Living the Dream Solo Around the World Trip
- Thread starter schalk vd merwe
- Start date
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- Oct 23, 2007
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- World Citizen
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- KTM 990 Adventure
God speed Schalk. :sip:
- Joined
- Sep 13, 2010
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- Location
- I would rather be in Great Brak...
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- Honda CRF-1000L Africa Twin
Lekker new helmet for the trip, ne?
:thumleft:
:thumleft:
NoRush
Pack Dog
Voorspoedige reis, dankie dat jy jou passie met ons deel. :sip:
schalk vd merwe
Race Dog
Update 22/05/15
Monday I left Cohora Bassa Dam and travelled on part of the potholed road again before turning left on the Tete road going to the Malawian border. At the Zobue border I crossed into Malawi and all the staff was very friendly and only the 3rd party insurance which is compulsory was a bit on the stiff side for our SA Rand .A private vendor would sell you these 3rd party insurances. As I wanted to make Monkey Bay I pushed a bit but close to sunset I started to ride into huge swamps of green muggies. This is at the bottom part of Lake Malawi and the lake is 700km long and at places 700m deep. It took about 5 minutes before the visor is so clogged up that you cannot see any more. At the boomed road block I ask the policeman for a cloth but he took my helmet and cleaned it himself and when he handed it back he said to me “welcome to Malawi” These people are so unbelievable here and they are the people who are being killed in our country because they have more initiative. After another 5 minutes it was the same story and I stopped and used water from my water bottle and wiped it with mealie leaves but the stuff is so sticky that you battle to clean it. This procedure was repeated every so often. And by now it was dark and even my light was dim due to it being covered as well. Even my jeans and jacket was covered in the sticky green stuff. It took me about 2 hours in the dark to cover 100km. When I reached the out skirts of Monkey bay I stopped to look for a camp site on the GPS. I was tied by now and had more than 500km behind me for the day plus some pot holes plus the border crossing and muggies. Then like a miracle and identical to what happened 5 years ago when Juan and I approached Lake Malawi a local guy came out of the dark and asked me if I need accommodation. He said there is a South African lady who owns a lodge a couple of km away on Lake Malawi. He then ran in front of my bike in the dark to go and show me where the place is. (All this still identical to what happen 5 years ago when Juan and I approached Senga Bay at Lake Malawi) I had no place to load him on my bike and he came across a bicycle taxi and rented that to speed things up a bit. As we came into Muleke Ecological Lodge a friendly English lady came out and showed me her rooms. It was only about R120-00 per night (dinner is extra). She already had dinner ready and invited me to the open air dining area with the dining room table slanted to one side in the river sand. Around the table were a German couple from Germany and a Portuguese guy and his German girlfriend who is doing charity work in Maputo and a young girl from the Nederland. All of them came there with public transport (minibus taxis like in RSA) After dinner everybody went to bed except the old lady and she then told me her life story. She lost a million rand on a business deal and had to start all over again. She is also an advocate and was practising until the previous year. She also adopted a kid from a mixed married couple who died off HIV in South Africa. The kid is also HIV but his count is very low as she keeps him on medication. He is very bright and speaks 5 languages including Afrikaans. There are still good people in this world. The next morning I only saw what a beautiful place it was. Tuesday I took a ride to Cape Maclear and this is also so beautiful. I saw the Fish Eagle who with three attempts tried to catch a fish. The fish was jumping by their hundred above the water for some reason. Wednesday I made my way here to the Steps camp site which also has a hotel next door just north of Sengabay and is on Livingstonia beach. The bathrooms in the camp site are the cleanest so far since I have been in Africa. There are some Boab trees in the camp site with a full time watchman. I pitched my tent close to the beach with a clear view over the lake. There was a guy from Langebaan in a tent and also a British couple of my age with an old Bedford overland ex-army stock vehicle. They invited me for dinner and a glass of wine as he has a wine cellar in his truck and being a wine lover I hastily accepted their offer as there is no wine in Africa. He is a real proud British old chap and we had a lovely evening together sorting out all the world problems. He retired in 2011 from the British Army and build this overland 4x4 vehicle and every year he and his wife come and do a stretch through Africa and then leave it in Zambia with friends when they return for the European summer. The next morning while I was making breakfast and while I waited for the kettle to boil I was busy with the GPS a big male baboon grabbed the sugar of the table just millimetres away from me. Thursday I took the road to Lilongwe to sort all my phone and camera problems out. It was a lovely winding road and with no luggage it was a pleasure to do the 120km there and back. The only problem is that petrol cost R20/litre here. My fairly new Sony Camera packed up and it is a sin not to be able take photos of this lovely area. My I phone also packed up and so no music, no camera. In Lilongwe I went to Game (all the SA shops are in one complex) to buy a new camera. Shoprite is also there and I was looking for an I phone store when I saw a white lady in a take away place busy on her I phone. I approached her and ask her if she has got internet and if she would be so kind as too look for an I phone store on her phone. She told me there is no I phone store in Lilongwe but I should go to a shop called Consumer Electronics and she gave me directions. It turned out she is from Brisbane in Australia and is a nurse doing a 6 month contract here. We chatted about Australia as I have travelled quite a large part of that country. After that I went to Consumer Electronics to have my I phone sorted out. I arrived there to find the shop locked for lunch. I then went next door to an African Restaurant and order a toasted sandwich of the Menu. After about 20 minutes the lady came back to tell me the food is old. I gave that one up and went to sit outside the electronic shop. At about 2.30pm the Pakistani owners arrived and my 4 year old I phone was fixed very efficiently. I then went to the new Shoprite and bought some meat there for my braai. There were some managers from South Africa and we chatted about their new store and my trip. After I got back to the camp site an overland truck with 6 visitors and a driver arrived. They quickly pitched their tents and started braai just metres away from my tent. Doing a braai myself with the locally made charcoal I just could not get the fire going. I then went over to the over landers and ask them if I could use there fire as well. It was a pleasant night and I chatted to a retired German chap who worked in China for the last 30 years building factories for his German company. So today it is internet day where you buy a card from the hotel to get there hot spot internet but you can only buy 200 megabyte at a time. So sorry guys no photos as the camera was broken and internet too small for photos. Tomorrow it is off to Livingstonia to the mushroom camp over 500km away. I hope I will make it up the 22km mountain dirt road pass as it quite a bit like the Sani pass.
I will try and answer every ones comments next time if possible.
Monday I left Cohora Bassa Dam and travelled on part of the potholed road again before turning left on the Tete road going to the Malawian border. At the Zobue border I crossed into Malawi and all the staff was very friendly and only the 3rd party insurance which is compulsory was a bit on the stiff side for our SA Rand .A private vendor would sell you these 3rd party insurances. As I wanted to make Monkey Bay I pushed a bit but close to sunset I started to ride into huge swamps of green muggies. This is at the bottom part of Lake Malawi and the lake is 700km long and at places 700m deep. It took about 5 minutes before the visor is so clogged up that you cannot see any more. At the boomed road block I ask the policeman for a cloth but he took my helmet and cleaned it himself and when he handed it back he said to me “welcome to Malawi” These people are so unbelievable here and they are the people who are being killed in our country because they have more initiative. After another 5 minutes it was the same story and I stopped and used water from my water bottle and wiped it with mealie leaves but the stuff is so sticky that you battle to clean it. This procedure was repeated every so often. And by now it was dark and even my light was dim due to it being covered as well. Even my jeans and jacket was covered in the sticky green stuff. It took me about 2 hours in the dark to cover 100km. When I reached the out skirts of Monkey bay I stopped to look for a camp site on the GPS. I was tied by now and had more than 500km behind me for the day plus some pot holes plus the border crossing and muggies. Then like a miracle and identical to what happened 5 years ago when Juan and I approached Lake Malawi a local guy came out of the dark and asked me if I need accommodation. He said there is a South African lady who owns a lodge a couple of km away on Lake Malawi. He then ran in front of my bike in the dark to go and show me where the place is. (All this still identical to what happen 5 years ago when Juan and I approached Senga Bay at Lake Malawi) I had no place to load him on my bike and he came across a bicycle taxi and rented that to speed things up a bit. As we came into Muleke Ecological Lodge a friendly English lady came out and showed me her rooms. It was only about R120-00 per night (dinner is extra). She already had dinner ready and invited me to the open air dining area with the dining room table slanted to one side in the river sand. Around the table were a German couple from Germany and a Portuguese guy and his German girlfriend who is doing charity work in Maputo and a young girl from the Nederland. All of them came there with public transport (minibus taxis like in RSA) After dinner everybody went to bed except the old lady and she then told me her life story. She lost a million rand on a business deal and had to start all over again. She is also an advocate and was practising until the previous year. She also adopted a kid from a mixed married couple who died off HIV in South Africa. The kid is also HIV but his count is very low as she keeps him on medication. He is very bright and speaks 5 languages including Afrikaans. There are still good people in this world. The next morning I only saw what a beautiful place it was. Tuesday I took a ride to Cape Maclear and this is also so beautiful. I saw the Fish Eagle who with three attempts tried to catch a fish. The fish was jumping by their hundred above the water for some reason. Wednesday I made my way here to the Steps camp site which also has a hotel next door just north of Sengabay and is on Livingstonia beach. The bathrooms in the camp site are the cleanest so far since I have been in Africa. There are some Boab trees in the camp site with a full time watchman. I pitched my tent close to the beach with a clear view over the lake. There was a guy from Langebaan in a tent and also a British couple of my age with an old Bedford overland ex-army stock vehicle. They invited me for dinner and a glass of wine as he has a wine cellar in his truck and being a wine lover I hastily accepted their offer as there is no wine in Africa. He is a real proud British old chap and we had a lovely evening together sorting out all the world problems. He retired in 2011 from the British Army and build this overland 4x4 vehicle and every year he and his wife come and do a stretch through Africa and then leave it in Zambia with friends when they return for the European summer. The next morning while I was making breakfast and while I waited for the kettle to boil I was busy with the GPS a big male baboon grabbed the sugar of the table just millimetres away from me. Thursday I took the road to Lilongwe to sort all my phone and camera problems out. It was a lovely winding road and with no luggage it was a pleasure to do the 120km there and back. The only problem is that petrol cost R20/litre here. My fairly new Sony Camera packed up and it is a sin not to be able take photos of this lovely area. My I phone also packed up and so no music, no camera. In Lilongwe I went to Game (all the SA shops are in one complex) to buy a new camera. Shoprite is also there and I was looking for an I phone store when I saw a white lady in a take away place busy on her I phone. I approached her and ask her if she has got internet and if she would be so kind as too look for an I phone store on her phone. She told me there is no I phone store in Lilongwe but I should go to a shop called Consumer Electronics and she gave me directions. It turned out she is from Brisbane in Australia and is a nurse doing a 6 month contract here. We chatted about Australia as I have travelled quite a large part of that country. After that I went to Consumer Electronics to have my I phone sorted out. I arrived there to find the shop locked for lunch. I then went next door to an African Restaurant and order a toasted sandwich of the Menu. After about 20 minutes the lady came back to tell me the food is old. I gave that one up and went to sit outside the electronic shop. At about 2.30pm the Pakistani owners arrived and my 4 year old I phone was fixed very efficiently. I then went to the new Shoprite and bought some meat there for my braai. There were some managers from South Africa and we chatted about their new store and my trip. After I got back to the camp site an overland truck with 6 visitors and a driver arrived. They quickly pitched their tents and started braai just metres away from my tent. Doing a braai myself with the locally made charcoal I just could not get the fire going. I then went over to the over landers and ask them if I could use there fire as well. It was a pleasant night and I chatted to a retired German chap who worked in China for the last 30 years building factories for his German company. So today it is internet day where you buy a card from the hotel to get there hot spot internet but you can only buy 200 megabyte at a time. So sorry guys no photos as the camera was broken and internet too small for photos. Tomorrow it is off to Livingstonia to the mushroom camp over 500km away. I hope I will make it up the 22km mountain dirt road pass as it quite a bit like the Sani pass.
I will try and answer every ones comments next time if possible.
BLK
Race Dog
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Another legend in the making.Thks for sharing your tale.I look forward to the rest.May you be safe
thks
thks
schalk vd merwe
Race Dog
UPDATE 23/05/15
Last night I met up with a Swiss guy and his wife in the camping ground, they are Italian speaking Swiss. They were on their way home and are also going to leave their 4x4 in Lilongwe today in order to return to Switzerland. He has also got a bike at home and has invited me to come and stay with them when I come over the Alps from Italy. He said we would then go and ride the Alps together, what a blessing. Last night I made some two minute noodles but after that the driver of the overland truck invited me to help myself to their local fish and potatoes. An hour later I ran to the toilet with a not so good stomach. I know they bought the fish locally and I am now sure it was one of those flies’ jobs. This morning I left the Steps camp at Senga Bay and my intention was to get to Livingstonia but I left a little late as the water in the camp was off, I then went to shower at the hotel next door as it belongs to the same owner. On the way after I filled petrol this afternoon I saw a sign Ngala Beach Lodge with a Wi Fi sign and decided to pull in and see as I am still 300km from Livingstonia. As it is a lovely area I decided to camp for the night at 8$ US. See photos. So tomorrows ride to Livinstonia should be no problem. Will try and upload photos little bit of a groot gesukkel. Till I have WI Fi again cheery how like my dad use to say.
Last night I met up with a Swiss guy and his wife in the camping ground, they are Italian speaking Swiss. They were on their way home and are also going to leave their 4x4 in Lilongwe today in order to return to Switzerland. He has also got a bike at home and has invited me to come and stay with them when I come over the Alps from Italy. He said we would then go and ride the Alps together, what a blessing. Last night I made some two minute noodles but after that the driver of the overland truck invited me to help myself to their local fish and potatoes. An hour later I ran to the toilet with a not so good stomach. I know they bought the fish locally and I am now sure it was one of those flies’ jobs. This morning I left the Steps camp at Senga Bay and my intention was to get to Livingstonia but I left a little late as the water in the camp was off, I then went to shower at the hotel next door as it belongs to the same owner. On the way after I filled petrol this afternoon I saw a sign Ngala Beach Lodge with a Wi Fi sign and decided to pull in and see as I am still 300km from Livingstonia. As it is a lovely area I decided to camp for the night at 8$ US. See photos. So tomorrows ride to Livinstonia should be no problem. Will try and upload photos little bit of a groot gesukkel. Till I have WI Fi again cheery how like my dad use to say.
schalk vd merwe
Race Dog
schalk vd merwe
Race Dog
kanaalaapxt660
Puppy
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Nice photos safe riding
Sent from my GT-I9190 using Tapatalk
Sent from my GT-I9190 using Tapatalk
schalk vd merwe
Race Dog
schalk vd merwe
Race Dog
schalk vd merwe
Race Dog
schalk vd merwe
Race Dog
schalk vd merwe
Race Dog
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Great to see the progress. :thumleft:
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