Off to see the wizard - Mozambique , Malawi , Zambia and Zimbabwe

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shanti

Race Dog
Joined
Jan 27, 2009
Messages
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Location
Harkerville Knysna
Bike
Honda CRF-1000L Africa Twin
Mozambique , Zimbabwe , Zambia and Malawi - a little trip to see the wizard ...
Just finished my brewery building and before I tackle the bar , water system and theme I thought to take a little trip up north to see how other people have done their bars .
As always there was some time spent preparing and looking at routes . I chose to leave at the end of June and be away for 6 weeks or so , just enough time for a mind and soul refresh and hopefully come back with some creative ideas on how to go further with the brewery .
My bike of choice - an African Twin DCT model , initially I was a bit nervous of taking such a big heavy bike on this journey and had spent time preparing my CRF250L for my ride .  Looking back there was some moments that the CRF250L would have been a better option but saying that I would have needed another month at least to enjoy the more relaxed style of long distance riding that for me small bikes bring on . I will go into more detail with my packing at the end of this ride report for now let's just jump right in .
Riding day 1 - Harkerville to Chintsa ( Buccaneers backpackers )  
Left on a cold morning - quite allot going through my mind , took the coastal route via Port Alfred to taste some Kowie craft beer. Met Jacque along the way on his XT660Z - he would ride with me in Southern Mozambique.

Loving the AT on the long tar roads even though my bike was feeling strange with all the baggage. Easy ride up to Chinsta - Buccaneers backpackers is my go to place in that part of the world , firstly because of their clean rooms and great bar and secondly an old friend from student days runs and owns the place , if you are in the area check it out  , it's a good stop over .
https://secure.staah.com/common-cgi/properties/b2c/Booknow.pl?action=showpage&MotelId=1207&Ln=

Riding Day 2 - Chintsa to Port Shepstone ( Spot backpackers )
The Transkei roads are amazing to do on a bike - great twisty roads in very good condition. Stopped for a break looking out to Mandelas birthplace. Jacque and I had at this point decided on 70km stretches between breaks and that suited me fine - we were eating up the miles.

Got to Port Shepstone in good time to make a braai and to enjoy the marked increase in temperature . The camping at Spot backpackers was reasonable and the crowd there very lively with quite a few long stay residents from Durban working on a contract there fixing some machinery at a mine .
https://www.spotbackpackers.com/



Riding Day 3 - Port Shepstone to Ballitto
Woke up to an amazing sunrise over the sea , my first of many as we would be following the sea up to Vilankulos for this part of the journey . The weather was getting better and again the riding was easy . Arrived in Balitto for lunch time and after some trouble got ourselves in the gated village where Jacques sister has a house . I never quite got the gated communities - for all the ' security ' it seems that a huge amount of personal freedom is lost , the amount of rules was staggering - a huge amount of money is spent on such a clinical experience , I guess coming from my farm and being here made the differences so much more obvious and I didn't fit in or feel comfortable there . We all choose our path so each to their own I guess. Stephan our third riding partner arrived from Cullinan on his KTM990 Adventure .



 
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