Fuzzy Muzzy and Martin flatten some dust roads in Zimbabwe

[MissM]

Ooh ooh ooh! So looking forward to this report!

 

[Piston Pete]

Lookin' good!

 

[joe_soap]

great stuff! very interesting!

look forward to all the pics!

 

[MINZI]

"Sapskribed".  :thumleft:

 

[Jondu]

Sub

 

[Fuzzy Muzzy]

I think it is fair to say and we can all agree that the ride report from JHB to Beitbridge is one that I can skip, it is basically a few hundred kilos of crappy tar roads and enough tolls to make you really look forward to getting the day behind you. It was R30 here, R40 there, R18 here, R44 there.. fark, it must have been something like R300 in tolls just to get out of the country. I can't believe they still think they can get away with E tolls.. I now fully understand why the okes are complaining and protesting..

Beitbridge is everything everyone has made it out to be, I read a few other RR's from okes who have done Zim and so I had pretty much mentally prepared myself for a long, frustrating wait. We were a bit ambitions to do such a long 1st day with the chaos that is the border crossing but we were keen to get everything out the way so that the next day we had a straight off start into Zim.

Lets get something clear about Beitbridge, you are going to shit yourself if you are not used to heat, the average temp year round in that place is 30 degrees, I think by the time we got there it was easily 35 degrees, my bike had been overheating the whole day in the heat, to the point where I even pulled over to a local store and bought some coolant just incase I had to flush my cooling system. my bike usually runs at 74 - 77 but leading up to the border it was running at 85 - 90 degrees.. way hotter than I like.

Martin and I were approached by some runners pretty quickly, you get the impression these are not just run of the mill opportunistic helpers, these okes are more than that, they are organised, slick and connected. I was happy to just hit the queues but Martin was keen to get it over and done with so he paid some guys to jump the queue, it cost, but we were out of there in a few hours.. some guys had been standing there 7 hours already.. little do they know it is okes like us who pay to get in front that is causing his delay, I feel bad that the system is run like this, I am uncomfortable with people just shrugging and saying it is the African way.. it doesn't have to be... we got our forms stamped, boxes ticked and by nightfall we were out of there.. you heard right, the sun was freaking down already, we had been riding since early morning and we still had about 80km to go till we hit our overnight stop.. it was at times like this that the GPS came in handy.. oh, I forgot to mention, this was my 1st long trip with a GPS. Usually we just wing it and take a map, but this time I wanted to try using the GPS.. it was already AWESOME.. waypoint was plugged in and off we went into the dark to find it.. lekker ( except for the freaking cows on the road at night.. not so lekker.

 

[Fuzzy Muzzy]

We arrived at our overnight stop in the dark but no matter, we were greeted with friendly smiles, happy faces, nothing was too much problem.. the place in question, the famous Lion & Elephant. Well used by travellers, steeped in history and heritage, I remember passing through there as a kid over 30 years ago. Camping was very cheap at $5, to make the comparison for later camping spots, this camping spot comes with braai facilities, electricity and lights in the campsite. all good and gets good ratings, where it does fall down is the showers could do with a coat of paint but as an added bonus you get a 24 hour security guard standing and looking over you and your stuff.. really nice touch.

The menu was good and food prices fairish - it would take us a while to get used to buying food in US$, bacon, egg and cheese roll was $5.50 and add $1 for chips.. not too shabby.

the next morning revealed that I was already behind in the mental scoring spreadsheet : Kit failure Fuzzy 1 : Martin 0

 

[Fuzzy Muzzy]

I had unpacked all my kit.. set up camp, I was missing a piece of kit

My freaking tent flysheet.. now for any of you with teenage kids let this be a lesson. When you say ' pack away the tent' that does not mean the kid actually listened.. in order to get the tent to fit into the bag they may and probably will leave out the flysheet and stuff it into the camping crate stuck away somewhere so you won't see.

thankfully on our 1st night we were still close to Beitbridge and throughout the evening it was warm and comfortable.

 

[Fuzzy Muzzy]

All packed up and almost ready to hit day 2, I woke up full of the joys of spring, yes the day before was a long day but I had a good nights sleep, Martin on the other hand looked shattered as he pointed out one of the campsites flaws.. it is about 30m from the highway, and if it is one thing this road has so close to the border.. it's massive 18 wheelers.. with air breaks. Poor oke hardly got a seconds sleep.

 

[Fuzzy Muzzy]

I heard they had a swimming pool so I went looking.. ba ha.. apparently water will be in the pool next week, but I suspect that is their standard reply to people passing through.. the plants surrounding the pool haven't been trimmed in a LONg time, infact they look like they have been encouraged to grow so people can't see the pool.



If you find a pool with water in it in Zim take a pic.. we never found one. Water is very scarce in Zim.

 

[katana]

Sub, looking forward to this  :ricky:

 

[Wayne Duck]

Very nice...I hope some of my info helped  :thumleft:
Wayne

 

[Fuzzy Muzzy]

It did thank you Wayne, I didn't get to convert your tracks for my GPS but we had some of your route printed out in maps .. I will get into how we incorporated your ride report into inspiring where we went, but for sure it was your ride report that pushed me off my couch and to go ride .. there will be a surprise for you along the way as well..

This is my pic of the day. I LOVE trees, this tree is freaking MASSIVE, that large expanse of sand in the background is actually the river, apparently it last flowed in Feb sometime and even then it was only at full strength for about a week.

 

[Fuzzy Muzzy]

The Lion & Elephant put on a pretty mean spread for breakfast.. cerials, milk, coffee, about 3 or 4 different types of tea, the whole bang shoot.. we decided that we likes their bacon and egg rolls so much we would have one for breakfast.. I even took one as a take away, I knew we were up for a long days riding and come lunch time I wanted to chow not mess around.

It was not long after leaving the Lion & Elephant that I would experience the reason why I came to Zim and the reason why I did not.. lets start with the reason why I did not.. those freaking speed cops.. wow, they laze around under trees all day , they hardly move but speed, and boy oh boy they can run. I was overtaking a big truck, I saw it was a 60 zone but I was committed to my overtake, I could have overtaken the truck and then slammed on breaks but where is the reality in doing that, so I had to keep my overtake pace and I got bust doing 97 in a 60 zone.. the cops were very friendly and open to my whole story of why we were there.. they fined me $20 but I talked them down to $10.. happy that this was more than fair we headed off towards our 1st taste of dirt, the whole reason why we were there.

For those who have travelled along the A1 I think it is you would have seen this puppy.. woah she is huge. my mom says she has a photo of me and my brother in this same tree when we emigrated in 82' I have asked her to dig it up.

 

[Fuzzy Muzzy]

I was already 1:0 down in the gear failure department.. lets just get this bit out of the way.. I was also now 2:0 down in bike failure department. I was on the newer 700.. Martin was on the old 05 model 650 and he was kicking my ass. Just before I left I installed 2 spotlights, the reason.. well, I am getting old and blind, I can't see so well at night anymore.. these spotlights come in handy no doubt and they come highly recommended for these parts, streetlights.. well, they don't exist.

So onto how I am 2:0 down so far.. one of my new spotlight brackets had snapped ( on tar.. I know ) leaving my spot to dangle by the cables, a few cable ties and some wire later it was back in place but it didn't last.. I ended up just taking the spot off the next day. The other problem I had was I blew my right fork seal somehow. This is not really something you can plan or prepare for, it had happened and I will just have to live with it. I was pissing oil all over my bike, front wheel and disc.. what a pain. I bought the bike with progressive springs in front thank goodness, it changes the whole handling characteristic of these bikes, I had been riding the Alp for a while so I was confident I would be able to pick up any changes the lack of fork oil would have.

 

[Charlie Brown]

sub

 

[Andy660]

:ricky: :dontknow: :dontknow: :dontknow: :dontknow:  ok , where is the rest ?

 

[Ian in Great Brak River]

Sub.

8)

 

[Fuzzy Muzzy]

Thanks to Wayne Duck for his recommendation on his RR to follow the cane truck haulage road, the change in my emotion when turning off onto this road was instantaneous, no doubt when touring to find gravel roads or 'dust' roads as they call them in Zim you have to do a certain amount of tar, our goal on this trip was to seek out and ride as many gravel roads as possible, by turning onto thee dirt that lay ahead of us it was like we were now finally riding in Zim and we had found what we had come here for.. I was starting to finally relax into riding mode, the hours and days leading to this ride were filled with planning, packing and doubt, all the emotions that flood you before you take on these rides but now I was getting into that zone where you connect with your surroundings and just enjoy it for what it is..  I was connecting with Zim and loving it.

The initial corrugations were quite bumpy, I was not that interested in opening up to skim over them so soon in the tour but after a few seconds you realise that if you don't it is going to be a long and bumpy ride.. there is one drawback to the cane haulage roads.. simply the cane trucks. On this day there was ZERO wind, which is bad for removing dust trails.. so when we came up on a cane truck doing 40km.h there was simply no way past. I remember thinking.' oh crap.. please don't say we will be doing 40km.h for the next 80km", thankfully the truck stopped to let someone out and we took our opportunity to slip past and open up





I was interested to see that the further we rode on I could actually see a change in the surrounding foliage, it was turning from very dry to having green on the leaves, a welcome sight. My hope was that the closer we got to the mountains it would cool down a bit.




naturally there are other reasons to stop.. you don't necessarily have a choice in the matter.

 

[Fuzzy Muzzy]

:ricky: :dontknow: :dontknow: :dontknow: :dontknow:  ok , where is the rest ?

:laughing4: hey this is a labour of love.. busy sorting and resizing photo's, remembering facts , distances etc.  I will post it as quick as I can  :sip: