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  • Riding motorcycle with Elephants in Botswana

    Riding motorcycle with Elephants in Botswana

    Botswana was on our list because of elephants normally all national park are forbidden to enter with motorcycle. So where we can be to see wild life when we ride: Botswana! To be honest, most of the roads are a little boring to ride because nothing around to see on the road. Also, they don’t have gas station a lot to fill tanks. We can go 250 km with a tank and between two gas stations the distance is 300 km. 🙂

    We passed Botswana from Pioneer gate, which was almost empty but took an hour. From the border to Orapa is around 600 km. We knew that we couldn’t make it in a day. Therefore, we started to look a spot for bush camp just before sunset but we didn’t find really something to stay. We saw a sign was writing, “Rock city camping”. Why not! We were so tired after the border crossing, riding 300 km and also it is extremely hot. They said they have a shower, toilet, light…etc and it looked like nice from outside! 10 USD pppn. If you take a water bottle and make some hole with needle, I suppose you can have more water to come out of the shower. Toilets without a seat and no electricity. It was almost dark and no options more. We stayed….

    Next day, we ride to Orapa and stayed at a nice camping site. The place was so close to Kubu island where you can go to the saltpan. It was really nice feeling to ride motorcycle on the saltpan because nobody around and all belong to us. We didn’t go to end of the road because it was so hot and the road was soft sand most of the time. We enjoyed there a couple of km and than we turn back to the camping. By the way, you can go to free safari there with your own car. If you stay around just ask for Orapa national park. By the way, we stayed in Tuuthebe Lodge&Camping, was a nice place, we really like it.

    how can ride on the sof sand and mud

    Our next stop was Maun, which is at the Okavanga Delta. It was just 360 km but no way to ride in a day. When we were there we didn’t have chance to ride motorcycles after 12 pm because of the hot. We could make an omelet on the tar road without fire. 🙂 So, on the road we stayed at one of the camping sites. I suppose that we never understand how much expensive it can be to set up our tent in a camping site in Botswana. Especially after the South African campsites and prices, Botswana needs to work about it. Anyway, they know you don’t have a lot of option therefore they can put a price, right?

    Travel Botswana by motorcycle

    We stayed in Maun 3 days. We met Patrick who came from USA. He is on the world trip by motorcycle too and he wants to do the Western cost of Africa where we ride already. So, we spent a lot of good time with him.

    Also, we watched hippos there and enjoy with the Delta views. They have a lot of alternative to boat tour, daily, two days…etc., also they have some island in delta which you can visit. Of course, prices are so different. You need to ask there about options to decide. We stayed “Old bridge backpacker” place, which was a little cheap and atmosphere was good.

    Old bridge backpacker, maun, botswana

    It was time to hit the road to Nata and than Kasane where we can ride motorcycle with Elephants. Before we go to Nata we stayed one night in Gweta. We decided to wake up early and ride motorcycle until noon in Botswana or we can burn our self with sun.

    Next day, when we were going to Nata we found a gas station. We were happy about it, because we didn’t need to use our rotapax. Of course, it was just a dream. We saw a line in the petrol station. They said that they were waiting for petrol more than an hour. So, we opened our rotapax and fill our tanks in the gas station. 🙂

    where can find petrol in botswana, maun, nata, orapa, kasane

    We could get petrol in Nata. We were riding on the road to Kasane from Nata, we saw our first Elephant on the road. And than again, again, again… We decided to stay somewhere on the road and get close them more. We went to “Elephant Sands”. Their road had full off elephants. We scared a little in the beginning to ride but we saw Elephants didn’t butter us that much or the engine sound which was great for us.

    We stayed in Elephant Sands two days and saw more than 200 elephants. It was so crazy experience because they were just passing next to our tent or motorcycles. They were looking us and than keep continue.

    wild life wild camping botswana

    And then we went to Kasane, which was our last stop. It was our last ride in Botswana and a group of Elephants showed up on the road. We never ever forget this experience.

    HONDA CRF 250 CC, Rally

    In Kasane, We didn’t want to go to a river tour because we were staying next to the river and we already see wild life a lot next to us. So, we didn’t spent money for it….

    Kasane, botswana free national park entry, cheap

     

     

  • Which kind of mechanic detail we could learn on the road from motorcycle

    Which kind of mechanic detail we could learn on the road from motorcycle

    We have been learning a lot of things on the road about our motorcycles. Some is basic mechanic stuff some is hard job… Everything is so new for us because we never ride motorcycle before start our world trip. 🙂

    Must check one thing after change/repair your tire.

    We change tire many times but we didn’t know one detail for control until have problem.

    I had flat tire again in Mozambique and we repaired it. It was look like everything fine but when started to ride the feeling was no balance at all. It was hard to ride slow and I had hard time on the sand. Therefore we checked again to find the problem and we saw that tire didn’t fit well.

    We tried to get air out and put back again in a petrol station but didn’t work. So, we took out the tire, got air out and got the wheel lose of the tire, use a little WD40 after then gave air again.

    So, if you change your tire first time you should keep in your mind to look this detail. 😉

    Motorcycle was working automatically without use start button

    I turn on the engine and started to ride. It was rain and Ferry said that my in front light didn’t work. Must be a problem with the bulb or a fuse. After a while we had a break and than when I turn on my engine motorcycle work without using the start button. Still my light wasn’t working.

    Rain was like shower so we couldn’t do anything. Next day, the problem kept continue. The light didn’t work and motorcycle started before push the start button.

    We saw that a little stone got stuck in the start button. The button takes all electricity from the motorcycle when the engine goes on. So, if the button stuck the motorcycle can work automatically and still takes all power from the motorcycle. Of course, no electricity. We got out the stone and everything turned back normal.

    Now. After all gravel, sand, dirt..etc. road we always check the start button to make sure nothing stuck and sometime we use WD40 to make sure.

    Our air filter, we can’t clean it but we couldn’t find the same as our motorcycle air filter.

    Our motorcycle (Honda CRF 250L) air filter needs to change every 24.000 km. We changed first time when the motorcycle was 29.000 km. The air filter was clean so we wanted to use long because we were in Africa.

    After Congo, DRC, Gabon and Namibia We wanted to check the air filter. It was only 12.000 km but air filter was dirty. No way to put back like that but it was hard to find as well. We went to a mechanic service and use their brake cleaner to clean the filter. After it got dry we put it back again.

    When you start the motorcycle engine you need to open gas more and listen to the sound. Because in the beginning the sound is like somebody coughs.

    We heard from some people who use OMO to clean their air filter. We haven’t done that but keeping it in our mind if necessary we can do it.

    No chain oil and chain cleaner in West Africa 🙁

    When we were starting to our journey we had two chain oils and one chain cleaner. We were thinking to easy find this kind of stuff in Africa. But we didn’t. When we were in Senegal we found small chain oil that was so expensive. Can’t be like that we have no option to travel without oil the chain.

    We bought truck oil, which is thick, and not keeping dust. Just need a teeth brusher to put it on the chain 😉

    Sometimes, we must clean the chain of course. Can’t find chain cleaner but find break fluid everywhere. So we bought one small and clean the chain with it. It is really so easy to clean. 😉

    …will continue 🙂

    What we have been learning on the road we always like to share. You can find playlist to watch from our maintenance here :

     

  • When and which part do we change ourselves on the motorcycle.

    When and which part do we change ourselves on the motorcycle.

    Our plan makes 200.000 km with Honda CRF 250L. Therefore we must take care well. We made more than 52.000 km until now.

    Chain oil:

    We oil our chain by hand and do that every 250 km, when we can’t find real chain oil we used motor oil for trucks, this is very thick and a good alternative for the chain oil.

    Engine oil:

    We change our oil every 6.000 km, we try to find the best quality available. This is not easy in a lot of countries. We try to look for 10W 40 API SG or higher JASO MA. Unfortunately we can’t always find this, as we are in Africa we can also use 20W 50 what is more available this is because the temperature will not be lower then 10 degrees Celsius when we are riding.

    Oil filter:

    We change our oil filters every second time we change our oil. This means every 12.000 km for us.

    Air filter:

    We change our air filters every 25.000 km, this is a easy job on the CRF250L.

    Sprockets:

    We use the original sprockets for the motorcycle 12 front 44 back for us the speed and acceleration is enough at the moment. It is possible to change them to 13 front 42 back so you have a higher top speed and the acceleration goes up. We are riding in Africa and are here to see and explore, also the road conditions are not good we see a lot of really big potholes so it’s nice to ride slowly. We change our sprockets first time after 40.000 km, the front was really finished at this point, the rear could do a bit more but not much.

    Chain:

    We started with the original DID 520 VX chain, which hardly went for 20.000 km. This was not enough for us, now we are riding with a golden ?????? chain, this one we use now for 25.000 km and is still totally fine.

    Tires:

    This is a tough one, we started with the original tires from Honda. They lasted surprisingly long, we made 17.000 km with them. After research, getting advice from a lot of people we bought the Heidenau K60. This is a tire to use off road and on the tar roads. For us this was not a good choice, when riding in Africa the roads are different everywhere the tire is useless in the sand and not good enough on gravel roads, they lasted 15.000 km. We found second hand tires in Nigeria the Michellin T63, they handled the off road conditions much better. We will now start with the Mitas E07 dakar, we certainly hope this one will get us at least 20.000 km

    Spark plug:

    We changed this after 50.000 km and keep the old ones with us as a spare pare what we hopefully don’t need to use.

    Brake pads:

    After 50.000 km they still look fine, we have a extra pair but we didn’t change them yet.

    Brake fluid:

    We changed our brake fluid after 30.000 km, this was even in Africa easy to find.

    Brake :

    We passed 50.000 km and still we use first one. We don’t use brake that much in Africa, look like 🙂

    Gear pads:

    Our plan was changed around 50.000 km but still going well. Therefore we have been carrying with us we will change when we need.

    Light bulbs:

    We only change them when they break, this happened for both our headlights after 40.000 km.

    Fork seal:

    We changed one in Nigeria after the terrible roads in there. Ferry’s right fork seal torn. It took 13 days to find new one because our motorcycle size is a little different. Now, we have two extra with us.

     

    What we have been learning on the road we always like to share. You can find playlist to watch from our maintenance here :

     

  • Our Southern Africa Cost

    Our Southern Africa Cost

    I suppose our Western, Southern or Eastern Africa countries calculate is a little different what internet says about it. 🙂  Our Southern Africa journey by motorcycles has started from Namibia and finished in Zimbabwe. Therefore, you can find only 8 countries detail in here which are Namibia, South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, Mozambique, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Madagascar.

    Our cost is so much high than West Africa cost. First of all camping sites are expensive; we were going wild camp in west of Africa. Second, we went to Madagascar which means out of budget. Last, we invited her father to join our life a little and see wildlife.

    The South of Africa cost is more than West part but almost closed to our daily budget still. 🙂 Now look like we spent 50.27bUSD daily.

    We are so appreciate who gave money us to buy Madagascar fly ticket, rent a car and all enter fees. It is almost 2.000 USD I don’t think so we could pay and travel Madagascar also  keep our budget. We would like to say again thank you from  here. Don’t worry we don’t write your name. 🙂

    This is all details where we spent money. 🙂 If you need any question please just ask.

    Budget travel cost to Africa trip

     

     

  • Border Crossing and Bribery for Southern Africa

    Border Crossing and Bribery for Southern Africa

    After Western Africa, we started Southern part in Africa. You can find border crossing, vehicle pay and bribe details here to Namibia, South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, Mozambique, Botswana and Zimbabwe.

    Namibia 

    We entered Namibia from Santa Clara border

    Passport – this is like Angola a real border with electronic passport control all easy and straightforward.

    Import vehicle – We used our Carnet de Passage (see our blog about that)

    Vehicle insurance – No insurance needed in Namibia

    Road tax – We needed to pay 177 Namibia dollar each motorcycle (possible to pay with card)

    Bribery – No money or gifts asked for

    Leaving Namibia

    We left Namibia from Vioolsdrift border

    Passport – All electronic and easy to stamp out

    Export vehicle – We used our Carnet de Passage (see our blog about that)

    Bribery – No money or gifts asked for

    South Africa

    We entered South Africa from Vioolsdrift border

    Passport – all is electronic easy to get the entry stamp.

    Import vehicle – We used our Carnet de Passage

    Vehicle insurance – No insurance needed in South Africa

    Road tax – no road tax to be paid in South Africa

    Bribery – No money or gifts asked for

    Leaving South Africa

    We left South Africa from Oshoek border

    Passport – All electronic and easy to stamp out

    Export vehicle – We used our Carnet de Passage (see our blog about that) We had a hard time to have a stamp to our Carnet here. Because they said that we cant get stamp from this border we have to go Mozambique border. They already showed us a list which South African border you can have enter and exit stamp for the Carnet. She had last day of her carnet and it was coming sunset. Therefore we didn’t have time to go Mozambique border for it. After told a while they gave us exit stamp.

    If You take Oshoek to enter or exit South Africa You must remember it for your carnet.

    Bribery – No money or gifts asked for

    Lesotho 

    We entered Lesotho from the Sani pass border

    Passport – you need to fill in a paper with your details and how long you want to stay, after that easy stamp.

    Import vehicle – no export/import in Lesotho

    Vehicle insurance – No insurance needed in Lesotho

    Road tax – We needed to pay 50 rand each motorcycle (cash)

    Bribery – No money or gifts asked for

    Leaving Lesotho 

    We left Lesotho from Calendoorsport border

    Passport – not electronic but easy to stamp out

    Export vehicle – no export/import in Lesotho

    Bribery – No money or gifts asked for

    Swaziland 

    We entered Namibia from Ngwenya border

    Passport – easy crossing, passport stamped straight away.

    Import vehicle – no export/import in Swaziland

    Vehicle insurance – No insurance needed in Swaziland

    Road tax – We needed to pay 50 rand each motorcycle (cash)

    Bribery – No money or gifts asked for

    Leaving Swaziland 

    We left Swaziland from Lomahasha border

    Passport – not electronic but easy to stamp out

    Export vehicle – no export/import in Swaziland

    Bribery – No money or gifts asked for

    Mozambique 

    We entered Mozambique from Namaacha border

    Passport – you need to fill in a paper with your details and how long you want to stay, this also to get the visa (more details see visa story) .

    Import vehicle – you need to fill in a form and you will get a TIP for free

    Vehicle insurance – you need to buy third part insurance costs 10 usd per motorcycle

    Road tax – no road tax to he paid

    Bribery – few fixers around but just ignore them.

    Leaving Mozambique

    We left Mozambique from Ressano Garcia border

    Passport – easy to stamp out

    Export vehicle – show your TIP

    Bribery – No money or gifts asked for

    Botswana 

    We entered Botswana from the border Schilpadhoek

    Passport – you need to fill in a paper with your details and how long you want to stay, this 8s also to get the visa (more details see visa story) .

    Import vehicle – you need to fill in a form and you will get a TIP for free

    Vehicle insurance – you need to buy third part insurance what is valid for 3 months costs 50 Pula 5 usd per motorcycle

    Road tax – you pay a road fund and permit valid for 1 year this costs 115 Pula (11,50 usd) all is possible to pay with card.

    Bribery – no money or gifts are asked

    Leaving Botswana 

    We left Botswana from Kazungula

    Passport – easy to stamp out

    Export vehicle – just write down you license plate number

    Bribery – No money or gifts asked for

    Zimbabwe 

    We entered Zimbabwe from Kazungula

    Passport – you need to fill in a paper with your details and how long you want to stay, this is also to get the visa (more details see visa story) .

    Import vehicle – you need to fill in a form and you will get a TIP for free

    Vehicle insurance – you need to buy third part insurance costs 20 usd per motorcycle

    Road tax and Carbon tax – We paid 11 usd per motorcycle

    Bribery – No bribes or gifts asked, also only friendly fixers around

    Leaving Zimbabwe 

    We left Zimbabwe from Kariba

    Passport – easy to stamp out

    Export vehicle – just show your vehicle registration at customs and also at Interpol, you receive a stamp to leave the border.

    Bribery – No money or gifts asked for

    We are keep continue our Africa journey next is Eastern Africa trip

    We made a short video for our Zimbabwe journey. We hope that you like to watch :

    FS

     

  • South Africa Journey

    South Africa Journey

    We entered South Africa in the wintertime, daily temperatures around 15 degrees with a strong wind from the south didn’t make it very nice to ride motorcycle, so we passed the border and half way to Capetown we found a hotel to spend the night. They had a small heater and a hot shower so that’s what we needed; it was too cold for camping at this moment.

    We thought that we needed a break after West Africa; we were now a year on the road without a descent break. The next day we had a long day riding to reach Capetown, about 500 km, normally we don’t do these distances but now we booked the apartment to get rest, there was a roof waiting for us so we can do it.

    We arrived at the suburbs of Capetown around 4:30,our fuel tank was getting empty, we where looking for a gas station a while but they where all away from our road. With only 7 km to go, my motorcycle was empty, damn, on the highway and next to the townships, not the best place of course with a empty tank. We got out the rotopax quickly and filled up both our tanks, a lot of people were passing the road from here into the townships, they all looked strange at us but just said hello.

    Tank full again, leave immediately to our apartment where we arrived at sunset, we got a warm welcome from our host and she made a basket with food and drinks for us. We where happy, the room looked nice, had everything but most important for us a heater J, after 2 days we booked another 10 days at the apartment because we enjoyed a lot and stayed there 3 weeks in total.

    Capetown

    All we did there the first 10 days was watching movies and relaxing. After that it was time to visit some friends we made on the road who where in Capetown as well, we visited Nicholas our Australian friend who stayed at a backpackers in the city centre, we went out for dinner and a few drinks, so nice to see him again.

    We decided to go for a ride together to Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope, we found a day when the weather was sunny. A nice ride with the 3 of us on empty motorcycles, so lovely. We arrived in Simons town we stopped for coffee and who was sitting there having lunch, Billy the Irish guy we met in Namibia. What a small world, he wanted to ride to Cape Point as well so we where with the 4 of us now, great!

    You can watch to great view and road around Cape Point  :

    After the Cape we ride back to Cape town passing Chapmans Peak, this is an amazing motorcycle road next to the ocean. We watched sunset all together and said goodbye. What a great day out together. A few days later we went out for dinner all together again and said goodbye to Nicholas who was continuing his journey on the East coast. After that we met our other friends Kevin and Emma again, they arrived in Capetown begin of August. We left our first apartment and moved to the city centre close to where they where staying. We spend a lot of time together, they where about to leave back home after being on the road for 3 years.

    Ferry is uncle now!

    When we where with Nicholas my phone was ringing, my brother called me with the news I was waiting for, I became uncle for the first time J I was so happy my niece was born on the 19th of July, I felt so proud. This is also the reason we booked a ticket to the Netherlands, I really wanted to see my niece and hold her in my arms. We told my parents I was coming alone to safe on the costs but I took Gulcin with me of course, a nice surprise for them haha. We fly in the beginning of August to Holland and stayed there 3 weeks, nice break from the wintertime in South Africa.

    Luckily as we are sometimes we found Barbaros, a Turkish guy living with his family in Capetown many years, he knew a place to store our motorcycles for a month, that was great of course. He told us a lot about Capetown as well during a lovely dinner.

    Airlines lost our luggage 🙁

    After visiting Holland we fly back to Capetown fully packed with a lot of new motorcycle clothes, bags and new tires. We packed everything well so we didn’t need to pay anything extra, we had a short stop in Paris and arrived in Capetown again around 9 pm. There they announced a few names to come to the luggage office, unfortunately I hear my name as well, I went there and they told me 1 of my bags was still in Paris and will arrive tomorrow, damn that’s not a good start. I went quickly back to Gulcin to see if she collected our other bags and told her 1 bag would arrive tomorrow. None of our bags arrived yet and unfortunately none of them came. Without any of ours luggage we left the airport highly disappointed. Next we called the airport again, they couldn’t give us any information, we needed to check online what was happening. We waited 4 days!! for our luggage, this was a really hard and frustrating time for us. And it was such a big relief when all the luggage finally arrived. We got ready our motorcycles and ‘finally‘ said goodbye to Capetown.

    Finally Cape To Cape. We made it!

    Our next goal Cape Agulhas, this is the most southern point of Africa when we reach that we finished the Cape to Cape (Cape2Cape) route. We ride all the way from the North Cape to the South Cape 🙂 it took us about one year to make but and it was a great experience, we loved it!! The last to get there was pretty rough as the wind was nearly blowing us of the motorcycle, but we managed and it was a great feeling. When we arrived in Cape Agulhas we stayed at a lovely airbnb again so this was a good opportunity for us to go there with an empty motorcycle and take some great photos 🙂

    Cape2Cape
    We made it! CAPETOCAPE
    Riding on Garden Route and Making Friends

    From Cape Agulhas we followed the garden route and slowly slowly the weather was becoming better and a little bit warmer. We where invited to stay with a local guy Derek who is a traveller himself as well by motorcycle. He has a small farm and has his own brewery there, of course I tasted his beers and I really liked them he’s doing a good job! We made braai and shared a lot of stories.

    After Derek we got invited again from Burcu and Simon a Turkish / English couple who moved to South Africa, we had a great time again with them and some good laughs. Gulcin and Burcu talked nonstop together in Turkish, so Simon and I left the house to see if we can spot some whales from the shore. It’s the season the Humpback whales are passing; we took binoculars and our camera. We got lucky and some of the showed their tale as well, wow amazing to see even if it’s from a distance.

    After 2 days it was time to say goodbye, as we wanted to pass Lesotho and had booked a ticket to Madagascar so we had a time schedule something we don’t like but you have to deal with it sometimes. From Cape Francis we ride straight to Lesotho and the Sani pass, a mountain road I was really looking forward to ride. This is one of the famous roads in South Africa for motorcyclists to ride.

    CapetoCape

    Visiting Johannesburg

    From Lesotho we went in 1 day to Johannesburg, the second biggest city of Africa. I was expecting the worst for the traffic but it was not so bad at all, in Johannesburg we got invited again to stay at some peoples place. This time with Nimet and Jonathan a Turkish / South African couple. Again we made a braai and shared a lot of stories.

    In the meantime we find a place to store our motorcycles in Johannesburg as we where flying to Madagascar from here, we went to a restaurant called Istanbul Kebab, where we got a warm welcome from Burhan, he made us a lovely Turkish lunch. We spend long days at the restaurant drinking tea and talking about everything, we brought our motorcycles and bags to a garage for storage.

    Her father is in South Africa. Meeting after a year again

    When we came back from Madagascar we had a special guest visiting us. Gulcin’s dad came over from Turkey to spend 2 weeks holiday with us, of course we can’t travel by motorcycle now so we rented a small car.

    Her father never slept in a tent and the camping life is totally new for him, but this is our way of living so we wanted to show him this as well.

    With the 3 of us we headed towards Kruger park to see if we can catch the big 5 there J first we had a stop planned at a place called Hippocamp, where as the name says you can be lucky and spot some hippo’s.

    We spend a whole day at the river observing the hippo’s and had a great time, they opened their mouth and showed how big they are. Of course we did keep a distance from them as this animal has the most killings of human in Africa. From here we went to Kruger Park.

    We spend 3 days in Kruger Park and drive nearly 700 km in the park, we spotted so much, lions, elephant, rhino, buffalo, hyena and much more. We didn’t see the leopard unfortunately so no big 5 just 4 but what an amazing experience we had so many of them next to the car it was crazy! And most important her dad was enjoying himself so much :).

    From Kruger we went to the Panorama route in South Africa, here we visited a few waterfalls and a 2 canyons, again we where all enjoying the beauty of nature. Every night when we were on the road with her dad we camped and he was enjoying it, especially when we started the braai. He loved to prepare our dinner and as a dessert we had marshmallows, oh yes this was a great choice. Pancakes in the morning, marshmallows in the night, what a holiday haha. After 2 weeks we brought ‘baba’ (Turkish father) back to the airport and said goodbye, we see you in Turkey again 🙂

    Good bye South Africa

    Now it was time to pick up our motorcycles again, in the meantime Gulcin applied for a new passport so we only needed to pick this up and we were ready to go. Who we had contact in the embassy, invited us to stay with her fora few days as well, so before leave from South Africa we decided to stay with them. Esra and Ismail are amazing couples and we can say good friends as well. We could want to stay with them more but her visa was running out.

    Time to hit the road towards Swailand.

    FS

  • Visa Application in Southern Africa

    Visa Application in Southern Africa

    Visa Application in Southern Africa details:

    Namibia

    Visa rules have been changing country to country. He is from The Nederland. He can stay 90 days without visa. I am from Turkey and I need to apply visa which is 150€.

    I don’t know why I wrote my notes to Turkish passport doesn’t  need visa for Namibia. I was lucky on the border that nobody asked about visa. We told them on the border; we want to stay 30 days and they gave us stamps.

    South Africa

    I suppose that most countries holder don’t need visa but They have some rules about how long want to stay. They gave stamp to Ferry for 90 days stay. They told me Turkish passport can take 30 days.

    When we fly to Holland and came back He had again 90 days and I had 30 days. But when we were coming back to Madagascar He couldn’t get another 90 days. They said that He needs to fly from Holland to have new 90 days. But They gave me again another 30 days.

    Lesotho

    The Nederland passport doesn’t need visa for 30 days stay, Turkish passport has to apply visa which is 50 USD.

    When we were on the border They didn’t ask about the visa to me and we took  a stamp to stay 5 days in.

    Swaziland

    Finally Ferry and I have same rules. We don’t need visa. We didn’t know how long we can stay because they didn’t write any note on the stamp how many days we can be in.

    Botswana

    Botswana doesn’t want to visa from Turkey and Nederland (also all European passport) for 30 days. But we had to pay road tax. You can look detail here.   

    Zimbabwe

    If you are going to Zambia as well Best way to have Kaza Visa. They run out the visa sticker there fore we got single entry and 30 days visa which was 30 USD. If you want to have multiple entry It is 45 USD.

    They have also daily visa which is a little cheaper If you want to visit only Victoria falls. Daily visa is 25 USD. But I saw on the border They were giving 3 or 5 days for daily visa. Maybe you can ask to have it like that 😉

    About bribe, road and carbon tax, vehicle insurance detail…

    Mozambique

    We must apply for visa. Good think that you can do it on the border. They have standard price to visa for everyone. Just currency was a little different. When we look to list was writing 75 USD or 895 R (around 68 usd) or 3.925 Mt (around 65 usd). If you have Mozambique money with you You can pay less. But the border exchange doesn’t good price.

    Madagascar

    I suppose everybody has to pat on the border. Means visa on arrival. We paid 25 € (also pay 28 USD) each for 30 days.

    If you plan to stay more than 30 days You should say on the border.

    **** You can also look for Western African countries visa and Eastern African countries visa details.

     

    We made a short video for our Zimbabwe journey. We hope that you like to watch :

    FS

     

  • We couldn’t find that much things in Mozambique

    We couldn’t find that much things in Mozambique

    I didn’t find what I was looking for in Mozambique. But it has some nice beaches and friendly people.

    We arrived at the border early in the morning. After visa and traffic insurance paper worked we were ready to enter Mozambique.

    Ferry wanted to check the road before leave. No phone! He put in to charge in the morning where we were staying in Swaziland and he forgot to take it. The place was 25 km far from the border. We were sure that if he goes back he could find the phone. The problem is we applied for a single entry to Mozambique and we already got the stamp. Leave the phone behind or pay 75 USD again for the visa. This was not a good option for us because we will spend money for nothing. At the same time one lady came out from the visa office to take something from her car, which was next to us. I started to talk with her and explain our problem. In the beginning she said that if Swaziland border didn’t put stamp on his passport everything could be fine. But he was going to another country how they can accept for it. She was telling us we had single visa and already had stamp. After talk a while she said Ferry to go inside with here. Ferry came out with exit stamp from Mozambique. They told him they would help us.

    I told Ferry to go and I could wait on the border. I was in front of the visa office it should be fine. Our Indonesian friends were with us as well. We told them that they can leave if they want we can meet a campsite again. They preferred wait with me. Which was so nice. Because I didn’t know how long it could take. He needs to ride dirt road and enter-exit Swaziland again.

    Ferry turn back 1.5 hours later. Swaziland had enter-exit stamp again. And they took 50 R road tax again. The old receipt didn’t work we paid 50 R 4 days ago when we entered first time because he exits one time already. They were so helpful on the Mozambique border. They gave second enter stamp to Ferry and finally we entered the country.

    We hit the road but couldn’t go so far because we spent a lot of time on the border. We turned a sandy road from the main road. Where we were looking to stay was closed. We saw another sign to stay. It was soft send to ride. So Mario and I waited. Ferry went 3-4 km to ask for camping. When he came back we learned that he doesn’t allow to camping but it wasn’t crowded at the moment and coming sunset. So, he allowed to camp for us one night.

    Next day we hit the road again to go some beaches. Main road of Mozambique was so boring for us. Nothing was really special to see. If you want to turn anywhere you need to say hello to sand. 😉

    We passed a lot of countries in Africa until Mozambique and we never get stopped before because of the speed limit. We are always so careful about the rules because we don’t want to pay for bribe. The sign says 80 and than suddenly 40. They stopped us because his speed was 45. We said we always careful for that and went slow than. They said ok. In 100 km other speed control. They said speed limit is 60 and his speed was 65. For us, it was impossible because Ferry saw the sign and passed slow I was just behind him. And he had a car in front of him who was going fast. They decided to stop Ferry. We talk with them for 15 minutes. We saw that nobody was planning to give a ticket for us because of the 5 km difference; more they wanted a bribe. Of course we didn’t pay anything.

    speed limit control Mozambique for motorcycles

    We arrived afternoon to our second place and spent two days in the swimming pool. Here was last point to be together with our friends.

    We were keep continue to the north and arrived at another beach. I was on the sandy road for 18 km. I really got enjoy that moment. Maybe, because of my new bags or because of new tires. Nothing shaking on my motorcycle anymore and motorcycle is keeping the road well. Of course, it was enjoyable to ride.

    We didn’t like so much the place where we stayed. Therefore two days later we hit to road again towards Tofo beach, Inhambane. I wanted diving in Mozambique. It was the best place to see sharks and dive. But I wasn’t lucky to see sharks. Anyway, it was nice dives and I see big mantas.

    We were looking for our road a little as well to where we want to go first after Mozambique. When we learned about the kaza visa for Zimbabwe and Zambia we decided to turn back South Africa and go to Botswana. After that get one visa and enter two countries. So, after Tofo we decided to turn back and stayed a couple of day our second place to get rest.

    We passed the sandy road and arrived at a little village on the tar road. I felt something wrong with my motorcycle. At the same time Ferry said that I had a flat tire. How is it possible! We were almost next to a tire repair shop. So, we didn’t want to fix it our self because it is taking ages with bike pomp to fix it. We saw actually I didn’t have a flat tire. Where I had problem in my inner tube in Gabon. The point was opened. We fixed it after 5 minutes barging we paid 340 MT. They wanted 500 MT.

    Finally, we arrived where we wanted to stay. Our plan was two days in the beginning but we were there 7 days. It was a nice place which is quiet, cheap, with own private shower… etc. Actually, it was a good break for us to write our articles, get rest, take care motorcycle, and talk a little for our road plan….

    How do we get ready ready everyday to hit the road? We made a little video about it in Mozambique, free to watch 🙂

    GS

  • Our Journey must short in Swaziland

    Our Journey must short in Swaziland

    We were planning to stay in Swaziland for a week but the weather didnt allow us to do that.

    We were on the Swaziland border. We finished all paperwork and jumped to motorcycles. But we couldn’t ride because of the rain was like a shower. We waited on the border, drunk coffee and ate cookies. ;( After stopped the rain we were on the road again. It was coming sunset and could come rain anytime. Therefore we just ride to Legend backpackers hostel. Stayed in a room or set up the tent? The price was big difference between share bathroom room 470 R and camping 180 R. Also, the campsite was looking good. How much could be rain more, go to the camp!

    where can stay in Swaziland cheap

    After set up the tent we went to the kitchen to cook dinner and we met Indonesian couple who were traveling same motorcycle (almost because we have Honda CRF 250L, they have Honda Rally 250) We were really surprise because most of time Ferry and I talk about how can you travel with our motorcycle two people and bags. They were doing that. Well done…

    It was so special for us to met Mario and Lillis because we met in Sulawesi Island, Indonesia. Mario comes from there. We spent nice night together. Talk a lot about journey, travel, Indonesia, Africa…etc.

    The rain started in the evening and didn’t stop the next day. More than 36 hours. In a minute, we thought about moving to a room to get warm. On the other hand, it didn’t make sense to collect the tent wet. We already set up everything. We said “

    Stay there and see how much our tent can handle the rain” Mario and Lillis were planning to leave after the rain. They got ready. They were just waiting and talking. Of course, they couldn’t leave. 😉

    Next day the rain finally stopped. We decided to move and go somewhere in Swaziland. But the weather wasn’t looking good when we checked the forecast. So, we had two options; stay and wait for good weather or pass to Mozambique. Mario was planning to pass Mozambique. It was a good idea to be together a little for ride and enjoy.

    travel southern Africa by motorcycle

    We went to Hlane Royal National Park. It is close to the Mozambique border and a good option to see the beautiful Swaziland view.

    Mario and Ferry started to fix my motorcycle screen, which I broke in Namibia when I had a accident. My father carried a new one to Johannesburg, South Africa. Yes, we didn’t fix in there and carry with us almost a week because we didn’t have correct size of screwdriver but Mario has. 😉 Do you think that two guys can fix it? Yes, sure! I suppose that they were trying to see how much they are strong because they almost broke my new screen…

    We had a good time there to see the view and make BBQ in the night. The other day after breakfast we hit the road again to Mozambique.

     

  • We had a very interesting journey in Namibia!

    We had a very interesting journey in Namibia!

    This is a country we have been looking forward to, this will be the first country we are going to try and see the big wildlife animals 🙂 Also, it means for us that we were going to finish Western Africa and start to Southern Africa part.

    Do you need visa for Namibia?

    We entered the country through Angola pretty easy and got a 30 day visa for free, finally not the crazy West Africa prices anymore. After a few days Gulcin called with a friend from Turkey who lives in Namibia and he asked her ‘Where she got her visa’. She said ‘just a stamp at the border’ when he said ‘impossible!‘ Huh, apparently Turkey passport holder does need a visa for Namibia and this would have been the most expensive one so far (150 Euro), I guess we got extremely lucky. No idea what we would have done if they didn’t allow us in but we don’t need to think about that. 🙂

    Be careful to ride!

    First of all after the border there are a lot of signs, drive left, keep left, yes we are going to ride on the wrong side of the road from here. Another big change in Namibia for us is that there are big supermarkets, shopping malls where you can find everything. The world totally changed!

    Meeting Wildlife…

    We went straight to the most famous National park from Namibia to Etosha. This place was recommended to us by our friends who visited the park before. Here we stayed just outside the park on a campsite, the most expensive one ever!

    We paid 30 usd for the campsite, we did had our own spot with privacy for that including shower, toilet and kitchen. As it is winter time in Namibia it was getting really cold in the nights, we checked our shower and decided it was possible to sleep inside here to not freeze so much, it just fitted.

    Next morning we went to the safari, starting at 5 am we entered the park and where really excited about what we will see today. We started with some antilopes, not so interesting as we see them a lot on the road as well and then there showed up some zebra’s and giraffes. Yes that’s a good start! The giraffes are not as tall as we thought they will be, but that is just our imagination, they can’t help that 😉 We continue driving and suddenly over the radio we hear, we found number 3. So we rushed to the place, no clue for us what we can see there. We arrived at a small waterhole and there they are, 4 lions! Awesome, so we stayed there for a while observing them, there comes a group of animals to drink. The leader stops and looks around for a while and decides to try to drink, all of a sudden the lions start moving and showing, hello we are here this is our waterhole you are not allowed to drink. So the leader goes back to the group and wait a little bit more, but after a while they decide to leave and look for another waterhole, this was just a small thing to see how nature works but so interesting.

    After the lions we spotted a rhino and 2 cheetahs, some more zebra’s and giraffes and then I started to tell the driver that I would really like to see elephants. This is my favorite animal, so he changed the road to a place they are more often spotted and yes, there they are! Wow, I was so happy 🙂 this has been a beautiful experience for us and did see a lot of wild animals.

    Meeting our overlander friends again and going to see Sun/Bush People.

    On the way back to the campsite we meet Kevin and Emma who we met before on the road, they are self driving with there 4×4 and Emma’s brothers came to visit them. We decided to meet outside the park and go a campsite together not so far away from the park but less expensive then ours. Of course we had a lot to talk about that night and made a plan for the next few days to do something together. We all wanted to see the original local tribes.

    So we all decided to go to see the Sun/Bush people in the North-East of Namibia. This was a pretty long ride, 280 km on the motorcycle with the last 80 km dirt road and as a nice surprise 6 km of deep soft sand 🙁 we love deep soft sand especially after a long day riding NOT! When we arrived we find a spot to camp and had dinner, the next day we would go and visit the Sun-people and they will show us their lifestyle. Kevin and I made the most delicious pancakes for breakfast and we went to see the tribe. This was a really nice experience they showed us how they hunt, make fire, make their own medicine and they finished with a dance. So cool to see they really get in trance from their dancing and enjoying it for the best, after this we sit for a while and talked with them around a fire. A experience we will never forget!

    Next day morning it was time to go our own way again, the first 85 km was the deep sand and a dirt road. Kevin who rides a motorcycle himself as well really wanted to ride a little and Gulcin was fine to sit in the car with Emma for this part so they switched, I ride with Kevin to the main road, there Gulcin got back on her bike and we said goodbye to Kevin, Emma and her brothers. We will see you again hopefully in Australia and Tasmania :)))

    Traveling Namibia

    We left Kevin and Emma and just passed the first city to find a campsite to figure out where we will go in Namibia and make a route to ride. The first day we needed to do some shopping, we needed some blankets to stay warm in the night, a SIM card and food for the road. The roads are long in Namibia and there is a lot off road, where you won’t find a supermarket for days. We first went to Otjiwarongo….. Where we bought everything we needed and had a unpleasant experience in the night (see a thief try to enter our tent)

    From there we went to a campsite owned by a former overlander who allows everyone with a vehicle from outside Africa to camp for free. The place called Oppikoppi, the owner is from Belgium and extremely friendly, we stayed 4 nights at his place. As we stayed for free we where able to eat in the restaurant a few times as well where they sold some really good pizza’s, we love pizza 🙂 in the night mostly there showed up some porcupines which are pretty cool to see.

    see porcupines in namibia

    From here we tried to visit another tribe which is called Himba but unfortunately this was just a commercial thing.. After 4 days we said goodbye to Oppikoppi and started riding towards Twyfelfontein we will be on a gravel road for a couple of days ending in Swakopmund and Walvis Bay.

    First serious accident for her

    We ride 4 days on the gravel roads, passed some really beautiful places, passed some really bad parts with a lot of corrugation on the road. On some parts they where working on the road, this was the most horrible, trucks passing constantly with high speed leaving no view, just dust.

    This is where Gulcin had her first real accident, she fall down with the motorcycle when she wanted to give a truck some space to pass and ended in a lot of gravel and soft sand so couldn’t control the motorcycle anymore and this with a speed around 60 km p/h.

    I got really scared when I this happen in front of me, normally I ride front just now I didn’t. Luckily Gulcin was totally fine herself but the motorcycle had some damage, her screen was broken and the handle bar twisted. As it became dark we needed to keep going slowly to the next village where they had a campsite but this was still about 30 km. We managed to get there and the next morning we took a good look at the bike. It looked like she could continue the road but we needed to take care as the handle was not straight it will feel pretty different to normal and you are not riding on a tar road.

    Going to Swakopmund-Walwis Bay

    We left and just when we left the village another rider came in front of us, we stopped and talked for a while with Billy from Ireland who was traveling around South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Mozambique to make a tour which he will do later with Charlie Borman (writer of the book Long way down).

    After talking for about an hour it was really time to leave for us, as we had a long ride in front of us and had a damaged motorcycle. We ride slowly and after 250 km of gravel road we arrived at the salt road towards Swakopmund this road is in pretty good condition and sometimes nearly like a tar road, 80 km from here to Swakopmund and then another 25 km to Walvis Bay.

    In Walvis Bay we had a place to stay in a house with Niyazi, finally a roof above our head in this cold. We where so happy, Niyazi really took care of us. We went a few times for a ride on a empty motorcycle, visited some high dunes, the moon valley (Namib-Naukluft National Park) and the city Swakopmund what they call the Düsseldorf of Namibia. I don’t really agree on that because Swakopmund is a new modern city and Düsseldorf has a lot of historical buildings. But it was a nice city! Unfortunately, we had our first bad experience in there. People attacked us middle of the road and nobody help us!

    The moon valley I recommend everyone to ride when they are around, it’s a beautiful gravel road and it really feels like you are riding on the moon. At least I think it must feel the same 😉 no motorcycle trips to the moon yet, but you never know what is possible in the future.

    Soussesvelei broke our heart!

    Unfortunately we had another bad experience in Walvis Bay where we got attacked in the middle of the street (15 people attacked and robbed us middle of the road). After 6 days we said goodbye and left Walvis Bay to ride the gravel roads again for a few days, we where on our way towards the Soussesvelei, this was 2 days riding on some of the worst roads we ride on so far, all the corrugation is driving us crazy! Half way we found a nice campsite with hundreds of zebra’s around in the night at the waterhole.

    Next day we ride to the Soussesvelei, half way a 4×4 passed us really fast and stopped a few hundred meters in front of me, a guy jumped out and started jumping and waving in the middle of the road to me. I told Gulcin what’s happening? When I came close I see it was our friend Nicholas from Australia who we met in Mali and Togo before. He was traveling with his girlfriend with a 4×4. It was so nice meeting Nicholas again. We talked to long, he give us some cold water and snacks as he is carrying everything now and knows what you miss on the bike. 🙂

    When we arrive at the Soussesvelei we got a really bad surprise. After all this bad, bad roads we where not allowed to go there with our motorcycles, wtf! We have been riding all this horrible roads and now when there is finally a little bit of tar you don’t allow us to go on, we where so disappointed that we immediately left the place and didn’t enter.

    Not happy at all we continued our road to find a campsite again. Of course at this moment nothing to find and we ended up next to the road, good thing is no one drives in the night so we felt safe enough to spend the night here. We looked our maps and find the fastest way to go to the main road, we where so much done with the corrugation on the road it was too much for us our brain was shaking in the night.

    Going to Fishriver canyon and meeting Semih.

    From there we went south towards the Fishriver canyon but before that we got invited to stay at Semih’s place,

    Semih was one of the first people who asked us to come and visit him when we told we where going to Africa, so we had to visit him and the family. He’s working in Namibia to make a really big dam so the area will have water all year round. It is an amazing project to see close.

    From here we went our last attraction in Namibia the Fishriver canyon. Absolutely worth visiting, it’s beautiful to see, especially around sunset. We camped nearby, we got warned for the Baboons stealing food, so we where really careful.

    Gulcin got a bit sick here and in the morning I prepared the breakfast, put everything on the table, made coffee when Gulcin asked me for tea. Ok no problem, I walked to the motorcycle and got the tea, turned around and see the ass of a baboon running away with our bread, f##k! Not the bread, take a banana, not our bread. But he did, luckily they know about the baboons stealing food at the camping and I was able to buy a expensive bread from them, now she’s protecting our breakfast.

    Bye Namibia…

    From the Fishriver canyon we went to the border with South Africa to stay 2 nights at the Orange river.

    Namibia it surely is a beautiful country, best way to travel is by 4×4 and stay in the touristic camping’s, there is a lot to see. I think our stars didn’t match with each other.

    FS