When we are traveling continent to continent one of the expensive things is shipping or airfreight our motorcycle to another continent.
Why motorcycle transport is expensive by air?
First of all, most cargo companies or airlines cargo companies don’t work with the customer directly, especially if they are in the dangerous class like motorcycles. Therefore you need to find an agency for it and pay them.
Second, motorcycle needs to go to the custom service for exit the country to check VIN, plate and engine number. The agency can take care of it.
Third, you need to pack and carry your motorcycle to the airport. General the agency doesn’t make a air freight box and sent you to another service / agency.
All of them are extra costs for motorcycle transport by air. Also, you must pay for air freight as well. 🙁
Air waybill has change a lot with motorcycle cargo box size.
You must make a box or pallet for the motorcycle as small as possible because an airlines cargo companies calculate transport cost with the size. The kg is not important for your bill, only important for them self when they put the motorcycle in the plane, I suppose for balance.
We used airfreight from Khartoum, Sudan to Istanbul, Turkey. The size of the motorcycle was 220*130*130 when fully pack with side bags and rear bags. The air waybill was around 500 USDlike that. But you can make your motorcycle small so you can fly your motorcycle cheap.
Here our video about shipping, you can watch before keep continue to read :
So, we got out our bags. We removed the screen and mirrors. We got the wheels and mudguard out. We wanted to take the plate and back panel as well but it wasn’t easy to that with Honda CRF250L. Finally, our motorcycle size came 190*90*105 for air cargo. What was the air freight cost for one motorcycle after that? 🙂 228 USD. We saved 232 USD for each motorcycles cargo.
Small size of air cargo motorcycle pack 🙂
Find a cheap air cargo package company for motorcycles.
We didn’t pay any extra money to pack our motorcycle. When we were talking the company we showed some photos, which my brother sent to us from his air cargo packages, how we will pack motorcycles (you can use ours haha).
We also told them we will get empty the tank, remove battery pole heads because we know that the motorcycle goes through dangerous good check. Also we said that we wont put motorcycle in a box or plastic wrap around so the custom service can see plate and VIN number.
We made a pallet because forklift carries package to air cargo and we stabled them with strap clamps. We carried our Honda CRF20L on the back of a towing vehicle to the airport. We scared a little when towing vehicle was carrying because pallets were forklift cars. 🙂
Normally, the agency doesn’t want to take a risk and send you another company to pack because they know the company how they can pack for dangerous good or custom service. After discuss a while with the agency in Sudan they allowed to us make our own pack. We wanted one thing from them, close our motorcycle with plastic wrap after finish all control. We told them we can pay how much cost but they didn’t take anything. So, our motorcycle could be clean and nothing fall down any case. We gave them our motorcycle on the first photo to transport
we said bye them in Khartoum airport, Sudan
and motorcycle arrive to us like this. They were coming from Africa so the package can look like a Zebra. 🙂
We are inside to the store. They brought our motorcycles
Don’t forget after put your motorcycle on the pallet how much you have space it is yours. Therefore, you can carry some extra things on it as well. We were flying with a cheap fly which means we must pay extra for luggage. We put our helmet, boots, motorcycle gears and some little bags around the motorcycle and stabled them.
We heard from a lot of rider who use air cargo (airfreight) to transport their motorcycles some of them paid a lot of money to package between 200 USD to 600 USD. We paid 30 USD for each motorcycles cargo pack. So, talk a lot air cargo agency to make yourself or search and find cheap company to pack for you. Don’t pay a lot of money.
Ride motorcycle in Ethiopia with the gorgeous landscapes and mountain roads, meet Ethnic groups in the Omo Valley, see interesting culture and lifestyle, losing yourself in another world which is the Danakil Depression, enjoy traditional food, visit historical places, go trekking…etc. All of them are in one country, Ethiopia.
We wanted to go to Ethiopia from Lake Turkana but the rain season didn’t allow us because of all river crossing (You can check it in Kenya stories). We had to go Moyale but it took two weeks before we could pass the border because there where protest and the country was choosing primary minister. We had to wait for sure the Moyale border was safe.
We were on the border in the afternoon and it took only one hour for the border crossing. We don’t like to ride motorcycle in Africa when it is dark because of the roads, no lights and there are animals and humans crossing the roads or walking on the road. Therefore we stayed our first night in Moyale. Next day in the morning we were on the road to Konso.
We heard a lot of stories about the Ethiopian roads, like it is so busy, no privacy, kids throw stones…etc. We decided to not stop so much on the road if it is not necessary. Also who was riding motorcycle in front of us they said that fuel was problem and black market price is crazy. We carried extra fuel with us from Kenya but we found easily just before Yabelo in the gas station.
We arrived in Konso late afternoon. We stayed there because our plan was go to Low Omo Valley to see the ethnic groups there. We just enter Konso and we found a small pension with secure parking. So we didn’t think more just jump in. 🙂
We found a petrol station before the turn to Jinka and got our tanks full again. After pass some donkey roads we came to mountain roads. We didn’t think that the road could be beautiful like that. It was a tarmac road; of course you can see potholes sometimes, with nice landscape.
We arrived in Jinka before afternoon. We found a pension and stayed in the city center. We stayed around 8-9 days in the Omo valley and visited Jinka, Key Afer, Turmi, Omoratte to see Ethnic groups of Kara, Hamer, Mursi, Ara, Dassenech and Banna. To be honest it was an incredible experience for us. Some way was nice but some way was feeling upset about their life. We wrote another two articles about the Omo Valley;
After the Omo Valley we arrived in Arba Minch. Our plan was to visit the Dorze people village and see the Chencha market. But we couldn’t. 🙁 I was not feeling well and we got rest for two days in Arba Minch. Yes, sometimes what I really want to see I need to skip because to be healthy on the roadis most important I think. Also, we were thinking to go to Hawassa and stay next to the lake, it didn’t happen as well. Because when we were going to Arba Minch we heard that Ethiopia has new primary minister. It could be celebration or possible protest we didn’t have any idea. We were thinking that it is a good opportunity for us to go to Addis Ababa as soon as possible and see what happening there. We made 500 km in a day with our 250 cc motorcycle and Ethiopian roads. 🙂 We arrived at the Holland house just before dark. It was very nice to meet some other riders after a while on the East coast of Africa.
We stayed 11 days there. We didn’t do that much we just got relax. We did have some interviews for a news channel and newspaper. Of course we enjoyed talking with our new and old friends. Also we apply Sudan visa in Addis Ababa, which was easier to get as what we were thinking.
I must tell one think about traffic in Addis Ababa. You should be careful when you ride motorcycle or car because anytime anywhere can be accident. Because, most people do not follows traffic rules or light!
Finally we got ready and hit the road again to Lalibela. The weather is crazy in Ethiopia. It was so hot in the Omo Valley and than we were sleeping with a blanket in Addis Ababa. When we were going to Lalibela some part of the road was so hot again. But suddenly it was getting cold again when we were going to top of the mountain. Of course don’t forget the rain. We couldn’t go to Weldiya. When we arrived Kombolcha it was already 5 pm and it was raining. We wanted to stay there but we couldn’t because the hotel we found they gave an extremely high price. We stayed max around 400 birr but there they were telling us 1000-1500 birr. We learned later if you check in with foreign passport price would be like that. Local people can pay 500 birr. 🙁
Lets ride to Dessie, only 25 km far, and find more option. It was same but we had a person number from a company, Yapi Merkezi. We called Huseyin and ask him for help. He found the best hotel in the area, which is around 2000 birr they booked hotel for us and we paid only 700 birr. It was still out of our daily Africa budget but after got cold and wet it was great to stay in a five stars hotel. We have no idea when we stayed in a hotel like that before in our world trip 🙂 Next day we pass from Mersa and stop there for lunch and met Huseyin who helped us last night. We enjoyed the lunch and talked a lot for a couple of hours than we were on the road again.
Sun set of Lalibela, Ethiopia
When we arrived Dilb village where you can turn to the Lalibela road it was already 4:30 pm. Some people were complaining about the road how much bad. It was only 66 km but cannot be fun ride in the dark. We found one Tour Company’s car on the road and we asked the driver. He said that we could easily make it in two hours. The road is bad for car but easier for motorcycles. He was right. We arrived Lalibela in two hours. The road was so much fun to be honest and landscape was great. Only some kids wanted to throw stones 🙁
Lalibela, Ethiopia
We stayed in Lalibela three days. We visited old churches, walked in the historical place and saw the Lalibela market. It was nice to see area. But a couple days is enough.
St. George Church, Lalibela
Our next stop was Mekele because we were so curios to see the Danakil Depression. We looked the map which road we could ride and we decided a more challenge one. 🙂 We don’t have GPS just maps.me and we got lost. 🙁 We were trying to look at the map where we are but no road on the map. We turned back and tried to find a way. After that we came a road, which is thinking a road because we don’t think so any vehicle passes there. But I made it to turn and pass from the mountain.
Finally we were on the tarmac road on afternoon and 165 km on front of us to Mekele. We could still make it before dark. Do you think so? In ten minutes, the rain started it was worse than shower and the road got like a lake. No place to stop and hide our self, so we keep riding. We arrived in Mekele in the dark totally wet. But important thing was we made it! 🙂
You can imagine how much we were tired and slept like a baby almost until next day noon. We want to go Danakil therefore we must find a tour company to go there. We walked around Mekele and found some. We like one of them and decided to go with them four days Danakil Depression tour, which were going Erta Ale, Dallol. Sulphur spring, salt lake and canyon. You can find our Danakil journey and the place story in another our article.
Salt Lake, Danakil
When we turned back from the Danakil tour we were so tired. And we didn’t want to stay at the same hotel where we stayed before because they don’t have running water and we desperately needed a shower. But we had a small room there to put all our stuff in it and use security parking for our motorcycles. We just paid 130 birr for the room and parking. J We went there and said them we will keep the room one night more and than went to another room. We are so rich right? 🙂 Two different hotels two rooms one night we paid it. It was total 400 birr anyway…
Our motorcycle bags room in Mekele 🙂
Mekele is so different than other places we visited so far in Ethiopia. We were more relaxed and enjoying walking around in the city. Nobody disturb you on the road, we walked everywhere in the night, nobody cheating the price because we were tourist. We really like to be there. We can tell you if you go to Ethiopia you will see how much different people behavior is in different regions. Mekele is the capital city of Tigray Region.
After Mekele our next stop in Ethiopia was Axum, this city is still in the Tigray Region and we had the same feeling as in Mekele. We were planning to visit some churches and baths of Queen Sheba but we couldn’t because after change the weather a lot in Danakil and mountains road we got a little sick. Rest was the best option for us. You can get so much enjoy around Axum especially if you ride motorcycle in Ethiopia Mekele to Axum road is one of the nice mountain road in Ethiopia.
After get rest three days in Axum we hit the road again towards Debark. We heard from many riders that the road to Debark is the best road in Ethiopia. We were so curious to ride motorcycles there. We can tell that it is on of the amazing road in Africa.
The day started with fun but? He started to complain about his motorcycle when the motorcycle is climbing the mountains: ‘My motorcycles doesn’t want to go!’ The problem was look like clutch pad because he was complaining similar problem, which I did with my Honda CRF 250L in Malawi. L We arrived Debark almost in the dark. End of the day we had sometime hard time when we ride motorcycles but still we enjoyed with the landscape.
Debark to Gondar is just a few km each other. So why did we plan to stay in Debark? Because we wanted to ride motorcycle in Simien Mountains National Park people say the Simian is on of the most beautiful ranges in Africa and it is on the world Unesco World Heritage list. Also, we could visit Gelada monkeys there. If you are lucky you can see Ethiopian wolfs, black and white colobus and Hamydra baboons as well in Simien Mountains.
But we had to skip. 🙁 When one of the Honda CRF 250L had a clutch pad problem we didn’t want to ride in the park. Another option is hiking Simien for a couple of days. We were thinking that we are tired but at the same time we knew that we wont come back Africa for a while because we have a lot of road in front of us to ride motorcycle and discover the world. So, push our self to hiking.
Gelada monkeys look like baboons…
In the night, I was wearing my jeans to go out dinner I felt that my nail broke or something from to toe. No pain but feeling was weird. No way, you are kidding me! My nail took out totally from the skin, no pain no bleeding. I knew that I would have some problem with my toe and nail after Kilimanjaro because some part I couldn’t walk there with pain. What should I do? Ride motorcycle is another problem. We just closed the toe with antibiotic cream. Yeap, we didn’t have any alternative more to go Simien Mountain. No motorcycle clutch and no nail! 🙁
After all, still we were lucky because we saw Gelada monkeys next to the road. We stopped and watch them a while. When we were riding to Gonder we were still smiling and happy to how much we were lucky when we had a lot of unlucky things in a week. 🙂
Gelada Monkeys, Simian Mountain, Ethiopia
We stayed a couple of days in Gonder to change clutch pad, engine oil and also make sure for my toe got better a little before go anywhere.
Our last destination could be Lake Tana, Blue Nile falls and Awira Amiba. We started to talk about it to go or not go. We got our Sudan visa 15 days ago in Addis Ababa; we had no idea that we had only for 15 days more or when we are on the border they will give us again 30 days. My toe had problem when I was wearing the motorcycles boots. We were feeling tired after 1,5 years in Africa. Also, we didn’t know what was waiting us in Sudan because we knew that there is a fuel problem and it was getting more and more serious day by day. Yes, we started Ethiopian journey so lucky to spend time in Omo valley, Lalibela and Danakil. We didn’t miss any mountain roads to ride motorcycles. We suppose that it wasn’t the end of the world if we couldn’t see Simien Mountains and Lake Tana. At the same time, it could be a reason to come back Ethiopia again :). To be honest, we could come back here and spend three months because Ethiopia is an impressive country anyway….
Gonder weeding car 🙂
Our decision we are going to Sudan… After stayed three days in Gondar we tried to hit the road again to Sudan. 🙂 Woke up early morning, got ready and started to ride now we only need petrol. We wanted to carry how much fuel we could carry because we are not sure where we could find petrol in Sudan. After two hours search we could find petrol in Gondar. Lucky day! 🙁
By the way, Gondar is capital city of Amhara Region. We really so much enjoy there as well like Mekele. Walk on the street day or nighttime; sit anywhere to drink or eat was so nice and comfortable.
Gonder castle
You need to know before go to Ethiopia;
Ethiopia use their own calendar and time. They are 8 years behind us with local calendar. So, I was young when i was there. 🙂 One year is 13 months and last months is 5 or 6 days depend on February. Also, if you ask the hotel when the breakfast starts they could tell you 12. It means 6 am in the morning.
It was April 2018 when we took the bill from the hotel.
Hotel in Turmi, Omo Valley
Ethiopian food is really nice. We can recommend to try local food especially meat.
Yeshekla Tibs with chicken and meat, Moyale
Also, their juice are so nice when the weather is so hot or you need to fresh up. Juice are more smooth without ice. You can eat your juice. 🙂
Avocado and mango juice with lemon, Axum
Of course Do not miss to drink Ethiopian coffee. You know that Ethiopia is famous with coffee in Africa.
Traditional Ethiopian coffee
You always carry extra fuel with you in Ethiopia if you have small tank like our motorcycles Honda CRF 250L. Find petrol doesn’t so hard if they have electricity because the pump work with it. When we were there Ethiopia had electricity problem and cut off a lot. Possible to find on the black market but the cost will be high.
One of the hottest place on the earth is Hottest place on the earth : Dallol Ethiopia, which is most people call Danakil depression or Danakil Desert. 🙂
I don’t know how I can explain Danakil Depression because it gives a feeling to you like you went another world, not belong to planet earth.
Erta Ale Crater, Danakil Depression
Hottest place on the earth : Dallol Ethiopia | Danakil Desert
Dallol is in the North East of Ethiopia in the Afar Region. Do you know this is one of the driest, lowest and hottest places on the earth? Welcome to the Danakil Desert which is 100 meters below sea level and the temperature is almost the same all the year round, 45-55 degrees.
Lowest point, 100 meters below sea level, Dalol, Ethiopia
In one place there are more different things to see, which you can not see some where else in the same region or the only place on earth; Desert, active volcano – magma (lava lake), Slat flats and lakes, Dallol- sulfur lakes. All of them are so special in the world to see.
Colorful sulphur spring, Danakil, Ethiopia
Dallol Ethiopia : Let’ s start with Erta Ale (active volcano)
It is 613 meters above sea level and one of the six active lave lakes in the world. It has more then one magma (lava) lake. It had erupted several times between 2005 and 2017. After the last eruption, the magma is lower inside the crater then before, therefore it gets so much foggy so you cannot see the magma very well now. And if it is so much windy you can have a hard time to breath because of the smell (the smoke is toxic and very unhealthy).
After we visited theNyiragongo volcano in Congowe decided to visit Erta Ale in Ethiopia as well because both of them are one of the incredible and dangerous volcanos.
After leave the Abala to Afdera road to go to the Erta Ale volcano, the nightmare could start because only 13 km drive to reach El Dom campsite but it took two hours. You must pass sandy and all lava stones road. Please, keep in your mind that you cannot go alone to the Erta Ale volcano!
We got a little rest in El Dom campsite and ate dinner. Our drivers and guides were getting ready to hike. They were taking beds and water from the car to make sure we have enough water and bed top of the Erta Ale volcano. Our camels were already ready to carry our water, bed, sleeping bags (in a case if the weather cold up there) Also, you can hire camel if you don’t want to walk. Some people had their own camel. 🙂
In the night we started to walk to the Erta Ale crater. Why do you need to trek in the night to the volcano? Believe me you don’t want to walk under the sun, This is one of the hottest and driest place in the world. It is around 4-5 hours to walk. When we reached the top it was so much foggy and smelly. If the wind changes the direction it was so hard to breath.
So, some people skipped to be on the top of the crater and look down to see the magma lake and they turned back the Erta Ale campsite. We walked all the way up so I was a little stubborn to see magma. Here it was, I didn’t want to give up!
Erta Ale magma/lava lake, Ethiopia
See magma or not still the feeling was so strange because you can here something like strong waves from the ocean (like you are sitting top of the cliff and hear the waves smash into the reef. It was such so strange to hear). If it decides to erupt you don’t have any change to survive. I can hear that you thinking it is too dangerous. Maybe it was. Believe me, I can’t explain my feeling when I was there because there are no words to describe it.
Erta Ale Campsite
We slept next to the active volcano, just outside on the hot ground. The campsite was a little far from the crater but when the wind was strong still we could smell all sulfur/toxic so strong. We just sleep a couple of hour and we started walk again around 5 am. This time we were walking in daylight to see around.
Erta Ale hiking route
We watched sunrise on the road as well.When we had a break we could see each other how much tired because we didn’t sleep well in the night and very short… It is the way to see special things.
We arrived El Dom campsite. After breakfast we said bye to the Erta Ale volcano and left to see other special places in the Afar region, Ethiopia.
You can ride a camel to go Erta Ale Volcano
Dallol Ethiopia : The Camel Caravan, Salt Canyon, Flats and lake
This is one of the nice things to see in the Danakil Depression. When we were there it was cloudy so we where not lucky with the sunset and salt lake reflection. Still it was enjoyable. Feeling was a small version of Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia.
Lake Afrera or Lake Karum (Salt lake), Danakil, Ethiopia
The Afar people work on the salt flats. They break salt and make salt bricks; each is around 4 kilos. When the sunset comes they are loading the salt bricks to their camels. Each camel carries around thirty salt bricks. It will take two days or more to reach the nearest village where they can sell the salt. They can exchange salt with food or other supplies there or sell the salt bricks. On the road, they guard their camels from bandits when they are close to the Eritrea border.
Salt flats, Hamedela, Danakil Depression
Loading camels is an old tradition for some Afar people because by truck is easier to carry more salt bricks but most Afar people wants to keep continue their traditional; TheCamel Caravan. This is also because they pass through the mountains by some remote villages who really need the support of the caravans for their supplies.
Camel caravan, Hamedela, Dallol
Our plan was to see the Afar people how they can cut salt but we arrived there on Thursday just before sunset. Friday is a holiday for them, they have only one day off in a week. That’s why we saw only the camel caravan during sunset.
Salt mine, Dallol, Ethiopia
Hottest place on the earth : Dallol sulfur lake (springs) is not belong the earth.
It is really hard to describe Dallol. It is look like hot spring but it has acid liquid in. Believe me the feeling is so strange when walking on it because we know that it is so hot and acid. If anything breaks under your feed you don’t want it to touch your body. Therefore, you must listen your guide and don’t jump! Just walk slowly and enjoy it.
Acidic liquid walking way on sulphur spring, Dallol
How the color can be green, yellow or different brown in Dallol? The magma heats groundwater moves up towards the surface, it dissolves salt, sulphur, potash and other minerals and deposits them in the Dallol craters. So, the landscape is of green acid ponds and iron oxide, sulfur and salt desert plains.
Sulphur spring, pond in Dalol, Ethiopia
We sat a while and look the landscape, which was unbelievable. We can’t believe that we were watching sulfur pods and has acidic liquid around us. Please remember that, you can not visit Dallol alone like Erta Ale volcano! This is one of the most amazing places we have ever seen and this is the only place in the world to see this, there is no other place on earth with volcano activity on a salt mountain.
Danakil Depression, Ethiopia
We stayed Hamedala village to visited The camel caravan, slat flat and Dallol. We slept outside under the stars. Middle of the night it was still 40 degrees. We left from Hamedala around 5:30 am to visit Sulfur lake of Dallol, yellow pound and the canyon. Dallol is about 130 meters below sea level and therefore it is one of the hottest places on earth, there is nearly no humidity and it gets easily over 45 degrees celsius.
Hamed Ela Campsite, Danakil
If you want to visit Danakil you need to know before go what you take/carry with you;
You are going to one of the hottest places in the world. So, you need sun cream and a hat.
You will sleep outside on the Erta Ale crater and in Hamedala or on the road you don’t have toilet. So, you need to carry your toilet paper, wet tissue and hand cleaner.
The smell is really so strong in Erta Ale and sometime it’s hard to take a breath, it is toxic as well. We can highly recommend having a mask because; a buff or scarf wasn’t enough in Erta Ale Volcano.
You will be hiking in the night after dinner and walk back early morning before breakfast. So, you should have some snacks with you and a headlight or torch.
If you have any heart or blood pressure problems it’s not recommended to go to the Danakil Depression because of the hot!
Don’t worry about water or food. The companies carry more than enough.
One of the basic breakfast for 3 person 🙂
Nice to have flip floppers with you to get rest your feed sometimes 🙂
Carry small backpack with you! If you have plan to walk Erta Ale volcano you need to carry your personal stuff with you. The camels only carry bed, sleeping bag and water to use top of the crater.
No electricity! You should carry external charge with you for your camera, phone…etc. because you cannot find a place all the time to charge and depend on how many days tours you have.
Abala guess house, danakil, ethiopia
We went four days tour withETT Company. We slept first night on Erta Ale Volcano, second night Abala and last night in Hamedala. We met some backpackers during the tour and they told us they went with ETT tour in other cities and they help them for transport or other tours in Ethiopia. Also, we saw some other people who has their own tour like two days Erta Ale or only Dallol sulfur lake tour. We met a German couple on the motorcycle they had a private tour with ETT and went to the Danakil Depression by motorcycle with them.
Yellow pond, Dallol, Ethiopia
We ride to Mekele and started our tour from there. First time, we didn’t want to ride motorcycle because it was so hot 🙂 we wanted to enjoy with the landscape and area don’t fight with the hot. To be honest, it was such an interesting experience for us because after a while we were sitting in a car with ac and just looking around. 🙂 Also it is cheaper to go with a 4×4 tour then with your own motorcycle, we learned it is even possible to go by bicycle.
It was one of the great things we visited on tribes of Namibia, which is San people, Bushmen tribe in Ju/’Hoansi. They are one of the interesting people to see in Africa.
Bushmen Tribe | San people : Who are them?
San people (Bushmen) are indigenous hunter-gatherer people representing the first nation of Southern Africa. They live in Namibia, Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana and South Africa. Also, They are known one of the oldest indigenous populations in the world. They have been living around more than 150.000 years with small family groups.
Every bushmen tribes don’t have leaders or chiefs. If anybody wants to leave from the small group he can leave anytime. San people don’t care to get rich or their personnel possessions; everything is for share together.
They were mobile always, just followed water, edible plant and game. Therefore, they never be farming or keep animals. When they were moving place-to-place they just carried their personnel possessions.
San women gathered edible plants and water to cook or drink when Bushmen hunted. They made hand-made arrows, knife, etc. to hunt. Also the women take care about the kids and make their jewelry from plants, seeds, etc.
You can watch a short video about our journey: BUSH SAN PEOPLE, NAMIBIA
Ju/’Hoansi , Grashoek
We wanted to visit San people – Bushmen tribe without any tour just by our self. When we were searching where we can visit Bushmen we found Ju/’Hoansi (Living Museum), Grashoek, Namibia. They have been keep continue their tradition and sharing with tourist. They run the place with their self. We saw that you can camp there and stay how long you want. Price was also cheap when you compare San people tours.
The Camping was 50 N$ pppn in JuHoansi. Please don’t think it is the best camping place. You can open the tent on the sand under the threes. They have toilet and shower but they do not have enough water. If you want to stay longer you should make sure you have enough drink water and food.
They have a lot of different activities with different prices. We stayed two days there and did a daily activity, which was 150 N$. We spent all day in the village. (You can visit their website to more info: http://www.lcfn.info/juhoansi )
San people showed us how they can make a fire, what they use for it.
We learned how bushmen can make their hunting stuff and how they hunt.
San women showed their handcraft which tree or seed they use for it and how they make it. Also, they gave a gift.
When the sunset was coming we watched their traditional dances. They have many different dances for rain, sick, sun, welcome, etc.
San people one of the traditional dance
In the night we sat next to the fire and listen to the old people’s interesting stories from hunting, moving place to place.
One of the young San man can speak English very well. Therefor he was translating everything for us. If you are interested we can recommend visiting them to learn their culture and history. At the same time, you can help their community as well.
It’s an 80 km ride on a gravel road and the last 6 km are sand, doable with a 2-wheel drive as well. If you are not on your vehicle We didn’t see any public transport so most likely it’s hitch hiking from the main road. (GPS : -19.24479 , 19.23921)
If you are traveling Namibia we can highly recommend to visit tribes of Namibia at less one of them. But please make sure that where you will go don’t one of the commercial tribe village.
We read Nyiragongo volcano is one of the most dangerous volcanoes and world’s largest lava lake also the most voluminous known lava lake. It was one of the amazing things we did in our Africa journey by motorcycles.
Nyiragongo Volcano: World’s largest lava lake
It is just 20 km far from the Rwanda border in Virunga National Park, DRC. It is 3470 meters high from the sea level and the last part is so steep to climb. The main crater is about two kilometers wide. Last erupted in 2002. But they warned to be erupting in 2015 and 2016. We are luck to nothing happened when we were there. 🙂 After read about dangerous, largest…etc we decided to go there for our anniversary.
You can watch short video before read all detail if you like :
Nyiragongo Volkano Hike :
We arrived at the hiking point around 8:30 am after paperwork we met our two guides who gave us all info about hiking and the volcano. Each group can be maximum 22 people because only eleven huts on the crater to sleep and each one is for two persons. Our group was 16 people.
We started to hike around 10:30 am and arrived to top around 16:30 pm. The hike or climb is divided in a total of four parts. We had little break at the end of each section and listen our guide carefully for the next section.
First part was an easy walk in the forest
Nyiragongo hike start point
and than second and third part was mud and lava rocks. So, we had a little trouble to climb sometimes because of it.
Last part was the hardest part of me because it was so steep and windy. If you are lucky with the weather you should enjoy with the view.
When we arrived at the top of the Nyiragongo volcano we went first to our huts to change clothes. After that we climb a few meters to see the Lava (Magma) Lake. It was almost sunset therefore it was so hard to see something, just smoke but we could feel the hot from the volcano.
We just walked around a little and enjoyed the view after that we had dinner. We carried all our stuff up our self so we made our own dinner.
where to stay top of Nyiragongo Volcano
Finally, it was dark and time to see world’s largest lava lake. It was beautiful, amazing, and incredible…. Magma was moving, sometimes burning, sometimes coming fire…etc. Seriously, no word to say how much gorgeous!
Nyiragongo Lava Lake,Congo
At the top it was so cold and windy. Therefore, we were going to our hut to get a little warm sometimes. And than go back to the crater to watch again.
Lava lake
It was midnight and time to celebrate for us because of our anniversary. We celebrate our second year. He carried a bottle of wine to the top. 🙂
Happy anniversary 🙂
To be honest, we didn’t want the time pass and stay how much we can stay up the crater. But it was almost sunrise time. We made a coffee and walked around the crater. We were looking in the crater to see how much smoke can come more with the daylight.
At the same time we were watching the sunrise on the other side it was so beautiful.
Nyiragongo Volcano sunset
After breakfast we started to walk down around 6 am. Walk down is always so easy for me but he had some trouble for it. 🙂 We finished the hike in 4,5 hours.
Nyiragongo Volcano hike
It was so amazing things for us to do; Nyiragongo Volcano and the gorilla’s trek in Virunga Park. You can read about gorilla trek and also you can check about the costs,Nyiragongo volcano hike price?
!!!!IMPORTANT NOTE!!! Your security is most important thing for Virunga park. Before book your journey to there you should get contact with them and learn the security detail. Even if after book if anything can happen they can cancel the tour and pay back money.
Why did we chose Dane clothing, which of the Danish brand for our motorcycle riding gears?
We are on the world trip therefore we can’t choose a weather or season when we want to ride because we are on the road everyday. We have been living in the tent so, we carry our house on the motorcycle and our carry capacity is limited.
We need motorcycle clothes, which we can use everywhere and every season. We don’t want to get wet under the rain, we don’t want to feel cold in the winter and also we don’t want to burn under the sun. We can’t carry summer jacket and winter jacket, need something mix.
He never rides motorcycle before so, he didn’t have any motorcycle gears. When we started our journey we bought a Dane jacket for him. I had motorcycle gears, which I bought ten years ago. I decided to keep continue with it for a while and see it can work still or not. 10 months later, I had Dane as well. 🙂
Motorcycle Riding Gear : Jacket
Both of us have been using Dane Limfjord 2 model. Yes, it is a men model but I want to have it as well because they called it the 3 in 1, which we were looking for. Also, we want to wear the same clothes. All season we have been using. Most likely the weather is hot in Africa. We took out the thermal line and Gore-Tex rain & windproof liner. We also open all zips to have fresh air. Light color is better than dark/black color under the sun but so hard to keep clean where we ride motorcycle. 🙂
Especially the southern part of Africa we had a lot rain and used our windproof Gore-Tex liner because we couldn’t escape from the rain season. Until now, we used thermal liner only in South Africa because when we were there it was wintertime.
We don’t use our motorcycle jackets only when we ride. But it is not like that for us. We don’t carry outdoor jackets for our self. First of all we don’t have enough space in our bags, second we don’t need because of our motorcycle jacket.
We climbed the Kilimanjaro with our Dane Limfjord’s thermal and Gore-Tex liners. When we were climbing to the Nyiragongo lave lake we used them as well because the temperatures where below zero. Also, we went many trekking under the rain Gore-Tex part was always with us to protect.
End of the day, we can use one jacket for ride motorcycle and outdoor sports. 🙂
Motorcycle Riding Gear : Pants
Both of us have the same pants, Dane Brondby 2 model. It is combine with Dane Limfjord also called the 3 in 1. We haven’t use thermal liner part yet. South Africa was cold but we felt the cold more on our top not with our legs. But we used a lot Gore-Tex liner part of Brondby in rain season.
One thing we really like jacket and pants in front extra zips. When the temperature goes hot slowly we start to open them slowly. 🙂
We have Dane Limfjord and Brondby model motorcycle gears since September 2017. We made 25.000 km with them, used all season, all road. We are happy to have it and wear it.
We travel around Africa by motorcycle 1.5 years and search for where do silverback (mountain) gorillas live; how many type western and eastern gorillas we can see.
We had a lot of dreams to see in Africa and most of them we did. One of the best things to do/see in Africa was visiting gorillas. It was one of our dreams but because of the price we didn’t know if it was possible but we went to gorillas trekking more cheaper than what we were thinking.
Before we start write about how much gorillas permit? How you can find cheap tour for gorilla trek? We would like to give some info about gorillas then prices. You are welcome to ask questions and comment.
How many type of gorillas: Western & Eastern gorilla
Two kind of gorilla possible to see. They are called western gorilla (lowland and cross river gorillas) and eastern gorilla (lowland and mountain gorillas). Most famous one is mountain gorillas from Eastern and they are known as silverback gorillas. Also, they are the biggest one.
Western and Eastern lowland gorillas population are still so much. Unfortunately, I cant write same thing fro Cross river and Mountain gorillas. 🙁 Cross river gorilla population is 300 and mountain gorilla population is around 900. When we asked our guide in gorilla trek we learned about it.
Silver back gorilla
We visited mountain gorillas and know more about them. Male is silverback and around 200 kg. When they stand on two feed they can reach around 1,7 meters. Female is half of male. 🙂
A short video from our adventure : Silverback Gorillas, Virunga Park, DRC
Where do mountain (silverback) gorillas live?
They are in Africa and when you look at the map you can see a lot of countries to visit gorillas. But only few countries have a easy option to see them. Our info comes from our search before we entered Africa because we want to be sure where we can see gorillas western and eastern Africa. But we couldn’t see them on west side because when we were riding motorcycles around gorillas area it was rain season and some security problems.
Western gorillas on the west of africa.
Possible to see them between Nigeria and Cameroon in/around Kashimbila game reserve. Also, Nki national park in Cameroon. Noubele-Ndoki national park in Central of Africa, Loanga national park , Franceville and Bateke national park in Gabon (I think that it is easy to see gorillas in Gabon because you can get a train from Libreville to Franceville and stop at the National Park) and D’odzala-Kokoua national park in Republic Congo. Also, it is possible to see gorillas in Equatorial Guinea.
Eastern gorillas in the east of Africa.
I suppose everybody knows where you can see gorillas on Eastern; Rwanda, Uganda and Democratic Congo (DRC)
Mountain gorillas : Silverback Gorillas
Virunga park gorillas population and families info
We visited silverback gorillas in Virunga national park Congo. The trek started around 9 am and we were next to gorillas at 11 am. They only allow 4 people at the same to visit one family which is good because we felt like nobody around only we were watching the family. When we arrive Burkima they already knew that which families were where and how far. We wanted to visit Rugendo family and had amazing one hour with them. It was wonderful to see the silverback male and a two weeks old baby.
After watched some movies I was thinking that they are so dangerous. So, don’t get close to them! But when I was looking them I just wanted to play and hug because they were so calm and relax. The Rugendo family has an eleven months old baby who was just learning how he can walk and he was rolling around, coming close and close to play. We were running away from it because they can easily get sick from human bacterias. I suppose our video better explanation than write.If you like you can watch our gorillas adventure…
If you have time and safe a little money to visit them on your Africa journey I think that you would have amazing experience.visit silverback gorillas.
!!!!IMPORTANT NOTE!!!If you get cold or feeling sick please don’t go to see gorillas. Human virus can kill them. If you need to cancel your reservation Virunga park gives all money back accept the visa because it is from the government to apply and can’t take back.
!!!!IMPORTANT NOTE!!! Your security is most important thing for Virunga park. Before book your journey to there you should get contact with them and learn the security detail. Even if after book if anything can happen they can cancel the tour and pay back money.
We were in Africa trip by motorcycle and we didn’t want to miss silverback gorillas but when we saw the price how much does it cost to see silverback gorillas, we surprised. Visit Gorillas is so expensive, especially in Rwanda and Uganda because, they just changed the permit costs to see the Gorillas for 2018.
Do you know there is another option to see the gorillas? In Virunga National Park, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), next to the Rwanda border. We did silveback gorilla trekking there. Also we hiked the Nyiragongo volcano which is world’s one of most dangerous active volcano also largest lava lake.
But let’s start with gorilla trekking costs in Virunga Park, Congo. 🙂
How much does it cost : Silverback gorilla permit and trekking
The biggest problem is “see gorillas permit”. The permit is 1500 USD in Rwanda, 600 USD in Uganda and 400 USD in DRC. The permit is allows you to spend one hour with gorillas in the park.
When we searched about gorillas trekking in Rwanda and Uganda we found more tour companies and of course the price was more high.
Some countries gorilla permit fee can change in the rain season because it is low season. Virunga park changes the gorilla permits from 400 USD to 200 USD. You can check low season dates on virunga park website (https://visitvirunga.org/). It was starting 13 of march on 2018.
You need visa a as well to enter Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC); It is 100 USD. If you book directly from Virunga park website they apply visa for you. Their website writes that it takes 2 weeks to approve the visa. We didn’t have so much. We wrote them Friday afternoon and we entered DRC on Tuesday morning. ☺ You must remember; if you travel with East African visa you can not enter again with the same visa to Rwanda. You should check more info on EATV visa detail.
A short video from our gorilla experience :
They don’t allow enter the park with your own vehicle so you need transport to go and see gorillas. Therefore we parked our motorcycle in Rwanda and paid daily 5 USD for two motorcycles in Discover Rwanda campsite. If you want to have transport inside the Virunga park it is a little expensive but you can go by taxi. Taxi cost changes where you want to go. For example, you can go to Nyiragongo volcano hiking from Goma and turn back Goma. After that go to Burkima to see gorillas and turn back Goma border again cost around 180 USD. It is taxi price, not per person. If you are four persons in the taxi 45 USD per person. You can find companies on internet also you can check http://www.ubuntuvoyages.com/contact it. If you are good negotiator you can book everything from there maybe more cheap then park website 🙂
Rwanda-DRC border opens early but Virunga park office (in the border) opens 8 am in the morning. Therefore, they write on their page that ”You can not visit gorillas same day of border crossing because the gorilla trek starts at 8:30 am and Goma border to Burkima around 1,5 – 2 hours. The office gives your permit paper on the border when you arrive Burkima or Nyiragongo, you show these papers. If you want to do it the same day you should write Virunga park. I am sure they will do their best for you.
So, if you can’t go to the gorilla trek same day of border crossing you can find some hotels on the border. For example, Rusina hotel in Goma was 40 USD for a double room with private shower. (You can find cheaper options if you search, but depends on the quality and safety you are looking for.)
So, see gorillas cost can be around 365 USD (+ 30 USD Rwanda visa) if you are more than one person to go Virunga Park, DRC.
How much does it cost : Nyiragongo Volcano trekking
When we were going to see the gorillas we decided to hike the Nyiragongo volcano as well. And we booked everything from Virunga park website.
Unfortunately, climb Nyirangongo volcano price doesn’t change because they don’t have low season for it. The price is 300 USD. You climb to the top and stay on the top in a hut (summit shelter) a night and next day you turn back.
If you want you can hire a porter there to carry your backpack also you can order a food package on the Virunga park website. We didn’t have porter or didn’t book food. We carried our stuff. Because the porter is 24 USD to round and meal is 75 USD (snacks on the hike, dinner and breakfast) per person.
We carried total 10 liters water, chapatis ( traditional bread name in East Africa like a wrap), tuna cans, some fruits, cookies and boiled eggs for breakfast. Also, a bottle of wine because it was our anniversary and we wanted to celebrate there. 😉
You can watch short video from our hike of Nyiragongo :
So, If you want to visit gorillas and Nyiragongo lava lake together in the low season the cost can be;
300 USD Nyiragongo volcano hike
200 USD Gorillas permit and trek
100 USD DRC visa
Transporter and hotel price which way you want to do. If you travel like what we did it can be 65 USD.
We entered Rwanda from Tanzania and paid 30 USD visa for Rwanda. When we were turning back DRC we used our EATV because we were going to Uganda and Kenya.
Total price: 695 USD
!!!!IMPORTANT NOTE!!! Your security is most important thing for Virunga park. Before book your journey to there you should get contact with them and learn the security detail. Even if after book if anything can happen they can cancel the tour and pay back money.
Kenya is our 31st country in Africa, we are a bit in a hurry right now. We are still in the rain season and we really want to be ahead of it. We entered Kenya through the Malaba border crossing it took a while because of trucks.
Our first stop would have been Eldoret,
Here we can get money from the ATM and we need new fuel. We found a ATM to get money and soon after that we did see a fast food restaurant (KFC), tired and hungry as we where we decided to stop and eat something, as always the taste was disappointed and the price was to high. After our lunch we decided it’s a good idea to start looking for a hotel because sunset would come soon.
After we left the city we found some hotels, the first few didn’t look good or to good but after 15 km we found a small place what looked nice. We went inside to take a look and found a room for 15 USD including hot shower and Wi-Fi. They have also 10USD room but they said that it has included only one breakfast other one has two and it was much smaller, I think it normally was a single room. 🙂 Good catch for the first day and easy for us, because the next day morning we wanted to ride all the way to Nairobi.
Stay in Nairobi
We left after our breakfast and hit the road to Nairobi what was still 300 km, luckily the road was pretty quiet and we made it easy. In Nairobi we where invited to stay with a biker couple, they are following us for a long time now and wanted us to stay with them. This is the beauty from traveling and they are planning a world trip as well. They will leave in July just a few months from now.
We had some business to do in Nairobi, we needed to get the visa for Ethiopia. This is the hardest one to get on the east coast of Africa. A lot of people had problems to get it but we had our Ethiopian visa in couple of hours. (Ethiopia visa detail)
Now we got much more relaxed, we stayed a few more days with our new friends and shared a lot of stories. On Friday night Turkish people, who we met in the embassy, living in Nairobi took us out, we always like to see something from the nightlife, we talked and had a good time. After that we stayed with her, Senay, because we didn’t want to ride motorcycle in the dark to turn back.
When we were talking about our story with Senay she called somewhere. A couple of hours later the news came that we are going to be on the local television. Only thing was that we wanted to leave on Sunday. So that’s a bit short time. On Saturday she made phone calls and sorted out an interview with us on Sunday morning.
Sounds good, let’s do that. We woke up early to get ready, opened the windows and see it was poring down rain. No way, not today! But yes unfortunately it was raining, we said goodbye to our friends who we will meet somewhere again around the world and ride through the poring rain to our interview. It was our first time in front of the camera and it was pretty cool to do 🙂
After the interview we stayed 1 more night in Nairobi this time with Senay again. Next day, we were on our way.
Nanyuki and Equator line
From Nairobi we went to Nanyuki, this will be the last city in Kenya we see before we enter Ethiopia but still 600 km to go. Unfortunately we arrived soaking wet, we are still in the rain season area. After a few attempts we found a nice hotel that was not to expensive, we had a nice bed, warm shower, breakfast and Wi-Fi that’s all we need. Nanyuki is a holiday city for Kenya therefore hotel price are high. They were saying 40-70 USD for basic hotels. So we were happy to find it 25 USD. 🙁
We also found cheap street food just around the corner, a lot fruits where available and all for local prices we love it! Next day morning we decided to stay one more day, we spent all day in bed writing articles and made a movie to share with you guys.
We are writing “street food” but you need to know that Kenya doesn’t have any street food because it’s forbidden to cook outside. They have some small places like a little room they must cook in it. Only they sell fruit or vegetable on the street and grilled corn.
When we were arrive to Nanyuki it was rain therefore we didn’t stop in front of the famous Kenyan equator sign. But we had photo when we were leaving with sun. 🙁
Samburu National Park…
We left Nanyuki after breakfast and had a really nice surprise on the road, Nanyuki is next to Mount Kenya (the 2nd highest mountain in Africa) and it was fully showing in the morning, wow very nice to see J today we wanted to go to Samburu, this is a national park and they have a campsite next to it on the river. We hoped to be lucky and maybe see some wildlife, unfortunately this time we where not so lucky nothing to see around. While riding from Nanyuki to Samburu what is only 130 km we did notice it was getting more and more warm, there was no cold wind anymore. We arrived to the Northern Kenya desert climate, from now on it will only get more and more warm.
When we arrived at Samburu our plan was stay two days there. Because I want to enter the park to see leopard if we are lucky. No way to enter Samburu for us! Motorcycle can’t enter, which we knew that. 70 USD enter fee for 24 hours and half day rent a car 100 USD, full day 200 USD. What is this? Stay in a park to see some wild life and pay 340 USD and accommodation inside for 24 hours. So, we stayed next to the park for 1 night and then left.
We stuck Marsabit.
After Samburu the road only got more beautiful, first we passed the Ololokwe Mountain this is a beautiful rock with different colors.
Also we passed a lot of people walking next to road from the Samburu tribe, they are all very nice dressed up. We stopped at one of the village/houses but we couldn’t communicate. They have their own language and body language didn’t work well. They were friendly we spent a little time with kids and than we hit the road again.
And it only got better, since a long time later we saw camels again. Hundreds of them next to the road, after a while I told her I see giraffe’s, she didn’t believe and thought I was joking it must be camels. Because she loves to play a game when the road boring; she can say for donkey a zebra, big cow is baby elephant, big dog is lion… etc. So, you can imagine why she was thinking that it could be a camel not giraffe. But no, I wasn’t joking. There where about 12 giraffe’s just next to the road and crossing the road straight in front of us, this is really giving you the ‘WOW! Feeling’.
We arrived at a guesthouse where we were planning to stay. A Turkish company was working there and they have an extra house to stay for us. It was amazing for us to get a little rest, meet new people. We went there for two days but stayed more than 10 days because we were waiting the Ethiopian news when and how we can enter. Everyday we were saying each other to leave tomorrow but there was coming new messages that it was not a good idea pass the next day. So we waited, waited, waited almost two weeks. When we were staying there she was waiting next to the chicken to have eggs for breakfast. We ate a lot of Turkish food that she really missed; also I start to like it more and more.
Tried to go Lake Turkana was a terrible experience for us!
When we were waiting to pass the Moyale border we decided to go for a little road trip, go to Lake Turkana and pass the Sibiloi National Park to Ethiopia. But everybody was telling us DO NOT TRY! Because of the rain season. North of Kenya side has a lot of river crossing and it’s a very remote area. We can’t find petrol in 600 km, find water or food is problem also if anything happened nobody around to help. We can listen them to don’t pass to Ethiopia from Lake Turkana but we could go to Loiyangalani for a couple of day to see Lake Turkana. We were waiting in Marsabit so just have fun….We put all our bags in the guess house. We took our camping stuff, enough water and petrol and hit the road.
First, we went to Laisamis to South Horr after that our plan was keep continue to Loiyangalani but we couldn’t. 🙁 The road was quite ok with gravel, sometimes hard and sometimes with soft sand.
After turned to the Lake Turkana road we had the first river crossing in 25 km. It was fun to pass.
We ride 30 or 35 km later we came another river crossing. Yeap, we passed it as well. It was deeper then the first one. We were talking; “If we come another river, which is deeper than this we should turn back. If the rain comes again we can’t turn back and we will be stuck”
After the river we saw a local person who we suppose one of the Samburu tribe. He couldn’t walk well and he was so tired. We help him to go next village. And we kept continue to our road.
Until two guys attack us with big knife for money. 🙁 It was soft sand and a lot of camel around. We were waiting them to cross and took some picture.
We didn’t see somebody around. He was trying to pass soft sand. Same time we saw two guys was running to us. They came next to me and one of them was telling, “ All area is mine, the road is mine. Pay 500.” I wanted to move but he took out his knife and blocks the road. He was looking where he can cut it. Ferry was screaming to I have to run to me but if I do that I know he will run to Ferry and will have a big problem. Another guy was more relax and calm, especially after see women rider he didn’t want to do anything. After that he tried to keep the guy and that moment Ferry was just behind me. So, we could open the gas together and leave.
It was enough experience for us in 100 km on the Lake Turkana road. We decided to turn back. We saw in the night it was good choose to turn back because of the rain, which was like a shower and didn’t stop for hours. Everywhere got like a lake where we were staying, so we ride around, couldn’t make it to Lake Turkana and had our own lake around us 😉
Leaving Kenya. Do we need to pay road tax now?
Finally, we leave from Marsabit after two weeks later we were on the road again to Ethiopia. We woke up very early to ride because we had 290 km to the border and we know that Ethiopia border closes on lunchtime. So we must be there before lunch to exit Kenya and enter Ethiopia.
We were so lucky with the weather. 🙁 The day started with foggy, we were riding so close but almost it was impossible to see each other. After that it was rain. So, we arrived the border almost 2 pm. It was good because Moyale border close between 12 pm to 2 pm.
When we were in the customer service of Kenya They said that we have to pay 20 USD road tax for each motorcycles. We were planning to stay in Kenya only two weeks, so we didn’t pay road tax. But we stayed almost a month so it was time to pay. We explained our situation why we couldn’t come to the border. Of course they know what was the problem because it happened at the border town. They were really so friendly and helpful. They told us we can pass and we don’t need to pay the road tax. It is gift from them….
How did we decide to have Sw Motech, motorcycle bags?
It was a big challenge for us to choose bags. Because we didn’t know which one is good for our world trip and how much space do we need? After talk with some riders who has a lot of experience on the road they told us SW-Motech, soft motorcycle bags can be good for the journey.
It was not look like SW-Motech has a lot of stuff for small bikes in the beginning. We have been riding Honda CRF 250L. So we must find bags to almost perfect match with Crf 250L. After search sw moto website we found a lot bags and accessories 🙂
A short video from our adventure with our bags :
GS
When we started our world trip we had only their side bags, dakar saddlebags. We used them a year. We liked it therefore after that we had all our bags from SW-Motech.
First of all, we didn’t want to have hard cases. Our motorcycles are already small we didn’t want to have heavy bags. And we didn’t have any experience to ride off road, gravel road… etc. it means that if we fall down we will easily give damage to the hard cases. So, we more focus soft motorcycles bags.
Which motorcycle bags have been using from Sw Motech?
EVO Enduro LT strap tank bag
We started with our tank bag. Our motorcycle is small we can’t put a lot of luggage in front. We have 5 lt. tank bags. You can think it is small but not. (You can make 7.5 liters as well if you want.) We carry in what we need easy access like phones, camera, cables to charge, external charge, small first aid…etc.
Sometimes when we go to shopping we carry eggs there as well. 😉
Drybag 80 tail bag
All our soft bags have extra waterproof bags inside except the tail bag. It is one bag, totally waterproof. We use them in front of motorcycle up to the engine protection. What we don’t need to use really or we must protect rain anytime they are in it.
Cargobag tail bag
It is 50 liters bag. We are calling it, clothes bag. Because all our clothes fit in it also it has extra zips left and right. One side for our shampoo, soap, creams… another side sun cream, mosquito sprays, washing powder…
Rearbag tail bag
It is 24 to 38 liters bag. Which size you want to use just open a extra zip. We need to be organized and find everything easy in one place. 🙂 So, It is our kitchen bag. For cook we just need the bag. Our stove, plates, pots, food… etc. it is more than enough for us to use as a kitchen.
DAKAR saddlebags
Each side bag is 32 liters. All of course has a name. 😉
One is camping bag. Our mattresses, sleeping bags, pillows, hammock, chairs and table are in it.
Other one is computer bag. All electronics are in it also our motorcycles pants and jacket extra liners. But still the name is computer bag.
Another one is shoes bag. Shoes, flip-flops and jeans are in it. Therefore still we have space 😉
Last one is extras bag. We put everything in it what we need extra on the road. Like water bag, soft cooler bag, chain oil, extra food, monopod, hammer, extra hook etc.
We said more than enough space we have with SW-Motech bags. General, we don’t take out bags because we sleep next to it in the tent. If we stay in a motel a day we can just take the inside bags. It’s easy to get it in and out. Actually so easy to take bags because each has only four clips to take our ropes and carry. We love their clips because they never get lose and shake when we ride all the bumpy roads.
Just keep in your mind to check bags after a day of heavy rain. Waterproof bags are fine keep dry stuff but water can be between main sides and inside. If the bags can’t see sun a couple of days they cannot get dry.
Backpack
We have two backpacks from SW-Motech as well. We don’t have anything in them. We carry them under the Cargo bag. Maybe we are traveling around the world by motorcycles but we like to go to hiking or make a backpack trip as well during our travel. We went to Madagascar, climbed Kilimanjaro also Nyiragongo Lava Lake. We put our motorcycles in a garage and took our backpacks to travel.
So, some people skipped to be on the top of the crater and look down to see the magma lake and they turned back the Erta Ale campsite. We walked all the way up so I was a little stubborn to see magma. Here it was, I didn’t want to give up!
When the sunset was coming we watched their traditional dances. They have many different dances for rain, sick, sun, welcome, etc.
It’s an 80 km ride on a gravel road and the last 6 km are sand, doable with a 2-wheel drive as well. If you are not on your vehicle We didn’t see any public transport so most likely it’s hitch hiking from the main road. (GPS : -19.24479 , 19.23921)
Last part was the hardest part of me because it was so steep and windy. If you are lucky with the weather you should enjoy with the view.
We just walked around a little and enjoyed the view after that we had dinner. We carried all our stuff up our self so we made our own dinner.
At the same time we were watching the sunrise on the other side it was so beautiful.
Sounds good, let’s do that. We woke up early to get ready, opened the windows and see it was poring down rain. No way, not today! But yes unfortunately it was raining, we said goodbye to our friends who we will meet somewhere again around the world and ride through the poring rain to our interview. It was our first time in front of the camera and it was pretty cool to do 🙂
First, we went to Laisamis to South Horr after that our plan was keep continue to Loiyangalani but we couldn’t. 🙁 The road was quite ok with gravel, sometimes hard and sometimes with soft sand.
