KarenBIKE TRIP APRIL 2018 – PART 1
TRIP FROM KASANE TO DARLING – (ONE WAY ONLY!): 2912 km
26 April 2018 escape to the enclave
Due to our usual difficulties involved with complex bike packing, and trying to escape from work, the only goal we had set for this day was to cut those psychological strings with Kasane and just get ourselves the 70km or so to Mwandi View in the Chobe Enclave!
During this process, handling the bike in its loaded state, the skipper felteverything was way too heavy and thus our very first task on arrival at Mwandi was to completely unpack everything again onto the floor of our chalet and
after a bit of negotiating on the items to be eliminated, two heavy bags of axed goods were entrusted to our long-suffering friends, to be taken back to Kasane Computers for safe keeping. After sunset and an amazing dinner
cooked by the new chef, we eventually dragged ourselves away from Anton’s traditional “ambience” camp fire, hoping to get just a bit of sleep in before our early departure the next morning!
27 April – To Namibia – conquering Ngepi Sands
We leaped up obediently on the alarm, at what we assumed was 0600 and got ourselves ready. It did seem a bit odd that there was no sign of daybreak whatsoever, packing the bike in the pitch dark – until I eventually consulted a watch and discovered that we had actually arisen at 0500! A minor administration fail – which just might
well have been something to do with our midnight alarm configurations!!
At least our reward for being such early risers was to enjoy a fabulous unplanned sunrise experience! This tar road follows the shoreline of the Chobe floodplain through villages all the way to Ngoma border post. During our seasonal floods, the shallow floodwaters rise up very close to the roadside, so at this early hour we rode out alongside a massive reflective sheet of water as far as the eye could see on our left – the whole sheet tinged pink, mirroring the sunrise. Rather spectacular!
Crossing the river from Botswana over to Namibia is always amazing in times of high floodwaters. Instead of the bridge crossing grassy floodplains, with the tame ribbon of the Chobe River somewhere in the middle, in flood times the entire bridge spans an impressive mass of water.
Once safely in Namibia, having dutifully kept my Namibian sim card alive for the past year, I couldn’t wait to get us another “Aweh Gig” data bundle which had turned out (eventually) to be a great acquisition the year before. I then discovered that the “Aweh Gig” had in 2018 been replaced by the “Aweh Oh-Yeah” !!! It turned out to be so complex and un-user friendly to load, that it very soon degenerated into the “Aweh Oh-No” ….. I gave it the thumbs down, loaded some no nonsense standard mobile data, and we were sorted with comms again. As ever the ride through the Caprivi (now known as Zambezi province) was uneventful, being that kind of road…
We entertained ourselves along the way speculating on our chances with the epic Ngepi Sands that had challenged us a year before! During the one year in which we had to decide yes or no regarding all that hideous sand again, I think I really shocked Tiennie by mentioning that I was keen to have a shot at it again! I know he had expected me to veto the Ngepi destination, and would never have forced me to endure it, for which I am very grateful!
We thought we might have learned some lessons from the experience in the sand the previous year. On the one hand, we now had become much smarter regarding off-roading, and sand roads, thanks to the bike trip to Kubu Island in October 2017. So the most obvious thing was we should have deflated the bike’s tyres last time, and as Botswana sand 4 x 4 veterans, with cars, we were amazed that we had not translated that over to bike!! This year, the bike had been kitted out by Tiennie with an on onboard compressor in order to make deflating and inflating the tyres a breeze. No need to search through the luggage for a compressor, it’s already attached to the battery and ready to go at the flick of a switch!
Point number two – our luggage was a LOT lighter than April 2017, due to our Christmas presents to ourselves (as tested out on the Zambia 2017 trip), mainly our awesome lightweight tent and sleeping bags. During this debate, however, the biker chick then felt she had to point out that she was unfortunately quite a few kilos heavier than
she had been last time and thus was pretty much wasting all the savings gained by expensive lightweight luggage!
Suddenly, time for speculation was over – the turn off finally appeared, and it was time to put it all to the test…
As we turned off the tar onto the dirt road, we stopped, deflated the tyres and got ready for the mayhem! Much to our amazement, the 4.7 km of vicious sand was crossed with only one wobble – when a mysterious child materialized on the left side of the track, and stood there statue-like, with a strange solemn expression – and this somewhat unnerved the super focused biker, but he regained balance superbly, and down we did NOT go. It was a rather bizarre experience and reminded me of the inscrutable, spiritual face of the child in the old movie “The Last Emperor”. He really gave us quite a fright! Leaving the mysterious little African soul behind us, we eventually crossed the last bridge, bike triumphantly growling into Ngepi camp, and we were so delighted that we had braved that road again, and conquered it! After setting up camp we enjoyed our afternoon and evening at one of our
favourite places in Namibia.
28 April – to Roy’s Rest camp – and a trip down Memory Lane
On this day, we set forth in a confident manner, on the soft tyres, knowing that this sand was a done deal! We were busy congratulating ourselves on our brilliance as we cruised gently through the sand-fields, when Tiennie said “perhaps let’s not rest on those laurels just yet”, and not 30 seconds later we were rudely deposited off the bike into the thickest sand drift, with the bike yelling in annoyance as the tank bag shifted over and skillfully activated the hooter! I seem to have developed some sort of skill, as Tiennie says he is always fascinated whenever we fall over on the bike, that I am instantly out of the scene and hovering over him, asking him if he is OK and helping to extricate him. When he asks me how I do it, I have no idea, but I think I attribute it partially to adrenaline, giving me superhuman powers, and also to a lecture he gave me on about day one of my Pillion Princess career on “what to do if the bike goes down”. This seems to have lodged in my subconscious mind, and somehow I appear like a leprechaun, out of nowhere, asking very silly questions like “should I switch off the bike’s engine now?” while the bike’s wheel is churning up fountains of sand, hooting merrily, and the poor bike skipper is lying under a rather heavy part of the bike, waiting for me to just get on and do something! At least he takes this all with a good sense of humour, being one of life’s unexplained things, and patiently gives me permission to switch off the bike’s engine then waits for me to come to my senses! Perhaps next time I will be able to figure that one out on my own!!
After righting ourselves, restoring our dignity and getting back on the road, we hit the highway to Rundu, with the “2017 Divundu to Rundu Tyre Drama” memories still fresh in our minds! At least this year we were intelligently carrying emergency water supplies at all times, no more water panic survivalist silliness ever again! It gave us great pleasure to ride on by past our lay-bye where we had been stranded and picked up by Kamikaze-Chris and his racing lowbed trailer. Such a novelty to travel the distance from Divundu to Rundu for the first time on the bike’s own two wheels! With no mishaps at all, we rolled casually through Rundu, revisiting our landmarks from the year before! Waved a virtual hello to Ernest, 2017 saviour, at his closed-forweekend Trentyre office.
On the way to Grootfontein we realized the GPS had died, and declined to charge itself from the bike’s battery. Although we had seen Roy’s Camp many a time on the side of the road on previous drives though Namibia, suddenly now with the dead GPS messing with our heads, we strangely started to doubt both its actual existence, and our sanity!
We kept on thinking, despite all logic that we must have overshot Roy’s Camp ,or – it must have simply vanished, since it just kept on not appearing.. however, just as we were resigning ourselves to having to abandon the campsite and go all the way to Grootfontein, the massive and unmistakable sign post appeared, and we happily turned in.
We enjoyed chatting to a group of Namibian and SA bikers, then considered the option of a pot of tuna pasta to be cooked onthe tiny benzine stove, and instantly decided to treat ourselves instead to lodge dinner. Typical generous Namibian/German style cuisine, and a really great stopover with all sorts of quirky features.. I think our favourite interior design feature had to be the ablution blocks’ ingenious door handles made from beautiful quality Gedore and Stahlwille spanners – Tiennie had to restrain himself from liberating all these lovely tools from their sad fate!
29th & 30th April – To Ombo, Okahandja
En route, due to the GPS problem, we decided to revisit the Grootfontein shopping mall where we had conquered the Aweh Gig mobile data in 2017, feeling confident that this magical mall could fix all our woes. With difficulty we eventually purchased viasome sort of sign language with the oriental shopkeeper, one very expensive cable to try and get it to charge from normal poweron overnight stops, since it was not interested in the bike’s battery – all the time feeling mightily annoyed that we had left thatone particular cable back home! Waved a virtual hello to Johan at weekend closed Northern Bikes, another saviour from 2017, and off we went again..
Reaching Ombo Camp, Okahandja, where we had last stayed in 2015 it was good to be back. At this point in the trip a new topic of interest arose, namely the biker chick hairstyle, which, being longer this year, was evolving a whole new vocabulary of hairstyling descriptions ranging from “flat”, to “crimped” (most unloved description) or just plain WILD!
We took a break from biking for 2 nights here, being our new strategy to give ourselves a 2 night stay every 3rd stopover, to do laundry, take a break from putting up and taking down camp, and generally think about things. Conveniently, Ombo camp featured a marvellous wine cellar which we visited frequently, and we were the only people there so enjoyed the full moon, peace and quiet, and the company of the camp dog & cat.
Bucket List Thoughts
During this rest time, we also started to think ahead about the much anticipated trip to Tankwa Tented Camp in the Cedarberg area in South Africa. I was, as usual being a scaredy-cat about the gravel mountain passes. However, this has always been one of Tiennie’s most wanted destinations and we had paid in full for some awesome tented accommodation.
I had printed out all the scary instructions from Tankwa Tented Camp, as well as ensured our satellite phone was charged up with units and ready for action just in case we had to call them from our sat phone to their sat phone from the middle of absolute nowhere! All tyre fixing tools and skills were up to scratch as the 120km of remote
gravel roads are simply notorious for eating bike tyres. In a serious moment, being sensitive to the Pillion Princess’s fears of the gravel roads, I was graciously offered the option of a no strings attached code for “stop it I’ve had enough get me out of here”!! Knowing that I had the incredibly generous and unconditional option of a U-Turn at any point, even though possibly ruining biker boy’s dream trip, made me feel much more courageous about the whole Tankwa adventure. I came up with the imaginatively named “Code Red” for starters…
While we were discussing bucket lists and the like, I mentioned my heart’s desire to just get on an aeroplane and fly somewhere – anywhere!! It just seemed that lately all I did was book flights online for everybody else and I never went anywhere myself, so it was agreed that one of our future trips instead of being a bike trip, would be my desired flight to “somewhere”… I’m thinking blue ocean, white beach, palm trees… or many other exotic destinations…. However, for now, I was prepared to be as brave as possible and was ready to tackle Tankwa’s gorgeous/frightening bucket list mountain passes, without being a wussy Code Red spoilsport!!
1st May – River Chalets – Mariental
This was an uneventful day’s ride on the beautiful Namibian roads, and a delightful overnight stop at River Chalets which had a well stocked shop on the premises, something that ppeals to bikers! We were able to get some marvellous Namibian braai ingredients and had a very nice home cooked dinner that evening, with a couple of Windhoek beers. This is one of the fun parts about biking in this minimalistic manner – enjoying what’s available
wherever we land!
2nd & 3rd May – Freak Incident, Mariental, en route to Canyon Roadhouse
We left good and early, excited to hit the lovely gravel roads to the Fish River Canyon later that day! Rally Boy couldn’t wait to try out his new techniques while revisiting those gravel highways, and even I was not scared this time round, having survived them in 2017, and looking forward to this fun part of the trip. Sometimes life has a different plan in mind, though … after visiting the local Spar supermarket, Tiennie jumped back on the bike and headed over to the next door filling station while I decided to walk and meet him there.
Imagine my surprise, as I arrived at the filling station with my shopping bags, heard a terrible commotion, saw
the bike crashing over, followed by Tiennie in his full bike gear and helmet, flying through the air past me like a
spacewalking astronaut, then landing heavily at my feet on the forecourt ! Time slowed down as I tried to
process what was going on, with the biker boy lying at my feet, and a huge puddle of petrol growing on the
concrete next to us, emanating from the capsized bike! As I tried to pick up Tiennie and find out if he was OK,
he suddenly leaped to his feet with adrenaline fuelled agility, and started directing operations to lift the bike
up. I was trying to no avail to communicate with him through his astronaut attire and ask him to take off his
helmet so I could ascertain his state of health, but Major Tom* was definitely not listening to Ground Control…
In this case, all I could do was assume my usual role as co bike lifter and hope for the best. It became
immediately apparent that I was the only person able to exert any force on the bike to pick it up, and given
my herculean strength and huge muscles, that bike was going absolutely nowhere at all, and was busily still
pouring petrol out onto the cement! I deduced that he must have injured one or both of his arms in the fall.
(*with acknowledgements to David Bowie’s Space Oddity !!)
Suddenly I was shoved gently but forcefully out of the way by a no-nonsense, short, stocky man who showed up and took control of the situation! Although Major Tom was still making a valiant attempt to handle his side of the bike, our rescuer actually lifted up that whole massive bike, complete with our gear, all on his own! I entertained myself in my stress, by picking up as many pieces of Tiennie’s watch that I could retrieve out of our evaporating petrol puddle! Once the bike was back upright, I found that our rescuer had been joined by a lovely gentle giant of a French tourist who was anxiously standing by making concerned statements in broken English, and also trying to see if Major Tom was OK. Eventually …. the helmet came off and we were able to talk and tried to figure
out what just happened! We never managed to find out our Angel’s name, but he was truly a lifesaver for us that day! After the bike was safely installed on its side stand Tiennie was able to work out what had happened. He had tried to deploy the bike’s centre stand and it had hit an unevenness in between 2 slabs of concrete, and epically collapsed, the bike flicking its rider very forcefully off in what he describes as a stationary highside!
After bidding farewell to Mr Angel, and the lovely French guy having melted away before we could even thank him for his concern, I was finally able to investigate Tiennie’s arm situation. Huge balloon hand on one side, and balloon elbow on the other and a lot of pain, had me trying my dutiful wifely best to suggest the sensible route – find a doctor, hospital, get some medical attention etc. However, after some experimentation with a few holding positions of the hands and arms for bike riding, this was deemed unnecessary by the patient. Furthermore, due to the town’s pharmacy being closed, and unhelpful red herrings from the switching itself on and off GPS, causing multiple uncomfortable U-Turns in front of the persistently closed pharmacy, I was eventually grudgingly given permission to visit the local Clicks where I managed to purchase 4 boxes of paracetamol and some Arnica, before Major Tom launched off into orbit again!
We stopped at a laybye and over our breakfast bought at the Spar earlier in easier times, we assessed the
situation a bit more, eventually deciding that very fortunately, the injuries to both arms were such that the ONLY comfortable position was that of bike riding, and if I was prepared to do all the packing, unpacking, strapping, lifting and tool wielding etc, then our bike trip was going to continue, in a southerly direction, destination Darling – as a safe haven with our dear friends, to leave the bike and seek medical attention. Fish River Canyon – pre-booked and much looked forward to, would continue, as a side trip en route, but Tankwa, with its remote and notorious tyre-munching gravel mountain passes, we decided as responsible and realistic adults, to cancel and revisit another time. No more Code Reds required!
After a hefty dose of paracetamol was administered, we jumped back on the bike and headed for the Canyon Roadhouse – not much rally boy behavior here, more like a gentle easy on the throttle sedate cruise along the magnificent gravel highway, however some satisfaction was gained by enjoying the different sensation of travelling with deflated tyres (why oh why had we not thought of this last time!) Even I enjoyed it, and did not have to resort to meditation and mind control this time round!
We gratefully arrived at our campsite, and while Major Tom reluctantly agreed to sit down and relax, I began to unpack and very “skillfully” put up the whole camp on my own, to the extent where the poor armless one, was compelled to leap up and rectify matters, completely ignoring instructions to rest!
During this semi organized camp setup session, a self-drive vehicle arrived at the campsite next to us, and started driving round and round to find its perfect stopping spot. Sighs of resignation from us as we realized they actually intended to park their vehicle right on the boundary of our two large campsites, and sit right next door to us!! As soon as they got out of the car, I was amazed to see our lovely Gentle Giant French guy from the filling station unfolding himself out of the driver’s seat! He was just as happy to see us, and he and his girlfriend came running over to greet us, and with utmost sincerity offered to help me to put up the tent and move the bike panniers around the place, and instructed me to call on him at any time that I might need his assistance. I was so pleased that out of all the roads he could have been taking that day, he ended up right next to us again and we were able to thank him for his help at the petrol station earlier that day. The random kindness of strangers continually amazes us!
We went off to the lovely restaurant at the Canyon Roadhouse, one of our favourites, where we experimented with medical finesse the optimum quantities and combos of paracetamols and red wine for taking the edge off arm pain, and spent some time discussing our immediate future again! We decided to abandon the sight-seeing trip to the actual Canyon and rather lie low in the campsite, and just enjoy the restfulness.
Our 2 nights there were perfect, and really helped recuperate after the whole freak bike incident. We took the undemanding hiking trail up to the top of the ridge up above the campsite, and enjoyed the beautiful views,
got all our chores done and did not cook anything ourselves. The Canyon Roadhouse is so full of character with all its vintage cars and memorabilia!
Jokes about Major Tom aside, when we inspected the helmet and its surface damages, we were horrified to see where the concrete would have gouged out a very scary facial injury, right on the eye and forehead area. Tiennie told me that this is just one of his personal safety rules – until he is certain that the bike is stable, he will never remove his helmet or gloves. I am so grateful for that, and also very lucky that I was not on or standing by the bike to also be caught up in the violent flicking incident! Life can change in one microsecond. We had a very lucky let off and it could have been much worse!!!
4th to 6th May – To Goegap Nature Reserve, then on to Darling
Goegap being one of our favourite places in the world, was next on the itinerary. I again tried to suggest maybe we shouldn’t camp, and perhaps we should just try and book a chalet somewhere in Springbok town, for comfort. No, it was decided that camping it would be – just as long as I didn’t have a problem doing all the manual labour, biker boy would just hold his injured arms in the specified position and get us there!
Our first departure under the new conditions was very interesting as I embarked on my first packing spree. Having always very happily left all that in the capable hands of somebody who is an expert, I soon learned under his remarkably patient tuition that actually it is not really packing, it is all about “stuffing”!! Stuffing the sleeping bags into their tiny packages and the cleverly engineered straps that then pulls them tight, stuffing the tent and flysheet into their miniature bag, stuffing the chairs and sleeping bags, bedding and rain gear all into the dry bags without leaving ridiculous empty holes, and making beautifully formed cylindrical bags NOT
mutant lumpy sausage shapes that look like a child’s first encounter with playdough! Stuffing completed more or less to the boss’s satisfaction, we then got onto the strapping. The less we say about my initial strapping skills, the better, but it did cause unnecessary pain to some already painful arms to achieve success!!
Loading the bike up in the sandy conditions was a bit nerve wracking but we had the reassuring presence of Gentle French Giant next door if needed! I am happy to say, we did not need him and between the two of us we did a great job, and roared off back onto the road.
We enjoyed an uneventful trip through the border into SA, with the loveliest policeman at the border who saw our passports through the clear plastic on the tank bag and was so pleased to welcome us, carriers of “our beautiful green book”. It was rather touching, and we had a weird patriotic moment! Luckily he was unaware of our intentions to exchange said green book with a certain neighbouring country’s blue book! The Orange river was full and flowing strongly, which was so exciting compared to the very low level last time we crossed in April 2017.
Mindful of the Goegap Reserve gate’s challenging early curfew of 1600, we did our usual scramble to find supplies in Springbok and not miss that Gate! I left Tiennie and the bike waiting outside in the blazing sun, and immediately had a ridiculous and utterly time wasting run-in with a security guard – my crime: trying to infiltrate a rival branded trolley into a Spar supermarket, I managed to get rid of the evil Shoprite trolley that I had inadvertently picked up, get an approved trolley and zoomed around at the speed of light for groceries and even wine, for which we had allocated a good space!
We rushed off to get to the Goegap gate in good time, only to our horror, to find it firmly closed with a sign on the gate, saying that the whole reserve is closed for a few days, sorry for the inconvenience!! Just as we were pondering this rather disastrous news, the familiar gate lady appeared and said not to worry, they were expecting us and she had even negotiated on our behalf that we could stay, as she knew us and trusted that we would be OK with whatever conditions they imposed. This was that we would be locked into the reserve, and not permitted to leave before 0900 next morning! This was not a problem at all for us, and we were touched that Goegap remembered and made a plan for us eccentric Kasane travellers, from half a world away. A couple of wannabee camper vehicles appeared right up to the sacred 1600 hours but turned away, so we had the place entirely to ourselves, which was stunning!
Exhausted after a day of rather excessive paracetamol consumption, and a tiring un-stuffing and putting up of camp session, we were still very grateful to be enjoying a magical night completely on our own in this unique spot! My supermarket selections were turned into a minimalistic biker gourmet dinner, and we enjoyed the utter peace and quiet of this special nature reserve. No electricity, no neighbours – just us and the bike, under the stars!
Next morning, I was determined to improve on my newly acquired luggage stuffing skills, and even put in some powerful strapping work, to save those injured arms. Eventually we set off to do another 400km, bike looking not bad, although instead of its usual orderly, sleek and aesthetically pleasing lines, it sported slightly eccentrically stuffed dry bags strapped at a bit of a rakish angle on to the panniers! We were all three having to make adjustments, but at the end of the day we figured we were quite a good team!
We made it though from Springbok to the Kardoesie Padstal, at the summit of the Piekenierskloof Pass, on the N7 where we rested up in a very welcome comfortable chalet, with no camping this time, and no resistance either!
The next day, with only 120km to complete, we cruised gently down the lovely mountain passes, stopping for breakfast in Piketberg, then finally arriving with our best friends in Darling, where we parked the bike, with a sense of relief.. safe at last!…
1200km completed by Major Tom, riding with damaged extremities, in a heroic effort to get the bike to the safest possible place, all the while still managing to enjoy the camping and the spirit of the journey…..
6th to 13th May – Be Careful What you wish for….
Looking at our situation, logic dictated the following: the bike should stay safely in Darling, we should organize the long postponed medical attention and fly home, to return later in the year to complete the bike trip … Yes, I know I asked the Universe to allow me a flying trip to “somewhere”.. but really… KASANE? Universe???
So I had the pleasure of going online and booking 2 air tickets, one of which was actually for me this time, from Cape Town to phase one of my flying wish come true – Johannesburg!
Always good to spend time in the Cape with our best friends, enjoying the seafood and the blustery, chilly Cape weather, but soon we headed back north, with me the uninjured bearer of our temporary luggage: a tiny borrowed suitcase, and a mini backpack, with a few selected necessities. We eventually gave up even trying to fathom out the complexities of the luggage needs, including a future bike collection trip in presumably mid-winter later in 2018!
After spending some bonus time with the family in Pretoria, finally getting Tiennie’s fractured wrist and elbow X-rayed, diagnosed and strapped up, I had again the thrilling pleasure of booking some more air tickets for both of us, phase 2 of my flying wish come true – to the wonderful holiday destination of Kasane!
We entertained ourselves in a touristy fashion, by blowing the mind of the only working GPS we had – on the phone app, by comparing our dignified Southerly progress via bike, with the rapid eating of kilometers as we flew North over the Botswana A1 at 800km/h! The choice of runway and flight path for landing in Kasane allowed us to fly right over our home, and the Chobe River in full flood. Actually an exciting sight to see the high water from above! I still never get tired of living here, how beautiful it is!
It was good to be back in one piece, despite being temporarily minus the bike, left so far behind us… What we have learned on these long bike adventures, ishow every single day often brings its own challenge. The minimalistic nature ofour mode of travel, and external factors mean that we have to really take each day as it comes, and embrace the journey itself as the experience. When we getup each morning and start packing up, the only thing we know for sure is where we are aiming for next, and often the plans have to change, and resourcefulness
is called for!
Watch this space for Part 2 of the Adventure – the return from Darling to Kasane bike trip!
