Great help in Pretoria

Whilst in Pretoria I was fortunate to meet up with a local bike nut, Conrad Koen, Conrad runs a bike shop from home. He kindly fixed me up with new grips, chain lube, few nuts and bolts, cable lube and also a wash that turned the mother ship into a new machine.

Beware though you must have quite the sense of humour to visit the place.
Cheers Conrad for the help.

Steve and Cassandra

Steve and Cassndra we met through Woody, who I met three years ago on my trip through the Middle East. They are living in Bissau the capital of Guinea Bissau clearing unexploded bombs and mines from around the country.

Put us up in there lounge for a few nights, gave our steeds a garage and their maid washed our clothes, what treatment, something we grow to really appreciate after been on the road for so long.


Steve at hard at work


Amy and Cassandra eating vegemite in Guinea Bissau, very Australian girls!

Fraser Wolley

Met Fraser at the Zebra Bar in Senegal riding a BMW 650 Dakar from the uk to Banjul and back. He kindly donated his rear tire to me after changing it in Banjul, very much appreciated as mine will never last to Togo where we can source some new ones, thanks mate muchly appreciated.

Andy (Woody)

Its a small world, I met Woody 3 years ago on my middle East trip from Istanbul to Cairo, he was one of the truck drivers on the tour, anyway we where sitting at Auberge in Nouakchott and he walked in and I reackonised him straight away, you just never know when or where you may bump into someone you know!!!

Kaye

Kaye we met in Nouadihbou who is backpacking/hitchiking around the world!! yep bloody mad but what a character, all the way from Tokyo. See you on the ride somewhere mate sorry cant give you a lift!

Blair(Kiwi) and Kati(German)

We teamed up with these guys to do the piste from Nouadihbou to Atar, 540 kilometers of desert, without them we could not have done it due to fuel and without us they would not have been able to do it due to well not sure moral support I guess!!!

They were driving a Mitsubishi 4WD, fully equiped. Spent 4 days on the piste helping each other dig sand away from boggs!!

They are on their way to Mali to try and sell the car then fly back to Germany before returning to New Zealand next year, good luck guys.

Chris and Natasha

Couple of Germans we road with for a few days in the Western Sahara down to Mauritania and found some great camping spots also, they where aboard 2 BMW 650

Carl and Sylvia

We met Carl(German) and Sylvia( Italian) in Forum Zuguid after our rough piste which they travelled along as well, in a Toyota Landcruiser Troopy, nicely decked out with a shower and all which Amy and I used on a few occasions as we all headed accross to the coast. Thanks for the nice grub you guys cooked up for us and the company was great.

Axel and Andy, team KTM

We meet Axel and Andy at Todra Gorge, two Germans on KTMs nice bike but sorry chaps would prefer the Africa Twin anyday. They came on the elusive Todra track with Ollie and Mark also. Andy had suffered a nasty fall a few days prior and hurt his ribs so he did a good job to get around but from Todra we decided all to head down into the Sahara to tackle a few pistes together so we farwelled the English crew and gained some Germans. Andys ribs became to sore so Axel joined us on the pistes and as it turned out made a good team, working together to get through some pretty hard stuff.

Axel


Andy

Had a bloody great time mate and it was a pleasure to ride with you, and also thanks Andy for the Touratech table, have used it already.

Mark From Sunderlands UK

Meet Mark another Pom along the road and was heading to Erg Chebbi as well so joined in the ride south, Mark was aboard his Honda Transalp. Like Ollie we ended up all travelling together for a few days and also doing th Todra Piste together with the crew, plus Mark had almost slicks on his rims so the going was tough as well but he made it, except for the big puddle at the end but to his luck he kept it upright, would have been a good laugh though mate!


Not your best angle Mark!

Ollie Vine

Ollie Vine took adventure Motor cycling to a new level, we ran into this character in Chefchoune on our second night, a geza from London, and from this day we could not shake him!! Ollie was aboard a Honda CBF 1000, this is a road bike for those of you not familiar. But the day came when we teamed up with some German chaps, Andy and Axel on KTM s and English Mark to to a piste around Todra Gorge but Ollie did not want to be left out so with a bit of McGivers tricks coming out we rigged his camping table as a bash plate to protect his pipes, he was coming.


CBF Bash plate, better patient that Ollie before Honda get a hold of it!!


Dressed for the occasion

So we set off and I have never seen a site like it, a CBF off roading with panniers on each side to protect it from a crash and then the man himself had an open face helmet, leather jacket and jeans on, are you serious Ollie!!


CBF enduro style



Well it did work!

But he made it unbeleivable and the track was rough.

Ollie you are a true adventure motorcyclist mate and our personal chef as well.

Justin, Grant and Lara

Tough Aussie feet hey Justin!



Lara and Justin

Some Aussies!! Good to have a real Aussie slang conversation with, bloody oath mate......meet this crew on the ferry over to Morocco then stayed in Chefchoune and Fes together. They were ttravelling around Europe in two vans, Grant and Lara together and Justin on his own....such a smalll world Justin who we had never meet before was actually going out with one of Amys mates back in London...very small world.

Marcel, Monique and Woody

The two Dutchies, we meet these guys in Tarifa and spent about five days hanging out playing Chess or should I say beating Marcel at chess and drinking quite alot of beer which equelled a few good hang overs and I think Monique was on her way back to Holland for some AA rehab!!haha

Also Woody their Husky dog which Amy fell in love with, cant forget him.


Marcel and Monique


.....and of course Woody

Had a great time guys, thanks

Paco

Paco was a very helpful Spaniard we meet in Algerciras who helped us out so much in sourceing some fork seals for the Africa Twin and he also took us to a great Spanish Bar for a delicious lunch.