A trip from Joburg, SA to Vic Falls and Zambia

[MalcolmT]

How do lads,

The wife an I just got back from a week trip from Joburg to Vic falls in Zimbabwe. We did just over 1700 miles, averaged 52mpg, used ½ a pint of oil, and the tyres never needed air throughout the trip. Not bad when the bike is a twenty year old BMW K75S.

We went through Botswana to avoid the fuel shortages in Zim.
Botswana is full is disease control checkpoints to contain foot and mouth etc. Most of the check points are just gates across the road where they check you’re not carrying livestock or meat. Four of them meant a ride through ‘sheep dips’, one was particularly nasty with speed humps in the dip.

The top end of Botswana and Zim is elephant country, and this is on the main north / south highway. I’d been told to keep an eye open but didn’t expect to see any (wrong again). We saw half a dozen and one huge bull. They seemed to be streetwise and didn’t hang around on the road, a good thing as plenty of 18 wheelers use the road as a direct route from SA to Zambia. We stopped about 100 yards from the bull in the photo and he wasn’t too happy to see us. His mate had crossed a minute or two earlier so we had plenty of time to slow down and pull over till he was well out of the way.

The 50 mile stretch from Botswana to Vic falls (in Zim) is a national park. We saw more elephants on that stretch and fortunately no lions or leopards. The wife went mad when she realized about the wild life, but a quick reminder about the times we’d driven through Glasgow and Liverpool without injury steadied her up a bit.

What can I tell you about the falls?
Well, the first thing is no photo can do them justice; I don’t use the work ‘awesome’ too often but its justified here. We got the first view of the mist from the falls as we came over a hill 20 miles away; we stopped in a B&B at Vic falls and could hear the falls three miles away. They are so big the only way to see the complete falls is from the air. We even went into Zambia to see them from the other side, its equally “awesome”.

Zim is falling to pieces. As soon as you’re off the main roads the tar roads have almost gone back to dirt. The exchange rate is about Z$200,000 per UK pound, the largest bank note is a Z$50,000, fortunately most places take US$ so you don’t need to carry wheelbarrow loads of cash around.

Here are some links to a few of the pixs we took…..


The route..
https://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c373/mmoorhouse/Vic%20Falls%20Trip/JhbtoVicfallsroute.jpg

The only fuel stop in 200 miles of road…
https://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c373/mmoorhouse/Vic%20Falls%20Trip/10.jpg

Heading north through Botswana, it’s a long, long road…
https://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c373/mmoorhouse/Vic%20Falls%20Trip/11.jpg

Botswana ‘sheep dip’ with speed humps…
https://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c373/mmoorhouse/Vic%20Falls%20Trip/15.jpg

Final proof elephants were nearby…
https://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c373/mmoorhouse/Vic%20Falls%20Trip/12.jpg

Why did the elephant cross the road ?……
https://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c373/mmoorhouse/Vic%20Falls%20Trip/13.jpg

To get to his mate who crossed a few minutes earlier (check out the extra leg)…
https://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c373/mmoorhouse/Vic%20Falls%20Trip/SpecialElephant.jpg

A nice pic of a medley of locals in Vic Falls town…
https://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c373/mmoorhouse/Vic%20Falls%20Trip/14.jpg

Livingstone town centre, Zambia….
https://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c373/mmoorhouse/Vic%20Falls%20Trip/18.jpg

The corner shop near where we stayed…
https://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c373/mmoorhouse/Vic%20Falls%20Trip/8.jpg

Zim traffic cops on push bikes, a great concept…
https://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c373/mmoorhouse/Vic%20Falls%20Trip/7.jpg

Look at the state of the road though the houses, this one got down to about 2ft wide…
https://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c373/mmoorhouse/Vic%20Falls%20Trip/9.jpg

The falls from a Zambezi booze cruise….
https://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c373/mmoorhouse/Vic%20Falls%20Trip/1.jpg

Zambezi sunset…
https://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c373/mmoorhouse/Vic%20Falls%20Trip/2.jpg

The first view of the falls…
https://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c373/mmoorhouse/Vic%20Falls%20Trip/3.jpg

First view of the falls from the air…
https://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c373/mmoorhouse/Vic%20Falls%20Trip/4.jpg

A cracking view of the falls from the air ….
https://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c373/mmoorhouse/Vic%20Falls%20Trip/5.jpg

[colin1]

nice pics
ive converted them to show here without clicking
I quite like the idea of visiting South Africa some day as i used to live in Leosotho. I'll give you a shout if I ever do, and we could meet up for a beer.
Looks great for touring on a bike. Im guessing fuel tax isnt as high as ours either.

[tatters]

Sort your self out colin
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Past:NRG50,AF1125(x2),NSR125RR,ZZR250,CX500,VFR400,KR1S,ZZR600(x2),CB400N,YZF1000(x2),KH125,Z200,FX400R,CBR954RR(x2)GPZ500S,GT550,VFR750F(x2),RD350N,XR650R,CBR600F,CB250,KDX250,YZF750R,CRM250,400EXC,KLR650,TTR600RE,DR350S,R100GSPD,RGV250,VMAX1200,DL650,KZ750 Present:G650XC,C12,CRF450X,1190ADV

[MalcolmT]

[TOM M]

Superb, looks absolutly amazing
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Now owner of a 1200 Bandit

[chris___]

Wow! Looks like a great trip. The falls look absolutely stunning. I'll have a proper read of that when I get home (at work at the moment )
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Yamaha rxs100 > Kawasaki ZZR600 > Kawasaki ZX6R > Honda Hornet 600 > Honda Bros 400 > Suzuki SV650S K2
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