Reizen op de Triumph Scrambler!!!!!!!!wat een feest!!!!!!!

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Ik heb toch aardig wat motorreizen gemaakt maar deze staat nu zeker bovenaan het lijstje.
Het is zeker ook geen allerdaagse trip en vergt een hoop voorbereiding,ik heb zeker een hoop aan JW te danken ,die met zijn gigantische africa kennis toch veel heeft uitgezocht en geregeltdvoor deze trip,zeker zonder hem was het allemaal niet zo soepel verlopen,ja van je vrienden moet je het hebben.
Ondanks de goede voorbereiding hebben we zeker veel meegemaakt en gezien(ik hoorde onderweg nog een kreet"avontuur is het gevolg van een slechte voorbereiding"!!)wel dit geldt zeker niet voor ons want we hebben genoeg meegemaakt,zeker door het niet plannen van de overnachtingen kom je op de gekste plekken en bij mensen over de vloer het is gewoon ongelooflijk.
ik heb me vaak verbaasd hoe, en met wat voor tempo sommige mensen kunnen leven, en vooral ook in een hoop gevallen een zooitje om hun heen!Het is dan ook wat het apart maakt in africa en niet te vergelijken met ons geregelde leven.
Een week of drie geen krant en tv kijken geeft ook de nodige rust in je boven kamer en op de motor heb je zeker geen tijd om na te denken en in africa heeft niemand het over een crisis,iedereen is bezig op zijn manier te overleven en leeft men hier, heb ik het gevoel, van dag tot dag.
Nogmaal het was een groot avontuur en zeker op de motor beleef je het deste meer, de lucht, de temperatuur verschillen, de regen en gewoon je zelf en kleding weer droog rijden ik het me dan ook geen moment verveeld.
Ook de bekende pijn in de kont, heb ik niet gehad, en had nog even twijfel over de buddy, maar geen moment van ergenis.De motoren hebben het prima gedaan en ik kan nu zeker adviseren hoe en wat de voordelen van de Scrambler zijn,ik zat toch onderweg nog te denken om een Scambler "Africa edition" te bouwen en aan te bieden in Leusden daar hoort U zeker nog van. Het heeft me verbaasd hoe makkelijk deze Triumph zijn werk doet zonder enig commentaar en we hebben ze aardig gebruikt moet je maar denken.Ook de uitrusting was zeer sumier maar zeker de beste,het Triumph jack compleet water dicht de regenbroeken perfect en de rest in de water dichte tas van Touratech,en nog wat klein gereedschap,ducktape en binnenbanden in de tanktas, wat is het leven toch simpel.
Zo we gaan nu nog even een paar dagen uitrusten van al dat harde gewerk( Ja iemand moet het doen)en volgende week sta ik weer vol nieuwe energie en veel nieuwe ideen klaar voor 2009,ik heb er weer zin in en we beginnen zo meteen weer op de motorbeurs in Utrecht en uiteraard in onze winkel die we dit jaar weer verder gaan ombouwen tot Triumph World Store!!!
Ik wil Triumph (ZA) Dhr Olivier bedanken voor alle medewerking,de Triumph shop in East London voor het servicen van de motoren,Hocoparts voor het sponseren van de Arai helmen( perfect in de witte kleur),JW voor het navigeren en het bij houden van het blok en uiteraard Jolanda, Kiki en Stijn voor het geduld en support( ja ze moesten het toch doen zonder,met kerst,nieuwjaar en mijn verjaardag)
Ik hoop dat U heeft genoten van de fotoos en verhalen op de site en wens iedereen nogmaals van deze plek een heel Happy New Year!!!!en maak er een mooi motor jaar van!!!
Tot ziens in Leusden,
Groeten Hans
"Go your own way"

The Finish!

The next morning we left Utengule in the wrong direction. Some 50 kilometers from Mbeya they have found a large Meteorite. It seems to be the 8th largest in the world. As we both never have seen a meteorite before, we were quite curious and that's why we were now riding towards it.

We got to an enormous traffic jam. Two container trucks had collided  blocking the road completely. We were lucky that on the bikes we could just get past, but all other traffic sat there and waited for hours. It is unbelievable the kind of accidents Tanzanian drivers can create. We stopped taking pictures of all trucks and busses that rolled off the road. There were just too many. While traffic in Malawi and Mozambique was OK, here in Tanzania it is just dangerous. You have to be 100% alert all the time.

To get to the meteorite you have to follow a dirt road for some 12 kilometers. There was no sign or anything, luckily we had the coordinates in the GPS. Only when you get to the Meteorite site there was a sign high up in a tree says "Meteorite 91.4 m". Why 91.4 meter?? Probably the sign in the past must have been "Meteorite 100 yards" and 100 yards of course is 91.4m.

The meteorite looked just like what you see in Science Fiction movies shooting through space. It apparently weighs 10 ton. Imagine the impact this must have had.

On the way back the container trucks were still blocking the road and the chaos even bigger. 

In the distance we saw Utengule covered in a big grey cloud and it must have been raining heavily. On the other side in the distance it was raining too, but fortunately the road ahead of us was dry and stayed that way all the way to Kisolanza farm, close to Iringa. Just beyond there the weather was unbelievable. Thunder, lighting, we were glad that we didn't have to go there.

The only other guests on Kisolanza was a Dutch couple in  Landrover. They had been on the road for 5 months from Holland and on their way to South Africa. We heard that over the last couple of weeks it had been very busy here but now the season seems to have ended. 

The food was excellent and the wooden chalet comfortable and warm. It's about 1600m high here and gets quite cold at night.

The next morning the bad weather had disappeared and we got on the road early again. We planned to have a short right just to Morogoro and stay at the Acropole hotel. The hotel looked completely empty, but when we asked for a room they said they were fully booked. Was that true, or was it our filthy bikers look?

Nicky in Kisolanza told us about a Bed and Breakfast just past Morogore, so we thought to check that one out instead. We continued in that direction, but after some 30 kilometers we realised we had missed it. As it was now only 160km to Dar es Salaam, we decided to continue. The traffic got even crazier, but the road improved (no more potholes) so we got to Dar es Salaam safe and quickly. Hans had planned to stop at the sign "Dar es Salaam" to take a picture. Guess what, there wasn't a sign! (And this is the only major road into the city).

We went straight to the Yacht club for some cold beer and saw lots of friends.

The journey is over now. We have done 7400 kilometers and our GPS tells us we have been riding for 106 hours over 16 days. We must have been through at least 100 police checkpoints, but only got fined once (in Mozambique). The bikes have done extremely well. The rear tires are worn out completely, but we didn't have a single puncture! The bikes didn't use any oil and we adjusted the chains only once. What a great bikes! 

We travelled very light. All our stuff was carried in an Ortlieb Touratech bag tied to our buddy seats. In addition Hans had a Triumph Tank bag with some tools and puncture repair kit. We fitted Becker carrier racks on which we each carried a 10L jerry can. This gave us more than 400km range, which was more than enough.

We were riding in jeans, Meindle hiking boots and a Triumph Sympatex Speed Jacket and very comfortable Arai helmets.

The jackets were  100% water proof and could be nicely ventilated so they were never too hot. When it rained we put on our rain pants and stayed completely dry.

We carried an Asus EEE PC to update the blog. For navigation we used a Garmin Zumo GPS which could be linked to the Asus to read and post the track log. For emergency we carried an Iridium satellite phone, but 99% of the time we had normal GSM phone coverage, so next time we wouldn't bother carrying it.

   

  

We have reached Tanzania

The birthday cake they had promised never arrived. What a louzy birthday for Hans...

The sky was still grey but the rain had stopped so we left Nhkata bay. The road turns in-land and climbs from lake level to an elevation of around 1300m at Mzuzu, a fairly large town probably founded as they liked to be at higher grounds because there is less chance of getting malaria here. It was quite a bit colder here. The road was very scenic again and taking us over the higher plateau for a few hundred kilometers. Close to Chiweta it went steeply down again to the lake.

Only for a short while we rode along the lake and at Mkondowe we turned left for another mission village Livingstonia. The road to Livingstonia is notoriously bad and steep. In the last bend before the top a truck loaded with passengers went off the road and dropped 30 meters vertically down this morning. It's a miracle nobody died.

The image to the right shows how the road winds up to Livingstonia. If you click on the picture our whole route loads in Google Earth.

In 10 kilometer it climbs about 700 meter and there right at the edge of the cliff you will find "The Mushroom Farm", a backpackers place run by an Australian guy Mick. This place attracts all sorts of Hippies (because of the name, but there are no magic mushrooms here) and thrill seekers that like to live life on the edge (literally).

It's not a place for sleepwalkers. Three steps outside your room (behind Hans in the hammock)the cliff drops 700 meter!

We hiked to see two waterfalls dropping 125 meters. Mick organizes abseiling along the falls, but we decided to give that a miss.

Bak at the guesthouse with Mick and the other guests we managed to create the right birthday spirit and spent the evening celebrating around the camp fire.

The next morning we left for the Tanzanian border. It was only about 2 hours from here.
Crossing the border was really easy. There was no other traffic and in less than half an hour we cleared Malawi customs and immigration and entered Tanzania. We have done 6200 kilometers, with another 1300 to go. There is not much thread left on the rear tires!

From the border the road climbs up to Mbeya over mountain pass of 2300 meter. The pass was in clouds and it was raining heavily, but as soon as we were across the rain stopped and we were dry again when we got to Mbeya. In the highlands here Tea and Coffee are grown. We chose to stay at the very nice Utengule hotel which is on a Coffee estate here. The coffee and the Internet are great here too!

Nhkata Bay

It probably doesn't surprise you to read that we didn't stay and chill for an extra day in Cape Maclear. "Let's go", Hans said when he woke up and that's what we did. We were on the road again at 7:00. We first went to Monkey Bay, some 25 km from Cape Maclear and had breakfast at the Venice Beach Backpackers Lodge. The beach there is actually much nicer than Cape Maclear.
We then got on our way to Nhkotakota. The weather was perfect and the roads excellent. For the first time on our trip we see Tanzanian registered trucks. We are getting close to home now!Still there is very little traffic and to our surprise we don't see any tourists. About 10km south of Nkhotakota there are 5 or 6 six lodges on the beach. Very pretty but they were all deserted. We stopped at the Fish Eagle lodge for lunch and asked the manager where all the guests are. He told us that there were quite a few South African guests around Christmas but they all left. It can't be very lucrative to own a lodge here.
After lunch we continued to Nhkata Bay. Over the lake we saw in the distance some black clouds of smoke. What could that be?When we got closer, all we could see is smoke rising from the lake. We stopped and asked someone about it. Those are lake flies, he said. Can you believe it. A big cloud of flies that you can see at 10 kilometer distance!
The last 20 kilometers coming in to Nhkata bay was a weird winding road which was great fun on the bike. We rode 500 kilometer along the lake today. The bikese are still doing very well. We didn't have to tighten the chain yet, which amazes us. They haven't used any oil. The tires on the other hand are almost gone now (they will probably just get us home).
In Nhkata Bay we found a very nice room at the Butterfly lodge overlooking the bay. Big thunderstorms were developping and it was awesome to see the lighting over the lake.
It's now the 3rd of January and Hans' birthday. It's raining a bit so we are not in a hurry to leave.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year from Cape Maclear!
There's great wireless Internet here (Skyband HotSpot), so we've loaded some new photos and updated the Google Earth track.
We left Vilanculos early on the 30th. It was dodging the pothole again for the first 85 kilometers, after that the road improved. Fewer potholes and far apart, but you have to have your eyes on the road all the time, because you don't want to hit one of these craters. We planned to refuel in Save, but the pump was dry. Next filling station was 100 km away. So we had to use our emergency fuel for the first time. We just divided on 10 litre can between the two bikes and easily made it to the next station. The large numbers of South African registered cars on the road have dissapeared. Obviously most of the SA holidaymakers don't get beyond Vilanculos. There was actually very little traffic now. It was very hot. The radiation from the tarmac roads combined with the hot engines made you didn't want to stop. So we pushed on until we reached Chimoio. Some 30 km before Chimoio a back cloud packe up in front of us and we had some very heavy downpour. It went so quickly that we didn't have time to put our rain pants on. So in 5 minutes we got completely soaked. And that was it. As soon as we were out of this cloud it was dry again and by the time we reached Chimoio our jeans had dry up completely.We stayed at a somewhat strange place called the Pink Papaya, where we got beds in the dormitory. There wasn't much to do in Chimoio, so we had a Pizza and went to bed.
Next morning we got up at 6, this is pretty much our routine now, and continued our journey to Tete. The road was badly potholed and for some 30 kilometers there were roadworks. The newly built road was closed, but on the bikes we could easily get onto the half completed road. This means we could easily do 80km/h while all other traffic was crawling through the bush. Most of the traffic on this route are the big Freightliner trucks en route from Malawi to Beira.

To the mountains to the west of us were the border with Zimbabwe. The hight peak there is Mt. Inyanga which Els and I climbed in 1990 admiring the beautiful view over Mozambique below us. That's where we driving now, almost 19 year later.

We reached Tete around noon (about 5 hours after we left Chimoio). Tete is at 160m elevation, so quite hot again. We refuelled and crossed the Zambezi river bridge and decided to push on for the Malawi border.
We learned when we entered Mozambique that you can cross the border is you have some assistance. So we gladly accepted this service again entering Malawi. And all went smooth again. We used our Carnet de Passage for the first time, which is much quicker than having to apply for a Temporary Import Permit. We still had to pay $40 for third party insurance for each bike.In less than half an hour we were across the border.
We continued to Blantyre. Soon we had climed to an elevation of over 1000m, where it was much cooler. We enjoyed the beautiful scenerey of Malawi. Quite different from what we have seen sofar. By the time we reached Blantyre we had done 621 km and spent 10 hours on the bike. Our longest day sofar.
We got a dorm bed at the Doogles lodge. Although it was New Years Eve, not much was happening. By nine we were in bed and fast asleep.

Next moring, January 1st, we got up at 6 and were on the road again before 7. The clouds were all hanging below us in the valleys and the views were stunning. We planned to get to Cape Maclear quickly. The first two hours went fine bu then some very heavy raining started. Villages were flooded and we saw some mud and staw house collapse. We felt really sorry for the villagers. What a way to start a new year.....

By the time we got to Cape Maclear we had left the bad weather behind us. The last 18km were a badly corrugated gravel road. So bad that one of my mirrors broke off.

We are now at the Fat Monkey lodge which is beautifully situated right on the lake. We'll stay here two days. Time to do some small repairs to the bikes and relax a bit.

(ge-) Hannes in Africa

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Zo nu weer 's wat in het Nederlands,we zijn nu 4100 km onderweg en nog nooit heb ik zoveel verschillende soorten wegdek gezien,asfalt in alle kleuren,stenen,gravel en stukken van 50 km met alleen maar gaten!!!Dit lijkt een soort video spelletje met 1 strafpunt als je door een gat rijdt,en als bonus een lekke band.

Het mooie van door afrika rijden is ,dat er van alles gebeurt onderweg dus je hoeft je nooit te vervelen,onze snelheid ligt zo rond de 80km/h zodat je nog wat kan zien en kan reageren op dingen die komen gaan, zoals een overstekende koe,een auto met pech,een voetganger die plotseling oversteekt of een aap die de weg op springt.De Scramblers doen het super maar hebben wel te lijden onder de afrikaanse omstandigheden met wat kleine schades die we zelf konden verhelpen, een kapot koplampglas,kromme versnellingspook en een afgebroken remhandle zijn eigenlijk kleine dingen,het verbruik is ook super zo een op twintig en we hebben onze reserve jerry-can dan ook nog niet gebruikt.

Het overnachten gaat ons ook super af en komen altijd wel weer een plek tegen bv. bij mensen thuis,hotel,b&b,of een backpackers hotel en altijd wat te lullen.

Onze baarden groeien ook lekker door en ik hoop de de doaune me nog herkent op de foto.

Verder gaat alles super ,vandaag een snippermiddag lekker aan het strand gelegen en weer een beetje bijkomen,morgen gaan we weer verder met nog 8 dagen te gaan,ongeveer 3000km.

Geniet met wat je aan het doen bent, prettige dagen en tot horens,

Hans en JW

Into Mozambique

We had breakfast with Mike and Paddy in the beautiful lodge they manage. The views over "the Berg" are breathtaking and Mike started a nice business printing the pictures he takes on canvas and selling these to tourists.

After breakfast we rode to Ladysmith. At the filler station loud music was playing. "Ladysmith Black Mambazo". They come from here, the pump attendant proudly said. I told him I saw them some 20 years ago in the Carre theater in Amsterdam.

From there we followed the N11 north, via Volksrust to Amersfoort. At the entrance of the village the was proud sign saying Amersfoort 100 years. Well in 1990 that was. I don't think anything happened since.
From Amersfoort to Ermelo. This was quite an adventure as a sign said "road closed". Our GPS couldn't quickly work out an alternative, so we guessed our Scramblers wouldn't have problems getting through. I turned out they were rebuilding the road, so it wasn't too difficult at all. Some stretches there was only half a lane and they would only allow traffic in one direction, but that wasn't a problem for us.
In Ermelo Hans wanted to eat at Wimpy's. Some people stopped to look at our bikes. They must be very old they said, 40 years or so, but nicely fixed up! They couldn't believe it when we said we picked them up less than a week ago.

The road from Ermelo via Badplaats and Barberton to Nelspruit was unbelievable again. Smooth tarmac and fantastic views, a bikers dream.

In Nelspruit we stayed at the City Lodge. We had drink by the side of the pool and chatted with a guy from Swaziland. It turned out he studied in Arusha in 1990 and had lot's of stories to tell when we enjoyed some ice cold Grolsch beer. The best laugh he had was when he saw the sign Msasani (where I live in Dar), which means vagina in Swati (his language).

Next morning we went briefly to the hughe shopping mall (mainly to buy clean underwear) and continued our journey into Mozambique.

Crossing the border was surprisingly easy. We we stopped we were immediately attacked by touts ("free lance immigration consultants") offering their service to get us through. We aggreed on $10 each. They helped us fill all the forms, jumped all the queues for us and got us through in less than 20 minutes. That was $20 well spent!

From the border it waqs just over an hour on the toll road into Maputo. We looked afround a bit, had a soda at the waterfront and had a talk with a Dutch farmer that moved here 10 years ago and straight away invited us to his farm 150km up north. We decided to give that a miss and pushed on to Xai-Xai. Maputo is just another big city and wasn't too appealing to us.

On the road up north we saw hundreds of south african cars. Mostly 4x4 and pulling off-road trailors, hughe fishing boats, quad bikes etc. They like their toys!

We found a place to stay at Praia do Xai-Xai after driving on very soft (beach) sand for 4km. Left and right we were overtaken by quad bikes (so this is where the south africans all went).
The next morning we left early again. The first 85 km were pretty bad patch tarmac, but from there the road was OK again. They must have had lots of rain, because everywere there were ridges of sand on the road which you have to handle carefully. Some 20km before Massinga a part of the road had washed away and they were afraid the rest would collapse too. So all traffic was stopped. Truck drivers were alread preparing to spending the night on the road. Some cars found a diversion through the bush (a 5km detour) which we also took. Hard work through mud and and soft sand.
In Massinga we thought of calling it day, so we turned off to Morrungulo, not realizing that we had to fight through another 13km of red clay. The ultimate test for the Scramblers and us.

Morrungulo turned out to be another South African outdoor-camping-holiday spot. The sea water temperature was nice (refreshing) after this long day of riding.

We got up at six again. The 13km of mud had mostly dried up now so it wasn't too bad to get back to the main road. This main road on the other hand had turned into something like Swiss cheese. For 50 kilometers you really had to concentrate on the road (no time to watch the scenery). The small potholes became big ones. The big potholes became craters and the all of the sudden there was this brand new road. The last 100km to Vilanculos was done in no time an this is we are now. Time to relax a bit, update the blog and get our laundry done.

Updated travel log

The plane landed in Cape Town at 13:55. We hopped in a taxi and went straight to the Triumph dealer. Kevin Swanson, one of the owners, welcomed us. Are you from Dar? Do you know Andrew Stanley? Of course I do. Well, he's staying with me tomorrow. What a small world. He called Andfrew on the phone, “Guess who is here?”. Well Andrew was at Chris Keeping's (another friend I know from Dar) house in Port Beafort and Chris asked us to come and visit.Meanwhile Hans and the mechanics were fitting the racks on the bike and I started mounting GPS.Just before 4 the bikes were ready, paperwork sorted, lugged on the back and off we went.
We first rode to Cape Point, which actually is in a really nice nature reserve. A beautiful ride. Also a good test for the GPS, as the Chapman's Peak drive was closed so it had to find an alternative route for us (and did well).When we returned to Cape Town to check into the Hotel we've done our first 200km.Next was dinner, We took a taxi to Church street where Senait Mekonnen, who used to run Addis in Dar, now has a beautiful new restaurant: Addis in Cape. The food was delicious and it was very nice to have a chat with Senait,
The City Lodge at the Waterfront is a very nice hotel and the location couldn't be better. After an enormous breakfast we set off for Cape Agulhas. We took the coastal route via Strand an Betty's Bay to Hermanus for our first stop. We tried to catch Andrew there, but he was still in Bredasdorp. So we continued our journey via Gansbaai and Die Dam to hit our first gravel road. The Scramblers handle the gravel very well and on these perfectly graded road we can do 80km/hour easily.
Next was Cape Agulhas, the Southern most point of Africa. We took the bike right to the sign, for a good picture. Back on the gravel road at Kars Rivier to Malagas where we took a hand operated ferry across the Breede Rivier. Originally we planned to stay at the Malagas Hotel, but the river flooded the hotel recently (6m above it's normal level!), so the hotel was closed. From there we continued to Port Beafort where we were welcomed by the Keeping family. They used to live in Dar es Salaam, but moved back to SA a few years ago. We spent a very pleasant evening there and Chris prepared a delicious 'braai' for dinner. Next morning we took there daughters around the block and the moved on, again on gravel, via Gouritzmond to Bochums Bay where the Aunt and Uncle of Els have there holiday home. We had a coffee there and continued our journey, on tarmac again, to Knysna where we were planning to have lunch. Once we reached Knysna, dark clouds were brewing up and we though we better stay ahead of the weather. So we quickly pushed on to Plettenberg Bay. Just before reaching Plett the rain started. We found shelter at Alan and Delai's place (cousins of Els) and were offered lunch there. We hoped for the weather to improve, but it didn't. So it was time to test our rain gear. All the way to Jeffrey's Bay we had rain. But the rain gear held well, and when we reached Jeffreys Bay, the sun started shining again.Jeffrey's Bay is a popular holiday spot and is well know for it's surf. It also has a great choice of restaurants and we had a delicious dinner there. We stayed at the, somewhat old fashioned, Savoy Hotel, and the bikes were safely parked in the back yard.We set off early again next morning and soon reached Port Elisabeth. I showed Hans the place I used to live at 7 Havelock street and continued for the long haul to East London. This time it was the N2 and we did 120km/h all the way. At 15:00 we reached Buffalo Motors where our bikes would have their first service. They directed us to a fancy bed and breakfast and we agreed to bring the bikes at 7:30 next morning. Tired of the long ride we went to bed early.
Next morning the bikes were service, washed and polished and looked new again. At 10:00 we hit the road again, to Port St. Johns in the Transkei. Biking doesn't get better than this, beautiful scenery, smooth tarmac, nice long curves and hardly any traffic. By 2:30 we got to the Jungle Monkey Backpackers where we will crash on a dorm bed tonight.Enjoying the good food and music here it is nice to have 'an afternoon off'.It's Christmas Eve and soon we will start singing our Christmas Carols.
Well, the Christmas Carols didn't really happen. Hans and I were the only ones keen, the rest of the crowd was more in to R&B and Hip Hop. Shame because we were planning to sing the typical Dutch song 'Vrouw Haverkamp'.
The party went on to well past our bed time, but surprisingly enough all the bar staff was already active when we got up at 7. Or didn't the bar close?
The winding road out of Port St' Johns was a nice one again. Good tarmac but one has to be careful as there are lots of animals on the road (cows, goats, dogs, donkeys and even horses).
Around Kokstad we wanted some coffee. On the GPS searched for a restaurant. It indicated a Steak Ranch just 10k outside town. So we followed it's instructions. At some stage it wanted us to turn of a tiny dirt road. No sign of restaurant whatsoever. This can't be right. Hans wanted to turn around, but we still deiced to go. And after a kilometer there was this beautiful little resort. They seemed to be as surprised as we were but offered us coffee and cake, at no charge. Typical South African hospitality!
From there we went to Underberg and Himeville and up the Sani Pass. The road got really bad with rocks and boulders. The scenery was beautiful though. At the bottom of the pass we turned around and the dirt road to Nottingham road. Quite a bit better than the the Sani pass road, still quite few rocks, so we really had to concentrate hard for 60km and averaged around 50km/hour. I din't envy the two cyclists on what we call in Dutch 'ligfietsen' (don't know the English word, you sit in a reclining position) who we saw half way this road with another 30km to go.But besides the road condition, this was probably the most beautiful stretch I ever rode. Amazing views of the Drakensberg throughout.
Another hour on tarmac and the we got to Champagne Castle where Mike and Paddy Behr live. I always used to stay at their B&B in Durban, but some three years ago they moved here. Again we experienced South African hospitality at its best. We were invited to stay at their place (the best hotel so far as Hans calls it) and were taken for a great Christmas Dinner.

The Idea

Wouldn't it be nice to ride bike from Cape Town to the North Cape. What kind of bike? A Triumph of course.

Well, maybe a bit too much for one Christmas Holiday, so we decided to split it up in three parts. And this is part one. Cape town to Dar es Salaam. Part two will be Dar es Salaam to Cairo and the last part will be from Cairo to the North Cape.

On the 18th of December Hans arrived in Dar es Salaam from where we will fly to Cape Town on Saturday where the bikes will be ready for collection. The bike of our choice is a Triumph Scrambler. And not just because it looks good. The simplicity of these bikes make them ideal for this trip. These ones still have carburettors, so will work well with all fuel we will find on the way. The upright sitting position is nice for long distances. Fuel burn is also good (20km to the litre).

The engine has a great torque which allows you to negiotiate difficult terrain in first gear without having to use the clutch. Cruising in fift gear is comfortable at any speed between 80 and 120 km/h.