Sponsors

Today our first sponsor committed to our trip. Aerotrim will supply us with three screen extensions to fit our KTM 640's. Jacques (The MD- main dog) will fit the bikes with the product in September. Aerotrim's website= www.aerotrim.co.za

Other news - Bike SA has agreed to publish a short write-up in their September edition and follow our progress in subsequent issues while we are on the road.
BikeSA's website = www.bikesa.biz

PK has also been on the blower and spoke with RedBull and Camel smokes. Both are keen to supply us with their products; possibly some good bribing material for the border crossings.

So this hopefully is the start of many more sponsors coming aboard.

The low-down on the Carnet de Passage

We got some more information on the Carnet de Passage today. Here is the deal, AA South Africa say that there is a Rand 6000.00 deposit that must be paid upfront. The Carnet with 25 free pages costs Rand 2500.00 and is valid for 1 year - we need this one as we are travelling through about 19 countries. Processing time for the Carnet should be about 1 week... This Carnet is valid for Africa only, Rand 6000.00 is refundable once the bike is returned to ZA with the full Carnet.
The www.aasa.co.za website has got good information on it but it helps to speak to them. The forms that need to be completed are all available on the website.

As for the international driver's license, 2 passport pictures and Rand 110.00.

Crank that throttle...

Cape Point

Yesterday I joined 2 more Africa veterans on the last leg of their journey. Gert & Gert, yup, both from southern Germany did the last ride of their journey to Cape Point. They have already been here for sometime and decided to finish it off and get the last pics to post on their website. www.vonbnacha.de - they came down the east coast on their Yamaha XT 600's... in 7 months and 1 day.
It was another awesome day out on the bikes, would have loved to find some dirt to ride but no such luck. The ostriches at Cape Point took a fancy to running like lunatics alongside the bikes, the baboon's on the other hand just sat there eating and scratching...



And just a note, that we'll be off in 3 months and 12 days... and we don't have one visa!!

Pannier Pics...

Here are some pictures of the panniers. Once they are on they look a little small, but what the hell, maybe we'll end up taking less stuff along... wishful thinking.

A ride to L'Aghulas...

This morning we took a ride down to the southern most point of Africa to catch up with the Long Way Down team... Charlie, Ewan and Claudio. What a laugh we had. In Stanford we had a pitstop to warm up the frozen hands, after getting back on the bikes, the whole Long Way Down team came riding up with about 50 bikes in tow. We joined them and rode through to their next pitstop. Luke, Sandra and I were admiring the dirt on our bikes when Charlie and Ewan joined us, they did of course originally want to do their trip on KTM's... After the small talk and throwing in that we're doing the West Coast of Africa we got them to pose for our groupie picture... Claudio their camera man pulled up shortly after, with his daughter on the back. We had a good chat to him, this guy must have an awesome job, filming and riding around the world on the back of a bike... He had some damage to his bike because as he put it, he had to slam on the brakes after Charlie was doing some showing off on his bike... It all ended well, just a couple of bruises and nothing the Beemer (BMW) could not handle. The ride into L'Aghulas was a laugh, we were the only two KTM's in the BMW brigade, as we got to the southern most point there were about 200 riders lining the road, cheering and taking pictures, we just followed.
On the way home we took a detour via Elim on some dirt roads, had some mud to deal with and a bit of gravel but nothing to put us off... Seems we are getting better at this now! After Sir Lowry's Pass we spotted the convey of riders again, it had now included nearly everyone that was at L'Aghulas. We filed back in and rode through to Woodbridge Island. We had good company along the way, there was a Police vehicle clearing the way upfront and a chopper hovering left or right getting the best shots of us coming into town.
All in all, an awesome day out riding. We did over 500km's today, but on roads like ours and with this sunny weather it's fun. A couple of beers in Camps Bay ended the day nicely.

Visa Solutions...

Visa Solutions is the name of a new company we approached. They came back with the following:
Namibia no visa required

Angola visa is required

DRC visa is required

Congo visa is required

Gabon no visa required

Cameroon visa is required

Nigeria visa is required

Togo visa is required

Benin no visa is required

Ghana visa is required

Ivory Coast visa is required

Mali visa is required

Mauritania visa is required

Senegal no visa is required

Morocco visa is required

To sum it up, we need 11 visa's. I checked my SA passport and have found 14 free pages... a couple will be used up in the meantime so hopefully there will be enough space, otherwise it's back to home affairs... I'm waiting on an email to see how much it will all cost, perhaps we can get some of the visa's along the way. Fancy a bit of heckling at the border...!?!?

Out in Greyton

The first trip. On Saturday morning I clicked the panniers on the bike, all bright and shiny they are! I stuffed them full with the bare necessities and they were full, although I did take two 5l petrol tanks along. Luke and I cruised the N2 past Somerset West and over Sir Lowry's pass towards Caledon. Greyton is a short distance off the highway into the mountains. We came burning into the town, parked our bikes and walked round a little as not to disturb the tranquil peace of place.
Later that afternoon we set off to find some trails. We did. Luke led the way. First was a ride through some water, perhaps 60cm deep and some 6m long... I felt a little hesitant at first Luke powered through, done. So did I... the trail soon faded so we returned the same way, and it's a pitty there is no record of this, as half way through the water I lost direction started ploughing towards the 3m high reeds on the right, water shooting up left and right, I opened the throttle, more water was now entering my helmet and every other opening, I managed to get the bike back on track. Luke was enjoying himself, he had a good laugh... I was soaking wet. Time to get those motocross boots!
After flying along some dirt roads towards Swellendam, we found some track heading up the mountain. There was some hectic muds and deep dongas that nearly chucked us from the bike. We kept it under control, although on the steep decline with a muddy road it was difficult to control the bike. No serious damage to report. Riding these roads with these bikes is awesome, it seems this is what they are made for! The handling is awesome.
Sunday we took some back roads to Franschoek, via Theewaterskloof. The pass is great for cornering, some spots looked a little dodgy as they were damp. Riding on the tar with the KTM 640 comes with loads of vibration. Nothing we cannot handle though!