African Adventure – South Africa/Zimbabwe/Mozambique

5 mad keen motorcyclists embark on a African Adventure – South Africa/Zimbabwe/Mozambique –  3 Italians & 2 Brits! Now that sounds like trouble already!

Long Video

Blog:

Day1: It was just a case of getting up early and making our way to the depot to pick up the motorcycles that we are going to spend the next 2 weeks riding around on in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Mozambique.

There were quite a few different adventure bikes to choose from but I picked the GS800 as it’s a bike I’ve never ridden before and always wondered how it would fair against it’s brilliant big brother the GS1200 which Valerio and Adam chose.

Things didn’t get off to the best start when my alloy side pannier fell off and broke within 200 yards of setting off!  But at least it wasn’t on the motorway and we could easily return to swap it for a better one.

Once on the road, the rain drops started to fall and seeing the heavy lightning in the skies ahead I thought we were in for big soaking, but luckily we just missed the worst of it and only ended up dealing with a bit of rain.

Soon it was dry and as we clicked by the miles we passed through many small towns that were all very similar, busy, loads of stalls at the side of the road, a lot of small businesses with homemade signs with people and animals looking like they could step out in front of you any second….which they often did.

The locals seemed to enjoy watching a group of bikers riding through their town and all the children would wave or scream at us as we rode by, all great fun.

There was a lot of different types of animals wandering at the side of the roads including groups of little monkeys, which all ran off when I stopped in hope of getting a picture! Typical.

It was a blast riding in South Africa.  All good fun but unfortunately, the 400+ km ride ended high up in the hills and in the fog and rain at a rather chilly 4 degrees.  To make matters worse it was also very dark, it was hard to believe we were in Africa and not the Yorkshire Moors (UK).

After warming up over dinner we all agreed, this wasn’t going to be a boring trip, it was going to be an adventure, day 1 was already setting the tone.

Day2: We all decided to wake up early, get breakfast, and get on the road as soon as possible as the plan for day2 was over 500km of riding and a border crossing from South Africa to Zimbabwe.

As we were at the top of a hill, our first taste of riding this morning was in the rain and greasy roads but the surrounding hillsides were spectacular and it was like riding in paradise. There were plenty of road works along the way but they didn’t hold us up much and it was getting warmer and warmer as we approached the SA border which is always a bonus.

Just before we got to the border we saw a huge ostrich which ran along side us at over 60km an hour. How awesome! Once at the border, we sailed through the South African side with no trouble but once we reached the border of Zimbabwe it was a whole different story.

What we thought would be help from some friendly locals wasn’t, it was their way of ripping us off, foolishly we handed over some ca$h to surpass the huge queue and this lead to them asking for more and more money.

It soon turned into a nightmare as at each of the 5 steps (Immigration, Customs, Police, etc) we kept getting stung for ca$h, but thanks to a rather mad Adam who went to see the Chief of Police to complain we finally got out of there but the whole procedure took over 4hrs long and totally threw us off our riding schedule.

We’ve been told that you just can’t ride at night over here, it’s just too dangerous, people get killed all of the time from animals running out in front of you, trucks, pot holes, etc and as it gets dark by 6pm we had to call it a night early and bed down at our planned lunch stop which was now 6pm…

Oh well, we are all in one piece, a little lighter thanks to the border co$ting us so much but we are in Zimbabwe and it looks beautiful, we just can’t wait to get on the road tomorrow and discover more.

Day3: We knew it was going to be a good day when I woke up, looked out of the window and there was a guy cleaning our dirty bikes.  We then ordered breakfast and a full English turn up, a great start if ever there was one.

Once on the road it was our first real chance to see Zimbabwe and the first thing that struck me was the amount of animals eating and wandering at the side of the road, they didn’t seem fazed by all the traffic blasting past them and sometimes just walked out in front of you with no worries in the world.  You have to always proceed with caution if you saw something move. Secondly, was the remains of smashed vehicles that had just been left where they had crashed, a real reminder of the dangers that the roads bring, especially at night.

However, it was a joy ride, lots to see, interesting scenery and even though the road was fairly straight, no 2 miles seemed to be the same and with all what is going on at the side of the road, people walking, vehicles broken down, and small villages to slow down for, all the activity kept you on your toes.

Finally, we came to a junction and turned off the main drag onto a road which was more like the real African road I’d envisioned: only bits of asphalt, an abundance of pot holes, and perfect for an off-road motorcycle.  All of the BMWs handled the tricky conditions perfectly. It was great fun!

Out on the other side and we called in at the Great Zimbabwe National Monument and world heritage site which gave it’s name to this great country in 1980.  Seeing the ruins and all of the monkeys running around was a wonderful break from the riding as well as getting a history lesson from our guide.

Back on the road and it was more impressive roads, plenty of twists and turns on good asphalt that eventually ran out and turned into a into a rich orange dirt, heaps more fun! We stopped at one of the remote villages, the people came running out to see us, Gabriele handed out some Alpinestars stickers and the kids jumped on my bike.  Bright smiles all round.

We continued towards the border of Mozambique but time was not on our side and and we quickly ran out of day light and had to ride the last hour in pitch black, eventually getting to a small built up town where we decided to try and find beds for the night.  Luckily, on our third try we found a guest house with rooms available, so we stopped, ate, and bedded down.

The day had been lots of fun, we had no issues at all. OK, we might have had a bit of trouble at the border on day 2 but once in the country it had been more than friendly, appeared to be safe, and all the people we came across were just happy to see us.  It had been a great day of riding in Zimbabwe.

Day4: The small and fairly deserted village that we rode into at night became very busy and active in the morning and as we filled up with gas, 5 motorcyclists from another country seemed to attract a lot of attention.  Soon we were surrounded by locals asking all kinds of questions and were intrigued on our adventure. It also gave us a chance to see the small local businesses, how people go about their daily lives, and  see some of the transport people used.  Many of them hardly seemed road worthy but were still being used.

As we closed in on the border to Mozambique we came across our first police check point that we had been warned about but all they wanted was to check our documents, make sure our vehicles were mechanically sound, and soon we were on our way with no trouble at all.

Once again the asphalt changed to dirt and as it had been raining throughout the night and it was quite sloppy so a bit of caution was needed, but at the same time it was also gut-busting fun splashing through puddles, spinning the rear wheel, and ripping on the slimy dirt road.

Amazingly, the dirt road took us to the border of Zimbabwe and Mozambique and unlike our first experience of the Zimbabwe border,  we had no trouble this time.  All was friendly and we didn’t lose any cash to unhelpful locals, and our good feeling towards Zimbabwe remained, as it had been an interesting, beautiful, and warm country with a good deal of fun on a motorbike.

We were soon at the border of Mozambique which seemed fairly relaxed with the usual paper work and documents procedure.  The security guards even let Alessandro and Valerio ride one of their motorbikes around the check point, pretty amazing!!

Soon the barrier was lifted and we were finally into Mozambique. It was gorgeous from the start: brilliant dirt roads, incredible scenery, and so many sites to take in.  The only trouble was if you were at the back of the line you were eating all your friends dust that they were kicking up.  But that wasn’t a big deal.

All of the locals expressed happiness to see us as we passed with waves while the kids came running out.  The bumpy and technical dirt road was amusing on these adventure bikes which both the 800 and the 1200 GS machine took all in their stride, but I have to say, the 800 was easier to ride when the dirt got loose.

The machines were going well until my gear lever fell off and to make matters worse, I was stuck in 1st gear.  Fortunately, our support vehicle wasn’t far behind and I quickly jumped onto the spare bike (GS1200) and rode it until we could fix the problem at the next gas station.

A stop for a beverage in a remote village was a great experience, it was a colorful place and the locals loved having their photos taken and seen the photo on my digital display, Gabriele gave away a few t-shirts and everyone was smiling as we all enjoyed the interaction.

We did run out of daylight but we also rode out an awesome sunset as we swiftly blasted into the night to try and get to our pre-booked accommodation, but after the sun sets at 6pm it also becomes fairly dangerous as there are no street lights and you have the same dangers as you do in the daylight: people walking on the side of the road, animals roaming all around, and stationary vehicles randomly parked, definitely unpredictable.  Eventually, we had to pull over while we waited for Steven, our support vehicle driver, to catch up and rode the last 100km behind him in safety.

We managed to get to our hotel and grabbed a much needed shower and regaled our stories of our incredible day of riding over food. This had been the best day yet, Mozambique so far is fantastic and we all can’t wait for tomorrow to come where we can go and discover more sights, bloody brilliant!

Day5: We were all up nice and early, filled our bellies with a hearty English style breakfast and hit the road as we had quite a few miles to click by today. First stop was fuel as our night ride had almost drained our tanks so it was a good job there was a local fuel station. The poor lad who had the job of filling 5 bikes and a van up with fuel, also had the job of winding the handle which pumped the gas. No press and fill here, it was manual labor all the way.

Once again the sun was blazing down and it was getting hot quickly, no problems when riding as the warm air felt great, especially as the Durban gear we were all wearing allows you to remove warm liners.  Even the arms, if it gets too hot despite the ever changing temperatures, you could keep within your comfort zone.   Great gear for adventure riding.

The sight of 5 motorcycles coming down the road seemed to attract a lot of attention from the locals who loved us ripping by.  They waved, smiled, and shouted as we passed, it was a great feeling seeing them all so excited so we hit back with various style of salutes and tapped our horns. A couple of times we stopped at the villages instead of riding right through to check out the local produce which they sell in stalls at the side of the road, you can find lots of fresh fruit and vegetables, chicken and fish being cooked on grills, along with clothes or local art. Everyone was genuinely friendly and keen for us to buy something from them, Alessandro over paid for some oranges by about 20 times (it still worked out cheaper than our local supermarket), which made the vendors selling them very happy.

In one of the villages we stopped, there was a dead pig hanging from a tree, cut open with blood dripping on the floor as a little piglet ran around with the chickens close by.  I guessed this was the local butchers but we didn’t buy any bacon.

Back on the road again and it was Adam’s idea to pull of the main drag and go somewhere picturesque for a quick lunch, this in fact was a 58km ride to the coastline and none of it was asphalt, all off road. At first, it started off as a smooth and wide hard packed dirt road, every now and again it would be a bit loose or rutty with a few pot holes thrown in for good measure but still no big issues.

Passing through a village which had a huge puddle in the middle, I encouraged Alessandro to ride through it for a photo.   All the village people came out to see him splash through and on his first attempt he crashed as his front wheel disappeared down a hole.  The villagers cheered loudly and we all laughed, it was a sweet moment. Ali did redeem himself with several other successful passes and even Valerio joined him for a spot of water fun while the locals cheered all the way.

Further down the road we saw women washing clothes in the stream, others walking miles with heavy loads on their heads, while kids played with the most basic of toys: like a bicycle rim, but they were all happy and made us feel welcomed as we passed by.

About half way down the dirt road it slowly started to get a bit sandy, nothing major but now you had to take a bit more care and as more miles passed it turn into a full on soft sand road. Now there are all types of sand but this was dry, deep, soft, fine sand and riding became much more challenging. If you haven’t ridden in the sand before then I can tell you that it is tough, especially on the GS’s as they are heavy and not easy to manage in these conditions.

First to eat sand was Adam as his front wheel dug in and his face planted hard at the bottom of a dip.  No damage to the robust GS but Adam took a knock to his head, neck, and shoulder and called it a day a bit further down the road and joined Steven in the support vehicle with about 15km still to go.

It wasn’t a bad idea, the road only got worse as the sand became finer and the road narrowed, you just had to follow the deep ruts that the 4×4’s had made but this gave you little room for error and we were all having more than a few close ones as the weighty BMW’s became difficult to handle.

The smaller 800 was easier to ride than the 1200 and it was great to see the guys battle on, dig deep, and ride the road ahead of them no matter how challenging. Our so called quick lunch stop had turned into a 2½ hour sweaty struggle but all was forgotten as we finally came to the end of the road as we rode into paradise; miles of deserted beaches lined with palm trees and the sound of the sea crashing to the shore.

Oh my, this place is incredible and an over heated Alessandro celebrated by stripping off to his underpants running into the sea as he yelled the ‘F’ word.  It was so fantastic, I quickly followed myself, Valerio, and Gabriele as we all needed cooling off after that tough ride. The so called quick lunch was now where we would spend the night, no one wanted to leave or endure the fine sand again, this was perfect and I felt very blessed to be here.  Wow, motorcycles really do take you to your dreams.

Day6: Our earliest wake up call of the trip so far was today as we said goodbye to Gabriele as we lost one of the Italian’s and one of our Africa team riders. Gabriele’s ride was unfortunately now over as he had to get back to running his company as well as get back in time for the Indianapolis MotoGP.  We all got up to bid our farewells, watched the sun come up, and then went straight back to bed for an hour before getting up for the real official wake up time and then headed on a good hike down the beach to see what was around.

What we found was miles and miles of practically deserted beach, beautiful sand, clean ocean, and an abundance of interesting shells.  This was beautiful, gorgeous, and the most beautiful beach I’d ever sat foot on.

After a 2 hour walk to what looked like a hotel turned out to be abandoned and run down.  No cold drinks as we gasped but like some kind of miracle some South African tourists strolled up, gave us a tinny each – which went down as a treat as we stared at the coastline and blow holes, all speechless for a change.

By the time we had walked back to our accommodations I was burnt and bright pink from the African sun, my humiliation continued as I ran from a baby crab on the beach which was seen by Adam and Alessandro.

A wonderful evening meal, brilliant company, and lots of biking talk was the icing on the cake to a  peaceful and relaxing day.  Mozambique is a wonderful place and tomorrow we’ll go and discover more, right now we are chillin’.

Day7: Before we could really get to see more of Mozambique we first had to head back to the main road, this was a 58km’s of off-road ride, half of it tough sand, the other half smooth dirt. It was the sand everyone feared as it had bitten everyone who had ridden their wheels on it, I’d somehow stayed up right this time but there was time yet.

After performing  a flying ‘W’ on his way into paradise, Adam with the cricked neck and sore shoulder decided it was better to meet his bike back at the main road and on the asphalt so I had the job of riding his machine out from where he’d left it on the way in, around 40km’s from the road.

The riding was enjoyable and challenging, very colorful thanks to the friendly locals and but by the time we’d all done that and repaired Valerio’s exhaust bracket, had a drink, refueled and got on the road, we’d only 3 or so hours of daylight riding left. From this point south Mozambique became busier, the Police were out in force through the towns and by night fall we hadn’t got that far.

To make matters worse, Valario had got bitch slapped by a tree on his way back out of the sand which caused his arm to be pulled, front wheel to be yanked and he received a handlebar punch to the ribs. The usual cheery tanned Italian now looked pasty faced and in ever increasing agony, so riding much longer seemed out of the question.

Looking for a place to spend the night became a game of ask the stranger at villages and gas stations to get some directions to a suitable hotel or guest house. In the end we gave a taxi drive $10 to take us to one and it ended up being the biggest dive you could ever believe.

The room was so nasty I didn’t want to touch anything, the toilet still had poo splashes from previous visitors, bare wires were sticking out of the bathroom wall and getting into bed made me cringe as I pushed my foot down the very used bed sheets and put my head on the stained pillow.

Somehow we gone from paradise to sh*t ville in one hit, one of the riders was injured and the food I’d just eaten was already causing destruction in my belly, this must be life’s balance for having such an incredible day yesterday, I prayed tomorrow would be improve.

Day8: We awoke to more carnage as in the night our room had somehow filled up with water from a hallway leak and there was water all over the floor. Adam’s bag containing his laptop was in the middle of the puddle on our bedroom floor, this hotel was a nightmare and we all couldn’t wait to get out of this place. The only good thing to come out of staying at such a dive was we were all dressed and ready to hit the road before 7am, Valerio was looking much better and soon we were heading back towards the capital Maputo and quickly putting the nightmare accommodation behind us.

The road to Maputo was littered with over loaded trucks, vans, pick-ups, stalls at the side of the road selling cashew nuts and homemade chilli’s. As we closed in on the capital Maputo it was rather chaotic and people and vehicles were everywhere, our pace was slowed dramatically and this was the first bad traffic we’d encountered in Mozambique.

Luckily we didn’t have to go right into the center and as soon as we were away from Maputo we stripped some layers off the Durban and enjoyed the deserted ride to the SA boarder. Learning from our mistake in Zimbabwe, we didn’t ask for help or local assistance at the boarder, we just joined the back of the queue and waited our turn, it was cheaper and easier.

I’m still unsure why but I was picked out of the line up by a Police officer, told to get all of our documents together and he called me his friend. I thought this was going to work out one of two ways but what the hell, so I followed him like he asked and I was amazed when he escorted me to the front of every line where I got all of our documents and passports stamped with no hassles at all.

The South African side was even easier and the whole boarder crossing was done in less than 30mins, again this must have been the balance of having such a sh*tty time crossing into Zimbabwe, anyway we were all safely back in South Africa and happy to be so.

Hippo crossings, wide rivers, rolling hills and stacks of Police trying to catch speeding vehicles was our first hour of SA but as the temperatures reached a all time high for our trip we were happy to stop for a late lunch at a place that over looked Nelspruit, rehydrate and cool our stinky feet in the swimming pool.

All that was left was now a short ride to our final hotel of the trip, enjoy riding alongside the sun setting and just cruise, it had been a long day of riding and yesterday evening meal at the dive felt like it was about to explode inside of me, I hoped I’d reach the toilet in time and this one would at least be clean.

Day 9 & 10: The hotel/house was perfect, it sleeps 6, had all the mod cons and was right next to the Kruger Park – one of Africa’s largest national parks, trouble was the local service workers were on strike due to wanting more pay, that’s why the streets were littered with rubbish and there was also no water.

I only found out about the water after I tried to flush the liquified remains of my last Mozambique dinner away, no water, no flush – it’s not good when you’re the one who stinks the house out with your bombay bottom, thankfully the water was back after we had returned to the evacuated house after our evening meal.

Our earliest of early starts was today as we were up even before the sun and heading into the Kruger Park for a bit of animal spotting.

The Kruger has all endangered animals, it doesn’t feed any of them, they behave like they do in the wild, it’s survival of the fittest.

On a trip to South Africa in 1996, a Japanese man had jumped out of his car to get a closer photo of the Lions, he got the picture he was looking for as well has his head bitten off moments later, his friends photos of him getting eaten made the local paper – none of us wanted to be food so we chose the safety of a guided safari.

It was spectacular, we were all lucky enough to see the big 5 – Lion, Leopard, Elephant, Rhino and Buffalo as well as many other wild and gorgeous creatures. It was day that was full of splendor that was topped of with a cool bit off off-roading and lastly a visit to a local market where I bought some fruit, chatted with some stall holders about English soccer (Which I have no idea about) and then ate some kind of grub snack which they found quite amusing.

This whole African trip is now sadly coming to a close, I fly home tomorrow and my riding is now finished and as you can see from the photos, it’s been quite a spectacular trip.

Riding new roads, discovering new places, eating different food and making new friends is what it’s all about and doing all of this in Africa on the fantastic BMW adventure machine, made it even better.

My hat goes off to Alessandro & Adam for organizing and arranging the whole thing and for inviting more buddies so that others could enjoy the fun, great job!

There has been some awesome moments and loads to look back on but as I close this adventure and think back, my 3 most memorable moments are: 

The Zimbabwe boarder crossing – where we got taken for a ride with fines and bribes

Rural Africa – mud homes, colorful people, happy & friendly faces

Riding with friends – Gabriele, Alessandro, Adam & Valerio – We had such a great time clicking by the miles and seeing the sights

As any good friendship, there was lots of sarcasm and p*ss taking on the trip, all of us ended up with trip nick names after either embarrassing ourselves or just doing your thing, let me explain:

Adam – AKA Mr. Negotiator/Flying ‘W’: First became the negotiator after arranging lots of the trip, somehow getting us through the Zimbabwe boarder after tiring of the bribes of the boarder Police and going to speak with their boss! Later Adam would eat sand (Still chewing grit days later) after ploughing head first on a remote sandy road in Mozambique and performed the perfect flying ‘W’.

Alessandro – AKA Mr. Burger: Every meal, Ali ordered a burger, the most exciting was a cheese burger. For some reason the adventurous Italian stuck to the simplest of diets, one day he had a Burger for breakfast, lunch and Dinner….no lie.

Gabriele – AKA The Shepherd: For much of the trip Gabriele sat at the back of the pack, kept the group together and all of us in order. When the time came to lead the group on a testing night ride in the twisty hills of Zimbabwe he had no hesitations at taking control and leading us all to safety.

Jamie – AKA Mr. Pink/Baby Crab: I got the name all in one day after walking on paradise beach for hours and my see through English skin turned bright pink, I was later seen jumping back in shock and letting out a little scream as a baby crab suddenly legged it past me on the same stretch of beach.

Valerio – AKA Mr. Smoking Rib: At first he was the Smoking Joker as every chance get got he was lightening up a fag and joking around. The jokes stopped after he took a handlebar punch to the rib cage and even smiling became painful. It never stopped him smoking through…