The North West

Warm greetings to you all,

This comes to you from the South Western Kalahari desert region, specifically a small dusty desert town called Augrabies. The world cup is over, the vuvuzelas are no more, the landscape surrounding us right now is out of this world and we are about to take our first hot air baloon ride over the Kalahari desert. But first, let's take a quick step back...

Since we last spoke we have journeyed again through the magical Kruger National Park, struggled to recite words to old songs singing through our helmet intercom systems, spent great time with friends from the past and present, devoured copious ammounts of the worlds greatest biltong that now resides blissfully above my belt, and battled with severe weight overload on Yele (our trusty steed).
I've said it before and I will say it again, no matter how many times you experience the Kruger, each visit seems to surpass the one before. On this occasion, we came between an elephant matriarch and one of it's baby clan. See me for what not to do in such an occasion. Hint: Keep your entire body in the car and have the car in gear for an emergency get away! We were unbelievably lucky to have come face to face with two male lions on the road and perhaps even more fortunate to have been able to sit alongside a young leopard who was absolutely gorgeous. All pics of animals at Kruger by Paul, Karla and Joshua (my 7 year old nephew who takes unbelievable photos!)


















After spending some great time with friends and family and in a whirlwind of emotions, we loaded up Yele for our departure and soon realised that we were going to have some issues. Karla could almost not fit on the bike! Some major reshuffling of gear and decisions to leave some things behind happened and just like that we were off! Heading west....

We journeyed through and stayed in small towns, ate food, slept in freezing rooms and came to grips with how we would be spending the next six months. We have a fantastic intercom system, this allowed to us to talk and sing and look absolutely ridiculous to passing cars. There were at times hands in the air as we remembered those good ole days although each song recital was short lived due to not being able to remember much.

Yele is runnning amazingly well considering the load. Fuel stops thus far are easily achievable with a little planning although we have two jerries on board for those long stretches. The general rule seems to be, if you see a fuel station, fill her up, regardless of when last you did. The roads thus far have been absolutely incredible, everything was majorly upgraded for the world cup so right now all roads, around Johannesburg at least, are amazing to drive on. I have heard however that the tolling system will commence soon and then it remains to be seen what happens in terms of usage etc.

As for where we are now, the Kalahari region is an amazing place. The light and colours leave for amazing photographs. These pics don't really do the place justice but the space and silence can at times be quite astounding. For the most part thus far, I get off the bike and all I can hear is my head ringing. I look out through the desert plains and all I can hear is my buzzing ears. I tell myself, the silence is amazing, but I am waiting to hear what happens when there is no ringing in my ears. Watch this space... We have experienced serious wind while driving too. As we are a moving mass of just under 400 kg's every big gust of wind has us leaning into the wind at sometimes quite unnerving angles. Never mind...

This is however our last stop in South Africa. Tomorrow we head over the border into Namibia. We are expecting good times and even more wide open spaces. They tell me that the biltong is even better there than here, bring that on I say!

Hoping that all in your lives is happy and healthy.

Big love

P and K xxx

Phase 1 - The wheels and life in SA

Greetings,



(I was running around the local neighbourhood the other day and noticed this on a neighbour's fence. To me, it is an interesting and humorous representation of life in Johannesburg right now. Many people have electric fences such as these surrounding their properties. An interesting place to show support of your country).


Welcome to South Africa. We are in the throes of world cup fever! The drone of the vuvuzelas is inescapable, they simply have to be heard to be believed, from what I hear however, the world is very aware of them and you either love them or you hate them. For most, it is the latter.

Meet Yele, our wheels and companion for the grand voyage north. Everything has come together quite nicely. Next weekend she will go in for a suspension overhaul, a major service and some new rubber shoes to ensure she is in the best possible shape for the epic journey.






Somehow, those panniers and a bag that is not visible in these shots contain all that will carry Karla and I through the next nine months of travelling. I have learnt that there are fuel concerns in certain places. Somtimes, there simply isn't any. To this end we will be travelling with an additional 2 x 5L jerries that sit atop the panniers for those long open desert runs. Expect images of the fully loaded bike with it's pilots in the next update.

Life here in South Africa is rather different in some ways if you are a motorcyclist. Speed signs are treated as an advisory rather than as a rule. If you ride a motorbike, it is expected that you will cut lanes, cars actually move over for you (I love that!). Interestingly, most motorcycles have no number plates. I asked a couple of racey looking chaps what that was all about, they replied simply by informing me that noone would even try and catch these guys, it would be a total waste of time (wish I had my old R6 here).

Karla will be here this weekend, a few days of acclimitisation for her and then we are off to Kruger National Park for a week with my family. We figure on an additional week after that for some socialising and then we will head off in a westerly direction into the sands of Namibia. Expect the next update from there.

To those of you whose countries are still in the world cup, best of luck to you all, there is every chance you might just make it, especially if you are aware of the recent French catastrophes and the woeful English. Our Tasman counterparts the Kiwis even managed a draw with the world champions Italy yesterday. Go figure...

Until next time, be well and masses of love to you all.

P and K

xxx

It's on...

Greetings to one and all.

As most of you will now be aware, the time has come for us to depart the lovely city of Melbourne and indeed temporarily Australia. Karla and I are heading off on an 8 month jaunt through Africa, UK and India and culminating in us relocating to Brisbane in Febuary 2011. It goes a little something like this...

In a little over one week from now I will be leaving from Sydney to Johannesburg (arriving on the 27th May 2010) via Singapore. Once there, I will be spending most of the first few weeks ensuring that our new transport for the next six months has all that she is likely to need for the great trip north. She is a 2009 model Yamaha XT660Z Tenere and she looks the goods, I will look to attach some pics shortly.

Karla will join me about a month later, our trip commences in Johannesburg and travels west into Namibia. We head up the west coast of Namibia before cutting across into Botswana and then Zimbabwe, Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi, Tanzania, Rwanda and Uganda. Once we get here, Karla will be spending a month doing some volunteer nursing work and I will do something else. From there we head up into Ethiopia and then back down into Kenya from where we fly out in early December. Next stop, London, England....

A few days before Christmas we arrive in London and we will be here for approximately three weeks. I envisage quite a crazy time as there are a lot of people that we would like to see due to the fact that we have not been since we left which by the time we get back will be around five years!!! We are looking forward to catching up with all who are still around so do please get in contact close to the time.

From London we fly to Delhi, India. We will be travelling to Calcutta, hopefully by motorcycle but we will see how we go on that one a little later on based on what sort of options we have available to us when we arrive there. Six weeks cruising through India before boarding our flight to our last stop on this trip, Brisbane, Australia.

Brisbane is going to be our new home from 2011! Melbourne has been unbelievable for us both and we don't really have anything negative to say about it at all, but the reality is that we have decided to be closer to Karla's family. That and the fact that the weather has started to turn here and Brisbane is so much warmer! We feel that it is a good time for a change as we have been here for four years now. It also makes sense to move coming off the back of our grand voyage so at present in Brunswick East, the boxing and packing up has started!

It would be absolutely grand if you could all click on the "Subscribe via email" link on the home page, this will then email you whenever we update the blog. Please bear in mind that this might only be once a month depending on where we are but we will do our best to post stories and photos as often as we are able to.

So, if you are in SA in around May/June then let us know and we will catch up for some beers. Post a note on this blog. Neither Karla or I use Facebook so please don't expect anything on that front. The idea of this methodology is that we will write in some tales and stories of our adventures as and when we can. They will be aimed at everyone, you can read them, or you won't.

To those in London town, we are massively looking forward to seeing you all so please use this blog or email to keep in touch. We will be in town from the 23rd December but let's aim for between xmas and new years.

To those we are leaving behind in Melbourne, thanks for the memories and for helping us make Melbourne home, looking forward to catching up soon.

Masses of love to you all.

P and K

xxx