On this section I would like to write about how it has been riding in the 4 countries I have done so far.
The first change I had to get used to was riding on the left. It was a bit difficult in the beginning and it still requires some thinking before you turn specially turning right. It is more tricky when there are no other vehicles around because you cannot follow them. With nearly 8,000kms of practice it is becoming more normal.
One of the decisions one has to make on these trips is what tire to use. You can use a normal road tire (not recommended), a more 80 (road)/20 (off-road) type of tire, or a 50/50 tire. I decided to use 50/50 off-road tires. I am using Michelin Anakee Wilds and Continental TKC80. I have done nearly 8,000 kms on them and they need to get changed so I would say they last max 8,000 kms.
Apart from a number of cites in South Africa, Windhoek in Namibia and other capital cities, you cannot get these tires anywhere so I would strongly recommend you carry a front and a back tire with you in these trips. I was only carrying a back tire because I thought I would need to exchange it in the middle of the trip but in the end that was not necessary. However I had an issue with a puncture on my front tire that showed to me that if the tire was slashed I would not be able to get one for days so I have now decided to carry a set of tires (front and back), as well as a set of tubes with me.
I am very happy with the choice of the more off-road tires as they are best in my opinion to withstand the harsh conditions of the roads, even when in asphalt, and they have the advantage of giving extra grip when going off-road.
Videos of some of the roads
South Africa
It is like driving in Europe or United States. Conditions of roads are very good, out of the cities there is not too much traffic and in general I have found the drivers not too aggressive (compared with Morocco or even with Italy). They do not move in the lane when they see a motorcycle so you have to be extra careful when weaving your way through the traffic and you cannot move as fast as you move in Europe where drivers most of the time move a bit to let you pass.
There is strong police presence on the roads with radar so do not recommend going over the speed limits on the highways. In the Free State (one of the provinces in South Africa) I saw more police per km than anywhere else I have ridden. There must have been speed checking with radar guns every 50kms or so.
In general we had good weather and encountered no rain. On the entrance to Cape Town we had to cross some passes and got hammered a bit by high winds.
You do encounter quite a lot of road works going on as they are keeping the roads in good condition.
All of the roads we did were asphalt and I would say you probably do not need to be off asphalt to visit most the places you want to go to.
Most places we rode had well kept fences on both sides of the road so you rarely see animals on the side of the road.
We had no issue with gas and there was gas and quality of it was good (95).
Most roads speed limit was 120km/h.
Namibia
We spent about 30% of our ride through Namibia on off-road so you would need to have an adventure type of motorcycle to visit some of the must see places. Conditions of the asphalt roads were very good. Very similar to South Africa. Conditions of the off-roads vary greatly and I would recommend you do practice extensively on riding off-road before attempting doing these roads. The distances are very long and you would need to feel comfortable riding for 4 to 5 hours under these conditions before attempting to do this in a foreign country. Do NOT recommend you take a passenger on these roads as there are plenty of places where the bike loses traction on the back tire and your passenger and you will not enjoy this. I would recommend you bring down the tire pressure to about 1.3-1.5 bar on both tires.
Close to Luderitz (actually anywhere close to the coast) there was a lot of wind and win some cases there was a lot of sand being blown into the road and thus on the bike and myself, so I would advise you only attempt this if you are comfortable riding under strong windy conditions. If you are an experienced rider then this should not be an issue, if not be careful.
We did not see much police presence. We kept to speed limits (most of the time it was 120km/h) on the asphalt roads. On the off-road sections, there was no speed limits mentioned but we kept to about 80-100 km/h, but in some very rutty sections the car had to go down to 30-40km/h. The bike can easily keep an higher speed.
We had to be a bit more careful with gas as there are long sections without gas presence. We got a map which showed where there was gas and were quite careful to fill up every time we would start a longer section without gas presence. As we never did any day longer than 500kms we knew we could fill up once per day and pretty much be ok wth gas as we had more than 500 kms autonomy.
As the country is sparsely populated there is not a lot of traffic on the road. Most of the time we would go a long time before we passed another car. Although we saw many more cars, even Windhoek has only 350,000 people so not a lot.�We did catch high temperatures in the desert and low temperature by the coast. I would recommend the use of a CamelBack.
Botswana
Road conditions were much more tricky in Botswana. It is night and day when compared to South Africa and Namibia.
The biggest problems are holes in the asphalt and lose animals on the road.
When I speak about holes, I am not speaking about normal size holes you may see in a road in a western country. I am speaking about huge craters that if your wheel goes in there you most probably will have a flat and may even fall. There is a possibility your wheel will be damaged and you may even have a suspension issue. And you have kms and kms like this. These holes are on both sides of the road so oncoming traffic is also trying to deal with them. On the bike things are a bit easier because most of the time you can weave through the holes, but in a car you cannot escape all the holes, so you have to decrease significantly your speed to make it.
Adding to this the donkeys, horses, cattle and goats that are grazing on the side of the road and now and then decide to cross it makes riding in Botswana quite dangerous. You have to be super alert and cannot go at speeds higher than 100km/h and you will probably average 80km/h.
We did not see a lot of police presence and you do cross quite a lot of trucks as they use these roads to do the distribution of goods throughout the country.
We stayed only on asphalt roads in Botswana but we did have to do some off-road (very little) in some parts where they may have been working on the road. No major issues though.
We did not cross any mountains or passes in Botswana and also did not get any rain and there were no strong wind conditions. we did encounter high temperatures so riding early in the day and CamelBacks are strongly suggested.
Drivers are courteous and give right of way and we did not feel any issues with over aggressive driving. In general they keep to speed limits.
On the towns you have to be careful with pedestrian traffic as they walk and stand by the side of the road asking for lifts.
Wild animals are seen by Botswana as strong source of income so there is a strong policy against poaching, so you do see them on the road. There are usually warnings against wild animals and in some places you are strongly advised to be careful when stopping by the side of the road. We did see elephants and buffalo as well as different types of antelope on the road. There is a strong temptation to try to get close for a picture when you see one of these more unusual animals but do remember that motorcycles do not have a reverse gear and you should always have an escape route in case they charge you. Their recommendation is not to come closer than 50m from these animals.
Mozambique
So far only spent a couple of days riding in Mozambique. One day in Maputo and the other traveling to South Africa. Will update this as we do another 10 days shortly.
Road conditions were better than Botswana but not as good as South Africa. Cars are older and specially in Maputo you have to be very careful with pedestrians. There are a lot of people on the road selling goods, walking, catching lifts, crossing etc. so strong suggestion is have loud pipes and significantly decrease speed, so you pre-warn them you are coming and if they do not see you, you have time to take evasive action.
Saw little police presence on the road. Outside Maputo traffic was quite low. There are lose animals on the road but not as much as in Botswana.
Drivers are not too aggressive but like the other countries in Africa, they are not used to have big bikes come past them in the middle of the traffic so you need to do this in a careful manner.
Met some road works and the way they do it is that they work on one of the lanes and use the other lane for traffic so you have to wait your turn. Sometimes these sections are quite long and so is the wait for your turn, so it is an opportunity to get off the bike and stretch the legs. If I could (sometimes there was not enough space to squeeze through), I always went to the front of the line and was the first one to go when it was our chance to move.
I only traveled on asphalt roads but sometimes the wind has blown sand or debris on the middle of the road so I do recommend having off-road tires and adventure type of motorcycles.
The first change I had to get used to was riding on the left. It was a bit difficult in the beginning and it still requires some thinking before you turn specially turning right. It is more tricky when there are no other vehicles around because you cannot follow them. With nearly 8,000kms of practice it is becoming more normal.
One of the decisions one has to make on these trips is what tire to use. You can use a normal road tire (not recommended), a more 80 (road)/20 (off-road) type of tire, or a 50/50 tire. I decided to use 50/50 off-road tires. I am using Michelin Anakee Wilds and Continental TKC80. I have done nearly 8,000 kms on them and they need to get changed so I would say they last max 8,000 kms.
Apart from a number of cites in South Africa, Windhoek in Namibia and other capital cities, you cannot get these tires anywhere so I would strongly recommend you carry a front and a back tire with you in these trips. I was only carrying a back tire because I thought I would need to exchange it in the middle of the trip but in the end that was not necessary. However I had an issue with a puncture on my front tire that showed to me that if the tire was slashed I would not be able to get one for days so I have now decided to carry a set of tires (front and back), as well as a set of tubes with me.
I am very happy with the choice of the more off-road tires as they are best in my opinion to withstand the harsh conditions of the roads, even when in asphalt, and they have the advantage of giving extra grip when going off-road.
Videos of some of the roads
South Africa
It is like driving in Europe or United States. Conditions of roads are very good, out of the cities there is not too much traffic and in general I have found the drivers not too aggressive (compared with Morocco or even with Italy). They do not move in the lane when they see a motorcycle so you have to be extra careful when weaving your way through the traffic and you cannot move as fast as you move in Europe where drivers most of the time move a bit to let you pass.
There is strong police presence on the roads with radar so do not recommend going over the speed limits on the highways. In the Free State (one of the provinces in South Africa) I saw more police per km than anywhere else I have ridden. There must have been speed checking with radar guns every 50kms or so.
In general we had good weather and encountered no rain. On the entrance to Cape Town we had to cross some passes and got hammered a bit by high winds.
You do encounter quite a lot of road works going on as they are keeping the roads in good condition.
All of the roads we did were asphalt and I would say you probably do not need to be off asphalt to visit most the places you want to go to.
Most places we rode had well kept fences on both sides of the road so you rarely see animals on the side of the road.
We had no issue with gas and there was gas and quality of it was good (95).
Most roads speed limit was 120km/h.
Namibia
We spent about 30% of our ride through Namibia on off-road so you would need to have an adventure type of motorcycle to visit some of the must see places. Conditions of the asphalt roads were very good. Very similar to South Africa. Conditions of the off-roads vary greatly and I would recommend you do practice extensively on riding off-road before attempting doing these roads. The distances are very long and you would need to feel comfortable riding for 4 to 5 hours under these conditions before attempting to do this in a foreign country. Do NOT recommend you take a passenger on these roads as there are plenty of places where the bike loses traction on the back tire and your passenger and you will not enjoy this. I would recommend you bring down the tire pressure to about 1.3-1.5 bar on both tires.
Close to Luderitz (actually anywhere close to the coast) there was a lot of wind and win some cases there was a lot of sand being blown into the road and thus on the bike and myself, so I would advise you only attempt this if you are comfortable riding under strong windy conditions. If you are an experienced rider then this should not be an issue, if not be careful.
We did not see much police presence. We kept to speed limits (most of the time it was 120km/h) on the asphalt roads. On the off-road sections, there was no speed limits mentioned but we kept to about 80-100 km/h, but in some very rutty sections the car had to go down to 30-40km/h. The bike can easily keep an higher speed.
We had to be a bit more careful with gas as there are long sections without gas presence. We got a map which showed where there was gas and were quite careful to fill up every time we would start a longer section without gas presence. As we never did any day longer than 500kms we knew we could fill up once per day and pretty much be ok wth gas as we had more than 500 kms autonomy.
As the country is sparsely populated there is not a lot of traffic on the road. Most of the time we would go a long time before we passed another car. Although we saw many more cars, even Windhoek has only 350,000 people so not a lot.�We did catch high temperatures in the desert and low temperature by the coast. I would recommend the use of a CamelBack.
Botswana
Road conditions were much more tricky in Botswana. It is night and day when compared to South Africa and Namibia.
The biggest problems are holes in the asphalt and lose animals on the road.
When I speak about holes, I am not speaking about normal size holes you may see in a road in a western country. I am speaking about huge craters that if your wheel goes in there you most probably will have a flat and may even fall. There is a possibility your wheel will be damaged and you may even have a suspension issue. And you have kms and kms like this. These holes are on both sides of the road so oncoming traffic is also trying to deal with them. On the bike things are a bit easier because most of the time you can weave through the holes, but in a car you cannot escape all the holes, so you have to decrease significantly your speed to make it.
Adding to this the donkeys, horses, cattle and goats that are grazing on the side of the road and now and then decide to cross it makes riding in Botswana quite dangerous. You have to be super alert and cannot go at speeds higher than 100km/h and you will probably average 80km/h.
We did not see a lot of police presence and you do cross quite a lot of trucks as they use these roads to do the distribution of goods throughout the country.
We stayed only on asphalt roads in Botswana but we did have to do some off-road (very little) in some parts where they may have been working on the road. No major issues though.
We did not cross any mountains or passes in Botswana and also did not get any rain and there were no strong wind conditions. we did encounter high temperatures so riding early in the day and CamelBacks are strongly suggested.
Drivers are courteous and give right of way and we did not feel any issues with over aggressive driving. In general they keep to speed limits.
On the towns you have to be careful with pedestrian traffic as they walk and stand by the side of the road asking for lifts.
Wild animals are seen by Botswana as strong source of income so there is a strong policy against poaching, so you do see them on the road. There are usually warnings against wild animals and in some places you are strongly advised to be careful when stopping by the side of the road. We did see elephants and buffalo as well as different types of antelope on the road. There is a strong temptation to try to get close for a picture when you see one of these more unusual animals but do remember that motorcycles do not have a reverse gear and you should always have an escape route in case they charge you. Their recommendation is not to come closer than 50m from these animals.
Mozambique
So far only spent a couple of days riding in Mozambique. One day in Maputo and the other traveling to South Africa. Will update this as we do another 10 days shortly.
Road conditions were better than Botswana but not as good as South Africa. Cars are older and specially in Maputo you have to be very careful with pedestrians. There are a lot of people on the road selling goods, walking, catching lifts, crossing etc. so strong suggestion is have loud pipes and significantly decrease speed, so you pre-warn them you are coming and if they do not see you, you have time to take evasive action.
Saw little police presence on the road. Outside Maputo traffic was quite low. There are lose animals on the road but not as much as in Botswana.
Drivers are not too aggressive but like the other countries in Africa, they are not used to have big bikes come past them in the middle of the traffic so you need to do this in a careful manner.
Met some road works and the way they do it is that they work on one of the lanes and use the other lane for traffic so you have to wait your turn. Sometimes these sections are quite long and so is the wait for your turn, so it is an opportunity to get off the bike and stretch the legs. If I could (sometimes there was not enough space to squeeze through), I always went to the front of the line and was the first one to go when it was our chance to move.
I only traveled on asphalt roads but sometimes the wind has blown sand or debris on the middle of the road so I do recommend having off-road tires and adventure type of motorcycles.
No comments:
Post a Comment