It’s Time for Africa

Daryll writes:

After two magnificent weeks, we bid a sad farewell to all our new friends in Buenos Aires.  We had arranged with our shipping company to drop off our bikes at the cargo terminal on the Wednesday and for the bikes to fly to Johannesburg on the Friday, knowing that we were to fly out on the Sunday.  So if there were to be problems with any of the paperwork, we would still have time to sort it out before we left the country.  We’ve heard some horror stories of bikers leaving before their bikes could be shipped only to find out that customs hadn’t cleared the bikes to be exported. 

Our departure from Argentina though was not without drama.  A short clip of our bikes being packed and ready for shipping.

It's Time for Africa from One World 2 Explore on Vimeo.

Having arrived in Johannesburg with little sleep, we spent the entire day moving from one office to the other and trying to have our bikes processed and cleared through South African customs.  Thanks to Shalan, my brother in-law who met us as we disembarked our flight and dropped us off at the air cargo terminal together with a jerry can of gas.  I was amazed how helpful people were.  Once we had customs sign off for our bikes to be released, a forklift brought them out into the parking lot.  We both were relieved to see them in tact and the way we had seen them taken away a few days prior.  As we unwrapped the several layers of plastic, we had several onlookers as everyone was eager to see what was under all that wrapping.  As we worked to get the bikes on the road again, we had several offers of help and one guy went off and made a funnel and brought it back so that I could fill the tanks with gas.

I’ve never lived in Johannesburg and was shocked at the traffic.  It was rush hour and we had to get to my parent’s home.  I purchased the Tracks 4 Africa mapping software for my GPS prior to leaving Canada, however just realized that it doesn’t auto-route in and around the Johannesburg area.  So we were glad when Shalan arrived at the cargo terminal to lead us home.  As we inched forward in traffic, we got a few stares as it is common practice for bikes to lane-split, so the locals must have wondered why we were sitting in traffic.

It’s nice being at home, having a warm bed to sleep in and especially taking advantage of my mothers cooking.  The last week was spent catching up with family and friends and I need to spend the next few days going over the bikes.  It is good being at home, but we are also itching to get going again as it is now 3 weeks since we’ve really ridden our bikes.  We’ve purchased a new guidebook and now the planning begins for the start of the next leg of our adventure.  Stay tuned!