S
shark_za
Guest
After a quick morning meeting in PTA I flew back home, threw some stuff into a bag and headed out to meet Dewald at the agreed spot.
We were all packed and ready for our little weekend of sand riding.
Out plan was to head down to Maputo, visit a friend of mine and then ride to Ponto d'ouro on Saturday. The ride back would be via Kosi Bay and Jozini on the Sunday.
We wanted to miss the toll gates, so we rode via Hendrina, Carolina and Barberton hoping to get to Moz before dark.
The typical scenery in this area before Barberton is flat open coal fields with the odd power station.
CT people can drool over this beast, Welshie play name this station?
Here is a shot of Zonkel playing Hardly Dangerous rider.
Before Badplaas we had a little bit of a rain shower, and as we hit this it was actually hailing for a bit. Ouch!
By the time we were at the nice twisty bits between Badplass and Barberton we had dried again and it was real fun leaning the bikes into corners fully loaded with kit.
We eventually got the border, and hit the queues. A gentleman assisted us on the Moz side, never had an easier crossing of a border post, ever.
Cant tell you what the inside of Ressano Garcia post looks like, we sat at the bikes drinking snake bite
After a quick shower at my buddies place, we went out to downtown Maputo and had dinner in a cool restuarant. We met friends of my buddy, had a few double whiskys and just talked shit all evening.
The next morning we loaded our kit onto my buddies Pajero and rode into Maputo to catch the ferry. We noticed the fort building was open and went inside and did what any tourist would do...
With that bit of culture behind us we got to the ferry just in time to see it leave... so we had an hour wait... what to do in Africa?
Jerry Jerry Jerry !!!
Zonkelnut has a swig of the little jerry can.
Waiting for the ferry we got swamped by traders
Outside the ministry of finance building
Red Laurie Yellow Laurie.
Laurentinas were consumed till we ran out, then it was Mac Mahon crap. 2M.
We loaded the bikes onto the ferry and enjoyed the short trip across the bay
The best place to get off the ferry first!
The other side, Catembe from Maputo.
And then Maputo from Catembe
Here our buddy loaded some german backpackers into the pajero, we said caio and hit the road, its was hard bumpy gravel from Catembe to Bella Vista, some places had me seeing 140kph on the GPS, other places had me bouncing around all over the road, a bike is the best way to do this sort of road.
I was riding along and all of a sudden I could see nothing , my visor of my helmet nearly hit the clocks, all I could see was white (visor) and my feet flew off the pegs, lucky I landed on top of the bike and managed to control it further, an almost fall.
It was mid day by now and there were not many shadows to help with the reading of the road ahead, and this incident is what I think caused my one side ssubframe bolt to break. I didnt know at the time, carried on riding to Bella Vista. Here the road has a short tar section, I think its more dangerous than the dirt there are so maany potholes.
Dual Sporting in Mozambique...
He was the only local we saw wearing a helmet, but you gotta love his choice of riding boots.
In Maputo it was wierd to see two locals on a superbike riding past with nothing but dark classes on. Wild West I tell you.
But anyway, the helmet law only applies to foreigners, you will be stopped if you dont wear one.
We filled up again at Bella Vista, its best to do this whenever there is juice, no matter how full your tank is already.
The town is a classic moz one, nice goverment building in the center.
Approaching Salamanga there is this hindu temple, wierd to see in the middle of nowhere.
About here I ran out of memory for the camera, and realised the other mem sticks were in the Pajero! Doh.
But what basically transpired from here can be described in words...
Great fun, swearing and vasbyt.
We hit the sand just past Salamanga, I rode on a little and stopped to wait for Zonkel.
Nothing... I turned back till I saw his light then stopped on the side of the road (sand pit) for a drink of water. He fell about 100m from me, picked it up and carried on. When he passed me he just swore, showed me 5 fingers and carried on riding. This was the last I saw of him till Ponto d'ouro...
The 5 was the number of times he had fallen in the last 2km , and now that he was upright and moving forward he was not keen to stop.
We reached a fork in the road, with the straight section looking to be the worst mother of a road you have ever seen. It was deep deep sand with criss cross tracks, mounds, the works. So assuming Zonkel went right I followed and rode along an easier sand dual track. After about 10km I thought I would have seen him by now, and stopped to wait. Assuming he went the hectic way and was struggling, after about 20 minutes I turned back and rode the whole way back to the split. No Zonkel. So thinking he went the hard way and was in trouble I turned and took this route.
And... No Zonkel. After the hard section joined up front again I rode on, realising he must be in front of me. Eventually a car coming from that direction pulled up, I flagged him down and he told me he had seen the Transalp about 30 minutes ago and he was ahead of me. I swore his mother. I shouted so load they heard it in Maputo.
So the rest of the way I rode on alone, wondering why he didnt stop, and wait for me. The section is marked as "off road" on the maps I had, basically about 3 tracks all within 100m from each other going the same way, criss crossing each other every now and then. All soft soft sand. I had done a little bit of sand riding with a dude in Sodwana before, and I was lucky for this as I heard Zonkel fell at least 2 times more.
Passing through Zitondo, and then finally into Ponto was good and exciting, a real oppertunity to test your sand riding, I nearly fell at the one spot but as I joked later that I think I fell and landed on the upright bike again
Riding into Ponto I found Zonkel on the side of the road, I swore at him once or twice and then we let it pass and took a look around Ponto.
We rode onto the beach and saw the germans that were riding with my buddy so called and hooked up with him at Cafe Del Mar.
We had a good chow there and then decided to set up camp at the scuba camp at the end of the road.
Going back to the cafe later I arranged a dive for sunday and we had a few drinks till we were tired and then went to sleep.
My little tent
I woke up in the morning with about 20 mosquitos in the tent, I left a little bit open and was bitten to pieces, the few that I grabbed all had blood in them. Oh well, if I feel funny in a few days you might see me post a lot more as I suffer in bed with Malaria.
We visited a friend who owns a house in ponto, and then returned to break up camp. Deciding to not dive as it was getting late, we had breakfast at another lekka spot before saying ciao to my buddy and hitting the road to the border.
This is the sort of road we are talking about, basically beach sand with high banks on the side to keep you in check.
After the 50+ km of this the day before , we were not really worried about the short 10km bit to the border, it should take us 30 minutes or less.
So we thought...
I kept riding ahead and losing Zonkel, at one point I stopped after a particularly steep dune ascent, waiting for Zonkel to come over the rise... He did.. I took a photo of him , turned took the above photo of the road ahead and when I turned back he was on the ground...
This time he had a few helpers to get the TA upright again.
This carried on for a bit, in summary it took really long to do this 10km, it was ride , wait, turn around, ride back , pick up TA, ride, wait , turn ... 3-4 times. Here is the scenery I got too see along the way, dont know if Zonkel was taking note. Each time he got up a bit slower, but each time he got up and carried on. I guess the other way back was 50km of this so Africa is not for sissies.
Some of the sand sections needed balls and a good right wrist to get up
He was riding up this hill... wonder why the bike is facing down...
Going up this time aswell.
Telling me how many times he had fallen today...
Eventually we got to a section where the sand was not as deep as it had been till then and rode on to the border.
At the border we had a rest and got psyched for the long tar bit ahead.
Along the way back it was hot, really hot. Having driven through this area before I remember seeing 42 degrees on the X3's temp guage, it was like looking into an open oven all the time. Hot Hot Hot.
We had a quick stop at Zonkels old home town of Jozini, little pic of the dam.
Then it was the long haul back to PTA/JHB. Stopping in Pongola for spome food and drink was a good idea, we would have dehydrated if we had not.
I took my goggles off while riding this bit, preffering to just use my dark glasses, bad idea.
It started showing signs of rain near Ermelo and I looked in my backpack for the goggles... opps must have fallen out at Pongola and all I had was the glasses. Rode on till it got dark , and stopped at Middleburg when I was struggling to see anything, I could not ride without glasses and the splattered bugs kept telling me this.
What to do... Maak a plan, found a single pair of raver type sunglasses at the little curio shop, begged them to open and sell them to me, R180 later I was styling in my yellow tint glasses along the N4. Adventure riding problem solving.
All in all we did about 1500 km from friday to sunday, and only about 130km of offoad riding. It was well worth the long ride to get there, what a jol !
Will we do it again? For sure , what about the annual SA adv rider weekend moz jaunt?
The bikes help up well, apart from above mentioned bolt, but even with this broken it soldiered on.
What is the best bike to do this trip on? In my opinion I was riding the beast of choice, not many bikes can do the rough stuff as well and then throw in the two long tar bits there and back.
Maybe a KTM 950 would be a good choice, I would not really like to do the sand on an 1150 or 1200 GS, or the tar on a DRZ for that matter, but some brave souls might attempt it.
Dakar would be another good bike , so basically a 650 thumper gets my nod.
Our friend with the house in Ponto does it every other weekend with a TTR-250 now, used to do it on a YZ250 but had hassles with regular supply of petrol at Bella Vista. The 4-stroke TTR does it on one tank and he is happy with it even though it is a bit underpowered.
We were all packed and ready for our little weekend of sand riding.
Out plan was to head down to Maputo, visit a friend of mine and then ride to Ponto d'ouro on Saturday. The ride back would be via Kosi Bay and Jozini on the Sunday.
We wanted to miss the toll gates, so we rode via Hendrina, Carolina and Barberton hoping to get to Moz before dark.
The typical scenery in this area before Barberton is flat open coal fields with the odd power station.
CT people can drool over this beast, Welshie play name this station?
Here is a shot of Zonkel playing Hardly Dangerous rider.
Before Badplaas we had a little bit of a rain shower, and as we hit this it was actually hailing for a bit. Ouch!
By the time we were at the nice twisty bits between Badplass and Barberton we had dried again and it was real fun leaning the bikes into corners fully loaded with kit.
We eventually got the border, and hit the queues. A gentleman assisted us on the Moz side, never had an easier crossing of a border post, ever.
Cant tell you what the inside of Ressano Garcia post looks like, we sat at the bikes drinking snake bite
After a quick shower at my buddies place, we went out to downtown Maputo and had dinner in a cool restuarant. We met friends of my buddy, had a few double whiskys and just talked shit all evening.
The next morning we loaded our kit onto my buddies Pajero and rode into Maputo to catch the ferry. We noticed the fort building was open and went inside and did what any tourist would do...
With that bit of culture behind us we got to the ferry just in time to see it leave... so we had an hour wait... what to do in Africa?
Jerry Jerry Jerry !!!
Zonkelnut has a swig of the little jerry can.
Waiting for the ferry we got swamped by traders
Outside the ministry of finance building
Red Laurie Yellow Laurie.
Laurentinas were consumed till we ran out, then it was Mac Mahon crap. 2M.
We loaded the bikes onto the ferry and enjoyed the short trip across the bay
The best place to get off the ferry first!
The other side, Catembe from Maputo.
And then Maputo from Catembe
Here our buddy loaded some german backpackers into the pajero, we said caio and hit the road, its was hard bumpy gravel from Catembe to Bella Vista, some places had me seeing 140kph on the GPS, other places had me bouncing around all over the road, a bike is the best way to do this sort of road.
I was riding along and all of a sudden I could see nothing , my visor of my helmet nearly hit the clocks, all I could see was white (visor) and my feet flew off the pegs, lucky I landed on top of the bike and managed to control it further, an almost fall.
It was mid day by now and there were not many shadows to help with the reading of the road ahead, and this incident is what I think caused my one side ssubframe bolt to break. I didnt know at the time, carried on riding to Bella Vista. Here the road has a short tar section, I think its more dangerous than the dirt there are so maany potholes.
Dual Sporting in Mozambique...
He was the only local we saw wearing a helmet, but you gotta love his choice of riding boots.
In Maputo it was wierd to see two locals on a superbike riding past with nothing but dark classes on. Wild West I tell you.
But anyway, the helmet law only applies to foreigners, you will be stopped if you dont wear one.
We filled up again at Bella Vista, its best to do this whenever there is juice, no matter how full your tank is already.
The town is a classic moz one, nice goverment building in the center.
Approaching Salamanga there is this hindu temple, wierd to see in the middle of nowhere.
About here I ran out of memory for the camera, and realised the other mem sticks were in the Pajero! Doh.
But what basically transpired from here can be described in words...
Great fun, swearing and vasbyt.
We hit the sand just past Salamanga, I rode on a little and stopped to wait for Zonkel.
Nothing... I turned back till I saw his light then stopped on the side of the road (sand pit) for a drink of water. He fell about 100m from me, picked it up and carried on. When he passed me he just swore, showed me 5 fingers and carried on riding. This was the last I saw of him till Ponto d'ouro...
The 5 was the number of times he had fallen in the last 2km , and now that he was upright and moving forward he was not keen to stop.
We reached a fork in the road, with the straight section looking to be the worst mother of a road you have ever seen. It was deep deep sand with criss cross tracks, mounds, the works. So assuming Zonkel went right I followed and rode along an easier sand dual track. After about 10km I thought I would have seen him by now, and stopped to wait. Assuming he went the hectic way and was struggling, after about 20 minutes I turned back and rode the whole way back to the split. No Zonkel. So thinking he went the hard way and was in trouble I turned and took this route.
And... No Zonkel. After the hard section joined up front again I rode on, realising he must be in front of me. Eventually a car coming from that direction pulled up, I flagged him down and he told me he had seen the Transalp about 30 minutes ago and he was ahead of me. I swore his mother. I shouted so load they heard it in Maputo.
So the rest of the way I rode on alone, wondering why he didnt stop, and wait for me. The section is marked as "off road" on the maps I had, basically about 3 tracks all within 100m from each other going the same way, criss crossing each other every now and then. All soft soft sand. I had done a little bit of sand riding with a dude in Sodwana before, and I was lucky for this as I heard Zonkel fell at least 2 times more.
Passing through Zitondo, and then finally into Ponto was good and exciting, a real oppertunity to test your sand riding, I nearly fell at the one spot but as I joked later that I think I fell and landed on the upright bike again
Riding into Ponto I found Zonkel on the side of the road, I swore at him once or twice and then we let it pass and took a look around Ponto.
We rode onto the beach and saw the germans that were riding with my buddy so called and hooked up with him at Cafe Del Mar.
We had a good chow there and then decided to set up camp at the scuba camp at the end of the road.
Going back to the cafe later I arranged a dive for sunday and we had a few drinks till we were tired and then went to sleep.
My little tent
I woke up in the morning with about 20 mosquitos in the tent, I left a little bit open and was bitten to pieces, the few that I grabbed all had blood in them. Oh well, if I feel funny in a few days you might see me post a lot more as I suffer in bed with Malaria.
We visited a friend who owns a house in ponto, and then returned to break up camp. Deciding to not dive as it was getting late, we had breakfast at another lekka spot before saying ciao to my buddy and hitting the road to the border.
This is the sort of road we are talking about, basically beach sand with high banks on the side to keep you in check.
After the 50+ km of this the day before , we were not really worried about the short 10km bit to the border, it should take us 30 minutes or less.
So we thought...
I kept riding ahead and losing Zonkel, at one point I stopped after a particularly steep dune ascent, waiting for Zonkel to come over the rise... He did.. I took a photo of him , turned took the above photo of the road ahead and when I turned back he was on the ground...
This time he had a few helpers to get the TA upright again.
This carried on for a bit, in summary it took really long to do this 10km, it was ride , wait, turn around, ride back , pick up TA, ride, wait , turn ... 3-4 times. Here is the scenery I got too see along the way, dont know if Zonkel was taking note. Each time he got up a bit slower, but each time he got up and carried on. I guess the other way back was 50km of this so Africa is not for sissies.
Some of the sand sections needed balls and a good right wrist to get up
He was riding up this hill... wonder why the bike is facing down...
Going up this time aswell.
Telling me how many times he had fallen today...
Eventually we got to a section where the sand was not as deep as it had been till then and rode on to the border.
At the border we had a rest and got psyched for the long tar bit ahead.
Along the way back it was hot, really hot. Having driven through this area before I remember seeing 42 degrees on the X3's temp guage, it was like looking into an open oven all the time. Hot Hot Hot.
We had a quick stop at Zonkels old home town of Jozini, little pic of the dam.
Then it was the long haul back to PTA/JHB. Stopping in Pongola for spome food and drink was a good idea, we would have dehydrated if we had not.
I took my goggles off while riding this bit, preffering to just use my dark glasses, bad idea.
It started showing signs of rain near Ermelo and I looked in my backpack for the goggles... opps must have fallen out at Pongola and all I had was the glasses. Rode on till it got dark , and stopped at Middleburg when I was struggling to see anything, I could not ride without glasses and the splattered bugs kept telling me this.
What to do... Maak a plan, found a single pair of raver type sunglasses at the little curio shop, begged them to open and sell them to me, R180 later I was styling in my yellow tint glasses along the N4. Adventure riding problem solving.
All in all we did about 1500 km from friday to sunday, and only about 130km of offoad riding. It was well worth the long ride to get there, what a jol !
Will we do it again? For sure , what about the annual SA adv rider weekend moz jaunt?
The bikes help up well, apart from above mentioned bolt, but even with this broken it soldiered on.
What is the best bike to do this trip on? In my opinion I was riding the beast of choice, not many bikes can do the rough stuff as well and then throw in the two long tar bits there and back.
Maybe a KTM 950 would be a good choice, I would not really like to do the sand on an 1150 or 1200 GS, or the tar on a DRZ for that matter, but some brave souls might attempt it.
Dakar would be another good bike , so basically a 650 thumper gets my nod.
Our friend with the house in Ponto does it every other weekend with a TTR-250 now, used to do it on a YZ250 but had hassles with regular supply of petrol at Bella Vista. The 4-stroke TTR does it on one tank and he is happy with it even though it is a bit underpowered.
