Goeie dag everyone!

It’s been a hectic (that’s a word they use a lot in South Africa) 2.5 weeks. I really feel my time on the road coming to an end. This is a very different feeling from my last trip when there was no deadline. I’ve been feeling the “pressure” of having to cover distance in a limited amount of time. My flight home is booked from Cape town for the 13 September 2023. So, I have another two weeks to cover roughly 1200 km, which is absolutely doable. I guess I have fatalistic melancholy for the end of the journey - meaning I should enjoy it all the more :).

I left Gabarone at around 8.30 am on Monday, 14 August 2023. Before leaving I took a dip in the icy cold pool for fomo, because two other travelers at the guesthouse did it and it seemed hardcore :). I made it to and over the Botswana-South Africa border at Pioneer gate easily. Almost too easily – there were no other border crossers and the officials on duty said I didn’t need to do any paperwork for my motorcycle. This seemed strange, as I had heard that South Africa was one of the countries that requires a carnet de passage for vehicles and that I at least would need a temporary import permit. But I figured I shouldn’t complain about easy entry and headed on out. The ride to Pretoria was scenic initially, with hills starting after the plains of Botswana – at some point I found myself on a big highway called the N4 though, in pretty heavy fast-moving traffic. Not exactly ideal conditions for a 125cc bike. The driving and also the countryside reminded me a bit of a nicer Nigeria. After the very sparsely populated countryside since Angola, South Africa has a lot more people and a lot more industry. The land is being put to work wherever you look, be it cattle, lumber, corn etc.

Meet the man, the legend, the inspiration to my trip: Steven. Steven and I studied together a bit more than 10 years ago at University in St. Gallen. After our bachelor’s degree, Steven rode from Bangkok to Germany on a Suzuki V-Strom. Once home he hadn’t quite had enough and circumnavigated all of Africa on a Yamaha XT125. I always thought: this guy is so cool. The seed for my trip was planted way back then. It was because of Steven that I opted for a 125cc bike – although he now rides a Honda 250cc Tornado XD. It was also from Steven that I learned about horizons unlimited (check out the posts from his Africa ride: https://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hubb/ride-tales/recent-information-kinshasa-lubumbashi-cameroon-76969#post472589) and he’s the reason I’m writing this blog here on HUBB. Multiple times on my way down the Westcoast of Africa (especially while falling off my bike in the Liberian jungle) I imagined what it would be like to finally roll up to Steven’s house in South Africa and say – hey man, I did it too :). That moment came - sadly enough I don’t have it taped, because my gopro tapped out. But here’s some footage of us cruising around town on the bikes. Following him on my bike in the last stages of the journey was like skiing behind Art Furrer for you Dad I think ;).

Steven met his wife Aliaa in Sudan on his motorbike trip. They now live with their baby daughter Annalena on the East side of Pretoria. I spent a whole week with them in their lovely house relaxing and living the mellow lifestyle of young parents with the most easy-going baby I have yet to meet – I heard Annalena cry once in the time I was there – contrary to her smiles which were big and plenty to go around :). We had a great time hanging out. Highlights included going out to eat, cooking (Aliaa took the lead on bread and Sudanese coffee (Cardamom is key), Steven on ox-tail potjie and I did on pizza :)), a visit to the Apartheid Museum in Joburg (Diddy now has a sticker on his nose of Nelson Mandela saying: “Courageous people do not fear forgiving, for the sake of peace.”, which I think has been giving me brownie points at police stops since) and a reception at the Pakistani ambassador’s house where Steven was summoned for an impromptu speech about his 3 months in Pakistan on a motorbike (I’d say it was a toss-up between him and Anna Lena for crowd favorite).

My other activities consisted of reading der Apfelbaum (I’ve finished in the meantime – recommendable), watching the Godfather on my hard drive (Aliaa taught me: leave the gun, take the cannoli), a session at the driving range of the Kimiad Golf Club (my main objective was to not hit the grazing gazelles), church on Sunday morning (where I got a shout out from the pastor as the biker “all the way from Sweden” and a warm reception from all the bikers in the parking lot) and trips to various police stations trying to get the paperwork sorted for potential shipping of Diddy to Switzerland (I’m really not sure what to do with him - part of me wants to bring him home for retirement, against all practicality). The only dampening to my time was my stomach acting up at some point. I’m not sure where I would have picked up any bugs, as the food on this trip has been very good and presumably clean. I’ll admit my pride is a bit hurt, after making it through West Africa with virtually no stomach troubles and now getting sick in easy Africa^^. 

With a lot of distance still to cover, I decided to leave Steven, Aliaa and Anna Lena (thank you very much for everything!) on Monday, 21 August 20223 despite my stomach troubles and head over to Swaziland to see Liswa and her family. This turned out to be an intense day of riding. I had 390 km to cover, the headwind that started East of Pretoria was pretty hectic and my stomach was getting worse and worse. I was glad to finally make it to Liswa’s outside of Matsapha at around 5 pm.

Meet the woman, the mama, the cultural intellectual: Liswa. Liswa and I studied Chinese in Taipei together pretty much exactly ten years ago (gosh these numbers – but whose counting). On my way to her house I passed the technical mission of Taiwan and Liswa told me later that Eswatini is one of the few countries that maintains diplomatic relations with Taiwan. It was cool to see the reason Liswa and I met in the first place on site in her country :). Liswa now lives with her husband Sakile and their baby daughter Nkadi in Sakile’s grandparent’s old farmhouse outside of Matsapha. They are living self-sufficiently off grid as much as possible with their own garden and chickens. 

I spent a total of 4 nights at Liswa’s. On my first morning, Sakile gave me some traditional medicine for my stomach. As the cramps were getting worse, I decided to go to the nearby police clinic the next day. A 5 second diagnosis and 50 cents later the police nurse on duty gave me antibiotics and something for the pain. I wasn’t fully convinced of this process and didn’t want to contribute to antimicrobial resistance more than necessary – but at this point I had been in pain long enough I decided. After taking the medicine I slept most of the day and felt better. I was sorry to be a sick guest at Liswa’s. Liswa and Sakile were fully understanding though and complete darlings in making me feel at home and taking care of me. The height of our activities were my evening walks with Sakile which were good for the soul. On one walk we hitched a ride with a donkey cart that the farmer controlled purely by whistling (the farmer himself walked next to the cart – in hindsight this should have made us suspicious). Once the donkeys started down the hill, we got into some serious offroad donkey carting – donkeys tripping, the whistling not stopping us and me wishing I had had my gopro and more importantly my motorcycle helmet.

Despite me being sick, we had a very nice visit eating Liswa’s delicious food – ingredients coming straight out of Sakile’s organic garden, jamming out (Sakile is a performer, cf. vid below), playing with Nkadi (who is absolutely adorable) and talking about ways of life, the state of the world and music. Thank you very much for the hospitality you guys!

On Friday, 25 August 2023 I left Liswa’s and headed for the coast. I was still on antibiotics but was feeling better and my deadline was getting closer and closer. I exited Swaziland (Liswa says when they still say Swaziland and not Eswatini, except when they’re mad) at Lavumisa in the South, and this time made the South African officials give me a temporary import permit for Diddy Kong. I understand now why the border people at the Botswana crossing didn’t want to do this – it took them 30 minutes of work and was free for me :). I made the 300 km to St. Lucia (Sakile’s recommendation) and checked into a nice little guest house. St. Lucia is a lovely little coastal town I think I could retire in. There is surf (blown out though when I was there), hippos (I’ve given up on seeing one close up and out of the water at this point – unless a hippo runs me over, I’m not paying money to see it) and even humpback whales! Despite my stomach not being 100% yet, I signed up for a whale watching tour the next day. Unfortunately, my tour at 11 am was cancelled last minute because the ocean was too choppy. I could have made the earlier tour at 9 am but was busy buying sea sickness pills at the pharmacy. All in all, I suppose it was for the best considering my bad stomach - but I still felt I missed out on the whales. Hopefully there will be another chance on the way to Cape town. I decided to use the started day to cover some distance and ride to Durban. This turned out not to be the nice little coastal ride I was hoping for. I could see the rain in the distance, it was a bit chilly, and the wind was up. Also, the road was all highway with heavy traffic. In the end it wasn’t too bad though – I only got rained on a little bit and found Smith’s Cottage in Durban with no problems. I checked into the dorm (I was the only one – score!), dumped my stuff and went for a joy ride around town. 

On the morning of 27 August 2023, I wasn’t sure where to go next – it was either along the coast or up to the mountains in Lesotho. I ran into Keith from England the owner of the guesthouse but living in South Africa (or “staying” as they say here) for 40 years. Turns out he used to be a biker himself (he quit when he was 70). He recommended going to Lesotho and seeing the Drakensberge. That’s all I needed: a friendly recommendation to go get another stamp in my passport while climbing a dragon mountain :). The route from Durban at sea level up to almost 3000 meters in Lesotho was absolutely lovely.

At some point at the foot of the mountain, the end of the impeccable tarmac was marked by the South African border post. The Lesotho border post was 8 km away up a steep rubble road at the top of the Drakensberge :). Sounded like the lord of the rings to me – what fun. Diddy was going strong, but I was wringing him in first gear for all he was worth. At some point the altitude got to him. He tapped out 1 km shy of the border. I tried loosening the outside screw of the carburetor to let more fuel in the mixture and got some ice (!) from a nearby frozen over stream to cool the engine from the outside. I would have felt like a real self-made adventurer if I had managed to get Diddy to the top this way. Unfortunately, efforts were futile, and I decided to lock the bike up, hide my saddle bags behind some rocks and carry myself and the rest of my load up the Drakensberg to Lesotho. Considering the difference in altitude to Durban at sea level, this involved some heavy breathing on my part, so I have full understanding for Diddy ;). 

I must’ve made an impression staggering up to the border house on foot with my bags. The officials watching the Liverpool-Newcastle game gave me rooibos tea and offered to go back down with me and help push Diddy up, because it wasn’t safe at night on the road. So, Steven the policeman (who watches itchy boots’ YouTube channel and could tell from a distance that my tires were too worn for the rubble rode), Joseph the intelligence officer and Dami the customs official walked back down with me, and we managed to push Diddy up to the border post. Even between the four of us it was exhausting work. The gang offered me an unoccupied hut and Joseph even supplied a paraffin heater. I was very thankful, turns out the temperature went below zero at night and my sleeping bag was a slight bit too thin for that. 

The next day Monday, 28 August 2023 I hiked up to the Drakenberge viewpoint, bought a sticker for Diddy to prove he’d been to Lesotho and said goodbye to the border crew. Diddy started up although I could tell that he wasn’t getting enough fuel. As it was all downhill, I wasn’t worried. 

Once back down in South Africa I had a chicken mayo sandwich at a B&B and met a gang of Vespa riders from Joburg (the Vesperados :) who offered me a free bed at their next stop in Mzumbe. I would have loved to join, but there is no road along the coast from there to East London so it would have effectively been a major detour. I sadly decided against it and instead enjoyed a full day’s worth of riding to the Southeast. The countryside was absolutely gorgeous all the way to Kokstad. It resembled what I imagine Montana to look like (XD) with mountains in the background, a lot of open farmland and the occasional lake and forest.

From Kokstad onward the land got more populated but was still very nice highland country – and a again reminded me a bit of Gembu in Nigeria. During the last leg I started feeling the fatigue of riding long distances for 3 days straight on a bad stomach. At Qumbu I checked into a guesthouse and decided I needed a nice place to relax a bit and to stop thinking about making it to Cape town on time. For the first time on my trip, I did some research on where to go next. I decided to get an early start and ride 280 km to Chintsa – a small beach town outside of East London.

This has turned out to be a solid plan. I’ve found absolutely lovely accommodation at the buccaneers backpackers’ - in part run by the Swiss Pete - with the dorm overlooking the surf to myself (score!) and great weather. Yesterday Wednesday, 30 August 2023 I finally got around to writing my blogpost and uploading videos and photos. Sam from the hostel staff showed me the town, we got lunch, went for a swim and I’ve decided to stay another night to hopefully get some surfing in (not looking great so far^^).

My tires are almost slicks, my time is running out and I can hear the call of home. 

Here’s to the last stretch of the journey.

Lekker!

Chris