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United Kingdom, Hastings, 13 – 20 July 2024

Posted on Saturday, 20-July-2024 by Chris Desmond

Cape Town to Doha 9:35 hrs, 1:55 layover and then another 7:10 hrs to Hastings – cooped up in a tube for so long is tiring. This is where I get my bike registered, insured and the annual inspection MOT done, no problems. Next an oil and filter change catch up with friends and I was on my way to Europe.

Cape Town Airport – Wet

Doha up ahead

Qatar

Landing

Inside

Qatar Airport

London up ahead

England

Misty

Train Ticket

Rail Grinding

On the Train

Old Faithful

Roast Beef

The Good stuff

Woolpack Inn 15 century

Posted in United Kingdom | 1 Comment

South Africa, Cape Town, 06 – 12 July 2024

Posted on Friday, 12-July-2024 by Chris Desmond

Windhoek to Cape Town, South Africa, a two hour flight. I used an Uber to travel to the airport from the City and it cost NAD 260 compared to the official Airport taxi rate of NAD 450. The bank at the airport was open at 07:00 so I could change my leftover Namibian Dollars to South African Rand. The aircraft was the usual small Embraer which we walked to from the terminal. Cape Town on the other hand is a big and busy airport, long queue at immigration. I already had a SIM card for South Africa. Similar to Johannesburg there is a reserved area in the car park for Uber, the ride into the city took 20 minutes and cost R190.

Windhoek Airport

Windhoek to Cape Town

Windhoek Airport

Cape Town

Cape Town Airport

Immigration

Cape Town

Cape Town – population 4.7 million and the most tourist friendly place I have visited in Africa. Being winter it rained for all the seven days I spent there. Table Mountain Cable Car and the Robben Island Tours were both cancelled due to the weather, winter is not the best time to visit Cape Town. I did get to go on a Wine Tour which was very nice and being wet did not matter. The Waterfront is an area with shopping centres and restaurants and is a good place to spend some time. During the day the CBD is safe but I was warned not to go out after dark.

Greenmarket Square

Greenmarket Square – Wet

Lion’s Head

Cape Town

Table Mountain

Cable car to Table Mountain

Waterfront Shops

Waterfront Wise Men

Waterfront

St.George’s Cathedral

Interesting

The King

Town Hall

Parliament

Art Gallery – Closed

Art Gallery

Museum

St.Mary’s Cathedral

The Local Drop

Kurdish Cuisine

Do not Enter

The Fort

Magellan – Amazing

The King

The Fort

Bo Kaap

Art

Food

Wine Tour to Stellenbosch, Franschhoek and Pederburg.

Mandela’s Glasses

The Sea

Weeds

Windy Walk

Light house

Big Wheel

Waterfront

Posted in South Africa | Leave a comment

Namibia, Windhoek, 01 – 05 July 2024

Posted on Friday, 5-July-2024 by Chris Desmond

Mbabane to Windhoek, Namibia – Crossing the border from Eswatini to South Africa caused some confusion at Eswatini immigration, long queue and then they could not find the Entry stamp in my passport because there was none hahaha, after a few minutes of scratching their heads they stamped my passport, customs waved me through and I was on my way. Had to park again and go through SA immigration, short queue, stamp and go no questions asked, all up allow 30 minutes to get through the border. I first drove to Johannesburg airport a 3.5 hour drive and returned the hire car, there is a Petrol station inside the airport car park complex where you can fill up before you return the car. I went around in circles 3 times first finding the Petrol station and then finding the Car Rental drop off point. There are so many off ramps, if you are in the wrong lane you miss the correct ramp and have to go around or I could have followed the locals and reversed back up the ramps hahaha. Took the shuttle to my hotel and had a rest.

Shuttle back to the airport the next day, at Johannesburg airport you can check in anytime before your flight, I was there 4.5 hrs before departure and they checked me in. Uneventful flight to Windhoek 1:50 hrs, small airport, we were the only plane to land. It would have been stamp and go at immigration but the woman there was smiling as she went through all the pages of my passport examining all the stamps and visas hahaha. First stop was the MTC shop for a SIM card, no queue, NAD 7 for the SIM and 100 for 7GB data for 7 days including some calls and sms US$6. The currency here is the Namibian dollar which has the same value as the Rand. The official airport taxi cost NA$450 to the CBD, on my return journey I used the Yango app and it cost NA$260, the airport is 45 km from the city and takes 40 minutes.

Windhoek – a nice place, clean, organised, traffic follows the rules and there is not much traffic, population less than half a million. Walking around the CBD during the daytime is safe, there are very few beggars and touts and not many pavement sellers. I visited the National Art Gallery where all the paintings are for sale, they had some good historical photographs. The Independence Museum is quite impressive and chronicles the violent struggle that took place in their fight for Independence.

Fountain

Chicken Stew

Breakfast

Worms

Johannesburg Airport

Airport Lunch

South African Airways

In the air

Landed at Windhoek

Windhoek Airport

Kudu

Plice

High Court

Art Gallery

Paintings for Sale

Post Office

Clock Tower

Meteorites

Bushmen

Municipality

Biriyani

The Local drop

Christuskirche, closed to the Public

Independence Museum

Castro

Parliament

Stadium

House in the Hills

Church in the Hills

Alte Feste

Gedenkstatue Freiheitskampf

Critters

Nice

Interesting

WW War Memorial

Street Market

Joe’s Beer House

St. Marien Kathedrale

Fountain

African Beef Stew

Posted in Namibia | 1 Comment

Eswatini, Mbabane, 28 – 29 June 2024

Posted on Saturday, 29-June-2024 by Chris Desmond

Maseru to Mbabane, Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), this was a long drive, 620km and 8 hours including 2 border crossings. I decided to use a small border crossing at Peka Bridge instead of the main one at Maseru to avoid the chaos, good decision hahaha. I arrived at the border at 0810 (it only opens at 0800), parked and walked to the counter and got a stamp, only took a minute there was no one else there. Boom gate was lifted by the same woman that stamped my passport, across a narrow bridge which is the border and I was back in South Africa. Parked and once again I was the only customer, another entry stamp into SA and all done. After that 6km of dirt road with a few rough patches, meandered along at 20-30kph lots of sharp stones did not want to risk a puncture and onto the highway. Sun in my eyes not much traffic except when close to towns and not many of them, speed limit 100 to 120kph sat on 110kph most of the time, stopped at Bethlehem to fill up and the attendant, a woman cleaned all the glass and the back door which was covered in dust from the dirt road, gave her R10 for her efforts. Carried on a few big towns, grain silos, farming country and some cattle as well. The road varied from good to potholes with cars weaving all over the place to miss them, some new stretches, finally arrived at the Eswatini border. Queue of cars waiting to park and then go inside and get passport stamped by South African immigration, long queue, finished with that then the Police check to see if I have permission to enter Eswatini showed them the Rental documents. Cross over into Eswatini and I missed the immigration counter and did not get an entry stamp but I did pay the Road Tax of R100 and got a receipt for that, even there they asked if I had a Gate Pass and I had no idea what that was or where I should get it from so they made one out for me at the counter. On my way out they checked that I had my Gate Pass and paid the Tax but nobody checked my passport for the Entry stamp. At this point I had no idea what was going on and carried on hahaha a very disorganised border crossing.

Eswatini is one of the wealthier countries and the roads and traffic are organised and drivers follow the rules. There is a nice pedestrian only area in the centre of the town with shops and Malls. I stayed at a Guest House run by a Mauritian Chinese lady and enjoyed home cooked chinese meals while I was there, very nice.

Heading out of Lesotho

Lesotho Border Immigration

The Bridge across the Border river

South Africa Immigration

6 Km of dirt

Rough patches

On the Highway

Art

Bethelem – stop for petrol

Grain Silos

Farms

Silos

Standerton

Farm House

Cattle

Beef

Impressive

Post Office

Church

The Border

Queue to park

SA Immigration

Eswatini

Mbabane

Posted in Eswatini | 1 Comment

Lesotho, Maseru, 26 – 27 June 2024

Posted on Thursday, 27-June-2024 by Chris Desmond

Bloemfontein to Maseru, Lesotho, distance 143 km and it took 2:15 hrs including 30 min at the border. There was quite a crowd at the border, you first have to find a place to park on the South African side and then queue up at immigration to get your passport stamped. Drive a few meters and Customs who waved me through, then the SA police checked my Rental documents to make sure that I had permission to take the car out of the country. I had to pay the Rental company a surcharge of R1,470 for each border crossing. Drive a few metres to Lesotho immigration where I did not have to get out of the car stamp and go, next stop another Booth where I sat in the car and had to pay a Road Tax of 90 Maloti which has the same value as the Rand in cash their CC machine was not working. After that traffic was a mess, continued on through the centre, no marked lines, hundreds of small taxis crawling everywhere, basically chaos but slow moving. Back in the real Africa, meandered along until I got to Lion hill which I wanted to see. I had to turn off onto a road that was a narrow pot holed dirt road with sharp stones running into a shanty town decided it was not worth risking a puncture, turned around and back to the centre.

Lesotho is one of the poorest countries in the world and this is reflected in the infrastructure. Had a look inside the Mall to get something to eat and then I drove to my accommodation which was 34 km out of town and took an hour to get there. Did absolutely nothing the next day but admire the view which was a more attractive proposition than driving into town hahaha.

Tin Town

Mountains

Approaching the Lesotho Border

Road Tax

Enter Lesotho

Maseru Roads

Standard African fare

Lesotho countryside

The road to my Lodging

The View

Luxury huts with all the conveniences

Looking up

Standard Africa fare

Posted in Lesotho | 1 Comment

South Africa, Bloemfontein, 24 – 25 June 2024

Posted on Tuesday, 25-June-2024 by Chris Desmond

I hired a car in Johannesburg for 7 days. First stop Bloemfontein where I visited the Boer War Museum. Distance 395 km and it took 4 hours, mainly good 4 lane Toll road all the way, 120 kph speed limit with one mobile speed camera which Google warned me about. 3 toll stops R25.50, R84.50 and R72.50 about US$10 which is expensive for this part of the world as a result there was not much traffic. The countryside was flat with Shanty towns of tin shacks dotted along the way.

I stopped here to visit the Boer War Museum which is very good. The town has a 30% white and 56% black population and is quite civilised with large pot holes which are a feature of South African roads hahaha.

Tin Shack Towns

120kph with cameras

Toll plaza ahead

Flat

Lake

The road

Towns

Wide Load

Toll Plaza

Price of petrol

Boer War Museum

Posted in South Africa | Leave a comment

South Africa, Pretoria, 23 June 2024

Posted on Sunday, 23-June-2024 by Chris Desmond

I booked a private tour to Pretoria and the Cullinan Diamond Mine, there were no group tours available. The small town of Cullinan is popular with day trippers from the big cities. There was a Porsche and BMW motorcyle gathering on with some nice bikes and cars. Pretoria is another place you are advised against walking around alone. We also visited the Voortrekker Monument, very impressive and a Pilgrimage site for Afrikaners.

Cullinan Diamond Mine

Cars & Bikes

No Underground tours

Staff Housing

Mongoose?

Spot the animals

Entry to the Mine after a Breathalyser

The Big Diamond

Daimonds

The Pit

Lunch

Union Buildings

Palace of Justice

Paul Kruger Statue

Voortrekker Monument

Very Impressive

Circle the Wagons

The Trek

The making of

Pretoria

The Architect

Art

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South Africa, Johannesburg, 19 – 23 June 2024

Posted on Sunday, 23-June-2024 by Chris Desmond

Antananarivo to Johannesburg South Africa – taxi to the airport at 11:00 no traffic took only 45min. This is a small airport, not many flights, no queues or problems with check-in or security. Uneventful flight of 3 hours soft landing at Johannesburg, this is my 3rd time at this airport so I was familiar with the layout, I do not need a Visa for South Africa just stamp and go no questions asked. The airport is huge and well organised but as with all big airports can be confusing. I got an MTN sim card which was free and ZAR 365 or US$20 for 7GB of Data valid for 30 days which is expensive compared to other countries. Both Uber and Bolt operate from this airport and there is a seperate section of the multi-storied car park set aside for them to pickup and drop off passengers. I called an Uber ZAR 200 or US$11, the hotel shuttle costs US$40, trip took 30 minutes into the CBD. I noticed the taxi was fairly new and in good condition instead of the usual dilapidated cars. Apparently the Traffic Police here are very strict and cars that are not in good condition are taken off the road, people also have lane discpline and mostly follow the rules, there are speed cameras as well and many Police road blocks for Registration and Licence spot checks.

Antananarivo Airport

Embraer E190

On board

Control Tower

Up in the air

At the end of a long hard day

My Hotel was just outside the CBD right next to a big Shopping Mall so all I had to do was cross the road to find a restaurant or supermarket, the Museum Africa was also a 5 minute walk. I had been warned by everyone not to walk anywhere and met people who had been robbed at gun or knife point in the CBD. One couple parked and had their hire car with all their luggage stolen, so only park in car parks with security.

Museum Africa – definitely worth a visit, an insight into Gandhi’s early days.

Art

Museum Africa

African Countries

Rivonia Trial of Nelson Mandela and friends

Greed

The First President

Apartheid

Townships

Apartheid

Relocation

Pick pockets

High Court

Inside the Musem, use the ramps, lifts don’t work

South Africa vs Australia in 1902

Gandhi

San People

White and Black families

Art

Rehydrate

I booked a tour of Johannesburg, the only way for a tourist to see this city. We visited the prison where Gandhi and Mandela were held, a drive through Sandton and Rosebank where the rich whites live, the CBD and Gandhi square, Soweto where we stopped for lunch and visited Mandela’s house and the Apartheid Museum.

Fancy hedge

The Old Fort prison where Gandhi and Mandela were held

The Old Fort prison

Constitutional Court

The Old Fort prison

Mandela lived here

Letter from Mandela

The Old Fort prison

Art

Drilling in the CBD

Main Street

Gandhi Square

Gandhi

Mosque

Soweto

Tailor

Soweto

Mandela’s House

Memorabilia

Vilakazi Street

Hector Pieterson Memorial

Football

Apartheid Musuem

Johannesburg

Sunset

Posted in South Africa | 1 Comment

Madagascar, Antananarivo, 13 – 18 June 2024

Posted on Tuesday, 18-June-2024 by Chris Desmond

From Maputo to Antananarivo, Madagascar I had to fly via Johannesburg stop there overnight and catch a flight the next day. I stayed at a hotel close to the airport that had a free airport shuttle, very convenient. Johannesburg to Antananarivo was at three hours the longest flight between African countries. For some unknown reason I was upgraded to Business class, something that has never happened to me before. You have to fill in an Arrivals card and a Covid card when you arrive, these were not distributed on the flight and there were no signs so there was confusion at immigration and it took ages. Next I had to change some money and the exchange rate was not good. Then I bought a Telma SIM card for MGA 1000 and 2.5GB of Data for 15,000 a total of MGA 25,000 or US$6, it started working immediately and I never had any problems. The taxi into the city was a fixed price MGA 80,000 or US$18, traffic comes to a standstill as you approach the city and it will take at least an hour.

Johannesburg Airport arriving

Johannesburg Airport. The next morning

Departure lounge

At the Gate

No Borading Bridge here.

Business Class meal

Madagascar

Antananarivo – more commonly know as “Tana” population 2 million and it is set among steep hills, which means you are always walking up or downhill very narrow streets and steps, the language is French. There are many different ethnic groups from Asia living here along with the natives. Crowded with whole families sleeping on the streets and the most distressing part were the hundreds of children begging some looked only a few years old. There were also the usual crowd of touts, money changers and beggars. I also experienced my first phone snatching attempt which was unsuccessful because I had a tight grip on my phone, the thief kept running. This is not a tourist destination.

Butcher

The local drop

Breakfast

Streets

The main square

The old railway Station

No idea

Hotel de Ville

Sleeping on the street

The local drop

Analakely Market

Pizza, disgusting

Cathedrale catholique d Andohalo

The view from the Cathedral

No idea

Cable car to get across town

Posted in Madagascar | Leave a comment

Mozambique, Maputo, 08 – 12 June 2024

Posted on Wednesday, 12-June-2024 by Chris Desmond

Mozambique Visa – Getting this visa was a complete nightmare. This is one of those countries that that seem to exist only in Africa where the visa commences from the date it is issued, not from the date you enter the country and you can not apply for the visa more than 30 days before you enter the country. To apply for the visa you must create an account and login, next you have to submit a bank statement, a hotel booking, flight booking, passport and photo. Two days later I received a reply that said my Visa was Disapproved because I had not paid for my hotel. I contacted Booking.com and the Hotel and they said that they can not accept payment in advance because it is against Mozambique law. The Hotel people told me to apply through Expedia as they accept payment advance. So I cancelled my first booking and booked and paid for another hotel. In my second application I sent them the receipt from Expedia showing that I had paid for the Hotel. A few days later I received another Disapproved email which said that I must submit a receipt with the Hotel letterhead and not from Expedia. Contacting the hotel by phone is impossible because the lines are so bad and they only speak Portugese. After doing some research I found they had a Facebook page with a WhatsApp number. I contacted them on WhatsApp and sent them the email I received from the Mozambique Immigration Department. After many attempts with different Hotel staff I finally received a Confirmation from the Hotel. I submitted this in my third visa application and a few days later I received another Disapproval email with exactly the same reason hahaha. I sent this to the Hotel asking what else could they send me and they did not reply. By now time was running out and I was ready to give up and write off my airfares. I was now in Gabarone my last stop before Mozambique and I had been telling everyone I met about this issue hoping for a solution. The most common answer that I received was “This is Africa”. Then my Gabarone Airbnb host said that Mozambique has a High Commission here and I should go and see them. The next day I went there first thing in the morning on a Tuesday, at first they did not believe me so I emailed them all the documents and asked if I had missed something and they still did not believe me asking if I had actually submitted all these documents – HELP. Anyway they finally agreed to look into it, there are only two staff working in the High Commission which is located in a house. I went back the next day and they had done nothing and said come back on Friday, my flight was on Saturday and they would sort it out. Back I went on Friday and they asked me to apply for the visa again while I was in the the building, to their surprise I had all the documents on my phone and after 3 attempts already I knew the system quite well. I applied using my phone and received an email acknowedging receipt of the application which I showed to them. They immediately called the Department concerned in Mozambique and 10 minutes later I received the Visa.

Gabarone to Johannesburg a 35 minute flight, 2:15 hrs layover at Johannesburg and then a 45 minute flight to Maputo. Immigration was complete chaos, it took about an hour to process 3 people, computer slow and then computer down hahaha. And the Visa fee was US$150 per person, you can pay with your credit card. Do not buy a SIM card at the airport it will cost you double, the official Vodacom shop has closed and there are only 2 agents. I finished up buying my SIM card in the city from a street seller and paid MZN 500 for the SIM and 300 for 4GB. It was a Sunday and the Vodacom shops were all closed. The taxi fare to the city is MZN 1,200 a complete rip-off as most airport taxis are, the return fare using the Apps Bolt or Yango was MZN 200. Use the Apps in Maputo most rides are around $2. Do not use the Yellow taxis they are in worse condition and charge 400% more. There are also 2 scams I experienced. When you call a taxi using the an App the driver will accept and then will immediately msg that he has arrived and waiting while he is still miles away, at the end of the journey you will get charged an additional fee for waiting time. The second one is an App driver will accept the fare and a Yellow taxi will turn up and at the end of the journey instead of the declared App fare of 50 he will charge you 200 or more. The lesson is if the driver is far away and says he has arrived and is waiting Cancel the ride, there is no Penalty and if a car with a different number plate arrives do not get into the car, cancel the ride because it could be anyone and book again.