Hi Marco,

Hopefully I have worked out how to use this site. Am loving your detailed and informative writings. Sounds like you are having a fabulous time.

Tuesdays are just not the same - your replacement just isn't up to your standard. Miss you, take care and keep living the dream
J xxx

Hello everyone and thanks for your replies. It feels good to stay connected. Even if connection is not easy to maintain if internet is so rarely to be found. However, we are in Bulawayo in Zimbabwe at the moment and although there is an internet cafe the slow computer won't let me upload any pics. So it's just text for now. As usual the accumulated diary entries for the last days (and weeks)...

__________________
no risk - no fun

Day 12 - Inhambane, Mozambique
Hello again with another short update from Mozambique. Short because there is actually not too much happening to write a lot about. The highlight of the last couple of days was to simply be here. Just cruising along. Here in Mozabique. Which is a great place to cruise along.
If you hear stories about what a dangerous place Mozambique would be, how corrupt the police is or how many bribes you would be expected to pay - simply forget about it. We haven't met anyone meaning us bad yet, nor have we met corrupt officials or police. The very contrary is true. People are super friendly here and help us in all respects. E.g. lifting the bike that has been dropped on a sandy path (but let's talk about that later). There is a police checkpoint in every small town. But it is merely a speed check with surprisingly sophisticated looking radar cameras. We try to stick to the speed limit and are usually just waved through with a friendly smile. No Police has stopped us yet.
Mozambique is a pretty easy place to get your bearings right. There is pretty much only one sealed road going all the way in North - South direction more or less parallel to the coast for around 2500km. In the centre part, where Mozambique is a bit wider there are a few gravel roads to connect to Lake Malawi or the Zimbabwe border. But that's pretty much it. All along this main road there are little market stalls selling things like mobile prepaid vouchers, Coca Cola, fire wood, bundles of straw or some produce such as oranges, cashew nuts or paw paws. Almost every village also has a bakery. We just live of 'Pao typico Portuguese' which is a piece of bread not unlike the French baguette in shape and lenghts but of rather white ciabatta like dough. One of those only costs about 8 Meticais (AU$ 0.30) and it really fills you up for a while and tastes great. There is also petrol stations every 100 or so km, making fuel a non issue along that road. Even in between those fuel is sold in 5 litre water bottles from little stalls next to the road. One litre of unleaded (unknown octane) costs just under 50 Meticais (AU$ 1.65) and is relatively expensive compared to the other costs in Mozambique. But it must be good fuel because my little Suzuki achieves an unprecedented fuel economy of under 5l/100km with it.

Maybe let's just talk about some random examples of our experience with the Mozambique people. Just to give you an idea what to expect if you ever find yourself here.
One evening we were looking for a good place to camp and just went into some tiny dirtpath which looked promising. And indeed some hundred meters in we found the perfect pitch of grass. Clearly within sight of it there was a group of people cooking on a fire and some little kids running around. So there I went to introduce us and ask if it's okay for us to camp on that piece of grass. It ended up being one such situation where I tried to start a conversation with the three words of Portuguese I know and get two village mums replying back simultaneously in rapid downpours of Portuguese while stirring the stuff in the big pot on the fire. Me not knowing the words for 'camping' or 'tent' or 'sleeping' certainly did not help. So we ended up wildy weaving our hands and arms and pointing towards things and drawing picures in the sand and shaking our heads. And laughing our ass off. And with kids running around me and two village mums laughing at me I felt like entertaining the whole village and we all had some good fun. Until I thought I got the message across and became a thumps up and 'tudo bom' ('all good') in response.
A few hours later we were visited by a big group of people. Including one young guy who spoke English. The purpose of their visit was to 'greet us', one of the village mums still had a lot of fun now that we actually had a translator between us. And we were presented with a thick piece of sugar cane to break up pieces and chew them and suck the sweet sugar juice out of it. As a welcome present to their village.
Another evening we were looking for camping again and found a road leading to the beach. The road started good enough as a dirt road with some sandy patches. However, the sandy bits grew longer and longer. And deeper too. And after I dropped my poor bike on a similar road earlier the same day it was now Martin's turn. On a particularly deep sandy uphill section he found his poor Africa Twin suddenly on her side. And within seconds people came along to help lifting the heavily laden Honda back up. Also within seconds we had status updates about the rest of the road. And friendly company again the next morning after camping on the beach when the same guys came along for some spear fishing and said hello.
Or today when it was realy hot and we used our poor bikes as an excuse to stop to give them a rest. We went straight to the pub (=container with drinks being sold). Sitting there, two ladies approached us selling cashew nuts. Hungry as we were we asked how much those would be and encountered our usual communication difficulties. Our three words of broken Portuguese against their simultaneous whole barrage of talking. After a few seconds they showed one hand and counted their fingers so we assumed the whole bag of nuts would be costing us 5 Meticais (AU$ 0.17). So I got out my 5Mtk coin wondering why it was so cheap and these two ladies started laughing and didn't stop. What they found so funny I still don't get. But they obviously asked for 50Mtk for their bags of cashews. Which is still cheap. In between those intense episodes of laughter we went tbrough all the coins I had. They picked 43Mtk (AU$1.50) worth of coins, left us with 2(?) sizeable bags of cashews and off they went still giggling and laughing.
It's a really good bunch of people to be around, these Mozambiquans.

On the bike side of things: both our bikes are holding up really well. Most of our km are done on the paved main artery road but it's the little bits and pieces of when we leave that road which make the trip interesting. Obviously our tyre choices (Pirelli Scorpion MT90 A/T for my bike and Mitas E07 for Martin's Honda) are not great in sand but which tyres would be? They are easy to ride on gravel roads though and also on the tarmac. Although the hot and rough tarmac here eats away the rubber quit rapidly. So I guess before we go into the DRC we might need to find a new set of tyres in Dar es Salam and hope our 21" and 17" sizes will be available. There should be tyres available in Dar, right?
In terms of DRC we might be lucky with the visa situation. Our hostel in Maputo was just down the road from the DRC High Commision so we thought we go in and ask some questions. And the lady there was really cool and helpful but couldn't give us a visa. Because we are not residents of Mozambique and embassies can only issue DRC visas for residents of the country they are in. However, she also showed us an official letter from the government in Kinshasa that the immediate neighbours of the DRC are exempted from this rule, explicitly listing Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi as examples. She also phoned the DRC embassy in Lusaka (Zambia) for us and got confirmed that we could be issued a visa there. So we now have a choice and cross fingers thant these guys all received the same letter from Kinshasa. We shall see...

__________________
no risk - no fun

Day 14
Hello again from tropical Vilanculos in Mozambique. We are still enjoying ourselves in beautiful Mozambique and will continue to do so for another one or two days until we cross into Zimbabwe.
The last couple of days have been pretty lucky ones for us. Since the last update we stopped over in Tofo for one day. All the keen divers of you might know the place for it's diving resorts. And apart from that it is the Tofo beach which is just stunning. It goes on for km on end without any houses, without anyone on the beach. And it is the perfect mix of white sand, turqoise ocean and blue sky which creates the perfect playground for ocean lovers. In Tofo we booked ourselves onto a boat trip for snorkeling with whale sharks. The boat trip itself was already a great experience. We cruised along the neverending beach in search of whale sharks while watching nearby Humpback Whales breach and play around as a happy family. And after a while a Whale Shark was spotted for us and the four keen snorkelers on board dived in. Once under water we were only meters away from the shark. And OMG was that a massive monster! Whale sharks are the largest fish on the planet, not counting in whales for they are mammals. The one that we met that day was approximately 10-12m long. And even though they are sharks, lucky for us they only feed on plankton. So there we were in the ocean together with a huge speckled shark. Just elegantly swimming along with us, more like just floating a metre or two underneath the surface. That was sooo cool.
It is however not the big attractions like the whales and sharks which fascinate me most but the little everyday routine stuff. Even now I am not over the initial sensation of being in Africa yet. And just sitting on my little Suzuki and just riding along is an awesome feeling.

I often think back to the planning phase. One and a half years ago when the idea came up and I spend many sleepless nights over books and on the web for information gathering. And drawing all the info I could get onto a big pencilled map of the continent. It has been very clear that I wanted to go to Africa. Back then I couldn't explain why. But now I know. It's not so much for the elefants or lions or Kilimandjaro or safari part of it. Even though all that is cool. But it's much more about the everyday's life bit. To live in between the attractions and see Africa as it is outside the tourism hubbs.

Around a year ago the excitement got even bigger when I was sitting at a friend's house in Sydney and we spent a long evening watching photos and listening to stories about their two previous long adventure trips through Africa. Back then everything was still so uncertain for me.

Then the excitement got almost unbearable the week before leaving for the trip.

And now we are here. This is what it was all about. This is it. Living the dream that was just a dream for so long. Things that seemed so exotic back then are now routine. But no less exciting. It all comes together here. And now. Cruising along on my little Suzuki, feeling the heat of the tropical sun, smelling the smoke of the little grassfires people light for cooking in front of their little huts and hearing the chatter of the women walking in colourful groups along the road with huge buckets balancing on their heads.
Every day we wake up to a blood red sun rising over the east. Every day again we camp with a sun setting red as blood in the west. And while we're lighting the camp fire to the alien sound of crickets and unfamiliar birds we are watching a huge red moon rise. In between all that we look into many smiling black faces while we are cruising along. People who just get along with their daily routine as they probably have done for many years and still, for us watching these people is just as fascinating as it is for them to see these two guys cruising past on these unbelievably huge bikes as it is now our routine. A random moment in time which is nothing special at a random location in Africa suddenly becomes a memorable event for all of us. That is the stuff I wanted to see and wanted to live for in Africa, the stuff in between things, the little everyday routines, the conversation with locals, the warm handshakes and genuine smiles. And I am loving every minute of it. Cruising along is like watching a good movie, there is so much dynamic and colour in everything. And as soon as you stop the perspective changes completely and you are immediately part of the same fascinating film.

Another very pleasent experience found us last night. We stopped in Vilanculos for buying some stuff for dinner and getting ready for camping. When we were suddenly aproached by another white guy. And so we met Uli, a German expat who happend to own a guest house in Vilanculos. And as it turns out he loves motorbikes and touring as much as we do. He has a couple of KTM 450's and 640's in his workshop and prepares himself for a major bike trip through Mozambique. Ready to start in just two days. So we ended up staying at his guesthouse and had a great chat about motorbikes and Mozambique and the life as expat while sitting by the campfire. If any of you guys ever travel to Vilanculos, I can only recommend saying hello to Uli at his guesthouse 'Casa Guci' and you will hear some amazing stories about what you can do with a KTM in Mozambique!

Well in case you do ever travel to Mozambique, let me just give you a quick wrap up what it is like, based on our experience here. Our route took us from Swaziland to Maputo and then North till Vilanculos and from there another 250km north and then straight west towards the border to Zimbabwe.
Mozambique is a stunning place to travel through full of amazing people. Although most major attractions have to do with diving or snorkelling and are quite pricey. A standard dive will cost you around AU$65. Also accomodation in these dive resorts will set you back a couple of hundred dollars a night. Backpacker hostels can be found in every decent size town and cost around the same as in Australia. (AU$20 a night). Petrol is available every 100 or so km along the main road from a major service station and is of good quality. But also at a rather high price of beyond AU$1.60 per litre. The further north you go the more expensive it gets. ATM are everywhere but in the smallest towns. The most I could get out of them on my Visa card was 5000MTK (AU$ 167) which will last you for a couple of days. Food is available from supermarkets, these are getting very rare once you are north of Inhambane. Supermarkets are just a bit cheaper than in western countries. Beer is really cheap though (AU$ 8 for a sixpac). Every village also has a market but there is not much to buy from those. It's mostly for local clientel so they sell big buckets of salt or sugar or straw or palm leaves or live chicken etc. You can however pick up some fresh fruit for cheap prices as well. And also soft drinks for next to nothing. But again, once you get north of Inhambane the markets are getting more and more useless for hungry travellers. We live mostly of bread and bread rolls which are fresh and delicious and available from bakery stalls in every 5th or so village market.
The quality of the sealed N1, which is the only main arterial road is very good. There is a pothole or two further north but nothing much to worry about. However, if you turn to what the map identifies as 'unsealed' roads to the east of the N1 you pretty much always end up in a deep sandpit. Believe me, we did try many of them. Apparently the roads to the west of the N1 are decent quality graded gravel but we will see about that tomorrow when we turn west towards Zimbabwe. And when you go along the N1 be aware of the speed cameras in many villages!
In terms of safety our experience showed Mozambique as an extremely safe country. People tell you honest prices for goods at the market and do not negotiate. You are hardly ever hasseled by people trying to sell you stuff or asking for money and if they do you just say 'no' and they leave you alone. Traffic in Maputo may seem a bit chaotic but is manageable, outside Maputo traffic is no problem at all and people generally obey the rules.
Good spots for camping are very easy to find and it never took us long. If you setup camp and are approached by locals it is always just to greet you or to see what's going on in their neighbourhood. If we camp in sight of someone we usually go and say hello first. And even if we never speak a common language it always ended up a good fun conversation and us camping there with no worries. From what we were told the land mine problem is only a real problem in the far North where dodgy areas are signposted if mines are expected in the vicinity (that's what locals say). However, many local people warned us of Cobras and we did indeed see one just a day ago crossing the road in front of us and making a couple of people jump. So be careful when bushcamping in grassy areas.
Highlights of Mozambique include lots of diving stuff and if you're not into diving the distances between other sights are quite daunting. The famous Gorongosa NP will not let you enter on a motorbike so you need to find someone with a car to catch a ride.
In terms of bike parts I don't think Mozambique has anything to offer for western style adventure bikes. You see a lot of Honda XL125 around and they are the biggest bikes you see. And there is a couple of chinese 50cc bikes too. Local bike shops only cater for those sort of little bikes and I doubt even Maputo would have a shop with spares for bigger bikes. But I guess that is not unexpected.

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no risk - no fun

Day 16, 17 and 18
Another day, another country. Mozambique has been a fantastic place to ride a motorbike. However, there is huge distances between tourist highlights. The only other significant one on our list of interesting places would be up in the far north. More than 1000km along a straight stretch of road did seem too long for us though to just see another archipel of islands. So we turned left instead, onto my favourite road so far. It's the one connecting the N1 main road with the little town of Espungabera on the border to Zimbabwe. It is a beautiful gravelroad, meandering through some typical Mozambiquean bushland with tiny villages dotted along the road. Villages no bigger than three or four huts. It is just the perfect road to ride my little Suzuki on and she totally agreed with me in that, smoothly rolling along with her little 650cc heart calmly beating. Switching into 3rd gear and accelerating up the hill, little pieces of gravel flying either side. Top of the hill, switching into fourth gear and letting her roll down, slaloming around rocks and potholes at around 80km/h on a perfectly warm spring day. Martin on his bike on my right hand side to avoid any of us breathing in the big orange dust cloud which covers everything behind us. Close to Espungabera the road finds it's way through the mountains where we got rewarded with some beautiful views back into the plains of bushland in Mozambique.
Our strategy is to cross borders in rather small crossing points, not the main road ones. So we hope the officials are less stressed and less prone to bribes or money extorsion. And well, it sort of works. We crossed from Espungabera into Zimbabwe. Leaving Mozambique was a friendly and easy affair. Entering Zimbabwe seemed to be too. We paid our $30 and got issued a 30 day visa straight away. The bikes got in with a Temporary Import Permit so we did not need to use our Carnet. And that was it. But then, just before the last boom gate the Customs officer insisted that everyone (not just us) showed all items to be imported into Zimbabwe. Which means for us completely unpacking all our panniers and explaining every single item. But hey, it was a sunny day and the officer was a really friendly one. Just doing his job. So we had a friendly chat about our underwear, our spare spark plugs and the mosquito spray, explained the can of chain lube and the camera zoom lens and two hours later were free to pack the lot back in with the words 'Thank you for your patience, have a wonderful stay in Zimbabwe'.
Ten minutes later we were stopped at a Police checkpoint. The two officers simply bombarded us with questions, faster than we could reply. Almost in military style. So we stopped the bikes again, parked them out of the way and in our most friendly manner went through all their harshly asked questions with them, making things up as we went along (where will you stay tonight? And tomorrow night? etc). Ten minutes later they were running out of questions and we were out of there. And from then on we were cruising along in another super friendly country in Africa. Here we are, Zimbabwe, under the care of Comrade Robert Mugabe.
The first Zimbabwean town behind the border for us was Chipinge. And what a difference it was to Mozambique. There were fully stocked supermarkets, delicacies like yogurt and chocolate and orange juice in them. ATMs tendering US$, the (temporarily) official currency here. Which is really handy to be able to stock up on hard currency for the onward travel. Prices are similar to Mozambique. And people just as friendly. And English is again the official language which makes communication very easy.
Let's just pick one example of our experience with Zimbawe people: as usual we just camp somewhere off a little road and not on any official sites. This time we just went off the main road, the terrain either side was really flat with a few bushes and some big Baobab trees and some little rocks. No problem for our sturdy bikes. Once out of sight of the road we looked around and collected some wood for a little campfire to barbeque our tasty looking sausages from the supermarket. All of the sudden this guy appears, bare foot but wearing a shirt with 'Police' written on it. After our earlier experience we now expected trouble. But with a big smile on his face he was just saying hello and was laughing a bit about our pathetic little pile of fire wood. He offered us to camp next to his house some further down the road. But at this stage we were already too set up to move on and declined his offer so he just disappeared into the bush again. Hours later, after we gave up our unsuccessful efforts on the fire and cooked our sausages on the camping stove, two people stepped out of the dark towards us. It was him again with his wife. Just saying hello again and dropping off a perfectly dry and big log of timber for us to use for cooking. And disappearing again into the night with a smile. Really cool, hey?
The landscape is also quite different compared to Mozambique. Just behind the border we rode through some beautiful dark green rainforest in the southern part of the Eastern Highlands. But very soon it changed to a brown flat landscape with scattered bushes and huge Baobab trees. Some of those are just massive, trunk diameters larger than the lengths of our bikes. Also part of the mix are some huge rocks, almost mountains of granite. And a couple of round brick huts with straw roof.
People are very friendly but appear to be in more hardship than their Mozambiquean friends. We are asked for money more often but still left alone when we say 'no'. There are less colours around and more people walking barefoot.
The roads we travelled on so far are awesome quality. Main roads are tar. And even gravelroads are nice and hard and of the kind that you only need to focus not to get trapped in minor ruts. Or run over a sharp edge of rock. 60km/h is no problem at all on Zimbabwean gravel. So far.

After three weeks and more than 3500km since Johannesburg the bikes are holding up fine. Only some minor things come to the surface every now and then. Just today I had to repair the fuel hose which started to leak a lot. Where it connects to the inline fuel filters the rubber hose started to develop cracks and one of those became big enough that a small continuous stream of fuel shot out. Luckily it happened while the bike was parked and not too much fuel poured over the hot engine. I cut off the cracked ends of the hose and also filed the outside diameter of the fuel line connections on the filters smaller to reduce the outwards pressure onto the fuel hose. And reinforced the hose with duct tape. And hope it will last a bit.
Martin had to fight with his bike too. After all those dust roads he was keen to check the airfilter. But the three small bolts which hold the airfilter cover did sit so tight that none of us could get them loose. And we ended up pretty much destroying the bolt heads. And one screwdriver. It was only later in a small workshop and with the help of an electric grinder that we got access to the airfilter.
Also recently we developed a habit to thoroughly check our tyres after we discovered some big thornscembedded in them. There is a lot of stuff with massive thorns growing here and often some twigs or branches are just blown on the road. So far we managed to gercaway with no flats ( touch wood).
Till now our tyres are holding up actually pretty well. But latest before we enter the DRC we will need new ones. Has any of you been able to source some tyres in Rwanda or Burundi? These will most likely be the last countries before we enter the Congo. Our last resort would be that the tyre shop in Pretoria which fitted Martin's new tyres could send some across to Burundi. But that sounds rather expensive.
Riding my little Suzuki is still so much fun, even after all those km. Or probably because of them. It sounds odd but I start to know the bike to a degree that I can hear and feel if something is wrong. Something like my dirty air filter. The bike handles so well on the roads in Zimbabwe that even sandy bits start being fun. If they are not too deep. Then I still panic. And curse. However, we met two touring motorcyclists from South Africa here in Zimbabwe which their big ccm shiny european bikes. And then again I realised, while we are here in Africa, you could offer me any bike in the world, I would not swap my little Suzuki for it. She somehow seems to be made for this adventure of ours. And is truly fun to ride in the terrain we encountered so far. So keep your Katooms. And keep your Beamers. At least for now. I'll stick to my little Suzuki. And Africa is still heaps fun.

__________________
no risk - no fun

Thanks 'Judif', good to see you on the forum! And there is still some time left to train up my replacement, good luck!

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no risk - no fun

Day 32 - 33 Zambia

Time is flying if you have a good time and today already marks day 32, more than one month after landing in Johannesburg to start the African adventure.
One month into the trip gives us plenty to think back to, plenty of routine has been developed and optimised. So by now we did figure a few things out. Things like what to pack in the top part and what in the bottom of the panniers. Or what to do best at which time of the day. Or what to make of certain people. Which is pretty cool. Somehow it's like a routine back home with getting up and going to work etc. Just different. And still cool, after a month in Africa and two months on the road it still feels good and exotic.
We wrapped up one more country since the last update which is Botswana. The only purpose for us to travel there was the mighty Okavango Delta. So starting from Victoria Falls we went straight down via the Chobe NP. Once in the delta we booked ourselves on a Mokoro tour for 3 days. Mokoros are small boats carved out of the trunk of a Sausage Tree, being pushed forward with a long pole by a person standing at the back. They are the only way to really penetrate into the little channels and swamps and islands of the delta. No motorbikes there. Together with Oti, our proud captain we spent these three days floating and walking, just the three of us. However, there was not much bike riding. In fact, our bikes were parked safely at a lodge in Kasane, far far away from where we were. And, call me a freak if you want to, but being away from my little Suzuki really made me feel uneasy. The weird thing is that I really enjoyed the time in the Okavango Delta but still couldn't get used to the fact that Oti was shipping us around and we no longer were in control. I just missed the freedom to go, to jump on the bike and just ride. The more so I was happy to be reunited with my little Suzuki again today. She's so much fun to ride!
All the action in the Okavango Delta happens in the morning or evening. During the day it is incredibly hot and we just rested on an island for hours every day. Which gave us some good time to reflect back, back through the first month and the first 4500km in Africa.
In this first month we visited the highlights of South Africa, Swaziland, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Botswana. All these countries are special in a certain way.
So I guess you'd be interested to read about my preliminary tour favourites? Alright, let's compile a top five list:

1.) The thing I loved most is just riding in the late afternoon hours. It's starting to cool down. People start cooking on the wood fires. So there is the aroma of smoke combined with the dry dust whipped up in the air by the weak afternoon breeze. The sun sits low within a wide layer of dust and turns the horizon into a big warm orange background. And there is the two of us on our bikes just riding along after a day of exciting experiences. By that time you are calm and focused, you slalom around the cows and donkeys on the road with ease and you smile back to the many smiling faces around you and are just happy to be here, to be part of it all. Just riding through any random bit of Africa, that's definitely my favourite.

2.) The people here. We met so many of them and had such good times. We laughed so many times with them and about them and about us. The locals are just so genuinely friendly, warm and hospitable. And our journey would not be the same without the great fun whenever we stop and spend time with some of the people around.

3.) The bushcamping. We hardly ever camp on official campgrounds. But mostly just somewhere nowhere. How cool is it to be free to decide which piece of Africa will be your home for one night. Your home where you will sleep to all the exotic noise from the bush or from the endless grassy plains where you happen to pitch the tent. No one else there. The bike parked next to the tent and the camping stove cooking some evening tea. Feels great and we both really dig that sort of lifestyle.

4.) That awesome feeling when you finish a border crossing. After sometimes hours of dealing with officials and filling in forms, carrying forms around, getting stamps onto forms and paying fees for forms. That one moment when finally the boom gate is raised and you push the starter button, switch into gear, waive to the security officer and go. Finally free to go. Free to go into a new country. Which you don't know much about yet. Except that it will be different from the last country. And that it's gonna be good again. Awesome feeling, believe me.

5.) Being close to big animals. Big ones like Elephants, Buffalos, Giraffes or Ostriches. Or even smaller ones like Warthogs and Impalas often roam the streets even outside the National Parks. Particularly so in northern Botswana or in Zambia. So you just ride along and suddenly a whole family of elephants crosses the road. In a way that you have to stop and let them go across. So you stop and kill the engine. And then it's silent again. You hear the footsteps of the elephants, you hear how they break off little branches and the noise of them chewing the fresh timber. And you hear your own excited heartbeat in the total silence around you. All happening just a few metres away from you. From you sitting on the bike. The same bike you used just months earlier to commute to the office on.

It's things like these which I really value and enjoy on this trip. These things are actually the real reason for doing the trip. Sure, some tourist highlights are a 'must see'. Such as the Victoria Falls. But these are usually stressful and expensive. Roaming the open plains of southern Africa on a little Suzuki on the other hand has an extremely calming effect and costs next to nothing. And feels great.
I'd like to write a little wrap up about Botswana here but then I don't think I am qualified to do so. We only spend less than a week in one small area in the North East. However, some of you might be interested to know that they asked for the Carnet on the border and would not have left us in without. And, what many of you already know, Botswana is incredibly expensive for accommodation, entrance fees and tours. But relatively cheap for petrol and supermarket shopping. At least in the North East.

On the 1st of October we crossed into a new country. And are now in Zambia. We took the border crossing in Kasane near the Victoria Falls which is actually a ferry. Getting out of Botswana is easy. Getting into Zambia chaotic. You need to pay for the ferry and the visa in US$. And for a 'Carbon Tax' and a third party insurance in the local currency, the 'Kwacha'. The issue is, that we were not able to exchange anything for Kwachas in Botswana. And since there is no ATM or Currency Exchange at the border you rely on the 'Black Market' money exchange. Which is a million people around you trying to get your business with all tricks you can think of. And same story again with the millions of third party insurance sellers. Having a few hundred thousand Kwachas before getting to the border would have saved a lot of time and hassle. However, 'Kwachas' are cool and on the ATM today I became a millionaire for the first time in my life! (1AU$=5000Kwacha).
Otherwise we did not need a Carnet for crossing into Zambia. But if you have one you need to hide it, they go for it like a vulture. We try not to use it if possible because we will go through more countries than there are pages in the Carnet. In Zambia you can ask for a Temporary Import Permit instead. Which is issued within 15min for free.
Coming into Zambia we went straight east and then north on a tiny gravel road towards the southern part of Kafua NP. Again a road just made for our bikes. The southern bit of it was easy cruising along a dusty road with a couple of mm of sand on top. Easy even for me. The stakes got higher later when the road became more and more overgrown from the sides. Unfortunately overgrown not with flowers but with bloody thorny bushes, thorns of around 20mm length on big dry branches just hanging into the road more than a metre high. If you brush past them they catch your clothes and panniers and simply rip into them or go straight down into your skin. Not to mention the poor tyres. And to add to that the road finally becomes one of those roads with two car tyre tracks in deep sand, the edges and the centre of the road around 200mm higher than the tyre tracks. And did I mention the deep sand? Pretty much you can't change from the left track to the right or vice versa because you would need to climb up to the sandy middle bit first. Have I ever mentioned my opinion to sand? However, the choise is yours between changing lanes through the sandy centre every hundred meters or get torn in pieces by the thick thorny branches hanging into your way across the tyre tracks.
But, to be honest, I loved this track. Somehow I got a good crack on it and figured it out how to ride this stuff. Best in 2nd gear, swiftly accelerating through the deep bits, fishtailing up onto the centre bit and around the thorny stuff and down the other side. And the same in reverse 100m later. It's heaps fun. Sure, there were a few unvoluntary excursions into the bushes. And we both had to pick up our bikes from the sand every now and then. But nothing too serious for the hundred km we did today. There will be another 200km tomorrow and I am looking forward to it already. It's also this sort of road where my little Suzuki seems to fly along much easier than the heavier Africa Twin. So I had to cope with some tough German swearing over the intercom. But at the end we both made it in good shape to a good spot for camping when it started getting dark. With a family of elephants not too far away it was again a day with our big five of favourites. So yeah, this is Africa.

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no risk - no fun

Okavango Delta


Sunset at the Okavango Delta


Okavango Delta and our Mokoro


Our little group for three days in the Delta - from the left: me, Oti's brother (who was just there but had nothing to do with our tour), our Mokoro poler Oti and Martin

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no risk - no fun

Days 35 and 36 - Zambia
We had a very special day yesterday, a day which shows how bad luck and good coincidence can easily follow each other. We are still in Zambia, still on that little gravelroad west of the main highway going between Kalolo and Choma. As usual it is our luck when we choose to go these dirtroads that somewhere along the way they turn into nasty sand pistes. This particular one was not too bad though and again great fun to ride along. There were however many intersections and forks along the road which disagreed with the one straight line that our map showed. The GPS did not show any road in this area. So sure enough we soon got lost, had to ask for directions just to end up at another fork in the road with another 50% chance to get lost further. Once we even lost sight of each other and took separate roads and it took a while to find back together. Soon this game became a little bit frustrating and in the heat and humidity of the day it had it's effect on our mood. The unluckiness of the day soon culminated. Martin was riding a few hundred metres ahead of me. I came around this one corner and saw the disaster area right there in front of me. Martin standing in the middle of the road frantically waiving with both arms. His bike on the ground and his luggage strewn across the whole area. 'Oh s...t' just went through my mind. Fortunately Martin was alright apart from some minor scratches and bruises. It was just a little stump of a tree that caused the mess. On a gravel road which cuts a few centimetres into the ground there was this little stump right on top of that little embankment. Covered by green leaves and grass. Just close enough to the road and high enough and covered enough. And Martin just riding far enough to the left. Just enough to give that little stump a direct hit with his left luggage box. Which sent him flying and the Africa Twin sliding. But fortunately, as I've said, he is alright and his bike soon was upright again and apart from a shattered windscreen undamaged. The aluminium luggage box was not so lucky though. Two of the four bolts to fasten it to the rack got ripped out and the box was dented to a degree that you couldn't get it back on the rack to safely ride on this bumpy gravel road. So there we were. Nowhere near a town. On a small dirtroad in Zambia, trying to get the box back in shape by hammering with rocks and sticks. And lucky as we were, the big dark clouds which came closer and closer over the last hour finally opened to send us some rain down. Not too much but enough for us to stop hammering and seek refuge under a tree. Watching the lightning come closer and listening to the thunder getting louder.
And then there was this one guy walking along the same road. Walking past us and a few metres further turning and coming back to us. He offered us to come to his village and wait out the rain. And so with him we went. And as soon as we arrived in the village the perfect tropical storm started. The sky darkened, the wind picked up and changed direction every few minutes. And it was just bucketing down. So much that the village was soon a river and the ground so soft that my little Suzuki's side stand sank in and she almost fell into one of the straw walls of a hut. It was the first rain of the wet season. The first rain in this area for many month. Coming down right then when we were stuck out there.
And that is where our luck turned. Not just that we were lucky enough to meet that one person walking along that road in our time of dire need. But also that he offered us shelter in a little hut with a wood fire burning and his friendly family sitting beside it, watching us drying our dirty clothes in the warmth of the fire. He was also by coincidence the only mechanic in the area, having the tools available for doing metalworks. Once the rain had finished he took care of the bent aluminium box and in no time at all it was square again and two new holes were done to replace the ripped out bolt holes. All by just using a double T steel beam horizontally stuck in a tree, a hammer, an old iron and various random pieces of steel. By the time it was all done it started becoming dark so we were happy to camp next to bis hut. And here it became a truly magical evening and we could learn what it means to live in a remote village in Zambia.
The name of our saviour is Moses and he lives with his wive and his three children (4 and 7 years and 4 months old) on this little compound of one proper hut and a few straw shelters. The hut is built of bricks. Bricks he made himself by digging up clay and forming it to bricks in the fire. There are no windows, just a door. Which is an old torn rice sack covering the rectangular opening in the wall. The roof is sheets of corrugated iron which is held in place by rocks and old potts and other heavy stuff. There was still a gap of around half a meter in the roof. The money only bought that much corrugated iron. We sat on little carved timber stools inside, just Martin, Moses and me. Because tradition has it that the wife and kids have no business in the room where men sit and talk. So wive and kids were outside in the 'kitchen shelter' cooking dinner while we talked. Moses introduced us to his life in his home. It was pitchblack inside. Apart from the few pieces of glowing timber in an old holey paint bucket in the centre of the room. Smoke from the glowing timber filled the room and brought tears into our eyes. And Moses told us his story. How his parents came from Zimbabwe to Zambia. And he was born into a poor family in Zambia and stayed here. He never went to school, school fees were just to much to bear for his family. And still his English was excellent and he somehow became a mechanic. The family lives of the little money his mechanic skills can earn. And from the 'garden' where his wife works all by herself. Growing a few tomato bushes, some cabbage and some green leafy stuff they call 'vegetable'. Together with Maize which they grind to Maizemeal, a flour like substance which can be boiled in water. Becoming a dough like meal which is the staple food down here. It's Maizemeal with cooked vegetable. Every day.
While we sat there talking about the prospects for the kids and the hard to afford school fees we shone our torches around the room. Bringing into the light the belongings of the family. One corner is taken by the bed. Not larger than a single bed it is a pile of dirty empty rice sacks on the ground, some rolled up and folded as cushion or blanket.
The other corner has two old metal boxes in it. Three or four cups hang from wires of the brown rendered brick wall. Another wire with cloth pegs on it goes across the room, along the wall which is not covered by the iron sheeted roof. One day, when more money can be saved, the one more sheet of iron will be bought and the roof will be complete. Also in the room are three carved timber stools. On which the three of us are sitting around the fire tin. The rest of the room is empty. The belongings of the entire family would easily fit on our motorbikes. Having nothing themselves Moses still insists they invite us for dinner. Which is Maizemeal and vegetable and chicken. And which is cooked with great skill and is delicious to us. Eaten with our hands straight out of the pot. For all that, rescue from the rain, the repair of Martin's box, dinner, good company and a place to setup our tents - Moses asks for nothing in return. He just insists that Zambians are hospitable people and people are supposed to look after each other. He asks a lot about our home countries. And finds it hard to believe. That there are no elephants there. That we never had Maizemeal at home. Or none of the tree species as they are growing around his compound. And that there is snow in Germany in winter. Sitting in this dark smoke filled room that night in the dim orange light of the glowing timber pieces after the tough day we had and sharing our stories was really cool.
The next morning we shouted the family a big pot of our vanilla flavoured poridge from Botswana which they seemed to like a lot. Moses then proudly showed us their 'garden' around a km away. Heaps proud how well the vegetables and the cabbage grow this season.
Before we packed our bikes with all our fancy gear (Moses was amazed by our waterproof tents and our camping stove) we left him 50000Kwacha (~AU$10) which is the amount needed to buy the last sheet of corrugated iron and complete the roof. Which changed the mood completely and made a grown up man happy like a child on Christmas. The wife was immediately called and both shook our hands many times and praised god for us. To see their faces there and then was one of the most memorable moments I've ever had in my life.

I guess all of you who travelled in Africa had those moments when you realise how little you need to give to make a huge change to the good in someones life. And yet you have to say 'no' so often and it is soo hard to do so. Because how can you fairly pick the few people out of the inmeasurable crowd in need to deserve what you can afford to support?

Another example that gives me much to think about just happened an hour ago. We camp near another small village tonight, a village of around 20-30 people. Out of those one young man really stood out. He spoke perfect English and explained to us not just the village and hirarchy of people but also many facts about Zambia, it's history, the politics and many more things. His name is Ben. Three years ago he started growing Maize with his hard work on a tiny piece of land. He sold the harvest to the Maizemeal mill and made some money with it. One year ago he married and his new parents in law lent him two oxens for a short time. So he could more effectively work on his land. Together with the fertiliser, bought from the profit of his first Maize harvest the year before he grew the perfect Maize and made enough profit to buy his own three cows and more fertiliser. With the cows on the plough he again works more effectively, so much so that he could get a second parcel of land to grow Maize for next year. With the aim to earn enough to attend college. A smart man really standing out in his community. How so? This is his story:
When he was in Basic School (the equivalent to Primary School in Australia) we managed to do particularly well in his English classes. One day a couple of white people visited his school and his class. And for his good English he was the only one in his class able to properly communicate with them. Which impressed one Japanese lady so much that she decided to to sponsor his school fees for him to attend school up to year 12. Being the only one in the village having the opportunity to go to school without break for so long made him not just excell in English (which helps in dealing with officials and in trading) but also in Maths and Science and provided him with the skills to do the accounting right for farming his little piece of land and how he can generate much more income. And it made him shine amongst the people of his little community. The amount the Japanese lady supported bis school fees with? AU$250 a year. AU$250 which built a person. I suppose the Japanese lady might not even know how much her support changed Ben's life for the better over the years. But the question remains - is it fair in the big picture to choose one person out of a crowd and lift him out of the community and onto a good life?

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no risk - no fun

My little Suzuki proudly displaying her new yellow reflective sticker. It is compulsary in Zambia to display a yellow reflective piece of tape to the front and the back of a motorbike. And we heard of many other travellers being fined for not having them.


Entering the city of Livingstone on the Zambian side of Victoria Falls


The little dirt path turning off the main road some 20km east of Sesheke and going towards the South Kafue NP. Parts of it are overgrown with really nasty thorny stuff and you need to go across the deep sand at the centre of the road to avoid it.


Martin stuck in the sand after a failed U-turn attempt. It took us a while to dig and push out the Africa Twin in this deep sand.


Random scene


Our bikes always draw much attention. You can't imagine how much laughter you can generate by just letting people sit on the bike and taking a photo of them. Showing that photo to the village on the digital screen of our cameras is enough to entertain a big group of grown up people for several minutes.

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no risk - no fun

Lusaka, Zambia

We made it to Lusaka today, the capital of Zambia. There is actually only one reaon for us to be here - the promise to receive a visa for the D.R.Congo. Which is hard to get. When we asked in the Congo Embassy in Maputo we were assured that Lusaka would be the place for us.
Usually embassies only accept visa applications before 12pm so we rode a bit faster to make it in time. Which promply earned me a speeding ticket for 180000 Kwacha. Traffic in Lusaka is a huge mess and the only way to describe it is a big brawl of cars and bicycles and pedestrians, all sharing the road and doing their thing. All on extremely small margins and sometimes cars came hairraisingly close. So we just made it to the Congo embassy with half an hour to spare. Asking for a visa we got promply refused because we did not have a letter of invitation. But fortunately we remembered the name of the person in the Lusaka embassy who promised us that a visa can be issued when we asked in Maputo. Knowing a name opens doors. And all off a sudden we were invited into another room to talk to Gaston. Who even remembered the phone call from Maputo. We explained our situation. Being on the road for so long makes it impossible to obtain a visa in our home countries because they issue it for max. 3 months in advance. He understood the issue and is happy to support our case but has not the authorithy to decide our case. So we do have an appointment with the chancellor of the embassy tomorrow morning. We need all the mental support we can get so please cross fingers for us!!!
The Congo presents the probably biggest challenge to us. We heard it is so hard to get a visa from anywhere other than your home country. So getting the visa problem solved would make me sleep much easier. Because there is no way around the Congo to Westafrica. If we receive our visa than the other challenge will be the way through the Congo. The plan is to see the famous Mountain Gorillas from the Congo side. So we would enter the Congo from Bukavu in Rwanda in January (=dry season north of equator). After meeting the Gorillas we would continue to Kisangani. Having two options from there. Either continue by road to Bangui into the Central African Republic. Or go by barge down the Congo River to Kinshasa and continue into Brazzaville. However, no one can tell if the trouble area on the Congo -Rwanda border is open for tourists. Or if the road from Kisangani to Bangui still exists and is rideable on our bikes. Or if there are any boats going between Kisangani and Kinshasa.
So yeah, the Congo is the big headache of our trip and once we are through, it will all be easy cruising from there!
So cross fingers for us tomorrow and we shall hopefully soon see the most beautiful visa in our passport!

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no risk - no fun

This reminds me of something I heard when I was younger.
"A man was walking down the beach on a stormy afternoon, and the beach was littered with washed up starfish. As he was walking through them he noticed a little girl reaching down and picking up a starfish and throwing it back into the sea. She would do this continuously, one starfish after another. Finally the man walks up to her and asks 'Why do you keep throwing them back into the sea? There are so many of them, you aren't making any difference.'
To that the girl picked up another starfish and threw it back into the sea and replied 'It made a difference to that one.'


Obviously not everyone can be helped, but is it not worth helping one rather than doing nothing? Especially if they then become a pillar in their community, I'd say that's a success!

I'm really enjoying your trip report, and am always looking forward to the next installments!
Keep safe, and have fun

Chris

Marco, send me via PM your email address, maybe I can help you if you want. i´m just talking to my friends in Kinshasa... no promiss but who knows, but maybe you have the visa meanwhile then let me know please...


I am soon on the road to NZ and then to SEA there it will be a bit harder for me to help you...

cheers Sascha

update>
"[11:55:53 AM] xxx congo:
they are crazy
I cannot send an invitation for people that are not coming to work in my organization
and congo is really dangerous

ok, if they will have huge problems, I could try to find a solution.
they are from germany?

australia

OK lets see... need more info as soon as you have ..."

but wll c, let me know on monday, maybe i can push a bit or you have to work there for a day

let me know ASAP what´s going on there...

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