Two Australians riding through Africa, 2006-2007

Paco (franko)
Lovely spanish guy who helped translate english to spanish to help fix Rob's forkseals in Algeciras.

Marcel & Monique The sweet dutch couple who we relaxed with in Tarifa, Spain. Playing chess, drank and ate Hagel Slag. Thanks to Marcel, we now have hemi lights for our travels! (they still havent run out yet) and of course Woody, the Siberian husky became my new buddy.

2 months ago I was in Australia working on the sunny Queensland coast when my boyfriend asked me to join him on his motorbike adventure from London to Capetown.... I thought "are you kidding? I can´t even ride a motorbike!" (well my trusty Piaggio Vespa)

We ferry it over from Dover and make it to Calais with no dramas but absolutely exhausted, so we make camp along the beach for our first night of the trip. We met a lovely english couple who were very hospitable, offering us oysters and wine for dinner! (thoughts were that my friends were thinking we were roughing it)

our first camp

After a manic 3 weeks back to London trying to pull everything together! I now have a wonderful Honda XR 250 Baja (that my boyfriend purchased without me even seeing it), a crash course in how to ride, pumped full of vaccinations and as prepared as you can be in 4 weeks.

I also met the lovely Paul and Zoe Jenkins who have been invaluable with information and all those handy hints, along with the laughs! Thanks for the great weekend in Salisbury (note, the Spork is going well, still harry high pants and we haven´t needed a mallet yet)

So, this is all we are taking

Ola Amigos, as we ride into beautiful spain, the terrain becomes rockier, more arid and dry, the roads appear with more cracks and potholes but the Honda Baja prevails. We ride to Barcelona and mosey past Gaudi´s Le Sagrada Familia

As we head down the east coast of "Sunny" Spain we were hit with torrential rain that flooded our camp site into streams of rivers, everything is wet!

Beautiful Beautiful Pyrenees! we ride through the crisp early morning air with spectacular views. A sense of not wanting to leave France, friendly people, yummy baguettes, great riding conditions, treelined roads and camping on green grass. Ridings becoming easier now, I don´t grip the handlebars as tightly!

My view of the pyrenees!

Rob gazing at Africa from Spain

Tan Tan, the gateway to the Western Sahara

Whilst we wait and wait for our Senegalese visas at the embassy after hours of arduous pigeon english/french translations. Rob and I sit quietly like school children next to an official desk that looks like a table used at a b'day party with a tiedyed cloth, 2 plastic chairs, a 80's phone and a crumbled up senegal tourism poster tacked on by a single piece of bluetack. Alas, we eventually get told that visas will not be ready until Monday (5 days away)!!! Monday comes, again we get turned away to come back later, increasing frustration but we try to remain patient.

We pass men with machetes, women with stacks of hay balanced perfectly on their heads, young children clasping their mother's dress as we ride past in these remote villages. They stare at first with absolute shock & bewilderment until we wave & they smile back genuinely. In one day, I nearly hit a dog sleeping in one of the potholes, 2 chickens, a pig and a snake jumps near my bike...

Tracks along to Varela

Follow Rob as well on his site on www.hardwayhome.blogspot.com click links to our photos, our route and place comments!

Yes, you heard right after some strict rest, ice, compression and elevation of my bruised big foot we headed for Sierra Leone!! 3 months ago, if you would have said would you camp on the borders of Guinea and Sierra Leone? (where the Australian government websites tells you strictly DO NOT TRAVEL), I would have said you were mad..... but here we are sneakly hiding in the Leonian bushes to set up our tent in the dark.

Its always a refreshing change when you enter a new country and the fact that we are now heading south reenergises our determination and spirits. The scenery is relatively the same but gradually the green trees are replaced by cactus and red DUST, remindng us we are heading back to the desert! We don't anticipate the journey that lies ahead of us & the troubles we're to come across through the desert!

Thar she blows, the Harmattan over the dusty roads towards Ouagadougou. I'm handling the bike on an angle & squint my eyes to avoid getting sand in my vision. Its a long hard day of riding but we push ourselves to make the distance we planned. Thirsty, dirty and with a mouth full of sand, we arrive to Ouaga exhausted.

playing in mounds of cotton in Western Burkina Faso

We hike through Mole National Park with our guide PK, we quietly tip toe past an elephant to watch a herd of them bath in the waterhole. It's a little suspicious as it lifts it trunk to smell us as we are upwind. After awhile it doesn't seem to be bother & joins the rest of the elephants in the water. Meanwhile, another elephant nicknamed 'Action' is circling us, PK tells us to back off as we are in a slightly vunerable position. 'Action' gets a little closer, so PK throws a few sticks to deter it but again we are told to get further back.

We meander through Togo & Benin, homeland to Voodoo or locally known as juju & back to Franco phone speaking country. We discover Fan milk bicycle riders with delicious icecream on the go, which is a great way to beat the swealtering heat! We rest in Lome for 5 days visiting Toni Togo daily to fiddle with the bikes to make them into tip top shape & purchasing brand new tyres! We meet inspiring Michel, listening to his stories about being one of the first Africans to ride in the Paris to Dakar.

My fears about entering Nigeria have crescendo since the day I started this trip as this was the one country I didn't want to ride through. I hadn't heard a good thing about it & the more people I met, the more they warned about this volatile country. 'Do not go there', 'Be very Careful, Nigerians are very voilent, corrupt & aggressive' we even met people avoiding the country by catching a boat to Gabon or Sao Tome. I still wanted to get across it but was extremely dubious, particularly as a women.

We enter in the north of Cameroon near Lake Chad, where its barren desert like landscape but this changes dramatically every few kms you ride. From dusty red sand to thick green rainforest through high plateaus & mountain ranges! What a gem this country is.

The spectacular ring round around Bamenda

Its a long side trek of nearly an extra 2000kms but we we give it the thumbs up to head to Central African Republic to go trek the lowland gorillas! We think the roads are tarmac but Mary Mary, oh the contrary! Long bumpy corrugations & dirty dusty roads. With the extra strain on the bikes, we think twice about whether we have made the right decision.

We ride past many red & white painted posts with PEREGIO MINA (DANGER MINES) ontop of a skull & cross bone sign. I retell myself that I must stay on the roads when passing through Angola as the country is littered with landmines .... Warned not to even put one foot off the road to take a leak cos it could be fatal.

Oblivious to the news around us, we recieve emails from family & friends stating there are serious troubles in the capital of the democratic republic of Congo, Kinshasa. We find out there have been violence & shooting, where many people have been killed. Brazzaville & Kinshasa must be the 2 closest capital cities in the world, divided only by a river. Locals tell us days before, they could hear gunfire from across the river but they all reassure us its all settled now & hence the ferry is still running. So off we go.

I am half woken by a low humming buzz, i open my eyes to see that the sun hasn't broken the skyline yet as its still very early in the morning. I recollect that last night, we found a camp past a sign that sais 'entry prohibited', right next to the dense Gabon rainforest. I see a fly on top of our tent but am not bothered, so fall back to blissful sleep. Minutes later, I am awoken again by the same buzz, but it's somewhat louder. I take a closer look, realising the buzz is not the byproducts of flies but bees! They are increasing in numbers, and fast.

The long awaited country of hot showers, green grass, petrol stations & delicious STEAK STEAK STEAK! As soon as we cross the borders after days of potholed roads, our bottoms are blessed with smooth endless tarmac and we fill gorge ourselves on culinary treats.

When I thought hitting civilisation makes things easy, boy was I in for a treat! The detour into Zimbabwe was to get myself a new passport as I had filled mine up to the brim. Along the way we had to subsequently lift visas to put them over existing stamps to free up some pages, along with begging police officials to stamp in every nook & cranny on my passport. We even resulted in colouring in the Queen's head on a one penny coin, flipped it over & stamped it onto a unofficial page in my passport! (of course to say that its certified by the Queen and it worked).

Beautiful Himba lady in Kaokoland, Namibia

Himba dinky on the bikes

Its been a butt crunching 39,323 kms in 9 months from London to Capetown but we finally made it to The Cape of Good Hope safely

Yeee hhaaaaa

Signal hills curvy roads in front of table mountain after we climbed it

After spending over a month in Capetown revitalising the bikes at Tim's Motorcycles shop, engine out for new rings in the Africa Twin, new forks and stocking up for the next leg of Rob's trip up the east coast, we head east along the Garden Route.
Tims' Motorcycle shop in Capetown where we became locals

Rob along the Garden Route...place to spot whales

We have been amazed at the generous hospitality of the many a south Africans we've met along our travels. People we hardly know, kindly invite us into their home, cook us delicious meals and force good beer and wine down our throats! Rob and I can't wait for an opportunity to return the favour one day in Australia.

Sadly so, it's the end of a epic journey for me. What a roller coaster of an adventure it's been, I never thought that I would embark on such a trip having never rode a motorbike before (learnt 3 wks prior to leaving in London). But it's been absolutely amazing and am so glad that I made the decision to quit my job and just go for it!
So to all you out there who are not sure whether they can do it or not.. Just try it, anyone can do it if they really want to.

Help Rob continue his motorbike journey home!!!

SADLY SO, AFTER TRAVELLING FROM LONDON TO CAPETOWN VIA WEST AFRICA, ROB HEADED BACK UP EAST AFRICA AND AFTER 37 COUNTRIES, ROB TRAGICALLY GETS HIS BIKE STOLEN IN DUBAI!

HE IS NOW STRANDED WITH NO BIKE, AT A COMPLETE LOSS AS HIS DREAMS OF RIDING BACK TO AUSTRALIA ARE SHATTERED! HEART BROKEN, I AM TRYING TO GET HIM A NEW BIKE, SO HE CAN FINISH WHAT HE STARTED.

GO TO www.hardwayhome.blogspot.com and help Rob get back on the road to Australia.