Sorry this has taken so long, we have been busy dodging storms in Central Africa! When we last posted we were on our way back to Zanzibar to pick up Miss Adventure II from the ship from Oman. We went directly to the shipping agent in Zanzibar and he didnt know anything about our motorbike coming from Oman and it wasnt on the ship that had just arrived!! The agent, Leo Colaca was still not answering his phone or email! After 4 DAYS of pushing we finally found out it was still in Oman and would not get there for ANOTHER 30 DAYS!! We were forced to relax in Zanzibar! It was wonderful, we read, we beachcombed, we swam, we met the locals and other travellers staying at the glorious Echo Beach Hotel. Two days before the bike was due to aarive in Zanzibar we get a message that they cannot release our bike till the agent, Leo Colaca releases the money that we paid him and no-one can find him!? We wrote to everyone we met in Salalah and Tim Seed, who is a HU member in Muscat and high up in security there, to help us. Tim got to work for us straight away and it turned out thet Leo Colaca was an illegal immigrant in the country and had dissapeared to India with our money! Great! Tim found out he was due back in the country in 9 days time and told his company that he would not be allowed back until he paid this money..miraculously the money appeared the next day and we picked up Miss Adventure off the ship the day after! How can we ever thank Tim enough? Its amazing the contacts you can make in the HU community!
We were on the next passenger boat to Dar es Salaam with our beloved bike! We met Peter Stanley and Steve Luker, the HU members in Dar and had a ball staying at the Sea Cliff Hotel at a drastically reduced rate as the GM, Kevin was a biker! Its amazing the windows that open because we are friendly bikers and not hairy bikers!!
Once the weather cleared we headed off to Ruaha National Park, Tanzania, then along Malawis wonderful lake, through the southern part of Zambia, into Botswana and Chobe National Park then into Namibia via the Caprivi strip. We have stayed in some wonderful lodges, met some fantastic people and seen hundreds of hippos! The benefit of travelling low season is we can stay at very upmarket places for great prices..we could get used to this level of luxury!! hehe
We then hired a car for 3 days to tour Etosha National Park, as they dont let motorbikes into the parks. It is wet season, the grass is tall and we didnt see many animals, which was a bit dissapointing.
Next we were hosted by HU members Martin and Sarah Cowin on their farm outside of Windhoek for a few days and have now been passed onto their friends Christo and Leentjie Brisley in Windhoek central!! While they are at work, we write this and cook them dinner!
Our plan from here is to drive to Capetown, then along the Garden Route, via a few wineries to Joberg, South Africa where we hope to store the bike for about 6 months starting early May 2010. Remember our promise never to ship her again? She will become an African Super Tenere from now on. We will then fly up to Europe for summer from 11 May til it gets too cold, then back to Joberg, South Africa 8 October 2010. Our plan is to meet Bins Mum, Jill and Aunty Pam in Rome 12 May and then fly to Amsterdam 15 May to 23 May, then Canal Boat Cruise with Bins Dad, Owen and Maz from Amsterdam to Budapest, arriving Budapest 6 June. We then visit all our Romanian friends for a week or 2, then head towards Faoug, Avenches, Switzerland (on Oli's Super tenere that we will rent from him) from 15 July to 6 August housesitting which we found on www.housecarers.com. We would love to stay in that area over August if anyone knows of a place we can housesit in Switzerland or nearby, let us know!
Eighth October we will come back to Joberg, South Africa to travel by bike with our kids: Kate and Johnathan for awhile and then back to Cairns to work around April 2011.
Thats about us for now, the bikes running very smoothly apart from our 3rd flat tyre the other day in over 180,000km!
We love this life of visiting people and sharing cheer and our motto- "find your passion and make it happen!"
South African mobile is +27 727 099042 til 11 May 2010