Epic Lessons Learned Motorcycling From Kilimanjaro to Cape Town
“Throttle as a result of it!” Josh barked by way of our Bluetooth headsets, looking at as my back tire fishtailed in six inches of sand.
“It’s smooth on this corner also,” Marlin warned, much less than 10 yards in advance of us.
Even with knobby tires, our bikes struggled as they shed buy to the floor underneath. Driving in sand is a activity of protecting each speed and balance—not overcorrecting, not letting the bicycle to lavatory, not spinning the tires. Complicating matters, we each experienced 60-furthermore lbs . of meals, clothing, and tenting gear in our rear saddlebags. If momentum veered the erroneous way, it was recreation around.
The remedy to this wobble, counterintuitively, is to hit the gas. The physics of it still never make sense to me, but it doesn’t matter. It is effective just about every time. I heeded Josh’s suggestions and punched it.

The Namib desert is 1 of the the very least inhabited areas in the earth, with only a number of settlements of pastoral farmers throughout a massive swatch of southwestern Africa. It stretches from sub-Saharan Angola pretty much to the southern terminus of the continent, portion of the way down South Africa. We often rode 100 miles or a lot more devoid of seeing an additional soul. Suffice to say, it life up to the name’s origin—“vast area.”
As the oldest and driest desert on the earth, it’s essentially an ocean mattress higher than sea level, with sand dunes that stretch for dozens of miles and mountains that seem to be formed by prehistoric wind and waves. Depending on who you’re talking to, driving motos throughout the Namib is either a bucket listing aim or an complete fool’s errand. At that issue in our journey, I was not absolutely sure which aspect of the debate I fell on.
What I did know is that the Namib converted the subsequent 1,000 miles of our journey. In other text, I experienced superior figure out how to experience in sand, and quickly.
Seconds later, I repeated the balancing physical exercise, downshifting to maintain the RPMs substantial and throttling by way of the loose corner. As I rounded the bend I seemed up, only to see sand for hundreds of yards in front of us. “We’re definitely in it now,” laughed Sean, as he led the way into a real earth Sarlacc Pit.

Lesson #1: If You are Heading to Do A little something Stupid, Deliver a Fantastic Mindset
The only way was ahead. We didn’t have the gasoline or the time to turn close to. That remaining me with two options—complain about my impending doom or snicker about it as I figured it out. The former is quick, but I understood it wouldn’t get me anyplace. So, I jokingly questioned Josh to create me a excellent eulogy and ongoing on.
The sand acquired progressively further, slowing us to a in the vicinity of glacial speed. We buried a handful of back again tires and nearly laid the bikes more than far more than when, but none of it mattered. Dropped in remote southwestern Namibia, we experienced nowhere to be, no a person to show everything to, and no moi still left to care about.

The jokes flew again and forth, spliced amongst laughter and moral support. This was a team effort, bodily and mentally. And at some point, in excess of the following hill, we found reliable ground once more. Plainly we could get by just about something if we stayed favourable.
That instant adequately summed up the full journey. A lot went erroneous: flat tires, reroutes, and a number of close calls—all of which we laughed off. There is a calmness in understanding that your crew has your again. There is a lightness in recognizing that the worst moments usually move. There is a liberty in learning that most complications do not have a single ideal remedy. Thick mud, deep sand, lightning storms, foodstuff poisoning, and bicycle difficulties are all solvable complications, presented your team sticks collectively.

Lesson #2: Approach In advance, but Save Some Area for Creative imagination
Let’s go back to the beginning and how we got into this mess. Two weeks earlier, we’d touched down in Arusha, Tanzania, clean up lower and naively optimistic for the journey ahead. The 4 of us, close pals and repeated experience partners, had expended the last 50 percent year preparing this moto vacation throughout Africa. That might sound like a good deal of time, but for some thing of this magnitude, it turns out it seriously isn’t.
We divvied up the to-do record, looking into routes, gathering the proper gear, making out a spare elements list and repair service kit, figuring out visas and vaccinations, and petitioning bosses for PTO. We moved quickly, putting alongside one another a month-extended, self-supported motorcycle experience across the southern 50 % of Africa, but in all honesty, we didn’t know what to be expecting.
We experienced the gear, riding working experience, and GPX routes on our nav, but that’s just table stakes. There was not a playbook for what we had been about to get into—nor did we want just one. We didn’t fly throughout the environment to observe somebody else’s route, repeat their activities, and article the identical pics to the ‘gram. We wanted to do it our way, get misplaced a several moments, and figure it out as we went.

Our route took us from the base of Kilimanjaro all the way to Cape City, passing by four international locations, fifty percent a dozen ecological zones, and throughout about 5,000 miles. We drove mostly dust streets, hoping to see a lot more wildlife, avoid truck targeted traffic, and incorporate to the journey. At night time we camped in tents, grabbing resort rooms when we needed a shower or required a split from just about every other.
We were being fortunate to have the assistance of GoPro, making use of a combine of their most recent cameras to seize the misadventures along the way. They sent sufficient cameras and batteries for us to be rolling for hrs each day—producing around a terabyte of footage. Just about every working day we tightroped involving adventurous probably-these-roadways-hook up choices and safer bail-out options. In practice, we often picked a 3rd option—spotting a street on the map that appeared attractive and taking it.

Lesson #3: There Are Spots for Gentle-and-Speedy Adventures. Africa Is not A single of Them.
Taking a taxi from the airport, we drove straight to East African Bikes, one of the couple of dealers in the region. There we fulfilled Eric, the owner, and picked up our bikes—Royal Enfield Himalayans We had doubts that these 411cc, one stroke motos would keep up, but individuals fears dissipated after a working day or two. Even by Cape Town, after 1000’s of miles of hard using, we didn’t have a solitary, main mechanical challenge.
Immediately after signing contracts and celebrating Thanksgiving supper at a close by restaurant, we stayed up late, taking part in Tetris with our Huge Loop saddle and tank luggage. This soft luggage made available each of us 100 liters of storage and held up impressively to rain, mud, and scrapes throughout the excursion. We took our time that evening, creating certain all the things was dialed, being aware of that we would leave our previous major town in the morning. We packed Excellent-To-Go dehydrated meals, spare outfits, some Nocs, cameras, and tents, pads, and gentle sleeping bags from Sea-to-Summit, a model I’ve come to rely on around the many years.

Each of us wore Rev’it! Kits—I trapped with the Grime series which stored me dry and nonetheless breathes perfectly on the incredibly hot times. We utilised Bell Moto 9 helmets with Spy Foundation goggles and interchangeable lenses. The most effective upgrade we made exclusively for this journey was Cardo Procedure Packtalk Bluetooth headsets. These units attach to helmets and operate for 10 hrs or additional, making it possible for us to chat very easily all day, even whilst riding at 70mph. This served us continue to be safer, prevent road blocks, and designed it a collective effort and hard work and shared experience.

The following morning we bought SIM playing cards and rode out of town, eager to see how the bikes performed fully loaded on filth. We navigated with a Zumo XT from Garmin, a burly system that’s substantially simpler to use than a telephone. Our enjoyment got the best of us, popping a flat just 50 miles in, and realizing we did not have spare tubes. Out of services and dozens of miles past the previous village, we ended up in a pickle. An hour later, we flagged down a vehicle and bought a tip about a “fundi” (moto shop) 6 miles forward. Disaster averted.

Lesson #4: Belief Strangers (Often)
This type of help—a prevalent occurrence on the trip—restored my faith in people today. As a kid I trustworthy just about absolutely everyone. Confident, part of this was naivety, but escalating up in tiny city America, I didn’t have a purpose not to. My spouse and children was constructed on rely on. So was my basketball staff, my romantic relationship with instructors, and the fabric of my little, Minnesota neighborhood.
At some stage I’d shed that blanket faith in other folks. I stopped trusting strangers, major concepts, and handshake agreements. I stopped trusting new meals, 50 %-baked ideas, and eye twinkles. It’s possible aspect of this arrives with learning from failure. If very best intentions haven’t panned out in the past, it’s good to question them in the long term. It’s reasonable to stay clear of the agony and disappointment once more.
But what you are definitely undertaking is not trusting the procedure of expansion, and not trusting on your own. We met hundreds of folks along the way who offered to aid. Positive, some just desired to promote us stuff, but most had been decidedly legitimate and selfless—particularly for people today who really don’t have a lot to give.
From the moto mechanic the to start with day to lodge hosts providing us a free room throughout a rain storm to fishermen on the Namibian coast offering us a fresh new food they experienced just caught, generous strangers turned up repeatedly—kind and curious about what we were being doing. This manufactured a big impact on me. We come from so a lot privilege and typically just horde it. Back again in the U.S., I hope to study how to belief more folks in my every day lifestyle.

Lesson #5: Excellent Friends Are the Most Beneficial Thing We Have
When I pitched this tale, the angle was about all those harrowing activities I may possibly encounter driving across just one of the most remote and rugged places on earth. The fact turned out to be incredibly unique. It was not essentially easy all the time, but in some way it felt that way. In spite of my abdomen bug, the sketchy falls, the clogged gas pump, the wrong turns, lengthy days, and large rainstorms, the guys I rode with designed this journey what it was—far surpassing any momentary setback.

We lived as a result of a large amount of tales together the way. Elephants walked through our campsite and we bought stuck overnight at the Zambian border. We confronted wind so robust that it was hard to hold the bikes upright—and so on. In the finish, it is the interactions that mattered the most and got us via it all. Which is the actual benefit in all of this. I have been lucky to meet quite a few folks all through adventures close to the world, but only a several have modified my system in life—and I hope to under no circumstances permit them go.