Deane's 2009 Motorcycle Trip
AFRICA
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Deane's 2009 Motorcycle Trip AFRICA |
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Getting Ready for the South Africa Motorcycle Tour |
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Deane is taking this tour with an organized tour group, SAMA Tours, based in Pretoria, South Africa. The tour is run by the Berman family, who call this tour "The Best South African Motorcycle Tour Ever". The tour consists of 17 days and nights, and covers much of the country of South Africa, starting in the northern part of the country at Pretoria, the capitol of South Africa, and ending in Cape Town, South Africa, at the southern tip of the continent of Africa. Riding on the trip with two guides, are Deane, two couples from England, and one couple from Australia. At this point, you may wonder how Deane got in touch with SAMA Tours and decided on this specific tour of South Africa. Well, I looked on the Internet for guided tours, literally all over the world, and this was the part of the world and the tour that appealed most to me. Since I am going by myself, I wanted to go with a guided tour. I had read a favorable article about this tour and tour company, and after some investigation, I decided this was it for me. If you are like me, you may not know much about Africa, let alone South Africa. Get out your atlas to follow myself and the tour group. Once signed up, there were quite a few things to be done prior to leaving home. Airplane reservations were made, flying into Johannesburg, there to be picked up and taken to Pretoria (less than 30 miles) to start the tour, and at the tour's end, flying home out of Cape Town. This is a one-way trip, of about 2,700 miles on the bike, from Pretoria to Cape Town. Motorcycle reservations and rentals are a part of the tour package, and I chose a BMW F650GS, an 800cc smaller bike, designed for mostly on-pavement roads and some dirt road capability. The tour is nearly all pavement, with the option of riding a bit on dirt roads on some days where we have the option of a rest day or short extra-tour rides. Then for the disease medical potential, I had to add a couple of prescriptions, to fill out the battery of inoculations I had to take for my recent South American tour. We will be going through areas having the potential of Malaria, so there is a med for that. Trip insurance, international driving permit, and adding pages to the passport, fill out some of the other things to be arranged. |
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