Lesotho Sky MTB Challenge Recce

Day 2 dawned with some small amount of collateral damage from the session at Scoopie’s Shebeen, but we soon had the bikes loaded and ready for the trip to Malealea, arguably one of Lesotho’s best-known lodges. A detour via Morija – with a quick stop at Lindy’s for a pap-and-meat take-away – juddered us onto ‘Gates of Paradise Pass’, with 360 degree views across the valleys and ridges beyond.

Darol decided our ride would take us back up to ‘Gates of Paradise’, from where we would scout a new route circumscribing the mountain in an anti-clockwise direction. Good move, although we got way-laid in a village by some pretty strong umqomboti rather early on the mission. (We decided the batteries lying around were not here for acid harvesting, but hopefully to power the sattelite dish on top of the one hut).

A few sunset hoicks on the SLIDER 275 took us well into the dark zone, but fortunately we made it back onto the main track to Malealea Lodge before the light shut down completely. A fantastic spread and a few ice cold Maluti’s hit the spot before we in turn hit the bed, but not for long.

Before dawn we were up and off into the ridges on foot, negotiating huge boulders along the ravine bed towards the waterfall. A fantastic duck and dive trail run got us to the falls for some quick pix, before we slogged back onto the plateau about 3.5hrs later. Stunning spot!

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