Nothing can prepare you for the Kalahari MTB Traverse. It is just different from anything else you could have done before. The early morning start assured the chance of watching a spectacular sunrise over the shapes of dunes and Camel Thorn trees silhouetted against the red, orange, and yellow sky. The crisp morning air has some riders donning light windbreakers to ward off the chill while the sounds of the awakening veld is accompanied by the soft crunch of tyres over loose gravel.
The dusty, corrugated road soon give way to narrow farm tracks through sparse vegatation mostly made up from hardy scrubs with few dry grasses in between which leeds to a vast salt pan. With the heat quickly setting in once the sun has risen high enough, a welcome stop in the middle of nowhere have riders enjoying a welcome ice cold drink and also the chance to refill their water bottlels. This is also a chance to enjoy the silence that envelops you as you stand on this flat expance of dried mud, puntuatted with glaring white patches of salt and no plants or animal in sight.
TriSport ensures that each day would bring a different experience with the routes taken and places visited. A guided tour of a local salt mine had the process from pumping brine into evaporation pans to harvesting the salt right to the final product sealed in a bag explained. Everyone are also given the oportunity to indulge in an extremely salty swim which offered the chance to virtually float on top of the water. This is not only a very unique experience, but also leaves everyone invigurated by the salty mineral water and covered with a white, salty layer once dried off.
The hospitality and friendliness of the locals are of course on a next level. Always eager to share their knowledge and history with everyone while being treated to the local cuisine which includes scrumptious game while the lodge accomodation had everyone well rested for each coming day.
Then of course the day needs to be ended off with a sundowner on top of a sanddune. The different hues of yellow, orange and red, changing into violet, purple and blue and the first stars, so close you can touch them, only to get lost in the clouds of billions of stars of the Milky Way. To this is added the smells of wood, wild herbs and grasses. An attack of all your senses as day give way to night and the sounds of wild animals just over the first dune.
See the Kalahari MTB Traverse for more information on the Kalahari MTB Traverse Tour.
