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| Travelling in Africa is always an adventure |
After considering all the options for a southern Africa Adventure ride I settled on a little more powerful machine than the one in the photo.
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Husqvarna 701 Enduro
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Before starting off on my motorcycle adventure I spent the month of March in Simonstown, Western Cape, South Africa. With family and friends joining me the month was swallowed up with many long walks along the coast, many cold Castle Lager beers and a smattering of Gin and Tonics.
With this view from the rental property to start every day it was difficult to think about climbing on a motorcycle and heading for the long dusty gravel roads of Namibia and Botswana. However once I changed my mindset from luxury living to crazy I soon adapted again to life on the road and all the excitement and challenges that it brings.
The Cederberg mountains in the western part of the Western Cape province is a delightful area of rugged mountains, fun roads to ride and little villages where life goes on like it has done for hundreds of years.
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Wuppertal
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The old German missionary village of Wuppertal is the center of the Rooibos tea growing area and the local people are known for their Riel dancing that has its origins in the Khoisan culture.
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| Rock art at Truitjieskraal |
Here is an outstanding example of the Khoisan rock art that can be found throughout the region.
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| Fish River Canyon |
My first stop in Namibia was the Fish River Canyon, which cuts its way through the arid desert for 160km (100 miles) with depths of up to 550 metres (1800 ft)
It is difficult to describe the beauty of the desert with huge vistas stretching to the horizon travelling on gravel roads where the washboard loosens even the tightest bolts and puts your dental work through a vigorous endurance test.
My next stop was the old ghost mining town of Kolmanskop where alluvial diamonds were discovered, literally by the handful, in 1908.
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| Mine Manager's house |
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| Desert moving in |
The thick coastal fog that surrounded me in the early morning made for a surreal visit to this site with it's German architecture of beautiful buildings that are slowly being engulfed by the creeping sands of the Namib desert.
Still travelling north towards Sossusvlei the desert had been transformed into an oasis from all the recent rains. What a beautiful ride with the occasional ostrich, wildebees and oryx crossing my path.
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| Campsite at Sesriem |
The red sand dunes of Sossusvlei just begged to be climbed, however the dune that looks like it could be scaled in no time at all turns out to be a long arduous slog with one step forward with a half step slide back towards where you came from. Still well worth the effort.
The dry desert air makes even young men look like they are from a bygone era.
Onwards to the coastal town of Swakopmund with some amazing German architecture that seems so out of place in a desert. The photo above is the old railway station, now a high end hotel. A little bit of history - Namibia was a German colony, known as German South West Africa from 1884 to 1915 after which it was administered by South Africa before gaining full independence in 1990.
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Brandberg
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Plunging back into the desert I spent a few days exploring the Brandberg ( Burnt Mountain) mountain area which allowed for some fun riding, memorable hikes to more Khoisan rock art and sunsets that begged to be paired with a cold beer.
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| Adventure riding at its best |
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White Lady Lodge accommodation
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| White Lady Rock Art |
The rock art known as the " White Lady" is now thought to represent a medicine woman rather than a woman from a completely different ethnic group that what was in this area at the time.
On the road to Etosha Pan National park the road signs are certainly not representative of those found in my home country. However they certainly represent exactly the wild beasties that a motorcyclist travelling at 100 km/h on a sandy road should be mindful of.
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| Namutoni - Etosha |
I spent a day in Etosha National Park but as motorcycles are not allowed in the park I took a tour in an open Land Rover. The above photo is of the old German fort at Namutoni.
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| Lilac Breasted Roller |
This magnificent Lilac Breasted Roller had snagged one of these enormous prehistoric crickets that could be found squished in their thousands on the roads ( much like a Mormon Cricket in the western US ). Riding through a column of them was no fun as my riding boots and pants ended up being covered in a gooey, smelly layer of slime.
From Etosha I headed north until I reached the Cubango River which is the border between Namibia and Angola where I spent a very relaxing night at Simanya River Lodge. Being the only guest in the place I was treated royally.
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| Cubango River |
The road along the border could be traversed on a paved road or a parallel gravel road closer to the river that goes through numerous villages with plenty of goats, sheep, cattle and potholes - guess which one I took? This area of Namibia is known as the Caprivi strip and is a strange, narrow piece of land that touches, the four countries of Angola, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia -- obviously the invention of some mad colonial cartographer with an alcohol addled brain.
I arrived at Shakawe Fishing Lodge, after crossing into Botswana,and set up camp on the banks of the Okavango River. The sign next to my tent didn't give me any great sense of security for my well being.
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| Carmen Bee Eaters |
A boat cruise on the river was amazing with the Carmen Bee Eaters that nest in the mud river banks to the Fish Eagles that swoop down to take offered fish off the surface of the river making it an evening to remember.
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| Fish Eagle |
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| Sunset over the Okavango |
From Shakawe I rode the "most and deepest potholes per kilometer road in the whole of Africa" to the bottom of the Okavango swamps and the town of Maun. Here I picked up a couple of safari vehicle tours into Moremi game reserve where the variety of animals was astounding.
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| Southern, or two horned, Giraffe |
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Cheetah
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The guide I had for this trip was absolutely phenomenal. In the open vehicle we had already passed a clump of bushes when he suddenly stopped and turned his head back and pointed to three cheetah that I had completely missed. That night sitting around the campfire ( with lions roaring off in the distance) I asked him how he had spotted those animals as it seemed to me that he somehow sensed they were there rather than actually having seen them. Here is the story he told. Of partial Khoisan ancestry he grew up in the area that is now the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. His grandfather would take him out in an old bakkie ( pick- up truck) with a rug over his head. Grandfather would stop when he saw an animal and ask the young boy what he was feeling right at that moment. It might be an itchy nose, or watering eyes or some other unusual sensation. Once the rug was removed and the boy could see the animal, be it a lion, cheetah, elephant or some other animal of the African veld he would associate that animal with the sensation he was feeling - watering eyes for cheetah, itchy nose for a lion, etc. This confirmed my sense from earlier that day that he somehow just knew that the cheetahs were under the bush.
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| Itchy nose lion |
From northern Botswana it was a long butt weary ride back to South Africa and a visit to my brother who lives in the town of Ladybrand which is on the edge of the mountain kingdom of Lesotho. With some inside knowledge of track and trails to follow I headed into this beautiful country where the mountains roll on forever
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| Thabana- Li - Mmele |
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| Crossing a river on a footbridge |
After slipping my way down a muddy track I launched over a small wall and ended up in a mielie ( corn ) field. The extraction took a lot of sweating and cursing but with only a few bruises I was happy to get away so lightly.
Now came the negotiation with the local farmer and his daughter as to the price to be paid for the destruction of the best crops in the entire country. The opening bid from him was the sum of 5 Rand ( about 25 US cents ) After much haggling we settled on R3.
From here I worked my way across the center of this tiny country before crossing back into South Africa. Here are some photos of this beautiful, remote part of the world.
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| Basotho horseman |
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Semonkong Lodge
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| Waterfall into Meletsunyane Gorge |
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| Senqu or Orange River |
Back into South Africa I headed for the coast at Kei Mouth to stay with a friend before riding north along what is known as the Wild Coast.
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| Ferry at Kei Mouth |
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| Nguni Cattle |
The Wild Coast
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| Great roads for riding |
Two days in to this part of the trip I ran into electrical problems on the Husky and needed to be "rescued" by my friend from Kei Mouth. After a couple of days trying to diagnose the problem we took the bike to a KTM dealer in East London which is where it now resides, to be repaired and await my return this time next year .... this adventure to be continued.
Now back in the US it was time to make some more repairs so with a visit to the local hospital and an appointment with a surgeon I managed to purchase and have installed a new hip which should be good for at least another 100,000 miles.
