Qodesh Motocamping & Route to Ruby River Near Loskop Dam

We met up in the early afternoon and headed to Qodesh Camping Retreat, which is just over an hour way from Centurion. You pretty much head out on the R25, north bound, past Bronkies and about 20km later you hit the dirt on the right. The dirt road is incredibly scenic as you pass through some gorges before getting to Qodesh, which is located on the Wilge River - definitely one of the cleaner rivers in the area. We were there in the middle of winter and yet the lawns were as green as can be, this is definitely one of the most scenic campsites around and we literally had the entire facility to ourselves. There are rustic ablutions, they're clean and main thing there's hot water for those well deserved showers. We opted for the "bederf kamp" and Hestie arranged to get us wood, ice and all the food for the dinners. She arrived there, just before sunset, with a basket filled with meat, salads, braaibroodjies and all the cutlery and crockery that we'd need for make dinner and enjoy the camp fire. On site they have a small coffee shop and sell their goats cheeses and homemade delights, including their ginger beer. We enjoyed a full breakfast at the coffee shop before heading out on the trails. What camping gear did I use? Tent: Nature Hike P Series 3 person tent - I sold this tent after the trip as the tent door is a bit of an irritation when covered in dew and you get in and out, you end up with a wet back. I prefer a 3 man tent as it gives you that extra bit of space to get all your gear in and still have freedom of movement when getting dressed. I replaced the tent with the Nature Hike Cloud Up 3 Ultralight 3 person tent, it has a decent sized vestibule and access is a lot better, plus it's significantly lighter than the previous tent. Sleeping Mat: Sea to Summit Ether Light XT (regular), this was the 1st time that I'd used this and was incredibly comfortable on it, I weigh 95kg's am 1,87cm tall and with the mattress being close to 10cm thick it offered a lot of support. My previous mattress was a self inflating one and they are useless - they are bulky, heavy and offer no real comfort. Pillow: Nature Hike Inflatable Foam Pillow - this I also sold, as it was to bulky and the blow up pillow is way to hard, even with adjusting the pressure. I replaced this with the Therma-a-Rest Large Compressible Pillow - this is a much more comfortable pillow, is close to a full size pillow and feels like a normal pillow. Sleeping Bag: First Ascent Amplify 900, another item replaced after this trip, as it is a mummy sleeping bag and I could not move my feet and I cannot sleep with my feet being restricted, it also did not offer much warmth during the chill of the night. This was replaced with a First Ascent Explorer Down Sleeping bag, this offers a lot more freedom of movement and actually packs as small as the Amplify 9. Chair: Desert Fox Camping Chair, a super comfortable chair, but also replaced after this trip. The only reason was that the feet don't have the bigger foot and thus sink into the ground with my weight. Table: Desert Fox camping table, this is a nice to have item, but it's super convenient when you need a flat surface for your cooker, it is fairly light, packs small and is quick to assemble. Camp kitchen - I'll cover this in detail in a future post, as this has changed significantly over the course of a few trips. With the above changes and some tweaks to what is needed I did manage to get my luggage volume down for future trips. We started the day with some warm coffee, never a bad thing on a icy winter morning. Mig and I had never used our kettles, gas cookers and coffee setup and this was a new experience for us, not so for the experienced Irm and Joe, they are seasoned moto campers and really helped Mig and myself with finding our feet and better understanding what gear works and doesn't. The route from Qodesh is mostly on really scenic gravel roads and tracks, that traverse along the mountains and then eventually up into the mountains as you get closer to the Loskop Dam boundary fence. There's nothing to hectic, barr a few rocky and sandy sections as you get towards the tar road that leads into Loskop. We did the same route back, it takes just over an hour and a half from Qodesh to Loskop, with that there's plenty time to stop and take in the scenery. We had a quick stop over in Loskop to get a photo of the overflowing dam and to fill up with fuel before heading to Ruby River for lunch. Ruby River is located on the banks of the Olifants River, they serve really good food at very reasonable prices - I highly recommend a stop over there. Navigation: for this trip I used the Garmin Zumo XT, the route was created on Garmin Basecamp and then exported as a Track to overlay it onto the map. The Garmin Zumo XT was secured with our Garmin Zumo XT Locking Plate, ensuring that passersby can't quickly release the device from the mount. Luggage: Main luggage was 2 x Kriega OS-18 Adventure Pack bags, attached to the Kriega OS Base and then the Kriega OS-6 Adventure Pack bag for my tools, the tools are in the Kriega Tool Roll. The tool bag was attached to the Kriega US40 RackPack Drybag, all my camping gear was packed into this bag - which in total now weighs in at less than 9kg's. I used the Giant Loop Zig Zag handlebar bag to carry some basic tools and Alpine ear plugs and the Uswe Outlander 9 hydration bag and 2l Uswe bladder, in the bag I had some snacks and a cap, for the harsh African sun (it's even Riding Gear: Helmet – KTM Explorer Helmet (LS2 Explorer MX701) Boots – Alpinestar Tech 7 (Enduro version) Pants – KTM Terra Adventure Pants Jacket - KTM Terra Adventure Jacket Gloves – Five TFX3 Airflow Adventure Gloves Tyres – Motoz Tractionator Adventure on the rear and the Motoz Dual Venture on the front. Tech Used: Cardo Packtalk Edge, in-helmet comms. I primarily use the Cardo Packtalk Edge to listen to music, streamed from Spotify, and take and make the odd phone call to my wife and children, I avoid work related calls when I'm away on the bike. A lot of rides enjoy syncing their comms to chat along the way and stay in touch on the trail, I prefer not t do this as I what to enjoy the "helmet time" as much as possible, to get away from the daily grind. Group Riding - on this trip we all stopped at turns and junctions, as we were a small group, this keeps everyone together and allows for a quick break to hydrate or stretch the legs. Tips and Tricks: One of the best tips that Mig and I got was to get a down blanket, as a sleeping bag on it's own is not always the best in sub zero temperatures, plus you can take just that during summer. After this trip I changed my tent, sleeping bag, pillow, cooking gear and a few other items and bought a down blanket - more about this in the next motocamping post. The best advice when deciding to get into motocamping is to "buy once and cry once", buy the best you can and focus on hiking gear - it's light and packs small, but is expensive.