Gael back in Africa.

Nice to meet you in Leanne Jim
Yourself & the long fella did very well on your ‘unsuitable’ bikes ;)

I’ve an XT225 (Serow) in the garage & have often thought it’d be a great bike for the likes of Africa. I think you’ll really enjoy the 250.

Safe travels, looking forward to following along :thumb
Thanks Jockser, we did enjoy our few days in Leenane and I only skimmed over it in this RR. I think you may be right about the XT250/XT225 in Africa. We'll see when I get to use it in anger.
Thanks for a great weekend and a special tour of Achill.

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Jim - a useful contact might be an outfit called "Gravel Travel" (www.gravel-travel.com) based at the Windhoek Mountain Lodge a few miles north of Windhoek. They are a tour operator running motorcycle tours around Namibia and South Africa on a fleet of various Yamahas. The owner also has (or at least had) a Yamaha dealership in Germany. They have a well-equipped garage and mechanics at the lodge and I'm sure would help you out with advice and/or practicalities if needed.
Good luck with your trip, I'm enjoying the report so far!
Birgit
 
Jim - a useful contact might be an outfit called "Gravel Travel" (www.gravel-travel.com) based at the Windhoek Mountain Lodge a few miles north of Windhoek. They are a tour operator running motorcycle tours around Namibia and South Africa on a fleet of various Yamahas. The owner also has (or at least had) a Yamaha dealership in Germany. They have a well-equipped garage and mechanics at the lodge and I'm sure would help you out with advice and/or practicalities if needed.
Good luck with your trip, I'm enjoying the report so far!
Birgit
Thanks for the information Birgit, I'll keep them in mind, though I normally plan my own trips.

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Getthing close to departure now. Been out and bought Paracetamol, Ibuprofen and of course Immodium as well as rehydration tablets in case of dehydration, a risk when crossing deserts. Got a new first-aid kit, as the ones in stock have seen better days but luckly have had little use.

I've colour copied important documents like passport, travel vaccination record, International driving licence and had my covid jabs certificate laminated and I also have spare passport photos. It seems strange not to be getting copies of the bike documents and then I remind myself these are waiting for me in Namibia. I keep original and copy documents separately and also keep credit cards and keys in different secure places in case of loss or theft. I suffered a stolen passport in the past and it was good to have a copy. I had my Travel vaccinations reviewed last week, some like Yellow Fever are for life, but I needed boosters for Typhoid and Rabies.

I travel with 3 cameras and upgraded my phone, my main camera to benifit from the latest phone camera technology. The other cameras are a helmet camera and a compact zoom and these are both freshly charged. The helmet camera is a Drift Ghost XL which claims to run for around 8 hours on one charge and I'll put that to the test on some of the longer runs. I use this camera to take still photos and not video, triggering it from a button on the handlebars. The Panasonic Lumix zoom camera is mainly used for wildlife photos, birds etc.

I've also charged my inRange Explorer satellite tracking and SOS device. The SOS function allows the user to summon emergency assistance in any country in the world, using a Satelite phone signal. inRange have been taken over by Garmin who are now building the inRange technology into their GPSs, so one device can do both jobs. I'll be taking a spare phone to house a local SIM. I'll buy a Namibian SIM with data and set the spare phone to generate a WiFi hotspot, then connect my main phone to that hotspot when local WiFi is not available. The spare phone is also useful for making local phone calls.



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Have you watched the Itchy Boots episodes in Namibia - looks like a crackin’ bit of the planet
 
Have you watched the Itchy Boots episodes in Namibia - looks like a crackin’ bit of the planet
You'll have noticed I mentioned Noraly a few times above and I have ridden in Namibia before. I saw her Series 5 videos on Southern Africa. She's an experienced and skilled off-road rider and I'm not, but on this visit I hope to explore a few of the more remote locations.

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Good luck, Jim...really looking forward to following your new travels. :beerjug:
 
Things are progressing in Namibia, as the previous owner has dropped the bike off at the dealer and Hedley from Yamaha has sent me a plan for the service. I called him via Skype and we agreed what parts would need changing. Was pleased to hear the tyres are in good shape, almost new and the sprockets should be OK for my trip but may need changing for further travel. This service should be completed by the time I arrive next week. I'll drop off the rear frame and pannier support etc. when I get there, and have the dealer to fit most of the parts.

While talking to Hedley we discussed the registration of the bike and once the bike is ready I can get that moving. In chatting to Hedley I learned I may not have to ride all the way to Swakop for registration, but could get it done a bit nearer to Windhoek. I'll explore this option more when I arrive. Once I finish the registration, and the bike is in my name, I can then travel more freely. My first ride will still be to Swakop, as it and Walvis Bay, are well worth a visit and it's also a good distance for a shakedown of the bike, I'll also cross a desert landscape, always a bit special. I have no fixed plan after that but to explore some of Namibia that I missed last time, including a visit to Fish River Canyon in the south of the country. Later I'll ride into Botswana, probably via the Caprivi Strip, aiming for Maun and later Kasane and the Chobe river. Only a few days to go...


I wrote the above a during the week but now I'm at Heathrow. This trip has been quite uncertain for a few months, with a few issues that could be showstoppers, could I really register the bike, what would the covid risk be, would there be a ban on travel and would I really be able to get all this bike gear down to Namibia. Some thought travelling early in 2022 with Omecron rife was foolhardy. Interestingly that's been said in advance of a few of my succesful trips. Those who know me well, realise I'm not a crazy risk taker but assess the risk carefully before deciding to go forward. Of course I don't always get it right, and there's a bull elephant in Botswana probably still dining out on the story of him scaring the pants of an old guy on a 125 motorbike by charging him.

In this case I delayed my departure a couple of weeks to have a better understanding of Omecron and what risk it presented. As it is a seen as a milder form of Covid, I feel that travelling now is a manageable risk. So now I've checked in at Heathrow. My overweight cases were a liable to a surcharge of £80 but a smile and a sight of my silver locks, got an "I'll let you off this time sir". At security my collection of GPSs and phones caused some interest but the biggest raised eye, was for the hefty bike chain. Just another border to get through and certainly not the hardest. So I'll be boarding soon for a flight to Addis Abbaba and then onward to Windhoek. I'm sure the bike is as excited to meet its new owner, as I am to see it. My next update is likely to be from Namibia.

20220115_183110.jpg

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Thanks guys but yesterday wasn't much of a day for photos. This flight via Addis proved quite tiring. You land at about 03:30(UK time) and at 05:30 board another 6 hour flight to Windhoek. This timing keeps you active when you really want to be sleeping. Simon and I booked this route once, but that one was delayed, so had a different timing. Not looking for sympathy here, I'm a lucky guy, just trying to explain, mainly to myself, why I was so tired yesterday evening.

There has been a lot of focus in the last few months on the Covid requirements for getting into Namibia. Your PCR test had to be done at a Trusted Testing firm(long list on line) and had to be less than 72 hours before landing in Namibia. You also needed to be double jabbed. I complied with these rules of course and my PCR test was briefly looked at at Heathrow. As we approached Windhoek we were each handed a covid form to complete, which suggested there was still a strong focus. On arriving we were handed a similar form for immigration, passport number etc. Handing out a form to people in a line is not the best idea...find a pen, leave the line to find something to write on, look up details etc, chaos.

On getting to immigration, I had my passport, immunisation details, PCR test, covid form from the plane, and immigration form in my hand. All they wanted was the passport and immigration form, no covid check at all. The next question was, where is your visa. I told them I don't belive I need a visa, but the computer says you do. I've learned in this kind of travel, its not the things you worry about that trip you up, but something unexpected. In the end I said the computer was wrong and I eventually heard that lovely sound of a passport being stamped, without further explanation.

I took the photo below as we approached Windhoek. It shows an African crossroads, no white lines, no stop sign, no traffic lights. Just 2 roads crossing.20220116_130826.jpg

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Then into the baggage claim area to find both pieces of luggage had arrived, not what Simon and experienced last time. My taxi driver was waiting and around that time I became conscious of a loud noise. The asked the driver if I could let a local SIM and he pointed at a store of the main provider in Namibia and in 10 minutes a had a SIM for my secondary phone, happy days. The loud noise was still present and as I started to leave the terminal I realised why, it was pouring and the noise was the rain drumming on the roof. We raced to the car, as quickly as you can pushing 2 heavy cases, and got soaked. This is not meant to happen in Namibia, it can rain in Botswana, South Africa, Zambia Malawa etc, but Namibia is pretty dry, well it wasn't yesterday.

On the way in to town I asked the driver if they have had much rain. He said some light rain, but not like this. The perfect start to a motorcycling holiday, I thought. It was like a tropical downpour and continued all the 45km way into town. So not a cloudburst, unless it was a very big cloud. Getting into Windhoek some roads were flooded and the torrent had lifted some manhole covers.

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Eventually we got to where I was staying and it was a relief to get indoors. I had an entertaining 30 minutes at the apartment where I was allocated various rooms till I found one I was happy with, while my 2 heavy cases followed me up and down the stairs. I finished the evening with a meal at a local Italian and chatted to the owner. He said his business was good from locals but the tourist trade is suffering badly. So today I'm going to the dealer with my rack, frame, topbox, screen etc and of course to see the bike for the first time in the flesh.

This smart Triumph Spitfire was parked outside the restaurant as I emerged. Hopefully it was undercover during the downpour.20220116_193317.jpg

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