There is always a silver lining.

Week 2 started with me making a very bouncy trip up to Johannesburg thanks to the failed shock. Until you try it you don't realize how hard it is to ride with no damping, the bike was like an uncontrolled pogo stick on occasions as it leapt from pothole to pothole. Needless to say speed was low.

The down side of the failed shock was I had to pull out of a 5 day ride that Kobus, our superb host from the weekend meeting, had invited me on. That was a bit of a downer as I got on really well with all the people going on it.

The initial part of my search for a solution in JB continued the downer feeling, local suspension specialists said the shock was not easily rebuildable and a new shock (if available) was going to be hugely expensive. My mood that afternoon was not good and the weather promptly matched it by putting on a huge hail storm. Fortunately I had seen it coming and checked into a hotel 15 minutes in front of its arrival. The hotel staffs priorities were excellent, my bike and the owners Jag got parked in the foyer for protection, everyone else's cars had to take pot luck outside.

Next days sunshine also brought a solution. A contact called "Dr KLR", I'm sure Africa's only specialist for my type of bike,  sourced and fitted a good second hand shock for me at a very reasonable price - I had been incredibly fortunate to have the failure only 200 kms from his workshop; I can only imagine how much more time consuming and expensive it would have been if it had happened further north up the continent.

Since I was in JB I decided to make the most of it, staying a couple of nights in Soweto absorbing some of the history of the apartheid struggle - a part that resonated with me since it occcured when I was at university and first started to have some political awareness. A visit to the Heater Pierterson museum, a memorial to a child who died in the riots of 1976, but also to all who suffered during the turmoil of the ending of apartheid brought me too tears, and reminded me strongly that systems you live within can so easily appear right and proper at the time, but when you look back with hindsight can be seen to be intolerably cruel.

This week also saw me undertaking the bane of all travelers - obtaining visas for onward travel - in this case for Mozambique which after hearing very positive reports is my destination next week (after Swaziland this weekend)

Underway

Week 1 on the bike and it's been a time of readjustment. Getting used to the bike again, and more crucially traveling on my own.  Departure from Cape Town was not without drama: within 30 kilometres I had a puncture,  fortunately conveniently outside a local bike shop so I didn't need to do the repairs myself.

From Cape Town it was initially a couple of very lazy days in Stellenbosch (scene of the puncture) South Africa's second oldest town. It really was quite charming full of beautiful old colonial era buildings and it would have been easy to stay longer but aware I was very aware I was still only 30 kilometres from Cape Town with a long way to go so I thought I I'd better move on.

Next halt was on many ways the true start of the journey-  Cape Agulhas - the southernmost tip of the continent and where Indian and Atlantic oceans (theoretically) join.  The aim of this journey is to eventually to finish in Nordkapp,  Norway to have done the full south,  north of the African Europe landmass.

Onwards from there was over the Swartberg Pass, a dirt road rising and then dropping a thousand metres over 20 hairpin filled  kilometres;  challenging and extremely beautiful riding.

After there I locked upon an old village called Niue Bethesda,  it had had its heyday around 1910,and seem to be almost preserved in aspic since then,all dirt streets, quirky advertising signs and we'll maintained buildings. It is of course a bit of an illusion being in fact a major tourist destination, primarily for the Owl House the quirky, and very kitsch, residence of an eccentric (and note deceased)artist.

The plan from there was to head north west into Lesotho and I got two thirds of the way there reaching the town of Burgersdorp in the Free State, a strongly Africaan area full of old buildings and Boer war relics. Intriguing place to walk around.

A change of plan happened at this point, because when I woke up on the Thursday morning my tablet announced that the annual South African meeting of the international motor cycle group I belong to was happening 600km further north, so using the flexibility inherent to single travelers I decide to head there instead.

One of my better decisions. Meeting was fantastic. Held on a private resort come game lodge owned by the organiser we were all treated royally well, with an incredibly interesting mix of both local and international travelers there, several that quickly became good friends.

Also turned out there was a second reason that going to the meeting was a good choice, my rear shock choose there to suddenly fail.  The advantage of being at the meeting was lots of local knowledge as to who to contact and the closeness to Johannesburg, where, fingers crossed, the solution lies. Tomorrow (Monday)is going to see me have a very bouncy ride there to find out if that is the case.  The plan from there was to head north west into Lesotho and I got two thirds of the way there reaching the town of Burgersdorp in the Free State, a strongly Africaan area full of old buildings and Boer war relics. Intriguing place to walk around.

A change of plan happened at this point, because when I woke up on the Thursday morning my tablet announced that the annual South African meeting of the international motor cycle group I belong to was happening 600km further north, so using the flexibility inherent to single travelers I decide to head there instead.

One of my better decisions. Meeting was fantastic. Held on a private resort come game lodge owned by the organiser we were all treated royally well, with an incredibly interesting mix of both local and international travelers there, several that quickly became good friends.

Also turned out there was a second reason that going to the meeting was a good choice, my rear shock choose there to suddenly fail.  The advantage of being at the meeting was lots of local knowledge as to who to contact and the closeness to Johannesburg, where, fingers crossed, the solution lies. Tomorrow (Monday)is going to see me have a very bouncy ride there to find out if that is the case.

A Very Successful Plan B (except for the gearbox)

Plan B consisted of us extending the hire of the 4x4 by a week and deciding to visit Lesotho on an extended trip back to Cape Town. When we had been planning our travels we'd been sorry we didn't have time to get there together, so this was a good opportunity to grab.

On our way south we stopped at the Golden Gate National Park. Arriving, fortuitously, at dusk we found the reason for the name; huge red rock cliffs glowing brilliantly in the setting sun.

Lesotho is completely surrounded by South Africa. It is a sort of kingdom in the clouds, a high plateau region above the plains of South Africa and lots of mountains on top of this. It's, we discovered, very poor and extremely friendly; full of those traditonal farming scenes (oxen drawn ploughs, boys on donkeys, hand tended fields) that look so beautiful but you know that mean a really tough life for the inhabitants.  It is also full of some very, very bad roads, we took the main road across the country and whilst much was fine one 45km section took nearly 3 hours, much of it in low range 4 wheel drive as we clamored up what seemed never ending boulders rises.

It  also featured some bizarre EU sponsored signs.  I presume money was also being spent on better thinngo but to be honest there wasn't much sign of it.

 For more 4 wheel drive fun we left Lesotho by the Sani Pass (which has some fame after featuring on Top Gear ), a dirtroad that starts at 2870m and then plunges by a series of alarmingly steep, full lock, hairpins, back down to the plains of South Africa.

After that it was a quick dash the 1500km back to Cape Town - meeting some incredible hospitality on the way when, as we passed through the small town of Butterworth and discovering there was no caravan park, some locals, Annan, Loretto and family, insisted we stay the night with them.

All to soon we were back in Cape Town, a couple of days R and R for both us including a trip on the cable car up Table Mountain and the sunset over Cape Town and suddenly after five and a half weeks and 11,500km of travel over.

Its been a great experience. Megans now off to Zanzibar and various other adventurous places whilst I collect my bike and start to ride north.


(And why did I write "except the gearbox" in the title, we'll it decided it didn't like the last week and that last 1500 km was done virtually stuck in fifth (of six) gear with any other selection sounding as it was about to explode - it added to the interest of the drive but we made it.

A final postscript, I've just heard back from Avis the cost of our extra hire is waived in turn for us bringing the camper back as it was - a wonderful example of customer service)

The need for a Plan B

Back in South Africa and time seems to have flown past, suddenly were on our fourth, and last week of our 4x4 holiday . From the border we drove south firstly to  Bligh River Canyon and then onto Drakensberg just south of Johannesburg -this is a region where the mountains that edge the eastern side of the isolated kingdom of Lesotho dramatically abut the flat plains of South Africa and was one of Megans must do's.  Fantastic scenery as you can drive in around the base of the peaks.

Whilst we were there we also had an early celebration for Megans birthday (since we're going to be in different countries when it occurs in a few weeks time) by going up market for one night and staying in a luxury lodge. Key selling point of the chosen place was the included superb six course dinner followed by three course breakfast the next day - this was B&B in style - even I, who am not much of a foody, was impressed. As an aside I also found it equally impressive that most of the guests were staying several nights and managing to eat that amount every night: for both of us once was definitely enough - at least for awhile.

After our day of luxury it was back to the reality of travel with a drive of several hours back up the highways to Johannesburg where the plan was (i) that night for Megan to catch a plane out to Ghana (where she was due to join a tour in a couple of days time) and (ii) the next day for me drive the 4x4 the 1400kms back to Cape Town before collecting my bike which I'm told has safely arrived there.  Unfortunately when we got out to the airport there was a snag, Megans visa was wrong and she was refused boarding to the plane. Ok we thought,  make a quick visit to three Ghanaian embassy the next day and it will all be sorted.  Oh niave people. Certainly it can be fixed they said, but only back in Australia,  just ship your passport back there.  That obviously wasnt going to happen in the required time-frame so its time to come up with plan B.

Zimbabwe - the surprise package

When I was a kid my uncle and aunt returned from living in Southern Rhodesia and that kindled a desire to go there sometime. Well Southern Rhodesia is now called Zimbabwe and nearly 50 years after their return I've made it.

We only spent 5 days in Zimbabwe but by the time we left it had in many ways become my favorite of the countries visited; not because of the sights and the scenery, good though they were, but for the people. They were universally cheerful, friendly, welcoming despite often being under obvious great personal economic hardship.

Economic hardship is one of those handy euphemisms you adopt as you travel in Africa to try and protect yourself from some of the brutal reality of the difference between your tourist lifestyle and the locals -what it really means in the case of Zimbabwe is that 50% of the people are mal-nourished, many obviously seriously so. The frequently given justification is that being there and spending money is making a difference to people's lives,  which is a valid point but fails to address any of the bigger ethical issues about the disparity of wealth distribution between nations, nor the fact that by being there you are to a certain extent rubbing people's noses in it.

Back to the touristy stuff. First stop over the border was Vic Falls,  which somehow manage to both live up to its billing and slightly disappointed at the same time.

Onwards from there to Matobo National Park - this has been the unexpected green of the trip so far. A reserve full of stunning (but largely unphotographable) scenery, giant balancing granite boulders and the place almost entirely to ourselves.

From there it was next the ruins of Great Zimbabwe, after the pyramids the largest stone structures in Africa and probably the greatest ruins you've never heard of (go on Google them because my photos do it no justice). A bit of an eye opener because I had never learnt about southern africans pre- colonial city state history.

I enjoyed Zimbabwe so much I plan to go back for a slower and broader explore when I get on the bike -which is not long now.