Tuesday, May 31, 2011

All the way to Lusaka


We left early for the Malawi Zambia Border thinking it was going to be difficult based on what we have read , however when we got there it was really straight forward especially for motorcycles since we do not go through the road safety paperwork. 

The exchange people came out of the woodwork trying to sell us Zambian Kwacha luckily we already had some from Lilongwe, got insurance and finished in little over an hour. 


 Initially we were headed for Petauke, however since the road was fairly good and we were doing go time we decided to continue on to Lusaka.  



We got to the Intercontinental hotel by 5:30 pm just as the sun was setting.

Monday, May 30, 2011

Rest Day


Today we mostly rested, washed some cloths, fixed Hussain's CB cable, and updated the blog.

Sunday, May 29, 2011

Hello Lilongwe

In the morning I tested the rear tire and found that the mend was not holding, so Hussain and I removed the tire from the rim and patched it from the inside, and then put it back on the rim. Ali took the tire into town to seat the tire with a burst of air from a big compressor at the local repaire shop. We left the hotel by 10 am and continued along the costal route with the view of the lake to one side and the green hills most of the way.





When we reached Lilongwe about 3 PM we noticed that Hussain was not responding when talked to on the CB radio. It turned out that he no longer can hear nor talk to us, most likely due to a kink in the cable. Tomorrow Ali will get a multi meter from town to try to fix the wire.Before dinner Ali discovered that his laptop was covered with ants. He got the bag cleaned and then opened the laptop that was not working and we found even more ants inside the laptop which have hitchhiked from Nkhata Bay inside the laptop.

Saturday, May 28, 2011

The Puncture at Nkhata Bay


We left early for Nkhata Bay which is on Lake Malawi. Along the way we were stopped several times at police check points asking to see our license and insurance.


The M1 road was very nice and twisty at times. We stopped for a break on top of a hill overlooking the lake, then continued on until 5 Km from Nkhata bay when my bike started to give me an alarm that the rear tire has a puncture.


I continued on the deflating tire until we reached Mayoka Village Lodge where we found out that they had rooms for only one night since they had a big group coming in the next day.





We patched the tire from the outside and decided to go tomorrow to Lilongwe for two nights to rest.

Friday, May 27, 2011

Entering Malawi



After a good breakfast we left for the Malawi Border , on the way we got up some mountain pass where it turned foggy and the temperature reached 16 Deg. C.


It took us about an hour and half to get through the borders all the while listening to the money exchanger guy trying to sell us some Malawi Kwacha at an inflated price.


We then continued to Karonga and on the way we were stopped at one of the police check points who asked for our license and Insurance. Luckily we had purchased Insurance at the border.


We reached Sumuka Inn around 3 PM where we found out that Malawi is one Hour behind Tanzania.

Thursday, May 26, 2011

On to the Old Farm House



We were excited today since we were going to a highly recommended lodge called the Old Farm House in Kisolanza Tanzania, and on the way we would pass the Mikumi National Park where we could see some animals.


Before the park we got to see baboons on the road and then after there was a sight "Don't feed the Baboons" later we found out that cars and busses sometimes throw food out the window at the baboons and the baboons start running to grab the food even though there might be another car headed for it, or in our case motorcycle.


We entered the park and got to see an elephant, giraffes, zebras, and gazelles. We stopped at the side of the road to take some pictures and then continued on until we stopped for some dates when we saw a couple on Kawazaki KLR 650s who went past us and then mad a U turn and came back.


They were Nick and Kristine from Durban - South Africa just starting their round the world trip. They were just at the Old Farm House lodge and said it was a great place.



We got the lodge and were very impressed we all got cottages with great decor a terrace, fireplace, and space for the motorcycle. The whole lodge was running on solar power and the water was heated by fire wood. We met people who organize trips in trucks going through east Africa and showed us their vehicle and setup.

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Rainy Road To Morogoro

The breakfast at Honey Badger was great, it rained earlier before we left and we were afraid that the dirt road out would be muddy, but it wasn't. We headed towards Morogoro which was over 500 km away.



We really needed to pick up the pace and we did. This is where we like having the big bike since we can do many Kilometers on good roads, and the roads were good although it rained half the time we were ridding.
We stayed at the Morogoro Hotel at the foothill of the mountains with a great view but the hotel was run down, and had problems with electricity and keeping the air conditioning units running.

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Into Tanzania



In the morning after breakfast we said good bye to all our friends in Jungle Junction and took pictures with Chris and Don. We then continued towards Tanzania reaching the border around 12:45 we filled up with fuel and entered Tanzania at 3:00 pm.


We then continued on to Moshi to see Kilimanjaro the tallest mountain in Africa but it was covered with clouds. We stopped at a place that both Chris and Don recommended which is the Honey Badger Lodge it is nice and cozy and away from the town traffic.

Monday, May 23, 2011

Our last day in Nairobi

All the bikes were finished and ready Chris from jungle junction and his staff were really great and helpful. We later had lunch with the Ambassador of Kuwait to Kenya Mr. Yaqoub Y. Alsanad, and Mr. AbdulKareem Almjeem.



At night Don and Jennifer mad Pancakes for dinner then we started packing our things when I realized that there was no power to my GPS. It turned out to be a short in the wire near the end. Don helped us out with a multi meter, a soldering iron , and shrink wrap and we were done by 11:30. So we decided to get a good night's sleep and leave a bit latter tomorrow for Tanzania.

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Baby Elephants

Chris told us yesterday about the reserve that caters for abandoned baby elephants so we went to visit the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust where we got to see many elephants and warthogs.



We also got to visit the giraffe center and got to feed those tall animals.

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Bikes getting fixed



It is great to meet other people who are traveling as we are and exchanging route and accommodation information. We met Don and Jennifer (www.travelsick.nl) who have been traveling in their Land Rover for over two years now; we are trying to convince them to visit Kuwait on their way back home.


Ali's Bike is finished and my bike is back on the rack to change the suspension. All the bikes are expected to be ready by Monday since we are planning on leaving to Tanzania on Tuesday. We also turned on the tracker but it was not giving any signal , the further south we go the worse the signal gets since all the satellites are in the northern hemisphere.

Friday, May 20, 2011

Arriving in Kenya



We arrived at Jungle Junction in the afternoon. My bike was finished and Ali's bike was on the bench being worked on. We gave Chris the suspension to install then hanged around with the other over-landers exchanging stories and routes.

Monday, May 16, 2011

Change of Plans

All of our parts have arrived and we are revising our itinerary since we have less time now due to some work commitments on Ali's part. So we decided to skip Uganda and go straight to Tanzania, then Malawi, Zambia, Botswana, and finally South Africa.

Half of the parts were sent to Nairobi last week for Chris to work on the bikes early; we will be leaving on the 19th and arriving on the 20th in Nairobi Kenya.