The whole trip of course! The hospitality and the friendliness
from everyone I met was always a highlight. But in sequential order, here goes
just a bunch a things that stood out.
Being completely broken after day one. Haha.
Getting to the Orange river and enjoying the hell out of it.
Meeting Wataru
The vast openness of the N14
Meeting Tampon in the small town of Vorstershoop. Haha, what a name!?
Drinking a beer glass sized Springbok shooter and
unfortunately paying the price for it the next day.
Reaching the Kruger National Park in 7 weeks!!
Staying with Jessica the Hippo and having a beer with my
feet resting on Lil Ritchie, a younger hippo.
All the interesting lil creatures and other wild animals I
saw.
The Blyde River Canyon.
Sugarcane!!
Enjoying the Indian Ocean at Ponto Do Oura.
Seeing and catching up with a handful of my mates.
Making new mates.
The Wild Coast!! Made it feel like real adventure riding.
The f#$%ing wind!!!!!! Man how I hated you with every fibre
of my soul sometimes. Hahahaha
The stay at the Crags!!!
Getting the crap scared out of me in Knysna.
The lovely scenery ranging from the coast, to mountains, to
the veld, to the farmlands nearing the end.
Riding in the rain and not being that bothered by it.
Finishing the trip with not one incident of crime happening
to me.
Food.
Breakfast
Various porridges and coffee. Maybe with a fruit here and
there.
Lunch
Rice and lentils in the beginning. Then it was a variation
of peanut butter sandwiches along with fruits, sweets, chocolates and other
randoms I bought. Liquids were mainly water with cooldrink mix for flavor.
Supper.
Rice with either of the following, lentils, tuna, canned
curry, canned vegetables, pilchards. Plus something on the side if I had it.
Plus all the different meals I had when I was a guest or
when I bought some food already prepared now and then.
Total Distance
Roughly 7500kms
Percentage of roads being tarmac
I’d say about 80-85% of the road I was one was tarmac.
Average weight I cycled with.
The back of my bike weighed about 30kgs. I think I lost
about 10kgs tops.
Longest distance in one day.
130kms. I think this was from Saldahna to Graafwater on day
3. Day one was probably the second longest.
Shortest distance in one day.
Probably 2max when I cycled from one stay to the next in
Durban.
Top 20 songs (hard list to nail as all the bands here have
multiple songs that were awesome to listen to)
Metallica – All nightmare long. Cause its Metallica!!! Duh!
Megadeth – Wunderlust. It’s about wondering alone and it
sounds awesome!!
Slayer – Here comes the pain. Heavy bastards these.
Anthrax – Refuse to be denied. Probably the best intro roar
I’ve ever heard.
Slipknot – People = shit. For the sheer unadulterated
brutality!!!!!!
Jimmy Eat World – Bleed American. Just such a solid rock
song with poppy hooks.
Foo fighters – Come back. The mellow section in the middle
for when atop a hill taking in the view.
The Offspring – Its cool to hate. Cause OffSpring are still fun.
Devil Driver – Resurrection BLVD. Just such an excellent
sounding song with cool visuals.
Machine Head – Imperium. Mellow build up to well constructed
brutality with inspiring lyrics.
Pantera – Ill cast a shadow. That intro riff!!!!!
POD – Alive. Cause it feels good.
Suicidal Tendencies – You can’t bring me down. Awesome
lyrics with some amazing guitar.
In flames – Where the dead ships dwell. These guys write awesome riffs.
Beck – Loser. Just fun to sing along with.
Godsmack – Straight out of line. Good energy.
Faith no more – Last cup of sorrow. The grooves and melody.
Coheed and Cambria – The running free. Right in the feels.
Deftones – Beware. Hautingly good and heavy.
Silverchair – Spawn again. Coolest and heaviest animal
rights song I know.
Oh ya and this one for the feels. The teary feels. Sia –
Breathe
Bike problems
Just a couple punctures regarding the back tubes. Seat bolt
snapped. Front break broke off its clip but managed to hold it together for
remainder of trip. Overall, the bike held up amazingly.
Cost
About R15000. Most expensive things were new a tyre and
other general bike things I bought in the beginning and places to stay which only amounted to 12nights I payed for. You
save loads by camping where you can for free. Then cost for just general food
stuffs which were fairly basic as listed above along with splashing out now and
then.
Most nights I went without a proper bath or shower.
4
Top dog names
Tampon, Zaptronics and Smeagol, plus Ruby Tuesday.
Average distance per day.
7500kms divided by 133 equals 56,4kms. The average without
deducting days off. The distances vary as they would for obvious reasons. It
took me 7 weeks to get to KNP with a distance of 3500kms. This I thought was
solid riding and it was. The last 4000kms took me 12weeks due to natural
fatigue setting in, some longer stays in places, site seeeing and also days where one can’t
make more than 30-50kms such as the Wild Coast. The goal of an average distance
becomes quite meaningless unless you have a strict deadline.
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| A picture is worth a whole blog. Haha, well not exactly but close enough. |
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