Playing catch-up; It is Tuesday morning and Brendan returns to Addis arriving at the hotel at 1:30am, we both realise that we need to be up at 6:00am and on the road if we are going to catch the team. The task in front of us is to take what was originally a 6 day […]
Archive | Under African Skies
Under African Skies
Motorcycle ride up Africa from Cape Town to London
Riders: Gareth Morgan, Jo Morgan, Dave Wallace,Brendan Keogh, Tony Armstrong, Paul Swift
Motorcycles: BMW F650 GS Dakar, BMW F650 GS
Distance: 20,756km
Countries: South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, Ethiopia, Sudan, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Sicily, Italy, France, UK
Trip description: This trip is one of the most challenging we have undertaken and the big hurdle is having to be flexible enough to change motorcycle routes because of the uncertainties at any time over safe passage being possible through Central Africa. We have to be sufficiently flexible to be able to switch from one route to another even within a week, the volatility of the region is that high..
Blogs from the trip
Addis Adieu
Leaving Addis Ababa was akin to leaving home again, we had become like locals with our favourite eating places and bars. The price of beer varied from 2 birr to 25 birr for a handle. Yes that is from 36 NZ cents to about $4 NZ. It seemed to be priced according to how far […]
Dash to Khartoum
Leaving Ethiopia was something we’ve looked forward to for some time – not so much because we have anything against the country, but rather because we’d been held up in Addis Ababa for 10 days as we waited for extensive public holidays to come to an end so we could get our Sudanese visas. That’s […]
The Birrs, the Beers and the All Blacks
It is Sunday the 24th and four of the team members leave Addis heading north towards Sudan and the Wadi Halfa ferry. This ferry is the critical path on our time line to Europe. It sails once a week on a Wednesday. Missing this not only puts you a week behind it leaves you in […]
Booty
Girls like to go to the market. That is what Brendan told me,,,Yea right. I went shopping with him anyway to Merkato in Addis Ababa. It is a large sprawling series of buildings that mainly would not get a compliance certificate in NZ, and attached are lots of lean-to stick structures and the plastic sheeting […]
The Yarpies are coming (Watch out All Blacks)
In the recent travels into Ethiopia we came across a bunch of South African (Yarpies) fellow bike riders. We had a lot in common, they were riding BMW motorcycles. They too had travelled the road to hell in northern Kenya and they too had blown three out of four shocks on this road. They had […]
When It All Turns to Custard
We’ve been grounded in Addis Ababa now for 10 days – our journey having come to a grinding halt as two blockages have stymied progress One is delays in getting Sudanese visas which today we hope to clear. The culprit there has been hitting Ethiopia on the eve of their New Millennium when all government […]
Bog Blog – The Stinkiest Toilet in Africa
The software loaded into our GPS units – “Maps 4 Africa” – warned us, the Ghion hotel on the Ethiopian side of border town Moyale has the most stinking toilet in the whole of Africa. Having been subjected to quite a range of bogs in India, China and Central Asia that we thought could claim […]
The “Last King of Kenya” (Part 3)
Morning arrives and we leap out of bed to explore what has transpired in New Zealand. Various emails from Colin confirm that he has the process well underway. With two hours to the close of business in NZ all forms are complete and MFAT prepare for the handover of action to Brian Chambers in their […]
The “Last King of Kenya” (Part 2)
We arrive at the border post, knowing that time is of the essence, we frantically repair Dave’s puncture and unload the crippled BMW complete with buggered shock and removed battery (used to get Jo the last 50 km up the road from hell). We prepare for the dash across the border, clearing Kenyan customs we […]
