Cape 2 Cairo 2 Cape Blog

Day 1 Cape town- Keetmanshoop, Namibia 1050km

Cape Town was freezing on Thursday, even I was cold as I sat in the back-up vehicle trying to get cozy with the seat. As we drove into the night, all you could see was red, streaking as all 20 motorcycles were banking around the up ramp and onto the highway. It was quite a beautiful sight because I too was sharing that huge sense of excitement with the group as we left the city limits. I think my dad (Doc) put it the best, “those bikes are singing right now” and I think it meant more than just as a reference to their engines humming down the road. This day had finally come for everyone- our spirts singing knots into our stomaches because we were embarking on a trip of a lifetime.

Up at about 3:30 am on thursday morning after only two hours of sleep I stumbled my way from the shower down to the restaurant where for the first time in my life did I have a full breakfast at that hour. Along with a bunch of the other guys we hammered down everything from cerial, eggs, meat candy (bacon) and potatoes along with coffee and guava juice to wash it all down. Everyone’s appetite seemed to be in good order regardless of Ray and Alain sitting at the head of the table in their superman tight under armor for the chilly weather outside. You can’t pay anyone to look that good, and that’s the truth. Unfortunately for everyone the weather was a littlebit dreary outside, but the farewell turnout was everything BUT that. We had wives, kids, nefews, strangers, people of all sorts who came to say good bye to their loved ones, or to just take a look at all the commotion going on outside the hotel. The turn but the turnout was really really good and I’m sure that everyone felt just a little bit sad to be leaving for so long under their veil of excitement. But off we went, and here we are, more than 2000 km closer to Cairo.

Most of the morning was quite hairy in my oppinion, the rain was falling so hard that it was even difficult for us to see at times. At dinner last night we heard some horror stories about it being so wet on some parts of the road that the guy’s were actualy spinning their back tires at speed while others were at points drifting over the gravel (gracefully and with style I’d imagine). When we got to the refueling stops you could tell that some of the guys were not in the mood to be cheerful. But I know that as we went through the Namakwaland (which was incredibly green, maybe meaning spectacular flowers later in september) and Richtrersveld they had something to be happy about. There were actually some point where I felt like we weren’t in South Africa anymore because it was so vast and desolate. There is a lot of beauty in nothing-ness because it seems like in this day and age it’s so rare to find a place thats between nothing and nowhere and when we finally got to Namibia, I found that place exactly. I swear you could have filmed a moon lunar landing on this scene. Dark grey and black hills, scattered with rocks where you literally have enough span to see the curviture of the earth. Incredible sights, just INCRRREDIBLE! as Ray likes to say and after another few hours of chugging, we finally arrived at our destination Keetmanshoop.

Moon landing

A nice part of the night is a little group meeting that I hear Ray always holds to talk about the day. We basically went around the whole room to see what everyone enjoyed or didn’t enjoy. The vibes were good, which is important because it seemed as if everyone was getting a feel of who they enjoyed riding with more so than others. It’s just a matter or preference as we saw yesterday- some guys like let rip and go, and others like to sit in the back and cruise there is a little rule though that everyone HAS to stay together because if the group lags then so does down time. A few of the guys were in disagreement with this so we had a bit of discussion about it during dinner.

The way it works… (to those that don’t know) is that we have a few specified stops for petrol, short sight seeing, and down time. This trip is about adventure travel so if people are late to leave at the requested time then the backup crew (as the riders were informed) is instructed to leave on time because to anyone who’s checked out our itinerary, you’d know our schedule is tight. Backup is important to the riders because if they break down we can fix their bikes, or pick them up so that they aren’t stranded. Backup also drives an average of 90 km an hour so our actual time driving is a lot more than the motorcyclists who can easily cruise comfortably at 140 kmph if they must. If we don’t leave on time, and someone breaks down, and we’re 50 km behind the second to last rider. This trip is going to take some teamwork on everyones part.

Today we’ve been on the road for 14 and a half hours in the back-up- 1100 km later we’re due to arrive in Rundu within the hour but in the dark. Tomorrow, up at 4 leave by 5 with only 600 km to the next stop in the Caprivi . Only another day away from Livingston and Victoria falls!

This is a  trip big deal to everyone, to Ray for organizing it and to the people who are using it as a platform to experience things that will most likely change their lives forever. These guys have worked hard with and without Cytech to fix up their bikes and train in the many different aspects of motorcycling that are necessary to be a more prepared rider for Africa. They are going to be physically and mentally pushed but thats all part of the fun. An adventure wouldn’t be an adventure if it was gonna be easy…

Today was the typical travel prep day. Ray called the room at 6 am this morning to get us to help with all the work it takes to budget for the trip. It’s a scene that you can’t appreciate until you see it for  yourself. “Comon Dirkie, come take photos boet, this is great stuff” was the basic idea when after 3 minutes of calling us he showed up at our room urging us on even more. First thing I see is Alain sitting on the bed in his skimpy undies oranizing every cent of budgeted cash towards petrol and diesel so that each vehicle can get by during the trip. First thing that Alain sees is my dad flying through the air ready for a power hug. It was quite a sight to see, and the photos really dont do it much justice. But tour operating, is a big business boetie, let me tell you.

After breakfast the four of us, along with the rest of the crew Arthur and Ig started our brief on where everything is on the trucks, all the legal documents when entering a foreign country, and a medical clinic with Les. Going through the medical kits is eye opening but very necessary if something were to happen on the trip. For interests sake, we have with us not one, two, or three medical kids.. but FOUR different medical bags! Cytech comes prepared and thats good to know. There is a lot of emphasis on malaria saftey (I just started my once a day doses for the next 5-6 weeks) which is one of the biggest threats in Africa today. But just like Les was telling us, “Chances are that we’d never have to use any of this, but if we do, at least we came prepared if it did”.

After all the serious business everyone kinda went and did their own thing-  ranging anywhere from spending time with the family to buying rubber snakes and masks for some good ole pranks. I’ve unfortunately never been a part of these pranks before, but as I hear that people in Africa are hell scared of snakes and that if one unexpectedly jumped out from behind the car door, or flung itself out of your window, it could cause some chaos. Even today when we were playing round with one,  a guard took off running down the street when he saw Ray toying around with it while acting like he was biting the head off.

It is no joke that all of these guys are excited. All the chatting and loud laughter is a good cover for their anticipation for the trip starting at 5 am tomorrow sharp.You’re “Locking and Loading” and “Rocking and Rolling” is a term that everyone is going to become very familiar with. It’s basically Rays way of telling everyone “be there 15 minutes ahead, because I’m leaving without you when it’s time to “rock and roll” away”. A consistent system is the best way to get everything moving smoothly on a cross continental trip like this, to these guys, and myself included sleeping in is going to be a thing of that past. In the past couple of days there has been a lot of scrambling across South Africa in  order for everyone to make it to Cape Town on time. Some guys drove their bikes down, some put them on the train, and as I write this I can still hear guys pulling their bikes around the building after probably doing a quick last minute check to make sure everything is in working order. At dinner I could smell the anticipation brewing, everyone is ready to hit the road tomorrow and I’m ready to go as well.

4 days before the trip…

After a 14 hour day at Cytech we finally crawled through our farm gates near Fochville. After averaging about 80km an hour while trying to figure out a good pace for Silverback. I started packing right away having tried to shove my only 4 shirts, a pair of pants, some shorts and 3 pairs of socks into my bag so that I could hit the Z’s as soon as possible. I have some experience packing light- Last year I spent my summer riding my bicycle 7000km from one side of the United States to the other and 100+ km days demanded light weight “high-tech” gear. Every clothing article of mine fits into a stuff sack thats about 40 x 12 cm and the rest of my gear includes the 5 tons of photography gear that I decided to bring with. I tried my hardest to justify why to take one of the big badass tours for africa bags that were given to us.. but I just couldnt get past the fact that I actually managed to fit my way into the bag almost entirely!!

After a restless 4 hours of sleep we were up at 4 am (once again!) and ready to hit the road thirty minutes later, in route to take the two vehicles with Doc, Ig, Arthur and his wife Dot riding passanger. In classic adventuring fashion not even an hour after starting the trip right near potch, we fell victim to some serious road rage to a guy who was crazy enough to weave inbetween the two vehicles, roll his window down, and scream “Sit jou F*kken brights af man! is jy mal?, die pad is nie net vir julle nie!”  to which my dad responded in a typical boer fashion with the same level of agression waving his arms, signalling, and shouting back. So there we are at 5: 30am having this battle verbal fight, windows down, tempers flaring, at 80 kmph to a man who is mad at us for thinking we’re trying to blind him. I was just waiting for this guy to pull a gun out and start using the side of the truck as target practice. We had really ruined his morning…some how. As we understand it the guy thought we were brighting him when we drove behind him on an earlier occasion. I find it hard to believe that you still have some wackjobs like that floating around. In this day and age I can’t think of a more dangerous thing than to try and start a fight on a dark highway in basically the middle of no where. Either way, I guess he made my morning a little more interesting.

The sports didn’t stop there though, we had a run in with the PO-PO because of an apparent speeding violation right near Christinana. As luck had it, the ONE time we manage to break the speed limit (which was also the ONE time we managed to get the truck rolling faster than 80kmph) a black police woman steps into the road and signals for us to pull over. To make a long story short we told the woman that we were in a “race” to get to Cape Town and that we’re meeting the motorcycles there today and that we can’t be late. After some uncertain looks she responded that it would be unfair to not give us a ticket when the other gentlemen who had his hands on his head looking miserable in front of us. With a strike of luck about two minutes later we left the scene with 3 smiles on our faces as I thought to myself “only in Africa!”

On sunday we drove 1020 km and pulled into a really nice guest house near 3 sisters which used to be a secret South African airforce air stripe during world war 2. We spend a partially unrestful night hacking and coughing having some how gotten sick on the airplane (go figure) and the next morning we were up and out again toward cape town with another 500 or so km to go. As we pulled out of the gate the truck would all but crawl forward, and then finally realizing to my dads embarassment that he was pumping the break at the same time as the gas pedal because of his apparent “big” foot! We saw some baboons car watching today and yesterday some monkeys playing on the road. We also drove through a huge section of road where locusts were hitting the car like hail, I’d say it was a good trip south to test out these vehicles. Gat seer and tired, we made it to Cape Town with no other significant mishapes. I must admit though, adventures always seem to be the little inconveniences that happen on the trip and that turn into good stories after everything turns out alright. It’s funny how things work, and it’s oh so very true.

I think in the past 5 days that I’ve been here in South Africa that I’ve gotten up no later than 4: 30 am and I’ve heard that it’s going to be pretty on par with the intense itinerary as we head north. On the first day we’re going to be pushing to complete more than 1300 km’s!! In short, these are to be the countries we will cross in the span of what is scheduled to be about 39 days-

1. South Africa
2. Namibia
3. Zambia
4. Malawi
5. Tanzinia
6. Kenya
7. Uganda
8. Rwanda
9. Ethiopia
10. Sudan
11. Egypt

And after the northernly route is completed, there will be a Cairo to Cape trip heading south a few days after.

…and i promise, the next update will include some stories and some good photos

It’s no joke that preparing for a cross continental expedition is an adventure in itself. Since I was about 5 I’ve been hearing stories about Cytech expeditions from my Dad (Doc) and Ray and have dreamed about one day going on one for myself. Well today I can say that this dream is about to become a reality. My name is Dirk, I’m 22 years old, and it’s my job on the Cytech Cape To Cairo 2011 crew to keep everyone back home updated on everything going on from South Africa to Egypt on an almost daily basis. That means that everyone logging in, will be able to see photos, read stories, and sometimes even get to see video clips about what life is like on the road with Cytech. If you haven’t booked a seat on this Cape to Cairo trip, it’s going to be the best seat that you can get. Surely it will inspire, entertain, and motivate everyone to get up and go on an adventure as it did to me such a long time ago.

All I can say for myself is that this trip for me is going to be a life changer, as it usually seems to be when you put yourself outside of your comfort zone. I encourage everyone to leave comments and give feed back about the things you want to hear about. I’m very good at typing (maybe even the best in the world- only joking) so you can count on having a very swift response! As for myself, I don’t have too many high expectations besides to have the adventure of a lifetime. Hopefully I’ll learn a little bit about myself, the people I’m traveling with, and the world that I live in.

To me there no simpler wish, and no bigger reward.