In Conclusion....

IN CONCLUSION

So yes, our trip has officially ended…12500km and 64days later….or has it? Maybe we’ll have the opportunity to return some day and pick up where we left off. There were talks of riding all the way to Canada but we’d need serious sponsors, and with the recession and all….I think it’s time we do a little work again.

We’d like to share what we have learnt or what we take away from this trip. This gets a little deep but please bear with us; we’ll make it worthwhile.

1. It gave us a new perspective on life. We spent a lot of time seeing how and where other people live and make a living. This helped us to form an idea of how big this world of us really is and how small we are. It helped to place all our problems in perspective. Although often your situation feels overwhelming and enormous in the bigger scheme of things it’s really not that important or scary. So hopefully in the future we will remember to take a step backwards and look at the big picture before we give in to the panic of everyday life.

2. Our respect and love for each other has grown deeper and stronger, and we consider this a wonderful gift. There were a few times where both of us strongly considered murder but luckily never divorce..lol.  

3. Many times on the trip we asked ourselves….why motorbikes? They often limit you, they are hard work, and you can’t pack much and always have helmet hair.

 The answer lies in all the positives.

They force you to focus on the road all the time and so draw your thoughts to the present. There is no space for thoughts of the past or worries about the future, all you focus on is the here and now.

You smell and feel everything around you (cold, heat, wind, and rain). All your senses all stimulated all the time.

The motorbikes also seem to draw people to you and help to keep you open to meeting new people. So that is why the motorbikes…

4. And lastly we learnt that truly, the anticipation of the fear is worse than the fear itself….we learnt to trust,  have more Faith and let go a little of our self preservation. (except maybe Sani pass…..for me (Mia)

We are grateful to have had this amazing opportunity to do this trip and believe that this break will allow us to go back to work with even more passion and enthusiasm than before.

Thank you to everyone who shared in our adventure, whether it was on the road with us or from home by reading our blog. Zahelo to you all! 

Special Thank you’s

      1. Henri

You inspired both the trip and the blog.

      2. Oom Ben & Tannie Ria Scheepers
          Without you we would not have seen Sossusvlei.

3. Suane & Nico

         We loved our trip to Etosha! And all the Badenhorst trip planner advice!

4. Oom Koos& Tannie Willemien Croucamp and Oom Micheal&Tannie Marieta Holland-Muter

          We so enjoyed your company and were really grateful for it on the crazy road to Ruacana.

5. Braam

           What would we have done without you?

      6. Gerhard en Kerstin   (www.pangolinphoto.com)
          Your hospitality and friendliness was greatly appreciated. Good luck with Pangolin!

7. Uncle Oliver and family

           Our time together was short but very significant. Thank you.

All our family and friends in South Africa - we love you!!

Trip summary

Favorites Places Times and Roads 

                  

·         Tirasberg – Koiimasses campsite

·         Etosha National Park

·         Dune 7 Adventures

·         Epupa Falls

·         Swartboois Drif to Ruakana road

·         Ngepi Lodge

·         Pangolin Photo Safaris

·         Nyanga town

·         World view of Zimbabwe

·         Chimanimani town

·         Tsipese

·         Stone Safaris Lion Cubs

·         Katse Dam

·         Sani Top

·         Morgan’s Bay

Things we could have left at home:

• Some Clothes – we packed too much.
• Auto Comms – next time we’ll take Blue tooth comms, it would have avoided many of our frustrations.
• Riding Pants – XKULCHA make – Mia’s were in shreds’ by Coffee Bay and mine made it, but just barely. Bad Quality!

Things we can recommend

• Our Thor Ballistics – Jackets would have been far too hot. These were cool, comfy and still provided good protection.
• Heidenau tyres – they still look good after 12500km! Never lost their footing.
• The BMW 650 Dakar – It lived up to its legendary reputation.
• Write a blog – it added to the fun

Port St Johns, Coffee Bay, Morgans Bay and HOME

Port St Johns, Coffee Bay, Morgans Bay and HOME

Our 2 days at Port St John’s were spent relaxing, enjoying some quality time with my (Mia) parents and exploring the area. My dad (Bok) had spent most of his childhood holidays here and thus appointed himself tour guide. He showed us the 3 beaches (1^st, 2nd and 3rd) and all the places they had spear fished and dived for crayfish when they were boys. On the beaches we often saw herds of cattle as well as boards warning us of the possible shark threat. Second beach is known to be the world’s number one risk for shark attacks. The reason for the sharks is believed to be the slaughtering of these cattle on the beaches.

Cremorne Lodge at Port St Johns

Hennie,Mia and Ma Nina....with the shark warning at 2nd beach

Cattle on second beach at Port St Johns

The area is beautiful with lush green forests and thick grass carpets right next to the ocean, really something to see, but I could see my Dad’s disappointment in how the town itself has deteriorated. The hotel that used to be one of the main attractions is in ruins with shrubs and trees growing inside what used to be Port St John’s pride and joy. Most of the building are falling apart and have not seen any maintenance in the last 10 years. The roads are worn and town center looks like a typical African market place. There are still a few holiday resorts and B&B’s but not nearly as many as there used to be.

We were still really keen for some crayfish and were told by some of the locals that “Poenskop” was the place to go. This wild goose chase lead us to an area my Dad had not seen before, which was spectacular. The road, challenging as usual, lead us through many little rural houses, over the most beautiful green hills and streams all along the coast. The road ended at Poenskop, a pretty little grass covered hill facing the ocean. It was well worth the drive but unfortunately did not deliver any of the promised crayfish. The White Snail (My Dad’s bakkie has to have a nickname too) was so confident after the previous days achievement that he had to drive all the way to the top!!

Poenskop near Port St Johns

The" White Snail" does it again

Little Transkei Houses

I thoroughly enjoyed being a passenger for once and not a driver on this particular road. It was, like all these wild coast roads, filled with cattle, sheep, donkeys, horses, dogs and children…all free range.LOL

LOL

Back at the resort Hennie did some last maintenance on the two bikes making sure they were good to take us home, while the rest of us took a well deserved afternoon nap. Instead of crayfish we had fillet on the braai that night and one of my mom’s best “moerby” stir fries!

Last bit of maintenance

Mia and Bok post afternoon nap

Coffee with Ma Nina

After a good breakfast we said our goodbyes to my parents who were on their way home and made our way down the winding road to Coffee bay. Luckily for us the road had been tarred all the way and, despite the many potholes, wasn’t too bad. Coffee Bay is a tiny little coastal town with a river mouth, a campsite and many backpackers and B&B.
It is 8kms from the famous Hole in the Wall. The campsite has recently come under new management and is really worth checking out. It is in an indigenous forest literally on the beach. The forest is amazing with wild orchids growing in the trees and thick lush vegetation surrounding each campsite. We loved it. The only down side was the many “killer” mosquitoes. Check out www.coffeebaycamp.co.za.

The view from our tent

Coffee Bay Camp

We took one bike to view the Hole in the Wall, once again a beautifully scenic road.

The stunning walk to Hole in the wall

Hole in the wall

 Back in town we had a beer at one of the backpackers. Here we experienced the vibe/atmosphere Coffee Bay is famous for. Hippies and Surfers all high on “life” chilling in Zen- like gardens. Everywhere you see signs advertising yoga classes, fire dancing and drumming. We sat next to the river mouth a little too long and got many offers to buy a little something to help get you to the same ‘high” place everyone else seemed to be on.

Coffee on Coffee Bay's beach

 

Up early thanks to the killer mosquitoes we left for Kei Mouth. We decided to take the tar road there as there had been a lot of rain recently which meant the coastal road would be bad and take long. I know Hennie would have preferred this route but my passion for dirt roads has taking a bit of a knock after Sani Pass.

Road to Kei Mouth Ferry

We crossed the Kei River with a ferry which was a lot of fun.



Kei Mouth River

Kei Mouth Ferry

Kei Mouth was a huge disappointment and left us with the same feeling Port St John’s and Zim had. Everything in ruins. Hennie knows the area well as they had spent many holidays here and was very shocked to see the once proud campsites and hotels broken down and run down. We decided to drive about 10km further to Morgan’s Bay where we found a stunning campsite and a standing hotel…yeah! This was to be our last night camping…..hard to believe our adventure has come to an end.

Morgan's bay Campsite

Our last night in our tent

 For old time sake we were woken up at 3am by a thunderstorm. We were by now lazy campers and did not pitch the waterproof cover of our tent so we ran around in the dark trying to cover the tent and the bikes. Needles to say we were once again soaking wet by the end of it...oh well.

Very appropriately we met a very special family at the campsite. We shared our story and a few laughs with them and when we said goodbye on our last morning and they asked whether they could share a bible reading and prayer with us. It was incredibly special and the message is one that we will keep close to our hearts as we now journey to our next adventure. Thank you so much to Uncle Oliver and his family for their blessings and prayers.

Uncle Oliver & Family




Morgan's Bay



Hennie on Taruk

Beautiful

I know we both ended the last day’s travel with a warmth and gratitude in our hearts, and though we were sad that it had come to an end we were glad to be home and excited about what was to come.

 

We had a quick coffee with our good friend Thomas van Dyk in East London, and were met by Hennie’s parents at Nanaga about 50km from Port Elizabeth. One of the best thing about being home was to see our dog, Storm!

Hello Thomas - East London

Hennie with Ma Miriam and Pa Hennie at Nanaga

We have decided to include our first weekend home as the final chapter of our blog because it was so special. Our friends had organized to take us away on a surprise weekend. As you all know by now we are on our way to Canada where we will be for at least the next 3 years or so. This was thus a welcome back but also a Farewell party.

Hey Alicia...I'm just as happy to see you!!

Hello Toom, Thanx for everything!

We were given a chinese lantern and watched it soar

We were taken to the beautiful Sundays River near Kirkwood where we spent the weekend fishing, kayaking, swimming and catching up. Thank you to Thomas and Alicia for organizing this and to everyone else who helped and joined. It was so so special!! We just had to add some photos. And at last Hennie caught his fish…..although it’s not a Tiger the size of the Carp made up for it!...2.8kg whoopee!!

The Sundays river..beautiful

Hennie still fishing

At last...my BIG fish

Nico caught a little fish

Dirk and Janice with their little fish

Frikkie and Roy

Thomas and Hennie

Thomas,Nico,Ashley,Hennie,Ewan and Frikkie

Preparing....

The guys in action

Our good friend Jonathan

Some of the boys,Jonathan,Hennie,Ewan and Dirk



Some of the girls, Alicia,Rykie,Lize and Mia

    The End

What a view

Bloemfontein to Port St Johns via Lesotho

No, we're not done yet....the fun continues....

Luke,Ru-hann, Marzanne, Nick

We were very sad to say goodbye to Hannien, Marco and their children. We had so much fun with them! The kids all got ready for school and looked really different in their formal school uniform. The weather had changed very suddenly and it felt like a mid-winters morning in Bloemfontein. Apparently there was snow in Aliwal North. We said a quick goodbye to the kids and waved them off to school. Hannien had time to join us for breakfast and then we packed and set off towards Clarens to meet Mia’s parents, who would join us to Port Saint Johns.

Bye Hannien

We followed the route through Clocolan and were yet again stunned by the beautiful scenery of the Eastern Free State.

The temperatures were much lower than what we were used to and this made the going more tough than usual. We met up with Mia’s parents as Ficksburg and were grateful for our proper winter riding jackets that they brought with. After a nice lunch we continued with them through Fouriesburg to Golden Gate.

We spent two days at Golden Gate visiting the town of Clarence and enjoying some very scenic drives and walks in the National Park.

The evenings were filled with chatting and spending some good quality time with Mia’s folks.

Hello Ma Nina & Pa Bok

Golden Gate & our Accomodation

The Long Toe Lake

Our new Recovery..

Spectacular Golden Gate

Mushroom Rock formations

After two days of relaxing, we set off for the country of Lesotho.This would be our last country to be travelled and our last border crossing. Our first day, we wanted to see the famous Katse Dam. 

10Km’s after we had crossed the border Mia decided to pull off for a quick she-wee and managed to some how, crash land off the side of the road and get stuck underneath the Yellow Canary. Great, so her parents got to see what they had been worried about during our trip on the bikes. Luck still on our side though, nothing broke and nothing broken except Mia's ego.Another 10 kms later the Lesotho Police pulled us over at a roadblock. Mia did not come to a complete stop entering the road block and again we had to work our magic. After about twenty minutes of threats of being hand cuffed,, arrested and court appearances, our negotiations started paying dividends and we left with smiles on our faces but cursing under our breath. All they wanted was a bribe.....Welcome to Lesotho Mia!

Hello Lesotho

Awaiting border check

  

The long road to Katse Dam

As we were approaching the Maluti Mountains from the Northern side we started realising the magnitude of the job at hand. This was going to be a long day.The top of one of the many  passes we drove was about 3100 meters above sea level and we literally crawled up them all, bend by bend. At the top we were rewarded with  spectacular views and at one of them decided to pull over for a good camp coffee at just over 10 degrees Celsius.

Maluti  Mountains  3200 MASL

Maluti Mountains Coffee break

We arrived at Katse Dam…. 16:00 …a long day!  We had missed the last day tour of the dam wall but still managed a visit to the Katse Information Centre…Very interesting!

Katse Dam

Accomodation at Katse Dam

After a good look at the map and a chat to the staff we realised that we were faced with a very challenging next day and probably the worse terrain yet. So that evening we spent some time doing quality road route planning.

We wanted  to get to Sani Top (from Katse Dam) and down Sani to Underberg. The GPS map source indicated our chosen route was 241km long.

A Josy tour guide advised us on an alternative route (290km) as the one we initially decided on had been front page news after 3 tourists got stuck and the Lesotho Police /Military had to come and rescue them 3days later. We were not scared…. but did not have three days to our disposal…. So we took the tour operators advice.

Good thing we listened to the tour guide as 80 km on our way to Koa we ended up rescuing the Leshoto Police.

Well-done Lesotho Police...go Bok and the Toyota!

We crossed over mountains and rivers on little winding roads full of donkeys, sheep, goats and people and eventually  at 12:00 we reached Mothae on the A1 route.. The A1 route?  I thought it would be tarmac….   For the motorbikes the remains of tarmac was good enough at some places but no more than 10km/h for our poor recovery…this road gives the word potholes a whole new meaning.Really, it was the worst we had ever seen and we come from pothole country.

We reached Mokhotlong at 15:00 where the fun was only about to start and 50km’s to go.

Mia stuck in Lesotho Traffic

More Lesotho Traffic

Little tacmac left

The last 50km provided us with a new challenge as Mia’s Yellow canary’s back brakes started to fail. So we offloaded all gear and loaded this into Bok’s (Mia’s Dad) Toyota.

Switching the seats and bikes to lower the blue BM (So Mia could touch the ground) and we were off again! I think the reason for the failing brakes was that they were getting too hot and started malfunctioning.

With two fingers on the front brake we arrived at Sani Top at 17:00. One hell of a day!

Minus one mirror on the Yellow Canary and a big blue bruise on Mia's shin, we had made it.

Here we decided to change our plans as the remaining part of our road to Sani Top was described to us in hours and not kilometres. The border control at Sani Top closes at 17:00 and the bottom gate at RSA Border control at 18:00.  No room for error!

We  were all  tired, hungry and cold…

So we agreed on our final destination for the day,  Sani Top!

In hind sight… a huge blessing in disguise!

16:00 -  20km to Sani Top

.

A hard squeeze for a last smile

All was good when our attention was drawn to the fact the they had lovely chalets available and the Highest Pub in AFRICA was open and ready to serve!

So we spent our evening in a cosy restaurant/pub sharing our experiences of the day and plans for the next. The scars of the last day left us super sensitive as to the information given for the decent of Sani Pass. 25km @ 2hours… can it be. I was not worried about the time, nor the terrain only the back breaks……

A Great Reward!

 

A View of what was to come - Sani Pass

Again prepared for battle we were ready to leave Lesotho at 8:00 the following morning.

After the ice was melted off the bikes in the early morning sun the yellow canary’s brakes seemed fine??  Loaded and ready to tackle Sani Pass or so we thought….

Ready to go down..

500m Down and Hennie to fetch Mia

Toughest  road ever

300 meters down Sani, Mia destroyed the Blue BM’s record time for being upright for just under             10 000km. Ag no Mia!! Mia’s courage failed her and she completely forgot all her valued experience. She refused to get back on two wheels until half way down Sani. This left me taking down the motorbikes one by one. At least Bok was ready to provide the transport back up each time to fetch the other bike. Must admit, a couple of very close calls… 

My ears were hurting so bad as I had to pull my helmet on and off a 100 times.

Road evaluation....

So basically we did Sani Pass twice. Mia at least caught some good footage!

At 11:30 we arrived at the bottom border control. Three and a half hours later ….

Hello Kwazulu Natal, South Africa and Tarmac!

Glad to see RSA

As we said good bye to our last country that we visited on our trip.. we didn't quite know if we were happy or sad..

We stopped in a little town called Himeville for fuel and some food shopping in Underberg with 260km to go through the old Transkei to Port st Johns.

Mia at road works stop - 30 Min

The longest day on the road was in the making… with 3 long roadwork stops and hectic traffic on top, I signed in at Cremorne lodge reception (Port st Johns) at 18:14…

 Sani Top to Port st Johns       - 290Km          (3000m above sea leave to sea leavel)

Time on the road                    - 11 hours       

We received a warm welcome at Cremorne Lodge and all agreed to spend two days at Port st Johns. The wild coast of South Africa is a new experience for both myself and Mia. Hopefully Port st Johns can provide some long awaiting crayfish as we spent our last day with Mia’s parents.

We plan to travel from here to Coffee bay (Hole in the wall), a ferry crossing to Kei Mouth and the R72 via Port Alfred back to PE.

I’ll try my best to provide some extreme adventure and excitement over the last couple of days for all of you!

Stay tuned as we are hot as can be!