useful, but in order to check the condition of the road surface, I have to use satellite images from Google. Interestingly, Google Street View may be available, but the photos are 10+ years old, and how we know from Rwanda – the Chinese are able to build roads in Africa surprisingly quickly.

I'll say more: during bikepacking trips where you ride from morning to night, usually on the fifth day everyone has had enough and wants to go home. I'm writing this now, here, when I'm planning the trip in my head, and even so, on the spot, on the fifth day, I'll be surprised.

Above, a Google man thrown onto the main route that cuts across the country. Road number A3. It may turn out that you don't have to avoid the "national roads" at all.

Satellite suggests that even the national roads named A1, A2, A3 and A4 may be open to traffic, which roughly means that smaller roads (if they exist) may require shoeing. This is also indicated by these individual internet reports.

Our plan, a few days before departure, does not include anything. We do not even know how to get from Johannesburg to the border with Lesotho. Our strenuous attempts to obtain a visa to enter Lesotho have failed. There is no embassy in Poland, and in Lesotho they do not even know that it exists. At least that is what I think, because the whole of Europe, even the Moles, can enter there without a visa, and we cannot.

So, to answer the question: how to prepare for bikepacking in the middle of Africa (this time literally, only in South Africa) – I don’t know. But since two more days have passed since I started writing this (so 4 more to go) and I still have nothing, maybe trying to describe the process will sway me a bit, so here’s a zero to hero (I hope).

I. Tickets

It all usually starts with buying tickets. Here the situation was simple. I entered November 1 (as a day off) and November 11 for the return (as also a day off) into Skyscanner. I was looking for something that departs in the morning and returns in the evening on those days and doesn't cost a fortune. Johannesburg fit in perfectly, and it's so close to Lesotho. Two messages to Robert and the tickets were bought. For a dozen or so hours long return flight with a transfer we pay PLN 3,500 + a bike. I don't know how much the bike is, because it's always a mystery: sometimes a lot, sometimes nothing.

I really like the date of this vacation – written without dots, it looks like my grades in German in high school: 111-1111.

II. Entry rules and formalities

It turns out that you need a visa to get to Lesotho. I mean, normal countries don't, but someone missed Poland. It's no wonder, since we can't even think of a Polish name for this country. The surrounding countries, admittedly, don't have one either, but in Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, etc., the unnatural "th" connection doesn't occur.

I really wanted to get this visa and I really tried – I failed. The embassy in Berlin has a mailbox – two in fact. One is full and says that the mail has not been delivered, the other sounds like the mailbox of that Nigerian prince from my family who recently died: lesothoembassyberlin@gmail.com. Seems legit – as the youth used to say when I was a youth.

So we're going to go for broke and hope that somehow it will be. Just in case, I won't give any more information here. However, I prepared myself for the situation quite well by watching S04E04: "How to Survive the World's Toughest Prisons". This is an episode about Maseru in Lesotho. I learned from it that almost everyone there is in prison for sex crimes, so we will be exceptions. Not a very comfortable situation in a country where 1 in 4 people is infected with HIV.

I have the impression, however, that this is not the only thing that will distinguish us. From the 40 minutes of the episode, which I definitely do not recommend, I learned that the most important thing is not to become anyone's wife at the beginning, and the next 20 or 70 will somehow fly by. If there is too much silence on the blog, please contact Botschaft des Königreichs von Lesotho in Berlin. I wanted to write here the slightly too long name of the ambassador, but I think the ambassador has already changed, because on the website from which I was supposed to copy it, someone else is already there. To make it easier for you to get there by taxi, even the street has an easy name: Kurfurstenstrasse.

I consider travel insurance to be the most important document, covering the cost of all health accidents (medical costs, rescue and transport, Assistance, third party liability). I buy it on Warta Travel, because that's where the most convenient form is (for example, it allows you to easily waive NNW or luggage, which I don't need for anything). A convenient form is a sufficient argument.

III. Packaging.

Packing is easy, you almost always take the same thing. Something warm and something to add to this outfit if it turns out that it's snowing in Africa too. And this is possible, because exactly the day after buying the tickets, the main pages of Polish portals were flooded with news about snowstorms in South Africa and people freezing to death in buses that are going to Lesotho. Add some medicines, chargers, cables, unnecessary junk and it turns out that the luggage looks almost exactly the same as in the case of the trip to Lofoten. The only difference is a larger amount of Stoperan. As an exception, I will probably also take a bottle for shakes and half a kilo of powdered food for a rainy day (Huel, which saved our lives in Norway years ago, somewhere around the 230th kilo of the expected 140). The standard set, which could not be missing from the entry, looks like this:

Please note, I take no responsibility for the above list.

It is also worth downloading maps to both your phone and your navigation. In your phone, the Google Maps + Mapy.cz offline set.

IV. Purpose

It's nice to have a main goal for your trip and then come to terms with the fact that you don't really want to achieve it, and it's just an excuse. Just like visiting dog island in japan, dog island in korea or seeing the world's rarest dog in Ethiopia. This time the goal is more down-to-earth. We go for a beer at the highest pub in Africa (on Sani Pass), and then to another pub, which according to the internet is not the highest, even though it is higher (Afriski Mountain Resort, which suggests that people go there for skiing and it may be closed in the summer). In Africa, it is like this that each country has its highest things in Africa. Ethiopia also had the highest road in Africa, which was lower than many others.

If I were Maciek Coelho, I would write that it is about total disconnection from reality. Exposing yourself to extreme discomfort, which will allow you to appreciate for months the roof and the office chair, the food in the fridge and the fact of being completely unnoticed in the city. But I am not, so I will not write. It is simply about having a good time.

V. Survive

This is quite an important point for me, I won't hide it. In principle, it should be included in the above. Among the many twisting plans and hopes, however, there is a key one: I would like to survive the trip. And even in the most intact condition possible - as bad as it sounds in the context of the prisons I mentioned. Normally, I would make a list of civilized places, potential accommodations, emergency returns, etc. Unfortunately, this is difficult here, because Google Maps and Booking suggest that we will travel without stops for food and sleep. I hope this is a lie, but we will see on the spot. Unfortunately, most of the online reports are people in 4×4 campers who can live in them or people with tents. I deeply believe that dollars can make a hotel even from a place that is not a hotel. The Internet unanimously states that there is no such thing as water in stores - so we take tablets and a water filter.

And to be more honest – yes, of course these are problems, but I don't believe that there is no car driving on the asphalt from time to time that could help in an emergency. Although I really wish it wasn't a car like in Uganda.

VI. Tourist attractions.

Before leaving, I always scour the internet to find information about what ordinary people/tourists do in our destinations. I found almost nothing about Lesotho that could interest me. Apart from the aforementioned bar and the pass called God Help Me Pass. And it's great, everything will be a surprise and I'm very happy for nothing. The most popular interesting facts about Lesotho such as:

VII. Tour plan and route.

Here I feel a bit surprised. It is true that bikepacking.com text about Lesotho, but that's not our style of driving at all. The best plan I've managed to make is (I'm making it up as I go along):

We land in Johannesburg around midnight. The bikes arrive on the same plane as us (this is an important resolution). We go to the nearest hotel, which I book in advance (I should have done it now). In the morning we assemble the bikes and leave the suitcases at the hotel for 10 days. No one has shot us, kidnapped us or robbed us on the way. And if they have, I hope the bikes were on a different plane.

In the morning we set off by taxi/bus with folded bikes on a 5-hour journey to Lesotho. I don't know to which border. I will find transport on the Facebook group: Catch A Ride (Lesotho le SA). People there specify whether they are going with a passport or without, so maybe there will be an idea for two visa-free Muzungu. I feel that yes, and it will be the furthest border that exists. However, it is not a problem, because our route leads almost around the country.

I mean, it doesn't really exist, but more on that in a moment. Inside, in Maciek, I feel that it won't be 5 hours either, but probably 10. That's not a problem either, because there's no alternative plan. If they don't let us in, then... I don't know what. Maybe we'll pull over to the nearest car rental and go ride among elephants in Botswana or spend a billion dollars in Zimbabwe. In the ideal plan, we get off abroad and hit the road cycling.

The map is simple, because the marked routes cover most of the network of reasonable roads (not requiring long walks) in Lesotho. Walking is not in our interests, because the expected temperature is from -5°C to 35°C, and on top of that either a sun lamp or a snowstorm. In either case, moving through high mountains without shops and civilization does not sound good.

The blue route seems to be "just OK". Half is mountainous, half is flat. It can be considered emergency.
The green route ends after many hours of booting or a whole day of jeep travel through the pass, and then connects with the red one. To be done if we were certain that such a jeep would be there or that local planes were flying. And that the weather would allow crossing the pass.
The red route is optimal and has an emergency shortcut that cuts it in half. It ends at the famous Sani Pass, the highest mountain pass in South Africa and a road that is considered on popular portals to be one of the “roads you must ride before you die”. From there you can (I hope) either take some transport back to the city, or cycle, on the other side of the mountains… or further south, through the Drakensberg Mountains to Pietermaritzburg or even Durban in South Africa. From there there is definitely a return to Johannesburg.

I don't even know which way, but I prepared a professional map. It is based on photos from Google, points from Komoot, opinions about individual passes from african 4×4 forum, or a great app for campers with up-to-date comments about places, for example Matebeng Pass. In this case, for example, it turns out that the road that looks like the main throughput in the country is a few hours shoeing… so for us it's out. Of course, if there's no snow, because many of the roads are over 3000m above sea level.

I can never plan well how much I can ride in one day. This is obvious after 2-3 days on site. So I don't know how much we'll do, but we'll ride the roads on the map, sleep and eat in places we find by chance and arrive in one of Lesotho's main cities on Saturday evening, to give ourselves a day to organize our return and assemble the bikes. If our suitcases are waiting at the hotel, of course.

So wish me luck, because there are 3 days until departure and now you know exactly as much as I do.