Leaving Lusaka, Zambia Today

Klaus killed his rear wheel but Ginty saved us and had a new rim.

Bloody sixth time or so I have to rebuild wheels on this trip, and hopefully the last.

More laters.

T

Hitting the road again

Jo´burg

I was very curious about Johannesburg, or rather a certain Pierre Cronje that I had been mailing with since before we left Norway. He had helped us out with the affairs in Durban, and made sure we got in touch with the right people and getting our logistical machinery to work.

The plan was to leave early Saturday the 4^th, but my generator said “Thanks, I´ve had enough of this shit you put me through” when I restarted my bike Friday night after rebuilding it despite testrunning the gen before assembling it. At 11PM Friday night I had to tear out the fooking shite and take it apart. 1 AM it was back in place again, and working. The bad thing was that this meant that the packing had to be done in the morning so the early arrival became a not so early one.

As a bonus it didn´t take more than 2o kilometers to catch a devil in the engine which took 6 hours to drive out again. The one day leg became a two day leg but it didn´t matter with the reception Pierre and his friends gave us. Outside Jo’burg they awaited us on motorcycles. As a mind reader Pierre had brought a cooling bag with cold Windhoek beer, brewed according to the “Reinheitsgebot” in Namibia, a splendid beer. Not hard to utilize after 400 kilometers under the burning sun.

Back in their home in the suburb Benoni more beer and excellent food awaited. During our two day stay we felt like a part of the family, we were fed like we hadn´t been since the states and we had a jolly good time with the entire family and all the friends that dropped by. Absolutely magnificent all of it, except from we had to leave way too early to finalize our African crusade.

T

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I’ll make some boring text for the last two entries sometimes later. In the meantime enjoy some pictures with obese captions. The saying is that a picture says more than a thousand words, so at least there´s a few thousand words here.

I´d also like to remind you all that you can still buy t-shirt to support our mission by mailing Kaj Pedersen at kaj.pedersen@nimbusclubusa.com. He´s sold 100 t-shirts in a short while and got 50 left in stock. All profit goes to getting us out of Africa and home again, which will be a relief for both Africa and our motorcycles. For prices, pictures and practical information see earlier blog entry about the t-shirts.

Thanks for all donations and other support you out there are providing. It´s because the fact that you care about reading all the crap I write I actually care to do this, so all comments on the blog, greetings in the guestbook and emails from you are very much appreciated. Sorry for those I do not manage to reply, it´s not because I don´t care but both time and internet is sometimes a problem.


Yours sincerely,

Tormod

Jeg vil skrive lidt kedelig tekst til de foregående to indlæg senere. Imens kan du nyde nogle billeder med overvægtige billedtekster. Man siger at et billede fortæller 1000 ord, så her er nogle tusinde af dem.

Jeg vil også lige minde jer alle om at man stadig kan købe t-shirts til støtte for vores mission, ved at maile Kaj Pedersen. Han solgte hurtigt de første 100 t-shirts, og har 50 tilbage. Overskuddet går til at få os ud af Afrika og hjem, hvilket vil være til stor lettelse både for Afrika og for vores motorcykler. Mht. priser og andet praktisk info om vores t-shirts, så se tidligere indlæg om dem.

Tak for al økonomisk og anden hjælp som jer derude giver os. Det er fordi I gider læse det bavl jeg skriver at jeg i det hele taget gider gøre det her, så alle kommentarer på bloggen, i gæstebogen og på emails er meget velkomne. Undskyld til dem, jeg ikke når at svare; det er ikke fordi jeg ikke vil, men såvel tid som internet kan sætte begrænsninger.

When we finally left Durban we used 8 hours before we were out of Pinetown. As we repaired, this very friendly motorcyclist sitting on my bike with his staff served us dinner in his restaurant. In fact one of the best burgers I had since we visited this small remote hippie restaurant in a remote part of Texas with the Austin gang

Da vi endelig forlod Durban tog det os 8 timer før vi var ude af Pinetown. mens vi skruede, gav den venlige mc-ist på Nimbussen os mad fra sin restaurant. Det var faktisk en af de bedste burgere jeg har spist siden vi besøgte den der lille fjerne hippie-restaurant i en fjern del af Texas sammen med rødderne fra Austin.


Breakfast overlooking the dam outside Estcourt

Morgenmad, mens vi ser på dæmningen udenfor Estcourt.

Steven was Irish but had made South African out of himself. His wife ran a guesthouse in an amazing 200 year old villa, and despite our scary outlook they took us in at favourable rate and treated us very well.

Steven fra Irland havde gjort sig til en Sydafrikaner. Hans kone styrede et gæstehus i en 200 år gammel villa, og trods vores afrakkede udseende lod de os betale en meget favorabel pris, og behandlede os ganske fint.


Klaus on show again


Finally in Johannesburg with Pierre Cronje and his friends. I been in touch with Pierre since before we left, and his place has been the only fixed route on the trip except from Miles in Vermont and Kaj in California. All these three stops have been remarkably good with very special people in a positive way. All three has provided amazing food, drinks, company and mechanical facilities. If these three places were the only places I´d stopped during the trip it would still have been worth it.

Omsider er vi nået frem til Johannesburg, her med Pierre Cronje og hans venner. Jeg har været i kontakt med Pierre siden før rejsens start, og at mødes med ham har været det eneste faste fixpunkter på turen, udover Miles i Vermont og Kaj i Californien. Disse tre stop har været usædvanligt gode, med meget specielle (ment på den bedst mulige måde) mennesker. Alle tre steder fik vi enestående mad og drikke, selskab og værkstedsplads. Hvis disse tre steder havde været de eneste stop undervejs, havde det stadig været hele turen værd.


Pierre acted as Father Christmas at several schools for the kids. We were fortunate enough to be allowed to join him on one of the missions which was a very memorable experience.

Pierre optræder som julemand for ungerne på adskillige skoler. Vi var så heldige at få lov at komme med på en af turene - en mindeværdig oplevelse.


True happiness, almost wish I believed in Father Christmas myself again.

Ægte glæde, jeg ønsker næsten at jeg kunne tro på julemanden igen.


This smile says it all.

Smilet her siger alt.

Pierre didn´t get any less popular with the bike he drove.

At køre på denne Harley gjorde ikke Pierre mindre populær.


These very clever young lads were very interested in our story and the bikes, listened more carefully and asked more intelligent questions than most grownups. In a few years time it might be one of these guys doing a trip like this.

Disse kløgtige ungersvende var meget interesserede i vores motorcykler og hvad vi havde at fortælle, lyttede opmærksomt og stillede mere intelligente spørgsmål end mange voksne.


The job is done for this year and Santa can take a year off and rest.

Arbejdet er gjort, og julemanden kan slappe af et lille års tid igen.


Father Christmas and Barbra. Barbra is 80, but I thought she was more like 65. She’s making sure the school get visited by Father Christmas on and old bike.

Julemanden & Barbra. Hun er 80 år gammel, men kunne nemt gå for at være 65. Hun sikrer sig at skolen får besøg af julemanden på en gammel mc.


In Africa they can´t afford normal cats so they use whatever they find, in this case a cheetah. Friendly little thing that probably read my mind, it bit me when I incidentally thought about Robert Mugabe´s classic hat. How it looked at PETA´s slogan “Better naked than wearing fur” I´m not too sure about.

I Afrika er almindelige katte alt for dyre, så de bruger hvad man eller kan finde, som fx. denne cheetah. Den søde lille ka'l havde antagelig læst mine tanker, og bed mig netop som jeg tænkte på Robert Mugabe's klassiske hat (oversætters note; den hat er sikkert lavet af cheetah-pels). Hvad den mente om dyreværnsforningen PETA's slogan 'hellere nøgen end at gå med pels' ved jeg ikke lige...


James (in the front) owned the cat and taught us everything worth knowing about cheetahs, for instance that you should never change currency with them or buy anything from them. Big thanks to James for inviting us.

James (nærmest) ejer katten og lærte os alt hvad der er værd at vide on cheetah'er; som fx. at man aldrig skal veksle sort med dem eller købe noget af dem.


The black spots would actually go off if you patted it too hard or washed it in too hot water. James never gave it zebra meat as it would start growing stripes.

De sorte pletter ville blive visket af hvis man kælede den for hårdt eller vaskede den i for varmt vand. James fodrede den aldrig med zebrakøb, for så ville den blive stribet (o.n.; nåde....)


As a bird expert I´d like to point out that the owl family is called “Bubo” in latin, because of the noisepolution they create. Bubo Scandiacus for instance is the Snow Owl. This is a Bubo Tuba, I believe, because of its brass-ish sound it produce to scare away fierce tribes.

Eddie the Eagle

Klaus was the born bird-man, he could speak fluently with all the birds James had in stock

JP, Pierre´s son, in eye-balling contest with Grant, as the bird was christened


Grant like to be patted in his neck.

Fuglen 'Grant' kunne lide at blive kløet i nakken.


The cheetah bit, not much more than a mosquito bite, but way deadlier.

Cheetah-biddet ligner ikke mere end et myggestik, men kan være noget dødeligere.


Recovering after the wild drillpress attack. In less than a week a cheetah almost bit off my arm and got my scull crushed by a drill press. Africa is really wild, wonder how it was before Bob Geldof saved it in the mid-eighties.

Jeg er ved at komme lig efter søjleboremaskineangrebet. På mindre end en uge bed en cheetah næsten min arm af og jeg har fået hovedet knust af et søjlebor. Afrika er virkelig vildt; gad vide hvordan her så var før Bob Geldorf reddede kontinentet der midt i 80'erne.

Durban

I promised some words, at least halfway, so as your faithful entertainer here´s a small piece about the heroes and villains in this port town.

Durban is a fortress town, like most other South African smog holes. Not a fortress town because the Brits or Boers had fortresses there, but because of the Zimbabwization they´re working on in the country. The zimbawization-program includes boosting of corruption and incompetence, and with a richness of poverty and culture for violent crime it has had fantastic effects for the fencing and security industries. Everybody that can afford it fence themselves in, living in fortresses with at least barbed wire. A status symbol is electric fences on the top.

The incompetence and corruption is very well implemented in the port system as well. Even crime they´ve been able to bring in. A key success factor to achieve this might been to employ people after race and gender rather the skills, but it´s so masterly done that I don´t feel qualified to make anymore speculations about this.

Anyhow, to get out my bike took a week, which of each day cost 100 dollars in storage. Though we had very good help from Ken Sink, our local host that knew the port it took this much time and efforts. It seemed to be no lack in rules they didn´t know quite how worked, except from that the rule made it hard to get out the cargo. When we finally could roll out the bike and check it we had spent 1500 dollars. A quick count up showed that they broken into the box and stolen tools and driving gear for another 1000 dollar. Fair enough, I can understand the stealing of tools, but to steal fairly worn out leathers is another thing. One of the pants stolen was from the sixties, and I had used it for the last 12 years, probably put on 150k kilometers on them so you can imagine the conditions.

It doesn´t stop the world from spinning though, even if you could very well live without this extra expence at the end of the trip when funds are getting exhausted. Furthermore, Klaus bike got out of the port after just five days, and only half of the cost of mine.

This was not the only highlight, Ken was also a very lovable man. Both skillful and knowledgeable about mechanics, as well as full of jokes and anecdotes. On top of this, the crate of parts from Denmark arrived in time and contained exactly what we´d asked for.

This package contained the spirit of the ever helping Danish community of motorcyclists and others that care for what we do. Parts was gathered by the Mr “No doesn´t exist”-John Carlsen at JC Nimbus and Fin Ohlendorff . Soeren Groenbech and Claus Sibbesen got it sent as ship spares for a decent amount, and a lot others contributed financially due to Fin’s enthusiasm. Again it showed that you can always count on the goodwill of a handful of good friends rather than organizations.

If you mix in the local help we got from Raybell Automotive Machining and a welder, and not to mention Ken Sink, the rebuild became fairly easy affair. For the engines Terry at Raybell did the heads, including guides on mine, and deglazed the blocks. On mine engine I had a dead main bearing, and a dying con rod, which we had all in stock. The clutch was also replaced as it had taken some hits by doing the Andes without a first gear.

Both sidecar boxes were welded up again for hopefully the last time, as well as Klaus sidecar chassis that had started to dissolve. After almost a month with mostly waiting we could finally hit the road again the 4^th of December.

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I’ll make some boring text for the last two entries sometimes later. In the meantime enjoy some pictures with obese captions. The saying is that a picture says more than a thousand words, so at least there´s a few thousand words here.


Tormod

Jeg skriver lidt kedelig tekst til de seneste to indlæg senere. Imens kan I nyde lidt billeder med alt for store undertekster. Det påstås at et billede siger 1000 ord, så der er i det mindste et par tusinde ord her.

At least it was some big ships to look at down at the docks.

I det mindste var der et par store skibe at se på nede ved havnen.

Ken Sink’s grandson with my bikes just after the bike was finally freed from the greedy thieves called port authorities. Ken was our very friendly host in Durban and made the stay nice despite the problems.

Ken Sink's barnebarn med min mc kort efter maskinen omsider slap fri af grabberne på de grådige tyve man kalder havnemyndighederne. Ken var vores meget venlige vært i Durban, og gjorde det til et behageligt ophold trods problemerne.

At the local classic bike club’s own house. Ken was in charge of the club and offered the members very good service.

Huset der tilhørte den lokale klub for klassiker motorcykler. Ken styrede klubben og var god til at hjælpe medlemmerne.

Container with spares.

Container med reservedele.

Indian, about 1915. Dug down in 1935 after a fatal accident. Recovered in the mid eighties.

Indian, ca. 1915. Gravet ned i 1935 efter en dødsulykke. Bragt tilbage midt i firserne.

Note how all the alloy is gone.

Bemærk hvordan al aluminium er væk.

The engine for Ken´s Triumph.

Motoren til Ken's Triumph.

The crate with our spares arrives from Denmark. Big thanks to all involved. It was great effort by a lot of persons, both when it came to gather the parts, pay for them and get them sent. All done by individuals without any support from organizations you might had expected that would do so.

Kassen med vores reservedele ankommer fra Danmark. 1000 tak til alle involverede. Det var en stor indsats fra en masse folk, både da det gjaldt indsamling af stumper, betaling for dem og at få dem sendt. Alt sammen klaret af enkeltpersoner uden hjælp fra nogen organisationer man kunne forvente ville have hjulpet.

The following pictures is dedicated all Nimbus-experts and is brought to public so people can wank frantically and look at them. Just remember to cover up the keyboards and enjoy finding eight faults. The answer is below:

De følgende fotos er dedikeret til alle Nimbuseksperter og hermed vist til offentligheden, så folk (censureret) over dem. Bare husk at dække tastaturet og ellers god fornøjelse med at finde 8 fejl (svar længere nede).

Answer: Snow White and the seven dwarfs is missing in the workshop.

Svar: Snehvide og de syv dværge er ikke på værkstedet.

Checking the block after honing the evil spirits out of it.

Tjekning af blokken efter alle onder ånder er blevet honet ud af den.

Terry and his company Raybel did a magnificent machine job on heads and blocks, for free. This kind of people makes it worthwhile to travel around the world. Big thanks Terry!

Terry og hans firma Raybel lavede et meget fint stykke arbejde på topstykker og blokke, gratis. Det er den slags mennesker der gør det værd at rejse jorden rundt. Stor tak til Terry!

Ken at his best: in the workshop fixing stuff with his old Myford lathe. Ken was a man that was impossible to not love, helpful, kind and very knowledgeable in a broad range of subjects.

Ken når han er bedst; i værkstedet og i gang med at fixe dele på hans gamle Myford drejebænk. Ken er en mand det er umuligt ikke at holde af; hjælpsomvenlig og meget vidende om en masse forskellige ting.

Bits and pieces, also called an abused engine for an obsolete bike that’ll soon be retired.

Laser og pjalter, i form af en mishandlet motor fra en forældet motorcykel der snart skal pensioneres.

If you choose the right Nimbus dealer you won´t only get good nimbus parts and service, you´ll also get Nimbus candies. And who´s the right? The one and only John Carlsen at JC Nimbus. He has never let me down and supported me from way before anybody even believed in what I was doing.

Hvis du vælger den rigtige Nimbusforhandler, får du ikke bare gode Nimbusstumper og god service, men også Nimbus slik. Og hvem står dér til venstre? Den eneste ene John Carlsen fra JC Nimbus. Han svigtede mig aldrig og støttede hele vejen fra før jeg selv vidste hvad jeg havde gang i.

The front wheel getting relaced for the 4th time or so. Now the entire hub was ready to go back to nature and was replaced. The good thing was that new tires was sponsored by Intercontact so there was at least some positive things associated with the wheels this time.

Forhjulet bliver opegret for fjerde gang eller så. Denne gang var hele navet klar til at blive kremeet, og blev derfor udskiftet. Heldigvis var dækkene sponsoreret af Intercontact (forbindelse via ordet i den engelske tekst), så der var i det mindste noget positivt forbundet med hjulet denne gang.

However, the continuous relacing and beating has started to make the rim crack. Big thanks to Clive welded it so it´ll hopefully go home again, as well as a lot of other weld jobs that needed to be done. Very skilled man and interesting character that did all the work as charity to needing Norwegians. Big thanks for the efforts!

Men altså, den gentagne opegring og de tæv fælgen har taget fik den til at slå revner. Mange tak til Clive der svejsede den – og mange andre tilng - så den forhåbentlig kan klare resten af turen hjem. En meget dygtig mand og en interessant type, som gjorde arbejdet som hjælp til os Nordmænd I Nød. Mange tak for indsatsen!

Clive.

I was hit by a wild South African drillpress so my entire face cracked and bled like that flood they talk about in the bible, had to be sown together by loose bits and pieces of the face we found all over the workshop. Here I´ve found some thinner to relieve the tremendous pain and traumas that rid me.

Jeg blev ramt af et vildt sydafrikansk søjlebor og fik en flænge der fik det at bløde helt i stil med den der historie fra biblen. Det blev så syet sammen med de løse stykker og stumper ansigt der lå rundt omkring på værkstedet. Her har jeg fundet lidt fortynder til at afhjælpe de smerter og traumer jeg har pådraget mig.