I would definately lean towards the smaller bikes, a 200 -250cc. The main reason here is the fuel economy. Most will give you about 400km from 12 liters of fuel.
This weekend I had decided to have a breakfast at the southern most tip of Africa, Cape Agulhas. Took the new toy TZR250 stroker, filled up in Cape Town and I was on the road. Little did I know that the reserve tap does not work. So there I was standing next to the road 10 km from destination - hungry.
Only 210km on a 15 liter tank. Does anyone want to buy a cheap 250? Hope she didn't hear that.
The other consideration for me would be speed. You don't want to be constantly worrying about the trucks killing you while they are overtaking you. Here they are allowed to drive 100km per hour. So the bike needs to do a little more than that to be safer. Most 125cc will do about 100kmph and the 200cc will do 120kmph (4 strokes). As stated earlier by others, once off-road you no longer need to worry about speed as much.
The main thing with touring would be to get yourself and the bike back home again in one piece. Here reliablity, easy parts, economy, comfort come into play.
There are many capable small bikes out there.
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