In search of Father Jack.

These experiences help us learn more.

Just a little heads up that I've booked my flight back to Joburg for later this month. I'm going back earlier than planned to avoid the worst of the rains in Tanzania in May. It seems I'm going to get rains somewhere. However going sooner means I miss out on February and March in UK, which is a plus.

This leg of the trip should be interesting, going through Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania and maybe visit Zanzibar. Will update more nearer the time.

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Looking forward to the next instalment Jim!

Ah, great, some virtual escapism from our dreary dark winter. Looking forward to seeing the posts Jim and imagining I'm out there.

Looking forward to some armchair traveland adventure. Don't forget your sou wester


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Looking forward to this, Jim....safe travels!

Thanks guys. As storm Brendan howls outside, leaving for warmer climes seems a great idea. I'm in the prep stage now. Making sure I have all I need for this leg of the trip. I have had a few sessions with Simon both considering what to take and reviewing the route, benefiting from his knowledge and experience.

Working out what stuff I need is easier this time than when I went down in September. The biggest problem in September was remembering what I had left with the bike. This time I laid out the kit and took photos.

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When I looked at this photo a week or so ago, I was annoyed I hadn't opened some of the bundles, particularly the medical one. Then I found this photo which was helpful. Sometimes I surprise myself!

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Perfic...

Can't wait for your updates.

And as ever enjoy & most of all ride safe..

Jim
Glad to help in some small way!

Got your sandwich box?


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Have a great trip Jim.
If you go through Lake Kariba area and find your self in need of help,a friend of mine owns a engineering business there.
Keith,KB Engineering,top man.

I also found a few notes on my phone, reminding me that I needed to bring a tyre lever, some ibuprofen to top up my stock as well as salt replenishing tablets, as I'm sure I'll get a bit dehydrated at times. Maleria tablets of course. My Camelback came back with me so that needs sterilizing with Milton. Simon reminded me one of his fuel filter funnels may be useful, as I head north and Mr Amazon is on the case. Just booked to have a flu jab too, to be on the safe side. My international driving lisence has run out so just replaced that today. Of course I'll make sure I have my 3 swiss army knives. Lastly I contacted the Suzuki garage in Joburg to book the bike in for a service after I arrive. I know the bike is well, as my friend Geoff checked it recently and reported its doing well on its trickle charger.

On the Tanzania side I've made 2 important contacts. One is a local safari guide who my family used for a weeks Safari in July last year. I look forward to meeting him and hope he may be able to advise me, as I'd like to visit the Ngorongoro Crater to view the wildlife. The other important contact is an Irish priest who has been in Tanzania for 50 years and will help me track down where Fr. Jack worked.

Remember the Fr. Jack from the title of this report? He's the reason I'm heading to Tanzania. He inspired me to ride motorbikes. Fr Jack spent about 15 years in Tanzania after he came out of the RAF in 1947, having joined in 1936 and spent much of his time on the front line, in North Africa during WW2. I want to visit the villages he worked in and stand in the places he knew so well and take photographs to show my family back in Ireland. I'm not sure I want to meet snakes on the stairs, like he described, or ride against a monsoon wind which virtually brought his Land Rover to a stop or be in a building during an earthquake, but then I'm not a war hero, Mentioned in Dispatches. Of course to me as a boy, he was quite heroic. Some of his war stories of course were barely credible but he was a colourful character and later I may share a few of his stories when this report gets a bit dry.

So now where is that Camelback and the Milton...

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Thanks for the comments and the Kariba contact.

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I'm looking forward to the next updates!

Well things have moved on since my last update and I've been a bit remiss keeping this up to date. Its the perennial conflict between doing the stuff and writing about it and of course there's always laziness. Well I got all the stuff I mentioned in my last update, the petrol funnel/filter, the flu jab etc. I laid all the stuff out on the coffee table so I could whittle it down and reduce the quantity but failed miserably and hardly took anything out.

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Then I needed to focus on documents, if I had all I needed and whether having copies would be useful. This required a trip to the copy shop and while there I got them to laminate a few of these maps. The blue line on the map shows the route I've already taken and the green line shows my intended route to Tanzania. I plan to attach one of the laminated maps to the bike to explain my trip to locals along the way.

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Seen your (t)rusty bike yet?


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One thing that tripped Simon and I up for our flight to Namibia is that the airline would not let us check in just with a one way ticket. To overcome the problem we had to purchase additional expensive one way tickets out of the country, to prove were planning to leave. I checked and the same requirement applied to SA. Even though these tickets could be cancelled, I wanted to avoid that additional hassel and expenditure and found a website selling bus tickets from SA to Botswana. Having bought one for a fraction of the cost of a flight, I hoped it would work.

I hadn't helped my preparation by changing my broadband router just before leaving as everything has to be updated, my smart speakers, TV, heating controller, printer and cctv camera etc. The printer only got done when I needed to print the bus ticket and the cctv just yesterday morning, after a look on YouTube to work out how to do it.

So yesterday morning everything is packed in 2 soft bags. Then I remembered last time when the bags got lost for 3 days preventing us starting our trips. So I went through the bags and took out the essential bits of kit, GPS, tracker, cameras, spare phone etc. and put them in my hand luggage.

So with the house secure and after checking my snowdrops are not quite out, I headed for the station for the rail/coach to Heathrow. The bus ticket worked a dream and I got checked in. The flight was initially to Addis Ababa then on to Johannesburg and worked smoothly and 2 items of luggage trundled along a conveyor belt in Joburg to a smiling owner and I was then picked up by my friend who is putting me up here, thanks Geoff and Shiela

A few things I noticed out of the window during the flight. Sunrise over Africa is always special.

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simondippenhall said:

Seen your (t)rusty bike yet?


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Click to expand...

Patience, my dear Simon

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As we crossed into Tanzania airspace, and I saw Arusha and Kilimanjaro on the map I wondered if I'd packed a parachute I could save weeks of bike riding I also noticed the flight plan is just a straight line version of my route.

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