Zimbabwe dirt roads and tracks re-visited (Completed)

[Billbob]

For me this trip started in September. It was born out of frustration, but that is another story. The main thing is that I desperately needed to get into the bush. I am one of those people that have a deep love of the African bushveld, and when the soul needs to re-generate I go into the bush. So after a difficult couple of years I decided it was time for a healing break.
Now the question arose, where too? Namibia, Zambia, Malawi or Mozambique as there is not much real bush left in the good old RSA. One evening whilst sitting gazing vacantly at the TV, I started wondering about the dirt roads and tracks I had travelled on, in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), in the 70’s and early 80’s. Are they still there, have they been allowed to degenerate or have they been upgraded with tar? If only Bob would take his galvanized bucket to the bottom of his garden and kick it! What happens if whoever takes over from him is worse?! What a waste, it’s such a lovely country!
Well I guess that is when I decided now is the time to go and re-investigate Zimbabwe and immediately fired up the laptop and Mapsource and the planning stage began. Next was a phone call to a good buddy – Straathond. The conversation went something like,
“Andre, wat mark jy hierdie December?”
 Andre – “Weet nie, miskin gaan ek Kaapstad en Weskaap toe. Hoekom?”
Me – “Wel ek het besluit ek gaan Zimbabwe toe.”
 After a short silence – Andre – “Wat!!? Fo*k it, ek kom saam! Waneer ry ons?”
That is how it started. Many long hours were spent studying maps, Mapsource, Google earth etc., etc. Bikes were serviced, new tyres fitted. Straathond even bought a new pair of boots!
So a basic rough route was planned. Leave Johannesburg on the morning of the 13th December on tar to Brits then onto dirt to Groblers Bridge, through Botswana to Plumtree, Tsholotsho, Gwaai, up the rail line to Hwanke, Vic Falls, Binga, Kariba, Karoi, Chiwori Wilderness, Harare, Mrewa, Inyanga, Mutari, Birchenough Bridge, Chiredzi, Chikombedzi and Gonarezhou, and then back through Beit Bridge to Johannesburg. Plus minus 5000 klms in sixteen days with about 75 percent on dirt and camping all the way. Every third night in a commercial camp site for a shower and to wash clothes. Nothing was cast in concrete and we would play it by ear as we went.
About three weeks before departure I was contacted by a West Cape Wilddog – Diggerdin, who asked if he could join us. Of course we said, pull in brother! So there would now be three of us, myself, Billbob (1200GS), Andre, Straathond (700 Transalp) and Rob, Diggerdin (1200GS).
Diggerdin left Slaapstad on Saturday morning and arrived at my place early Sunday afternoon. Straathond would meet us early Monday morning at my place. After a few beers and something to eat we were in bed by 22h30. We were up at 05h30 on Monday morning to finish some last minute packing and Straathond arrived with the rain at 07h30. After a quick cup of coffee we were off, in the rain.

Diggerdin – last minute packing.
The rain was not a good omen, and after a stop at the Wimpy in Brits for breakfast I said to Straathond find us a route to Vaalwater. He headed off followed by Diggerdin with me bringing up the rear. Suddenly I saw that he was turning off left onto the Freeway to Pretoria. No ways I thought, we are not travelling Freeways and toll roads! I caught up to him and said no way no highways on this trip boet, take the next off ramp left. This meant skitting a toll gate and then the next off ramp was Shoshenguve. Eeish, has this place grown since I last went through here. We had reset the GPS’s to “Shortest route” from “Fastest Route”. This proved to be a mistake in the rain. We ended up travelling along some lovely red clay snotty farm roads. I use the term travelling as apposed to riding as we skated, slid, slipped and slithered our way with more than a few off’s. Even one of the local farmers stopped, and when asked where we were going and we said to Botswana and then Zimbabwe he just shook his head and said something to his vrou about our suspect sanity as he drove away.
Just as the GPS was showing a “T” junction coming up we came around a bend to find a dam right across the road. Straathond was into it and just managed to make it through. Diggerdin was close behind but his GS stalled in the middle and he was more than knee deep in the brown/red muddy water. I was going too fast to stop in the slippery mud and out of the corner of my eye saw a foot path along the bank of this dam and aimed for that. I slid and slithered past the 70 mtr dam making the road on the other side, more by luck than skill. By the time I had got off my bike Straathond and Diggerdin were pushing the GS out of the thigh deep dam. I checked the air intake on the bike and it didn’t feel or look as though it had swallowed any water but we gave the bike a bit of time for the electrics to dripdry. I then gave the starter a jab and the motor turned over freely. Great, I cranked the starter and the motor purred into life. Eight hundred mtrs further on we hit the tar road and found a bottle store for our first beer of the trip.

You can see from Diggerdin’s clothing that the mud monster had had fun with us. None of us had escaped it’s slimy clutches.
Whilst having our well earned refreshments I checked the oil window on Diggerdin’s GS and there was the tell tale cream colour I was expecting. One of the unfortunate results of a stalled hot engine swimming in cold water is that it causes a vacuum and water is sucked up the breather pipe. Ummm, this could be a problem if we didn’t get this contaminated oil changed as soon as possible. It was back to the GPS to see which town was the closest, Vaalwater or BelaBela. It turned out that BelaBela was about twenty klms closer even though it was the wrong way. We needed to find a workshop out of the rain. Those 68 klms seemed to take forever but eventually we arrived and although the first workshop we found was fully booked with cars for service, the owner gave us a place to work and a drain basin for the contaminated oil. On checking the drained oil we could see that there was only a little bit of water with it. The job was finished the motor run and all was clear so off we headed for Vaalwater.
We made it to the first hotel/motel just as the sun was setting. We settled down to a few nice cold beers and then steaks all round. After all this we didn’t feel like looking for the camp ground so tried to talk the manager into letting us either sleep on the patio or camp on the lawn. Eventually we were told that we would have to get the owners permission and that she was a bit of a grumpy person, but good luck. Straathond said he would handle this and went off to chat to the tannie. Diggerdin and I didn’t have much hope that Andre was going to get it right and were trying to prepare ourselves for a midnight ride to find the camp grounds. Eventually Andre arrived and announced that not only could we stay but that she had said that there was an afdak at the back we could used in a fenced off yard. This was the first night of the war of the mosquitoes. Damn rain!!

[Billbob]

The next morning was a slow start because of the late night, the mosquitoes, the rain or a combination of the three. Eventually we got underway heading for Groblers Bridge border post. The border was fine until it came to the que for the road taxes etc., this then took over a hour, but finally we were through and on our way and into Botswana.

By now we were more than half a day behind schedule and we spent the day ducking and diving rain storms, which eventually caught up to us just outside of Francistown.


A round table meeting was held and it was unanimously decided that we would hit the camping ground at the Cresta hotel instead of continuing in the rain to the Zim border.

Straathond and Diggerdin discussing the dinner menu over a whiskey and water.
The next morning after a visit to the local supermarket for supplies, we set off for the Zim border, not Plumtree but a small border post called Matsiloje which was west of Francistown. This proved to be a bargain as we were through both sides within half an hour and it only took this long because the guys were bored and just wanted to chat. We were out of there as part of the supplies we bought in Francistown were three very thick rump steaks which I did not particularly want to donate to some customs official so we rode until there were a few klms between us and officialdom before stopping to check out a route to Plumtree.


Diggerdin looking for cell phone signal while Straathond points out the right direction to take, which after the Brits scenario I didn’t take too seriously.
As can be seen from the green country side and the flowing rivers the rain we experienced in SA was quite wide spread.

[Billbob]

The road all the way to Plumtree was nice wide gravel with the odd pot holes and water puddles. We only stopped in at Plumtree for a few beers at the Hotel with a few beers to go. With us now fueled up, we did the same for the bikes and set off in the direction of Tsholotsho. The road was good gravel and villages were few and far between with nice bush in between dotted with typical Zimbabwe balancing rock koppies.




About fourty klms from Tsholotsho we pulled off the road into the bush and set up camp for the night. Our first real bush camp of the trip. Tents were erected and a fire was started, as we had rump steak and vegetables on the menu.







Ready for the steaks!


I was up before the sun the next morning and was greeted by this sight.


Jislik, Africa is wonderful! It wasn’t long and camp was packed up and we hit the road in the early morning fresh air.





After a quick stop in Tsholotsho for cokes we shot through to the town of Gwaai for fuel for the bikes. Only the one petrol station had fuel and whilst there we saw one of the local D/S riders go past. He also didn’t wave! Must have been a BM rider in a past life! Notice the pillions ATGATT.



Our plan from Gwaai was to ride the railway line to Hwankie. As I remembered it there was a service road along both sides of the railway line. Yea right, that was thirty plus years ago. Everything started off fine for the first few klms up to a siding called Gamu and this is where the trouble started! The road kind of ended here.


(Straathond) and Rob (Diggerdin) wondering how we were going to get the bikes to run on these rails? The two locals in the background informed us that we just needed to get a few klms down the tracks and then there was a crossing and the butcher had a place there where we could get directions. The temperature was already in the high forties and their few klms ended up around ten and we never ever found the butcher! Those ten klms were spent riding on a foot path on the edge of the rail line gravel until we came to a spot where old concrete sleepers had been thrown around between the new sleepers and the thick bush, effectively ending our ride on the foot path. Leaving Andre with the bikes Rob and I took off on foot into the bush to try and find, hopefully a road or track going in the right direction. 100 mtrs from the rail line we found a deep sand four by four track going in the same direction as the rail line. It had sandmonster written all over it. This track consisted of thick sand chewed up by 4 X 4’s, in two stripes with a middle manakie also of thick sand. Just to add insult to injury the elephants had been playing and every few hundred mtrs had push a large tree down over the track. It was these spots that invariably caused one or more of us to lie down in the soft sand for a rest.
Eventually we stopped for a voluntary rest and found what shade we could.



One of my involuntery resting places



After another few klms of this track we came to a crossing which we took hoping that this road/track would lead us to the main Vic falls / Bulawayo road. We had stopped at a junction of 4 wheel drive tracks and were busy deciding which way looked more promising when suddenly a landcruiser came careering around a bend in the track and skidded to a halt.
After introductions were made these guys, who were out checking water pumps in the hunting concession area, said we should go back in the direction from where they had come and ask directions from the guys in a camp a few klms from where we were. Although we had already decided to take the right hand fork, we though, “OK these guys know the area” so we took their advice and after about five klms came to this very run down hunting camp. After making small take with the caretaker we asked him which way?
Yep, as per Murphy’s law, he said we should go back the way we had come to the fork in the road and go left! This was the same fork were we had met Mr. Landcruiser where we had already decided to take this track before he shmokkeld our brains! One day I will get my hands on that little Irish fella called Murphy and I just hope I’ve got a skinning knife with me!
Straathond was quite happy to make camp just where we were, but Diggerdin and I out voted him as it was still early afternoon, so we back tracked ourselves and took the fork that we should have taken in the first place. As is common in this part of the world, when the track becomes too bad you just make a new one next to it. We found that it was easier to ride on the old disused track as the sand had compacted a bit and you weren’t continuously falling into the four x four wheel tracks of the newer road.
The countryside, when you got a chance to look at it was actually quite stunning, with open water pans, little river crossings and nice Mopane and Msasa forest area’s. Game was fairly scarce with only a few sightings of various types of buck, Impala, Dyker and the odd Kudu.
The track went on and on. Not running directly in the direction of the main road but diagonally across the whole concession area. Eventually at about 17h00 after my last off we decided that it was time to call it a day and set up camp right next to the four by four track. We were all finished from fighting the heavy bikes through the thick sand.



Above shows two very tired oke’s beginning dinner preparations.

[Billbob]

After dinner we were sitting around the fire sipping on our whiskeys when we heard but couldn’t see a herd of Zebra going passed a few hundred mtrs away. Sometime in the middle of the night I was woken by a ruckus going on in the bush and faintly heard a few growls and squeals. It was soon over and I went back to sleep. Just before 04h00 I was again woken. I lay there staring out the tent door at the lightening sky wondering what had woken me up. From quite away I heard the insane giggle of Hyena coming from the same direction as the ruckus earlier in the evening.  As I was now awake I took my camera and went for  a stroll down the fantastic highway we had travelled on the previous day.







I love early morning’s in the bush.


After using the last of my water to make one cup of coffee each we packed up camp and checked the GPS, about 20 klms to go to the main road which we should hit dead on at the old Gwaai river hotel and service station. I don’t think there were anymore ground hugging scenarios and we travelled through some exquisite country side, even seeing one of the few wild Flame Lilly’s left in the country.



This used to be the national flower of Rhodesia. Not sure if it is the same for Zimbabwe. Eventually we arrived at a now derelict Gwaai Service station.



Nothing was available here but we did manage to get water and cokes at a general dealer just down the road. From here it was plain sailing through to Hwankie town were we needed to fuel up the bikes quite desperately. We hadn’t bargained on petrol que’s, so this took an hour or so.





After finally getting fuel it was a quick squirt down the highway to Vic Falls, with two stops along the way. One was a police road block and the other a police manned toll gate. RSA could learn something here, bikes are free! The cops manning these do however like to stop you just for a chat. This is where I learnt the Zim variation of Eeish! Is Hoooww!
The following are random photo’s taken at Vic Falls.





Above was home for two days.





Straathond, you wanted a photo of the Transalp and a Boabab.







Here is proof that hippocrocaducks are alive and well and do exist at Vic Falls! We also had to visit the crocodile farm so that Straathond aka “Little Croc Dundee” could practise his skills.





I don’t know why but Straathond didn’t show the same enthusiasm about going in to play with papa.
What the following two were doing in the crock farm I don’t know and it made me quite angry that they should be caged up like this.









Lunch time was the normal well mannered affair.



Attempted suicide! Not for me thank you. We preferred our Zambezi in a green bottle.



Now I knew why the GPS kept getting confused.
We did not fork out our Moola to visit the falls as we had all done this on numerous other trips. The best meal of the trip was dinner at Mama Afrika’s. Every purveyor of liquor in town was visited, from the Backpackers to The Vic Falls Hotel, and their wares were sampled. It was really difficult to find a really ice cold beer in that town!
During the two days there we also met some other SA bikers. Can’t remember names, but two guys who had fought the sand monster in Botswana, one on a 800GS the other on a KTM660 or 690 or whatever. Then a group of 5 or 6 bikes, mostly GSA’s, some two up, who also came up through Botswana. Don’t know if they were WD’s but we shared a few drinks anyway.
The next morning after a leisurely breakfast we were out of there on our way to Hwankie for fuel and then on to Mlibizi and Binga. Or so we thought!
The road to Deka was narrow tar and wound through the hills and valleys. Really lovely ride except you had to watch the blind rises as the road seemed to go straight into a bend immediately after each blind rise. Quite interesting, and felt somewhat like being on a roller coaster.





After a short smoke break at the end of the tar it was onto the gravel. This was not too bad. Had sections of sand, rock and loose shale. Rob and I took the lead with Andre bringing up the rear. Every few klms we would stop and wait for Andre to catch up. He was about ten minutes behind. About halfway between Deka and Mlibizi we stopped to wait for Andre. After about fifteen minutes with no appearance made by Andre, we turned around and headed back and this is what we found, except the bike was lying next to him on the road.



When I asked him what had happened the answer I got back was “Hey boet, I don’t know”. I checked the tracks and it looks like he went over a football size rock that was partly buried in the road, the rock shot out onto the left verge, as marked, and the bike went sideways, highsiding Andre. He had unfortunately landed on some other rocks which were partly buried in the road. Can see some of these at Rob’s feet. Andre said that he couldn’t stand up as his back just below the shoulder blade was too sore.
There was no cell phone signal and just as I was thinking of riding on to Mlibizi for help we heard a car or bukkie engine grinding up the hill. This turned out to be guys from ZESA who were looking for the problem along the power lines. Eventually on promises of securing them some diesel they agreed to take Andre and his bike to Mlibizi, 48 klms away.



We blew up his airbed and rolled him onto that. We loaded his bike onto the bukkie and slid him in next to it with a jacket over the ladder on top off him to keep the sun off, and we were on our way.
It was a nice ride on a good road and every river we crossed showed that they had had some good rains in the catchment area’s. The ride was fairly slow, 1st and 2nd gear stuff as we didn’t want to shake the patient up too much.





At Mlibizi the owners gave us a bed to use and the lady’s sister arrived from Zambia and luckily she was a nursing sister with a larger medical kit than mine! She supplied Andre with very good pain killers and anti inflammatory’s. One of the other guests offered to drive us through to the Hospital in Binga the next morning to try and get Xrays done. There was still no cell phone signal and no electricity. This forced us to have kind of cooled bombers. Andre was only allowed cooldrink because of the pills.



It rained during the night and we kept him as dry as was possible and as high as was possible, on pain pills. At eight the next morning we were on our way to the hospital in Binga, thanks to our neighbour in Mlibizi. Andre, Rob I hope one of you can remember his name, we really owe him big time!
The long and short of Binga was more pain pills and an injection but no X rays as there was no electricity! Eighty six klms there, a few beers and eighty six klms back. However, we did manage to get hold of Andre’s insurance broker who put the wheels in motion to get him and bike back to SA. All we had to do was get him to Kariba. Roll on the ferry “Sealion”, and another 24 hrs.

The patient on board and somewhat mobile thanks to the pain pills!

[straathond]

It was fun and I enjoyed every day just a pity the Zim soccer teem left one of there training ball's laying around will do it again minus the falling part

[>>Thump°C]

hey andre, how's the back now?
Hope nothing serious?

Thanks for posting Billbob, looking forward to the rest.

[Sprocketbek]

Really enjoying the RR 
Zim is no.1 on my bucket list. Looking forward to the rest.

[White Rhino]

Billbob, twas a great adventure while the going was good. How did it all end?

[Billbob]

It was fun and I enjoyed every day just a pity the Zim soccer teem left one of there training ball's laying around will do it again minus the falling part

Hey Andre and Rob, I know you guys took some cell phone photo's, your trip ain't finished until the RR is done please feel free to post here. I will try and get the rest done today or tomorrow

[Billbob]

Well that ferry ride is quite long left at 10h00 in the morning and finally reached Kariba at 10h00 the following morning. Nothing much to do but drink, eat, sleep, chat to the other passengers and take photo's. Most of which are long distance zoom type stuff so quality is not too good, but here's some to look at.





Kapenta boat and Zambian water taxi with four corner drive.



Our raft.









Why I love Kariba.









Coming into the harbour at Kariba - Andora harbour.



Leaving Andre at the harbour Rob and I went in search of somewhere to stay and found the MOTH club chalets just around the corner so back we went to organize Andre and a lift from the ferry guys and a bukkie. I got a lift back to the harbour with the bukkie, to fetch Andre's bike and met up with the two guys from Jhb who had been sent up to repatriate the bike to RSA.

The next morning at 04h00 they left with Andre in the bukkie aswell for the hospital in Harare.



I'll let Straathond tell you the story of that trip and the happenings in Harare before eventually being flown out back to Jhb.

Diggerdin and I spent the day doing the usual tourist thing in Kariba. We did end up members of "Warthogs" bush camp where you can, according to them "Park off and Pork out" Beers were cold and the food not bad. I only now found out, looking at their card, they have accommodation too at good prices. See relax@warthogs.co.zw













Don’t know what happened to this oke, but we found him/her floating next to the dam wall.

Well all good things must come to an end and the following morning we left early on route to Harare with a planned stop over in Chinoi for breakfast and a look see. Diggerdins old home town.



The old Orange Grove Hotel. Just a lot run down. We were the only one’s there for breakfast. Should have been enough warning, the breakfast was terrible!



Over breakfast we discussed our future plans for the trip. We had lost five or six days with Andre’s mishap. With all the rain we had already decided that the trip down to the Angwa river was a no go due to that road/track being red clay and the heavy inclines and declines on it. Not a good idea with heavily laden 1200’s, one of which had Anakee’s on.

Rob said that he was thinking of heading directly back to Capetown once we hit Harare. I decided that I would stay in Harare as I wanted to look up some old friends. Decision made and as much of the breakfast eaten as was possible we hit the road for Harare, We stopped opposite the old show grounds and said our good byes, with Rob then heading for the border and I went to look at my folks old home.
Other than some new buildings in town and the long grass on the pavements there was nothing of interest for me. Everything looked kind of run down and patched up.

The friends I was hoping to see were away on holiday having left early that morning for Kariba. I wondered if maybe we had passed each other on the road, which had been quite busy that morning with cars and bukkies all pulling boats and trailers heading in the direction of Kariba.

No problem I’ll go camp at Coronation Caravan Park. No! It’s been closed for renovations for the last three years! Uummm, plan C. Rode out to a dam, used to be called Cleeveland Dam. Yes I can camp there but there is nobody else there except for the staff and a couple of guys who live there in tents. These two guys turned out to be hobo’s. I had a quiet chat to them and then went and put up camp far away. They either didn’t like the look of me because I never saw them again!



I think this was Christmas Eve so I sat listening to the quiet and the insects chirping and trying to decide where to from here as I needed to be home by the evening of the 27th Dec. That didn’t give me enough time to do Inyanga and Gonarazhou. OK I thought, I’ll just take a slow ride to Beit Bridge border post with a few dirt roads where I find them and then I’ll take a left at Louie Triggaardt and visit some of the western side of Limpopo province on my why back to Joburg.

I filled up with fuel and detoured through Harare’s southern suburbs and then took a gravel road which eventually brought me out onto the main road just past Featherstone from where I found another gravel road which was not in as good condition but eventually I came out ten klms from Masvingo. It had started raining again and I decided that it was time to hightail it for the border.

 I stopped and had a bite to eat and a beer at the Lion and Elephant, which was deserted being Xmas day, and then shot through to the border. Fortunately the border was fairly quiet and I was through both sides in thirty minutes. Mt plan was to book into a B&B or hotel near Louis Triggaardt which I did just as the heavens opened up with a vengence.



Meeting up with the main road, outside of Featherstone. This was also where my camera battery decided to die on me.

The next morning leaving Louis Triggaardt the weather was promising another wet day’s riding.



The camera’s battery packed up again after one photo and I had had enough of riding in the rain so took all the secondary roads and headed for home, arriving at about 16h30.

Average cost of fuel in Zim was between $1.25 and $1.33

Well this was not anywhere near the trip I planned but it was still worth while. As is normal the time was too short.

My general views of the country are the bush is still beautiful, the farms are not being utilized and the bush is slowly taking over the lands again, which in my mind is a good thing. The infrastructure is deteriorating slowly and nobody seems to care too much. The people we met everywhere were really friendly.

Would I go back to visit? Not soon, and if I do it will be to do the south bank of Kariba and to stay away from the major centres. Oh!, and not in the rainy season!

Hope you all enjoyed sharing this with us. Should have taken more photo's but the rain and the shortage of time negated that.

[BlueBull2007]

Thanks for the nice report. Pity it ended that way. Anyway that means there will be a next time, hopefully without anakees.

[White Rhino]

Did enjoy, thanks!

Hope Straathond is fine.

[Billbob]

Did enjoy, thanks!

Hope Straathond is fine.

Straathond is out and about. Bike was written off by insurance. I believe there could be a ST1200 looming on the horizon

[BlueBull2007]

Wow it was written off? He must have come off really hard.

[letsgofishing]

Good to hear Straathond is OK - pity his trip ended that way.
Really surprised the bike was written off - didn't look that bad in the pics.

[Billbob]

Wow it was written off? He must have come off really hard.

Good to hear Straathond is OK - pity his trip ended that way.
Really surprised the bike was written off - didn't look that bad in the pics.

Yup, Andre's damage was 4 x broken ribs, punctured lung, cracked hip (minor) numerous bruises and scratches. Bikes damage according to assesor, bent front forks, damaged radiator, broken exhorsts, plastics all scraped up and twisted frame.

I rode the bike a couple of klms from the ferry to chalet and it felt kind of strange, like the front and the back of the bike wanted to go in different dirrections

[Billbob]

Thanks for the nice report. Pity it ended that way. Anyway that means there will be a next time, hopefully without anakees.

BB yes there has to be another trip to Zim. For some reason I need to do that south bank of Kariba and the trip down to Nyamapanda from Karoi, have done them in a 4 x 4 and on a 360 Yamaha in the early eighties. The only thing is there are so many other places I also want to go and see. What I need is to win a big lotto and then I can have a touring business with no need of tourists, can just go ride where I want, when I want.

PS: I had Mitas E-07's on my bike, they were just the business for this type of riding.

[straathond]

Hi guys just to say thank you for all the good wishes I am fine up and about doctor booked me of work for 6 weeks but wil go to work soon
Now I must save up so that I can get a XT1200

[Fuzzy Muzzy]

oi, thanks for the rr, it really took me back to my childhood in Zim !! I think this may be my next ride. I would love to go back and visit Kariba where I spent most of my school holidays. !! awesome, sorry for the off, not lekker !! hope you are back on your feet again soon

Muz

[ernies]

Thanks for the nice RR. Seems like Andre had a serious off - good to see he's ok.