Cape Town South Africa. Part One

Feb. 19, 2017: Sorry for being behind in catching you all up on our South African adventures. We’ve had some frustrating computer and website issues. “They” told us not to bring electronics. And websites are always a pain in the ass, so I guess we asked for it.

I think I can speak for us both when I say South Africa has blown us away. We’ve seen wild baboons, a huge colony of penguins and—wildlife highlight!—the rarest antelope in Africa, called the Bontebok. We actually saw hundreds of them while riding along a remote dirt road. They are skittish and we didn’t have the zoom lens needed to get close enough shots but here’re some pics nevertheless.

The rarest antelope in Africa—the Bontebok. Photo: Dave Sears

The rarest antelope in Africa—the Bontebok. Photo: Dave Sears

The rarest antelope in Africa—the Bontebok. Photo: Heather Lea

The rarest antelope in Africa—the Bontebok. Photo: Heather Lea

 

 

Penguins in Simon’s Town, Cape Town. Photo: Heather Lea

Penguins in Simon’s Town, Cape Town. Photo: Heather Lea

Penguins in Simon’s Town, Cape Town. Photo: Dave Sears

Back tracking a little, some of you might like to know about our success at flying the bikes from Vancouver to Cape Town, a process that began Feb. 5. On that date, Dave trailered the bikes through the US/Canadian border. I was plenty nervous as I thought they’d give him a hard time for having a vehicle in transport that wasn’t registered to him.  He had a Permission Letter printed out I’d written stating I was allowing him to bring my bike through the border. All for not. When you’re overly prepared for border bull droppings, they never ask for documents. When you forget one little thing, you’re in all kinds of trouble. But that’s another story for another time.

Although Dave crossed the border successfully, it still took a long time.

The bikes ready to be taken across the border and shipped from Vancouver to Cape Town. The crates came from Maple Ridge Motorsports, free of charge. They are metal and solved the problem we were having about using wooden crates. Wooden crates needed to come with a special stamp stating the wood had been treated. We could have had a company crate the bikes but it would have cost us over $1,200 CAN. Dave built a deck on top of his dad’s trailer so it would be wide enough to transport the bikes then spent a few hours turning the bikes into mini versions of themselves so they would fit inside the metal crates. He waited to cover the sides with strong plastic until after the Can/US border in case they’d want to see inside. They didn’t even look at the bikes or ask for documents like titles and registration. Photo: Dave Sears

At first Dave went to the wrong border so had to back track over an hour to another crossing for commercial vehicles. Then they had no idea what to do with the Carnet de Passage that we’d spent a fortune on and coveted like the bikes themselves. The Canada side took one piece of paper from the carnet, the US took another, so someone took the wrong copy. We’ve been told if there’s anything wrong with the carnet when we want our several-thousand-dollar deposit back, they might not give it to us. We weren’t off to a good start.

By the time Dave got through the border, the office in Delta where he had to pick up the Dangerous Goods stickers our bikes could not fly without, had closed. Kindly, one of the staff members had waited half an hour after she was to go home, in order to give Dave the stickers as well as the airway bill (AWB) that had been couriered to them from our shipping company; two very important items we needed before the bikes could fly.

(For info sake, we used W.G. McKay Shipping, which we can sort of recommend as the bikes did arrive safely, however we found dealing with the agent extremely trying and not efficient. Still they did do their job. The bikes cost us each $2,100 CAN ($1,600 USD) to fly via Air Canada and Emirates. We flew ourselves with Airmiles from Vancouver to Cape Town, which was still over $700 CAN ($530 USD) in taxes. We were not on the same plane as our bikes.)

While Dave was racing around the lower mainland trying to get the bikes to the airport, I found out from our very excitable shipping agent that customs at the airport had already closed. We needed to clear the bikes through customs before they got on the flight, which was to be the next evening but had to clear 24 hours in advance. I texted the info to Dave and he said he’d just go to the airport and see what happened. I didn’t hear from him for two hours, so thought everything was going well but when we called at 7:30 p.m., the good news was the bikes were waiting in cargo, all wrapped up and ready for the flight. The bad news was he didn’t get though customs yet so had to spend the night in Vancouver.

Luckily our friends Christine and Dave came to the rescue and could take my homeless boyfriend in for the night.

The next day Dave was able to get the proper docs from customs and as a bonus, he found someone who knew about the carnets. When Dave went back through the border, he was able to tell them what needed to happen with the carnet stamping process and that helped clear up that issue.

Dave returned back to his dad’s with his truck and trailer and prepared to leave the next day on a train from Bellingham back to Vancouver, which should have taken just over two hours but as a result of a recent snow storm, took over seven.

In the meantime, a few days before we were to fly out, my grandma was admitted to the hospital in Kelowna and given only a few days to live.

The day of my flight from Kelowna to Vancouver (Feb. 5), my mom, who’d been tending to my grandma, came to pick me up at the airport, where my dad had dropped me off from Revelstoke, and took me over to the hospital so I could say my goodbyes to Nana. She looked very week and small but it was a great visit where I could remember my Nana with her sense of humor. At one point, while the doctor was checking her heart, she told him to watch where he was putting his hands. But she had a cheeky glint in her eyes and flirted relentlessly with him. (Nana has since been moved to hospice care. She’s still kicking :0)

It was a tough day saying much-too-quick goodbyes to my mom, dad and Nana. When my mom later took me back to the airport for my flight to Vancouver, we were crying at the departure gate, both feeling a little emotional with recent family stuff. I went through customs with tears streaming down my face and when I looked back into the waiting area, my mom was still there, waving. My cousin Andy had also come to see me off, which was very nice.

My flight to Vancouver was sad but uneventful and I found Dave and our other friend’s Andrea and David (yes another Dave!) that night. We spent the night at their place and, after a fun night out with friends, our flight mission from Vancouver to Cape Town started the following evening at 9:00 p.m. on Feb. 6.

It took us over 27 hours of flying, with one 7 hour layover at the Heathrow airport, to reach Cape Town but what a beautiful place to land after the snow storms of Canada.

Heathrow airport has sweet rest lounges. We were here for about four hours during our seven hour layover and even had a good sleep on the many couches in the room. Photo: self-timer

On Feb. 8, we recovered the bikes after their long journey through India to reach us in Cape Town. The only minor issue was they arrived a day later than scheduled but we were enjoying the city and where we were staying at an Air BnB, so it wasn’t a problem.

Our Air BnB for four nights while we organized the bikes and toured Cape Town. Only $35 CAN per night. Photo: Heather Lea

When we found the bikes in customs, the process of stamping the carnet and clearing them from customs was flawless. There wasn’t even a line up. Then came the large task for Dave putting the bikes back together from out of the crates. It was many hours spent tightening bolts long into the night.

 My F800 being brought out from Emirates cargo in Cape Town. Looks like a giant aquarium with a bike-fish inside. Photo: Heather Lea

Unpacking the bikes from cargo. Photo: Heather Lea

 There she is under all that plastic! Photo: Heather Lea

Dave gets busy unscrewing the nuts and bolts holding the frame together, with limited tools. Photo: Heather Lea

We had lots of help. And onlookers 😉 Photo: Heather Lea

Dave finds his bike. Photo: Heather Lea

 Working into the night putting the bikes back together. Photo: Heather Lea

Working into the night putting the bikes back together. Photo: Heather Lea

 

Of course it couldn’t have been easy.

Almost ready to go! Or are we? Photo: Heather Lea

Once we had everything back together and were getting ready to ride back to our Air BnB, we discovered my front breaks weren’t working. They needed to be bled but we didn’t have the right tools with us. It was nearly 11:00 p.m. and the cargo unit had closed 3 hours ago, but everyone was still kicking around either waiting for us to leave or curious, watching the Heather and Dave Show. We finally had to ask if they could store my bike inside while we rode two-up back to our place. We promised to return early in the a.m. with the tools we needed to get the bike out of their way. They agreed but said as we had signed the bike out, it was no longer their responsibility if anything happened.

It was a bit nerve racking to leave my bike there but when we arrived we had to pass through security to enter and the cargo unit would be locked all night, so we just had to trust.

When we returned the next morning my F800 was exactly as we’d left it. When Dave went to retrieve it someone immediately came up to him and asked who he was. Dave bled the brakes and we were a complete family again, with our two-wheeled children back in our possession.

We spent the next few days hiking up Table Mountain, which was fantastic and riding around the peninsula and to Chapman’s Peak, also spectacular. This post is long enough so I’ll let the following photos do the talking.

Hiking up Table Mountain on a very hot day. Dave decided the beard had to go after this day. Cape Town in distance. A very clean, beautiful city. Photo: Heather Lea

Dave taking a photo of a little lizard, seen below. Photo: Heather Lea

Photo: Dave Sears

Photo: Heather Lea

View from the top of Table Mountain. We rode that highway along the coast two days later. Stunning. Photo: Dave Sears

Top of Table Mountain. Photo: Heather Lea

Top of Table Mountain. Photo: Dave SearsPhoto: Dave Sears

Tried to find this pool on our ride around the peninsula. Didn’t, but found another pretty beach instead with surfers to watch. Photo: Heather Lea

Beach day in Cape Town. Photo: Heather Lea

Not too many days ago, we were in the Canadian snows. Photo: Dave Sears

Strong winds near Cape Town make for excellent surfing and kite surfing. Photo: Heather Lea

 

Photo: Dave Sears

A day riding around Chapman’s Peak outside of Cape Town. Photo: Heather Lea.

 

Our hosts at the Air BnB in Cape Town were very nice and helpful and even had us in their home a few times for meals and wine. We didn’t want to leave but on Feb. 10 we finally did get back into on-the-road mode and headed 5 hours east to spent to nights with Kobus and Jessica from Life Remotely, other world travellers living near Wilderness, SA. It was great to meet them and share travel stories over the course of a few days in their beautiful home.

On Feb. 12 we were off again.

More to come soon!