We have been using Difi enduro, dirt biking boots, which is wind and waterproof. We know that Africa is so hot but ride motorcycle is a challenge as well. We are on desert, mud, gravel, river…etc. We decided that hot is not important but to protect our ankles and legs if we fall down is more important. Therefore we have Difi Negev Aerotex enduro boots.
Short video about our gears :
Difi Negev Aerotex is good for it. Also we like the clips because our old boots were with zip and a couple of mounts later the zips broke I suppose because of sand and mud. On the other hand when the weather is so hot our legs and also feet swell. We can feel our boots is getting small. That’s why clips work well because we can get them big to have more comfort.
I fell down many times and few times I get stuck under my side-bags. Nothing happened because of the boots.
The boot is waterproof, not like Gore-Tex. We are fine with short or light rain but if we have heavy rain and need to ride all day our socks can get wet. I suppose all waterproof boots can have the same problem. When we were talking some riders on the road they told us they had same problem even if they have Gore-Tex boots.
We are happy to have the Difi Negev boots. We can recommend it if you have a plan to do a trip like us. It is worth it.
We have been using Difi dirt bike boots in a year now and we made 25.000 km with them. Actually, we didn’t use our dirt bike riding boots only to ride He climbed Kilimanjaro with Difi boots as well, It was to cold up there. 🙂
We have been riding motorcycle around the world with Caberg Duke 2 and HJC Is-Max 2 flip up helmets.
Yes, we have two different brands helmets. He was going to have for the first time a helmet and our budget was limited. He searched and decided to buy HJC Is-Max 2. I had two different helmets before and I knew what I wanted to have but price was important as well. So, I bought Caberg Duke 2.
We have been using them since July 2016. (20 months and 62.000 km.) Our opinion is both of them are good helmets when compare the price who is looking for budget.
Caberg Duke 2
Caberg Duke 2 is on the road two years, made 65.000 km.
I always use flip-up helmet. Which kind of journey we have been doing people say that we need full-face helmet. But I am not sure I can skip flip-up.
A lot of time, I need to talk people, soldiers or police and I don’t want to take off my helmet all the time. They want to hear me well and see my face. Easy to open flip-up and show your face.
When it is so hot, short break, I just open the flip-up for fresh air. I can say a lot of things like that why not full-face helmet. 😉
I want to write something about Caberg Duke II. Design is looking good. When I use I can feel that my head is safe 😉 because giving the feeling. Visor is wider so, I can see that I am looking from my window. 😉 It is ready for a intercom system, which we have been using.
I have a problem with the pin-up. Because it is fit in the beginning after a while we can’t stuck it to the visor anymore. We already change two times and I have again same problem with third one now. And I can hear outside sound so much.
Short video about our helmets :
GS
HJC Is Max 2
HJC Is Max 2 is on the road two years, made 70.000 km.
For me this is my first helmet so I cannot compare, but I will tell you my experiences with this helmet as I’ve been wearing it now for over 60.000 km.
She told me it’s very nice to have a flip-up helmet and I can agree on that, I really do not want a full-face helmet. It’s so easy to open it and talk to someone with a helmet like this so this is the best solution for me.
Comfort, a helmet needs to feel perfect on your head, it need to stuck nut not hurt you, this is one of the reasons my choice was the HJC helmet. It feels safe and comfortable, you need this when you ride every day and long days.
Sound, of course it’s important unfortunately this is a bit hard for me to tell about, as I never wear another helmet. I do wear earplugs most of the time so I don’t really have a problem with the sound and I’m used to it.
The pin lock is also a very important thing in the helmet; we ride in all weather circumstances. Especially in the rain we need it otherwise the helmet is getting foggy and you can’t see anything. Unfortunately this is also very sensitive and not working a 100% correct but it’s doing the job okay.
End conclusion is that I’m pretty satisfied about HJC Is Max 2 helmet. Also it’s not a really expensive one.
Welcome to most popular and touristic part of Africa, East African Countries. Zambia and Malawi are still ok for price but when passed to Tanzania we started to feel that we are just US dollars walking on the street, walking dollar machine. We are tired to barging for everything. Also, everything is so expensive for tourist like national parks enter fee, climb mountains…etc. It is look like if you rich welcome East Africa to stay in hotel, visit wildlife (Serengeti or Masai Mara National Park) and climb Kilimanjaro.
Anyway, it is look like we stayed inour daily budget limitin Eastern Africa as well because a lot of people invite us their house to stay or food and some people sent money to said that “we have been living in their dream and wanted to sent money to help a little for our dream.” Therefore, We could climb Kilimanjaro.
We spent 168 days in Eastern Africa and spent daily 47.25 USD, everything include for two people and motorcycles. We were planning to finish our ‘travel around Africa by motorcycle’ trip in Egypt but Turkey passport had problem to get visa that moment. That’s why we stopped our journey in Sudan and paid for air cargo (Airfreight)also fly ticket Sudan to Turkey. Take motorcycles from the cargo in Turkey was an other cost of course. All cost is inside Sudan cost, so nice to see we are still in the budget for us. 🙂
We applied EAVT visa to Uganda. We wrote to the form when we would enter the country but we wanted to go earlier than the date. No problem… After approval the visa it doesn’t matter date for the East African visa. We entered Uganda from Gatuna / Katuna border. Just one thing keep in your mind everything is negotiable in Uganda 🙂
First stop Lake Bunyonyi
They told us Lake Bunyonyi is most beautiful lake in Uganda also in Africa. Listen people, go there and see with your eyes.
We found a nice place next to the lake. Negotiate started for camping 10 USD, 8 USD, 7 USD…etc we paid 5 USD pppn. J The lake is so big and has a lot of little islands in it. We went on boat tour but if you want to see how beautiful the lake is you need to go up the hill to the see landscape. We don’t know if Lake Bunyonyi is best lake in Africa but it is really amazing.
The village has little local market, some shops and restaurant as well but all price you need to ask first. How much “chapatti”? One says 1000 other says 500. Depend on who is selling. Some people think we are tourist we can pay more. So ask first the price!
We finished the day in a Police Station!
After staying two days next to the lake we hit the road again but not for Kampala. We would like to see local life, villages, mountain roads and landscape. We started to ride almost noon there for when we arrived to Kanungu it was already getting late and the rain was on the door because there where just black clouds around.
The road condition is not good for the rain therefore we started to look a hotel to spend the night in Kanungu but we couldn’t find anything with secure parking. We were just following the signs to find something one motorcycle was behind me and trying to stop me. I didn’t want to because I had no idea who he was. He passed me and blocked my road. That moment Ferry was already around the corner so no option to see me what was happening. I told him from intercom “Don’t go so far, somebody blocking my road.” And than I saw he has a uniform, which was look like military uniform. After that I saw his motorcycle, which was writing ‘police’. I told him “Don’t panic, he is a police.”
The police was asking where we are going because which road we took dead end. We told him to looking a place to stay tonight safe for motorcycles and us. He didn’t say anything more after a while he said that we can’t ride around like that we must follow him. We didn’t understand what was going on but we followed him.
We arrived to a police station. He told us that don’t put motorcycle in parking area put inside the station. When we entered there was a small door. We just fit with our side bags. We parked them next to cells 🙂
and than we started to talk with another police officer and told our stories where we started, how long we are in Africa, why we were there…etc. After that we showed our passports. They were so friendly and happy to find us. We put our motorcycles in the station after a while we leaved from there with three police officers to walk through the village to look a hotel for us. We went to biggest hotel in Kanungu, which is so new, nice and big. They told for the price 15 USD. Maybe, if we go alone we could take tourist price, we have no idea.
When they were leaving we asked them here is safe to walk around because it was only far 15 km from DRC border. DRC is one of our best country which kind of experience we had but always nice to ask because every part of the country is different. They said that no problem here we could go out any time.
After we had a shower we went out to walk around and find a place for dinner. It is a small town or maybe city and it has amazing views. People were so friendly and shy. If we didn’t start a conversation they never started. Funny thing was, everybody knows us, where we are staying and how we entered the town. We found some good street food, which we always like to eat and try. We bought some food and than turned back the room. We had a really good night.
Next day, we went to police station again, took some photo’s with the police and than left. We went to the same street food place to eat our breakfast, which is called “Rolex”. They make chapatti bread and than two eggs with some tomato and cabbage, rolling inside the chapatti. Therefore “Rolex” name comes from roll eggs. 🙂
We entered Queen Elizabeth NP free with our motorcycle to see wildlife again.
After Kanungu we ride to Ishasha and than we saw a sign “Queen Elizabeth National Park welcome to wildlife.” We were looking the map to figure out where we are. Because we didn’t want to end up paying a lot of enter fee or middle of the road somebody could tell us to we have to turn back. But nobody around.
So, we kept continue and started to see some deer’s, warthogs, impala’s. We came a door on our left hand. We went to talk with the rangers. They told that we are on the main road and it is the only road to Katunguru. So we don’t need to pay for it. If we want to go next to Lake Edward we must pay enter fee.
They told us be careful because they have animals everywhere. We heard before Ishasha is very famous for tree climb lions. The ranger said that lions climb to fig trees where next to the lake but if it is so hot and no rain. He just went there but didn’t see any lions. It means they move more up and could be anywhere.
After all info we said thank you and keep continue to ride and see something. We saw far away lions, some elephants and buffalos. We stopped before a couple of times but after we saw them we decided to don’t stop just keep continue because we didn’t know what can jump in front of our wheels. 🙂
We saw very dark clouds were coming. (It means heavy rain) And we saw buffalos were passing our road. We didn’t want to get close to them because we didn’t know their behavior if we keep continue to ride. And the rain started to go crazy, no option to sit on the motorcycle and wait them to pass.
We jumped from motorcycle and covered our bags with one of the footprints. With the other footprint we covered our self. We were looking behind it and thinking if lion pass here now or come face to face what we could do. We can’t run away or jump motorcycles.
We have no idea what happened to us because we are not scared anymore from wildlife we are more scared from human if they want to attack us (Maybe you remember how they attack us middle of the street in Namibia 🙁 ) We slept next to hippos, elephants also came face to face with rhinos. Some times we heard lions in the night or here something walking next to our tent in the night but wildlife/animals don’t attack directly. They are warning you if you respect them they respect you. It is unbelievable.
Anyway, we stayed there almost one hour to wait for the rain to pass and buffalos of course. They didn’t move so fast from the road because after the rain started the potholes had water on the road, so they were enjoying drinking water. 🙂
We started to ride 10 am in the morning and arrived to Katunguru just before sunset. It was only 117 km but it took us 8 hours. So, you can imagine how much we were enjoying riding and seeing animals on the road. 🙂 We went to one camping site there. They said 10 USD pppn but we paid 5 USD each. Nice thing was they have a roof, perfect for us if it rains we can collect everything next day morning dry.
Before off the dark they made a fire. We didn’t understand why when it is so hot. They said that it is because of lions. How can we believe that? We are next to a village and people live with lions! On the other hand Queen Elizabeth NP doesn’t have a fence around so animals can be anywhere.
Hot or cold, campfire is always nice. I just sat next to it and was waiting him to come. I heard something from the bush and some animal run but I didn’t see well because of the dark. After that we heard to lions. They can be 100 meters far or 2 km. when they roar you can hear it like you are next to them. I was screaming to him “ Please carry pepper spray when you are coming to the campfire.” It wasn’t comfortable to sit there so long with all sounds and you can’t figure out what they have behind the bush. When we were in the tent I heard something middle of the night but I didn’t want to go out, of course. In the morning we saw elephant shit close to the tent. It is just wildlife right!
Plans can change anytime on the road!
Our plan was go to Murchison Falls NP after that Sipi falls, ride motorcycle around Mount Elgon and than pass Kenya from the Suam border. But we didn’t because of rain season. It was rain almost every afternoon. One of our dreams is to see the Low Omo Valley in Africa. We can visit there until middle of March. Therefore we skipped a lot of things in Uganda. But we didn’t go to Murchison Falls National Park also for another reason. Because of the national park fee for us, motorcycles and we didn’t see what we could see. It was a lot of money for us. We were fine with our experience in Queen Elizabeth.
We left from Katunguru and went to Fort Portal. We found a camping site middle of the city, which was so peaceful and quite. That moment we were sitting and watching some cows after wildlife. 🙂 After a little search we decided to go Jinja where we can see the source of the Nile River from there we can enter Kenya.
Next day early morning we were on the road to Kampala. And we passed equator line. It means we enter again winter season. 🙂 We made 280 km and we were just looking around to find a hotel before Kampala because we don’t like capital cities with all the traffic.
At the same time we were so tired because I had flat tire, it was first time for me in Africa to i had it. So, it could be so much for us to stuck in the traffic. We were lucky to find a nice hotel with nice food and it was 20 USD for a room with terrace and living room, of course include breakfast. 🙂
They stole our tent bag from a very secure camping site in Jinja!
We went to Jinja to stay at a beautiful campsite right at the source of the river Nile the place was very nice and had amazing views; we ended up staying 2 nights.
When we wanted to leave early in the morning we figured our 1 of our bags was missing. We looked everywhere but nowhere to find. The campsite had security 24/7 and they where actually pretty close to where we put up our tent. we have no clue who stole our bag but we never see it back.
Now we don’t have our tent bag anymore, luckily this is the smallest bag we carry and we can still put our tent somewhere else but we are missing a few things as well, especially our 6 liter water bag we needed that for the hot in Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt. We will now carry bottles again. 🙁
After a late departure to try and find the bag, leave our details at the campsite we left and continued our road to Kenya.
Is it safe to travel to africa? before start to write about travel safety tips we would like to say one thing; it can happened anything any time anywhere in the world when traveling our just next to your home.
Travel around the world by motorcycle, sleep in the tent, go to bush / wild camp most of the time, stop middle of nowhere…etc. try protect yourself from wildlife or people is not easy but might be necessary. We are not carrying a gun; even if we want to carry we don’t know how we can use it. 🙂 We don’t know karate, judo or something else to protect ourself. (To be honest, it can be good idea to learn a little if we have time). But still we have something to protect ourself or some plan for it. We didn’t have something when we were traveling in Europe but we had in Africa. We ride motorcycle around Africa in 1,5 years and passed 33 countries. Of course we had some problems but we handled it. If you have questions in your mind “is it safe to travel Africa right now?” it is so hard to tell because a little up to you as well. Where are you going? When are you going?…etc. This is our travel safety tips;
How can we protect ourself? What do we carry for our safety?
We have pepper spray with us. When we ride motorcycle it is hang on next to hand bar we can get it. When we walk it is always in our pocket. When we sleep just next to us as well.
We have mosquito spray, which we use to spray tent before go to sleep. it is always next to tent and can use easily like a pepper spray.
Our small hammer is always next to us as well when go to sleep in the tent.
We don’t go out in the night if it is not necessary or our friends need to pick up us to go out. We always ask first for the area is it safe or not, we can take any taxi or we need to call somewhere. Some countries in Africa use uber taxi and we used them as well.
We never carry our passport with us when we go out just have copy. If police ask and has to see we tell them to go back to the hotel, camping site…etc to show them.
Never carry all our important paper, cards or a lot of money with us. Because if somebody steals it we never lose all of them.
If we go to bazaar or walk around we don’t carry our normal phones. We have one old phone, it is always with us to look for directions and roads because we don’t want to show a good phone in our hands all the time.
When we need shopping one of us always next to the motorcycles the other one goes to shop. Depend on the area who wait next to motorcycles.
We need a break sometimes when we ride motorcycle. Of course people can come next to us to talk. We always try to put motorcycle between us when we talk. Some kind of safety for us as well because they can catch you in a second.
If we don’t know people we don’t shake hands so often and especially in Kenya after we hear some stories. They have something in their hand when we shake hand we can lose some kind of our memories.
When we go to the bar we just drink beer because they always open next to us and easy to close top so nobody can put anything. We know a lot of stories about it in Africa and Brazil.
When we leave from tent or motorcycle we carry all important stuff with us never leave it behind. Or if we are in a hotel, camping site… we can put safe box(if they have) or give reception.
We had one of bad experience in Africa. 8 people attack us middle of the street. After that we talk a lot about our safety and decided some important rules.
If anybody try to enter our tent again or take something on the motorcycle “Do not run behind it!” we never know if his friends waiting on the corner and attacked.
If people attacked us to steel something “Do not fight with them!” because they can use their gun or knife and we could get injured there or worse.
If our petrol finish or break motorcycle like nowhere or one person need help because of a injury…etc “We never leave each other nowhere alone there!” we will find a solution together and leave the area together.
If the motorcycle breaks and we need to fix with somebody “Only one person will focus to work on it!” other person needs to take care motorcycle and our stuff.
I think one of the other important thing is how to prevent yourself from malaria in Africa.
We made a short video for our Africa journey, roads, life… We hope that you like to watch :
How to prevent diseases when you are traveling especially from malaria in Africa?
This is one thing that comes together, there are still millions of people dying from Malaria all over the world but most of them in Africa. Of course we have to deal with that as well, we are now on total 20 months in Africa and in most of the countries there is a serious threat of malaria. So how do we prevent against malaria?
We are so long in the malaria risk areas and there is no vaccination against malaria. But there are medicines who protect you against malaria like malarone, chloroquine and doxycline. Again there is a but, they are not protecting you for a 100% and for long term use they can seriously damage you body and some of them can have side effects. I’m not a doctor so cannot explain all the medicines in detail, so I’m not going to try that.
We decided to not use anything against malaria, but that doesn’t mean we don’t take care of not getting it. This is what we do and are on our opinion the most important things to do.
– Socks, the mosquitos love your ankles.
– Long sleeve shirt and pants, now most of your body is covered. We know that it is not easy to wear them when the temperature around 30-40 degrees especially after ride motorcycle all day under the sun. But it is the way protect ourself from malaria.
– Mosquito spray with deet, we even put this on our clothes to protect. We have been using 70% deet on it. This doesn’t protect you only from mosquitos and malaria it is one of the thing carry with you and help how to prevent diseases because we have more fly or animals can bite on the nature.
– Eat garlic, this is not a proven method but garlic is working like a antibiotic.
– If we camp in a place with a lot of mosquitos we spray our inside tent before go to sleep.
This is the most you can do and it works for us, we didn’t get malaria.( still we have three more countries in Africa 🙂 ) We have been traveling with people using medicine and still got malaria. You just cannot protect yourself 100% so it’s a matter of luck, you can just prepare yourself against it. We do carry malarone with us as we can use it as a anti malaria medicine if we do get malaria, this way we can get to a place to treat us against it.
If we feel sick and our temperature is high we test ourselves, you can do this everywhere in Africa for a small price.
Important note! If you do get malaria in Africa or elsewhere in the world, treat yourself against it in the country where you are, don’t fly to your home country as they might not know what to do.
We arrived Rusumo falls, Rwanda-Tanzania, border. We were thinking enter Rwanda is free in 2018, no visa fee any more because we read some news about it. Also we looked to their page but it wasn’t very clear. We figured out on the border that Rwanda changed visa rules 2018 for only visa for arrival therefore we paid and enter Rwanda (visa detail on the arrival) Please remember that Rwanda is also in EATV visa.
We were thinking, we would be riding a good tar road and arrive at the capital city, Kigali so fast. We ride dirt road first 100 km. fully dust than we arrived Kigali.
The capital city was look like so organize and clean. Because the country doesn’t use plastic bags and they always clean everywhere. Also, Rwanda has one rule for ride motorcycles we haven’t seen any of other African countries, expect Namibia and South Africa. Not only motorcycle taxi drivers has to use helmet, customer has to use a helmet as well and they can’t carry more than one customer. 🙂
We just stayed one night in Kigali and next day we arrived Gisenyi which town is next to Goma, DRC. Why were we riding so fast in Rwanda? Because, we booked our Gorillas adventure and climb Nyiragongo Lava Lake in Virunga Park, DRC.
We so much enjoyed riding between Kigali and Gisenyi because of the mountain roads where amazing with corners and altitude to go up and down. People were also so nice as well. They were so interest and curios to talk with us. We visited some villages on the road and also went to a bazaar to buy fruits.
When we were in Kigali we were thinking everything is really expensive in Rwanda because of supermarket prices. But buy something on the street or village bazaar wasn’t like that. Of course water is a little expensive because I suppose only tourist want to buy it. 🙂
After stay 3 days in DRC we turn back Rwanda and stayed in Gisenyi one day more. Lake Kivu is very famous in Rwanda, which they called holiday beach in Rwanda. We couldn’t enjoy that much because of rain season, we had most of time dark clouds and rain.
We are not lucky on the east cost of Africa because we didn’t come on correct season, just wet season started. Therefore we didn’t want to spend so much time in Rwanda. But of course before leave from the country we decided to go a little inland and leave from main road. So, we saw the amazing face of Rwanda, landscape and dirt mountain road was wonderful. We end up the day in Byumba. We found a little local motel, which was 10 USD and enjoyed with cheap local food.
Next day we were on the Katunga border to pass Uganda. We stayed in Rwanda only 5 days. We can tell that if you stay touristic area hotels and food will be expensive. If you have your own vehicle just leave main roads and enjoy with Rwandan landscape and local food.
The best option for Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya is the East Africa visa also called EATV. The visa is valid for all 3 countries with multiple entrée; also you can pass into Tanzania and come back (note: Tanzania is not included, you need to pay for that separately).
When we were traveling East of Africa by motorcycle we already applied online EATV visa and we paid more than what we were thinking. Because when we were applying we didn’t know that we could go to DRC, which country out of East Africa visa. So, just please read details and don’t do same mistake.
How to get the visa;
If your first enter is from Rwanda you can apply online and pay at the door. The costs are 100 USD (cash only in USD) for the visa. (If you want to have each countries cost will be 130 USD; Rwanda 30 USD single entry 30 days, Uganda 50 USD single entry 30 days and Kenya 50 USD single entry 30 days.)
For Uganda you need to apply online as well and you need to pay online too. The costs for the visa are now 103 USD as they charge 3% for the payment, you cannot pay on arrival
For Kenya you don’t need to apply online you can just get it on arrival at the bigger borders, you pay cash 100 USD for the visa.
The visa is valid for 90 days and you cannot extend it.
Important Note : If you leave from East African countries you lose your EATV. For example, You want to visit Virunga Park in DRC. When they put exit stamp on your EATV on the Rwanda border You cant turn back with same visa. You have to pay 30 USD to single entry visa to Rwanda or apply again online EATV. It is same for Ethiopia or Burundi as well.
To be honest, we couldn’t enjoy that much in Tanzania because of people behavior or had a lot of problem on the road with our motorcycles.
First stop was Tukuyu
Border crossing took almost two hours because of paper works. We just leaved from the border the rain and wind started to go crazy. We were going to Tukuyu which was 50 km from the border therefore we didn’t bother the rain that much and we got totally wet.
We stayed in a little village where they made a little camping next to an old school garden. We changed closed set up the tent and played with the kids for a while. The night was cold, foggy and so much humid. I couldn’t sleep well because I suppose I got cold and my stomach wasn’t good. In the morning, we were planning to see “The bridge of God” and “Ngozi Crater Lake” but we skipped it and decided to go Mbeya to find a hotel to get rest and change the clutch pads from my motorcycle.
So hard to understand people sometimes
We arrived to Mbeya and find a nice African style hotel. We just entered and started to rain again. That moment we were lucky. J A couple of hours later, the rain stopped and we went out to find a place to work on our motorcycles. Land Rover service was so friendly. They told us “Come here and work. We like to help you.” Next day, we went there to work on the motorcycle but couldn’t finish in a day because we never change clutch pads before. Everything went good but the clutch wasn’t good. The mechanic guy, from Land Rover, called his friend to look motorcycle who knows motorcycle well. Of course not! We opened and closed many times my motorcycle after that he said just tied to cable from clutch. Fine, we already know that! They told us our motorcycle could stay there because they have security and safe.
Next day, we went back closed all parts of motorcycle and got ready to leave. When we were saying bye and thank you to help they said that we must pay for mechanic. Pardon! They said that they don’t charge for night parking but that wanted 60.000 TSH because we worked there. Also, we must pay 60.000 TSH to motorcycle mechanic who came and look…. Are you crazy? He didn’t do anything. We were really surprised because when we were in Western Africa people were really helpful when we asked them how much we need to pay, they were getting upset about it because they want to help not for the money.
After barging about the price we paid 60.000 TSH only and than we left there. Before leave from Mbeya we went to the local bazaar to buy some fruit and got ready to hit the road. They were looking us and saying more than double price. Before Tanzania, we never have experience like that in Africa except in Morocco.
When we were talking each other one person came and told with us friendly and said sorry to people behavior. What he told us we were surprise because “we are white, it means we have a lot of money!”
Going to Iringa
Next day morning we woke up and got ready to hit the road. We decided to put everything behind what happened in Mbeya, start again. J
We were only far 50-60 km from Iringa He said that something happening on his motorcycle, he can’t see total km, time or speed anymore. Everything got disappear. How is that possible! We stopped and turn of-on motorcycle again. Everything was working well only total km wasn’t there anymore. He made 56.500 km but motorcycle was saying he made only 24 km! We couldn’t understand what is going on. Just keep continue to camping site to check motorcycle. Of course so hard to have guess for us how and why total km can turn back zero.
In the night, the rain started and didn’t stop. It was 11 am when we could leave from the tent. The rain didn’t stop just it was light. We collect everything well before get wet.
And than he turned on the engine but motorcycle didn’t work. It was look like battery finished. I pushed him two time but we couldn’t turn on the engine. I was already sick and I got more because I got totally wet again when I was trying to push the motorcycle. We wanted help from some people who was working in there. Finally motorcycle worked. After change our clothes we hit the road again. Normally, we were going to Dar Es Salam and than Zanzibar. But we were upset for the motorcycle and we didn’t know how long it would take to fix the problem. We didn’t want to be rain season in Eastern Africa. So, when we were riding and talking on intercom we suddenly changed our road to Dodoma.
By the way, we paid 10 USD pppn for the camping side, just set up the tent on the grass, no ablution block, hot shower, cooking area….etc also wanted to 2 USD for an hour wifi. Crazy!
We got a little happy in DodomaJ
After one and half hours, we stopped motorcycles to have a break. Our imagination was the battery could be charge in that time. We turn on his engine but didn’t work. I pushed him and than we were on the road again.We did same thing every break to turn on the engine and than finally we arrived to Dodoma before sunset.
We found basic local hotel, which was clean and only 12 USD one room. When you compare to Iringa camping it was nothing with private bathroom and hot shower. Next day we started to search in Dodoma where we can find odometer to calculate volt on the motorcycle. But we couldn’t find anywhere. Our other option was find a charger cable. So, we could start his motorcycle with my motorcycle battery. They had only for car, which is so big for us and it was 15 usd.We found a little motorcycle shop. We told them what we were looking for. Of course they didn’t have but they were so helpful. I was in front of the shop he went somewhere with another guy to find the cable. They didn’t find but they came back with cables and some other stuff. The guy made for us what we were looking for and didn’t want to take any money from us. It was just help! After a couple of days experience in Tanzania we were surprise for it and happy.
Actually, people were more friendly in Dodoma and happy to see us in their city. We stayed there two days and than decided to go Arusha where we can find some stuff to fix motorcycle or go to Nairobi from there is only 280 km.
I was on the phone and talking with my brother to explain what was going on with the motorcycle. My brother came with an idea. Change the batteries! We couldn’t find odometer so if change the batteries we could understand what is wrong because my motorcycle was working well. If his battery empty I could charge. So, the problem can’t be from his battery. If my battery gets empty means his motorcycle starter relay doesn’t work well.We can try it!
Going Arusha became a nightmare for us…
We changed the batteries and started to ride. We didn’t stop engines two hours and than had a break time. It was look like his battery dead because when I turned on the engine my motorcycle didn’t work. Also, it was look like a problem with his started relay because his motorcycle didn’t work with my battery. Pushed two motorcycle and ride again to go Arusha. 🙂
The road was full Masai people and villages but we couldn’t stop. We were just trying to keel continue. LLast 30 km to Arusha, my motorcycle stop suddenly when I was riding and than turn on engine again. Also I lost my entire panel to see speed, time, km…etc. It means the battery dead. But it was coming sunset and we can’t stay on the high way in the night. After 10 km later, my engine stopped. We were looking where we can go? What we can do? We saw a camping site only 7 km far from us. But I didn’t want to push my motorcycle and try to ride again. Because feeling was my baby suffering with the pain and I don’t want to see it like that. So, we changed to motorcycles. I was riding his motorcycle; he was riding mine. He opened the gas, didn’t stop checkpoints and arrived to the camping site.
Mario and Lills from indonesia. Wheelstory!
We were so tired and upset. We must find somebody who can help us to go Arusha and fix motorcycles. Our Indonesian friends were there whom we met in Swaziland and travel together in Mozambique. They gave a number to us from Moshi. They already talked with him who name is Sam (The garage Moshi) he was ready to help us. We took his phone number and called him. Sam was upset to here we stuck somewhere and welcome to help.
Before keep continue to our problem I would like to write about camping side. 10 USD pppn and nothing to give only a grass to set up the tent. Camping sites are so expensive in Tanzania and they don’t have good ablution block and no electricity… etc. We really miss South African campsite. They were amazing and so cheap when you compare to Tanzania.
In the morning, he took my motorcycle and went to Moshi, which is 100 km from the camping site. At the same time Mario and Lilis (Indonesian couple) came to stay with me. He came back in two hours with one of Sam’s motorcycle and with my battery.
We put the battery his motorcycles. I ride his motorcycle, he rides Sam’s motorcycle and Mario was riding his motorcycle. J We searched everywhere in Arusha but couldn’t find battery.After that we went to Sam’s place, which is called The Garage Moshi. He has a garage but at the same time has ‘bed&breakfast’. He has a garage right, so has odometer. J We knew that his battery already dead but we must find the problem why did total km ‘zero’ and why the battery went dead. To be honest, we couldn’t find anything wrong. Look like something happened but passed.
Sam found a new battery for us from Dar Es Salam and said that somebody brings it to Moshi on the weekend. Means, we must wait 5 days. I wrote before I was sick and couldn’t get rest with all problems. That’s why my body collapsed and I stuck to the bed three days there. I suppose that I wasn’t still well but we decided to climb Kilimanjaro, which was my dream. It is another story and we will write in other article.
When we turned backed from the Kili his battery was arrived to Moshi. We charged it and than went for a test ride. Actually, we went to a Oasis to get enjoy a little. We stayed with Sam total 10 days. He was so nice and we are so happy to have a good friend from Tanzania now.
We had a lot of funny things there. Sam was going to market and buying a something that is 1.500 TSH. We were going to buy same thing and is 2.000 TSH for us. I don’t want to say more about it J
What do we want to do more in Tanzania?
I was planning to go Serengeti when we started to travel on November 2016. Finally we were around Serengeti. But we didn’t go. L It was already the 6th of February and we had only 3 weeks more to travel Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya before go to Ethiopia. The rain season starts middle of March on Lower Omo Valley and we want to visit tribes there. Therefore we must be there latest time 2-3 of March. Also, Serengeti is crazy expensive. Only stay in the park 24 hours is 110 USD (park fee and public camp price only) for each person.Actually, it was hard decision for us but I told him “We have a reason to come back Tanzania one day to visit Serengeti, Mafia and Zanzibar Islands”
Bye Tanzania.
We leaved Moshi and ride trough to Rwanda. It was more than 1000 km. So, it took 3 days for us.We stayed in Singida,Nzega and Nyakanazi.We paid each motel-hotel 7 USD per night. All of them were clean and with private bathroom but no hot shower. They also had their small restaurant and bar so, we ate nice cheap delicious food.
It was so nice for us to see a little local people behavior in Tanzania who has been living out of the touristic areas.
When I was backpacker I didn’t worried that much my passport to I can lose it but now I have to take care my driver license and motorcycle register as well.
When we came to Africa we hear a lot of stories about bribes. (Good thing, we did not pay any bribes yet) For example, they took driver license or register and didn’t give back until people paid money in some checkpoints. Other exam, they took the driver license in the office to write detail, after 30 minutes later they said that they lost it. Common how can possible! But it is true.
Easy way, you should have an extra fake one :). You should make a colorful copy of your vehicle register and driver license on a thick paper. After that make it plastification. So just make a copy of your documents. We have been carrying copy of register and driver license in our pocket when we ride. Most of the time, the checkpoint just wants to see our documents. They can check and than we can keep continue. Most border crossings we use the original one. (Depends on how much they have bribe) To be honest, we are in Africa 15 months now and only one checkpoint wanted to see original documents. 🙂
But please never ever do this in Europe, North America or Australia you can have serious problem! Anyway, you don’t need second documents in these continents to safe your paper. 🙂
Also, carry a copy of your documents, which are passport info page, driver license, vehicle register…etc. Most borders wants to have also some checkpoints want to have it.
Another note; have a photo of your documents send to yourself by email. If you lose them the photo or email can be more helpful when you are in the embassy or consulate.
We made a short video for our Africa journey, roads, life… We hope that you like to watch :
We found a nice place next to the lake. Negotiate started for camping 10 USD, 8 USD, 7 USD…etc we paid 5 USD pppn. J The lake is so big and has a lot of little islands in it. We went on boat tour but if you want to see how beautiful the lake is you need to go up the hill to the see landscape. We don’t know if Lake Bunyonyi is best lake in Africa but it is really amazing.
The road condition is not good for the rain therefore we started to look a hotel to spend the night in Kanungu but we couldn’t find anything with secure parking. We were just following the signs to find something one motorcycle was behind me and trying to stop me. I didn’t want to because I had no idea who he was. He passed me and blocked my road. That moment Ferry was already around the corner so no option to see me what was happening. I told him from intercom “Don’t go so far, somebody blocking my road.” And than I saw he has a uniform, which was look like military uniform. After that I saw his motorcycle, which was writing ‘police’. I told him “Don’t panic, he is a police.”
When they were leaving we asked them here is safe to walk around because it was only far 15 km from DRC border. 
So, we kept continue and started to see some deer’s, warthogs, impala’s. We came a door on our left hand. We went to talk with the rangers. They told that we are on the main road and it is the only road to Katunguru. So we don’t need to pay for it. If we want to go next to Lake Edward we must pay enter fee.
They told us be careful because they have animals everywhere. We heard before Ishasha is very famous for tree climb lions. The ranger said that lions climb to fig trees where next to the lake but if it is so hot and no rain. He just went there but didn’t see any lions. It means they move more up and could be anywhere.
We saw very dark clouds were coming. (It means heavy rain) And we saw buffalos were passing our road. We didn’t want to get close to them because we didn’t know their behavior if we keep continue to ride. And the rain started to go crazy, no option to sit on the motorcycle and wait them to pass.
We jumped from motorcycle and covered our bags with one of the footprints. With the other footprint we covered our self. We were looking behind it and thinking if lion pass here now or come face to face what we could do. We can’t run away or jump motorcycles.
Now we don’t have our tent bag anymore, luckily this is the smallest bag we carry and we can still put our tent somewhere else but we are missing a few things as well, especially our 6 liter water bag we needed that for the hot in Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt. We will now carry bottles again. 🙁
When we were in Kigali we were thinking everything is really expensive in Rwanda because of supermarket prices. But buy something on the street or village bazaar wasn’t like that. Of course water is a little expensive because I suppose only tourist want to buy it. 🙂
