South Africa
Wow, how do we sum up the last 3.5 months in a readable form!? When we last wrote we were leaving Switzerland and following the Alps along the Austrian, Italian, Slovenian border...AWESOME Alpine riding..the best in the world! We also followed the Croatian coast road to Dubrovnik to avoid a huge storm!!! Slowly we cruised back to Romania to deliver our 50% share of Miss Adventure III (the super tenere) to Csilla and Oli. They were anxious parents, not for our return, but for the arrival of their second boy, Erik, who was born a few weeks after we left Romania! Well done Csilla and Oli too!
Next leg of the journey, we flew to Johannesburg to travel with our son, Johnathan for 7 weeks and then daughter, Kate for 7 weeks on a KLR650 that we bought for them when we were in South Africa last! The KLR and our Super tenere (Miss Adventure II) were both stored in Potchefstroom, near Joberg with our wonderful friend Dries Van Schalkwyk while we were in Europe for South Africas winter. Thanks heaps Dries and Jimmy for all your help and support.
We had a wonderful time travelling with Johnathan in amazing Lesotho, Swaziland and along the Garden route up to the Hell, Baviaans and most of the South African passes, putting on 8,500km on the bike!! He is such a great guy and a pleasure to travel with...so positive and happy and easygoing. The kids had a great week together, so we had 2 bikes 2 up which was a hoot and they went cage shark diving, did winery tours, rode the bike around the Cape of Good Hope and checked out our beloved Capetown. Johnathan then handed the keys over to Kate to ride the KLR on her own! She is so confident and willing to learn and will try anything...also a pleasure to have around! How are we so lucky to be blessed with such wonderful travel companions and friends in our kids!
We are now in Namibia with Kate..its too hot here around 45 deg C, so we will head back down to Capetown where we are housesitting a Wilddog bikers home from 20 Dec to 9 Jan. Kate is raising money for YGAP, (Y Generation Against Poverty) check out her website that she is updating regularly...more than us...of her trip and lots of photos: www.charitysafari.com Feel free to donate to feed a poor family for Xmas if you can on her site! Kate leaves end Jan and we will sell the KLR650 2007 with just over 15,000km on her for around US$5,000 if you know of anyone!! wink wink!
While Im doing a sales spiel...we have decided to sell our beloved Miss Adventure II Yamaha Super Tenere XTZ750 1996 fully set up for travelling. We will be finished with her end Feb 2011 and will sell her for US$5,000. Bargain! Enough selling..cant help myself...we have thoroughly enjoyed Africa and seen what we want to see, hence the sale.
We hope YOU have a great Xmas and are REALLY looking forward to coming home to Cairns 27 Feb 2011. Yeahoo!