Author Topic: Cape Town to the Isle of Man (Read 672 times)

#111 · « **on:** April 17, 2013, 09:57:15 pm »

Finally the trip has started.
Cape Town to the Isle of Man up the West coast of Africa

2 Riders
Willy van Niekerk and Phillip Deacon both seasoned riders. I am more of a track racer ( hence # 111) and Phil is more of a off road rider.
Our bikes Hinda XR 650 L`s. Both 2012 models with Dakar fairings, Extreme light 3000 lumen spots , long range 22 ltr tanks laggage racks ( thanks Halfdaft)

Tuesday the 16th the day dawn for us to start our epic journey north.
We met at the Malmesbury Engin and started from there.
We had a bad start to the day with me finding that I had lost lost my Go Pro remote somewhere between home and the garage as well as my Hella male socket.

There was a howling North wester blowing and we battled against this all day long with 10 degree lean angles being the norm as the wind was pushing us over.

The ride to Springbok was uneventfull but when we stopped we noticed that Phils rear tyre was destroyed with every second knob ripped out of his T 63 rear tyre. We managed to find a shop that would assist us with changing of the tyre as we were carrying a spare set. That left me with a problem as my tyre had also started to do the same but I only hasd one knob missing.

We arrived safely at Felix unite and rewarded ourslef with some nice cold ones.

Today started good with no wind this morning

#111 · « **Reply #1 on:** April 17, 2013, 10:16:22 pm »

Part 2
Felix Unite to Windhoek
The day started well with no wind and good weather. Roads were nice and quiet.
When we arrived at Keetmanshoop and saw that my back tyre had also ripped out the knobs same a Phils yesterday. With 500 km to go to Windhoek this was a very scary ride.
Spare tryes arrange in Windhoek now we just needed to get there. Rode very slowly for about 50 KM and checked the tyre again and noticed no further degradation speed up to 100 Km hour for 50 Km still no problem so stayed at 100 for the duration of the ride.
Finally arrived here late today and tomorrow we need to ge the new tyres as well as repair a CDI unit properly - mine failed last Sat just prior to leaving and I managed to get it working again but need to check all teh soldered joint properly and seal up again
. Also need to repair the Spirit comms system that I purchased as the socket for the head phones has broken off in the helmet unit.

Oh yes and we passed the Tropic of Capricorn today

Casting from Turd · « **Reply #2 on:** April 18, 2013, 05:41:39 am »

1ougat · « **Reply #3 on:** April 18, 2013, 05:44:21 am »

Crossed-up · « **Reply #4 on:** April 18, 2013, 06:13:48 am »

Good luck and safe riding!

Casting from Turd · « **Reply #5 on:** April 18, 2013, 06:23:38 am »

Quote from: #111 on April 17, 2013, 09:57:15 pm

Finally the trip has started.
Cape Town to the Isle of Man up the West coast of Africa

2 Riders
Willy van Niekerk and Phillip Deacon both seasoned riders. I am more of a track racer ( hence # 111) and Phil is more of a off road rider.
Our bikes Hinda Is the Mahindra;s motorcycle branch?XR 650 L`s. Both 2012 models with Dakar fairings, Extreme light 3000 lumen spots , long range 22 ltr tanks laggage racks ( thanks Halfdaft)

Tuesday the 16th the day dawn for us to start our epic journey north.
We met at the Malmesbury Engin and started from there.
We had a bad start to the day with me finding that I had lost lost my Go Pro remote somewhere between home and the garage as well as my Hella male socket.

There was a howling North wester blowing and we battled against this all day long with 10 degree lean angles being the norm as the wind was pushing us over.

The ride to Springbok was uneventfull but when we stopped we noticed that Phils rear tyre was destroyed with every second knob ripped out of his T 63 rear tyre. We managed to find a shop that would assist us with changing of the tyre as we were carrying a spare set. That left me with a problem as my tyre had also started to do the same but I only hasd one knob missing.

We arrived safely at Felix unite and rewarded ourslef with some nice cold ones.

Today started good with no wind this morning

Fixed

#111 · « **Reply #6 on:** April 18, 2013, 05:57:45 pm »

In Windhoek
Spent the day sourcing tyres. Finally found some Michellin Sirac`s at Super tyres in Windhoek. For those who do not know Windhoek DO NOT USE super tyres in the centre of town as they do not do bike tyres, use the branch on the north side of town. We spent most of the day going from pillar to post and end up buying tyres from Yamaha but found tyres at super tyres more suited to our needs.
Many thanks to Fakkie from Yamaha Windhoek who took the tyres he sold us back.
We gave the spirit comms system and CDI unit to a company called Engineering Centre CC who resoldered all the joints on the CDI and resoldered the headphone jack female socket back. All in good working order again.
We now need to visit Spanish embassy in town to see if I can get a visa changed as the war in Mali is causing us some greif in that we cannot get visas to pass through Niger or Algeria. Also Nigeria don`t want to give us visas as we want to travel to Sokoto and advisory is no foreigners in the northen part of the country.
So that leaves us with one option only and that is to fly the bikes to EU from Cameroon.
So sad.
Hope fully we meet up with some other travellers who have recently crossed and they can offer some advise.

donovan paton · « **Reply #7 on:** April 18, 2013, 06:03:20 pm »

Sub, one day when I am big I will follow in your foot steps.

Three Dawg · « **Reply #8 on:** April 18, 2013, 08:48:47 pm »

#111 · « **Reply #9 on:** April 22, 2013, 09:02:36 pm »

Comms pretty bad so reports will be internmittent.
Left Windhoek on Sunday Morning and had a good ride to Oshidongwa. Very quiet road barirng cows and goats crossing at random.
Spen the night at fantasia Guest house in Oshidingwa and headed for the border early in the morning. Arrived at 07;00 and had to wait for the post to open. Then spent the next 4 hours waiting to get in due to system "failures" .
The "klonkies" treid to rip us off but we managed to sort this out and got away with only paying what we had and gave them a "gift' of a couple of bicks as they did help us.

The ride to Lubongo is very intersting with a ride of 98 km involving us riding over some very serious gravel, remians of tar roads, pot holes and thick soft sand.
We almost hit 2 trucks as we were riding due to dust and no visibility at all.
Arrived in Lubongo at night and if you have never driven in a African city at night this is a challenge in itself.
Found a place called Casper Lodge for $ 25 camping per night, bikes secure everything good.

Today we rode to Lobito via Bengulea and was most upset when my GoPro battery failed prior to reaching the baobabe forests as that is a sight to see. Everybody needs to see this at least once in your life.

Racer 97 · « **Reply #10 on:** April 23, 2013, 07:51:20 am »

I'm so jealous ,Post some pictures please

Karoo Rider · « **Reply #11 on:** April 23, 2013, 07:55:15 am »

DirtRebell · « **Reply #12 on:** April 23, 2013, 08:10:23 am »

Subscribe!

#111 · « **Reply #13 on:** April 23, 2013, 06:03:31 pm »

some pics

#111 · « **Reply #14 on:** April 23, 2013, 06:09:23 pm »

more pix

#111 · « **Reply #15 on:** April 23, 2013, 06:15:52 pm »

more pics

#111 · « **Reply #16 on:** April 23, 2013, 06:19:28 pm »

more pics

Fuzzy Muzzy · « **Reply #17 on:** April 23, 2013, 06:22:35 pm »

So awesome.. enjoy the ride.

Those T63's you can't go too fast when they are new..

Sub !!!

#111 · « **Reply #18 on:** April 23, 2013, 08:36:55 pm »

So here we have it.

Dear Willy

I have spoken to the Secretary General (Director -General) of the Niger Foreign Ministry and they have indicated that travelling through Niger on you planned route is not possible at this time due to the security situation. I have also spoken to colleagues in Nigeria and Algeria and all have indicated that it's life threatening at this time to attempt travelling though these regions with a car. Travelling by motorcycle is suicidal.

I would therefore recommend that you postpone your venture until such time as the security situation has improved.

Kind regards
Joe Castle

South African Embassy Niamey, NIGER
Avenue de la Radio, Nord-QUEST Cité ORTN
Tel no 00227 2072 6083
Fax no 00227 2072 6082

Now we will have to change our plans bg time as the cost Implications to freight are way to high so now looking at Going East to Zambia and Malawi and return to SA via Moz . Our Vizas for Angola are single entry so we cannot leave and turn around we can only go one way and that is South and get on plane to go watch the IOM TT. F*ckin frustratiing

1ougat · « **Reply #19 on:** April 24, 2013, 03:15:36 am »

In 1999 I also went on n trip to the TT - it is somthing to experiencev- Why dont you also do the 24hr Le Mans and Goodwood festival of speed , It happens in at a similar time that you are there and there is bustrips that can take you to France from London . did all three myself and it is all bucket list things