A small ride-report of a mission up to the Orange River, riding the Africa Eco Trail

You win some, you lose some. Last year's South Africa mission was supposed to end with a trip doing the 4x4 'Africa Eco Trail'. It's a trail that runs along the Orange River, which in turn runs along the border between Namibia and South Africa. A place that requires some planning in terms of fuel, a place that has no cell phone reception. Right up my alley.

The trip last year ended with a snapped chain. After some analysis, it seems it was because on these older Honda XR, the output shafts' splines start wearing out, causing the sprocket to wobble. That wobbling wore down the inside of the chain rings, eventually causing failure.

This year, armed with a fresh chain, wider sprocket, and a jerry-rigged washer to make sure the sprocket didn't wobble too-much, I set off again. It started with a big slab up to Klein Pella farms.

Then the good stuff started. 2x2 sandy trails. Riverbeds. The lot.

After this riding, it's time to start missioning back down. After some confusion of a fuel spot (which turned out to be about 500m into Namibia), I decided to mission south to Springbok, meeting up with a friend, who knows the area very well and set me up with some tracks that include some of the absolute best riding I've done.

Finally, riding the coast down. Baja vibes.