Expeditions / Trips Triple D Dairy / Updates Pongola to Sodwana
Thursday, 19 February 2009 12:14 Last Updated on Thursday, 19 March 2009 11:38
From Pongola we drove to Jozini where we stopped to fill up and get water and eat something before the dirt road to Sodwana. This was the hottest day for the trip for sure and wearing a bike jacket wasn’t a pleasant experience.
Jozini Dam - Click to Enlarge
The dirt road was lots of fun but the road surface was rock hard and every couple of meters there would be a huge bolder sticking out of the road which meant you had to keep your speed relatively low. Then after about 40 km of the hard the soft sand started. I let Neil and Lance go in front so I can see when to help if a bike has fallen over which never happened but there was a couple of close calls. To my disappointment a big stretch of this road has been tarred since the last time I’ve been there so the sandy stuff didn’t last that long.
We drove to Sodwana Liquor store and sat on the steps in front of the shop and had a beer. Lance bought a bottle and a half of brandy and we booked ourselves into the campsite. Once inside our campsite Lance and Neil had a bit of a duel. They threw sand at each other using their bikes back tires but Lance was aiming skew and Neil covered Lance and his bike in sand.
We then went down to the beach where I went to jog while Neil and Lance cracked open the half jack of brandy. While jogging down the beach a huge cloud came rolling in from the south which almost looked like a huge wave or alien ship. When I got back to Neil and Lance I had my share of the brandy and was very quickly feeling the effects.
When we got on our bikes Neil’s bike didn’t want to start so we ended up pushing it up and down a couple of times to get it started. Then Lance got lost in the campsite (sigh) but after a while we heard him driving around and I went to fetch him. When he was looking for us he fell with his bike in thick sand. We then jumped straight on to the big bottle of brandy and started a fire. We got drunk and talked the usual shit.
Neil and I passed out next to the fire. When Neil woke up Lance was hiding in the dark from the mosquitoes. We moved to the tent with all our luggage still in it. Lance decided to sleep outside but then later couldn’t handle all the insects and animals around and also got into the tent. With three of us and all our luggage it was not comfortable at all. Lance couldn’t shut up and on top of that it started raining and we had to put up the rain cover. Needless to say we didn’t get to much sleep.
Cloud at Sodwana Bay - Click to Enlarge
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