Prologue

Who are we

Both of us are experienced outdoors people who have traveled to all corners of South Africa by 4x4. We are passionate about extreme endurance sports (ultra and trail running). We are constantly looking for new challenges - we once placed 3rd overall and 1st mixed team in a national 4x4 challenge.

We have often spoken about a trip into Africa that will be different and so in 2009 we decided to make it happen. To make this trip even more special we decided to do it on 2 wheels rather than 4x4.

The Beginning

In January we consulted the calendar which showed that April had lots of public holidays and so the date was set. With the route options still wide open we started looking for possible travel companions and very quickly there were lots of interested people.

After considering many options, we finally decided upon the route through Botswana. Due to the difficult and sandy riding conditions and the presence of free roaming big 5 wildlife, most of the original applicants withdrew. Pillions could also not be accommodated and so it was down to a small and manageable group of adventurers.

The Botes family from Pretoria -
Johan on his BMW 1200 HP2 – Johan is a very experienced rider (I met him on the advanced off-road course). He knows Botswana well and has done a few previous trips in this area. He finalized the finer detail of the route.
Louise (Johan’s wife) - very competent on her BMW 650 XCountry has had formal training and also attended the 2008 GS challenge.
Wynand, (Johan’s son) is currently a student and will be joining us for the Easter holidays riding his BMW 1200 HP2
Jana, twin sister of Wynand's and also a student, will be driving backup - Toyota Land Cruiser and trailer

The Mitton family from Cape Town -
Deirdre – a very experienced off-road pillion as well as competent on her Honda CRF230. Due to the latter not being street legal, we had to source another bike for her to do the trip with and the choice fell on an older yet good condition Yamaha 600 XT.
Gerhard (me) on my BMW 1200 GS Adventure – by far the heaviest machine on the trip and definitely in for a tough time in the sand!!!

And so a little over 2 months lay ahead of us for planning & preparation. We also did a lot of training rides to familiarize Deirdre with the different handling characteristics of her now taller, heavier and more powerful machine. It was fitted with custom made crash bars (thanks to our good friend Sarel Oberholzer)

Before we knew 9 weeks flew by and we are now in the final countdown – 7 days until we leave Cape Town on 1st April. The first leg of the journey will be for Deirdre and me to travel by train from Cape Town to Johannesburg where we will meet up with our companions. Together we will then depart from Pretoria on 4th April for our 10day trip around Botswana after which we will travel back to Cape Town via the Northern Cape backroads, while Johan and his family return to their home in Pretoria.

Just under 5000 kms in 15 days!!