Archive of BMW Motorrad Club Cape (2006 - 2019)

I had to visit a customer in Solwezi (Central Zambia) and started to plan a bike trip.  This time much more gravel and camping as we enter spring.  We would go from Cape Town to Zanzibar (the most northern border crossing into Botswana)  From here on I would be on cellphone 'roaming' untill back in RSA.  We will cross into Zambia at Kasane (the ferry) or a 'quick' stint to Vic falls (Zimbabwe) and then to via Livingston, Lusaka, Ndola to Solwezi.  We could also go directly north on more rural roads to Solwezi.  If we do not go to Vic falls we would stick to the more westerly roads.  The is a bit more chalenging due to fuel and accomodation.  A day at the customer and we would be on our way back. The return trip could be via Lusaka, Kariba and then via Zimbabwe to Musina.  From here we will go east and visit friends in Sabie and Nelspruit before returning south via Swaziland and up Sani through Lesoto to Bloemfontein to visit family.  Eventually back to Cape Town.

Total distance: About 13 000 km.  Average distance per day 400 to 500km. Total time: About 30 days.

Ok, so why am I writing this as if I've been there already.  Actually I was.  The customer contacted me a week ago and said 'Flights booked be here'.  Actually it was a blessing in disguise as I can now better prepare based on my experiance with this trip.

ZAMBIA TOE EN TRUG.

Ons het Maandag middag van Oudshoorn af teruggekom en Dinsdag aand vlieg ek Johannesburg toe.  Die rekenaar en ander komponente is reeds opgestuur so ek hoef net opleiding te gee.  Geen gereedskap ens nodig. Die agent kry my by lughawe en laai my weer Woensdag oggent 7:00 uur af vir my vlug Ndola toe.

FOUT EEN (Kaapstad)

Halfpad op pad Kaapstad lughawe toe besef ek dat my foon nie in my sak is.  Bel met Marinda se foon die huis en draai om.  

FOUT EEN OPGELOS

Gelukkig het ek die gewoonte aangeleer om vroeg lughawe toe te gaan sodat ek nie te hoef jaag nie.  Ons kom net mooi 'n uur voor vertrek by lughawe aan.

FOUT TWEE (JHB)

In die harwar het ek my selfoon voor my bed vergeet.  Fortunately, I'm early (Two hours and 45 minutes before takeoff).  Will quickly check in and then make a plan to contact him for the phone.  Had to walk all the way from International to domestic for Airlink checkin.

FOUT DRIE

"Passport and Yellow card for vaccination please".  Yellow card??? nobody mentioned that, did not need that for my Botswana or Mozambique trips. fortunatel ARWYP clinic two levels down at the end of the building.  At this stage I started to sweat as all this running were not planned for.  At least I will get on the plane but still had a problem with the phone.

FOUT DRIE OPGELOS.

Got Injection, paid R550.00 (moer duur dink ek) and running back to checkin. Checkin done and as I only had hand luggage the customs should not be a problem.  Will not pass through gates and customs yet. If I'm in I will not be able to get out to collect the phone!!

FOUT TWEE OPGELOS.

I could live the three days without the cellphone, customers with breakdowns would just have to wait. Bad customer service and I can not afford that.  Solution, use Laptop and Internet to send message to agent. Noo that might take to long, maak nog 'n plan.  Met internet kry ek sy selfoon nommer en 'n leen foon van 'n ander passasier om hom te kontak.  Ok, he will send the driver to collect the phone at his house and drop it off at the airport.  Then the dreaded sentence 'hy sal so 8:30 by Internasionaal Drop n go wees'.  This will give me 30minutes to pass through the gates and customs as well as run to the gate at the far northeren side of the building!!  I will have to take my chanches.  This was probably the logest hour in my life.  I eventually got so stressed out that I asked another traveller to use his phone. !@#$ the agent is not answering his phone, how long should I wait if the driver do not arrive at 8:30, will I still make it in 30 minutes.  Every vehicle that appear get checked out, every few minutes the watch, 10 minutes to go, 5minutes. Lo and behold, exactly 8:30 a bakkie with the company logo appear.  I grab the phone, say thanks and ran towards the gate.  The queue is long but move quite fast.  Laptop out, through the scanner 'BEEP BEEP BEEP'.  Ek dink my spiere was soos yster saamgetrek van die spanning.  'nothing to declare' by doeane, tjap, tjap die paspoort, ek is deur.  Dit is nou net die stap na die hek wat oorbly, die bortjie se dit sal 7 minute se loop neem.  Ek begin ontspan, die hele proses van ek die foon gekry het tot by die uitgaan hek eht my slegs 8 minute geneem.  Ek het nog 20 minute oor om te ontspan en toilet toe te gaan voor 'Boarding at 9:00 am'

In die toilet besef ek eers hoe gespanne ek is.  Moes behoorlik vir myself sing voor ek kon sak.  Verander my selfoon boodskap en klim in vliegtuig.

RUSTIGE VLUG

Die vlug Ndola toe is net oor die twee uur.  Ek lees tydskrif en doen laaste voorberyding sodat ek nog vanmiddag alles kan toets en more net opleiding gee.

FOUT VIER

The agent arranged the flights and leased with the customer to collect me at the airport.  I must just wait outside, how difficult can that be.  boetie dis Afrika die, hier kan snaakse dinge gebeur.  After about 15 minutes I phoned the agent to confirm that I had to wait at the airport.  Ok after another 15 minutes I was now getting worried.  I do not have any contact number, only email address of the customer, so contacting them was out of the question.  My cell is on roaming but not my internet.  I normally do all transactions by credit card and thus do not need to get foreign currency.  One of the Taxi drivers was now getting adamant that he will take me to the company headquarters 'just around the corner'.  I told him that 1, I do not have any Kwatchas and 2, maybe the company driver arrive as soon as we left.  Eventually I decided to take the Taxi and will arrange for payment at head office.

PROBLEM VIER FIXED

At head office the Taxi driver was paid and my hunt to where I need to go and who I need to see started.  My contact at the mine did not answer his phone and no one else seems to know about my visit.  Eventually someone was tracked down that know about my visit.  they talked about it during morning meeting but then 'forgot about me'.  'No problem, we will arrange a taxi to take you to the mine'.  

The only 'problem' was that the mine is 400km away.

FOUT VYF

We reached the gate to the mine around 7:30.  Signed all security papers and had to hand over my passport. (It is a Gold and Copper mine) this was put in an anvelope with the same number as my visitors tag.  Out of the blue my gut feel warned me about this.  There was literlaly hundreds of licences, Id's and passports in the drawer. what if They cant find the passport if I check out Friday mornig 6 o clock. NOOOO rather leave my drivers license as this will not keep me here and is easier to get replaced.  After some searching we finally found the 'Gonga' where I was booked in.  Fortunately I was at similar projects before and immediately felt 'at home'.

Thursday morninig 5:30 on the job.  All workers was trained by 1 and we went for lunch.  After lunch we had a short meeting and went back to the plant foer final operator assesment. Everyone was happy and we went back to the 'gonga'.  Here I explained to the customer about the Passport/Drivers licence procedure at the gate and asked him to drive me there 'just to verify' if my licence will be there at 6:00 tomorrow morning.

NOOO... IT IS MISSING.

After looking through 8 packs my license was nowhere.  they got this strange procedure that all documents are taken away 'sometime' and then returned 'sometime later'.  Mine is probably still 'in transit'.  Fortunately the person I am with is fairly senior and he said they will 'sort it out'.  We went back to the 'donga' and had supper.  Suddenly they called us and said they found the license and must come and get it. As we got in the car we were informed that it was not mine and had to wait.  At this point I prepared myself for the worst and went for a shower and relaxed in my room. 

FOUT VYF HERSTEL

One of the even more senior personnel had to gou out to town and he had them come in and search for the license.  It was dropped off at my room about 8:00 pm.  

We had an uneventfull trip back from Solwezi to Ndola and had about 2 hours to kill before checkin.  I slept through most of the flight back to Johannesburg.  Back in RSA I passed through customs without a hitch.

all that was left now was the 4 hour wait for my connecting flight to Cape Town.  At this stage only one thing could go wrong.  I could fell asleep and miss my flight.

ALLES WEL EN EK IS WEER TUIS.

Wat het ek hierby geleer.  Maak my foon met tou om my nek vas. Ha Ha Ha.  Ek kan niks aan die ander probleme buite my beheer doen maar sal darem beter beplan.

Ok, and what happend about my bike trip to Zambia.  Well, it will most probably still go ahead.  The customer is happy and would like us to automate two other plants as well.  I need to start planning soon as this could be within a month from now.

Will keep you posted.

Adie