Pomphuis Bikers Chronicles - the DRC edition

[bonova]

Day 18
MALAWI!!! Yipeee.
Riding on the very picturesque mountain passes over the Nyika plateau, eventually I looked at my GPS and realized – we’re in Malawi. What the hell happened to the border post???  Turns out, there isn’t one (so we’re still in Zambia according to our passports). We rode on for quite awhile and eventually came to the Malawi side (Katumbi, just south of the Nyika national park). No one there….. The guy who does the formalities is in Mzuzu. Ok, so we go to the police station and get the cop there to write us a letter saying what happened. We also couldn’t get 3rd party or anything.

The police station

The dirt roads from there wound through mountains and came out eventually at Rumphi and a short while later we were on the main road south. Just before Mzuzu, we were stopped by the police, wanting 3rd party etc. We got out our police letter, and after a little argueing about the situation, the top cop there let us go with a smile (I love Malawi). I think the guy who originally stopped us was not happy bout it, but we didn’t care. Then, in Mzuzu, we drew money, got our passports stamped, and got some 3rd party insurance.

3rd party in Mzuzu

We also got supplies and fuel etc before heading to Kande beach – one of my favourite places in the world.
We pulled in late afternoon after a blast through the rubber tree plantation that got the edges of our tyres blackened and warm  :biggrin:
Then it was big greetings from all our mates at Kande, and beers. We spent a chilled 3 days at Kande.

You can just make out some lake flies in the distance

One of the highlights was the horse ride through the forest and on the beach, and we made good friends with some UK interns that were on an over-lander and doing hospital work in Malawi. There were some good parties, but nothing compared to the last trip. It was good to just chill though.

 

[bonova]

day 11-16

 

[bonova]

day 17-22

 

[JustJane]

Oi... Where's the rest...? atch:

More please...

 

[bonova]

ok ok - been busy 

 

[bonova]

Day 21
We woke up with a hell of a hangover from the night before, and slowly packed our stuff. We needed to start getting home, because we felt we were starting to run out of riding time.

lunch break

We didn’t make it very far though, because we were all dying so much. I was feeling really bad, and blamed it on the hangover.
Malawi has these cool ambulances – It’s a bike with a sidecar – had a good laugh at that, but it makes sense I guess. Thought that I’d hate to be sick and strapped into that on a bumpy road though – almost happened…
We stopped off at Bay lodge in Chipoka. It was a nice little lodge on the beach, with good facilities and they let us camp right on the beach. It was an awesome view, late afternoon, with the lake being almost invisible, giving the impression you were on the edge of the world.

We ordered a nice supper of chicken and shima and headed to bed early.

I had a terrible night though, with fevers and colds, and just feeling really bad, with a horrible cough to top it off.

Day 22
When I woke up and realized that the other 2 were in their sleeping bags, and clothes etc due to the cold, and I was lying with nothing on, outside my bag, I knew something was wrong. I was very foggy, and couldn’t concentrate lekker. My cough was also worse. We feared the worse, and Claude took me off to try find a hospital. This was no mean feat on a Saturday, and eventually, after 50 odd Km, and on the 5th try, we found a mission hospital that would see me. After a bit of a wait, they did a blood smear and found it to be negative for malaria, but that I had a pretty high white cell count indicating an infection.

Getting some blood from me - i don't do well with this stuff

Turns out it was just a really bad lung infection. That didn’t detract from the fact that I felt like I was going to die, but at least now I thought I might not :-\ I started myself on some good antibiotics, and Claude took me back to the camp. I was almost falling asleep on the back when a cop pulled us over. Claude low beam light wasn’t working, and he’d switched the high off, so the cop just stopped us to tell us we should turn it on (it’s dangerous to ride without a light he says)– cool (did I mention I love Malawi).
When we got back, I just collapsed and slept the whole rest of the day.

The other 2 missioned around and kept themselves entertained.

That afternoon the same cop appeared at the campsite and came over to join us (not me) for a drink – He was a pretty funny guy. I remember some story about Kuche Kuche (local beer) not being good for interaction with the fairer sex, and carling being the shizzel for such affairs…

supper that night

We also saw 2 Hippo’s in the lake in the late afternoon – awesome!

 

[bonova]

Day 23
We decided that we’d try to get some miles under the belt again today, but I felt really horrible still, and any effort left me seriously out of breath and coughing. But once on the bike and riding, I was ok.
We headed south and then turned west at Golomti to go over a stunning tar road pass to Dedza.

Snacks in Dedza

Here we tried to draw some money to put in fuel before we crossed into Mozambique, but none of the ATM’s were working, so we just paid in dollars. We had some food there and then headed for the Mozam border at Calomue.

a streetwise break

I just sat at the bikes and Claude and Koos organized the whole thing, so soon we were on the road again. We then headed for Tete. The bridge crossing over the Zambezi was carnage, with only one lane working. There was a good 5km of trucks on the northern side, just waiting to crawl a few meters forward and then stop again. We shot passed and then passed all the cars waiting too, and went over the bridge when waved on by the toll gate person who said we didn’t need to pay – awesome, I love being on a bike!

Trucks waiting

In Tete, we had lunch at a restaurant, filled all our fuel things and headed for the Cochemane border post into Zimbabwe.

The Mozam side was fine, and the Zim side was a little time consuming, but not too much trouble. Actually, I wouldn’t know, because once again, I just tried to rest by the bikes while the other 2 did all the work.
While I waited I got a chance to watch what was happening around me. (for the record, I don’t give money to beggars as I feel it encourages them to just keep begging) My heart went out to a little street urchin who was doing his best to try sell biscuits to people. Skinny as a rake, quiet and unassuming – not badgering at all. Poor kid looked like he could do with a hundred packets of biscuits. I gave him all my Mozam money and bought all his biscuits he had left. He tried to give me change, but I quietly pretended to take it but left it in his dirty hands. He just stood there staring at the money and then at me. I didn’t want the other people to see and steal it. It wasn’t all that much really… I don’t know, sometimes this world is cruel – what chance does he have really?

By the time we crossed the control point, it was dark, and we had to push the bikes over, in case the police spotted that Claudes front light wasn’t working at all now (since this morning we think). So now we were in a conundrum. It’s pitch black and we needed to go about 20 km to a place that Koos knew about from the year before when his bike was stolen and he’d hitch-hiked through Zim. Nothing for it but to do it, so Koos in front, Claude second, and me riding next to him, we set out. Fortunately there was hardly any traffic, and we arrived at the (something) Pumpkin (a hotel / accommodation spot) just passed the Kotwa village after not too long. They would have nothing of us camping there, but after some begging and telling them that it was dangerous to ride on in the dark without lights, they allowed us to camp around the back. Claude set to work on his bike while Koos set about getting food on the go. Fuses were blowing, and we couldn’t find the problem at a glance so it meant pulling the whole thing apart to get to the lights. That’s not easy with the aftermarket tank on, but Claude managed it, and found that the dim bulb that had blown in Malawi was somehow causing a short, and after removing it, the high beam worked again and the fuse stopped shorting. Getting the bike together again was a mission because the fall in the DRC had bent stuff. It took all 3 of our full effort to align some of the bolts, and the rest we just left out. Very happy that Claude had a light though, as the cops in Zim would be on us in a flash otherwise.

 

[JACOVV]

[size=10pt][size=10pt]Wondurbaar, Wondurbaar !!![/size][/size]     :hello2: :wav:

 

[Trailrider]

Keep it coming ;D

 

[Chrisl]

I remember going over that bridge at Tete in Des of 1989.
We were in convoy of 250 trucks and 12 private cars.
The war was still on.
Loved Malawi.
Great RR Bonova.

 

[edgy]

Brilliant RR! :thumleft:

 

[madmike999]

wunderbar wnderbar, this story kicks ass  :thumleft:

 

[badballie]

Use to go over that bridge every second week in 2001 on my way to Blantyre with a truck..... always got stopped at the police station and then they measure the truck to see if it is not to long for Moz, sometimes measured it 3 or 4 times to make sure if they can't fine me ..........lol

 

[Jman]

Awesome!, just spend about a hour reading and totally captivated. Thanks for sharing.

 

[BlueBull2007]

Kom boet, ons wag vir die volgende uitgawe!

 

[JACOVV]

Kom boet, ons wag vir die volgende uitgawe!

Ja nee - kan ook nie langer wag nie!!! Vat verlof as jy moet

 

[bonova]

Thanks for the interest guys  :thumleft: just the home stretch now

Day 24
Packing up

We followed the road through beautiful koppies towards Harare, and stopped in a small village to buy some food. The antibiotics were making me feel ill without any breakfast. The shop had more than I imagined it would, and wasn’t too expensive, although everything is in US dollars now. After that, it was plain sailing all the way to Harare. We stopped for fuel, which was pretty easy to get, and had STEERS for lunch!!! Wow – was really good.

The place appears to be pulling itself together, and most things seemed to be available (at a price). Then, after a small diversion because of a GPS error (we had to back-track 10 km or so), we hit the road towards Bulawayo
It was again awesome to be on a bike, because we must have gone through at least 5 ‘tollgates’ and bikes didn’t need to pay a cent, so we were just waved through.

These toll gates consisted of a few traffic cones, and 3 officials on either side, giving out slips and taking money. I was surprised – if Zim, of all places can get it right with tolls and bikes, what the HELL is wrong with SA? I’ll leave it at that.
Bulawayo had fuel too (no unleaded in Zim by the way), and after filling up, we found the caravan park and set up camp there. The facilities were excellent, and the showers were the best of the whole trip.

Camping in Bulawayo

Day 25
It wasn’t a long haul to Plumbtree border control into Botswana, and the whole process was super easy. We had an early lunch in Francistown (Nando’s – yes please!)
Then it was boring tar all the way to Gaborone, where we hit rush hour traffic. I got gatvol in the end, and jumped on the middleman and skipped a long queue up to a ridiculous circle that was the main problem. We filled with fuel quickly and decided to head out of town to a Lion park place that the GPS indicated.

We pulled in just after sunset, and after bargaining down the very high camping price (there wasn’t even a proper campsite), we bought some beers (Heineken –  :thumleft

we made a massive fire and cooked our food and drank some beer (I was starting to feel better so I had a few too  ;D ) It was pretty cold again, so Claude and I got out our space blankets, and had a fairly comfy night. The lion roaring nearby was cool to.

 

[bonova]

Day 26
We went through the border at Ramatlabama and then headed through Vryburg and on to Jan Kempdorp, where we turned left onto the R370 which we followed through Douglas to Prieska.

The wind was absolutely terrible – howling from the front left side, and the riding was really tiring. We were all buggered after that stretch from Vryburg.

At Prieska we camped on the Gariep river at a campsite. The facilities there were ok, but not awesome or anything. It rained a little the last 10 km to Prieska, and a little in the night too, but fortunately, we put our bikes and tent under a big army tent, so everything was dry.
There was a Spotted Eagle Owl calling nearby in the night which was nice, and because of the cloud cover, it wasn’t too cold either.

 

[bonova]

Kom boet, ons wag vir die volgende uitgawe!

Ja nee - kan ook nie langer wag nie!!! Vat verlof as jy moet

:imaposer: i am on holiday - that's the problem!!! drove 1000KM yesterday 

 

[bonova]

sorry about the delay on the last bit :

Day 27
We basically took the most direct route home-wards, trying to stick to the gravel. The weather was absolutely freezing for the better part of the day, and even with most of our clothes on, we still shivered our way along.

The route took us through Canarvon (where we stopped for coffee and to try warm up (no luck on the warming up front!), Frazerburg, Sutherland, where we had lunch, and then down to Matjiesfontein. Here we stopped for a short while to have a look around, and bumped into some guys with dirt bikes on the back of 2 bakkies. They asked what we were up to, and then we spent some time chatting about the trip etc. There were the fairly common statements of “if we were just younger, not married, richer, had more time off” etc….
Got me thinking a few things. Firstly – the trip was nearly over, which was a little depressing. Secondly, it had been an amazing time – really amazing, not just the word, the real mcoy amazing.
We had some of the most incredible luck / blessings, some trials, and some scares. The most important thing was that we were all well and in one piece.
Also, I was pretty chuffed with us. We made the time to take this trip together…We didn’t just wish and hope and talk about it – we did it. So many people we bumped into said they would love to do what we (and so many wilddogs and others) do, but there is always a BUT. Almost anyone can do it – the question is: Do you want it badly enough? Do you crave it? Yearn for the road and exploration? Do you count your salaries in bikes and trip time? Do you find yourself staring at your bike, remembering the trips of the past and thinking about the future rides?
These were the thoughts that took me along the N1 homewards. Those and the thoughts about the next trip – already pipelined – I get so excited….  :biggrin:

Total Mileage: 10950 odd km