Moved to the suburbs to stay with JR and his South African wife Audrey. JR is Swiss but lived over 30 years in Cape Town. He has now decided to move back and rode his bike, a Harley Davidson Fat Boy all the way from Switzerland to Cape Town in 79 days. The border with Ethiopia is closed so he rode through Iran and Oman. Air freighting the bike to Kenya and riding further down south. An epic journey in anyone’s books but to do it on a Harley Fat Boy is either exceptional or just insane…. I think a little bit of both. Anyway, well done, brilliant achievement.
On Monday I got word from Econo Trans that my bike was through customs and that my carnet was stamped. Really good news. Arranged to pick it up at 10 the next morning. I was dealing with one person, Wayne, and finally I got to meet him. At first, we were in contact with Email, then when I got a local SIM card through telephone, and now, finally, in person. I was never so happy to see the now familiar sight of the Moto Freight distinctive big cardboard box. This time though I had a whole army of helpers to unload the box. In no time they had unwrapped the bike, taken it off the pallet and left it ready for me to put the luggage back on. It seemed funny to see the bike again. I had dropped it off in London more than two months ago and now here we both were in Cape Town South Africa. I had ridden it in torrential rain and then freezing cold weather to London and now I rode it out of Econo Trans depot in brilliant sunshine, at 28C. It seemed unreal.
I needed to buy some supplies for the bike, so the first stop was the Flying Brick motorcycle shop. Next door to the Flying Brick was Tim’s motorcycle garage, a repair shop and just what I needed. My right-hand mirror was totally rusted up, meaning that I couldn’t adjust it. I couldn’t free it off so popped into Tim. Oh boy, what a place, a mecca! About 10 bikes all in different stages of disrepair. One older man working on them all. I asked him if he could give me a squirt of penetrating oil, but he came to the bike to have a look, took the mirror off, cleaned around the nut, squirted it, but it wouldn’t budge. He then heated it up and got it turning…. Brilliant. Stuck it back on my bike and told me to enjoy South Africa and wouldn’t take any money off me.
Spent the rest of the day rearranging the luggage on the bike and getting it road worthy. Because the bike was delayed, I had to buy some extra clothes, as I had shipped the bike with everything on it, so now I have too many clothes. Gonna give some away as I go along. Then Audrey and JR took me out to dinner. Together with JR we planned a nice little route for me to take for the next couple of days. We plan to ride together on Sunday to the Cape.
Wednesday morning dawned bright and early. I wanted to get away early, but fate took a hand. I checked my other phone with my Dutch SIM and saw a message from my bank in Holland… ING. The message read “Take urgent action a possible fraudulent transaction has been signaled with your credit card and we have blocked it, log into your bank account for more details”. Crap and double crap, I really don’t need this. To cut a long story short I logged in but had to phone a special number. But they wouldn’t let me phone using WhatsApp or Voip connect. So had to use my Dutch mobile. I then had to go through a security check with them and they unblocked my card. Problem was I used the card to pay Econo Trans and because it was in South Africa, they flagged it. The exact same thing happened to me in Guatemala in 2018. This is not a case of big brother but of big mummy. I suppose in a way it is a good thing, just really frustrating if you are in a faraway country and you have limited possibilities to communicate.
So, after a late start the fun could begin. I headed off on the preplanned route and it turned out to be amazing. I did as many passes as I could. Unfortunately, I don’t have my Drift ghost action-cam mounted to the bike yet, so photos were a bit difficult to take. No good stopping places. Made it to Worcester the first night. Stayed in a local no frills guest house and it was fantastic.
The next day got away early. Headed towards Paarl. I avoided the Huguenot toll Tunnel and took the old road up over the pass, really spectacular.
After Paarl I switched to the 301 to take the Bainskloof Pass. This pass is a national monument. It was built around 1849 by Andrew Geddes Bain. It was carved into the mountain by utilizing a workforce of convicts and is 594 meters high at its summit. It’s a road definitely worth travelling. Made it to a town called Ceres.
The weather was really warm 32c. But people warned me that the weather was gonna change and a super thunderstorm with heavy rain was on the way. I decided to stay there two nights to wait it out. But nothing happened. I watched the weather prediction changing, moving the time of the storm later and later. The next day was really beautiful weather so decided to pack up and go to Citrusdal. I wanted to take the old R303 or the back road, as the locals call it. But I decided to turn back on the advice of some locals who I had met. They told me that the gravel section had been badly damaged during a storm a couple of days before and it was difficult. Also, there were a lot of angry clouds descending on back the mountain pass so decided not to take a chance. It proved to have been a smart move. It really rained hard. Made it to Citrusdal. Once again, a really nice run, despite the rain. Citrusdal was a rundown town. Good for a night stop.
The next morning I took the R44 back to Cape Town.
Stopped on the way at an amazing little coffee place. It was a mobile kitchen in the middle of a field with bales of straw as tables. It was kinda neat. Stopped for a coffee, I just couldn’t resist it.
I had arranged with JR to ride to the Cape of Good Hope together.
So, Sunday saw us heading off up to Cape Park. JR was the guide, riding in front on the Harley Fat Boy. We took the scenic coast route up over Chapman’s Peak. Really a beautiful ride.
The next stop was at Camel Rock. This is a rock that resembles a camel situated on the M65 Scarborough Cape Peninsula. We stopped for the customary photo shoot.
Scarborough has a really beautiful beach frequented by surfers. A lot of elderly people retire to the village to enjoy their twilight years. But they share the village with a load of Baboons. These tend to cause havoc, if a window is left open then the baboons will come in and ransack the place looking for food. They cause a lot of damage, so the residents are always up in arms against the baboons.
Then the Cape Peninsula. This used to be a desolate windswept area, now it is a state park with scenic drives and hiking trails. Admission is a three-tier system, one price for South African nationals, another higher price for South Africa neighboring developing countries and then of course a big jump up for the rest of the world. Still, it is one of the must do things in Cape Town, despite the fact that it is not the most Southerly point of the African continent. The most southerly point is actually Cape Agulhas about 150 km Southeast of the Cape Peninsula. That will be another visit and another story.
Cape Point Park is a world heritage site and a protected nature reserve. It is home to many different species of vegetation and marine wildlife. There are two lighthouses on the Cape Point. One the highest one is the old one. It was built on the highest peak. But ships saw the lighthouse to early and came too close to shore, or frequently the lighthouse was shrouded in mist and the light wasn’t visible anymore. This resulted in many shipwrecks and in 1919 a new lighthouse was built, much lower and in a different position, solving the problem.
I was writing this in Cape Town, celebrating Christmas with JR his lovely wife Audrey and family.
So, if you have facebook, make yourself a nice wee cup of tea, plop yourself down in your favorite chair, grab a nice bit of Christmas cake and click your way though the like named photo album. Click and enjoy some of the sights from the Citrus area and Cape Peninsula.
Facebook photo album Cape Town to the Cape of Good Hope via the Citrus route
To follow my trip on my Findmespot satellite tracker click on the link in the menu above.
Thank you for following and commenting, much appreciated. In short thank you for sharing the ride with me.