VICTORIA FALLS DAY 11

 Was amazing to see how little water is coming over the falls. Was here in March and it was so much you could hardly see anything with the spray. 

VICTORIA FALLS DAY 10

During my three night stay at Ndurukoro Camp met a German cyclist, Professor Klaus, 58 years old but looks like 48, and is cycling around Namibia, Botswana and Zim for four months. The campsite next to me were a couple from Switzerland who shipped their Mercedes Sprinter to SA and are touring around for two years.

The campsite is right on the river and the ablutions are first class. A poor Black Mamba climbed up into the roof of the owners house up on the ridge beam. They battled to extricate it and unfortunately they had to kill it, was not a  pleasant sight. 

After breakfast the Professor and I went our different ways, mine only 30 kms down the road to Riverdance Lodge , where there are four campsites on nice green grass with your private ablution, one of the best I have seen in terms of layout and hooks and space.

The restaurant overlooked the river and very nicely decorated with friendly staff and the food was top notch.

With limited space on the deck I shared my table one night with a German fella , most interesting,  he tours around Southern Africa in a Troopy and then stores it wherever  and then goes home for three months and then tours again for four months, doing it for six or so years. The place was full and all Germans, everywhere I go !

After two nights there, it was time to amp it up and after having breakfast with Ernst at 7am I went to Ngepi camp to just check it out, but it's run down so I continued on to Ngoma. Got back on the tar and there comes the Professor,  we stopped  and chatted  and then went on our separate ways .

The road is straight all the way to Katima Malilo for like 300 kms where I popped in and visited an aquantince and then continued on till Ngoma where the camp site was full but they accommodated me. Three times during the night the lions roaring awoke me, which was real surprising cause it's on the river between Namibia and Botswana and there were cattle grazing there in the evening, maybe that's why.  

Temperatures are climbing,  hit 38* C today, averages so far are around 35* C and late afternoon the clouds come in and the threat of rain is always looming and it cools it down a bunch thankfully. 

BOTSWANA AND ZIMBABWE 

Was first in line at the Namibian border and took mere minutes and likewise going into and out of Botswana .Stopped at Chobe River Lodge for breakfast and then my son phoned me and we chatted for ages, sad news about the 150 deaths in Seoul at the Halloween festivities where he happened to be the night before.

Finally got going and glanced over in the parking lot and saw a green Troopy which I know from Cape Town had just pulled in and Will got out and didn't  kind of recognize me at first, crazy cause we passed each other in Kruger NP in April.

Zimbabwe border was quick and easy, only had to pay $21 for road tax and an hour later was in Victoria Falls at N1 where we camped in March.

Ventured over to the Victoria Falls Hotel for a bite and a beer.

GOBABIS TO CAPRIVI , 860 KM, 9.5 hrs.

Departed after another 'lovely' breakfast, headed to Grootfontein, Rundu and then another 140km to Ndurukoro Camp on the Caprivi. Was an easy day, on asphalt the entire way with only goats, donkeys, cows, guinea fowl and humans on the road to keep me awake for the 860 kilometers. 

 Google lied, it was 860km and 9.5 hrs.

After I filled up in Rundu, my bike was dead and the battery terminal came loose , so had to delve into that. 

Leaving early is the only way, while it is still cool,17* C , by 10am it is 30*C finishing up at 35* by mid afternoon. 

Thunderheads start to build in the afternoon and and the sky goes black and lightning days across the sky and then it buckets down, so nice, if you're  not on a dirt road.

   Overlooking the Kwando River into Angola.

   

Had a shower and put on some clean clothes for the first time since leaving Cape Town. Had a great evening with some Dutchies, Mom, son and soon to be wife. Refreshing to see kids traveling with their folks, couldn't  think of anything more fun. 

DAY 3 DASSIES, DONKEYS AND A FLYING KUDU AT ME.

 KARASBURG TO GOBABIS   762 KM. 10HRS.

Took the C11 road N and then D260, D611, C15, M42, C20 into Gobabis.

Was a long day with many varying road surfaces which for the most part were fun to ride on, but had a huge scare  on M42 was very, very fortunate.

Was going to take the C road all the way up but decided I wanted remoteness and took D260 which through everything at me, was only 80km but was rather knarly with riverbed and loose rocks abound with a spectacular mountain range that just popped up, was slow going but fun. The C roads are maybe 15 m wide and well maintained for the most part and you can do 180 kmph on them, well I only did it once for about 2km. It is not a smart thing to do but it sure gets your heart going. The C roads all have game fences that run along it about 15m away on either side. The D roads are narrow and run through farms and have a lot of cattle guards on the road or gates sometimes and aren't well maintained and are quite rough and remote and  slow going in general, but my road of choice. Today I have passed 8 vehicles on the way up and three donkey carts, so you're on your own, especially on the eastern side of Namibia which is where I am.

Highlight of my day was stopping and chatting to two guys riding donkeys, the poor guys were riding 20km to go fetch a donkey cart. They work on a farm nearby and it was no big deal for them to ride bare back that distance, they gave me a ride and the poor donkey with my weight didn't want to go anywhere.

Riding on the M42 about 25km out of Stampriet, I got the biggest scare of my life. Was doing about 115kmph when suddenly out of nowhere a huge Kudu appeared to my right at full charge, coming in at a slight angle and then launched into the air, my immediate thought was this is it, no way in hell I am going to miss it. She was in the air, the front hooves were a metre away from me at eye level height and slightly ahead of the bike,just floating in the air and I was going to be hit in the gut with my head. This was all of two seconds and miraculously she didn't hit me and I looked in the mirror and but didn't  see anything. I was shaken up slightly and  can't  believe we didn't collide, I yelled out in fear as I saw it, was it trying to jump over me ? That really scared me, even more so now that I think of it.

The bike must scare the animals because going over a small rocky pass, suddenly the dassies just decided to stream across in front of me, why move ?  Same thing  with the Dik dik's, they run  alongside the road by the fence petrified and one dashed in front of me out of the blue.

You can also follow along on https://share.garmin.com/CapetoCairo.

DAY ONE OF RESTARTING TRIP OR DAY 27 OF ORIGINAL START DAY. 21 OCTOBER '22

 Went for my daily swim at Fisherman's Beach and said my goodbye's to the die hard local swimmers,Jeanne, Susan, Rob and Verstappen. 

Finally departed at 11:30 and a neighbor, Deion rode  àlong with me to Chapman's Peak into Cape Town where I forked off to the left to Langebaan to my brother's house.

After much food and liberation at the yacht club we went for more at some nice restaurant in town and only got to bed at 12:30 am.

DAY 2    LANGEBAAN TO KARASBERG NAMIBIA 🇳🇦  767 KM.  10.5 HRS.

Jammed up to Namibia, trying to stick to dirt roads, snaked my way to Vanrhynsdorp and the hit dirt to Poffadder ! My second time there in 8 months, nothing to be proud of.

Then gunned it to the border and made it in time, only took 35 minutes to cross both and was done fifteen minutes before it closed.

Got a lovely pink room in Karasberg just before sunset. (R750 included dinner, breakfast and 3 beers, no soap or shampoo)

SA IMMIGRATION OFFICE.

BACK TO CAPE TOWN AND WAIT FOR REPAIRS.

I decided to fly back to Cape Town, coming back on the 8th September by which time it would be fixed. The insurance totalled the bike and paid me out R65 K and gave me the bike. 

So then my plans changed and had the bike shipped to Cape Town to be fixed. My mind was in the gutter and started to look at bike porn and ended up buying a 2021850 GS with 8000km on the clock to use for the trip. Turns out I was to hasty and got to excited about the 850 and did not do enough research on the bike and basically made a bad decision, but it never hurts to have a spare bike. 

Long story short , my old bike is the one I am going to go on again. Am having a 24 litre tank fitted which will resolve any fuel issues and fixing the other broken parts and two new tires and should be done this week, 12 th October. Mosko Moto replaced my panniers at half price because of the damage, one of ther policies and Charmain happened to be in Montana so she reluctantly brought them back. So has been a bit of a shit show but have everything sorted, got my Carnet de Passage which cost R100 000.00 deposit in cash, and Reise maps of Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt so won't  get lost. BMW has no riding suites in SA and at R36K was happy they didn't have any. I was able to have my pants repaired and bought a second hand jacket for R4 000 so that worked out just fine.

The cyclist, Christian was in Cape Town ,so he stayed with.me and we hiked up Table Mountain and toured Cape Point and the beaches of Simon's Town.  

Am anxious to get going now as the heat up north is going to be rather hot now, maybe unbearable with all the gear on. 

    New 24L  gas tank and seat.

    New windscreen, handlebars, mirror and spotlights re positioned .

    New rubber front and back.

Bike all done except the pannier racks don't fit because of the new tank and my old seat couldn't work either.  Instead of leaving on Monday 17th October, will be modifying the racks and still have to take it for a police clearance and fit the new panniers.