South Africa - With Bikes
Finally after a month of waiting the bikes arrived. I was beginning to think I had dreamed the whole motorbike part of the trip up, somehow in a delusional haze, and that I was just in fact a normal car renting tourist.. But sure enough the bikes landed and I had not dreamed the whole thing up and yes we were really going to drive them through Africa to Ireland. We met the bikes at the cargo warehouse but we didn’t have any crate busting tools with us, nor did the warehouse but some of the lads there lent us a shoddy hammer and a screw driver which did the trick….. and just like that we were off. We had lost distance to make up for and we were determined to do it.
One of my rules is to never drive at night, it’s too dangerous, especially in Africa. But of course I make my rules and therefore have a tendency to break them relentlessly. Day one we were late leaving as we had to do a quick tire change and of course we had to stop for a fancy lunch at a vineyard which meant some night riding to reach our first destination of Knysna.
Knysna is a beautiful town on the coast surrounded by luscious parks and it is on South Africa’s famed Garden Route. Wayne my old boss from Rogue Moving (but more importantly Cork) moved here a few years ago with his lovely family after he sold his business to us. And now Wayne is living the life of a country gentleman in a great big house with pet pigs, chickens, dogs and a cat. A lovely sort of semi retirement. Wayne was good enough to put us up for two nights and we did a mini exploration of the surrounding area.
From Knysna we went to Port Alfred and camped for the first time on this trip, pretty cold.. And from Port Alfred we did a long day through the Transkei to Coffee Beach. During the apartheid times the Transkei was a separate state within South Africa, nominally independent at the time. And it is now considered part of the Eastern Cape. It has beautiful hut covered green rolling hills that descend to the wild Indian Ocean. Much of the Transkei coast is underdeveloped, a state of existence which is perhaps for the best, this scenic wild coast does not need to be ruined by seaside high rises. I had stayed at Coffee Beach eighteen years ago and Stephen and I had gotten caught in a rip current while trying to rescue a kid that was in trouble. The kid got to safety but Stephen and I got stuck in the rip. Eventually after much struggling we began dipping beneath the waves and so we decided to start heading cross ways to some jagged cliffy rock shoreline. Better the dangerous rocks than the no breathing under water. I got trounced across the rocks by waves and cut up my hands, feet and chest. It was pretty bad and took a few weeks to heal but we were both lucky to not have drowned. There are some powerful rip currents out there so be careful kids!
On Coffee beach we stayed in a lovely cabin overlooking the sea where schools of dolphins, thirty at a time would play in the rolling waves. Paradise on Earth. The cabins had been recommended to us by Larry and Sharon, a nice South African couple we met on the side of the road, they were staying there too and they too had driven motorbikes the length of Africa…twice! And so we spent the evening with Larry and Sharon and poured over maps and discussed routes and issues. Great to meet people who have done it before to get the low down. At Coffee Beach we for the most part hiked along the stunning coastline.
After Coffee Beach we headed North for a long days driving to the city of Durban. I suppose Durban is best known for its lovely climate and large Indian population. We used our stop off there to change oil and run errands…. Even on holiday there is always errands… From Durban our plan was to do an East bound turn and head inland to Lesotho..
