Avon Tyres’ successful sports-touring tyre – the Storm 2 Ultra – has received praise from a round-the-world adventure and Britain’s number-one motorcycle magazine.
Mick Høy from Denmark is in the middle of a round-the-world adventure on his 1996 Honda VFR750 and he has good reason to appreciate the qualities of the new-for-2010 Storm 2 Ultras. He says: “Back home in Denmark I can get around 10-12,000 km/ 6210 – 7452 miles from one rear tyre. During my travels through Africa from Spain I did 19,827km/ 12,312 miles on one rear Storm 2 Ultra. Crazy, but true! And the VFR weighs 450 kilos when fully loaded! These tyres give me great grip in hot and cold conditions. They got me through some of the toughest roads in the world, which can be found in Angola. I even ran the tyres partially deflated to get me through sand. Eventually I had to replace the tyre as it had three leaking punctures which I had fixed with plugs! There was still 3mm of tread left on the tyre. The Avon Storm 2 is an incredible tyre.”
(read the full article): http://www.inter-bike.co.uk/motorcycle-news/motorcycle-product-news/4316-around-the-world-man-and-top-uk-bike-magazine-praise-storm-2-ultra.html
Soundtrack: Boxtops – The letter
I am finally ready to leave, well if it wasn’t for the waiting another 14 days here at Table View to get a cheap flight with Malaysia Airlines, 2520 ZAR (240 €) excl taxes to Buenos Aires. I am not that concerned about waiting another two week’s as the backpackers here is very social.
Finally received my invoice from the shipper FCL which was more than a shock to me. I almost fell down from the chair, while I was choking in my hot coffee! At the first meeting with FCL in Cape Town I got an estimated cost of the shipping of my bike from Durban to Buenos Aires, which seemed reasonable back then. The price I received today looked far from the estimation back then, especially the amount custom’s had charged me to open up the crate. It went from 500 ZAR ( 48 €) to skyhigh 2.150 ZAR (205 €). That is quite an increase considering I have been waiting 3 weeks for their “service”. Meanwhile I am not accepting this price! The total price for the shipping of the bike is now 9.531,85 ZAR (907,38 €). An increase of of 3501,41 ZAR (333 Euros).
As we speak I am waiting on the response from the shipper, as I haven’t accepted the invoice yet.
When all this bad experience about shipping a bike over the Atlantic Ocean is over, I shouldn’t forget what a great feeling it has been riding down the West coast of Africa and finishing my first leg of the journey. It has been great. One of the most enjoyable achievements but also one of the most hard experiences of my life. I have been put into several test’s to achieve and reach my goal which ment riding from Europe to the very end of Africa. But in some way I have found it as my kind of heroine. There is nothing like riding a bike down the road, the freedom it means, what will be over the next hillside? That is what keeps me going on… I can’t stop now, not tomorrow, I have to continue…
Two hours after I wrote the text above I received an email from Michelle at FCL. The shipping company agree to cover the expenses for the custom’s. The story was that the custom’s wanted to open the crate again to check the details of the bike (hope everything is still there when I receive it abroad). Normally the charge for the custom’s is 500 ZAR which I stated above. After this procedure it was astonishing 2150 ZAR. This extra expense will almost cover my plane ticket. I guess it helps being a little hard sometimes, instead of being naive and just pay. A thing I learned from my mom I guess! Total price for shipping a VFR overseas from Durban to Buenos Aires is so far: 7.381,85 ZAR (703 €)
This is the ship my bike is going on. FINALLY “leaving” the 20th of July 2010 if I can believe that after so many cancellations. I waited three week’s for this ship to leave harbour in Durban.
My situation here at SaltyCrax has been upgraded from sleeping in a tent to be situated on the coach inside the house, though I am still paying for a tent. The bad thing is the other guys are doing the same.
The days go by watching movies, getting drunk with the guys. Guess what, Rene (Deutch) and the “Viking”, “The Homeless” (Candian) just arrived a few days ago, both on 1200 Adventures. I will miss the guys once I leave.
Thanks to my lovely girlfriend Bea for paying my way out here (bought me an airline ticket to Buenos Aires), it is not easy having a broke boyfriend from Denmark, sorry Bea.
Thanks to Geodis Wilson/ Thomas Klinke in Denmark for giving me a good price on sending out a new passport. I promised Thomas to say this: “Hvis det haster om natten, så er det GW der skal ha’ den!”. Officially my current passport is not valid anymore, as I have ordered a new one here in Cape Town! But I guess they will never find out at the border into Argentina. I am planning on giving it a try anyway…
Also a big thanks to Helsport from Norway. They are sending out a new sleeping bag to me, after my old one is starting leaking out its dunen. That was it from me this time – Over and Out!
NEWS: 20JUL2010 “It keeps getting cheaper”
Wednesday was the day I had planned to pick up the Carnet from the shipper down town CT, but things took a slightly change! Today I had the opportunity to get a lift from Rene on his GS1200 Adventure into CT. He was going to pick up his new passport from the German embassy on Riebeck Street just a couple of blocks away from my destination.
First the Carnet hadn’t arrived yet, so after a visit to the bar just across the street, Rene and I was ready to give FCL a visit again. This time I had the luck with me, the Carnet had arrived with the courier from Durban, and guess what, now with a Durban custom stamp, that the bike had finally left the country. Could it be any better? Yes it can. When giving the invoice a closer look I found out that I also was charged for 
Fumigation. This is included in the price when you get FCL to build the crate for you. If you provide the crate yourself, the price is 150 ZAR for fumigation, and not 751 ZAR (71 €) which they had charged me. All in all that saves me from paying 2901 ZAR (276 €). The final price for shipping the red devil to Buenos Aires was reduced to 6.630.85 ZAR (631 €) which I am quite happy with.
By now I can’t promise that you won’t here more about shipping a bike across the Atlantic Ocean. Things can still go wrong on the other side of the dam. But lets cross fingers that it will go more smooth this time.
Soundtrack: Cat Stevens – Wild World
First time I met the Christian’s, the two American’s was during a heavy thunderstorm 60 clicks from Abuja city. Bass and Justice had prepared their flashy for Africa by taking off the BMW emblems and using Scoth-brite on all the plastic. What an interesting idea! American people keep surprising me 
I have never experienced such a heavy rain storm before. To start with I really enjoyed that it was raining. But after a couple of minutes everything was flooding and I was completely soaked. Ian and I never arrived to Abuja that evening, we had to fight us through the stopped traffic, flooded roads and tilted telephone poles in the middle of the road!
Ian’s GPS broke down after this horrible weather and out last hope of having coordinates for camp sites etc. was gone!
We met this great fella on our way into Abuja city. He followed us to the Shareton hotel, where we had heard from the HUBB that you can camp for free on the parking lot. It all sounded good, so Ian and I decided to give the gentleman 5 Euros for his trouble.
It later turned out that the parking lot at Shareton hotel in Abuja was not exactly what we had expected after riding 3 days in extreme heat. We needed something a bit more luxury (air-conditioned room perhaps?).
Later the same day I lost all my charging equipment for camera, computer etc. on the very same parking lot. I couldn’t believe it when I arrived a couple of days later and they had found my thing. I got it all back and I was more than happy again!
I have already told you what I heard of Nigeria before arriving to the country. And it is no wonder that Nigeria goes under the reputation as the country with the greatest scams ever. Take a look on the left photo. Ian found this poster after we had finished our visit to the embassy of Cameroun. It was hanging on the wall next to an Internet cafe. For the Western world it is difficult for us to understand that people can believe in such thing. “The secret to healing virtually all diseases. But imagine living in a poor country having no education, I suddenly understand that some people get drawn to such kind of with doctors.
I guess I haven’t seen the best yet!
Abuja can be a great city if you are a city kind of type. I remember it was a very chaotic and hot place to be. One could ride in a taxi all day for less than nothing. A taxi would take you across town for a 1 Euro or 2. It quickly became a great game between Ian and me to find the cheapest taxi to take us to and from embassies. In contrast the hotels were bloody expensive.
We were in town for one thing. Getting visas for Cameroun (17.500 Naira + 500 for the crook of a secretary. Pick up next day), Congo (10.000 Naira, or 13.000 issued same day), DRC (20.000 Naira and pick up after 24 hours), Angola (20 USD, bring US Dollars as the Angolan embassy only accept this. If you are lucky as I was, you can pick up same day!
Why not celebrate our achievement? Four visas in three days during our stay in the head capital of Nigeria.
Time to say goodbye to Abuja and head down to the border at Ekok to cross into the green Africa, yep it is Cameroun I am talking about. I think by now that half the distance to Cape Town have been achieved. I feels like I have been to the moon and back again. Africa has so far been hard on me, I admit that. I guess my fellow travel mate which I met in Gambia can say the same if you ask him! After I have heard of other people crossing Nigeria, I think I have been pretty lucky. I hope it stays that way?
Time to change map soon. Ian is thinking of giving his mint condition map to a local school before leaving Nigeria. I would have loved to do the same, but the half of my map is somewhere on a Mali road, playing with the wind.
Oscar the great reverend I met on the last day of my stay in Nigeria short before Cameroun. Both Ian and I was out of money and had to camp outside the hotel on a parking lot. The reverend offered us to lend his bathroom while he went to the local church. Later when he came back we all gathered in a circle and prayed for a safe and adventurous journey. He later asked me if we could do business together. He wanted to import some kind of fish bait from Denmark into Nigeria. I never heard from him since. I guess I didn’t make me go into the fish bait business!
We also met the Swinger’s, a group with two Land Cruisers, half of them was lovely South African girls. They cooked a great meal for us that evening. Lovely with some female company!
The VFR managed to get through yet another country though my rear suspension is starting to show some weakness. I have tried to tightened the preload up, but without success. I broke the tool instead. I guess I have never been good with a tool in my hand? Ask my fellow colleagues at Scandinavian Airlines System about that!
Other than that I can say that I haven’t had the luck on my side. Not a single crash since I crossed illegal into Mali from Senegal on the sand piste.
I would like to service the engine with some new oil, but haven’t had the great success of finding some motorcycle oil. Ian serviced his bike with car oil in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. His bike has started to knock in the engine and stall when in idle, but we keep believing that it is because of the bad fuel we get down here!
Want to see the rest of the pictures of Nigeria, follow this link:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/atwj/sets/72157624263395026/
Soundtrack: Trentemøller feat. Ane Trolle – Moan
While I am waiting things out down here, why not give you my version of Nigeria. Being patience has it price, I guess..
José Ramon Domenech Sanchez (now a Spanish World Cup winner) from Valencia seems to have found his way down to Cape Town. José (yes Ian, he has arrived, will say hello from you) has been travelling down the West coast of Africa on a bicycle, yes you read correct. He is hardcore. I met this tough guy in Buea, Cameroun. Hopefully I will see him within long time here in Table View. Time for stories and beers. Another good friend who visited me the other day, was Kobus. Kobus made it through Niger close to getting kidnapped by the Toureg’s and without an original Carnet, which unfortunately got stolen by the same Toureg’s. So what do you do. Well I guess you have to use your imagination and make a copy of the Carnet. He managed to get back home to SA with great success.
I know a lot of people have heared bad things about the big nation of Nigeria, including myself. Why does Nigeria have such a bad reputation, and what should I really expect of it? I guess those are some of the questions I have in my mind before visiting the country. Some people say you can get robbed, kidnapped, raped or even killed by visiting the Nigeria.You mostly hear bad stories of the country, scams, Muslims killing Christians and about Western oil employees get kidnapped south of the Delta belt. Is that true? Well there is only one way to find out…
I think I only heard one single person speak good about Nigeria while I have been travelling. So you can guess what I had in my mind when I left laid back Benin and crossed the Nigerian border….
Immediately when I left Benin and arrived on Nigerian soil, I was surrounded by smiling nice Nigerian people, who wanted to exchange phone numbers and get a new Danish friend. Regarding exchanging phone numbers. What you do, if you don’t want your new Nigerian friend to call you 24/7 to get a Danish visa in this example. Is to give them a phone number to a person you hate. It could be your old boss you just hate like the plague. I guess we all have an acquaintance like that. Believe me it works!
Getting into a problematic situation is not difficult at all. But I would say it is all about timing, where you go and which people you bump into. I had luck with almost all 3, except of getting pulled over to the side by some greedy traffic officer. When the cop spotted me racing down the road on day three of my stay in Nigeria. He waved me into the side and tried to take me for a ride that would have cost me 100 USD. One of the officers wanted to inspect my bike which ment testing the horn and lights. As he couldn’t find anything wrong he preceded to my luggage, saying I had too much things on the bike. I promptly replied him that it must have been the best joke I had heard for a long time. But this guy was serious, he pulled out a sheet stating the tariff for violating the Nigerian traffic regulations. It stated 10.000 Naira ( 100 USD). After that I simply just ignored him and went over to have a good chat to the other officers. It helped, he got off my back and left me alone.
The border at Tchikandou took almost three hours , once the “Border Health Control” officers on the Nigerian side were finished bothering Ian and me by checking our vaccination cards and asking dum questions we were off to visit the immigration and custom office and get our stamp into Nigeria. The customs were not that big a problem once we got them persuaded to do a Laissez-Passer (Passavant) because of our “lack” of Carnet de Passage. I still managed to have great success travelling down Africa without using my Carnet. So far I had managed to get all the way down and into Nigeria without using it, which ment I also had a great success of showing people on the HUBB that you can do the West African coast without a pricy Carnet. The Nigerian officers were very nice. When the power was not cutting out we watch football with them while they issued us a free Laissez-Passe.
Already at the border both Ian and I were severe dehydrated, but after the following two days on probably some of the worst roads I have ever seen in my whole life we were longing for Namibia more than ever. I came to the point were I thought that this was a waste of time and energy, why not just ship the bike down to civilized South Africa and ride around, just enjoying? I would consider that if I once again had got the chance before arriving on Moroccan soil.
I would probably describe the roads we were on much better by saying it was like an old river bed we were riding on. If this was not enough, this time I was equipped with 10 liters of spare fuel for Ian and I. We quickly got rid of the fuel by filling up both bikes.
After a couple of hours later the smile on my lips had dissapeared and my mood was hanging in a thin thread as we progressed us slowly into mid-Nigeria, kilometer by kilometer. No possibilities of buying water or food. All we had was a couple of liters left of hot water, some rice and 2 cans of sardines. When you once in a while get the oppertunity to buy water or a soft drink by the side of the road, it is hot liquid. Ever tried to enjoy a nice hot Coke after riding 8 hours in 45 degrees living hell? I can’t recommand it.
When asking the local people we met o the “road”, they kept saying the condition would get better, some even told us it would be normal tar road after 12 kilometers. I learned one thing that day. People will say anything to make you happy. They rather give wrong advice about direction than admitting they don’t have a clue of what you are asking them about. It might be something about their pride that make them do so? I guess I shouldn’t be so hard on the African people, most of them haven’t been outside their own village their whole life, so what can one expect? I guess I got taken away by the situation.
Later the very same day but only 20 km down the trail we ended the day and camped in the bush. We were both totally wasted and wanted to get the hell out of the situation we so easily had putted our self in by turning down from the main road on a little trail leading us into the bush and making a short cut that would have (at least on the map) saved us another 150 km. During the evening a big electrical storm appeared and we had a well deserved shower under the open sky. Next morning Ian and I agreed that there was no way back, only forward.
Ian and I were heading for Abuja, the head capital of Nigeria, which we to start with thought was just a day or two away from the border. Once again I got wiser. With the average speed of 15 km/ hour and several breaks without water, 100 km seems like a pretty far distance, especially underneath the burning sun. I was pretty tired of the conditions and our progress, but I think Ian was more than that. Remember he was the one that had to wait on me all the time.
When we arrived to New Bussa we agreed that it was time to settle down and spend the night at the Holy Year Hotel, what a big mistake! Ian was at that point not doing well. He was pretty sick due to dehydrating, a result of two days on a dirt trail with intense heat and not enough water. As this was not enough, the hotel had called the “National Security” guys of Nigeria to come over and interview us regarding our stay in Nigeria. My mood was absolutely not for an interview at that point. When the dude started to insinuate that we were spies, or perhaps terrorist’s, my patience ran out right away. Ian was totally silent due to his condition, but I was starting to take the situation and the guys rather ridicules. I couldn’t believe that they treated their tourist’s like that. The interview was a total chaos as I couldn’t take any of their questions seriously and the guys quickly left the hotel, I never really figured out who they were and what the point was of the interview?
First part of Nigeria was not that bad at all, what impressed me most was the crazy traffic – people driving like they have stolen the vehicle, greedy police and the loss of my GPS in Kaiama. Nigeria was not over yet, we had to cover the other half of the country after a “short” visit in Abuja to pick up four visas for Cameroun, Congo, DRC and Angola…
Bloddy fucking customs of SA (NEWS)
So what is new since I wrote to you guys last time, well I can say that nothing really has changed. My shipper FCL here in Cape Town are doing all they can to get me and the bike out of South Africa. The story is still the same. I guess there is one custom officer in Durban who have decided that I am not leaving his country within the next few weeks! The custom’s of SA refuse to stamp the Carnet out. Ship is delayed again, and will now leave before 16. of July. Meanwhile I have tried to contact several organisations, including ADAC in Germany, that issued my Carnet. They tell me the same story. They have never experience the problem before and have told me to contact the South African Automobile Club in Johannesburg. I have now asked my shipper to contact above automobile organization. The following is ADAC writing in an email to me:
Dear Mr. Hoey,
Many thanks for your information. We do not know, why the customs in Durban refuse to stamp your Carnet on exit. We never have had such problems in the past.
I suggest to get in contact with the South African Automobile Club directly. I hope they can assist. The telephone number of the AASA in Johannesburg is the following: 0027-11-799 1040 or 1042. Please ask for Mrs. Bokang Seroka or Meliza van Dyk from the Travel Service. I hope they can assist.
Could you send me your Carnetnumber please?
Kind regards
Karina Stephani
Touristische Services Reise und Freizeit (TSR) – Grenzverkehr
Tel: +49 / 89-76 76 63 31 Fax: +49 / 89-760 75 72
karina.stephani@adac.de
www.adac.de
ADAC Touring GmbH
Soundtrack: Peter Gabriel – Down To Earth
On the 27th of June 2010 I said farewell to my fellow travel mate, a Honda VFR 750, devil red. My first stage of the journey had finished and I was heading for another continent, South America.
Bike was crated by Outsource Packaging in Parow, South Africa, just outside Cape Town. It all took less than two hours for the guys to measure the bike and build the crate. I guess Cris from OP have done this several times before, so it wasn’t at all new for him. All I had to do was drain the fuel tank and find out where to put the rest of my luggage in the crate. All I left behind was my tent, sleeping bag and clothes to get through the cold nights here at SaltyCrax.
So now that the bike is in a box, I can start to look into finding a cheap airline ticket to Buenos Aires or what? No, wait a minute there, that isn’t exactly the situation. I currently have problems with the customs as I stated in the post below and a ship that luckily is delayed another week.
I can’t wait to I get on the other side of the dam and unpack the box, fire up the V4 and gun it down to Cape Horn ;oP
Bike is serviced with new oil and filter before hitting the South American roads.
For my luck, it seems like I already have several people welcoming me to stay at their places in South America, I look forward to see you and your country. Lets hope everything looks as good on South American side as here when I left my red devil.
Thanks to Pieter van der Vyver for helping me finding the place in Parow, cool you had the time to help out a lost soul ;oP
