Travel Log Tales - Africa

Where you've been and what you done
MotoCP
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Re: Travel Log Tales - Africa

Post by MotoCP »

mark vb wrote: Thu Jan 07, 2021 6:45 pm Chris, did you come across many other m/cycle travellers as your trip progressed, and what sort of bikes were commonly (or indeed uncommonly) being used?
We met a few other bikers but we were the only Brits. In fact on entering several East African countries, the boarder guards often assumed we were German until we presented our documents.

The first biker was a South African lad who rolled into Eilat (Israel) on his XT660 with a blown head gasket after his long journey North.

After introductions he said “Are you going all the way to Cape Town”
We said “Hopefully!”

Noticing our home made panniers/racks and spreader plate welded to our side stands he said
“You will have no problem on these bikes. You are more prepared than me. Hell, you could do it on a moped! It would just take longer”
He said “Are you nervous?”
We nodded, so he reached into his tank bag and pulled out a map.
He unfolded it, spread it on the ground and tapping it said;
“You are nervous now, but when you’ve finish this trip you will open a map of the world like this and have the confidence to go anywhere”.

He was right, but anywhere is still to happen!

The second lad we met was an Italian called Stefano on his GS.
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He was at the campsite in Giza with another GS riding German lad. We were all doing a bit of bike maintenance before pushing further South.
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We went for a meal together and mutually agreed to hold our conversations in English. That was the only option for Dick and I and we felt a bit ignorant that these too lads could speak three languages fluently.

We then met a father and son in Eritrea who were traveling from South Africa to start a new life in Wales. The mother and daughter were flying there to sort the new home whilst these two were having a ball riding their XT500’s North. It turns out he’s called Lawrence Bransby and has written a book about their journey.
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MotoCP
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Re: Travel Log Tales - Africa

Post by MotoCP »

Next was another German called Ralph on a Yamaha TT600. He been on the road for months and I remember looking at his seasoned travel bike, envious of its beefy forks.
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He was going in the opposite direction to us, so we had a good chat over a bottle of coke in the shade of a road side hut before we said our good byes.
I remember I stupidly put my prescription sunglasses down on my saddle whilst chatting outside before entering the hut.
When we came out I suddenly remembered I’d left them there but they were gone.
I asked around but of course nobody knew anything.
What I should have done is waved some Ethiopian Birr around saying this is a reward for the first person to bring them back. Doing that went against the grain but it would have been better that squinting for the rest of the trip!

We met a group of six riders at the equator in Kenya that were on an organized tour riding from Cape Town to Cairo in just one month.
They were filling up at a petrol station as their sweeper/support wagon pulled in.
I spoke to one chap for less than two minutes before he had to leave to meet their tight schedule. He gave me his number so we could stay with him when we reached our final destination. I didn’t contact him as we’d had so many offers from other travelers that we were spoilt for choice of who to stay with in Cape Town.
We watched them leave and sympathized how rushed their journey must be and what they were missing en route. We’d just spent an amazing month exploring Ethiopia alone.


The last person we met was a young South Africa lad called Peter. He ridden all the way from Cape Town to Tanzania on his XT500 and was heading for London but didn’t even know how to mend a flat.

He’d given up his job up as a chef, bought his first motorbike and hit the road.
I was curious to why he’d turned his bike upside down?
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He said he was trying to mend a puncture so was applying his bicycle knowledge.

I explained why that wasn’t a good idea, showed him the ropes (not using his spoon handles to remove a tyre!) and made him promise us he would buy some tyre levers before heading any further North.


We did meet a few brits traveling in GB plated 4x4’s. We often passed them during the day giving them a peep and a wave as they slowly picked their way in and out of the deeply crated pot holes whilst our two wheels weaved between, barley slowing down.
They would pull into camp later that evening and come over to say how envious they were of our rapid progress on a bike.
I would say yes maybe but we don’t have a table, chairs, BBQ and comfy bed to look forward to at the end of each day.

I wouldn’t swap a motorbike for any other mode of transport though. We met plenty of folk that had fallen out due to been cooped up together for too many long days bouncing around in a hot tin box with the stress of fatigue, hassle of border crossings and threat of bandits etc leading to arguments.
Our friendship however remained solid because although we were together all day everyday for six months, we were separate in our own world of thoughts, inside helmets without intercoms so after enthusing about the days events each evening, we could retire to our own tents and lose ourselves in a novel or write a travel log.
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mark vb
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Re: Travel Log Tales - Africa

Post by mark vb »

Great stuff! I'd love to do 'the long way down' to S. Africa. One day, when travel is back on....
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