South Africa (Part 2)
2. - 3.12.2006 Entry and drive to Upington
As with all the border crossings within the customs union this entry did not cause any problems. Everything went
quickly and soon we could drive towards Upington. This town is in the north-western part of South Africa and on
the way there is not much to be seen. Well tarred road and flat, dry territory with a lot of heat. Arrived in Upington
we looked for accommodation and had a good time. That means we rented a room with pool and self catering. Quickly
bought some food and spent the rest of the evening watching TV.
The 3rd of December was a Sunday, therefore the best was to stay at "home". We simply took a break and inserted a
TV-day watching 4 films spread over the day. Well we had to compensate a big shortcoming! We also paid a lot of
attention to the swimming pool as well. Chri spent some minutes in the bathtub, with our camping mats. We wanted
to find the holes, but no success. So the day passed just with relaxing.
December 4. - 6.12.2006 Kgalagadi National Park
The first step next morning led to Imperial, a car rental. For the next 5 days we changed our bike for a car, left
the bike on the area of the car rental and drove to the furthest north-west corner of South Africa into the Kgalagadi
National Park. The ride also led us through the Calahari - a desert area with never-ending vastness, red sand and
small green bushes. The blue sky topped off the wonderful play of colours. The first 200 km we drove on good
asphalt, which was replaced by gravel piste. But sitting in a car those roads are much better to be driven and the
last 60 km were pretty fast managed. But in a car we also were suffering under the heat and with an average temperature
of 40°C we were sweating quite a lot. Early afternoon we arrived at the park and pitched up our tent, about 4 pm
we started a small trip to explore the park a little bit. We did not see many animals, but wonderful a landscape.
On the second day, we got up early in the morning, 5.00 am, packed our things and one hour later we were on the piste.
On the first waterhole already we were rewarded for our getting up early: 5 lions! As always we were totally enthused.
This day the 165 km to the next camp were programmed, again we passed beautiful areas, ac-companied by great heat.
We saw Springboks, Gnus, Oryx-antelopes and Ostriches, many Jackals and even 2 wildcats. During late afternoon, too,
we went for a safari tour till sunset. The animals unfortunately had hidden, but the light and the atmosphere were
superb. At the evening we also could admire a fantastic moonrise.
The third day - it was Santa Claus Day! Not at all we did feel like Christmas. And there were no Santa Clauses out
of chocolate. Well, the existing temperatures made us rather more think of ice cold drinks and having a cold and
refreshing shower. The tour back to the first camp was not the hit either, relatively boring. Arrived in the camp,
we realized our dreams of cold showers and drinks, and tried to recover a bit. Heat, namely, can become quite straining.
The concluding afternoon tour was completely addicted to the lions. Barely left the camp, 3 very nice specimen were
laying directly on the street. No more than 3m away from us. On the first waterhole, too, some of those impressive
animals were waiting for us: 2 mamas with youngsters. We watched them for more than one hour, we heard them babbling
and purring. Really sweet!! This was a very satisfying conclusion.
7. - 8.12.2006 Augrabie Falls National Park
We left the Kgalagadi National Park, took the same route back to Upington, to continue towards west. Shortly after we
had left the town it suddenly became green, we were passing vineyards. The river Orange was close-by, so that it
is worth while to cultivate wine. The grapes mainly will be dried to raisins. The green this time did good to our
eyes. The Augrabie Falls Park mainly is known by a gigantic waterfall. In this park the river Orange falls into the
depth, after it was squeezed by a narrow canyon. It was a roaring and rushing! Impressive how the brown water masses
tumble down. Subsequently we made a tour through the park. Almost no animals were to be seen, which however was not
sad, because the landscape again impressed us very much. A rocky scenery, surrounded by red soil and yellow grass.
The views into the canyon was most impressive, almost more than the River Fish Canyon in Namibia.
The following day we again visited the park and enjoyed the scenery in beautiful morning light. This time we even saw
some giraffes. Soon we said good-bye to Augrabie Falls Park, it should be the second last park on our tour. We took
it easy to drive back to Upington, because of the heat we again took a room with self-catering, visited for a short
time an internet-café, thereafter a little bit shopping and for lunch we had a tasty fresh salad.
9. - 11.12.2006
The first thing we did on December 9th: we returned the car to the rental agency and happily exchanged it for our motorbike.
It was in good order waiting for us. In total we had driven the last 5 days 1.390 km - not bad, but more comfortable
than riding the cow. Besides that a lot of driving was scheduled for this day. 400 km on even tarred road till Springbock.
The landscape did not offer much, the wind speed increased - what a benefit - it became slightly fresher. Arrived in
Springbock, we thought we totally had lost our way, because it was terribly cold. We started trembling and could not stop
it all evening long. We did not have that for a long time! Thus we went very early into the tent, put on thicker clothes and
slipped into the sleeping bags. But we really did not get warm all-night long. A glance to the thermometer showed us 8 °C.
That the differences in temperature always have to be that starkly. But that is life, previously we had complained about the heat.
And the heat came back the following day, we drove slowly towards south. The destination of the day was named Clanwilliams,
again a distance of 350 km. The first half of the route was scenically very nice and diversified. Later there were vineyards,
which brought a lot of green to our eyes. On arrival in Clamswilliams we already could see in the background the Cedar Mountains
- an impressive sight.
On December the 11th we decided to drive to Cape Town without any further overnight stay. The ultimate goal of our Africa-crossing was
shouting for us and we did not intend to wait longer. Easygoing we kept rolling towards south, made a short trip to the ocean and
had something to eat in Langebaan. Besides that we wanted to have a glance at the beautiful blue lagoon, but only had a short view,
because unfortunately the coastline is completely obstructed by buildings. Consequently we attacked the last 120 km, we
slowly approached the most beautiful town of Africa. Already after half of the distance it showed up the first time: the Tablemountain.
The symbol that we really made it!! What a feeling!! Again and again the mountain was to be seen, a wonderful view. On this
section we also cracked the 40.000 km tag. On the Blueberg Beach we stopped to take a photo to prove, that we had been here.
Well, here we stood, admired the Tablemountain and could clap ourselves on the shoulder.
WE MANAGED TO GET HERE!!
We really drove within nine (9) months from Munich to Cape Town and crossed the African continent. Wow!! We were and still are a
little bit proud about us and our faithful vehicle. Thereafter we rushed into the urban traffic and drove to Claremont.
Pretty soon we also found our selected accommodation, a room was available. We arranged for an original 5 nights stay, which
should become 11 nights During the night it was comfortable cool so that we had a good sleep.
12 - 22.12.2006 Stay in Cape Town
As already mentioned our stay here should different than planned. We had planned to take care of shipping the bike, book
our return flight and enjoy city life. But unfortunately our bike did not want to go any further, it gave up its ghost.
But everything in sequence:
On Tuesday we drove downtown, pounded some shipping agencies - without great success. Then further on to a travel agency,
to reserve the return flights. We found out about a non-stop daylight flight from Cape Town to Munich by LTU. Here we had
to take the chance. We also learned, that you could transport a bike with LTU and asked for an offer. When we returned
to the parking lot and wanted to pullout, we could start the bike, but could not accelerate anymore. Each time when Chri
tried to accelerate, the bike died down. What to do??!! We had to be towed to a garage. After some search we found a
mechanic, who came to the parking lot. To cut a long story short: we brought the moped to his garage, where it stayed
till Thursday. They tried to repair it, but from our point of view made it worse. We had found a real gangster. Not having
any idea they took everything apart and repairing working parts kaputt...
Well, the following days we always took the train from Claremont to downtown Cape Town and back. We were busy with running
forth and back between the garage, travel agency and the internet café, and phoning. No city vacation whatsoever. Well,
the return flight was assured, but we did not get any answer from LTU-cargo. Therefore we called several shipping companies
and had them making us an offer. One was promising. Besides all those activities we had a lot of time to work on our webpage
and writing emails. Once we even could go to the Waterfront and doing some "window shopping". Thus, we had a lot of running
around in Cape Town, but did not see much of the town. Well, we will be back again later on.
On Thursday we picked up our bike from the bungling-garage (where we had to leave quite some money) and had to bring it to
BMW on the Waterfront. We had more confidence in their experience. Here we left our "thicky" till Monday, because they
wanted to make a complete check-up. Unfortunately they did not find any real defect, we only were advised, that the problem
could be the Hallsensor. As this part costs a lot of money, we first wanted to try it again without an exchange and making
a 1 day excursion on the cape-peninsula, because in the meantime the bike was running again. No sooner said than done.
On Monday evening we took the moped and on Tuesday we started our short tour. We drove from Claremont via Simons Town to
the National Park on the Cape of Good Hope. Too bad, that here was to much traffic and too many people, that at Cape Point
we had no chance to make a photo to prove we had been here. Well... The way back we drove towards Chapman´s Peak - a wonderful
coastal road high above the ocean. At the lookout point we took a break and when we tried to start again after 45 minutes, we
again had the well known problem. Starting yes, accelerating no! We called our friends at BMW and after one hour we were hauled
off again. We left the bike with them and told them to install the Hallsensor. What other chance did we have? They were
so nice and loaned an "ersatz-bike" to us. At least we stayed mobile. On Thursday everything was ready and we could pick up
the bike. They had dismantled the Hallsensor, by doing this they supposedly found a dead rat (?!) and installed the new sensor.
Furthermore we had them replace the belt for the electric generator. When rolling off the engine somehow sounded better.
Fortunately not only wishful thinking or - hearing. We made another test drive towards Camps Bay and Hout Bay. We drove during
sunset, which turned everything into gold and in addition big clouds were crossing the mountain of the "12 Apostles". What a
wonderful ride, which we fully enjoyed. At the evening we packed all our things and were happy to be able to continue our tour,
finally. Not that we did not like Cape Town, just the contrary, but we wanted to see much more of South Africa and only had
time till 25.1.2007.
22. + 23.12.2006 We are proceeding our Tour!
Finally again on the road and free with our decisions. What a benefit. We were rolling with most beautiful weather via
Muizenberg along "False Bay" towards Stellenbosch. Here begins the famous vineyard of South Africa, it become hilly,
green and riding the bike is a lot of fun. On this day, along the scenic road R62, we drove till Montagu. This area is well known
for mountain climbing. But we did not test it.
The next day brought us to Oudtshoorn. Relatively early we arrived here and directly drove to the "Motorrad-Treff". An accommodation
for bikers, run by a German. Unfortunately the landlord was not present and thus the premises closed. Except for 2 Dobermans,
we could not see anybody else. But we discovered a note, which told us, whom to address. So we were successful in moving into a
room in the "Motorrad-Treff" and besides that, had the complete house for us, with kitchen, living room, patio and pool.
That is an adequate way to spend Christmas. There after we went shopping for the next days and made arrangements for a homely stay.
24. + 25.12.2006 Christmas in Oudtshoorn
What to do during those Christmas-holidays, when it has 35°C, the sun is burning and therefore no feeling of a Christmassy
temper? Well, you do not celebrate. No Christmas tree, no sweeties, but recreation in the pool and lazily laying in the shadow.
In the evening we cooked well and enjoyed the delicious meal. In addition we had a very delicious white wine on Chri´s birthday.
The evening of Christmas eve we spent on the patio, accompanied by the 2 Dobermans. They obviously felt lonely, because all the time
they wanted to cuddle with us... Chri, an "admittedly dog enthusiast", naturally was very pleased--hihi.
On the 1.Christmas day we were more active. We made a one day excursion to the "Swartberg Pass". The construction of this pass was
finished 1888. It is not tarred, 24 km long and meanders up to an altitude of 1.585m. This offers wonderful views onto the
Hinterland: across the small river Karoo to the Outeniqua-Mountains. Behind it is the well known Garden Route and the ocean.
We drove till Prinz Albert and then the same track back. It did not become boring - just the contrary! It was real fun to drive
along this pass. Back in Oudtshoorn we called our parents - how nice, to hear their voices after such a long time. For the parents,
too, it was a welcome Christmas present.
26. - 29.12.2006 Tour Towards Lesotho
On the first day we drove east, our final aim was the village Graaf-Reinet. We wanted to tent again and pitched up our tent on the
urban campground. The afternoon we used for an excursion to the "Valley of Desolation" - another scenic culmination of this area.
The ride to it already is very nice, on a small road you get higher and higher up to a lookout point. From here you have a fantastic
view onto the wide Karoo-landscape and the weird rock formation. These partly consist of higher than 120m rock needles. Very impressing.
December 27th again was along driving day, 450km were ahead of us. It should go via Fort Beaufort till Queenstown, already in the
neighbourhood of Lesotho. The last kilometres led over a pass, where we got caught by fog and mizzle. We just were starting to put on
thicker clothes, when the sun prevailed over the fog. Queenstown is not really worth mentioning, we just stayed for overnight.
On the third day we also covered a long distance. Actually we wanted to enter Lesotho today, but the weather did not play along.
On the drive to the border thick, black clouds over Lesotho promised no good things. In addition a thunderstorm accumulated, whose first
raindrops we already got. No, we did not feel like that and decided to drive till Bloomfontain. Entering Lesotho we postponed to the
next day. To go to Bloomfontain meant additional 200 km, the section was a long haul, in addition we had to fight a heavy headwind.
Accordingly exhausted we arrived in the town, which, too, is not worth mentioning. We stayed for overnight in "Moulin Rouge", B&B of
the special kind. ;-) Our room was arranged so kitschy, that it already was good again. Red and lilac plush, sweetie pie and florets all
over the place, a dallying candelabrum etc.. All this could not keep us from having a good and deep sleep.
On the 29th December we left South Africa for the second to last time. We drove to the border Ladybrand - Maseru (Capital from Lesotho).
The weather meant well with us, the sun was shining through the nice white clouds and everything was glaring in a strong, fresh green.
Quickly we passed the frontier - here, too, only the passports were stamped.
+++++
Lesotho
Lesotho is the only country in the world, whose complete national territory is situated higher than 1000m; hence it is called "Königreich
im Himmel" ("Kingdom in Heaven"). The country, which is completely surrounded by South Africa, is located on the highest section of
the Drakensberge on the eastern section of the South African plateau. In the west the mountainous country subsides from the mountains
to gentle hills and a plain along the border.
29.12.2006 The First Day in the Green Land
The entry was most quickly performed, no charges. In Maseru we did not stay for long, but drove directly to the small village Roma.
Put up the tent and on the afternoon again we started for another excursion. We drove to "Mohale Dam", passing a glamorous scenery.
This part of the country is also called the "Highlands". And it really is like in Scotland, only slightly higher. We crossed 3 passes
with more than 2.200m altitude. Everywhere green hills and mountains, creeks, little cascades and again and again amazing look-outs.
Admirable! In one turn some white figures were waving us - a film crew. They pointed a cine camera at us and proposed to drive towards
them. Naturally we did that right away and were filmed furthermore. It was a film team from Johannesburg, who were producing an
advertising spot for a solar boiler. It was funny to watch them, even when we had the impression of a complete chaos. When the sun
was disappearing, we again moved into the direction of Dam. Here again we were impressed by the beauty of the landscape.
30.12.2006 - 2.1.2007 En-route within the country
On the second to last day of the year we just drove around a little through the region, viewing the landscape and the people a little.
We really liked everything, people, too, are quite nice and reserved. Back at our tent we also could use the cool wetness of a pool.
Later in the afternoon a dancing chorus showed up, who performed traditional dances... They tried hard, but sadly to say it did not
really carry along. During the night it again became really cold, so that we jittered in our tent.
New Years Eve 2006
New Years Eve also was cancelled by us. We at least tried to do so. We left Roma and easily rolled via Maseru to Pitseng. We had
decided, to stay 2 more days in Lesotho, as we liked it so much. Again we found a little place for our tent on the area of a
guesthouse. Here too, we used the afternoon to go on discovery tour. Goal was the "Katze Dam", the route looped with many turns uphill
the mountains. Today we crossed already a pass in about 3.000m altitude. Fantastic views, but also chilliness. To be honest we
froze quite a bit. This did not even end in the evening, so that we went into our tent and into our sleeping bag pretty
soon after supper. We just had finished to be "sacked in" into our sleeping bags, when the proprietor "knocked" on the tent and told us, that
it might get louder later on. He offered us to move into a room without additional charge, to have a better sleep. Well, he had
not to tell us twice, a bed does not sound bad with this chillness. As we were quite tired, we wanted to go to bed about
9:00pm, but exactly at that moment the music started. Extremely loud and over modulated, in addition the permanent,
nerving sound of a trumped and the smoke of barbequed in the room. Really neat!! We did not imagin our night to be like that.
When talking about music, here only were 4 songs, which constantly were repeated. And this till 2:00am... Oh man, we were knackered,
as you could forget about sleeping. But we survived, at least it was warmer than in the tent.
And already we have January 1st - 2007!! Where did time fly? The new year welcomed us with sunshine and pleasant temperatures.
Ideal for another one day-trip to the highest pass within the southern part of Africa: 3.255m. And again we were pleased
with a lot of green, pleasant turns, further high passes (3x above 3.000m) and waterfalls. But the higher we drove,
the colder it became. In exchange the air was incredible clear and delicious to breeze. Shortly before the highest pass we saw the
only ski-lift in Lesotho - a sign "Afri-Ski" referred to it. Funny - who ever is coming here to ski?? We spent our last night in
this small country, this time it was quiet and we had a splendid night.
On January 02nd we left Lesotho. We drove to the border crossing "Ficksburg Bridge" - what a name for German ears. ;-)
On the border crossing a mass of people were waiting. Obviously all of them wanted to go back to work in South Africa after
the season holidays. We did not feel like standing in the row, were waved through by an officer and abdicated willingly from
getting an exit stamp of the country. We have spent a nice time in the kingdom and are very much pleased about the country.
+++++
BACK IN SOUTH AFRICA (PART 2)
2.1.2007
Well, the lady on the entry counter did not realise that we had no exit stamp of Lesotho. We got the South African entry stamp
and the last time of this tour we drove into South Africa. On this day we drove till Harriesmith, where we stayed overnight.
03. - 04.1.2007 Tour to Pietermaritzburg, one Day Stay
We chose a small road towards south. So we could cover a good part of the distance with view onto the Drakensberge.
A beautiful region and slowly it became tropical. You could realise it mostly with the combination of heat and humidity,
which made breezing difficult and made sweat again flow in streams. We knew, that in this region the rainy season just
started and suddenly we were caught by a rainstorm. Fortunately we could take refuge in a café and enjoyed the spectacle and
specially the fresh, good air. That did good! But as soon as the sun showed up again, it immediatly became sticky again.
We drove the last kilometres till Pietermaritzburg on the freeway. Arrived in town we took a room in a not too nice backpacker -
a good decision, because it started raining again.
The second day we spent the day in the town. The town was not very interesting but we had to manage several things. The major task
again was to actualize our webpage, thus we spent in total about 6 hours in an internet-café, each of us on a computer, to be
understood. The best on the café was, that it was a combination with a washing saloon. Thus we were able besides to actualise the
webpage, could finally have washed our things by a washing machine.
5 - 9.1.2007 On the Way to Port Elisabeth
On the January the 5th we started in Pietermaritzburg and were on the road for a long time. Our route led us via Durban, from here
along the costal road, till Port Edward. Unfortunately we could not see much of the coast, because it is completely obscured by
buildings. Once in a while we had a glance onto the ocean, otherwise we had to watch out not to loose our way, because the
signposting was not the best. Fortunately the landscape was quite interesting, so we did not become desperate. ;-) Late afternoon
we arrived in Port Edward, but did not put up our tent. A glance to the sky did not promise any good things: a black wall!
So we had again B&B.
The breakfast was a hit, among other things there were pancakes. HmHm. This day we went again upcountry via Umtata near Coffee Bay.
We wanted to watch the "Hole in the Wall". A 200m long and 34m high rock formation with a hole, caused by erosion, in the middle
of the waves of the ocean. Sadly, the weather became bad during the ride there. We drove within thick fog and got a little bit
wet because of drizzle. It even did not get better till arriving in Coffee Bay. Mercifully all (!) campgrounds were booked up
and we had to take a room. The rain became stronger and it did not stop all night long.
The following day was wrecked. The weather was catastrophic and we never before got that wet on the bike. When we woke up
it rained. Till we got dressed it cleared up a bit. Firmly we marched to the "Hole in the Wall". which, because of the weather,
was not that impressing and nice to look at. Everything appeared somehow dusky and we got reminded of the area of Southwest-England
(Cornwall). We barely made a few fotos, when it started to dribble again. We started our way back, packed our cases onto the moped,
when it did not rain. About 10:00am we were ready to take off, but the rain got stronger. We got addressed by a family, who offered
to take Rita along, at least the 10km piste. As the piste really did not look good because of the rain, we thankfully accepted the offer.
But thereafter Rita had to get on the bike again and a horror trip began. At the beginning we only had fat fog, but soon real rain began.
In addition it was damned cold and it became more windy. Within one hour we were soppy - the pants, panties, boots, socks, scarves,
helmets, gloves - it was terrible. We never before were that cold and wet, we could not stop jittering. In addition, the last kilometres
we were in transit of the Transkei (former and still a pure coloured people area). Here there was no shelter, no B&B, nothing. Some when
we arrived at a filling station, which had a fast food shop with it. Here we hoped to warm up, but they had the air condition switched to cold.
A hot chocolate did good for a short-time, but did not help much. Chri could not feel anymore his fingers although the grip-heating was
switched on. Under these conditions we drove at least 5 hours. We only had one thing in mind: to arrive at East London, booking a room
and taking a hot shower. Exactly that was what we did. We stopped at a hotel, which was completely above our budget. But we did not give
a damn about it. The room fortunately had a heating installation, where we could dry our things. After taking a shower we had a soup,
then into the bed. We were lucky not to have caught a cold. Man, how much did we wish to have had our rain clothes and overshoes with us today!
On January 6th the sun was shining again, nothing reminded of the weather yesterday. Well ok! Today we drove till Port Elisabeth. The ride without
problems, after a while it became really hot again. What about extreme differences of temperatures?!? In PE (as the town is also called) we slept
in the tent again. We had a direct view onto a swimming pool, which we used frequently. Barely to believe, yesterday we were jittering and
today we were again enjoying ice-cold water.
The next day passed quite quickly: we rented a car, as we planned to visit one of our last National Parks. Besides that we had to get into
the internet for a longer time period; in the afternoon we packed our things and waited for the car. It was delivered on time at 4:00pm,
we loaded our property, left the motorbike behind and drove the 60km to the ADDO National Park. We were sold on this park during our first
South Africa trip, so that it was imperative to visit this park again.
10. + 11.1.2007 Safari within the ADDO National Park
We got up at 6:00am, because we were not here to relax. ;-) Sadly that Rita had a bad night and rather strong pain in the back, which did
not vanish all day long. Fortunately we were sitting in a car and she did not have to wear the heavy helmet. The park was opened at 7:00am
and soon it became super hot. In addition we did not see any animal almost all morning long. But finally: a small herd of elephants next
to a waterhole. Thereafter the other residents of the park showed up, too, warthogs, zebras, buffaloes, kudus and red hartebeests. In the
afternoon all the other elephants followed - we could observe many exemplars in and close to the water. We were on the way the complete day
till 6:00pm and we had a lot of fun. The pain in the back of Rita did not decrease, so she had to take 3 aspirins. Then it became slightly
better.
On the next day again we got up at 6:00am, but this morning the skies were clouded, it even drizzled a little. Well, so the driving should
become more comfortable. And more animals were on the way. We certainly saw all the elephants, who are in the park. Each waterhole was
full to bursting. Gorgeous! A big one even was walking directly ahead of us and every now and then covered himself with sand. Alas, it
really was worth while to visit this park again.
On the afternoon we drove back to PE, as the car had to be returned at 4:00pm. Our cow still was standing on the same spot and, as always,
was patiently waiting for us. This evening it was the first time on our tour that we went into a cinema. We saw the latest James Bond. We
were quite disappointed about the film, we should have watched another film. But it was nice to have been in a cinema again.
12. + 13.1.2007 Tsitsikamma Forest
Today the tour led us towards Garden Route, we planned to stop at the Tsitsikamma Forest. In the beginning we drove along the ocean, the
sun was shining. But we barely turned off upcountry it again started to drizzle. HaHa, dressing up rainproof lining and driving the last
kilometres till Storms River, a dozy little village close to the national park. Naturally we again rented a room, because it did not stop
raining all day and night long.
In exchange the following day greeted us with sunshine and we attempted a one day tour. First we drove to the "Big Tree" - one of those
monument trees, which became seldom in this area. After that we drove to the Tsitsikamma National Park, wonderfully located on the coast
side. Here is the mouth of the River Storm into the ocean. We made a short boat trip on the river, which brought us 1 km inside the canyon
and later on into the direction of the ocean. The suspension bridge across the river is always worth a view and a march on it. And the park
is inviting to hiking, but it was too hot for us for doing that.
14. + 15.1.2007 Plettenberg - Visit with Matt & Halszka
Both of them are super nice South African, who drove home from London with a car (rolling home).
We met them the first time in Ethiopia and again 2 times by accident in Kenya. It was a must for us, that we had to meet again here. It
was heartily reunion. We chatted a lot, because there was a lot to report about our two tours and experiences. Later on we drove to the
beach and jumped into the refreshing ocean. Wonderful clear water, that it was real fun. Subsequently we drove with their landrover to a
wonderfully located place, with view on the ocean and the rocky coast, to enjoy sunset with a fresh beer. Again we began talking about our
tours and congratulated each other, that we really had made it. ;-)
January 15th Matt, unfortunately, had to work, but with Halszka we drove to another beach for a beach-walk. Before doing that, we got served
a German breakfast, with real rye bread and cheese! A pleasure. On the beach we had to fight against a strong wind, always sinking knee-deep
into the sand. Although it was stressful, it did very good. And we were awarded: Dolphins! Relatively close to the shore, a lot of them.
Partly they jumped and you always could see the dorsal fin. But the best was still to come, the dolphins swam congruent with the waves.
Always 5-6 next to each other and in the clear water you could see them very well. Beautiful!
Late in the afternoon Matt met us with the car towing a small boat. We still wanted to make a boat-tour on the river. We boated upstream;
somewhen we stopped the engine and enjoyed the dead silence. No buildings, no people, only nature. This was a wonderful ending of the day
and our visit with them.
16. + 17.1.2007 The last Kilometres - Journey to Cape Town
After a heartily good bye from Matt and Halszka, and their parents our route today led us from Plettenberg till Swellendamm. We drove via
Knysna along the Garden Route. This passage we already knew from our visit 4 years ago. Again and again wonderful. In Swellendamm on the
campground, what a small world, suddenly we heard 2 motorbikes, Martin and Stefan, the Swabia Express.
Those two drove the same tour as we did, but in half the time. We already had contact via email, as they once found and visited our webpage.
Well, what did we do?? Twaddle till midnight. They crossed Ethiopia and Northkenia during the rainy season - man we are happy, that it was
dry when we were en route in this area. They both have booked the same return flight back to Germany - funny.
The last night in tent we survived, slowly the real last travel day of our tour dawned. Slowly it became serious with the end of the tour.
Hence we had to get to the most southern point of Africa: Cape Agulhas. No sooner said than done. Made some prooving fotos. Lighthouse,
traffic signs etc. A weird, but also wonderful and proud feeling, now to have reached the end of the planned goal. Thereafter we drove
along the ocean via Hermanus back to Cape Town. We had booked a lodging for the last days. Well, it was more an cabin, than the promised
chalet. But the view over the centre of the town and the Tafelberg compensated for it.
The end of our Tour to cross Africa approaches
18. - 25.1.2007 The last Days in Cape Town
Thursday: bad weather, very windy and rain, short trip downtown for shopping, otherwise we stayed in our cabin. During night it became very
windy, that we were afraid that the roof or the complete cabin may fly away...
Friday: better weather, jumping onto the bike and driving to BMW on the Waterfront. We wanted to thank those guys and report that it was the
Hallsensor causing the problems. They even knew our names and obviously were pleased about our visit. Nice! Afterwards we strolled through the
shops of the Waterfront, bought some things, had supper - and had a good time. We bought 2 Spiegel and spent the rest of the day reading and
sucking information. We really missed that!!
Saturday: meanwhile it became hot again, about 40°C, which should not change till our departure. Today the last trip with the cow on African
soil was on the program!! We made a day tour into the vineyards. The towns Stellenbosch and Franschhoek and many vineyards. It again summed
up to 300km and with that we reached the 47.000 km mark. Wow!!
Sunday: only 5 days till departure. As much as I look forward to get home, now it is a strange feeling anyway. Today we packed all our things,
which should go with the moped into a box: the roll with all the camping stuff, biker boots, helmets, biker suits, tank rucksack. Again we
were surprised, how little we really needed for one year. During the afternoon Margot and her friend came, to pick us up. Margot is a friend
of mine (Rita), whom I still know from my practical job training in Cape Town in 1999. We spent a nice evening with each other and at the
end we could admire a comet orbiting over the Tafelberg.
Monday: today our bike should be packed and everything approved by customs. Actually everything was discussed and planned, but really nothing
worked out. The packing company knew nothing, hence no box was built. Customs, too, were not informed - we did not really know, why we should
show up here this day. Well, minimum they noted the dimensions for the box and we left the bike with them. Tomorrow everything should be
arranged. During the afternoon we had been downtown a bit and used the pool at our cabin.
Tuesday: Alas Africa had to end such, as we experienced the last months. Nothing works, nobody knows anything, everybody makes excuses and
nobody is able to help it. That they have to do a job and getting a good pay does not interest anybody. To cut a long story short: there
was no box, no acceptance of customs, no stamped carnet, no packed bike!! We were upset, but could not help it, except for not paying yet.
Thus we had a bad feeling and left the bike and all our things unpacked, the carnet and one key for the bike behind. Hoping the best.
The positive, professional impression, which Transworld Cargo gave to us at the beginning, was fading away. This company is not to be recommended.
Wednesday: our last day in this wonderful town. For the last time we wanted to stroll around a bit, what we did very extensively. We were
afoot all day long, shopping and again having a good meal. Unfortunately it was too hot and early afternoon we walked back to our lodging.
Completely exhausted we fell into the pool, where we stayed for a while. In the evening we packed the rest of our things, sat on the patio
and enjoyed the last view at the lights of the town.
Thursday: about 5:30am we were picked up and driven to the airport. Our plane was due to start at 8:00am. But when we arrived at the airport,
a shock. The flight had about 15 hours delay. Because of snow-chaos at Munich airport the plane, which should bring us back at 8:00am,
had not yet started in Munich. Well, super... That meant waiting, waiting. We did not want to go back into town, where to go anyway??
And having the choice of 40°C downtown and 20°C within the hall of the airport, the decision was not too difficult. So we were alternating
between the restaurant, the 2 shops and the waiting chairs forth and back. But the time passed faster than we had thought and at 23:00pm
we had take-off. Unfortunately the flight at daytime had turned into a flight at night-time. Thus we could not take leave of the African
continent while watching the countries from the airplane. But in our mind during the 10.5 hours return flight we had let pass our
10.5-months tour. We experienced a lot, emotional went through many happenings, drove many kilometres, met many nice and interesting people
and we two even got closer to each other. We still get along excellent, and are a bit proud of us.
Thus we only can say just once more :
BYE BYE AFRICA !!
