Author Topic: Africa Raw Paws (Read 8524 times)

Hubs640 · « **Reply #120 on:** February 19, 2013, 01:48:08 pm »

Lake Kariba is huge and have allot of house boats in some bay's. Tiger fishing is also very popular,but it was outside our budget to try-the charter alone was over R1000

Hubs640 · « **Reply #121 on:** February 19, 2013, 01:53:46 pm »

Warthogs bar - nice crowd , budget friendly and very nice chow

Hubs640 · « **Reply #122 on:** February 19, 2013, 01:54:57 pm »

Our cabin - it was so nice to sleep in a bed for a change....with a fan - man its hot there

Hubs640 · « **Reply #123 on:** February 19, 2013, 01:59:01 pm »

That is us with Burt - a Belgium that has traveled solo all the way on his Transalp. Petrol brackets he made himself and did it on road tyre's with no punctures....almost unbelievable. He too has never ridden a bike before this trip-lucky bastard took 1 year off to do this - I wish him well

Brandt · « **Reply #124 on:** February 19, 2013, 02:32:28 pm »

Very nice

Hubs640 · « **Reply #125 on:** February 19, 2013, 02:47:50 pm »

Day 20 - Kariba to Lusaka/Zambia [ 200km , 100% tar]

I woke at 2am due to a tooth ache and found that the power has tripped - on investigation I hear a group of hippo's not further that 20 meters away,grazing!
We had coffee that morning with Burt [the Belgium dude] and exchanged money and sim cards since he was going south and we north. While packing Roadkill nearly bumped heads with a green snake that was chilling in our cabin - not sure if it was there all night. The owners of Warthogs bought their son a PV50 and sprayed it orange and asked our help in hiding it from him-it was his Christmas present. We hid it between ours with a blanket over it - it was so cool to see this laaitie's face! He cruised around on that thing till we left.Kariba [the town] is right on the border and the exit from Zimbabwe went very quick. We then rode over the dam wall to the Zambian side which took MUCH longer to get through.And its expensive -$10 for customs,$20 for road levies and another $10 for road taxes! The scenery to Lusaka is beautiful with green mountains and nice view's,but the road is terrible with massive potholes.[We dubed the road 'Truck Eater' since we must have encountered 8 broken down trucks allong the way]. There is loads of Catholic churches and people selling malasha[charcoal] and petrol along side the road and the closer we came to Lusaka the busier the road got....traffic for the first time in almost 3 weeks!We found a place call Eureka farm just before the city centre and decided to stay there since it was close to where we needed to take our bikes for their scheduled service the next day. Ok place-not really something to write home about

Hubs640 · « **Reply #126 on:** February 19, 2013, 05:16:19 pm »

Truck-eating road leading to Lusaka

Hubs640 · « **Reply #127 on:** February 19, 2013, 05:17:32 pm »

Road leading to Eureka Farm - it was on quite a big small holding and there were some game roaming around

Hubs640 · « **Reply #128 on:** February 19, 2013, 05:42:07 pm »

Day 21 & 22 - Lusaka

You realise you are on holiday [or out the rat race] when you have no idea of what day of the week it is!We booked our service with Ray Wilson [the KTM dealer in Lusaka] months in advance and kept him in the loop of our progress as it was impossible to give him the exact date-we thought it was Friday,but it turned out to be Saturday!Luckily he was open and ready for us when we got there early the morning,but there was a spanner in the works....he sold our tyre's to somebody else and have none for us!!!!!We left the bikes there and headed for town to stock up. Working with so many currencies were becoming very confusing - our shopping came to 560 000 Kwacha's which sounded ridiculous. Back at KTM Ray had no solution to our tyre issue,but did not charge us for labour which was meant to make up for it.....but come on-how can it? Our fronts are still fine,but the rear's are looking like it could only do another 1000km or so.We headed back to camp and started a fire and put the thinking caps on. The only solution was to get tyre's couriered from SA,but with Dakar on,nobody had Michellin Deserts to sell and nobody was willing to help with getting it to us!Roadkill managed to arrange for a friend to collect some Mitas tyres in CT and courier them to Dar es Salam from where they then got taken to Mbya in Tanzania where we could collect,but that was still 3000km away and cost nearly R4000 per tyre! No tyre,no journey,so no choice.We spent the next day[had to wait till the Monday to put the plan into action] doing washing and conversing with our new friend Kano[a true Viking who hunts in Zambia]We took a walk into the bush to see some wild life-zebra's,antilope,diffuse waterbuck,kudu and a small heard of giraffe's who allowed us to come within 30 meters from them! Its was really special. An overlanding truck came by and turned out to be the most grumpy lot of travelers.....oooo...you've been to Africa.... We made an awesome veggie pack on the braai and washed it down with some brandy and got ready for the next day's ride..

Hubs640 · « **Reply #129 on:** February 19, 2013, 05:53:10 pm »

It was raining all the time and this seemed like the best way to keep everything dry.....it worked!

Hubs640 · « **Reply #130 on:** February 19, 2013, 05:54:16 pm »

KTM Lusaka - neat workshop with all the gadgets,just no tyres

Hubs640 · « **Reply #131 on:** February 19, 2013, 05:54:54 pm »

Ray and his team

Hubs640 · « **Reply #132 on:** February 19, 2013, 06:00:33 pm »

Giraffe's in the bush - check the baby....man that was cool and they were so well camouflaged

Hubs640 · « **Reply #133 on:** February 19, 2013, 06:02:27 pm »

Roadkill was complaining about all the unnecessary items we are transporting with us...like his ax,so we decided on collecting our own wood in the bush.

goingnowherequickly · « **Reply #134 on:** February 19, 2013, 09:54:55 pm »

Really enjoying this report...
Keep it up

The axe , well its a hammer too...

Hubs640 · « **Reply #135 on:** February 21, 2013, 05:25:15 pm »

Day 23 - Lusaka to Mkushi [ 370km , 60% gravel]

We woke up early and had a coffee with one of the overlander guy's before we got onto our serviced,washed,clean bike's to hit the road. It was Monday morning in peak traffic going through centre of the city....crazy-took us about 1 hour. On the way to Kabwe you pass through many small towns and all are selling fruits and veg on the side of the road. Lots of farming also happening-nice to see that the locals are making work of the fertile soil they have.In Kabwe Roadkill sealed the deal of getting the tyre's to Tanzania [after MUCH frustration I must add] and after a pie and a coke we were again reunited with the bush...it was so nice to get out the buzz of city life again. At the Mita river we crossed a pontoon which did not show on the map-after that we had a fun filled road with BIG pools requiring quick decision making and throwing the bike's weight around - awesome fun,but strenuous on the body.Then the paw paw hit the fan - it was starting to get dark,thick clouds of rain in the distance and we still have 60km to do till the next town!Now we joke about it,but that was hectic - it rained so hard that I could not see through my visor and Roadkill could not see at all with his goggles on. So there we were-doing 40km/h in the dark,me following a car in front and Roadkill following me on a badly corrugated road unable to see further than 15 meter. Once at the tar road we decided against our original camping plans and headed for the first motel we could find and what a dump we found....Mariana Hotel-130 000 Kwacha for a dodgy room with no electricity[the storm caused a power failure] and no water. But we were out the rain and it had a bar,so we calmed the nerves with a brandy and settled for canned supper...and we said we will never ride in the dark....never say never.

Hubs640 · « **Reply #136 on:** February 21, 2013, 05:31:01 pm »

Traffic going through Lusaka on a Monday morning

Hubs640 · « **Reply #137 on:** February 21, 2013, 05:32:27 pm »

Pontoon at Mita river.....yeah,in the bush again!

Hubs640 · « **Reply #138 on:** February 21, 2013, 05:33:53 pm »

Last light before the storm - man that was intense!

Hubs640 · « **Reply #139 on:** February 21, 2013, 05:35:25 pm »

Dodgy Mariana Hotel - even the bike's got to sleep out the rain