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(Photographs: QuickPic)
The heat is really on at the ongoing Honda Quest Real Adventure in the Namibian mountains. The feeling is that of “whoooooooooaaaaah!” as exclaimed by Glenn Koch, one of the competitors, as he screamed from the top of his lungs when he succeeded in riding up a particularly steep, rocky climb, on the fifth day of the event.
When the Honda Quest competitors left Epupa Falls at 07:00 after the rider’s briefing, they all had a swarm of butterflies in the stomach, because what lay ahead was undoubtedly the toughest riding of the whole event: The 73km from Okangwati to the Van Zyl’s Pass community camp.
Their excitement was warranted, for soon after turning west from Okangwati, the first riders succumbed to the thick sandy tracks and regular river crossings. But the real action still lay ahead. Because for a couple of kilometres, the riders would have to negotiate extremely rocky and uneven climbs and descends.
When one of the lead bike instructors’ voice crackled over the radio: “The gala has just started.” everyone in the support convoy knew that the moment of reckoning had come.
Over the next few hours, they bravely tackled the rocky trail, helping one another up and down these daunting obstacles, picking up fellow riders and assisting with punctured tyres.
At exactly 15:45 the group rolled into the Van Zyl’s Community Camp, sweaty, dirty and tired. But they were in very high spirit because never before has a group of 22 big bore adventure bikes managed to complete this hazardous journey.
Which proved that teaming up the versatile Honda CRF 1000 L Africa Twin with a truly adventurous rider is an unstoppable combination.
On the sixth day, the bikers managed to do what few others have done: Not only did they conquer the notoriously difficult Van Zyl’s Pass, but they did it as a group of 22 riders on big adventure bikes suffering no damage or injury to anyone.
It’s a classic extreme road, but not really a road, just a route made over the mountain by Ben van Zyl and his team in 1965. The outrageously steep pass itself is a pure adrenaline rush, but the lead-up route is 10-15km of hard driving, dodging its way through boulders, rocks, ravines and badlands.
Undoubtedly, the Real Adventure is getting more interesting with the passing of each day.
