Sodwanan to Cape town bike tour

Bike tour

After moving my car to Pringle bay, I planned an epic coastal motorcycle tour starting in Secunda, driving to Sodwana and then following 2600 km of coastline all the way to Cape Town.

Bike tour route

 

Sodwana

As a diving enthusiast, Sodwana is a destination that I could not miss. This is not the hotspot of South African diving for no reason. Here I have been fascinated by beautiful corals, tropical fish as well as sharks, giant mantas, eels as well as a micro cosmos other divers.

After spending three days with the fishes, enjoying the romantic energy of a bushveld sunset with some people I have never met and teaching all the employees of the lodge how to play Stairway to Heaven on the guitar, I had a little tear in my eye as I had to say good bye.

While falling three times with my motorcycle on the sand road to the lodge, I broke my front brake lever and decided to move on.

 

Durban

As I arrived in Durban I was escorted to a secret drum circle/garbage beach by my favorite durbanee, Rozanne Botha. With our portable braai kit and guitar, we headed off to watch the city lights of the harbor area. Unfortunately we forgot the drinks and Rozanne headed back home with her trusty Palio while I remained on braai duty. As the rainclouds crept closer, I started to realize that something had gone wrong.

Eventually a man with flame tatoos gave Rozanne a lift as her battery had died. No one at the garage was able to help her as it was not their shift. So after a magical braai on the beach, with rain on the horizon, we needed to get back home but no car was available. Luckily our two good friends, Tammie and Jonathan came to the rescue and gave Rozanne a lift back to her broken car. Miraculously the car was able to start and she came back to the beach to collect me. As we skidded off we nearly ran over a mountain of waste before Rozanne started to look where she was driving.

After a couple more dead batteries and jumpstarts from Tammie and Jonno (Not to mention the bonnet was broken and could not open without a hammer) we finally made it back home while the rain started pouring outside.

However, the most notable thing for me in Durban was how reckless my dear friend was driving. Am I the only person that slows down before a U-turn? Perhaps it was the fact that not one of the seatbelts in the vehicle could be used, either because of mechanical damage, or because of a bad habit in the case of my friend.

I also enjoyed playing guitar in the music center of an all-girls school, after the teacher called in a girl on the intercom to come watch my dazzling skills.

Unzumbe

I stayed at a real gem of a backpacker in this little town, not far from Port Shepstone. I felt like a little monkey staying in my tree house dorm called Jungle. Needless to say, I read the Jungle Book on my kindle during my stay here.

At the bar that night, I met one of the most talented musicians that I have ever met called Quitin Song. He bedazzled the crowd with his sweet notes that he played on his guitar and ukulele while simultaneously doing some fat beats on his didgeridoo. He works at Jungle Monkey backpackers in Port St Johns and convinced me to make it my next stop.

Port St Johns

After travelling about 800km without a front brake (which was not very smart in retrospect) I finally made a plan to fix it, as spares need to be couriered from Johannesburg. I met up with the owner of the Jungle Monkey backpackers who used his ultimate Bear Grylls skills to manufacture a special brake lever component using a steel plate and a grinder. Luckily I was able to document the manufacturing process and you can see the pictures below. What would have been a year project at my old company took this guy one hour. Hats off!

East London

On my way to East London, I ran into a slight drizzle. In fact, when I took of my boots, I could see the lost city of Atlantis inside, submerged under water.

As I was walking to the supermarket one morning, I was greeted by a smiling lady who walked past me. Being the friendly guy that I am, I greeted her back with a big smile and a wave of the hand. After seeing the confused look on my face when she mumbled something about doing business, she walked away. At that point, I was convinced that my biker image is really doing its magic.  Only after the meeting some another truck load of friendly girls on my way back to the backpackers did I realize that I was passing through South Africa’s very own little red light district. So much for my biker image.

 

 

Nature’s valley

 

After a couple more days of sweat and rain, I finally made it all the way back to Cape Town. My some of my bikes body panels were held together by cable ties and wing-nuts. I also realized that my radiator hadn’t worked functionally in the last 10 000km as one of the feeding pipes had been tied off by the previous owner. Small miracles.