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CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE

Moteng and Mahlasela Passes

Plan this ride

Recorded distance
73 km
Riding-time estimate
1 h 10
Journey
Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis

The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.

Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.

Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.

Open this ride in CurveScout

Why this ride

A named mountain-road corridor with sustained elevation change and pass scenery. It links naturally to Maloti Mountains.

Editorial context

Coordinates are curated start-via-end route seeds. They are not a surveyed centreline or navigation geometry. Run road snapping, topology checks, access checks and a live-status review before publication.

Access context

Do not auto-publish. Snap to a routable road network, verify current closures, legal motorcycle access, surface, permits, border controls and local safety information.

Seasonal context

Oct-Apr

Scenic road chapters

Moteng Pass

This is where a day makes up time without anyone trying. Third and fourth, and very little else. 18 km that neither climbs nor drops much. The road settles into the ground rather than fighting it.

Rider note

Check the pass is open before you commit to it.

Chapter facts
Length
18 km
Pass
Moteng Pass

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

  1. 1. Butha-Buthe

    Butha-Buthe means place of lying down, and the name comes from the story of the Basotho people retreating to the flat-topped mountain above the town in the 1820s, when war and famine were tearing through the region, before their leader Moshoeshoe moved on to found his stronghold at Thaba Bosiu. Today it is a lively northern Lesotho market town of a few thousand people in its centre, with a few more in the surrounding villages, set in a wide valley under steep brown mountains. It is the first real stop after the border crossing from South Africa, a short distance away.

    Read the complete Butha-Buthe write-up.

    Recorded stop-planning note

    May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

    Planning note

    Butha-Buthe sits at 0 km, early in the day. Next is Moteng Pass.

  2. 2. Moteng Pass

    Northern Lesotho is a country of high, treeless ridges and deep valleys, and the Moteng Pass is a good place to meet it. The road climbs from the lowlands near the South African border into the Maloti mountains, where villages of stone and thatch cling to the slopes and every hillside seems to be terraced with strips of maize and wheat. Phuthaditjhaba, a large town on the South African side about thirty kilometres away, and Butha-Buthe, the nearest Lesotho town of any size, are the points that anchor the region on a map.

    Read the complete Moteng Pass write-up.

    Recorded stop-planning note

    May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

    Planning note

    Moteng Pass comes up 27 km in. Next is Mahlasela Pass.

  3. 3. Mahlasela Pass

    Few landscapes are as bare as these. In the highlands of northern Lesotho, there are almost no trees, because centuries of grazing and the cold climate have left the hills covered in grass, with rocks, streams and gullies cut into the hillsides, and the Mahlasela Pass climbs over this bare country in a series of long curves. The view from the top reaches across layer after layer of ridge, each paler than the last, until the horizon fades into haze.

    Read the complete Mahlasela Pass write-up.

    Recorded stop-planning note

    May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

    Planning note

    73 km in you reach Mahlasela Pass.

Recorded source links

Source

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