The NALI Ride

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YoungGSer

Pack Dog
Joined
Jun 22, 2011
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Hello fellow Dawgz, this is my first time writing a proper ride report, so I hope you will forgive me if it is a bit messy compared to some of the other fantastic RR that are on this forum.

A few months ago while being subjected to the coldest winter I have experienced in the UK, I decided it was time to get away from the grind and do a long(ish) ride through southern Africa. I had a few academic commitments keeping me busy until the end of June, but I decided that after that I would take off July and get some wind through the hair.

The route took on many variations over the following months, but I had the goal in mind of riding to lake Malawi from my family home in the Eastern Cape via Namibia and Zambia and returning through Moz and Zim. I figured that this would be easily rideable in 5 weeks without straining myself to much. So, I set about pouring through the T4A book on interesting routes to take through the various countries.

I have previously ridden through Nam from South to North along the Usual western route a few years ago with my uncle [member=10050]ClimbingTurtle[/member] so I wasn’t too keen on repeating that exact route as I only allocated a limited time to getting through Nam with the idea of spending more time in Malawi. That was until my father heard about my trip and immediately jumped on the idea that he would be coming along for a portion of the trip and that he wanted to do north west Nam in the 4x4. So back to the drawing board to decide on the route for the first week.

We decided that we would try tow the bike (Betsy) my beloved 2017 R1200GS adventure up to the Outjo on the most direct tar route as I wanted to keep the mileage off the rear tyre and most of all to keep myself from going insane from the dull route through the heart of the Karoo and central Nam that I have also ridden before. Don’t get me wrong, The Karoo and Nam are spectacularly beautiful places but the N10 and B1 highway are placed in the rather dull bits.

Trying to hire a bike trailer in EC for cross boarder travel proved a lot more difficult than first thought. No one seems to do it in the PE area or companies don’t reply to requests. So, after a frustrating few weeks I decided that short of buying a trailer, it would be easier just to ride the bike up and leave it in Outjo while we explored in the 4x4.

Now I think that’s enough with the pre-waffling, let’s get to the interesting stuff.

P.S The name of the ride report came from the what I believe to be one of the best chilli sauces (Nali) in the world. It’s made in Malawi and you used to be able to get it in SA but I haven’t seen it on shelves for years.


Day 1 to 4: St Francis bay to Outjo
Distance: ± 2300 KM

Flying out of London on the Sunday night with the idea of leaving on the Wednesday morning, I knew left with me a mad 2-day rush to get everything packed and sorted on the bike and 4x4. Fortunately my dad had managed to do a bit of it before I arrived, but being the typical GS rider I saw it necessary to add a few farkles to the bike for the trip like a new steering damper (the standard one is very average). For most normal people this would take 30 min as all you have to do is drop the front wheel and bolt the new one, however for those born with 10 thumbs like me it will take at least 2 hours, especially when you put the front tyre back on only to realise that you left the front mud guard off. But after many colourful words and few beers, everything was packed and ready to go.

Bike ready to go


Fitting the F%£king steering damper


 
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