Kang The White Unicorn

JHB – Jwaneng – Trans Kalahari – Etosha (1855km)

As the SillyBuggers lined up at the JHB start line, not even the chilly 5am morning could numb our excitement of the task that lay ahead. This was the start of 19 days, 7000km, 7 countries through Southern Africa with our 7 horse-powered machines; Molly, Frances, and Roxy – our kitted out Big Boy scooters!

By now our frozen fingers still managed to wave at the numerous toots and high fives given our way as we cleared the Joburg traffic. Finally we hit open road, full steam ahead (70km/h), and made our way to our first border post into Botswana. In true Sillybugger style we cleared the border at sundown and embarked on our first stretch of night riding. At around 9pm we cruised into a Jwaneng fuel station, our LED lights clearing the path into a dormant and spooky town (que packs of stray dogs and stumbling drunk men).

 Enter King Louis! Tentatively circling our three stallions completely bemused, he proceeded to call his mates and explain how three city-slick chaps resembling UFO’s had cruised into town. We don’t remember too much more from night 1 except devouring dinner and smashing what we thought was the St. Louis Brewery. Needless to say we met a mate of The King, Colin Fletcher, who must own at least 95% of the towns’ resources and women. This chap even payed for our fuel on his town’s tab! Some might  remember in Put Foot 2011  when we ran out of fuel 20km short of Kang and set up Super Camp Site City on the side of the lion stricken highway. Well 2012 held few surprises as we passed out on Colin’s couch 200km short of this elusive town. Nonetheless, all three scooters were safe and sound and ready to hit the long, flat, and wild tarmac of the Kalahari desert.

If we thought the cold on the open road was the best hangover cure, try the blistering rain! Today was our first real taste of open-road biking as we dodged suicidal flamingos and angry ostriches. What followed was something quite extraordinary. Spotted in my side mirror was the orange blur of a 1970-something VW combi – our first Put Foot crew spot. The Pistons of Fury screamed past us (at 83km/h) almost riding over Fish and totalling their car with excitement. High fives were exchanged preceeding a chat where our next drop of fuel would come from. You see, there is no fuel between Kang (the town that sparks shivers of unrest) and the Namibian border. It didn’t surprise me much then when Fish and Jared were lying under the Bots stars at 10pm waiting for James to return from the border post 40km ahead with a full jerry can of fuel.  Needless to say we bid farewell to Botswana and made it 1km through the Nam border. A couple of Tafels and a 2kg steak later and the daunting task of riding 750km to checkpoint 1 hit us.

Now if you haven’t figured it out now, James and Jared are relatively useless when it comes to getting up in the morning. So Fish sneakily used the extra hour we gained crossing the Nam time zone to get us up at 4:30am (something we only figured out later that day). The morning ride session was split up into 30km stints mixed between star-jumps on the open road and warming hands on our exhaust pipes (no innuendos intended). We breezed through Windhoek and gave a few fist pumps Top Gun style to the outbound planes as we past the airport.  

It was now a race of 300km to Etosha, the setting sun, and our extraordinary skill of faffing. In full SillyBugger suites, blue and white LED’s, and bucket loads of excitement we arrived at Toshari camp greated by 250 jubilant Put Footers. We had straddled our 150cc Big Boys to Etosha National Park!

The antics of checkpoint 1 party followed in full animal print as all the crews traded stories of their trans Kalahari adventure. Next mission: Onwards to Livingstone!

  

Keeping it Silly