Sunny South Africa

Picture the scene.... Sun, sea, blue skies, fabulous roads and its December next week. It was my third trip to South Africa and I’m lucky to have many friends over there now.

Landed in Johannesburg 23rd November for a three week trip, me old mate Mick Grant had organised the trip once again for some winter sun, some racing and to enjoy some decent road riding whilst touring a beautiful country.

Twelve of us on the trip in total but six of us flew out a week earlier than the others to tour on road bikes through Eastern Transvaal, down through Swaziland to the Indian Ocean at Richards Bay for a few days before returning to Pretoria through some of the old battle fields, Roark’s Drift where the famous Zulu film based it’s story.

Mick Grant, Paul “Shoey” Shoesmith (Clubracer), Benny (Rizla Suzuki Hospitality), Andrew Baker (Surgeon), Big John Howe (Sanyo Honda) and myself were the first six to arrive for the road trip, five on bikes and Big John by car and trailer just incase?

Clive Strugnall a world class Karate competitor in his day and good friend of Granty for many years met us at the airport. I’ve known Clive since 1998 and is now a good friend, he works for the importers of Kawasaki and Triumph in South Africa being involved with racing for many years especially Suzuki.

Clive had been kind enough to organise road bikes for us from some of the manufacturers and dealerships.

Andrew Baker had missed his flight from Heathrow after being told his passport didn't have a complete empty page in the back for the South African stamp so had to chase across London next morning, renew his passport in time to make the same flight 24 hrs later.

We immediately left Clive’s house after a brew and little chit-chat heading off towards Eastern Transvaal on our borrowed bikes. Fireblade, CBR 600RR, Hayabusa, K1200R, BMW FT1200 and Big-John in the Car full of luggage towing a trailer hopefully we wouldn’t need!
Our base for the next two days was in Nelspruit in a very nice hotel on the hilltop above town with fantastic views.

We planned on staying here for three days with the idea of just touring the mountain roads across an area we’re familiar with. We call it our TT course which is basically a large triangle between Graskop, Sabie and Hazyview on the edge of the National Kruger Park.

We then stayed over near Hazyview for a night after spending a day on the river canoeing, swimming and jumping off big rocks in between rocky gorges.

Back to Nelspruit for one more night before setting off for a tour down through Swaziland that turned out to be dirt roads in places and on to Richards Bay, a small coastal town on the  Indian Ocean.

The guys had played a joke on me at the Swaziland border, whilst I was in the passport office they convinced the border police to confiscate and lockup my bike. For a split second they had me but one of the security guys had a grin on his face letting me off the hook.

We arrived down in Richards Bay in the evening to get showered and enjoy a meal on the harbour front. Next morning we were invited to Ian Marsh Motorcycles, the local Kawasaki/Triumph dealer who were kind enough to let us all use there home for the day, a gorgeous pad with own pool etc.
That night they’d organised a get together that consisted of a few beers and Barbie overlooking the beach on a hillside beauty spot whilst watching the sunset….. Life’s a bitch!

Next morning we all headed off North to visit some of the old battle grounds, mainly Roarke’s Drift where Michael Caine’s Zulu film was based upon. Again it was an all terrain trip with many dirt tracks but certainly a lot of fun and very interesting.

Returned to Jo-burg late that evening, quick bite to eat and early night as the rest of the guys were flying-in early next morning, Cal Crutchlow, Dean Ellison (+girlfriend Suzie), James Ellison, Granty’s wife Carol and Vicky my girlfriend who had arrived in time for the weekends racing at Zwarkopps circuit.

We stay on a holiday complex in log cabins, there’s a nice restaurant next to a very large pool with beautiful gardens all set in a wooded area near Hartbeespoort Dam.

Friday is practice day, qualify for my Boxer-Cup races at 8.30am Saturday morning then the 3Hr qualifying at 9.10am before the first race at 10am…… hate mornings! (See my race report).

Sunday after the races was spent travelling back down to Johannesburg to Clive Strugnell’s house, to return the borrowed bikes and cars before being transferred to the airport for are internal flight down to Cape Town.

I rode back down to Jo-Berg on a 1200cc Triumph I think (the new one with the little flute exhausts under the seat?) with Vicky on the back.
Suzuki was running a big track-day at Kylami circuit all day Sunday so we called in to have a look. I race there back in 99 but Vicky has never seen the place.

On arrival I was noticed by the organisers who asked if I would like to borrow a 999 Ducati for a few laps. I declined but asked if it was possible to take the Triumph in the slow group with Vicky on the back… surprisingly they said yes.

Took me ten minutes to talk Vicky into it but she finally agreed (Silver Tongue) and we had a couple of laps before continuing enroute to Jo-Berg. Very flattering to be 5000 miles from home, recognised and treated so well by the organisers of the SA Bike Academy.

Sitting at Clive’s place in Jo-Berg having a brew and chatting about the last week’s highs and lows I glanced at my watch mentioning to Clive maybe it was time to leave for the airport. In typical South African laid-back fashion he said there was no rush just yet as it’s only a 20 minute ride to the airport.

Sure enough just over an hour later there are eleven of us sprinting through a packed out airport terminal just, and only just managing to check-in for the flight as it was closing.

On arrival in Cape Town we were met by some very good friends Warwick and Heidi, who organise the racing and accommodation etc on that part of the trip. Warwick’s a real good middle aged guy that races for fun and used to skydive, likes the adrenalin rush.

Stayed the night at Cape Town then made tracks up the Garden Route to Knysna, a 350 mile trip to a place I stayed last year, four of us on bikes with the other nine in cars to a gorgeous setting on the side of a river in log cabins a stone throw from the Indian ocean where we stayed chilling out for three nights. Sunbathing, canoeing down the river, bit of sightseeing, a trip out to lunch over at Plettenburg Bay, generally enjoying the sunshine!

We returned to Cape Town on the Thursday to organise a few things before the weekends planned race at Killarney circuit taking the scenic route back through the mountains. It’s a gorgeous route through many passes with breathtaking scenery that I rode last year.

We stopped off at Ronnie’s Sex shop that is only really a bar but a very famous one. The owner gave it this name to attract passers by as it’s in the middle of  nowhere, every wall is completely covered inside with signatures of many oversees travellers.

On our return to Cape Town we learnt that the race had been cancelled due to technicalities over licensing, meaning we had more holiday time.

Spent the weekend cruising round town seeing the sights then decided it was time for an adrenalin fix.

Had a look up Table Mountain last year but Granty and myself decided to hike up rather than take the cable car, was actually a good workout only taking us just under an hour!

12’000ft skydive was just what I needed to get my nerves tingling. It had to be a tandem skydive as I’d never done one before. Your still first one out the plane though and it certainly feels like your stomachs in the back of your throat as you jump out!

Picture the scene, suns beaming down at 30 degrees, Table Mountain is about 8000ft below you with a gorgeous coastline, my legs are hanging out of a Cessna door and some stranger says jump!!!!!

Freefall for 40 seconds before the chute opened and everything went silent, have a real good DVD of the whole thing though…. Absolutely awesome!