
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!

