Richtersveld-Helshoogte

[HaydenWilson]

Hey all!

 

I was recently doing some varsity field work in the northern cape and i had the joy of going through helshoogte pass in the richtersveld. Beautiful! but as i was lumbering around in my varsity sponsored 4X4 i could only think about how much fun that would be to do on a MTB!

 

Has anyone here done it? if so which route would you take? i am thinking of doing helshoogte from the sendelingsdrift and then heading back via akadas pass. looks amazing!

[Slowbee]

what on earth were you doing up their ? and exactly where in the richsterveld ?

[HaydenWilson]

Basically updating the floristic data for the region. we are working on trees which accumulate metals (very cool work, using trees to suck up pollution). the trees we are working on are found all over the northern cape but they interbreed with an exotic species from china. so what we need to do is find out where in South africa you can find the indigenous ones, where are the introduced ones and what do the hybrids look like and where are they. this basically resulted in me doing 5700km of driving on dirt roads in obscure places.... made me happy..

[HaydenWilson]

as to where in the richtersveld. mostly on the western side near sendelingsdrift but we went through to de hoop. could not get into namibia because you need a proof of ownership of the vehicle you are driving and as it was a varsity vehicle we did not have that..

[Slowbee]

which uni you with ? employed or masters or PhD ?

[Slowbee]

are you looking at heavy metal accumulation ? when i was at uni, the guys where big on the floristic region of songimvelo around swaziland because of the asbestos and the plants that were living on the mine dumbs that were "mining" uranium ....

[DJR]

The Richtersveld is one of my favourite places on this planet for finding solitude. Real adventure Mtb country. The roads in the lower lying areas are often very sandy or very corrugated or both, making cycling very tough, especially for long epic rides. Helskloof pass great, Akkedis pass also. When zooming downhill, keep in mind that a serious crash there can easily be the end of you. Help is basically a day away in Springbok , even if you are in a group. Think twice about doing it on your own. I've taken my bike along when going flyfishing in the lower Orange and did some of the passes and internal roads in the National Park. Basically I always had to drive out from our fishing camp on the river to get out of the sandy parts and then I cycled the higher bits out and back. Winter is best up to September, but very cold at night. October and later into summer it gets seriously hot, as in 50C in the shade. Take more water with you than you imagine you can possibly drink and take basic spares, walking is slow and you don't want to get caught out in the heat of the day or after dark. If I have to do a dedicated cycling tour of the area (maybe some day) I would start at Sendelingsdrift and do a huge loop South/Westwards through the Richtersveld national park, out the other side, over Helskloof to Vioolsdrif, cross over to Namibia and back North/Eastwards to Sendelingsdrift. It's along way and I reckon good for a real weeklong epic. I think vehicle support is essential and the group should be small. Btw, the pass is called Helskloof and there are 2 of them. One in the National park and one outside on the Vioolsdrif/Eksteenfontein road. Both are spectacular.

Edited June 6, 2011 by DJR