In search of Father Jack.

The other things I noticed, in eastern Zambia were swollen rivers containing muddy flood water. So the rains are active and I may get a get a bit damp at times.

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Now to Simon's question, what about the bike. Well almost immediatly I arrived, Geoff offered to drive me to the bike. It was great to be reunited and good to see it on the trickle charger of course and the traffic light plug showing green.

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I took it out of the garage with some trepidation. Switched on the petrol tap and waited and wondered if after 3 months it would start. Last time after a layoff, it had taken over an hour to get it going. This time however I had drained the carburettor before storage, so hoped to get better results.

While waiting I noticed how great the weather was, and even in a tee shirt and light trousers I was hot. I was remembering the wet cold weather I left back in UK. I was glad I had brought the lighter of my riding jackets, as it seemed this would be a trip in hot weather. Now were was I....Oh the bike...

So after waiting 5 minutes or so I turned the Ignition key. Then I pressed the starter and the engine turned over, but didn't start. Then I remembered that even in these warm conditions, it likes a bit of choke for a first start. So I moved the choke, pressed the starter and of course it started and settled to a tickover like a cat purring. So we were on our way around to Geoff's house. Great to be back on the little Suzuki even if it initially felt strange after my bigger bikes back in UK.

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Great stuff Jim. Looking forward to the next instalment of the adventure!

Preparation for the trip continued today with getting the bike serviced. I'd found a Suzuki dealer in October last and discussed having the serviced and then recently booked in for today. Once I explained my travel plans the agreed to do the work immediatly. I was given a coffee and access to the wifi while I waited. It took some persuasion to get then to replace the front tyre and I think they were trying to save me some money. I like to start a long trip with good tyres and the front tyre was the original and had taken me through 6 countries so was getting a bit thin. While the tyre was being changed I had a wide ranging discussion with the owner about the state of business in SA which was enlightening. The bike was soon ready and wheeled out to the front where the owner took a photo if the intrepid(or foolhardy) traveller.

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After leaving the bike shop I went to get a SIM to work in my spare phone. For those not familiar with this way of keeping in touch, I carry my UK phone but also an old phone which I fit with a SIM card for the country I'm visiting. The second phone has access to the internet via the local SIM and I set it to create a wifi hotspot and then connect my UK phone to that hotspot. This method means the UK phone remains unaltered and works immediatly on return to UK.

In this case I didn't need a new SIM as it was less than 3 months since last used, so was able to add credit to it immediatly and create the hotspot. This means I'll have internet access on the road in SA but will have to repeat the process in the next country.

With the bike and phone sorted I returned to my friends house to fit a few modifications. The first was a "Camel toe" to the side stand, which allows you to park the bike on soft ground or even sand. The clue is in the name. Note my friends wonderfully tiled garage floor. I'm not envious at all, honest!

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The second modification was to the horn, where I fitted a new deep and loud horn, to replace the tinny beep horn supplied with the bike. This new horn sounds like it comes from a large car or a truck and gets the attention of other road users. So from now on I'm going to pretend to be a large vehicle, when the need arises, for the rest of the trip. Don't tell anyone!

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Then I fitted a hi-tech cruise control. In fact its a piece of plastic that wraps around the throttle control with a bit sticking out. Note the technical description of the item! Anyway, it is very useful, as it allows you to relax your grip on the throttle as you ride along, just appying pressure to the extention(the bit sticking out) with the heel of your hand, to keep the bike running. This avoids cramp in the hand and allows you to ride all day if needed.

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All looking good Jim,ride safe

Sorry for all the technical stuff in this part but it will move away from motorbike chat when I get on the road in a few days, so keep the faith...

Well from a technical angle, it then got more interesting and a phrase of Father Jack's came back to me, "Leave well enough alone". He was an engineer and like myself he liked tinkering and clearly knew the truth of that phrase from bitter experience, as he always said it with some feeling.

Having done all the important work on the bike I decided to rewire the GPS, so it went on and off with ignition key, not essential just nice to have. So I took off the tank, found a wire with 12 volts from the ignition and connected the positive GPS wire to it. Then I checked that the GPS worked and put the bike back together. Then almost as an afterthought, thought I'd start the bike to confirm all was well. It was not!

The bike would not start, even after turning on the petrol tap!!! This was not good, this bike always starts and it's the bike I'm going to be riding to Tanzania. I took the plug out, connected it, touched it to the engine, turned the bike over, no spark. So there was an electrical problem probably introduced by me.
At this point Geoff commented, "well you know what you touched". He was right, so I took the bike apart again, removed the GPS connection, soldered the wire I linked to and got the plug to spark again. Then put the bike back together and it started. The priority was to put the tools away, in case I was tempted to tinker any more. I enjoyed the evening meal with Shiela and Geoff all the more knowing I had a working bike again.

One amusing feature of this work was that some of the tools I was using were very familiar to both Geoff and I. Both of us started our careers with the same international company, servicing typewriters, in two different continents. The tools supplied, were the same worldwide and today I used the set of pliers from my kit and borrowed Geoff's company supplied multimeter.

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The next morning I focussed on rationalising and packing my kit on the bike, keeping well away from the tools that got me into trouble the day before. I left some things from my equipment and Geoff agreed to dither find a use for them or discard. By lunchtime I'd got to a point where everything could be stored on the bike and there would be just enough room for me. Once that was done the urge to get the tools out, began to strengthen. I'd worked out overnight that a safe place to get a switched feed for the GPS, would be in the headlight unit. The tools came out and with a fresher mind than the day before, I was able to connect the GPS lead to the sidelight bulb. This worked a treat and the bike started afterwards.

Geoff and Shiela were attending a Braai(BBQ) by a local lake that evening and invited me along. The company was very convivial and the food was excellent. I was surprised that some of the guests saw what I was doing as scary, venturing into "Africa" on my own. I thought I was already in Africa but they clearly saw the countries to the north as different to South Africa and more dangerous. I suppose over the next few weeks I'll find out.

The setting by the lake was a idyllic and some of the local wildlife showed up before it got dark, including a fish eagle and a darter. I may upload some photos later when I get to reasonable wifi.

So today was the day the trip really started and I eased the well laden bike out of Geoff's garage mid morning. Geoff had given me good directions and if I failed to follow those, I had put a waypoint in the GPS for a town on the route. However, instead of a town, the GPS picked up a street with the same name, some way off the route. This caused some navigational deficiencies, i.e. I went the wrong way! Once the error was discovered I got back on track and arrived at my destination, a little later and more tired than planned. The last part of the route was the most interesting, with baboons and monkeys feeding on fruit trees by the side of the road. A warthog running across in front of me and quite a lot of game appeared in the fenced-off reserves on the side of the road. It made me feel I have arrived in Africa.

I'm in the wonderfully named town of Lephalale, staying in an apartment with a large kitchen diner, double bedroom and shower room, for 500 Rand(£25) with breakfast. I'm less than 100km from the Botswana border and my aim is to cross tomorrow morning where I may see more than baboons. Sorry no photos.

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A couple of bird photos from the braai, a couple of days ago. These are Fish Eagle, African Darter and Sacred Ibis.

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And the fish eagle!

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So today was a ride of around 400km including a political border and to my surprise a geographical border. My first task this morning was to buy a new 2nd phone as my original one opted out of this trip. It was pretty ancient for a smart phone but I was enjoying giving it a new lease of life as my access to the internet on the road. One consequence was a lateish start.

A feature of the trip so far has been the migration of the Brown-veined White Butterfly. I noticed them first on Geoff's lavender hedge in Joburg but had not expected to be still riding through them 500kms away. There must be many millions of them and they have been flying along with me and occasionally we bump into each other. They normally fare worse but it stings when they hit you in the mouth or eye. They are clearly migrating, all flying in the same direction, unusual for a butterfly. At times its been like riding through a light snow shower, but warmer. It's been a treat to experience it and a privelage.


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The geographical border came first if that's the right time for a sign marking the Tropics. I missed the Tropic of Capricorn sign on the way down Namibia in September last and was pleased to see this one. As I've been to the Tropic of Cancer sign a few times in the Sahara that only leaves the Equator! So I'm now in the Tropics.

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Normally a late start, a long riding day and a border crossing would be unwise, but that was today. The difficulty was mitigated by the good roads and the ease of the SA/Botswana border. Any border which only requires me to write down the 6 characters of my vehicle number plate and the numeral "1" for number of passengers, gets my vote. I hate forms particularly at borders.

So the border was easy and I was soon speeding along the good Botswana roads, still in the company of some white butterflies. The landscape wasn't the most exciting so I was listening to music to help concentration. The only animals were cattle and goats which occasionally crossed the road. The most spectacular view was of the sky. A real African sky with high fluffy clouds. Spot the animal in the first picture!

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The ride from Francistown to Maun was relatively long on a small bike, just over 500km. I wonder sometimes why I end up with these long days when I have sufficient time to take things slower. There are usually practical reasons, as in this case, where there isn't a good place to stay en-route etc. There is more to it than this of course, I know I am challenging myself to see if I can ride this distance in the heat. This wasn't at the extreme of the distance I can cover on this bike in a day but I'll have to do a 600km leg in a couple of days and 500km was a good tester. It started in excellent temperature. I was comfortable in just a tee shirt under my light motorbike jacket. The road was good and I was able to cruise at over 80km/ph, a good speed for me. The first 200km of the route was not so interesting. While I had that thought, I looked about me and remembered I'm riding in Africa, have a full fuel tank, money in my wallet, a bed booked for the night and I realise this was a good day to be alive.

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Of course I didn't just have any bed booked, I had a cabin tent booked in the Old Bridge Backpackers, in Maun, Botswana. One of my favourite places in the world, but don't tell everyone. In addition to it being a special place, the 2nd half of the route is one of my favourite roads, for one reason, there is a chance to see ellephants(ellies) on the side of the road. It's not guaranteed you see them but the chance of encountering these wonderful creatures, up close, and in the wild is a mouthwatering prospect, at least for me.

This picture was from last year and this guy was not happy to see me!



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Now back to the early part of the ride, the road as I said was good but not a dual carriageway. It had the wide verges typical of roads in these parts and grazing along the side of the road were cattle, goats and horses. These animals would decide to cross to the other verge, as the grass always looks greener there, irrespective of whether a vehicle is coming. In fact a part of me suspects they see a vehicle coming and decide crossing now, would cause the maximum annoyance. I'm not paranoid, I know the animals think that way On this days riding I had quite a range of animals on the road and one first. As well, as the cows, goats and horses crossing in front, I had my first ostrich. On other rides I've had sheep, ellies, meercats and of course camels.



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The scene below reminded me of my last visit to Nata, with Simon and Kit, my good friends and travelling companions at the time. We had stayed in Nata, which is why I know there is no good reasonable accommodation there, and the roads then were terrible because of roadworks and recent rain. We stayed in the a lodge which proved unfriendly and were glad to leave the next morning.

Simon and Kit left first on his R1150Gs and I followed a little behind. There had been more rain and the temporary road, which seemed to be constructed with potters clay, was now sodden and had a slimy surface. I slithered behind the big bike and then got a message from Simon to watch out for the big pothole. A bus was following me so I let him go first into the massive puddle of a pothole. The bus sank to its axles on entering the pothole so I was not taking that route. I then went to the side which looked more manageable. This part of the pothole was not covered in water but consisted of thick clay about 30cm deep. The bike and I fought our way through and I rejoined Simon and Kit. They had gone through the middle of the flooded pothole and dropped about 60cm and it's a testament to Simon's riding skills and Kit as a pillion, that they extracted themselves without falling off.

This is how it looks today with new tarmac and the temperary rode to the left, looking OK in the dry.



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