Sunday 31 May

Surprize, surprize. It's sunday evening and I'm still at home in Ballito.
I received a call at 16:20 friday to tell me my passport and visa were still in the Sudan embassy and wouldn't be out till monday.
To cut a long and very boring story short I blew my top, they said there was nothing they could do and we start tomorrow morning. We suspect the courier company was late and with the Super 14 final is was probably bedlam in Pretoria. No doubt the consol will tell us the true story.
Justin and Mark are in Cairo and have duly set to work. The license plates are sorted but they have to wait for me to start clearing the bikes. Hopefully it's only a day and we'll still be on schedule. We'd always planned on 3 days to clear Cairo because of all the reports of Egyptian buraucracy. At worst we'll have to push hard for Aswan. Saturday we have to start the whole process over again de-registering the bikes!
Here's holding thumbs that I'm on tomorrow's flight.

Jim.

Wednesday 27th

We depart in 4 days and we still don't have visas for the Sudan! Apparently there is an option to get them in Cairo but that's not our first choice. We'll have to wait patiently for the " letter of authority" to arrive from Khartoum. My patience levels are not up there with the best.

Jim.

Friday 22nd May

We've had a BIG day.
I started packing the bikes at 8, Mark arrived at 10:30 and we finished at 4:00. Anyway they are all crated, in the truck and now on the way to Justin in Johannesburg.
It was enough work doing this in the factory but the thought of packing up in Egypt is difficult. I'm very happy we're doing the trip this was around.
Putting everything together again could be a challenge. Mark gets "Bolt phobia".Everytime he sees another bolt getting undone he starts to sweat. He's convinced we won't re-assemble everything.

From here it's a test of patience with customs in Cairo. The shipping agent says 2 days to clear, we've allowed 3 and some others groups have had 6 days! We'll let you know. It's a very tedious process. You have to get the bikes re-registered under Egyptian number plates and put up with unbelievable officialdom.

We've got to be at Aswan for the ferry to the Sudan on Saturday 7 June. If we miss that date it's a week wait for the next time.

Monday 18th May. 12 days to go.

Does anybody want to take my place?
We're down to 12 days to go and it still feels like we aren't making progress.
Ethiopia want another letter from Creighton Products (this will be the 3rd)!
George casually mentions that we probably need police clearance for the bikes at lunch yesterday. That's fine except Justin's log book is in JHB and his bike in Umhlanga and the SAPS don't work after 14:30. The shipping agents admit to forgeting about it!
That aside it's a total scramble.
Reading other blogs make one realise that some of the sections will be really tough. Ethiopia is always wet in the highlands and the rear shocks of most bikes take a hammering on the Moyale to Isiola stretch.. Mark's spare hasn't arrived yet.
Otherwise the carnets have been issued, Justin is collecting the bikes at the weekend and then it should be all systems go. Jim.

13th May. 18 days to go.

There's chaos around us.

Last minute hassles are distracting us all like requests for extra visa information,insurance, carnets. etc etc.

There's been comment about me not doing much work. Prabably true but at least Themba's here to help with bike crating.

We received some casual advice from Chris, the mechanic at Jungle Junction in Nairobi, that no 800's are making it from Moyale on the Ethiopian border to Isiola. Apparenly it's a hell run.The shocks overheat and pop. The Portuguese thinks he's going to take some extra units and make a small margin on each!

9th May, 21 days to go.

Mark and I rode up to Kosi Bay this weekend to get some sand riding skills. It was to be our last chance for some riding prior to packing the bikes.

Apart from leaving in the rain early on Saturday we had an uneventful ride up, mostly on tar.

At Mbazwana, near Sordwana, we'd had enough of the tar and diverted on some dirt roads.

The sand was quite managable being slighly wet but was still good practise. We followed the route down to Rock Tail Bay but were denied entrance into the reserve so rode an alternative route through to Manguzi. Here we filled up both tanks and tyres and set off for a local camp site. The ride through the last +- 500m sand to the camp was the worst of the day and Mark made a grand appearance in the camp by lying down (falling off) at the manager's feet.

Despite the offer of a bed we decided that camping was what we needed to practise so we set up on the lawn( with a hot shower near by!).

Mark's catering skills are way better than his mechanical prowess or sense of direction so we ate well, almost certainly better than we will on the trip. He'd raided Wendy's pantry, his brothers Spar and the garage Kwik shop to feed us. Needless to say his skills will be tested with camel and goat.

The view of the camp site is not a KTM advert!

Sunday's ride was a good balance of dirt and tar. No sand apart from the ride out of the camp. I left before Mark and when he didn't arrive I went back to find him " pinned like a dirty great rat " ( his words) under his pannier. This time he's made it 100m from the camp! Fortunately with no damage to the leg, only his reputation, we set off.

All in we rode 900kms and I think we're good to go. From here on it's lots of final details .

Monday 4th May.

Things are starting to get hectic. We're flying to Cairo on 30th May, which is in 26 days time, and there are still masses of things to do. The list includes visas, carnets, etc etc. I seem to be spending a lot of time doing things apart from work.
Mark and I are now street legal, having passed our riders licenses, but the final documents will probably not be ready before we leave. That leaves our international drivers licenses in doubt.
Simon isn't going to be riding with us so that leaves Mark, Justin and me.
Mark and I are heading to Kosi Bay this weekend to check out our sand riding skills. It's probably a bit late to decide we don't have any!

Jim.