CrazyPorra
Race Dog
This really brought back memories!!! 
Just look at the price differences, remember that Moz money lost 3 zeros some time in 2006.
Well enjoy the read, very outdated if you see the amount of development taking place , now you even have a bridge over the Zambezi.
Will add pics when I get back to SA.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Day 1 (14/12/2002)
John (Dakar 650 GS) and myself (Africa Twin) woke up at 04:00 and left home at 05:30 to meet Bob (Africa Twin) at Mc Ginty’s in Benoni, where we had a photo shoot for the beginning of the trip.
We left Benoni at 06:00 and had an uneventful ride to Machadodorp, missing the Middelburg Toll Gate (honest citizens), we managed to maintain a cruising speed of 115-125 km/h on the Speedo’s, we stopped at the Caltex one stop for a well deserved cup of coffee.
From here I decided that there being no alternate route around the Machado Toll Gate that I wasn’t going to pay the +/- R35 fees, so I proceeded to break the law by not paying, this according to Bob and John caused quite a stir of excitement at the Toll Gate.
In Nelspruit Bob had to do some banking while John and myself went to the Wimpy for brunch and were later joined by Bob.
Due to some misplacing of disk lock keys, John had to purchase a new disk lock with a price tag of R250, not bad considering that the same costs +/- R130 in Jhb.
I was testing a newly acquired Africa Twin (old one had been taken for distribution to the Wealth Redistribution Program of South Africa) for consumption and decided not to fill up in Nelspruit, not bad it went onto reserve at 345km and when I finally filled up it had done 398km on 21,55l of fuel, I nearly forgot there is another toll gate at Malelane which I again did not pay for, I must admit that I was starting to feel guilty about this but this guilt quickly disappeared when I thought of how much damage the heavily loaded taxi and trailers where causing to the road every time one rolled, I counted six accident scenes.
Here follows a sequence of events that I witnessed just outside Malelane, an overloaded taxi with an overloaded double axle venter trailer with its wheels running at about 45 degrees was pulled over by traffic officials and he was allowed to proceed with his journey even though he only had 3 wheels on the trailer, the fourth didn’t exist, wonder what Christmas present the traffic officials received from the driver.
We arrived at Komatipoort only to find a queue of 4 wheeled cages backed up to the BP garage, we thought about skipping the queue but it would still take us about 2 hours to clear the congested border post, so we to headed towards Swaziland with an added bonus of cheap petrol. This was a good decision as we found a pleasant border post with officials too match and an air conditioner what a pleasure, John was even getting a few smiles from two international lady tourists, but I am sure they took a liking to his Dakar rather than him.
Through Swaziland and onto the Namaacha border post where we spent +/- 45 min. We left and arrived at my brother’s pad in Matola at 16:45 where we carried out some minor repairs to my aftermarket crash bars, before making our way to Maputo in a 4 wheel cage for supper at the Costa do Sol Restaurant, great meal and view.
We were later joined by Chris from Botswana(GS Adventure), Hein from Pretoria(Varadero), Johan and girlfriend from Eastern Transvaal(Africa Twin).
At around 21:00 we retired to a good nights sleep.
Just look at the price differences, remember that Moz money lost 3 zeros some time in 2006.
Well enjoy the read, very outdated if you see the amount of development taking place
, now you even have a bridge over the Zambezi.Will add pics when I get back to SA.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Day 1 (14/12/2002)
John (Dakar 650 GS) and myself (Africa Twin) woke up at 04:00 and left home at 05:30 to meet Bob (Africa Twin) at Mc Ginty’s in Benoni, where we had a photo shoot for the beginning of the trip.
We left Benoni at 06:00 and had an uneventful ride to Machadodorp, missing the Middelburg Toll Gate (honest citizens), we managed to maintain a cruising speed of 115-125 km/h on the Speedo’s, we stopped at the Caltex one stop for a well deserved cup of coffee.
From here I decided that there being no alternate route around the Machado Toll Gate that I wasn’t going to pay the +/- R35 fees, so I proceeded to break the law by not paying, this according to Bob and John caused quite a stir of excitement at the Toll Gate.
In Nelspruit Bob had to do some banking while John and myself went to the Wimpy for brunch and were later joined by Bob.
Due to some misplacing of disk lock keys, John had to purchase a new disk lock with a price tag of R250, not bad considering that the same costs +/- R130 in Jhb.
I was testing a newly acquired Africa Twin (old one had been taken for distribution to the Wealth Redistribution Program of South Africa) for consumption and decided not to fill up in Nelspruit, not bad it went onto reserve at 345km and when I finally filled up it had done 398km on 21,55l of fuel, I nearly forgot there is another toll gate at Malelane which I again did not pay for, I must admit that I was starting to feel guilty about this but this guilt quickly disappeared when I thought of how much damage the heavily loaded taxi and trailers where causing to the road every time one rolled, I counted six accident scenes.
Here follows a sequence of events that I witnessed just outside Malelane, an overloaded taxi with an overloaded double axle venter trailer with its wheels running at about 45 degrees was pulled over by traffic officials and he was allowed to proceed with his journey even though he only had 3 wheels on the trailer, the fourth didn’t exist, wonder what Christmas present the traffic officials received from the driver.
We arrived at Komatipoort only to find a queue of 4 wheeled cages backed up to the BP garage, we thought about skipping the queue but it would still take us about 2 hours to clear the congested border post, so we to headed towards Swaziland with an added bonus of cheap petrol. This was a good decision as we found a pleasant border post with officials too match and an air conditioner what a pleasure, John was even getting a few smiles from two international lady tourists, but I am sure they took a liking to his Dakar rather than him.
Through Swaziland and onto the Namaacha border post where we spent +/- 45 min. We left and arrived at my brother’s pad in Matola at 16:45 where we carried out some minor repairs to my aftermarket crash bars, before making our way to Maputo in a 4 wheel cage for supper at the Costa do Sol Restaurant, great meal and view.
We were later joined by Chris from Botswana(GS Adventure), Hein from Pretoria(Varadero), Johan and girlfriend from Eastern Transvaal(Africa Twin).
At around 21:00 we retired to a good nights sleep.
