TheTravelingTortoise
Puppy
THE TRAVELING TORTOISE - Live on the road with Werner & Cissy!
Cissy & Werner (Me) and BIG O! (KTM 640 Adventure)
So where do I begin? Well maybe with a little background on who we are and how we got to this.
My name is Werner, born and raised in South Africa. A couple of years ago I got into the "Adventure Bike" game, based in Hoedspruit a couple of my friends have been riding for many years and have been telling me all about their two wheel adventures around the camp fires. So I had to get in on the action, as one do! The search for a bike began and I found something that has always been close to my heart. The KTM 640 Adventure, what a machine! Born and bred in the Dakar! Looks the part and acts the part! So this is where it all started, me and my Big O (KTM 640 ADV) hitting the roads with friends and the bug has bitten me really hard.
Adventures with Big O and friends. Where it all started!
But as life has it work came into play and we went off for a long shoot. Cissy (my wife) and myself are wildlife filmmakers and spend a lot of time out in the bush in the middle of nowhere filming wildlife for channels like NatGeo, BBC, Animal Planet etc etc.
We left for an 8 months stint and man did I miss my Big O! One night around the camp fire we started talking and I shared this "idea" with her. "Lets sell everything and go travel the world on motorcycles!"
To my surprise she didn't say no, and asked "OK so how would we do that? And I am not sitting on the back! I want my own motorcycle!"
WOW!! Ok so its on! Let's start planning and talking. But there was a couple of issues.
1. Cissy has never risen or even sat on a motorcycle.
2. Cissy does not have a motorcycle.
3. What if she does not like it? (But come on who won't like it?)
4. We need to get gear, luggage, etc etc.
Ok ok you guys get the idea. This was not planning for a weekend away but we want to sell everything and travel full time. No life line just go for it.
We then started to make plans and make budgets and all that stuff you do. Looking at all the gear in the world etc etc. Our last 4 months of the shoot was spend around the fire in the evenings talking planning and dreaming. And me reading a lot of posts on this forum, when I found some signal under a tree somewhere.
Dreaming of the big adventure!
Shoot done, back to Hoedspruit. Now lets get things moving. We got in contact with OpenRider in Johannesburg where Cissy did a riding course. This was fantastic! She went from never sitting on a bike (ok lets be real she is Dutch she grew up on bikes, but motorbikes I mean!) To riding, sliding and just having fun off road. She was riding a KTM Freeride on the course.
So YES! She liked it! Success!!!
Now we need to get her a bike.... She is pretty short... But I found a very good DRZ400 and swept it up. Got home and NO!! Her feet can't touch the ground at all!! No problem! We head to our very good friend Rory, an amazing motorcycle Mac! And we did the forks and springs. I shaved the seat a bit and off we went. Now this DRZ400 was not standard it had the Athena BIG BORE kit in, Hot rods and FCR Carb. It really motored!
So we took our two bikes and head into the mountains close to our hometown - Hoedspruit - there are beautiful gravel roads and forestry roads but they can be quite tricky. Good place to learn.
Cissy's DRZ - First ride!
Cissy's first proper ride 120km! On the DRZ and myself on Big O (KTM 640 Adv)
Cissy had about in total (riding time) on the DRZ.... About 20 Hours or so... and then it was time to leave. We had ran out of time on our apartment, so we started selling all our belongings. But we also decided to change our bikes, doing long distances and also on the road Cissy was getting a bit banged up on the DRZ. So with all the running around selling stuff (We had two months to go) we got her a second hand KTM 390 Adventure, I call it second hand as it was not new but it only had 14km on. Very funny story about this bike, the owner bought it for he's wife, she did one ride. Well if you can call 14km a ride and said she did not like it and did not want it.
Well Cissy LOVED the bike and it was perfect!
All Smiles!!! First ride on the KTM 390 Adv - Heading back to Hoedspruit from Nelspruit, where we picked up the bike.
I got a second hand KTM 890 Adventure, both bikes came from the famous Alfie Cox. He sourced the bikes for us and we knew they where gold!
The Big O 640 Adv was not sold but went to the farm. Now being ridden around by my father and myself when ever I get there. Will never sell that bike! It is just amazing!
A very happy man! My new KTM 890 Adventure R! At Nelspruit where we picked it up!
On the way back home to Hoedspruit - Had to stop for some pancakes at Harrie's in Graskop. Dont these two look just so sexy!
Anyway! Everything sold and bikes packed! We hit the road... or do we? We just sold our Land Rover on the last night and it was a Friday! We had to stay over till Monday so we can do the transfer of ownership... come on man! We want to hit the road already! But this was actually a blessing, that morning we packed our two new steeds and rode them fully loaded for the first time! What a bunch of idiots! Yes we know... test test test.... but honestly we just did not have the time. So we pack the bikes and head to a friends house for the weekend... our trip has started! We on the road! 5km and stop! Haha! But we realised we packed to much! so the weekend was spend unpacking, repacking, repacking, repacking.... getting rid of everything we did not need. And weighing the bags balancing the bags etc etc all the stuff we where suppose to do.
Bikes packed and leaving our home... way overpacked!
By the time Monday showed its face we had the packing down! So after all the paperwork... we did a final check and then hit the road! Oooo man are you kidding me??? But hey like any great adventure first stop.. petrol station! Soooo ok lets try again, bikes packed, final check, petrol in the bikes and YES! This time we really did hit the road!
Bikes properly packed! And we have left on the open road to freedom!
This is where our journey starts, and as we ride out of Hoedspruit, a town we love so much. The weirdest feeling came over me, excitement but a feeling of lightness... a feeling of freedom and nerves... but just joy! What lies in front of us? Who knows? There is no real plan, just where ever the road takes us and where ever we want to go.
And all I could say was "Let's Ride!!!"
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I will try and write as much as possible when ever I can. Please be patient, we do live and travel in Africa so power, signal and all those things are not always with us.
To those that would like to also watch our stories. Look at our Youtube link below.
https://www.youtube.com/@thetravelingtortoise/featured
Thank you to everybody who read the first post. There are many more coming and I promise they will be more about riding! But it is good to have the back story.
Now LET'S RIDE!!!!
