Category General

Jan 1 2017

2017 where next?

The New Year’s champagne has ceased to flow, the last party streamer has fluttered to the ground, and the party music has finally been silenced, now 2017’s pristine calendar waits to be filled with good intentions. While we have only been back for six weeks settling in and our good intentions to paint and redecorate our home, have drifted to the back burner as the lure of the open road once again fills our minds. Yes we are planning another motorcycle trip in 2017.

Before I reveal our plans for 2017, I thought it might be of some interest on how we went about reaching our decision. For those who just want to know the route and not our decision making process, just scroll down past the next paragraph and picture.

We had fairly quickly decided that we wanted to undertake another long distance ride after going to Spain last year. Given the milage on ‘Streak’ & ‘Storm’ we feel there is another long trip before we may need to undertake serious work on them. So out comes the A1 sized paper book we have used over the years for planning purposes and I add a small clutch of coloured markers. Let planning commence! A somewhat inaccurate map of the world is drawn and four possible routes snake our from the motorbikes home in the UK. Pros and cons of each option are discussed and the inevitable action lists are drawn up.

After much discussion we each independently rank the four options and find we both agree on the same first choice. We are drawn to this option for a number of reasons;

1: the chance to revisit some friends made in our 2014/5 RTW trip, no we are not repeating the same route;
2: the attraction of spending more time in sparsely populated regions;
3: visiting new places we have had on our list for some time;
4: returning to a region we last visited in 1985; and
5: the trip to last no more than six months.

How early planning evolves for the 2 slow speeds.

How early planning evolves for the 2 slow speeds.

As you can see, our options included Europe to Cape Town and a circumnavigation of Europe, neither of which we felt was quite what we wanted to do this year, so we have chosen to attempt a Northern Round the World (RTW) in the summer of 2017! Phew there it is out in the open, RTW again, sounds so simple when put this way as I sit on the couch typing away, but based on previous experience, there will be a lot more to do before we start. Motorcycle maintenance, route planning, visa acquisition and a host of others items that I have already forgotten from the last trip and will need to review on the blog for reminders.

Our plan is to travel, subject to getting the appropriate visas, via Turkey, Iran and the ‘Stans’ again, Russia, Mongolia and on to Vladivostok. Ferry to Korea, then plane to Alaska and then ride to east coast of America and then return to the UK. We plan to depart the UK by mid April returning towards the end of September.

This timeline, if adhered to, should allow us to complete the journey in the Northern Hemisphere summer, but it will be tight. Any untoward delays or forced detours could impact our ability to complete the trip before winter’s icy fingers start to reach out. This adds a little extra spice to the challenge we are setting ourselves.

We are now drawing up our ‘to do’ lists and from there start to build an action plan. As we do, we will keep the blog updated on our pre trip progress. Have a great 2017!

– Anthony

Dec 24 2016

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

Wishing our family, friends and followers a merry Christmas and very happy and healthy new year 2017!!! Let there be peace and joy in your life and in the world, like the other evening in Brisbane (turn your device vertically if you can, to see the whole video below).

Love to you all and stay tuned for more adventures starting April 2017.

Wherever you are, stay safe out there!

Anne & Anthony

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Dec 3 2016

adventure bike tv…….?

Just when you thought the blog entries were over for another year and you could resume your slumbers, here we are again. We mentioned that we attended the Horizons Unlimited South Africa Adventure Travellers Meeting event in our Nov 6 post. What we did not mention was that adventurebiketv.com, a web based adventure motorcycle tv program was there to film the event. In addition they conducted a few interviews for their ‘under the visor’ segment, including, yes the 2slowspeeds. We were told that it could be up to six months before they used the interview, if at all.

Season 3, episode 7 is just out and features the South African event, with quite a few glimpses of us, well mostly Anne, and yes an in depth interview with your intrepid bloggers, us! So if you have a few spare minutes or the TV is only showing Christmas reruns go to adventurebiketv.com or click or tap the photo’s to see the episode on youtube.com.

The Horizons Unlimited South Africa Adventure Travellers Meeting starts in the first photo and our interview in the second.

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– Anthony

Nov 22 2016

Four and a half months

We set off from the Wild Coast heading for somewhere north of Durban, our destination is Swaziland. This quickly changes as two facts come to light. The first is that we are almost up to 10,000 km or 6,200 miles on this trip and under the terms of the rental agreement we need to have the vehicle serviced, the second is when we finally get onto a freeway with a 120km maximum speed limit after a few weeks on slow roads, our wheel balance has gone again, 105km per hour is our new top speed.

New plan, we will go to Johannesburg on a more direct route. After a short stop north of Durban, Anne finds a spot to stay in the Drakensburg en route to Johannesburg, and yes it’s another world heritage site for us. We have our last night in the 4×4 that has been our home for the last 7 weeks, and after all the sun in Namibia and Botswana we are treated to a mountain evening storm with hail, but we keep warm and dry.

Last night camping in the Drakensburg

Last night camping in the Drakensburg


The majestic Drakensburg

The majestic Drakensburg


It seems hard to imagine as we come to the end of this trip that we have been away for four and a half months. Ordinations, Christenings, Motorcycle and 4×4 trips and family and friends have filled our time from Europe to Africa. As we start to wind down and prepare to give everything a good clean to pass the eagle eyed Australian Customs inspection, we have a little time to reflect on what we have seen and done.

This is the first time in decades that we have paid more than a fleeting visit to South Africa. In reflecting on what we have seen, we note the progress in the provision of sewerage, water and power to many homes, but also the deterioration of existing infastructure. How does one balance out the respective benefits of allocating finite resources? I certainly do not know. What one can hope for, is the on-going robust democratic process (yes, it is a democratic process even if there are massive corruption problems everywhere), a strong press (we were pleasantly surprised to see how brutally open the press is in its criticism of the corruption and nepotism) and the optimism we found in young people who have grown up only knowing the ‘rainbow nation’ to tackle the challenges facing South Africa. While the corruption, level of violence and run down feel are all palpable and undeniable issues, we choose to remember and believe the optimistic young generation we met will one day manage to swing the pendulum to a more equitable balance.

We have enjoyed this varied trip, and found it interesting to compare our motorcycle and 4×4 trips. While the 4×4 provides comfort and space to carry more ‘stuff’, we have no doubt that our preferred method of travel is motorcycle. The primary reason is the connection we have with people on the motorcycle just does not exist when you are in a car/4×4. We feel a strong sense of separation from the world around us in our 4×4, so while we were able to visit places not accessible by motorbike , it is not our preferred form of travel.

So we sign off wishing our followers a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, we do not know what 2017 holds, but I am sure we will be back on the road somewhere.

– Anne & Anthony

Nov 18 2016

Family

As we roll down the R617 towards my cousins’ place in Howick, the mists close around us, creating a white and green landscape so different from the brown landscape and blue sky we had been used to in the preceding months. Quite a change and while cold for us, it was refreshing. We arrive at my cousin Jeff and his wife Fen’s place late in the afternoon having started in South Africa, crossed Lesotho and re-entered South Africa in a day!

Jeff is the son of my uncle Basil who passed away recently, so our reunion after five years was tinged with a little sadness. Over the next couple of days, we relaxed with family, their kids Sarah and Sam, my sister Tansy arrived from the UK so with my aunt Maggie and cousin Tina we had quite a family gathering to celebrate Sarah’s birthday.

Nelson Mandela had been on the run from the South African apartheid government for 17 months, before he was captured on August 5, 1962, on the small country road (R103) just outside Howick in KwaZulu-Natal where Anthony’s cousins live. He was at the time posing as a chauffeur named David Motsamayi with a fellow ANC comrade Cecil Williams in the passenger seat.

Mandela’s capture marked the start of his 27-year imprisonment after the famed Rivonia Treason Trial and the journey that he would later call ‘the long walk to freedom’.

The sculpture below was designed by artist Marco Ciafanelli, assisted by architect Jeremy Rose and unveiled to commemorate the 50th anniversary of this event. From a distance and from the road, the sculpture appears like a set of 50 metal poles but as you approach from the ‘long’ path from the apartheid museum, Mandela’s face slowly emerges.

Although the history records list Mandela as one of the world’s most famous political prisoner and the first president of democratic South Africa, he is so much more than that to me: a true leader and a man I have enormous admiration for, especially in the way he and FW de Clerk worked on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. How lucky was the world that he was captured and not killed…

Nelson Mandela capture site monument

Nelson Mandela capture site monument


Nelson Mandela capture site monument

Nelson Mandela capture site monument


Jeff and Fen had taken time off work and arranged for all of us to travel to a cottage on the mouth of the Msikaba river, an area which they have stayed over the years with their family. This is a remote location with the nearest town over an hour away. Bring everything with you, no nipping out to the shops for something one forgets! The cottage is fitted with gas lights, if you want electricity, take your car battery out for the alternate lights. We get to experience for the first time a paraffin powered shower, when running sounds like a plane taking off, but it does provide a steady stream of hot water, we really enjoy this quasi camping with the comfort of a cottage not a tent. Our type of holiday.
Paraffin shower

Paraffin shower


We are located up the hill overlooking the estuary where the river meets the sea and force of nature can been seen as the waves pound the shore. The aptly named ‘Wild Coast’ has claimed many a ship over the years. I recall as a teenager watching a costal cargo ship hit by a single wave front on entering Durban harbour with its bow section bent down by 5%!
Tansy, Jeff and Fen

Tansy, Jeff and Fen


Anthony and Auntie Maggie

Anthony and Auntie Maggie


Fen and Anne

Fen and Anne


The wild coast is wild.

The wild coast is wild.


Jeff and Fen

Jeff and Fen


We say goodbye to our family and head off up the coast for the last few days of this trip. Next week we will be home.

– Anthony