Zambian Joyride

[SlowPoke]

Couple of questions if you don't mind:

How much weight did you and Hennie loose during the trip? And why did you only eat once a day –due to unavailability of food or limited packing space?
We did'nt check but I am almost back to original. We ended off the trip with three days at Chobe Safari Lodge in Kasane with our wives. Dinners are buffet affairs and we did our bit to resupply. Watching Hennie apply himself to a buffet is something to see. No conversation, not even eye contact with the other people at the table, just focus and dogged determination. He sees abuffet as a personal challenge.
The eating only once a day is not planned, it just turns out that way on trips. At home I normally have breakfast at 10 or 11, so we are not used to eating that early in the morning. We don't eat during the day because we are riding.

What kind of stretcher did you use as a bed?
It's an ATG stretcher.

I have been through a myriad of blow up and self inflating matresses. My problem is that I often bush camp, and it is just impossible to avoid punctures, no matter how hard you try to avoid thorns and the like.I have punctered every single one and I have never been able to find a stretcher that is light weight and compact enough to take on the bike.

This one is. Both light weight and compact. I carry it in my bag with my clothes and stuff.
Check it out.

Michnus is the guy to speak to. ATG is his brand, focused on quality light weight stuff for bikers.

What front tyre did you fit on the BMX?

Dunlop D606, probably the ideal tyre for the 650 and smaller class.

Ping MICHNUS - I want to order one please.

 

[HennieF]

That ATG stretcher packed away in that small bag. I like. Need to get me one of them for sure.

I've been told a long time ago that when you get stung by a tsetse fly you can get some kind of sleep sickness. Didn't you two go sick for been stung so many time?

 

[CAR6850]

Come Michnus - own up >

Thanks again for the report MJ :thumleft:

 

[atkinse]

Where did you get it and cost?

 

[letsgofishing]

Michnus, care to elaborate?  Online catalogue?  How much?
[/quote]

Also interested!

 

[JC]

skep 'n nuwe thread vir die stretcher, moenie dié thread opvoeter nie

 

[corcorlia]

WOW!! Absolute stunning report!!  :thumleft:

 

[JACOVV]

. . . . . . enjoy there trips....NOW I need to find a tsetsi fly killer   . . . . . . .

Get Metaljockey  & Hennie to do it  :biggrin:

 

[SlowPoke]

MetalJockey and Hennie are my heroes  eepwall:  :thumleft:

 

[Metaljockey]

Mutinondo River to civilization

We get our things loaded up and as Hennie swings his helmet onto his head his eye catches something sitting in the earwell.

A scorpion!!!!

Damn, that could have been unpleasant. When we poke at it to try and get it to pose nicely for a photo, it scurries off into the inner recesses of the helmet. Hennie makes it clear to me that we will not move from here until the scorpion is retrieved. So we spend the better part of an hour stripping everything out of the helmet until we get to the little guy, looking a bit worse for wear.

Pulling out of camp, the road is ready to mess with us right from the word go.

Hennie gets himself stuck in a rut at 430m.

I make it to 640m before I topple over.

Lekker demoralizing when basic obstacles make you look like a total incompetent.

Even more demoralizing when my bloody bike will not start after we picked it up, because the battery is flat. The alternator is specced so low that it can not even keep a charge up if the fan is continuously running , like it did yesterday.

So running it downhill to jumpstart it, I lose the 640m I gained for the day.

When I pull my helmet back on something with a proper venom bites me on the forehead. (Upon taking apart my helmet for washing some days later I found it to have been a centipede)

When we get up the hill things go a lot better and we are able to make rapid progress, still lots of sandy tracks, and my confidence is a bit bruised but in relation to the grass forest of yesterday, this is luxury.

We also reach the escarpment where we climb up out of the Rift Valley, very beautiful, tight and technical but we do not stop for pics, I need to get a charge into the battery.

We do stop halfway up for a rest when that Mr Bean feeling invades our limbs again.

When we get to the top of the escarpment we find a control point, (still no beer, four days now...)and in the control book we notice that the previous vehicle signed out in December 2009. That must have been the bastard that made the deep ruts.

From here the last 30 odd kms is beautiful hard packed road and we smile all the way to the junction with the Great North Road.




Well that’s about it as far as the real trip goes. From here on we did about 1400km on tar down to Kasane in Botswana where our wives met us for some R&R which we sorely needed.





I will start another thread to deal with the issues I had with the X. Suffice to say that when I go on a bike trip to another country, I want to see new and wondrous things, I want to drink beer with the locals and ride entertaining terrain. What I do not want to do, is to be making shims from Fray Bentos tins.

Nor do I want to be welding safety critical components in the bundu.

Although I must say, this tractor driven alternator welder is the sweetest welder I have ever used. Really sweet.

Nor do I want to spend hours under a hot tin roof having proper parts made up to replace the poor quality shit BMW chose to equip this bike with.

Crossing the Zambezi marks the end of the trip.

From day one until we hit the tar to return to Kasane, I only had dry boots for two days. The Zambezi makes sure we leave with wet boots just for old times sake. The river is so high you get offloaded in the water.

There you go guys and girls, I’ll do a final post to wrap up tomorrow.

 

[Metaljockey]

I've been told a long time ago that when you get stung by a tsetse fly you can get some kind of sleep sickness. Didn't you two go sick for been stung so many time?

Yes, I've been doing some reading up on that believe me. Sleeping sickness can be treated if you catch it early. If not it is irreversable and fatal.

We haven't shown symptoms, and the tsetse where we were has the Rhodensius strain, which is the most aggressive one, symptoms will show up quite quickly.

 

[GlenInk (R.I.P)]

Very cool  :thumleft:

 

[madmike999]

MJ you guys are the shit :thumleft: :thumleft: :thumleft: :thumleft:

 

[funacide]

Awesome stuff... I really enjoyed reading the report and am actually disappointed that it is now finished...

Thanks for sharing MJ... Well written and a great adventure.

Another one for the Role of Honor?

 

[Hentie bm]

Great RR MJ en dankie dat jy dit met ons gedeel het  :thumleft:  :thumleft:  :thumleft:

 

[JustJane]

Disappointed the read is over  :'(
I could just feel your frustration with your hellish day of riding... There are two insects I absolutely despise... flies and mosquitoes... the tsetse seems to be both of these morphed into one hateful machine of a bug!! Can't imagine having to endure what you two did... Hats off!!!

 

[Smithey]

Waiting in anticipation on the bikes report and issues encountered  :thumleft:

 

[edgy]

Waiting in anticipation on the bikes report and issues encountered  :thumleft:

No doubt! :biggrin:

 

[SlowPoke]

This truly is the stuff of legends...

Do we now need like special badges or handshakes to buy you blokes a beer?

 

[SandMan]

Very cool read, thanks!!!

I have been planning a very similar route for sometime in the future, obviously not in the wet season like you! Would you share any GPS tracks, if any, for cross reference?