schalk vd merwe
Race Dog
Day 31 4/01/2011 Dar es Salaam--Kilwa Masoko Distance 417Km.
We were still about 5000 km from home and having done over 8000 Km to date it was time to hit the road. We first went to fill up fuel nearby. As we stopped a guy approached me and offered to buy my jacket. Throughout the trip people wanted to buy our gear as nothing is available in their countries. Some want to buy our boots and some wants to buy my body protector others want buy our helmet or even our bikes. As my jacket was strapped to my luggage and I hardly wore it as it was too hot, I then sold it for R 550 to this over the moon happy gentleman. I think if you ship a container of 2nd hand bikers gear up you will sell it within a week. As I wanted to make up time a bit in order to build a rest day in I told Juan that we will have to push a little bit. Throughout the trip we never had arguments except that I want to go a little faster on the tar roads. I wanted to travel at least at 120 Kph and Juan wanted to do 100 Kph. So in the end we agreed that today we are going to push a bit. We were about 100 km out of Dar es Salaam when I saw Juan falling behind again. I thought well today I am just going to keep my speed and after I could not see Juan's head light any more I just carried on for another one and a half hours at 120. I must have travelled 180 Km since the last time I saw his head light and I then stopped and left my bike on the tar road and walked to the garage just off the road to buy two cold drinks. I then went and sat under a tree drinking my cold drink while watching the road. An hour and fifteen minutes went past and no Juan. I started to get worried and as I had a Tanzanian Sim card in my phone I then phoned my wife in Johannesburg to tell her that I lost Juan. “What do you mean you lost Juan” she said. I then remembered that we forgot to tell my wife that if something like this should happen the ruling would be that we would both phone her and tell her where we are. She was now in a state because I lost our child and I must say I was also getting a bit worried. “What if he fell off?” played through my mind. By now I was waiting next to the road for one and a half hours and even if Juan was traveling at 80 Kph he should have been there by now. Just then a bus stopped and a Tanzanian man jumped out and said in broken English “O your friend had puncture there” I said to him “how far” and he said “O 15 kilometre's”. He then jumped back on the bus and off they went. This again amazed me as they are so helpful. As Juan carried the food and I carried the tools I knew that he is stuck. So I turned around and travelled back 15 Km but no Juan, so I travelled 20 km no Juan 30 Km no Juan 40 Km no Juan. The guy said 15 Km and I have done 40 now and I thought well I will try another 5 Km and then I don't know. As the 45 Km came up I saw Juan sitting in the heat under a tree with the bike on a piece of timber and the rear wheel already out. So the morel of the story on a trip like this is stay together. As we fitted the tyres our self's before the trip as a practice run we knew exactly what to do. We broke the beat with my bikes side stand and removed the one side of the tyre in order to remove the tube. We try to feel the tube then but there was no tube. I could not believe it. I then said to Juan let's take the tyre completely off the rim and see what is going on? What followed was unbelievable. It was about 48 degrees hot or more that day and the whole tube was melted including the rubber band around the spokes with the tube now just in a bundle. (See photos below) A nail was sticking into the tyre and what seems to happen is this. The expensive heavy duty Michelin tube have melted inside of the tyre before and sealed all the spokes as there was rubber around each spoke end, the rubber boll that formed by now had been sliding around in the tyre and only started to leak when Juan picked up the nail in the tyre. I heard after the trip from a tyre expert that heavy duty tubes are not meant for riding on tar as the friction build up and the tube gets too hot. We then managed to get a piece of bicycle tube from the locals and put it around and over the spokes and then fitted a new tube which I brought along. We carried Sunlight liquid which helped to slip the tyre over the rim and in no time we were mobile again. We arrived at Kilwa Masoko on the Indian Ocean after traveling through about 3 km of sea sand. We booked into a chalet right on the beach a few metres from the water. The owner was from Denmark and is married to a Tanzanian lady. The waiter brought us some cold ones (unusual for Africa) while we were sitting on the beach just after sunset. That night we had some really good Calamari and the prices for the food and accommodation was reasonable. We did 417 Km for the day and taking all the pelaba in account for the day it was not too bad.
We were still about 5000 km from home and having done over 8000 Km to date it was time to hit the road. We first went to fill up fuel nearby. As we stopped a guy approached me and offered to buy my jacket. Throughout the trip people wanted to buy our gear as nothing is available in their countries. Some want to buy our boots and some wants to buy my body protector others want buy our helmet or even our bikes. As my jacket was strapped to my luggage and I hardly wore it as it was too hot, I then sold it for R 550 to this over the moon happy gentleman. I think if you ship a container of 2nd hand bikers gear up you will sell it within a week. As I wanted to make up time a bit in order to build a rest day in I told Juan that we will have to push a little bit. Throughout the trip we never had arguments except that I want to go a little faster on the tar roads. I wanted to travel at least at 120 Kph and Juan wanted to do 100 Kph. So in the end we agreed that today we are going to push a bit. We were about 100 km out of Dar es Salaam when I saw Juan falling behind again. I thought well today I am just going to keep my speed and after I could not see Juan's head light any more I just carried on for another one and a half hours at 120. I must have travelled 180 Km since the last time I saw his head light and I then stopped and left my bike on the tar road and walked to the garage just off the road to buy two cold drinks. I then went and sat under a tree drinking my cold drink while watching the road. An hour and fifteen minutes went past and no Juan. I started to get worried and as I had a Tanzanian Sim card in my phone I then phoned my wife in Johannesburg to tell her that I lost Juan. “What do you mean you lost Juan” she said. I then remembered that we forgot to tell my wife that if something like this should happen the ruling would be that we would both phone her and tell her where we are. She was now in a state because I lost our child and I must say I was also getting a bit worried. “What if he fell off?” played through my mind. By now I was waiting next to the road for one and a half hours and even if Juan was traveling at 80 Kph he should have been there by now. Just then a bus stopped and a Tanzanian man jumped out and said in broken English “O your friend had puncture there” I said to him “how far” and he said “O 15 kilometre's”. He then jumped back on the bus and off they went. This again amazed me as they are so helpful. As Juan carried the food and I carried the tools I knew that he is stuck. So I turned around and travelled back 15 Km but no Juan, so I travelled 20 km no Juan 30 Km no Juan 40 Km no Juan. The guy said 15 Km and I have done 40 now and I thought well I will try another 5 Km and then I don't know. As the 45 Km came up I saw Juan sitting in the heat under a tree with the bike on a piece of timber and the rear wheel already out. So the morel of the story on a trip like this is stay together. As we fitted the tyres our self's before the trip as a practice run we knew exactly what to do. We broke the beat with my bikes side stand and removed the one side of the tyre in order to remove the tube. We try to feel the tube then but there was no tube. I could not believe it. I then said to Juan let's take the tyre completely off the rim and see what is going on? What followed was unbelievable. It was about 48 degrees hot or more that day and the whole tube was melted including the rubber band around the spokes with the tube now just in a bundle. (See photos below) A nail was sticking into the tyre and what seems to happen is this. The expensive heavy duty Michelin tube have melted inside of the tyre before and sealed all the spokes as there was rubber around each spoke end, the rubber boll that formed by now had been sliding around in the tyre and only started to leak when Juan picked up the nail in the tyre. I heard after the trip from a tyre expert that heavy duty tubes are not meant for riding on tar as the friction build up and the tube gets too hot. We then managed to get a piece of bicycle tube from the locals and put it around and over the spokes and then fitted a new tube which I brought along. We carried Sunlight liquid which helped to slip the tyre over the rim and in no time we were mobile again. We arrived at Kilwa Masoko on the Indian Ocean after traveling through about 3 km of sea sand. We booked into a chalet right on the beach a few metres from the water. The owner was from Denmark and is married to a Tanzanian lady. The waiter brought us some cold ones (unusual for Africa) while we were sitting on the beach just after sunset. That night we had some really good Calamari and the prices for the food and accommodation was reasonable. We did 417 Km for the day and taking all the pelaba in account for the day it was not too bad.
.........but at least your day ended beautifully.
