Day 2I woke up early and after breakfast of Salticrax and canned pate, packed up and was off west towards the power station. The day was shaping up nicely - there were clouds in the sky illuminated by the raising sun but no threat of the forecasted rain. At the power station turn-off I turned north and hit the dirt road heading towards Stockport border crossing about 70 km north. I’ve ridden this road on Tenere before the suspension upgrades and remembered it as tricky affair that you need to pay attention to. It looks easy - your standard Limpopo dirt road going straight through bush, but it’s sandy with corrugations and tracks all over the show as cars are trying to find the least corrugated line.
However with the suspension and luggage sorted - no more tail wagging I’m glad to report, it was a breeze and within km or two I completely eased into the ride. The bike tracked great and I could deal with frequent washouts from recent rains with aggression rather than caution that I had to resort to before. I have seen some game along the way and the clouds illuminated by the early morning sun gave me that fresh new day zen feeling - life was good.
So good that the universe felt a need for correction and about 3 km before the border once I hit the tar again the mushy feeling from the back tyre told me that superbike tube patching technique does not work for adventure bikes. To be fair to the guys, it lasted for about 80 km, while my patches usually come off within first 2 km. I coasted off the road next to a little family settlement of about 5 huts or so - with the family already involved in the simple life of leisure we hard nosed professionals work so hard to achieve sometimes in the ephemeral future. I asked one of the guys if there is a place around that fixes tyres. I do not think he fully understood my English - this is Afrikaans territory and I have funny accent - and he offered instead his somewhat modest tool kit. Nice gesture anyway.
Fixing flat can be a good spectator sport if you have a time (definitely much faster flowing than cricket
):
Nicely set-up workshop - note the most critical tyre fixing tool featured prominently on the bottom left corner:
And done. Also good illustration of the vastly superior luggage set-up for dirt riding (sorry I'm short of pictures for this day so have to pad it up a bit):
With this attempt at mindless consumerism averted, I got my somewhat more comprehensive toolkit out (it includes shampoo, which is crucial for greasing the rubber before insertion so to speak) and got to work. The family watched me and their easy vibe rubbed off on me, so it took me good two hours wallowing in the red sand before I was ready to go again. I didn’t bother patching the tube as I was healed of the silly belief that it is possible and instead I’ve put in the spare tube.
Not keen to hit the bush up north without spare tube, I retraced 70 km back to Ellisras to get new tube - to save time I took tar. Ellisras is bustling town so I hoped to be able to get the tube there, but kept my optimism in check as I know from experience how difficult it is to get bike spares in SA outside main cities. The best one was when I tried to buy 17 inch tube in what I believe is official Yamaha dealership in Kimberley, where they had brand new Tenere on the floor and the spare’s guy told me that they do not carry 17 inch tubes as no bikes use them. Well in a way he had a point - no self respecting dirt capable bike should ride on 17 inches. To cater for the tube/tyre availability and better offroad-ability I have eventually swapped my rear for 18 inches rim.
Back in the business area of Ellisras next to Toyota dealership I found a shop with Yamaha brand all over it - they were mostly selling boats and quads, but they had some farm bikes on the floor which to me seemed like 18 inch wheelers. But no, they do not sell tubes (do farmers make their own tubes?). There was also busy tyre repair shop in the same building, but again, they did not carry motorcycle tubes. They said they can patch the old tube, but I knew better by now (actually, I have seen a motorbike tube patched successfully - but that was long time ago in Pakistan, it seems to be lost art in SA - feel free to let me how its done if you know).
I eventually got from someone a phone number for Gert, who has a shop fixing dirt bikes outside Ellisras. He was out of town, but confirmed that he has a tube for me, even the heavy duty one and his assistant will let me have it - score! Given my history of getting lost in Ellisras, his directions for the shop left me a bit worried. But they were spot on - just in case you need a tube in Ellisras: from Toyota dealership take the main road to Thabazimbi, when passing hotel Palm Springs (or something like that with Springs in the name) on the right, start counting km and the workshop is exactly 5 km out of town on the left - there is a sign for veterinarian.
With the tube safely packed in, I turned north again. As I’ve lost half a day again I decided to go for the main border crossing at Martin’s Drift instead of Stockport as it was more direct route to Palapye on the way to Makgadikgadi. As soon as I’ve got to the border I knew it was a mistake - it was holidays and the border was packed with the SA tourists in 4x4s heading for Bots. SA side was OK, but on the Bots side we’ve hit big bottleneck. The immigration was fine as there were enough officers to process the load and we didn’t even need to fill those little immigration forms anymore, but as usual there was only one window open to pay the mandatory road tax.
For over an hour and a half I fumed in the long line as my blood was boiling in the stifling heat with all my gear on. I have to admit that I have very ambivalent relationship with Botswana. On the one hand it has IMO the best national parks in the world - for me the Okavango delta, especially Moremi deep inside the delta is the shit. It is also probably the best country to conserve African wildlife in its natural habitat as it has very little population and therefore little pressures between population and animals, and as a result its north is one of the last places where animals roam freely and are not fenced in. On the other hand, considering its size, I always felt that there are relatively few opportunities for good dirt riding - yes there is Makgadikgadi (and probably south around Transfrontier), but outside of that most of the places you just have to stick to tar (I was wrong on this one as I was to find out on this trip). But most importantly Botswanian officials have this annoying tendency to stick mindlessly to the bureaucratic rules and no initiative whatsoever to accommodate independent travelers who just don’t fit into their standardised tabular worldview. Getting visa for Botswana was always unbelievable hassle with constantly changing rules, and booking campsites in the delta is just plain joke - they are all booked out for almost a year, yet they were always half empty when I was there on numerous occasions. And this in a country for which tourism is second or third biggest source of revenue. Very different from the rest of Africa, where you can always find a way to resolve unexpected issues - and no, I did not have to pay single bribe in my one year travelling through Africa.
By the time I’ve made it through the border the zen was gone I was again my usual grumpy self. I’ve stopped at the Kwa Nokeng petrol station to change money and buy few things. I was aware of the office of Kwa Nokeng Adventures who organize bike trips through Bots, but choose to stay away as I did not want to spoil their day with my foul mood. However Clinton - owner of the Kwa Nokeng Adventures - was there and called me into his office to find out what I was up to. I explained my plan to try to circumvent Okavango delta through the northern cutlines. I could sense that he did not know what to make out of this grumpy sweaty idiot with funny accent trying to navigate solo a track even he hasn’t done yet - I found out later from SA biking magazines, that he is probably one of the most knowledgeable people on the Bots dirt routes. But he gave me a benefit of doubt and suggested an alternative: from Maun go up to the Mababe gate at the south end of Chobe and take 19th parallel cutline along the Chobe southern boundary east towards Pandamatenga on the main road between Nata and Kasane and from there take the Old Hunter’s Road on the border of Bots and Zim to Kasane - basically the route Goonrider was looking for. I knew that 19th parallel goes through 200 km of hunting concessions, but he said that shouldn’t be a problem as the hunting season is over and Bots government actually was in the process of taking away the concessions as they are not in line with their conservation efforts. He has done the route with a group before and had no problems - the track was not on T4A tracks or in the map, but he gave me key waypoints to follow. He also recommended Zimbabwe - going along the southern shore of lake Kariba all the way to the town of Kariba and then south to the Eastern Highlands.
I liked the suggested route, but there were just two problems with it - to get to Kaokoland which I was still keen on, going to Kasane is serious detour and I would have to go through the boring Caprivi strip to get there. On the other hand, should I choose the Zim route, I did not have Zim visa which the Czechs need (but I thought I may be able to work around it as they already let me in once before without visa to visit the Vic Falls). Anyway, Clinton gave me his business card and emphasized that should I decide to do the 19th, I should call him before I set-off so that he can send somebody in to fetch me should I not come out on the other side - real gentleman! With my spirits lifted greatly from the meeting of kindred biker I set-off in the late afternoon on the main tar road to Palapye.
Kwa Nokeng garage and Clinton's office right after border:
Universe immediately spotted the anomaly (optimistic Eastern European) and went for correction. Soon after I set-off I noticed that the bike runs like crap. It was struggling to get over 120 kmh, vibrated and was running horribly lean. Now, to address what IMO is second weakness of Tenere - very sedate power, the first owner and I have made couple of modifications to increase the airflow and the power: LV pipes, DNA stage 3 filter, drilled throttle body to increase airflow to the engine and Power Commander 5 to set-up the mixture correctly. The hope was that the reliability, which is key for this kind of trip, will remain mostly unaffected as none of these affect the moving parts and compression (like drilling the cylinders to 700cc or racing camshaft).
I hoped that the PC5 somehow got disconnected by vibrations and bike reverted to the standard map, but that was not the case. I called Runner and he thought it may be dirty air filter. Didn’t look so, but I decided to clean it anyway once stopped for the night. I tried to stop and restart the bike couple of times as well as accelerate / decelerate a lot to see if somehow it would not come miraculously right, but it wasn’t to be. So back to the doom and gloom then.
About an hour later I arrived to Palapye in the early evening and went straight for re-fuel. As I expected the consumption came over 8 l/100km - normally the bike takes 6 litres when pushed hard. Not good, as I needed at least 400 km range minimum to do the cutlines and with this consumption I would be cutting it way too close for comfort with the 32 litres capacity I had - 25 litre tank (I have had the neck in the tank drilled to increase standard 23 litre capacity by 2 litres) plus 7 litres collapsible jerry can.
On the positive side, I was to sleep in the Itumela Camp, which is one of my favourite overnight places in Bots. It’s deep in Palapye secluded from the hustle and bustle of the town and has that relaxed traveller’s vibe with open thatched roof bar/restaurant - unlike the standard impersonal overpriced business accommodation usually found in Botswana outside the tourist hotspots. They had a chalet for me and I settled quickly in before the dinner.
Frog basking in the mysterious smells of the Botswanian night:
Over the great buffet dinner and few relaxing beers I have reflected on the pathetic progress so far. Two days into the trip I have made it to about two thirds of the original objective for day 1 - sure an ambitious one, but I have done similar before. The supposedly reliable bike that I spent a lot of time and money to modify exactly for this type of riding was running like crap and there was a good chance that I will have to leave cutlines and Kaokoland out due to the lack of fuel range. Quite sad actually, but the beer kept me reasonably upbeat.
I've noticed that people in RR like to post pics from restaurants. Not sure why but here is the bar in Itumela (to cover up for the lack of pics for the day):
After dinner I have taken the air filters out and cleaned them - but as expected they were clean, and bike still run lean afterwards. There was not much more I could so I just prepared everything for early start in the morning and retreated to bed.
Topic: Christmas Safari (Read 36824 times)
