Routing around the Garden! – Khalid Al-Jaber

Not too long, but a twisty riding day around a great mountain and view, so is this what they call the “garden route” of Africa? So far what I am seeing is paradise! I decided to stop on one of the great viewpoints, walked into the bushes to get a better view, and this old man was walking out of there, struggling to get out of there and said: this is amazing isn’t it? I said yes, I’m loving the view! He said: I am talking about your motorcycle trip son! It’s a great one, you doing Nairobi to south Africa! I started talking about trips and what I have done with Kevin the past 3 years, he was listening and paying attention to every word I say. Then he asked: are you from England too? No! my answer was, I am from Qatar! He asked again with a proper Arabic accent: Qatar you said? Yes sir! From Qatar! He laughed and said: so, we are friends! At that moment I knew exactly what he meant, he is from Israel, I laughed too and I said Israel? He smiled and said: you see? Outside the political border and politicians, we are just humans loving life and enjoy it. After patting on my shoulder, he wished me luck on my trip and left. This got me thinking a lot during my next ride towards my lunch stop, “outside out political borders and politicians, we are just HUMANS! HUMANS! This is what I always tell my friends, we are humans no matter where we are from or what race or religion we belong to. This has reminded me of something which is also convincing when Kevin and UB had their argument about loyalty, where they belong to and who to fight for!? UB always says he doesn’t belong to any of the countries he lived in, not French not from ivory coast and not American! Which really upset Kevin who is a patriot British! Telling UB of how important he should belong to a nation, a country because the world is just like that! The reality is we are classified of where we are from or what race we are, whatever branding of how humans we are, this is reality! He looked at me and asked: do you see yourself as a Qatari or German? I said you see me always carrying the flag of Qatar with me wherever I go in all my past trips! And he looked at UB and said: you see? It was a long argument until midnight which Kevin wasn’t happy about. Let me start from day one of the amazing Garden route now

it required lots of guts to take this photo, thanks UB & Victoria

After spending 5 lazy days in Cape Town which I haven’t done anything but resting and a bit of shopping for Kevin’s birthday and taking the bike to full service at the BMW dealer, we rolled on again to start the Garden Route, it was a great weather Thursday, riding around 9 bikes. Here is UB with his rented bike and his wife Victoria, Antoine and his partner Christina, it’s the official leave time, 9 am sharp leave “bossman says” who is the Van driver this time. It is 9:02 and we are all tucked into our gears, on the bikes, waiting for the group ride, and for Christina to get ready, she showed up in her jeans and leather jacket, got onto the bike and we rolled in group leaving Cape Town. The first stop would be to Robertson, part of it was gravel and the rest was tarmac, I was too exhausted to do the gravel that day, I know myself that I am perfect on the gravel, but wanted to have a smooth start, especially that during the time I was in Cape Time I faced anxiety and couldn’t sleep for 2 days! Thanks for Firi who introduced me to the magical drop CBD! Helped a lot that I had a straight 7 hours of sleep that night. We have reached Robertson, nothing much in that town, walked around and nothing much to be noticed other than the Arab store, that sells sports clothes! And another kiosk and mobile shop, also Arabs! Don’t know how on earth they have reached that middle of nowhere town. Next day was the ride to prince albert, where we stopped for 2 nights, do to the famous “Road to hell” or Die Hel as they call in South Africa. I wasn’t sure whether I will be able to make it or still exhausted, but I thought its important to do this and everybody with us expecting me to do since I’m a gravel lover! Reaching prince Albert wasn’t an easy ride, to be honest it was almost as hard as road to hell! Kevin said it would be a solid gravel, straight, so that day I was riding with UB and his wife, when reached the turn, we hesitated, gravel or tarmac? Oh well I turned left to gravel, and that gravel wasn’t easy, it was getting harder and harder, is this what Kevin say? No, I think we are lost! I have even lost UB behind, because he thought we weren’t taking the right way! I continued and stopped for a bit waiting for UB to show up, then I checked the map and yes it is taking us to prince albert but a longer gravel way, the more I get into the gravel the more challenging and rocky it gets, until I reached a junction which I wasn’t sure whether to turn left or continue straight? Then Julia showed up, and she wasn’t sure either, we checked the maps, and decided to go on left, and it wasn’t as easy as expected at all, lots of rocks, sharp bends, cars approaching, and I even ran out of water, but had to reach the pass, where everybody showed up minutes after I have reached. We were almost reaching prince albert, so I decided to move on, I took a faster pace, and noticed someone behind me, was it Antoine or Tim? I am sure it was Antoine, because he always wants to be the first! But no, that wasn’t Antoine’s helmet! Ok he is getting closer which I am not feeling comfortable on the gravel, so I went faster, used rear braking on bends, and some were really sharp and almost slipped couple of times, but that guy was still behind me, until I have reached, I knew that it was Tim and Sue, and he was a good rider too! Stayed at that classic lodge with an amazing bath and comfortable room, I had a debate with myself, should I or not do the road to hell?

down town of Robertson

on top of Road to Hell, before getting down to the sharp bends to reach down the valley

the “solid Gravel” road as kevin called. which was so challenging

the creepy signage, which we chose to take pictures with after we were done with road to hell

Waking up that morning with full energy, wearing my full gear and taking my panniers off, yes I will do it, and I was awake and ready before all, Ade has changed his mind, he is not going, Anne, Tim, Rob, KTM Steve, and new Steve are going, yes and Julia is leading! She first said she won’t go, but she changed her mind! We started all together, reached the turn and read the signage which scared me “Dangerous road 48 km”! ok!! The first part was too rocky and loose, lots of sand parts, but manageable, going down was a challenge, crossed 2 water crossings, ok not as bad as expected, the first one was deep that I had water into my helmet, and even my mouth! I looked behind, where I expected to see Anne, but seems she didn’t cross! I have gone slower, but Steve and Anne weren’t there, I was hoping they were ok. Reached the last part and the sharp bends started here, going down to the farm, where we all gathered, and I found out from new Steve that Anne dropped the bike into the water and it wasn’t starting. But she was absolutely ok, we started riding back up, it wasn’t less challenging but at least I know what I am facing this time, but riding back up wasn’t as easy as going down, at least when you are going down, you can slow down if there are cars coming on those narrow tracks, going up you wont be able to slow down and they would never move away! One of the funny incident happened as I was on those sharp bends, I hit the brake and rear tyre slipped into the loose sand by the edge and I got stuck, almost fell! There was a white pickup instead of helping me, he got his camera out and was waiting for the great moment of my death! I managed to move and show him the Finger! Finally reached back to the signage and took a photo with it. I was dead exhausted and couldn’t wait until I’m back to the hotel, showered In my clothes as a daily routine and did all my laundry, spent the evening walking around the dead city with UB, Antoine and Christina looking for an open pub! All were closed from 9.

Another day, this time to Oudtshoorn where the Ostrich farms around, this day is Kevins Birthday, but on the way, we have stopped to see a waterfall in a town called De Rust, it was a short walk up, I have noticed a bus dropping some people wearing T-shirts, “South African Air Force – HQ Choir” I wasn’t bothered of who they were, but the moment we reached up the waterfalls, I heard an amazing voice of group singing, I felt the song was falling with the water towards us, they were singing, dancing and cheering on top of the rock, we had our jaws dropping down! Looking at UB & Victoria now believing what we were listening to or watching, it was a great performing, they were just random and happy, the song gave me goosebumps! Victoria was crying and UB was so emotional, I started taking lots of videos of them, trying to get closer to the most beautiful voice of them, I called it “The Falling song”. Walked down and Kevin told me that they even heard it clearly from up there. I continued riding until Oudtshoorn, and did my usual thing, laundry, then waited for 6 pm when we have our daily meeting and birthday celebration of the Bossman! We got him lots of little gifts, I got him a tshirt with his photo on, and “bossman”, we all celebrated his birthday by my room, just outside, then we all walked to have dinner which was Ostrich steak! It was delicious and great dinner, I managed to walked away to my room at 10, trying to sleep, but guess what?! They all followed me to my room and decided to sit by my terrace and continued drinking, not just that, they knocked on my window shouting: Prince khalid! Yep they call me prince khalid, Richard Edwards who first came up with that name! so I opened the window with my boxer and the torch of my phone at them! Seriously? Ok I am coming! So, went back outside, and spent the night with Kevin and all, until that argument happened which I mentioned in the beginning of my talk, then by 12 we started playing rugby and throwing the balls at each other!

great breakfast in Oudtshoorn

bossman, Kevin celebrating his birthday, next to my room until midnight

This day I decided to ride alone, it was a complicated ride, to Addo Elephants national park, long 470 km ride, but mostly between N2 and another smaller road, but I got lost and ended up on the N2 the whole day, reached Addo, parked my bike by the room, again did my laundry, had a nap, and a bit of CBD, and spent 2 nights there. No, I wasn’t interested to see any elephants to I decided to spend the day in the room doing nothing! Nothing at all! And I so needed that “nothing moment”!

the relaxing 2 days with lots of CBD

Waking up for another long, half gravel day to mount kambedo, which is a private national reserve, to do another game drive to spot more animals, this day we had to reach that reserve in a group, because we had to cross around 9-10 fenced gates, electric connected and highly secured area! The hotel was in the middle of nowhere, like a big palace, with so comfy rooms, first arrived, showered and had that cold lemonade and lots of snacks, then we started the game drive at around 15:30! I wasn’t so excited about it in the beginning, why again 4 hours of riding to spot more rhinos and giraffes? I have seen a lot already!? But if I don’t, I wouldn’t do anything else in the lodge, we got into 2 jeeps, and started the ride, I had my gear with me, getting ready for more footage, first animal spotted, a cheetah! It was walking around in the same area where we were riding like couple of hours ago, then carried on to see more animals, and the ride wasn’t easy at all, until we found that lion and for the first time since the start of the trip, we are this close to a lion, we continued the ride until it was dark, had a BBQ before bed, and this night I had a straight 8 hours of sleep! Big thanks to firi!

on the way back to the lodge, spend 20 minutes enjoying this view

Since it was raining on the game drive that evening, this has worried me to leave the park next day, as it would be soaking wet, or maybe slippery! Leaving all the electric gates next morning to reach Wilderness, where we would spend 2 nights again, an amazing typical garden route ride, through the city of George, by the beautiful ocean, then riding to arniston, which I was there 3 weeks before, nothing much exciting except watching the rugby game of south Africa beating japan! It was amazing how South African were cheering and so excited, different races, colors, all wearing green t-shirts, it was an amazing spirit that I wished we in Qatar have when we watch a match! Instead of taking snaps or selfies while the game was playing! From arniston back to Stellenbosch where we had that amazing Segway ride in one of the wine farms and finally to Cape Town!

A very beautiful morning, short ride, and an amazing coastal route to the city of big hopes, Cape town, back to the great city again, I really enjoyed the ride, until I have reached the warehouse where I would drop the bike, here I have realized that its over, the trip is over, this is when I started the conversation with the bike:
bike: is that it? You will leave me again?
Me: I know, its never over, we will ride soon,
Bike: come on, you can do more, this is nothing,
Me: I can do more, and I wish I can continue, but its time to leave and see you soon, maybe to Nord Kapp.
Yes, that was so emotional, ending the trip, final packing, not the usual everyday packing, leaving the bike again, waiting for uber, and thinking, what is next? I don’t know! But yes, I miss my girls, I should fly back to Qatar, my home, to me home is where my kids live in peace, otherwise I carry my home with me wherever I go.
Got back to the hotel, ran to the mall, bought myself the Madiba shirt, made sure its as gold as possible, to show off with it in the group dinner later on, started packing, getting rid of the stuff I didn’t need, got ready for the group dinner with all, and as usual, I chose to walk out without anybody noticing, I just hate goodbyes, and here I am now, flying to Doha, and looking forward to hug my little girls, Noof and Layla, be proud, dad is coming with lots of stories, heart of the planet is wrapped and I am home !