CrazyPorra
Race Dog
Well myself armed with a new KTM 950 S and Bob with a newish BMW 1200GS the weekend started on the 9th August 2006, we left Benoni at 8.00 in the direction of Ogies along the boring N12.
Quick stop at Ogies to warm up the hands, and it wasn?t long before we where on our way to Bethal, Ermelo and onto Amsterdam for our scheduled petrol stop (310km on 17,2L) have ridden donkeys that aren?t that thirsty.
Next we made our way to our first border crossing for the day, Nerston/Sandlane was the place, must say quite impressed, it sort of took me back 10 ? 15 years to when the border officials kept the gardens and the buildings in very good conditions at their respective border posts. I a very short time all the formalities where complete and we where back on the road in the direction of Manzini, reasonable road with some nice twisties, but unfortunately only do-able by dual sport as every now and again you had to ride on stretches of gravel.
Got to Manzini just after 12:00 and so decided to stop for lunch at Sundowners Lodge.
Bellie?s full we carried on to the Mhlumeni/Goba Border post, at Siteki we filled up again, not bad when you find out that they get their petrol from SA, but can still afford to sell it at R6.30/litre compared to our R6.9?. Again a very clean border post and we were the only customers, which meant that within a half hour we were through both sides.
Back on the road and we found ourselves riding on new tarmac and negotiating hairpin bends that you could easily compare to the Katse Dam ride, wasn?t to long and we turned of this new tarmac in search of some gravel through the town of Goba, to our surprise we found no gravel but where dished up quite a few potholes on our way to Boane.
As luck would have it, just outside Boane we came up to a diplomatic convoy and stuck behind them all the way into Maputo, this was bliss as everyone moves over when approached by these convoys.
I had previously asked some work mates to organize a party so that we could celebrate Woman?s Day, and this was done with 3 cases of long toms, �¾ Captain Morgan, �¼ Spiced Gold, �½ Bundaberg rum from down under and before I forget 6kg Tiger prawns.
Oh the next day, 2006/08/10, all was blamed on the prawns, they must have been slightly off. Well we packed up and made our way to the Ferry that would take us across the bay to Catembe. We met up with 3 guys that had done the trip from the opposite direction.
We arrived on the other bank at 11:00 and set off in the direction of Ponta Molangane +/- 120km, the first 60-70 wasn?t to bad, gravel a bit bumpy but still kept a decent riding speed 80km/h. We where soon at the entrance to the Elephant Reserve, quick photo shoot.
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Now this is were the fun started, loads of soft sand with loads of different tracks to ride, it became a lucky guess as to which on to follow, and which one would be easier to ride, well we never found the one that would be easier to ride and battled on to Zitundo, where we found a badly potholed sort of tar road, took a quick rest and realised that my tyre pressures where still for tar riding, I proceeded to let out lots of air, now I will stick to my first excuse, this slight oversight was due the prawns the night before, but believe me I cursed myself when we got back onto the soft stuff and my bike didn?t behave like a bronco horse anymore but more like tame pony.
The rest of the ride was uneventful all the way to the campsite. This place is great, loads of shade at each campsite and they keep all quads and the like away from the campsites, so no nuisances people making dust and noise at the camp.
Oh my, 2M has never tasted so good, loads of it was consumed over the next few days with a few swims in the Indian Ocean, life is great in Africa.
The morning of the 13th came and we packed up and left for the border post at Kosi Bay, once through it was an uneventful but boring trip back to Benoni via Jozini, Pongola, Piet Retief, Ermelo, Bethal and Ogies.
'Till the next trip.
Quick stop at Ogies to warm up the hands, and it wasn?t long before we where on our way to Bethal, Ermelo and onto Amsterdam for our scheduled petrol stop (310km on 17,2L) have ridden donkeys that aren?t that thirsty.
Next we made our way to our first border crossing for the day, Nerston/Sandlane was the place, must say quite impressed, it sort of took me back 10 ? 15 years to when the border officials kept the gardens and the buildings in very good conditions at their respective border posts. I a very short time all the formalities where complete and we where back on the road in the direction of Manzini, reasonable road with some nice twisties, but unfortunately only do-able by dual sport as every now and again you had to ride on stretches of gravel.
Got to Manzini just after 12:00 and so decided to stop for lunch at Sundowners Lodge.
Bellie?s full we carried on to the Mhlumeni/Goba Border post, at Siteki we filled up again, not bad when you find out that they get their petrol from SA, but can still afford to sell it at R6.30/litre compared to our R6.9?. Again a very clean border post and we were the only customers, which meant that within a half hour we were through both sides.
Back on the road and we found ourselves riding on new tarmac and negotiating hairpin bends that you could easily compare to the Katse Dam ride, wasn?t to long and we turned of this new tarmac in search of some gravel through the town of Goba, to our surprise we found no gravel but where dished up quite a few potholes on our way to Boane.
As luck would have it, just outside Boane we came up to a diplomatic convoy and stuck behind them all the way into Maputo, this was bliss as everyone moves over when approached by these convoys.
I had previously asked some work mates to organize a party so that we could celebrate Woman?s Day, and this was done with 3 cases of long toms, �¾ Captain Morgan, �¼ Spiced Gold, �½ Bundaberg rum from down under and before I forget 6kg Tiger prawns.
Oh the next day, 2006/08/10, all was blamed on the prawns, they must have been slightly off. Well we packed up and made our way to the Ferry that would take us across the bay to Catembe. We met up with 3 guys that had done the trip from the opposite direction.
We arrived on the other bank at 11:00 and set off in the direction of Ponta Molangane +/- 120km, the first 60-70 wasn?t to bad, gravel a bit bumpy but still kept a decent riding speed 80km/h. We where soon at the entrance to the Elephant Reserve, quick photo shoot.
[/url]Now this is were the fun started, loads of soft sand with loads of different tracks to ride, it became a lucky guess as to which on to follow, and which one would be easier to ride, well we never found the one that would be easier to ride and battled on to Zitundo, where we found a badly potholed sort of tar road, took a quick rest and realised that my tyre pressures where still for tar riding, I proceeded to let out lots of air, now I will stick to my first excuse, this slight oversight was due the prawns the night before, but believe me I cursed myself when we got back onto the soft stuff and my bike didn?t behave like a bronco horse anymore but more like tame pony.
The rest of the ride was uneventful all the way to the campsite. This place is great, loads of shade at each campsite and they keep all quads and the like away from the campsites, so no nuisances people making dust and noise at the camp.
Oh my, 2M has never tasted so good, loads of it was consumed over the next few days with a few swims in the Indian Ocean, life is great in Africa.
The morning of the 13th came and we packed up and left for the border post at Kosi Bay, once through it was an uneventful but boring trip back to Benoni via Jozini, Pongola, Piet Retief, Ermelo, Bethal and Ogies.
'Till the next trip.
