By 9am we were presenting our paperwork at the border crossing and getting our tired looking passports stamped for entry. We were buzzing with excitement, having heard so much about SA from our good friends Jacqui & John Powel who we desperately wished could be here with us now.

The morning ‘drowses’ had been shaken off as we rode South through stunning countryside. Even the weather had taken an up turn with glorious clear blue skies. It was actually pretty hard to get our heads round the idea that we were actually here and that before long we’d bee riding into Cape Town. For so very long we’d bargained on Cape Town as being a real mile stone in our journey and before long it would be.

The long straight road went on and on. It didn’t matter, we were loving every minute of it (Jacqui & John…your ears must have been burning!).

Apart from a few stops for coffee and fuel we had a clear run down and by 5 pm were thinking about stopping. Asking at a fuel station we directed to Citrusdel Baths, (at GPS: S32, 44. 361 – E19, 02. 147) who offered camping. Our good luck fairy was back with a vengeance. The baths are an ancient hot spring nestled into a small valley and usually booked full. At reception we were told that they were in deed full, however a caravan place was standing empty as the client had broken down on the way and would now only be arriving tomorrow. That’ll do nicely we thought. We found the space, right in front of the smart new restaurant and with a group of onlookers on the balcony, tried to park up as ‘coolly’ as possible.

Turning her bike up hill, Lisa smartly kicked out her side stand, lent the bike over…and then simply fell off! The bike was upright and fine, she simply fell off. Me laughing out loud didn’t go down to well and now apparently I’ve had all carnal rights withdrawn for the foreseeable future, but shit it was funny!

Tent up, it was time to explore. The cost of camping was around five pounds with use of the 43 degree spring fed pool and all other facilities for free. As night drew in we submerged ourselves into the wonderfully hot water and just star gazed for what seemed like an age…bliss! Treating ourselves to the cheapest thing we could find in the restaurant and now wonderfully warm and relaxed we slept like children.

The temptation to stay another day was strong but so was the idea of arriving finally in Cape Town and meeting up with Petra. So at 11am the gates of ‘The Baths’ were slung open and we were soon back on the main road.

The route down to Cape Town was wonderful; passing vineyard after vineyard all nestled back into picture perfect valleys. By 4pm we’d followed easy directions and were pulling into Petra’s house, parking up and enjoying a warm welcome. By the time the evening came round, we’d enjoyed the company of old friends, visited the beach at Bloubergstrand – looked across towards the huge and one and only power station (Koeberg) at Melkbosstrand and had a lightening tour of the city centre, with the final highlight being a drive up towards Cable Way on the Tabelberg Road. The view was great! Back via Camps Bay and Clifton. Still Buzzing but now fatigue we found our bed by 11pm. It’s feels great to be here.

A busy day…This as a Sunday so enjoyed a drive with Petra and he sister Debbie. Around the M63 and Hout Bay, the M6 towards Chapman’s Peak a stunning smooth and twisty road carving a path round the coast line, we’ve got to come back and do this on the bikes.

Noordhoek – very long beach. M6 towards Simon’s Town and M4 to The Boulders to see the penguins, yep penguins in Cape Town.

M4 north to Kalk Bay with it’s myriad of painting and antique shop. Returning back on a scenic drive above the coast looking across False Bay.

With Caroline and the boys arriving at 8am, we were keen to meet them at the airport with the bikes. What with the traffic and the wrong GPS coordinates, we were late and missed them by minutes. With a few calls made we found them at Ruan’s fathers home (Ruan is the new nanny for Max & Miles) and before long had made our way there.

Natti and Nicky were already downstairs and opening the garage for our arrival and within minutes Caroline, the boys and Ruan and come to say hi. Lisa had been looking forward to seeing he sister so much since our last meeting her in Venice, which seemed a long time ago.

A brilliant evening spent catching up with Caroline, meeting new friends and good food and wine. We are planning to travel and stay in Knysna on the coast, departing tomorrow, so not wanting the evening to come to an end and with an early start we accepted an offer to stay the night.

With almost all our baggage offloaded and stored in Cape Town we could enjoy the ride to Knysna unencumbered and at speed. By early evening we’d cruised down to the bay and had checked into the chalet hired by Caroline and without stopping for breath and jumped into the car and were now heading for Knysna town centre to enjoy a meal.

Sun, sand, sea and…swimming nervously in as this is a ‘great white shark’ hunting ground. We spent most of the day on the beach – very hot – huge waves and an Oyster lunch! A complete and stark change compared to our life over the last few months.

The last few days have flown by, we thought as we packed in readiness to leave and make our way back to Cape Town. The route 62 would see us back to CT. Beautiful roads and wonderfully twisty sections through mountains passes, before dropping back down to the wide-open expanse of the plains. We eventually arrived back at Nattis and Nicky’s having lost Caro’, Ruan and the boys when we had problems at a petrol station. I’d asked if they took credit cards and been told yes only to find that they didn’t. Tracking down a bank with a ATM proved difficult and time consuming.

Staying at Debbie and Fred’s this Easter weekend. They are away and so we are housesitting. Got out some DVD’s. Brain dead time!

With Richard arriving in S.A today we’ve arranged to meet up with everyone at a restaurant the Waterfront. The fact that the UK TV celebrity Graham Norton was sitting at the next table did seem a little out of the ordinary but not wanting to miss the opportunity for a chat and a photo we said hello.

As we arrived back at the bikes were met by lots of interest from sailors off HMS Valiant. I had to restrain Lisa…it’s the uniforms apparently?

Out to Sunday lunch to Chapman’s Peak Restaurant – calamari – best ever!! Spent the day with Richard, Caro’ the boys, Ruan not to mention Nati, Nicky and their children.

It’s got to be said again but the Chapman’s Peak route has got to be done on a bike it’s World class. Back to Debbie and Fred’s for a rest from all the food!

OK, I’m not going to write a ‘blow by blow’ account, of the last 7 weeks, other to say that we’ve enjoyed some quite amazing hospitality and generosity and made friends that will stay friends for life.

Needless to say that regardless of how many or how few words I write here, it wont come close to covering the debt of thanks we owe them.

The last weeks have been hectic, so much so that we’ve seen little of South Africa, but have however managed to get so much done. As mentioned above, for the first week and a bit, we were spoilt as Caroline, Max, Miles and Ruan flew into town. Several days later Richard was to join them.

Through Ruan (Max and Miles new Nanny) we were introduced to Natti (Ruans dad) and Fiancé Nicky. After enjoying an evening with them and staying the night, they offered us a spare room; we of course accepted. That was to be our home for the next few weeks. From Natti’s we would start our daily forays into and around Cape Town.

Via Natti (an endoscopic surgeon) we were introduced to Lyzete. It wasn’t a chance meeting. Lyzete is a wonderful physio and noticing we were a little stiff, Natti pulled in a favour and Lyzete was to treat us as patients once a week for the next 6 weeks.

The bikes needed serious attention, not because there was anything crucially wrong, but continuing North to Kenya and then to South America would have been foolish without making sure things were as right as they could be. And so we got to know both Auto Atlantic BMW and John Carr and his colleagues at Trefco BMW. Regular runs were made to both. Auto Atlantic arranged to replace the damaged bars of my 1100GS and replace and fit a new brake leaver to Lisa’s 650GS. With the seat on the 1100GS five years old it was beginning to sag. Auto Atlantic arranged to re-pad it, reupholster it and rise it’s height by 30mm. All of this at no charge. Trefco likewise were fantastic, arranging to service both bikes, giving us workspace to do our own tinkering.

Prior to Auto arranging the reupholstering of my seat, my original one had broken it’s plastic back. Trefco donated a brand new seat. This one was then raised by 30mm in height. Having had no lights for several months I was anticipating leaving SA still in the dark, as a new light switch was prohibitively expensive. That was sorted when John handed me a new switch with a smile and a dismissive wave saying, “consider it sponsorship”.

With the seat being raised 30mm I wanted the bars raising the same. Donovan of Habitat Industries was to arrange that. Normally working with huge CNC Aluminium milling machines turning out casts for blow moulds, he measured up my current bars made some calculations drew up an AutoCAD design and had one of his vast machines precision mill me a new set of riser. When we came to settle up, Donovan laughed. “No maaan, I’m not going to charge you”. If that wasn’t surprise enough, when I did go back to pick them up, Donovan handed me an envelope with a thousand rand. “We guessed you could do with some extra fuel money”. You could have knocked me down with a feather.

Just round the corner from Donovan on the Kilarney Gardens Industrial Estate, were Thenga Trading. We’d met the owners of Thenga a week or so earlier at the Water Front, admiring our bikes. In conversation we mentioned we had an idea to transform Lisa's right hand exhaust silencer into a carrying compartment, Travis quickly replied, "well you should bring it round to us, we specialise in metal work and stainless steel, we'll sort it for you!" "How much we asked?". "No we'll just do it for you" Travis answered. Talk about the right people at the right time.

True to their word...sort it they did! They also organised the fabrication of some steel covers I'd designed to protect the auxiliary lights on the R1100GS and then also managed to get some rubber sheeting that I cut up and attached to the back of the panniers to stop the aluminium rubbing through where it attached to the steel pannier frame. We can now get ready for our next African leg knowing that our bikes are in better shape than when we arrived in Cape Town.

Time was also found to hook up with Alan from Purple Circle Embroidery, who had been contacted by Mariana from the T-shirt Co in Namibia and who put aside his work for Addidas to free up a machine and embroider our bike kit, shirts, fleeces and a couple of caps he through in for good measure.

A quick word of thanks also to the BMW Club of Cape Town and Johann who invited us to one of their meetings. A fun evening talking all things GS and BMW. The fact that it was their AGM put a slightly more serious note on things but good conversation and good BBQ’d food made up for the lulls. Thanks guys, see you in September.

Although we’d received praise for our photos of the trip so far, one or two of the magazines back in the UK had mentioned problems with the printable size of the photos. The Fuji FinePixS304 we been using was good but wouldn’t allow the magazines to print anything near the A5 or A4 size they ideally wanted. With this in mind we sought out Fuji’s head office in Cape Town. We’d put together a professional presentation and arranged a meeting with Alan Scott, the guy in Charge. Our meeting with Alan went really well and our hopes of acquiring a FinePix S700, pro level camera were optimistic. A few days later and Alan called through the good news. With the help and support of Fuji International, Alan Scott and his Colleague Malcolm, we are now able to better record and share our trip with a S7000 digital camera and a clever little plug-in device that allows us to take our memory card and share the photos with any PC with a USB connection. Thanks so much!

In between getting the bikes sorted, we caught our breath and met the media. This was a good opportunity to raise our profile and shed some light on the Charities we are supporting. Our first interview was with ‘The Die Burger’ Newspaper, a Cape Town daily. The interview was to last almost three hours and will be published in one of the weekend glossy supplements they produce. Next up was ‘Breakaway’ a new Afrikaans outdoor magazine, already doing very well. Interview by the Editor (who happens to ride a R1150GS) and one of his journalists on the Thursday we then organised a photo shoot of the bikes and kit for the following Monday. The camera started clicking at 2pm and finished at 7pm.

Dave Abrahams is a font of information; he is also Cape Towns only full time bike journalist and an all round nice guy. We were lucky enough to meet Dave, again at the waterfront and hope to see his words published soon.

A big thank you must also go to Petra and Christa, who hosted us when we first arrived in Cape Town and who’s hospitality we would again enjoy for the last few nights before our departure. With Petra being a botanist we had the perfect tour guide for our brief visit to the World famous Kirstenbosch Gardens.Our good luck travel fairy has been working over-time!!!

20-05-2004: 12 months today.