Stellenbosch to Egyptian nightmare!!

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Frohan Visser

Race Dog
Joined
Aug 7, 2007
Messages
616
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Location
Stellenbosch/Somerset West
Bike
NER-A-CAR
Stellenbosch to Egyptian nightmare!!

This is just a quickie on how it all started way back in 1994. I wanted to go and work on the Zambezi river as a white water guide, but I wasnt accepted, so I chatted to  Christo, an old school and study friend and we decided to make a small bike trip to Kenia and back. Me and Christo were working together at County Fair, both busy with our practical part of our studies, mechanical engineering, so we had lots of time to scheme and plan things. Eventually we went to the AA at Tygervalley one Saturday to find out about the carnets and all the rest of the stuff u have to know and there we realized that its more expensive to drive to Kenia and back than to drive all the way through to Egypt. I was anyway on the way to England to go and work there for 2 years and just there I decided to rather drive through Africa to England than to fly, that way I will also see how Africa looks and have my own transport once I was in England. Christo then also decided to join me on this over land trip and the planning started.

A month later I met Braam next to the road on the way back from work, he stood next to his Tenere, I stopped to ask if he was OK, he ran out of fuel, but I was also driving since the morning on reserve and couldnt offer him some of mine, during the short conversation I mention something about my Africa trip and Braam also then mentioned that he had something similar in mind. Two days later I went to visit him at his work and then we were three.

Me and Christo build some angle iron frames and I made a mould from fiberglass to mould some fiberglass pannier boxes. This all happened in my fathers garage and my mom were on our case about all the fiberglass we were messing on her carpets. It was noisy from the grinding and welding and the smell of resin was in the air. In the room next to the garage my sister tried to study for her exam with earplugs to keep the noise out.

Three weeks before our departure date, Xander , an old school and paddling friend of mine came past our house while we were busy in the garage and after some questions and a chat he got interested and the next morning he phoned me and asked to join us, then we were four. Xander didnt had a bike, we got him also a DR Suzuki within 3 days, because we went through all the knitty gritty paper stuff allready, we knew the short cuts and we helped him to get everything ready for our departure date. It sounds like not a big deal now, but in 1994 some paperwork just took forever to get finished by the authorities. And that is in very short what happened in about 4 months until our departure date the 6 of August 1994.

The evening before we left I still helped Xander to put a new tyre on his bike and what would have been normally a 30 minute job took us more than 2 hours because we couldnt get the wheel nut lose, eventually I missed my last braai with my parents and the rest of the family and wasnt happy.



This photo was taken by a photographer of the local newspaper in the street in front of my parents house in Stellenbosch, I am on the left, then Braam, Xander and Christo.
They put a photo and a small report in the newspaper a week before our departure date.

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We decided to meet in front of Foto Fast in Stellenbosch on our morning of departure and it was a lot of final laughter and a few small tears and then we were off.
We stopped outside Stellenbosch just to quickly checked if everyone had there passports with them. Just before Malmesbury Xanders bike suddenly got to a halt and he had to contact a tow truck to come and get him. Hes bikes one valve seat came lose and that wasnt a roadside kind of job that I could fix. That night we slept in between some orange trees next to the dirt road that ran to our farm, very close to Clainwilliam

Our third day on the trip, we slept the previous night under the bridge at the N 7 just outside Springbok, this photo was taken in Springbok by friends of my parents who saw us there. This morning I struggled to start my bike, the carburetor were overflowing with fuel all the time, eventually I took the carburetor out and found an ant stuck in between the needle and seat from the carburetor, how it got there, no-one could explain, but the bike was back to normal again.

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On the way to the border a truck full of ostriches past us and it was about 300 meters in front of us when the back door suddenly opened and 3 ostriches fell in the road in front of us. The one broke his leg and couldnt move but the other 2 were going for it, so eventually we raced after them and caught them, it was like cow boys diving of there horses, catching some crooks, lots of dust and ..ak en hare?

Namibia

At our first border crossing everything went well and at Noordoewer we drinked our first Windhoeks to celebrate Christos Honda XLs 50 000km on the clock.

Ais-Ais, one of the nicest camping spots in Namibia, we stayed there for 2 nights, just relaxing in the warm water of the hot springs.

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We hiked up the mountain to the look out point above the camp and this photo show the harshness of the surroundings.

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From Ais-Ais we went north and just before Seeheim we crossed the railway line, we were riding along it for 74 km and I just had to take this shot.

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I wanted to go on the dirt roads pass Sossusvlei, but the others were not to keen for some sand riding so early in the trip, so they convinced me to drive up the bloody tar road all the way to Windhoek, I wasnt in a good mood until Windhoek!!!!
We bought some steak at Keetmanshoop and then stopped just outside Asab at a road bridge and slept our second night under a main road bridge, this time again the big trucks woke us up every time they drove over the bridge.
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We stayed in Windhoek at friends of my parents and waited for Xander to join us again. About a month before we left Stellenbosch I send a new back tyre with a lift to our friends in Windhoek, I thought my back tyre would have been finished by then. I still could get a few kilometers out of the old one and decided to rather put the new one on later, so it went on to the back of the bike. After relaxing for 3 days in Windhoek, Xander arrived and we were 4 again. This is in the street in Windhoek, just before we headed north.

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Some nice long grass next to the road, just outside Windhoek.
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Okahandja is known for its wooden crafts thats been made by the locals, so we just had to stop and check it out.

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We started off in Windhoek quite late in the day and were planning to sleep at friends in Grootfontein but eventually turned of the main road onto the road that leads to the Waterberg Platue Park and just slept next to the dirt road and this was now time for the other 3 to take a smoke brake before we started making a camp fire. That night just after we were all sleeping, a bakkie drove past and not even 300 meters further we heard a loud noise and after getting out of the warm sleeping bags, discovered that it was 3 locals that we really smoked and they went off the road with their bakkie, they were hilarious, not worrying at all about the bakkie, just busy starting a new joint!!!

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The next night we slept at Grootfontein at Christo friends, we braaid some enormous steaks, its after all steak country, we left the next day, each with a big parcel of droe wors and biltong

We got to Ngepi camp via a nice sandy road. Braam had his first encounter with the sand monster here. Ngepi camp is on the banks of the Okavango river and there we relaxed the next day, paddling along the Okavango and stopping briefly to take a few photos of a herd of elephant. That was lots of fun  and the hearts very pumping fast.

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Me, trying to get even closer with the camera!!!!!!!!!!!!

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The next 200km between Divundu and Katima Mulilo was still a sandy road and it took some good riding skills to stay on the bikes, especially when those big petrol trucks came from the front and left a big dust storm behind them. The middelmannetjies were so high that when u riding u first had to stop, turn completely sideways and then try to drive over the middelmannetjie, so whenever those petrol trucks came from the front, it was a night mare getting out of the way in time.

I was waiting for the others to arrive, it was still in Namibia, just before Ngoma at the border at Botswana, so I took some pictures from my loaded bike, I didnt realize then, but if u look on the photo youll see, my back tire was already losing air and 1 km further I had to stop and repair it, that was flat number 1.

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Botswana and Zimbabwe will follow soon!!!!!!!!
 
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