Larry and Sharon McGillewie's travels: July 2011

Sunday, July 17, 2011

16 July - Back at Home!!!!!!!!!!!

Sat 16 July

Back Home!!! Sad, happy, depressed, very mixed emotions. Nice to see all the friends and family, and nice to get straight off the bikes, and into our microlights – in riding gear, and fly for a few minutes!!
On Thursday morning, we slept late, awoke gradually, packed slowly, and rode slowly to Jefferies Bay – 3 of us this time. A nice lunch, a bit of shopping, and back on the bikes to Port Elizabeth, where Richard carried on towards home and Grahamstown. We spent the afternoon with Sharon’s parents, and had a very nice family dinner.
Friday morning was again a slow one, for the last 130km from PE to Grahamstown, with a stopover with Harry and Linda – Bike Gear – to catch up. Harry got home from Germany about a week ago, and Linda about a month before that. They have left their bikes in Germany, with obvious plans to ride again from there – but who knows in which direction!!! It was great to reminisce about the trip, with all the places seen, and things done. We all feel lost!
Once back in Grahamstown, we once again had a family reunion, with Parents and kids – plus a grandkid, this time with my mom. At 4.30 we could wait no longer, so onto the bikes, and up to the airfield, where we had our official departure. A great evening was had, with many friends visiting.
So, the end of an amazing trip, a life changing experience, a making of many new friends. 32165 km travelled, through mountains and deserts, past and over oceans – maybe 5 ?? – will have to check!! No punctures, no mechanical problems – other than an accident and routine maintenance!!! A few spills and bruises, fortunately nothing serious. These bikes and bodies are amazing!
Our sincere thanks to all who have helped, encouraged, supported and followed our travels. Without all of you, we would not have been able to do this. Where to from here seems to be the biggest question, for ourselves and others. Who knows, but the travel bug bites hard!!
Larry and Sharon.

Lunch with Paul and Penny

Southern most Point of Africa!!!!!!!!!!

Lighthouse at Cape Agulhas

Beautiful beaches at Arniston

Last roadside lunch

Camping at Victoria Bay - Last Campsite

Hut at Storms River Mouth - second last night!!!

Heading towards the start of the Otter Trail

Beaches at Jefferies Bay

Bikes sleeping inside for the first time in a long time!!! At Sharons parents house in Port Elizabeth

Back at the airfield!!!

13 July

13 July 2011

We had a fantastic time in the Western Cape with Paul and Penny and it was also good to catch up with Phil and Lindsay, as well as cousin Carol and Charles. Someone closed the fridge door and the weather has been great, very little wind and wonderful sunshine, temperatures sometimes better than the European summer. Larry claims to have arranged all the weather!!

Our first trip once we left Somerset West was to Arniston, via Bettys bay, Hermanus, Gans Baai – shark diving capitol - and Cape Agulhas and a bit of gravel road, mostly good but potholed which we could avoid. The camp site was completely deserted - we were the only ones camping and when we enquired about the chalets we were told they were not available as they had not been cleaned from the weekend! This on Monday eve – someone needs to kick someones butt. It was great to stop for a while, to watch whales lolling just behind the breakers. Dinner at the Arniston hotel was good! 310 km today.

The next morning we left at mid-morning, heading for Victoria Bay, we got onto the N2 and we realized that is not the way we want to travel. Lots of traffic and moving fairly quickly. We headed to Vic Bay and camped at a wonderful camp site overlooking the bay, certainly one of the pettiest campsites for the entire trip. The weather was so good that there were lots of people swimming, fishing and surfing. Our tent got very wet with dew and we have battled to keep things dry. We even enquired on the price of a house on the waters edge – only 9 mill rand – we’ll take a few at that price!! 300km today.

Richard Poole – a flying friend from home - has just bought a BMW 1200 and will be joining us at Storms River and riding back to PE with us, where we will spend the night in PE and then be back to Grahamstown on Friday, not happy that our trip in so nearly over!! So today was another short day, only 150 km, all on tar, but along the very scenic Garden Route, making us realize that we have some very pretty places in Sa as well. Storms River Mouth is one of our favourite places, and we went for a nice walk this afternoon, along the start of the famous Otter Trail. And cooked our last supper for this trip!!

Friday, July 8, 2011

8 July, Somerset West

Friday 8 July, Somerset West

We left Ai Ais, and the warmer valley temperatures, and rode out into the desert area again, towards Vioolsdrift and the border post into South Africa, about 130 km, with about 85 km of gravel, the gravel was fair and we made good time to the border, our last border of the trip. We were through the border in record time and back in RSA, with no touts, or hassells of any sort, at either side of the quiet border. It was great to be home but always sad, in that we now knew that the end of our trip in sight.

We got very cold riding this leg of the trip and decided that we are real woosies so we would booking a room in Springbok, we had been told of a hotel / camping ground called the Kokerboom and we headed there, we enquired about the rate and were told that it is R450,00 for the night, no ways the other guy on a bike only paid R150,00 so the receptionist phoned the owner and he also has a bike so we could have a double room (with heater) for R250,00!! Apparently temperatures had been below freezing, with ice on the ponds!
The next morning it was blowing a howling gale and very cold, I had my duck down jacket on under my riding jacket and it made it bearable. We decided to ride to Saldahna Bay and try and get the broken pannier bracket repaired on my bike, we went to the airfield there and Johan Froneman was very kind in allowing Larry to use his workshop for the repairs and we spent the night the control tower at the airfield. An unusual place to spend a night!
So after a late start with the repairs and welding of bike and pannier brackets – again - we set off for Cape Town, with wonderful sunny warm weather. We had decided to try and do some shopping and landed up at Canal Walk, these two plaas jaapies in dirty riding gear walking around one of the biggest and fanciest shopping centres in Africa. And then we bought nothing!!
We had a wonderful ride around Table Mountain, Camps Bay, Hout Bay and Chapman’s Peak en route to Noordhoek to see Sue and Trevor Abraham. Once again it was wonderful to see some Grahamstownians and some friendly faces. We only had about an hour with them and then back on the bikes to Somerset West where we will spend the next few days with Paul and Penny and we will also get to see Phil and Lindsay while we are here.
We will be back in Grahamstown on the 15 July and will be at the airfield at 5pm for drinks and it will be wonderful to see as many of our friends there as possible.