Epic ride across Africa 4 months of fun

I'm along for the ride too. Love Africa. looking forward to your ride!!!

I love to find free wifi in a nice backpack !! So guys you and me are lucky today, I can upload my pics and you can enjoy !

I am in stellenbosch, drinking a nice red wine listening to lounge music, Africa is really tough sometimes

So what can be said ? South Africa is really really amazing, nature is really beautiful and ride in these roads is a superb experience, guys you have to do it !!

Just before retrieving the bike we do some game reserve and it was a great moment even if it was 5am :eek1









just amazing to see this !

But I know what guys wanna see, hardcore stuff, pics for the boys, so here we go !!!



Bike is coming On thursday 2pm I went to the store of Econotrans in Cape Town, and I have to admit that they were really friendly and helpful, they already had uncrated the bile and it was not a funny job with all screws I had put

So we had to get it quickly

Do an oil change


Re-install, battery, handlebar, front fender and front wheel


And after 2 hours of works


The day after was the first ride, and guys you know travel with a girl is not so easy ! Pack light !!


That was our first attempt to load the bike and it was a nightmare, we have a better technique but bike is really not happy with all this load, but wheeling are easy now

We move from Cape town to hout bay to enjoy this beautiful road


Watch the wild life


And eventually take the mandatory pic !


I will not tell you that I have to fight with 50 tourists to take this one, that the bike has fell down just under the sign

Now we are about to drive the wine road and after ? no plan so far !

So stay tune until the next wifi

Best of luck......

Sorry for the delay guys but it was not my fault !!!

The night after i blog, someone has decided to visit my tent while we were sleeping and to go with my computer
So morning was difficult but anyway this f*** b**** let me all my equipment and papers so it's not a drama .... You know now about insecurity in south africa ! Needless to say that the camp was on a small city and surrounding by electric fence

Without my computer and sd card for my camera :eek1 the next days won't be so well documented !
We do the wine road in stellenbosch and franchooek was really nice, and then we get to gordon bay's where I found somewhere a shop with sd card !



but be aware of sharcks


We went to hermanus in direction of cape agulhas


have a lunch


while enjoying the fish

and enjoy the sunset


Next day we done some tracks to find cool beach

and then head on to cape town, it was time for my sister to go home...

We enjoy the last days, visiting cape town and robben island


See interesting mods


Lions head


and it was time to say goodbye

My journey really starts now, I stay in cape town for some days to sort out some thing on bike and wait for a new partner that we met here in south africa, I can't say more about him now but I am sure i will have some new adventures to write in the next days !!

Good luck on your trip!

Africa is top of my list for places I want to travel by motorbike so good on you for taking the plunge.

Plus, I LOVE the graphics on your panniers

I'm in as well

Good luck on your big adventure!

Hope the security gets a bit better as you travel - as I'm living in Cape Town I know all about it. Most is opportunistic though.

Great to see you enjoyed the beautiful countryside and our scenic roads as well. March is the best time of the year for this part of the world.

Safe travels

Guys I am on a jungle between a lion and a rhino, i am scared

ok it may not be the complete truth... i am on a camp, on nice grass, close to the swimming pool and a burger restaurant Adventure is tough !

So I was in cape town and hve to go north, so I did !


I'd cruise on the west coast but the weather was terrible, cold, windy and a lot of mist


Nothing to see in this s**t

So I decide to go inland and drive until Springbok, a lot of straight line really really boring.. I arrive on a camp with my brain completely flat and my rear tyre too :huh



After a cold night I inflate my tyre and go on town to find a garage. 2 hours of fight later my tyre was repaired and I have learn that in this country people like brute force !

It was 12am I was just 100km from the border so I get there and cross it
easily and rest on a camp close to it




Next morning wake up late to discover that my rear tyre was flat again :eek1 brute force, I love you...
So ask the guys there and work with them on their workshop

They were really friendly but love too much destroy my wheel !

One hour later I was on road again, and hit the dirt road




Sun was shining, I was listening to my favorite song, singing on my helmet, it was a perfect moment until :eek1

Until my third flat on 2 days ! This f**** rear tyre again, and this time I can't inflate it. It was 14h, i had 1/4 liter of water, no eating since last evening, has not see any car since 100km and the next town is at 30km. Hummm I was just angry to be so stupid ! I see how their put the tyre on the wheel and know that it was dangerous... i m now in middle of nowhere and this day will be a long day for sure !
I decide to not repair by myself, no shadow, temperature to hot, and a compressor maybe not enough powerful ... so i drive at very low speed fo 5 km expecting someone.
And after maybe one hour the miracle arrive ! a 4*4 with a south african couple, they decide to make a u turn for me and to make 70km more just to help We tchat a lot and have fun to think what could have happen to me here !
We arrive at the ais ais camp and at its workshop where the boss take care of my tyre imediately

This time with a machine is maybe more secure for my future !

Five minute later we were driving to the bike, I put on the rear wheel in 2 minutes and took photos for souvenirs !


Many many thanks to annita and leon from joburg, great people for sure !

After another cold night, dirt road was calling me


Then tar road for a too long day of boring straight line until the town of luderitz...
Next morning i decide to go to sussuvlei but the dirt road was to sandy, more than 200km of dirt road like that alone was a little too much of risk for me, so i made a u turn



So tar again.... distance are so long here between cities, 3 or 400 km between two really small villages, you have to look at your tank carefully !

Two days of tar after i was in windhoek the capital and rest two days. My new slovenian friend has trouble with its namibian visa so we will not drive together but anyway you can follow him on his blog motoafrica.blogspot.com but I may found a new friend but that is a new story !!

i'm jealous.

ok, I'm in !

Glued. fantastic adventure.

Superbe,
j'ai un projet similaire pour l'été prochain sur la même route (et un autre en back up dépendant de mon employeur!).

Je risque de t'ennuyer avec quelques questions par PM si tu veux bien,


bonne route...

superb .. pour more picture and ride safe & take care of yourself .. thanking you for sharing the travel report ...

Yep, count me in with the jealous ones! This looks amazing. Will be following for sure!

très bon! Je vais suivre la trace.

Subscribed! Je vous souhaite une bonne journée!

Just subscribed to this. Enjoy your trip!

One more week of Namibian roads ....

So last time I was in windhoek, and I put myself on the bike for another o boring straight line....
I don't remenber how many hours did it takes me to arrive because i was sleeping..

It is the famous skeleton coast, ocean here is reaally cold because of an antartic current, but it is also really full of fish so full of fishermens
And also seal, a full colony of more than 150 000 seals, and you know what ? seals stink so much :eek1 Please install a seal bathroom here !!!


After a rest to do so shopping I take a dirt road to I don't know where


and arrive in a town called Brandberg where I can count as musch a 4 houses I think, town is close to ancient peint and sacreed moutan so have to see that

and so take the gravel road !

Then i decide to go north until I saw signs everywhere to see something from another planet so I must check by myself !

So this is a rock coming from space and arrive in nambia and decide to stay here to make money with tourism, good idea so far !

So a friend who has also a huge load, had a chat and take a souvenir pic


And then I had another huge day of straight boring road to meet popa falls, where you can't see falls because of reconstruction :huh
So I decide to take a tour on boat to enjoy wild life












so nothing really new

I had a nice discuss with police who genlty warm me to stop next time I saw a stop police sign They usually sleep so much that I don't want to disturb !

Next week Zambia !! Vic falls, lusaka and I don't know where !

Nice one!

Nic

pfff guys sorry for the big delay but hard to find a decent wifi here

Anyway here i am in zambie !! yes I know everybody know this countrie it's very famous for ... i don't why in fact ???? do you really know it ??

And so i cross the border between namibia and zambia and it was really really funny Get out from Namibia is easy, I stamp my passport and the carnet de passage of the bike, then write my false details on a toilet paper and give it to an officer who looks like a simcard vendor ...
And then you enter Zambia and now you really feel an African spirit ! First of all they ask for a visa fee in US dollars, why ?? no idea the official money is Kwacha ... so you have maybe ten guys who are running after you for black change. But if you insist you can pay in Namibian dollar, that I did. Then with your new stamp you can go to the custom office, in fact I know Indian toilet that are better looking than this 'office'. Everybody is overbook, watching a movie and organize importan meeting with girlfriend... so you wait until someone look at you. Now it's time for them to understand what are you doing here ... 10 minnutes after they understand so now they have to learn what to do and so ask someone somewhere....10 minutes later and more money after it's over.... No ! you are so naive it's time to pay tax !! And then I let you admire the office:


cool isn't it ? you have to pay in us dollars so to bargain with a guy.... but these guys are usually cool and it's more easy than it seems
Now it's time for insurance, it's mandatory, and when you are invited in such a pleasant office you can just smile


Over ? no a last office but surely the best 'council affair' what is that ? no idea, but it's such a mess they can find the bike register and so just say 'bon voyage'


Anyway, Zambia has definitely a government that care about cost of public management

I have to admit that all people here were really friendly and helpful, so it was a really good time to laugh with them and their offices, they hope to be in the new big building in construction one day ....

So I took the road for 200km to Livingstone, to see the Victoria Falls. It ws an amazin show


If you want to really enjoy it, take your swimsuit and no camera or phone, it rains a lot, and you are completely wet ! everybody is enjoying this rain and to be dry after 2 minutes of sun, everybody except the guy who lost its iphone during the rain

I plan to be in livingstone just 2 days, but I met a dutch guy who work on a ngo who offer me to discover the real zambia, so i can not refuse such a proposal. One week after i was quitting this town, a lot of souvenir in my mind, and a hangover too but that an other story and pics are not online from now so you will have to wait !!