DREWMARX
Race Dog
Hey Dogs,
Shanks has been on me to write this report for a while now, and finally just over a month after our journey I have decided to start posting the report.
The idea for the trip started because I started working in Tanzania in March and was travelling back and forth to SA for various reasons, mostly because I had to return for weddings. One day I just had the idea to ride back to Tanzania on my return instead of flying back, and subsequently invited Shanks along. He bailed on the trip because of a career change about a month before and I was still dead set on doing it even if I did it alone. My dad (Andy) was interested in the trip from the start and never really committed to it, but a week before I planned to pull away in Pretoria he let me know that he bought a 2010 GS800 and was coming along. I was thrilled and so it was settled, father and son, Andrew and Andrew, better known as Andy and Drew to our respective friends were going to Ride our bikes to Arusha Tanzania from my parents house in Pretoria.
I named the trip Race to Tanzania because our trip lasted all of ten days. The reason for such a short time frame is because the nature of my work didn't and currently still won't allow me to be away from work for much longer than that.
So here it is. Enjoy, feel free to ask questions or make suggestions as I write the report.
The Route:
The route wasn't maticulously planned, because I wanted to allow for as much flexibility as possible, but I had an Idea and we agreed on it. We planned to Travel from Pretoria through Thabazimbi and Ellisras and into Botswana via Martinsdrift/Groblersbrug, then up through Francistown all the way to Pandamatenga where we would cross the border into Zimbabwe. What I wanted to do was spend a night or two in the pans, but we would be hard pressed for time, and this idea was abandoned. I planned to ride along the northern parts of Zim from west to east and doing as much gravel as possible, but the alternative route down from Pandamatenga to Buluwayo, Harare, Gweru and then into Mozambique was a bail out option. We would cross into Mozambique and make for Malawi where would head for Monkey Bay and travel up north all long the shore of the lake and enter into Tanzania. Tanzania would be pretty simple, cross the border over the Songwe river, travel through Tukuyu, Mbeya, Iringa, Dodoma and then to Arusha, where I live and work.
The Bikes:
This was quite a long process to say the least, for me anyway. My dad has had his heart set on a GS800 for quite a while now, so his mind was made up even before he had decided on joining me for the trip. I wanted to do the trip on my 97 XR600, which is in immaculate condition and only has 7000km on the clock, but forces beyond my control forced me to find a different alternative. I decided to do the trip in July, and while visiting SA for a friends wedding I wanted to register my XR which had never been registered since purchased it, and Waltloo let me know that it could take anything from 2 weeks to 12 week. I had set the date for departure on 24 September 2012, and with only a month left before the trip my nike had still not been registered and so the searching for a bike started. I had already spent R10 000k on getting the bike ready for the trip, and in Hind Sight I probably should have tried to register it first, but whatever, now I have lekker XR serviced and ready. Anyway, I didn't and don't have a lot of cash in the bank and was looking for a second hand bike aroun R30k, but I started thinking what use it would be to have two similar bikes, and I wasn't going to sell the XR, and so the snowball began. I looked at everything, test road everything, and to cut a very very long story short, I borrowed money from ABSA and bought a brand new 2012 KTM 690 R BEAST!
Shanks has been on me to write this report for a while now, and finally just over a month after our journey I have decided to start posting the report.
The idea for the trip started because I started working in Tanzania in March and was travelling back and forth to SA for various reasons, mostly because I had to return for weddings. One day I just had the idea to ride back to Tanzania on my return instead of flying back, and subsequently invited Shanks along. He bailed on the trip because of a career change about a month before and I was still dead set on doing it even if I did it alone. My dad (Andy) was interested in the trip from the start and never really committed to it, but a week before I planned to pull away in Pretoria he let me know that he bought a 2010 GS800 and was coming along. I was thrilled and so it was settled, father and son, Andrew and Andrew, better known as Andy and Drew to our respective friends were going to Ride our bikes to Arusha Tanzania from my parents house in Pretoria.
I named the trip Race to Tanzania because our trip lasted all of ten days. The reason for such a short time frame is because the nature of my work didn't and currently still won't allow me to be away from work for much longer than that.
So here it is. Enjoy, feel free to ask questions or make suggestions as I write the report.
The Route:
The route wasn't maticulously planned, because I wanted to allow for as much flexibility as possible, but I had an Idea and we agreed on it. We planned to Travel from Pretoria through Thabazimbi and Ellisras and into Botswana via Martinsdrift/Groblersbrug, then up through Francistown all the way to Pandamatenga where we would cross the border into Zimbabwe. What I wanted to do was spend a night or two in the pans, but we would be hard pressed for time, and this idea was abandoned. I planned to ride along the northern parts of Zim from west to east and doing as much gravel as possible, but the alternative route down from Pandamatenga to Buluwayo, Harare, Gweru and then into Mozambique was a bail out option. We would cross into Mozambique and make for Malawi where would head for Monkey Bay and travel up north all long the shore of the lake and enter into Tanzania. Tanzania would be pretty simple, cross the border over the Songwe river, travel through Tukuyu, Mbeya, Iringa, Dodoma and then to Arusha, where I live and work.
The Bikes:
This was quite a long process to say the least, for me anyway. My dad has had his heart set on a GS800 for quite a while now, so his mind was made up even before he had decided on joining me for the trip. I wanted to do the trip on my 97 XR600, which is in immaculate condition and only has 7000km on the clock, but forces beyond my control forced me to find a different alternative. I decided to do the trip in July, and while visiting SA for a friends wedding I wanted to register my XR which had never been registered since purchased it, and Waltloo let me know that it could take anything from 2 weeks to 12 week. I had set the date for departure on 24 September 2012, and with only a month left before the trip my nike had still not been registered and so the searching for a bike started. I had already spent R10 000k on getting the bike ready for the trip, and in Hind Sight I probably should have tried to register it first, but whatever, now I have lekker XR serviced and ready. Anyway, I didn't and don't have a lot of cash in the bank and was looking for a second hand bike aroun R30k, but I started thinking what use it would be to have two similar bikes, and I wasn't going to sell the XR, and so the snowball began. I looked at everything, test road everything, and to cut a very very long story short, I borrowed money from ABSA and bought a brand new 2012 KTM 690 R BEAST!
