Trip Stories

Every journey is a story … here are some our riders have been telling:

‘We had a great day riding though as the weather heated up and this morning, crossed the Tropic of Capricorn. We’ve just camped by a beautiful lake and are having a barbeque under the stars. We’ve got 1,700Km under the belt now and tomorrow we’ll cross into Botswana, where we’ll spend the first night in a social enterprise project run by the San people, before heading into the world renowned Okavango Delta.

Namibia has been wild and wonderful. So deserted, it’s hard to believe that places like this exist on the Earth.’
Andy Harrington

 

‘“Did you see that herd of 25 elephants by the road?” Asked Andrew “What elephants?” I replied. I had ridden within 100 meters or so and had been scanning the other side of the road apparently. Sometimes you just go into your own head when you are riding hundreds of kilometers a day and somehow I missed them!’

 

‘Thasabu of the San people doesn’t mind if you call him a Bushman, even though it was too cold to wear his bushmen clothes. In fact he likes to be called that. He told us that as we walked with him through the Kalahari desert. He was teaching us how to find water from tubers buried underground, how to know which plants were good medicine and how to work out the age, how fresh and the gender of the tracks we were seeing. He knows so much that we in the so called developed world have no clue about.’

‘We had just ridden the Trans-Kalahari road before tackling a strength sapping sand trapped track to the reserve he lives on and were staying as guest at Dqae Qare lodge. It’s a social enterprise project that allows the San people of the Kalahari to make a decent living and also to preserve their culture. The night before, we had been stargazing with Greg, the project manager, a wonderful guy who is deeply committed to the San people and the future they envisage. Greg by the way is an avid amateur astronomer and brought out his telescope for us to look through. The Southern skies have so many more stars and we stared in amazement at the ring nebula, a cloud of a million white dwarfs and the rings of Saturn. It was literally a luminous experience.’
Andy Harrington

 

‘As I write this we have traveled another 200 Km and we are in the Okavango Delta. The sun is rising over the river we are camped by and the dawn chorus of birdsong has awakened us. We are having a life experience every day, from racing herds of ostriches along the side of the road to tackling crazy tracks that turn into sandpits 2 feet deep, to meeting incredible people. We never know what’s coming next and to be honest, we like it that way.’
Andy Harrington

 

‘On our first day we finally got off the pavement and hit the gravel road. The riding was technical, the scenery breathtaking, and almost right away we had company; a group of warthogs who were running along side the bikes racing us. But 750cc of Africa Twin is no match for a warthog and soon they were left behind only to come across the first of many giraffes, beautiful and majestic grazing in the trees next to the road.’ Alexa Coderre

 

‘After a long day of riding there is nothing better than a cold beer. It’s not often that while enjoying that beer you can sit in front of a watering hole and watch the circle of life play out. Our group was divided between team croc and team warthog but in the end the warthog narrowly escaped and lived to see another day.’ Alexa Coderre

 

‘We went out a game drive and were lucky enough to observed and photograph a great number of animals that are indigenous to Africa. The giraffes were everywhere as were the hyenas, and springbok. We even saw a lioness and her cub. It was brilliant and an experience of a lifetime. Upon returning from the drive, Andrew had prepared a traditional supper, prepared in cast iron pots, and slow cooked over a fire. It was amazing. Cold beer in hand, I embraced the day.’ Steve Chin

    

 

‘Next day we went out on the reserve with Khao, our San guide, who showed us how to track animals, recognise them by their droppings and how to light a fire. Dqae Qare was a great place to stay, the accommodation was clean and comfortable and the meals were fantastic, prepared and served by San women. Outside the bar/restaurant was a floodlit waterhole where game came in to drink at all hours.’ Owen Holcome