Its Time…
I think I now have everything in order and am ready to head
off “into Africa”. Ive been here in Cape Town for two and a half weeks and I
have to say that Im ready for a change J
This last week or so has been waiting for a Carne d’Passage
to arrive… David really helped me out again with this and we got it expedited
and couriered down from Johanesburg in very short order.
Its now here and the last of the bike “adjustments and
additions” have been completed, so there is no longer any reason to not get on
my way.
The modifications to the bike were:
1 Fitted Crash bars
2 Got side-box frame mounts welded up and fitted to bike.
3 Fitted Hand guards
4 Fitted and wired in GPS
5 Fitted and wired in (via relay) heated grips
6 Changed front tire to off-road tire
7 Fitted Inertia activated valves to front suspension and
added pre-load spacer.
8 Welded on larger foot pad for side stand and extended
centre-stand lever arm.
9 Fitted and wired in power outlet for tire pump.
10 Fitted Airhawk seat pad.
--- Bike already had top box, bash plate, replaced fuel pump
and regulator.
Spares purchased and packed in luggage include:
Spare tire tubes front and rear, and Puncture repair kit.
Spares set brake pads front and rear
Spares Chain and sprockets front and rear
Spare oil filtersx2, and spark plugs.
And with all that stuff added to the 50Kg of luggage that I brought from Canada, the bike was loaded up (now weighing in at probably about 280Kg +) and after a pleasant breakfast and a goodbye to Dave and Angie I headed off.
I took the main highway North from Cape Town. It took an hour for the urban areas to fall away behind me and I found myself in the rural county-side that reminded me strongly of where I grew up in Western Australia…
Its pretty arid country and there is lots of sheep farming rather than cattle. There are also lots of little copses os Eucalyptus trees (introduced from Australia). Winter is just starting here and the farmers are all very busy plowing their fields to plant grain crops (that look like they are probably wheat). Even the windmills in the fields look exactly as I remember them in WA from my childhood … In fact the only things that don’t “fit” in my memories are the small mountain ridges and the Africans sounding town names.
The plan was to make a short day of it and stop at a coastal town but I decide while riding to press on and get some distance today. As the road continues north the land becomes much more arid and at some point where I move away from a river valley, the irrigated agriculture stops and it becomes very sparse grazing land. And the trend continues till Im in what is definitely desert country with the undulating land almost completely covered in fields of large boulders and rocky outcrops. The plants are now completely native and some of them are quite unique looking trees.
And there appear to be Ferrell horses in the area too...
I find a camp ground near the town of Springbock an hour or so before dark and camp happily after a good days ride…
It would however have been just a little better I admit of the guy in the site next to me didn’t snore like a chain-saw though… Oh well, what can you do! J
