In search of Father Jack.

[B Murr]

The account of the Honda garage experience reminded me of India with all its beauracracy, I blame the English . I love reading this thread, looking forward to each update.

 

[Drumacoon Lad.]

The account of the Honda garage experience reminded me of India with all its beauracracy, I blame the English . I love reading this thread, looking forward to each update.

Thanks, and an update to the Honda story, the security guard, whod told me where to park, turned up as I was leaving, with a big hardback book with my bike details noted. Before I could leave, with my bike, I had to write my name, telephone number and sign in his big book. Anyway bike ran well today so seems they did a good job.

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[Drumacoon Lad.]

Today I left Lusaka and headed east. This road has a reputation of having long gaps between fuel stations so I took some extra fuel in water bottles. I filled then from the petrol tap yesterday in the carpark and stored them in the topbox. Note to self: Its not ideal to store petrol and food in the same storage area. The scone I had this afternoon certainly had the taste of 93 octane fuel. In fact there are more fuel stations in this road, than I had read of in advance of the trip.

The journey started with me picking my bike up in the hotel car park and riding around the front to load up. After loading I tried to start the bike but no joy. I tried a few times but this bike always starts. Then I remembered filling the water bottles. Petrol tap was turned off, but there had been enough petrol in the carb to ride from the car park. Once corrected it started and after fuelling up I headed east. The road was not as good as the road to the west of Lusaka. It was regularly potholed and these needed to be avoided. The bike was running well but as it happens the wind had changed and I had a following wind all the way.The big feature of the trip was the life along the side of the road. So here's a sample

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[MikeS]

Great stuff, I wonder how far those lads have to walk to school each day?

 

[Drumacoon Lad.]

There were other things to notice along the way. More overloaded cycles, some being pushed, a Dublin registered truck, two trucks which had collided, one of the many police/army checkpoints, sand deposits from the overnight rains being cleared by locals, a thatched village and the road ahead, through the green landscape.

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[Drumacoon Lad.]

Great stuff, I wonder how far those lads have to walk to school each day?

They walk a long way, I see them strung out along the road. No adults, no mums in 4x4s picking them up, how do they manage!

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[Drumacoon Lad.]

If there's a reward for finding the Dublin truck, its mine!

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[B Murr]

It's CVRT cert expired last year on 7 April, let them know they need to book their test as a matter of urgency. There's a shipboard of trucks cars trailers tankers., heavy plant machinery leaves Cork port regularly, I'll bet it sailed from there.

 

[gspod]

Reading with interest Jim - great job, many thanks
D

 

[BRD]

Excellent stuff.
What a great trip.

 

[Drumacoon Lad.]

Cheers guys, welcome along!

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[Drumacoon Lad.]

Last night after the ride I found a place to stay. It was half a bungalow with marble style flooring and a Jacuzzi bath. However it was part of an incomplete development and I haggled on the price with the guy but he had to check with his wife before agreeing to my price. Later I went over to buy some water and the wife chided me on not paying full price. I pointed out that my price was better than having it empty. In the end I may have paid too much.

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[Drumacoon Lad.]

There was a little resturant nearby and I rode down and had a simple meal outside, with thunder rumbling in the distance. Finished my meal and drove back in the dry, to find no lights or power in the bungalow. I walked the 100 meters to the owners to confirm it was a general power outage, my 4th in 4 days in Zambia. Walking back I felt a spit of rain, but by the time I had run to the door it was a downpour, like I had never seen, a cloudburst. The bike was about 2 metres from the house and 90 seconds from the start of the rain, a torrent of water was pouring off the roof, without a gutter, and straight on to the bike. I rushed out and moved the bike back, getting soaked. The rain then continued till about 5 in the morning. The lights came back for a bit but the power didn't, so no aircon, kettle etc.

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[B Murr]

I wonder if dodgy nests of wiring in streets/around backs of houses/on their roofs are affected by the rain and the whole system trips with all the short circuits.

 

[Drumacoon Lad.]

In the morning I was happy to leave after another cereal bar and water, breakfast. I loaded the bike, got dressed, got on the bike and it wouldn't start. I said, this is the bike that always starts, but not this time. I immediatly thought of the dousing it got the night before. Luckly it was dry, still early, so got my bike gear off and put on my thinking cap. If it was the dousing then logically it would likely impact the electrics. Have we got a spark? Sorry non bikers, you'll have to go along with me on this, or not!

I decided to take the plug out and check for a spark, hardly anything, just a glimmer, not enough to run the engine. This confirmed to me the issue was electrical and may have been caused by the dousing. That meant taking the bike apart, including the fuel tank, which of course was full

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[Drumacoon Lad.]

This allowed me to check for damp or poor connectors and dry them out. After putting them all back together the result was the same. At this point my first helper appeared, he then called over another guy over, who was a mechanic. They checked the plug, cleaned it a bit but no change. They got a bit fixated about the plug so I got out my new spare, put that in and the bike started. It seems strange to me that a plug should fail overnight, or have a failure induced by the torrent of water, but the bike started. By the time I had left, I'd lost about 2 hours. Luckly only 240km to go and managed that in the dry. If its dry tomorrow I'll try that old plug.

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[Drumacoon Lad.]

So after that, the journey went fine. Lunch on the way was nuts and raisins, dried fruit and a cerial bar. I got to Chipata early afternoon and took a punt at getting into the Marriott. I knew I was punching above my weight but why not, the place needed a scruffy biker as a customer. I did get a reduction of $11 against the on-line price. I declined but the receptionist recommended a place further up the road, more in my price range, except she didn't say that last bit. The Crossroads lodge was more affordable had a room with a balcony and less than half the Marriott's best price. Its wifi sadly, wasnt up to much but the router was very appropriately named.

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[Drumacoon Lad.]

The side of the road was interesting again. With men and women returning from the fields with their tools, more bike transport and the last guy gets the award for the tallest stack of charcoal on a bike, these ladies were picking this green plant, these ladies are selling fruit.

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[Drumacoon Lad.]

The latest map from my Garmin Inrange tracker. Making progress.

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[Drumacoon Lad.]

I wonder if dodgy nests of wiring in streets/around backs of houses/on their roofs are affected by the rain and the whole system trips with all the short circuits.

Could be, the system is clearly flaky. The outages are long too. One outage took out the only router I could reach from my hotel room and 24 hours later still wasn't fixed.

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