Fuzzy Muzzy and Martin flatten some dust roads in Zimbabwe

[Fuzzy Muzzy]

The last day was one of those.. run for home. we knew it would be long stretches of tar, a border crossing and oh.. our promise to get to JHB without going through one toll road. For 2 reasons 1) we hate tolls and 2) it would force us off the main drag and look for some of.. oh.. this



it really is amazing , if you are determined to ride the dirt you have to go out of your way to find it,



By now my chain was clanking and grinding, I was stopping at every fuel station and checking it, lubing it and making sure it is ok, I had about 1, maybe 1 and a half turns left on the tension. I may just make it

the lekker thing about riding down the back roads if you come across gems like this

 

[Jondu]

Boekmerk

 

[0012]

Boekmerk

ek ook

 

[Buff]

Awesome RR Muz, I'm loving it  :thumleft: :thumleft: :thumleft:

 

[Flatout]

Fuzzy Muzzy your ride report is something special, I can read it over and over without getting bored. Well done you two, you have gone where most of us can't or are just plainly too scared to go. Hats off to you!  :thumleft:

 

[Bushcat]

Fuzzy, this is one of the best rr's i have read in a long time, especially as Mutare was my home town for so long, & i returned there on a frequent basis, up until a few years ago.
As you said, Eastern Highlands, Chipinga, Melsetter, Vumba, & Inyanga have the best DS Routes around, did many of those routes Bundu Bashing with my Oldman & his buddys in their 4x4's, also came across "Picaninnis  O0 who ballegad" as they had never seen a white man or a vehicle!! :imaposer:

 

[Fuzzy Muzzy]

Fuzzy, this is one of the best rr's i have read in a long time, especially as Mutare was my home town for so long, & i returned there on a frequent basis, up until a few years ago.
As you said, Eastern Highlands, Chipinga, Melsetter, Vumba, & Inyanga have the best DS Routes around, did many of those routes Bundu Bashing with my Oldman & his buddys in their 4x4's, also came across "Picaninnis  O0 who ballegad" as they had never seen a white man or a vehicle!! :imaposer:

Thank you everyone for the kind words, I love DS biking, it is part of my life, it is awesome to share it with like minded people. This trip in particular was a jaw dropper.

It is interesting that you mentioned the 'picaninnis'. Martin actually said many times during this trip that the biggest issue he had was with the little ones. If you are riding along at 80 - 100km/h you can see them up ahead, they hear you coming and scatter. you can see 10 - 20 kids in front of you and 5 seconds later when you zoot past they are gone like they were never there.. what happens is after I pass they all run out of the woods to have a closer look, scream and wave but now Martin is coming up to them, they don't always see him because they are looking at me and they don't always hear him because I am roaring off.. so he had to dodge a few.

I have to mention that the Zimbo's are the most polite people on the dirt roads, if someone is riding a bicycle almost often they will pull over and even dismount from their bikes. Everyone moves over and in many cases get off the road altogether. very polite people.

How do you post mapsource routes?

 

[Shaun]

Really Gr8 RR Murry :thumleft: :thumleft: :thumleft:

w.r.t. posting the GPS route or file.... you simply click on "additional options" & then in the Attach section....you go browse where you have the file & then place in the section to attach & then hit post. :thumleft:

 

[Fuzzy Muzzy]

ahh.. there it is, thank you

this is our 1st day .. check out the loop de loop at the end of the day as we searched for dirt

 

[Shaun]

ahh.. there it is, thank you

this is our 1st day .. check out the loop de loop at the end of the day as we searched for dirt

:thumleft: :thumleft: Looking forward to checking out the rest as you post them.

 

[Fuzzy Muzzy]

Before I post all the tracks and the fuel stats I may as well just wrap up the tour, I have been stalling because it did not end well..

We were following all the back roads to get as much dirt and avoid all the tolls as much as possible, so far we had been successful in both, I have been going on about my chain a few times, it was now sounding really bad, I was stopping every 100km or so to inspect it. About 130km from JHB we couldn't take the back roads anymore, we figured we had done all we could, we were so close now a highway run home sounded like a great idea, My GPS was telling me that we were expected to arrive at 4:30pm which suited us very well. Martin had work the next day and I had an early flight back home. my day was already full, picking up the kid from school and it was my birthday so I had festivities to plan.

We pulled into Hammanskraal.. holy crap but what a shithole of a place, of all the African towns I have been in Hammanskraal has to top the top 5 worst. Noise, people begging , dirty, people littering.. aargh. We filled up to prep for the last stretch home, as usual I checked my chain.  I had managed to snap a chunk out of a link, it was holding on by a thread.

We had 3 choices, 1) I could take my life in my hands and ride - err, no thanks 2) we snap the chain and Martin tows me - Martin was a bit nervous doing that. I had experience towing so as a last resort I would tow him, 3) we call for backup, we were only 130km from home so it was possible.

I know !! no stress, Wild Dogs to the rescue, I have Adventurers number, he will help us or will know someone who can, no worries.. So I phoned Adventurer.. um, ok, maybe 130km out of town is a big ask.. maybe if we post on Wild Dogs we could get someone close by, Martin picks up his phone and made a call to his boss ' hey.. we need help',, he hangs up and says ' help is on the way" holy moly that was cool!! I felt a little bummed.. 3500km and I fell 130km short. oh well, just another adventure.

I rolled into Martins driveway at 8pm on the back of a Nissan bakkie. I tipped the driver R500 and I know Martin gave him a healthy tip as well, we were that thankful.

the next day I was on a plane home, Martin still has my bike, the chain has been mended, it will come down by train next week. !!

thanks for reading.  :thumleft:

 

[Fuzzy Muzzy]

for the okes interested in fuel stats.. the 650 and 700 were pretty much the same, the amount of fuel we put in may look weird but remember in Zim it is in US$ and there is never any change, so you put say $20 in, sometimes we put in the same amount of fuel but one of us could have put in more.

 

[Fuzzy Muzzy]

ahh.. there it is, thank you

this is our 1st day .. check out the loop de loop at the end of the day as we searched for dirt

:thumleft: :thumleft: Looking forward to checking out the rest as you post them.

I have tried to post another day but the file is too big, max attachment is 500mb. If anyone wants the tracks just PM me and I will mail them.

 

[gwild]

Best RR i have read and i hate reading. Awesome awesome awesome :thumleft: Thx for sharing

 

[Charlie Brown]

Very Lekka...........thanks for taking us with you, it was great.

Just had a look at your costs spread sheet..............jeez those Transalps are heavy on fuel...5.4lt / km??????????... LOL, not an issue, I know what you mean. Thanks for going to all the trouble to put this together for us, it really helps when planning a trip.  :thumleft: :thumleft:

 

[Fuzzy Muzzy]

:laughing4: dammit.. well spotted. I was not paying the biggest attention to detail on the spreadsheet. What is interesting is when you start paying $1.70 p/L , then you know that an economical single is maybe a better bike to travel with.. either way I think the Transalps did veer well. they lack ground clearance but other than that they were comfortable and reliable, besides a fork seal or 2 and a chain, but the chain was my fault.. I think 26 000km on a chain was impressive.

I hope one or 2 people read this and zoot off to Zim. I had a blast.

Thanks for reading the ride report, I tried to make it as detailed as possible as getting correct and relevant info on Zim was hard to find.

Best RR i have read and i hate reading. Awesome awesome awesome :thumleft: Thx for sharing

Thanks Gavin - glad you enjoyed it !!

 

[jeff]

thanks for the great read , didn't like but enjoyed the suspense .  :thumleft:

 

[Charlie Brown]

:laughing4: dammit.. well spotted. I was not paying the biggest attention to detail on the spreadsheet. What is interesting is when you start paying $1.70 p/L , then you know that an economical single is maybe a better bike to travel with.. either way I think the Transalps did veer well. they lack ground clearance but other than that they were comfortable and reliable, besides a fork seal or 2 and a chain, but the chain was my fault.. I think 26 000km on a chain was impressive.

I hope one or 2 people read this and zoot off to Zim. I had a blast.

Thanks for reading the ride report, I tried to make it as detailed as possible as getting correct and relevant info on Zim was hard to find.

Best RR i have read and i hate reading. Awesome awesome awesome :thumleft: Thx for sharing

Thanks Gavin - glad you enjoyed it !!

hey Murray, I've read your Africa tour RR as well, I think you and your adventures with the Transalp are an excellent advertisement for what can be done with that bike. Especially if you take into consideration the abuse and hammering that they get on trips like yours. When I read the part about the valley you guys had to drag, push and slide your TA's through, my first thought was " what would you have done if you guys were on big 1200 BMW's???

Absolute hats off to you and Martin, the way you guys take on the trip, the conditions and all the little adversities thrown at you........ that's true style adventure riding and makes for excellent reading..........really very well done!  :thumleft: :thumleft:

 

[Fuzzy Muzzy]

Thanks very much, I appreciate it.

To be honest I think the Transalp is one of the more under rated bikes and mainly because it has a low ground clearance and is quite heavy but they are as reliable as anything and will go anywhere, although they hate sand. I think the Transalp is a very worthy contender for anyone who wants to do any kind of touring, best of all , they are dirt cheap. you can pick up a 2010 - 2011 TA 700 for around R50k, it is a lot of bike for not a lot of money.

If we had 1200's during our ravine crossing it would have gone about the same way, I doubt a 1200 would go through there without a little push either but it would go through eventually.  :laughing4:

If I had to do it all over again...

1) I would make it 3 or 4 days longer.. do some dirt to Kariba and for sure have a rest day, 10 days non stop riding from 6am to 4pm was great, I loved riding every day, but a rest day is nice just to rest these old bones. honestly though, Zim is not like Malawi, in Malawi you take a rest day because you don't want to ride on, you enjoy that lake so much, in Zim we never found that one attraction that made us grow roots for a day or 2.. the attraction was the dirt roads.

2) I would take a different jacket, the one I took was too hot.

3) I would take a larger range of tools, I was unprepared in that dept.

4) I would have fitted a new chain  :laughing4:

Everything else went as smooth as butter.  :thumleft:

 

[Shaun]

Thanks once again Murry for a truly Awesome RR :thumleft: :thumleft: :thumleft: