On this trip we are learning much more about South Africa than we did the last time, as we are spending much more time here. We have also had a chance to talk to many people about their hopes and concerns for the country. One major challenge was obvious as soon as we arrived in Cape Town – which is the phenomenon known as “load shedding”. This is the planned rotating power cuts that are now a regular feature of South African life, a result of the inability of the national power utility Eskom to generate enough power for the country’s needs. A more accurate term might be “customer shedding”, but Eskom doesn’t seem to particularly care about their customers.

So an important tool for day to day life in South Africa is the EskomSePush app which tells one when the lights are going out. Of course the wifi or cell service need to be working to access the app….
Load shedding is applied in Stages, depending on how much or how little power Eskom is able to generate. During our first week in SA the system was on Level 6, which means as many as three or four two hour stretches of power outages. Since then things have gradually improved, but power cuts still seem to incur at the least convenient times.
Eskom has severe financial problems. Most people we talked to blamed their problems on a combination of incompetence and corruption. And most of their power is generated by burning coal, which seems a shame when South Africa would seem an ideal place for renewal power sources such as solar. Many small businesses must be suffering badly from load shedding, and facing considerable costs to install back up power.

On Sunday October 25th we departed finally from Cape Town. Three of us plus guide.
What happened to the fourth? Most unfortunately, we lost Julian from the ride. The previous day, as we left the parking lot by the penguin colony, Julian had what seemed at the time like a trivial incident – his bike fell over as he was reversing it out of the parking space. He said one of his legs was a little sore, and we didn’t think much of it, and he rode the bike back to where we started. Unfortunately overnight it became that the injury was much more serious, and on departure day it was clear that Julian could not ride for a while. So we departed with just Allen, Don and Gary for now, with Julian hoping to catch up with us later.

As we head out on our adventure, here is a little bit about the bikes and our guide.

The bikes

On the 2019 trip, we rode older 750 cc Honda adventure bikes- generally reliable and readily repaired on the road. This time Andrew has obtained and provided us with much newer Honda CRF 1000s – the fabled Africa Twin. For two of us, these are the most powerful and heaviest bikes we have ever ridden. However we quickly became very comfortable with these beasts – smooth shifting 6 gears, well balanced, and of course loads of power and acceleration, even cruising in 6th gear. Don especially liked the deep throaty roar that came with his aftermarket tailpipes. Andrew had set the seat height according to our preferences, and this seemed to work out fairly well.

Our guide

Although our ride has been organized by Andrew (who’s company is called Ride Down South), he told us a few weeks prior to departure that we would be led during the South African part of the trip by Kevin. Andrew had already been on the road guiding other tours for 161 days this year by the beginning of September, and he badly needed a rest. He will however rejoin us for the Mozambique and Malawi parts of the trip.
Kevin is a qualified motorcycle mechanic, who also works as a truck driver and tour guide, including a regular gig supporting groups of Royal Enfield riders. Since Royal Enfields are notoriously unreliable, this requires bringing a large cast of spare parts, lots of oil for topups etc, and being a creative mechanic. He is an interesting guy and an excellent guide.

After leaving Cape Town on the highway, we headed north east through the Stellenbosch wine area. After a lunch stop we headed up and over the Bains Kloof pass, with superb road conditions and a nice twisty road, though narrow in some curves. A great way to flex our motorcycling muscles!

The countryside then widened out and became drier as we entered the Karoo, with a beautiful panorama laid out in front of us. Beautiful day and great riding conditions. 

Eventually reached our destination for the day, Matjiesfontein, a small village centred around the Lord Milner hotel, where we stayed. This is a Victorian style hotel with old pictures, beautiful staircase, and antique furniture in elegant rooms. We had a superb dinner in the dining room, tall ceilings, delicious lamb shank, huge apple crumble. 

We gathered to meet the motorcycles that will carry us (we hope) to Malawi, at Andrew’s friends house in suburban Cape Town. The first goal is to figure out how to pack all our gear safely on the bikes. Unlike our 2019 trip, this time there is no chase van or spare bike accompanying us. As some of us didn’t want to check bags on the flights (what could possibly happen to bags in Addis Ababa, let alone Toronto?) there were questions as to whether the bags could all be loaded successfully and safely. As it turns out, there were no real problems, but a lot of trial and error and adjustments were required.
Finally the group were gathered for the requisite photo.

Our test ride was to head to the African Penguin colony near Simon’s Town, about 40 km south. The bikes felt good and handled well, though some of us had never ridden bikes this large (more on the bikes later). Don wanted to repeat his swim with the penguins of 2019. This time we were during African spring time, so the baby penguins were in the process of loosing their fuzzy coats.

Don and Julian enjoyed a swim at the beach next to the penguins.

Before leaving on the motorcycle trip, some of us did some exploring other areas of southern Africa. Allen and Don spent several days exploring Namaqualand, north of Cape Town. Gary and his wife Judy explored many of the areas where we went in 2019. Julian on the other hand is a busy guy, and only flew into Cape Town the night before the shakedown ride. Jet lag – not a problem.
Namaqualand is the area most famous for its wildflowers, and September is the prime month for viewing the flowers. However the extent of the flowers depends on many factors, and can be variable. Here are some of the lovely flowers we saw in the Quiver Tree forest.

We also had a fabulous bird watching trip on the Berg river. The tidal estuary has an amazing amount of birds, including huge numbers of flamingoes, darters, ibis etc. Here are a few: Pelicans, African darters, and flamingos.

Here are some more flowers and birds…well actually Allen on the boat, flowers at West Cape National Park.

After a two year interruption due to a pesky virus, the fearless gang (or some of them) are heading back to Southern Africa!

We had such a great time on the first trip that soon after returning home to BC in 2019 we started plotting the next trip. With our fearless guide Andrew, we mapped out a route east and north from Cape Town, stopping at Kruger National Park, then into Mozambique, and ending on the shores of Lake Malawi (in Malawi). However Covid meant the trip was not practical until 2022 when the borders opened up.

In addition we are joined this time by Gary’s friend Julian Sher. Check him out at juliansher.com. Julian is an investigative journalist, author, documentary maker, and all round nice guy.

In Canada he is known for being an expert on the Quebec Mafia!

We will miss our previous companions Brian and Morrie, but are confident we have a good group.

Here is the planned route:

To those not familiar with the No 1 Ladies Detective Agency, the phrase above means “Hello, Mr.” in Setswana, a language of Botswana.

Tuesday morning had us leaving Okahandja enroute to a camp near Gobabis. The road first  led us south to the Namibian capital, Windhoek. The city is set in a bowl and we saw a bit of the downtown area,  the parliament building and the Independence Memorial Museum. A view of the national cricket ground allowed Don and Allen to continue Morrie’s education in the noble pastime, a process ongoing since early in the trip…

The Museum was, as the name implies, dedicated to the liberation struggle from colonial times to Independence in 1990. The exhibits were presented over three floors of a very tall, modern building. 

While there were some artifacts, the exhibits were composed mainly of photographs and large murals. I must say that the museum authorities appear to have followed the style prevalent during the Chinese Cultural Revolution: All Hail the Great Struggle of the Namibian People!

The museum was inspiring, demonstrating how difficult the struggle was for independence from the horrific German genocide and concentration camps through to the fight against the massacres of civilians by the South African apartheid regime. There was a great deal of sacrifice to achieve the modern democratic country of Namibia.

While on the topic, we are all very fond of the Namibian people and their beautiful, challenging country. Almost every person we met was extremely friendly and welcoming. Considering the difficulty of existence in this vast desert nation, the Namibian people’s openness to others demonstrates their pride and stoic strength. 

We encourage you all to visit this wonderful country and it’s people. 

From Windhoek we travelled east through a never ending flat desert. While perhaps not actually classified as a desert, the earth is either red earth or golden sand. And the difference with this part of Namibia is that the surface supports  bushes, trees and grasses. Because of the plentiful grass available for grazing, we saw vast numbers of domestic animals along the borders of the road: beautiful horses, cattle of all sorts, goats and donkeys. At times the younger animals would dash across the road causing endless heart palpitations among the riders.

We spent the night at a very Afrikaner camp. Getting there down a 7 km road was a two hour ordeal on a very deep sandy road. We had to stop half way down the road to consider our options. This was when we noticed a very bad omen, vultures circling over our heads. Not everything is enjoyable on the road. 

On Wednesday we left Namibia for Botswana on our way to one of the highlights of our trip: the Okavango Delta. The Delta is Thursday’s destination. 

Crossing the Namibia – Botswana border was relatively hassle free. It took about 45 minutes versus the two hours it took going from SA into Namibia. 

Wednesday ride was no problem (except for the animals on the side of the road) on 380 kms on paved roads until, once again, we had to traverse a dirt and sand road to get to our lodge run by the indigenous San people, or bush people. The 7 kms in seemed like an eternity with a few more sand related upsets. But it was well worth the ordeal to spend some time with the local San people. 

The lodge is run entirely by the local tribe. Once we got out of our gear we went with two guides to explore the nearby trails. The “hunter” guide spoke in the local language with its 27 click words. His commentary was “translated” into English by the female “gatherer”. This was their descriptions not mine. The San people speak a click language, with 29 different types of clicks making up the vocabulary.

They showed us all sorts of medicinal plants, animal tracks and finished with a demonstration of starting a fire with a stick and grass. What caught most of our attention was the little holes scattered everywhere on the desert floor. Turns out they were the homes of a gazillion scorpions. Our guide was a remarkable individual who matched his words with illustrating actions. He would be great at Charades.

It was an early night as we were determined to make an early departure on Thursday morning to meet our check in time for the flight to the Delta.

When we first walked the short distance from the airstrip into the Oddballs base camp, we all gasped to see the activity of wildlife within yards of the lodge. In the water, there were impala, elephants. Baboons, lots of birds as well as noise from the resident hippos just around the corner.

Our hosts, Georgina and Pony greeted us by shaking our hands and introduced themselves as well as to our guides, with Kigi being the “head man”. We then learned how things work at Oddballs and were shown to our very neat platform tents. Each had their own washroom complete with bucket shower.

Then it was then time to sit down with a cold beverage, and realized that this was as close to Eden that we could imagine. The meals are simple yet fantastic with all of us talking about how they are just the right portions, tasty with great spicing that suits us all. The presentation is somewhat self serve from freshly prepared dishes. Some staff always dine with us to stimulate some great conversations.

At other times of the year when the delta is flooded, we would be exploring mostly in mokoras, a small flat bottomed dugout boat. However since the waters have not yet arrived and there has been little rain, we only used them to get across streams to access more territory. The mokoro is used extensively in the Okavango Delta as transportation. This primitive looking craft is propelled by a pole called the nkasha. This craft is traditional and perfectly suited to move through these waters.

Ok so you’re all wondering where we’ve disappeared to…. (or maybe you’re not). We have gone a few days without posting, not because we have lost enthusiasm or haven’t been having amazing experiences. But the further north we have gone in Namibia, the worse the wifi service has become. And cell networks seem completely inaccessible. But we have now headed back south, and as of March 25th we are staying at a lodge near Okahandja, not far from the capital city Windhoek. And wifi here seems excellent (and free). Other places in the last few days have varied from wifi that would work erratically and slowly to those that simply refused to let us connect at all. It is hard to see grown men experiencing withdrawal symptoms from missing hourly updates on Brexit and the Mueller report. But some things must be endured…

March 25th: Etosha to Okahandja Lodge

Today was an uneventful ride on paved road of about 330 km, with more traffic than seen elsewhere in Namibia. But a surprising amount of wildlife bordering the highway: warthogs (cute in an ugly sort of way, especially the babies), wildebeest, and a flock of Marabou storks. These three creatures are all members of the so-called “ugly five”, but in our opinion have their own attractions.

There was a magnificent aspect as we rose to a peak as we approached the Namibia Escarpment, bush stretching out as far as the eye could see. And finally arriving at the lovely lodge with real wifi and real beer!

March 24th: Etosha National Park (Don)

Today was a much anticipated visit to Etosha National Park, famous for wildlife. And it did not disappoint. We were up at the crack of dawn to meet our guide Joseph. We headed into the park, and soon saw the benefit of the early start when we got to the first waterhole just inside the park. A few springboks were sipping delicately at the hole, but soon moved away in alarm. Why? Stalking slowly out of the bush came eight magnificent lionesses. Nobody else drinks while they do. (Pictures will come later).

Joseph drove us from one waterhole to another, and was wonderfully knowledgeable about all the animals. I won’t add any more text to describe, as the pictures show it all.

Allen writing about our ride From Uis (Brandberg Mountain) to Etosha National Park, March 23rd

March 22nd: Morrie’s impressions of the day, Skopupmund to Brandberg Mountain (Uis).

We started the day with a leisurely morning after another long and dusty ride the previous day. Making camp in Uis at Camp Brandberg. Having the morning to attend to things like laundry and a trip to Morrie’s barbershop for Allen…

Then we were off to Brandberg Mountain, a holy place for the local indigenous people for millennia. It is the sight of over 50,000 discovered petroglyphs. The most famous is one called the White Lady. We hired a local guide to lead us to the site about an hour’s hike in. It was worth the hike as the attached photos will attest to.

Two eras of petroglyphs were visible at the site. The monochromatic ones date to about 6,000 years ago and the polychromatic ones are about 2,000 years old, and represent the end of the petroglyphic period in this area. On the hike out we were entertained by Seth our guide about the local flora and fauna. Exhibit A being the damage done by grazing elephants, below.

It was then back to camp for a well deserved beer and dinner, then early to bed. Once we got Gary out of jail….an hilarious or stressful end to our day (depending on your point of view)!

This is Gary’s deathless prose for today’s events:

This morning we woke up to experience a desert tradition. Since we were breaking camp we had to empty the evening’s “sand fall” out of our clothes, sleeping bags, tents and bodies. The powdery stuff had penetrated everything.

After breakfast we headed out to cross Namib Naukluft Park – the heart of the Namib desert. When Andrew briefed us on today’s route over a dinner of delicious fire baked squash and coconut risotto accompanied by lamb steaks, our voices rose as one: “what have we been doing for the past few days if not going through the ‘heart of the desert’?” Could it be more “deserty” than the desert?

Turns out it was. 

We received an extended education in geological evolution, desert in particular.

We passed through scrub lands; once grand mountains slowly sinking into the desert floor; a huge area of shale mountains eroding onto the desert and finally, the Namibian equivalent of the big empty.

The brown and black layered mountains, sand depressions, fissures and rolling hills fell away into a vast flat desert.

Once in a while we saw mirages of shimmering lakes … of heat. 

Part way through the ride today we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn! Our celebration was interrupted by a bus load of very friendly Japanese tourists who were fascinated with the fact and size of our Honda Africa Twins. What a world we live in. 

After 320 kms of dirt road we finally hit asphalt at Walvis Bay, a commercial centre on the Atlantic and Namibia’s only deep water port.

More shocking than the lack of familiarity with paved roads was the massive temperature drop. It went from over 40 to under 20 centigrade within a few minutes, and damp and clammy. With the marine fog, we thought we were back home – except for the sand dunes bordering the road. 

From there it was an easy 40 kms to where we are staying, Swakopmund, a Namibian resort town with a long German colonial history and a resident population of expats.

We’re now at a local fish restaurant with the most accommodating wait staff yet. 

Folks, we’re having a grand time, interspersed with some road reality checks. 

Here is our progress so far, showing approximate hours ridden and kilometres

March 21:

(by Brian)

The B&B, Meerkat B&B in Swakopmund was an oasis of relaxation with clean crisp sheets and amazing service.  We each had our own room that was much enjoyed by all after a few days of camping. 

After enjoying a great breakfast, we found that Gabrial, the overnight caretaker, had taken it upon himself to polish all of our riding boots.  The service could not have been better. 

Today is Namibia Independence Day. The country had its first free election in 1990. We spent all morning wandering downtown Swapokmund. It shows a very strong remaining German influence. This seems somewhat strange considering the appalling way Germany treated Namibia in colonial days. Discussions about reparations for the “German genocide” of 1904-1908 are ongoing and Germany is now returning many important Namibian artificacts from museums and universities.

We came upon a group of small kids with a few adults playing a drum, singing and dancing.  It was so great to see this culture of fun and music as only kids can project.  Allen and I were invited in by the kids to dance with them and with no inhibitions, we all had a great dance and it was truly like being a kid again. 

Swakoputmund has a strong European influence and we heard many German speakers in the cafes. Down by the water a lot of modern holiday homes lined the beach. Also a very established pier that ran hundreds of meters out into the sea. 

Apparently surfing is really good in Namibia, and the wave breaks looked great.

We entered a number of beautiful stores and enjoyed seeing much of the local art.  Street markets were prolific with many of the merchants being aggressive but always polite.

The Village Cafe, was our lunch stop and we all thoroughly enjoyed it.  It was funky, bright and had friendly local “traditionally built” waitresses brightly dressed, who would often break  into dance when a good tune came on.

Tomorrow we head to Brandberg, the tallest mountain in Namibian with it’s history of Damara people’s cave and rock etchings.

At 1:00 we headed north up the coast for Brandberg .  It was overcast and chilly on the coast, maybe 10 to 12 degrees with the ocean chill. 

The road was beautifully paved about 75% of the way and the final quarter of gravel was quite reasonable except for some loose patches and washboarding. Everyone rode with our new found confidence and it was a good ride with absolutely no problems.  We reached our destination around 4:30 just north of Uis.

The Brandberg Rest Camp, is a nice stop with Restaurant, pub and the campground.  Canvas tents with beds inside awaited us.  It is just about perfect. Brandberg has the tallest mountain in Namibian with it’s history of the Damara people’s cave and rock etchings.

From Don:

Monday was the toughest day of riding that any of us have ever experienced. Of course for Andrew is was just “another day at the office”. His level of skill in riding these gravel / dirt roads is way beyond any of ours. But we all felt much more skilled at the end of this day, and more confident in sand.

Gravel / dirt roads come in many different forms. The best are easy to ride, and safe at speeds close to those for paved roads. These type are smooth, with a firm surface. Then there are the other types: those with severe washboarding / corrugations which shake and rattle the bike and the rider. And those with a loose surface, whether sandy or loose gravel. These can be extremely challenging for a rider with limited experience of these conditions. And then there are the worst of all, those with both washboarding and loose surface.

We rode 380 km this day. About 70 km were of the good type, and the rest were the others. And perhaps the toughest part was that the road changed from good to bad suddenly and without warning. What might have taken 4-5 hours on a good gravel road took us 8.5 hours. Not to mention the heat and dust…

Despite staring obsessively at the upcoming road surface, we did manage to see more wildlife. Our first wildebeest, a black backed jackal, and more oryx. One oryx caused an interesting moment when a full grown one charged across the road at high speed about 15 yards in front of Don’s bike. For a brief moment the possibility of being impaled on the very long and sharp horns flashed into his mind. But all was well in the end, and both Don and oryx continued with their day safely.

As the sun was setting we arrived at our campground at Sesiem, very very tired, but proud and happy that we had accomplished the route safely. We dragged our weary legs as fast as we could to the bar, to dive into the biggest beers available.

On then to set up our tents, including Gary. The last time Gary set up a tent they were made of canvas! That evening we slept well, despite the glare of a very bright moon.

Tuesday March 19th-from Allen

Do we get up at 5am in order to catch the sunrise over the Sossusvlei Sand Dunes or should we leave at 8am and head in at a sensible hour give our previous days challenge?

We met Ignatius the driver of our open sided Landcruiser at 0800, and set off along a wonderfully smooth road heading for the dunes. Very quickly the dunes on our right side closed in on the road creating a magnificent backdrop to the barren desert. A wildebeest roaming along showing no interest in us. The valley gradually closed in on the road and the dunes on both sides grew taller. We caught the morning sun casting shadows along the sharply defined sand ridges. The early morning hot air balloon riders were unloading, what a spectacle that must be.

Our first stop was deep in the heart of the dunes, Jim (our chase car driver) and Morrie took off on a short dune hike leaving the rest of us to wander the dried out lake beds. To describe the landscape without pictures is impossible, these are the highest dunes in the world. The textures of the land and the many colours of the sand are a wonder to behold. A lone Oryx wandered the dunes and ultimately rest in the shade of a thorn tree.

We drove along deep sand tracks to the Deadvlei. Here are the virtually fossilized trees that Freeman Patterson photographed and what attracted me to the area in the first place. And wow, it is magnificent and certainly exceeded all expectations. Our drive back to camp was quiet as we all reflected on the day filled with images of Namibian splendour.

Back to camp, a trip to pool, a couple of cold ones ready for another day.