After a short 100km stage through the Southern End of the Cedarberg, the riders rolled dustily into Kaleo. Just 9 days previously they were relative strangers, polite and formal around each other.
Today’s route started as soon as we left Perdekloof with a tough navigation exercise; the Tankwa Karoo National Park is littered with trails, the ones we travelled on were vague and little visited.
The longest run homeward bound, 397km almost entirely off-road. After the long, tough days, no-one is fresh. Everyone is carrying some form of wear and tear, some more than others.
By design, after yesterday’s marathon day, today was shorter but with tricky navigation. There are stunning hardly used backroad tracks that connect little used communities such as Twee-Riviere, Kheis, Karas and the Lankloof valley.
Not much had been made of the harder parts of Quest other than to say the Day 5 climb is a monster. More suited to an enduro bike, few would consider this on an adventure bike.
Through sandy and stony jeep tracks amongst a pallet of colourful desert shades, lies the Red Staircase. The CRF1100L is deceptively capable, however there is no getting away from the fact that it is a big bike and in steep climbs where the going is loose, it takes some skill and commitment to clear.
Everything since the start had been focused on uniting the teams, now they had to, for the sake of the team, complete an individual task. But, also be brutally honest and realistic about each other to achieve it.
On the menu today was the heart of the Richtersveld Eco Trail. A winding track that comes and goes from the river to the mountains and back and, starts innocently enough, but then threads its way through such challenges as Hell’s Cradle.
A gentle introduction to the Richtersveld – just enough of what’s to come to settle the nerves, find the natural rhythms of riding with partners in small groups and still be testing.
The riders have reached the starting point and the teams are announced. Which teams will rise to the occasion?
28 Adventurers were chosen from both thousands of online applicants and 3 Regional pre-qualifiers.
From these 28 semi-finalists the 14 finalists were chosen to climb aboard their Africa Twin on Honda Quest 2021.