RIDING the RIFT ~ East Africa 2011

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wildside

Pack Dog
Joined
Nov 24, 2009
Messages
497
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Location
Howick
Bike
Honda XR650R
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Before I tell you about our adventure through East Africa I want to give you a brief description of the Great Rift Valley as this is the route we followed.
Africas Great Rift Valley is a 6000 km crack in the earths’ crust caused by violent subterranean forces that tore apart the earths crust causing huge chunks of the crust to sink between parallel fault lines and force up molten rock in volcanic eruptions. This stretches from central Mozambique in South East Africa, through Malawi where it splits into the Western Rift Valley ( also known as the Albertine Rift ) and the Eastern Rift Valley, which runs through central Tanzania.  The most dramatic section that runs through East Africa divides Kenya into two segments and continues all the way to Northern Syria in South west Asia.

The western branch contains the Rift Valley Lakes which we followed up to Murchison Falls, on the Victoria Nile in Northern Uganda. We then crossed over to Kenya to follow the eastern Rift Valley back down to Southern Lake Malawi.

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MAP OF RIFT VALLEY

The Rift Valley is something that has fascinated me since high school and after our Namibian Meander in 2009, we discussed our next destination and jokingly I suggested that we follow the Rift Valley. Kingsley wasn’t too sure about where or what it was.  To cut a long story short he was soon convinced that this was a good idea as our dream of doing Cape to Cairo  had little chance of ever materializing. This was going to be our Trans Africa trip.

"KARIBU"


This is the word we heard many times throughout our journey, which means “Welcome” in Swahili. This was how we were greeted and how we felt throughout our month long trip through East Africa, likewise I would like to “welcome” you to our Ride Report.

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  Finally we were loaded up with two well prepared motorbikes on the back of our Hilux and ready to roll. We snuck away from work and out of Howick (KZN) on the 7th December 2011, a few days earlier than planned. All responsibilities behind us and an amazing adventure in front us.  We popped in to see our son in Johannesburg, who had just returned from a trip to Bali, and without further adieu we headed for Zimbabwe. It was now 9.00 pm Wednesday evening and with all the excitement we managed to drive through the night and arrived at the Beit Bridge border post (South Africa and Zimbabwe) just as the sun was making its daily appearance.

“The road has got me hypnotised and I’m speeding to a new sunrise.”

                                                                                          Golden Earring


We were so organised and had all our paper work in order, such as Visas, Passports, Carnets, Vehicle/Medical Insurance, International Drivers licence, Yellow Fever Health Card and logbooks. This was going to be a piece of cake.........boy were we wrong!!!!!  This was one expensive piece of cake which left a bitter taste in our mouths.

We exited South Africa and entered Zimbabwes huge, dusty and unmarked parking/waiting area. We were amazed by the number of parked buses and taxis. Spread out next to these was all the luggage and people milling around. Some were even draped over the piles of luggage enjoying a bit of shut eye. We hadn’t even worked out yet where it was safe to park when a hand full of locals ran up to us indicating to us to park in a specific place. We obediently complied and soon learnt that this was our first mistake. We were parked a fair distance from the administration buildings and there was clearly no order in all this mess of vehicles. We opened our window to thank the kind gentlemen. He immediately convinced us that for R200 he would get us through Immigration and Customs. To reassure us that this was a good idea he indicated to all the vehicles around us and told us it would take a couple of days for us to finally clear the Border. We were so naive and willingly accepted his kind offer.

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IN THE CAR PARK AT BEIT BRIDGE PORDER POST.

I stayed behind to look after the vehicle and bikes while Kingsley went off to take care of the paperwork.  About 2 hours later a very pale and flustered Kingsley returned with a receipt for $470. What the hell !!!  Carbon Tax and Road tax for the bakkie and two motorbikes. This took care of a big chunk of our budget. It was now time to pay the ‘runner’.  He demanded $500 !!!! By now there were so many corrupt officials and buddys involved. We were so angry and overwhelmed by what had happened and once through the boom we were being escorted by 5 locals to an ATM. Can you believe it, we actually paid them $500 – totalling a payment of R7500 to enter Zimbabwe.

In hindsight, we must have stood out as easy pickings for the well seasoned runners who were pros at intimidating and overwhelming the inexperienced tourist who are clearly out of their depth. Angry as we were we decided to learn from our mistake and not let it happen again.

For the rest of the day we stewed over this incident and had to recalculate our budget. Fortunately we had no other unpleasant incidences in Zimbabwe and arrived at the Mozambique border at 5.00 pm and within 1hour and R100 down we were through both borders. This was a breeze as we were now wise travellers and managed on our own. It was now a race cross the Tete Corridor to reach the Malawi border post before 9 pm. It was dark when we arrived at Tete and we needed to refuel. We had no Mozambique currency and after negotiating with a manager at a fuel station our dollars were accepted.

After Tete the roads deteriorated and dodging potholes slowed us down and resulted in the snapping of the tailgate support. This dropped the back wheels of the bikes a bit but they were still secure. Arriving late at the border post, we join the short queue and tried to settle down for some much needed sleep. Loud music and voices boomed through the night. Occasionally a black face peered at us through the window to reassure us that he was determined to be our body guard – despite us refusing his request.

The surrounding area started waking up at about 5.am and the queues were growing longer. The need for the loo also grew. Oh my gosh we must have been desperate because we actually had to pay for the use of this awful, dirty, smelly, and  dilapidated excuse for a loo – no seat, no water, no toilet paper or flushing devise. However, there was a 44 gallon drum with about 5 inches of water in it squeezed into the corner. Hanging from this to support my squatting position I closed my eyes and tried to think pleasant thoughts. Water from this drum had to be scooped up into a container, poured into the cistern and then you had to pull up the flushing stem. Washing your hands also took place in this same drum as I’m sure many other hands had. Kingsley had to endure the same procedure and I had to chuckle at the look of horror on his green face as he walked out.

We exchanged some dollars for Malawi kwacha and eventually got rid of our so-called bodyguard after many threats from him because we refused to pay him. With great relief we headed for the Malawian border. We popped out the other side even more broke and angry with ourselves as once again we fell for the ‘runners’ bribes and so-called formalities!!

As we drove through the gate some official looking locals carrying clipboards stopped us and told us that we needed insurance for both bikes and vehicle. We discussed a crazy price of MK 35000 ( R1 646 ) and insisted on a receipt. They then told us to park at the building and before we knew we were being ushered into the building and handed Temporary Import Permit ( TIP) forms  to fill in. This chap was so helpful, cheerful and friendly and one couldn’t help responding to him. We were then ushered to another small office to make a payment of MK 1500  ( R70 ) to pay for the TIP.
None of these offices are sign posted so one responds to a friendly chap directing one in the right direction. OK...... all this friendliness cost us MK 20 000 ( R940 )!!!  When Kingsley said to him “this is f...ing criminal”, he replied with much amusement “we are trying to uplift our economy”.  Our insurance man arrived back with the insurance cards and a receipt which we are convinced had been written in his own personal receipt book and had nothing do with Hollard Insurance. Who knows how much money he made out of that deal. Yes, it happened again – how embarrassing. So much for us wizening up.

 
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