On 13 May, everyone apart from Chantal, Gené and Oubones, who were all assigned with other duties, left for Cape Town. We had to collect two vehicles, un-crate and load the bikes and also pick up a trailer on our way back in Worcester.
It would have been easy to trailer the bikes like we do with the Kaokoland trips, but these bikes were a little different. Unseen to anyone but a few engineers and a couple of high ranked individuals within the Honda fraternity. This meant that we had to transport the bikes in closed units, with no indicative branding and be invisible for the next couple of weeks.
Once at the warehouse in Cape Town, we met up with some old acquaintances from the Honda Adventure Roads event and some new members of the team that we will accompany over the next few weeks. It was great meeting everyone, but all we wanted to do is open the crates. Hardy was slightly less enthusiastic than us over eager bunch since he and Chantal already moved the first two units a week or so before. Due to the
Non Disclosure Agreement signed by all involved, he could not take any pictures, nor share anything pertaining to the bikes.
The moment of truth arrived and we pried open the crates to reveal the new ................................. (Sorry, more on the model a lot later)

Everything was unpacked and checked against the commercial invoices for completeness prior to loading the two vehicles according to the predetermined packing lists. The bikes was secured and off we went back to Kaleo. With the 3 bikes loaded, we now had 5 units in total.
In Worcester it was a quick stop to pick up the trailer and get some spare bulbs etc. for the truck.

Back at Kaleo and Gené, Chantal and Oubones have already sorted out all the stuff that must be split between all the vehicles. It was already late in the afternoon and we decided to sort out all the packing in the morning. We spent the evening catching up around the fire, discussing the bikes and enjoying each others company.