I've chosen this title because I live near Basingstoke and I'm not sure these 2 places have featured in the same sentence before. Like last year when I rode from the Candover Valley to the Euphrates Valley. So this is no Dakar ralley, I'll be mainly sticking to roads not sand dunes, as I already have a photo of one of my bikes on it's side in the Moroccan sand and do not need another.
After some trips on an R1200GS over the last few years I decided to use my G650 XCountry this year for a trip to Africa. I had considered a long trip maybe all the way down to South Aafrica but could not pull that one together this time, so have decided on a solo round trip from Hampshire to Dakar. Travelling in Africa at the moment has it's complications and some people believe it is not the right time to go, but when is the right time? The right time is when it is possible and you have the time and the means of travel. This October and November is the time for me. I took a calm review of the risks, listened to the concerns of friends and relatives, but overall riding to Dakar and back before December seemed a reasonable plan. However, *the risk are not trivial, and either an upsurge in terrorist activity on my route or the spreading of the Ebola epedemic will make me reconsider my final destination. So as I remind friends, I am travelling on a motorbike, to its more likley something may happen on the road than having issues with terrorism or Ebola.
*
So the plans are to take the Portsmouth to Santander ferry, ride down through Spain stopping at Seville, then down to Algeceris and over on the ferry to Morocco. Then on to Rabat to get a Mauritanian visa and work my way down the Moroccan coast, into Western Sahara to Dakhla. At Dakhla I'll review the situation further south before heading into Mauritania and Senegal. The Western Sahara/Mauritania border and the Senegal border crossing at Rosso are a couple of the most interesting in Africa, and in a way I look forward to them both, apart from the landmines. Once in Senegal I'll stop off at St Louis, rest of at the Zebrabar campsite south of St Louis and finally on to Dakar.
*
I've had the smaller 650 xCountry single for a couple of years. It is a delight to ride, very responsive, handles well and quite uncomplicated. When the idea of riding down to South Africa was mooted, the xCountry was a good choice for me and a lot of the preparation I have done to the bike was with Africa in mind. BMW only sold these bikes for a couple of years and they were expensive when launched so never became high volume. However, they are becomjng a bit of a classic and have a loyal following. They were developed as a lightweight option, mainly for road use but with some capacity to go offroad. For me it is considerably lighter than my R1200GS and more suitable for the variable roads you may find in Africa. I bought the bike in standard form with about 5,000 miles on the clock and have enjoyed carrying out a number of modifications. When I conclude this report I'll detail the modificstions and equipment used, but in summary I've updated, the suspension, rear subframe, sump guard, screen, lights and added luggage, auxiliary fuel tank, engine protection, tool box etc. Of course this has made the bike heavier than standard but it is still a light 650 bike and should be great for this trip. Having done most of the work on the bike myself I'm looking forward to seeing how it performs.
*
I've enjoyed the preperation of the bike and the planning of the trip. Some people claim that throwing their priperafion for a trip like this to throw a few clothes in a bag, check they have the passport and credit card and head off. I'm not sure if this is how it really happens, but that does not work for me. I don't want a rigid plan but I like to understand the route, make sure the bike is ready, take apropriate tools and spares.
This time I've had to have innoculations, understand visa requirements buy new maps and GPSmaps and load to the Garmin. It was also important to learn a bit about what was happening in Wester Africa and what other travellers were experiencing, the Horizons Unlimited HUBB was had a wealth of update information
In August I had serious concerns about going to Dakar as they had a case of Ebola and worried this may be the start of an outbreak. This case was treated in Dakar succesfully and recovered, and no other cases were detected, so Dakar was back on my itinary.
*
So on Friday 17th October I loaded the bike and headed off to catch the ferry with lots of good wishes following me. Riding a bike to West Africa in late 2014 is one way to get attention from family and friends. Many of them had reservations about the trip but no one said not to go and respected the fact I had done the research and was determing to do this trip. The route to Portsmouth to the ferry is quite short for me and I was there in under an hour. I filled up before coming on board and struggled to get 2 litres into my auxiliary tank but this means I can ride straight from the ferry and head for my first stop a few hours south of Santander. Tha bikes were loaded efficiently and strapped down by the ferry handlers.
*
The boat is very modern and well equipped and it was good to get into the cabin and get the bike clothes off. My first focus was to try and sort out a little problem I noticed with my Garmin. I spent some time before the trip ensuring the right maps were loaded but forgot to check that there was music installed. I had had a silent run down to the ferry and wanted to have some music to listen to along the way. It would have been easy if I had my laptop with me but for the first time I left it behind and was working with a small Samsung Tablet. I had a 2nd Garmin as backup and thought I could copy music from the SD card, but this was not possible as the Cards were different. However I was able to copy music from my phone, so problem is solved.
I'll be happy if this is the hardest problem I'll encounter on this 6 week trip.
*
The boat trip has been quite rough so far, particularly during the night when we were out in the Atlantic. It is calmer now and we are still on target for a 5:30 arrival in Santander. Am looking forward to geting back on the bike.
*
Unloading at Santander was fine and the bikes had survived the rough weather without problems. The route out of the port has changed and now you do not go out into the Santander city traffic, but stay longer in the port and join the dual carrigeway to the motorway. It seems slower than the old route but it makes morse sense. I had forgotton how much of a climb it is going over the mountains heading south. The motorway goes up to nearly 1,000 meters and the temperature dropped from 31C to 20C in about 30 minutes. The bike purred as we climbed and was hapy to cruise at the limit of 120km/hr. The only issue i had was that the fuel light came on as we entered Palencia. This shoule not happen. Either the fuel consumption had suffered crossing the mountains or some of the fuel in the auxiliary tank had "evaporated" during the crossing.I'll do a further testtomorrow and see how it goes.
*
I had a hotel in Palencia booked and loaded into the GPS and it took me to the door of the Hotel Don Rodrigo and very soon the bike was in the underground car park. The room is fine and good value for 29€. Once changed, I had a wander around the town. The locals were either inside or more often outside various tapas bars and it semed rude not to join in. I posess both skills required, I can drink beer and eat tapas and it was fun to spend some time excersising these talents. However although I rode 200km today I have 630km to do tomorrow to get to Seville. And then a further 3,500km to ride to get to Dakar and I forgot to bring my padded cycling shorts! So an early night was in order.
A photo of arriving in Santander and one of Polencia church. More to follow.
After some trips on an R1200GS over the last few years I decided to use my G650 XCountry this year for a trip to Africa. I had considered a long trip maybe all the way down to South Aafrica but could not pull that one together this time, so have decided on a solo round trip from Hampshire to Dakar. Travelling in Africa at the moment has it's complications and some people believe it is not the right time to go, but when is the right time? The right time is when it is possible and you have the time and the means of travel. This October and November is the time for me. I took a calm review of the risks, listened to the concerns of friends and relatives, but overall riding to Dakar and back before December seemed a reasonable plan. However, *the risk are not trivial, and either an upsurge in terrorist activity on my route or the spreading of the Ebola epedemic will make me reconsider my final destination. So as I remind friends, I am travelling on a motorbike, to its more likley something may happen on the road than having issues with terrorism or Ebola.
*
So the plans are to take the Portsmouth to Santander ferry, ride down through Spain stopping at Seville, then down to Algeceris and over on the ferry to Morocco. Then on to Rabat to get a Mauritanian visa and work my way down the Moroccan coast, into Western Sahara to Dakhla. At Dakhla I'll review the situation further south before heading into Mauritania and Senegal. The Western Sahara/Mauritania border and the Senegal border crossing at Rosso are a couple of the most interesting in Africa, and in a way I look forward to them both, apart from the landmines. Once in Senegal I'll stop off at St Louis, rest of at the Zebrabar campsite south of St Louis and finally on to Dakar.
*
I've had the smaller 650 xCountry single for a couple of years. It is a delight to ride, very responsive, handles well and quite uncomplicated. When the idea of riding down to South Africa was mooted, the xCountry was a good choice for me and a lot of the preparation I have done to the bike was with Africa in mind. BMW only sold these bikes for a couple of years and they were expensive when launched so never became high volume. However, they are becomjng a bit of a classic and have a loyal following. They were developed as a lightweight option, mainly for road use but with some capacity to go offroad. For me it is considerably lighter than my R1200GS and more suitable for the variable roads you may find in Africa. I bought the bike in standard form with about 5,000 miles on the clock and have enjoyed carrying out a number of modifications. When I conclude this report I'll detail the modificstions and equipment used, but in summary I've updated, the suspension, rear subframe, sump guard, screen, lights and added luggage, auxiliary fuel tank, engine protection, tool box etc. Of course this has made the bike heavier than standard but it is still a light 650 bike and should be great for this trip. Having done most of the work on the bike myself I'm looking forward to seeing how it performs.
*
I've enjoyed the preperation of the bike and the planning of the trip. Some people claim that throwing their priperafion for a trip like this to throw a few clothes in a bag, check they have the passport and credit card and head off. I'm not sure if this is how it really happens, but that does not work for me. I don't want a rigid plan but I like to understand the route, make sure the bike is ready, take apropriate tools and spares.
This time I've had to have innoculations, understand visa requirements buy new maps and GPSmaps and load to the Garmin. It was also important to learn a bit about what was happening in Wester Africa and what other travellers were experiencing, the Horizons Unlimited HUBB was had a wealth of update information
In August I had serious concerns about going to Dakar as they had a case of Ebola and worried this may be the start of an outbreak. This case was treated in Dakar succesfully and recovered, and no other cases were detected, so Dakar was back on my itinary.
*
So on Friday 17th October I loaded the bike and headed off to catch the ferry with lots of good wishes following me. Riding a bike to West Africa in late 2014 is one way to get attention from family and friends. Many of them had reservations about the trip but no one said not to go and respected the fact I had done the research and was determing to do this trip. The route to Portsmouth to the ferry is quite short for me and I was there in under an hour. I filled up before coming on board and struggled to get 2 litres into my auxiliary tank but this means I can ride straight from the ferry and head for my first stop a few hours south of Santander. Tha bikes were loaded efficiently and strapped down by the ferry handlers.
*
The boat is very modern and well equipped and it was good to get into the cabin and get the bike clothes off. My first focus was to try and sort out a little problem I noticed with my Garmin. I spent some time before the trip ensuring the right maps were loaded but forgot to check that there was music installed. I had had a silent run down to the ferry and wanted to have some music to listen to along the way. It would have been easy if I had my laptop with me but for the first time I left it behind and was working with a small Samsung Tablet. I had a 2nd Garmin as backup and thought I could copy music from the SD card, but this was not possible as the Cards were different. However I was able to copy music from my phone, so problem is solved.
I'll be happy if this is the hardest problem I'll encounter on this 6 week trip.
*
The boat trip has been quite rough so far, particularly during the night when we were out in the Atlantic. It is calmer now and we are still on target for a 5:30 arrival in Santander. Am looking forward to geting back on the bike.
*
Unloading at Santander was fine and the bikes had survived the rough weather without problems. The route out of the port has changed and now you do not go out into the Santander city traffic, but stay longer in the port and join the dual carrigeway to the motorway. It seems slower than the old route but it makes morse sense. I had forgotton how much of a climb it is going over the mountains heading south. The motorway goes up to nearly 1,000 meters and the temperature dropped from 31C to 20C in about 30 minutes. The bike purred as we climbed and was hapy to cruise at the limit of 120km/hr. The only issue i had was that the fuel light came on as we entered Palencia. This shoule not happen. Either the fuel consumption had suffered crossing the mountains or some of the fuel in the auxiliary tank had "evaporated" during the crossing.I'll do a further testtomorrow and see how it goes.
*
I had a hotel in Palencia booked and loaded into the GPS and it took me to the door of the Hotel Don Rodrigo and very soon the bike was in the underground car park. The room is fine and good value for 29€. Once changed, I had a wander around the town. The locals were either inside or more often outside various tapas bars and it semed rude not to join in. I posess both skills required, I can drink beer and eat tapas and it was fun to spend some time excersising these talents. However although I rode 200km today I have 630km to do tomorrow to get to Seville. And then a further 3,500km to ride to get to Dakar and I forgot to bring my padded cycling shorts! So an early night was in order.
A photo of arriving in Santander and one of Polencia church. More to follow.