11 Jan

11 January 2011

Well we have had a wonderful day, yes Brian we did the worst thing out we drove through Maputo at night. The only good thing about this was that we did not see the squalor and litter that was all over the place but we could smell it.  The traffic was horrendous but at the end of the day we did well to get to Casa Lisa and more delights lay in store for us about 2km of lovely soft sand.  I took a tumble with my feet out like a duck paddling in this lovely powder and managed to get my foot caught under the pannier again.  The good foot,  Jared where were you to help Ralph pick the bloody thing up?  I did get back on and rode most of the way to the lodge, just before we got the lodge Johan took a tumble, this is known as a sympathy tumble.   (Almarie by this time you would have had sympathy drizzle!)  The bikes did not enjoy the really slow moving traffic in Maputo and the bigger bikes started overheating fairly soon, even my little ring ting ting (as Larry and Ralph call it) was not happy.

Let take a few steps back and tell you about the SA Weather Bureau, they got it right on Monday they predicted 80% chance of rain for northern KZN- we managed to find it, they also predicted heavy rain and they were right.  We drove through some of the heaviest rain I have ever experienced, luckily both directions of traffic slowed down to about 30km per hour and we were stuck in middle.  Unfortunately cars just pulled offal over the place and the result was chaos, we agreed that we would just keep going rather than have a car wipe us out on the side of the road.  The water was running in the road about 4inches deep and visibility was shocking.  We had left Camperdown early in the morning to get to Ryder Motorrad, what a fantastic bunch of people.  Mike thank you for all your help and assistance in getting the shock set ahead of us to Nelspruit, you really went the extra mile!!  After we left Hillcrest we encounter the rain and then landed up camping at a site just outside of Pongola called Sodwana Angling Club Camp Site.  Very nice well run establishment.  (The community run Pongola Game Reserve refused us entry to the park because we are on motorcycles – come on guys move with the times we are not the hard drinking hard partying bikers that you had about 10 years ago – we were in bed by 8.30)  The adventure bikers seem to carry the same stigma as the real leather bikers! 

We left Sodwana Angling Club Camp very early and had a pleasant drive through Swaziland and then onto Nelspruit to have the shock replaced.  I am still in shock from receiving the account, but must admit that it has made a tremendous difference to the bike and that shock has been bad for a long time now and I am sure was not the result of hitting the driffie.  The trip from Nelspruit to Casa Lisa was a real chase and I hope that we do not have another day like that.    It is late and I am going to bed now, sleep well.

Sharon