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.