Paging the South Afrikaans

Hey, I'm on topping for a change. ;-)

I'll be going down top Jo'burg at the begining of May
to attend a wedding in Mozambique. Now I was considering
taking a bike to ride the part. Is it possible to rent
a bike from Jo'burg and take it into Mozambique, assuming
you have put the bike's worth down as a deposit. Anybody
has some clue/ideas where to look? Alternatively, could
I quickly buy a bike and sell it on return, counting the
loss equivalent to the purchase price. Is there compulsory
insurance? anything else?

 

Hi,

Only thing I can help with is the fact that you don't need insurance at all.
If I remember correctly, if you crash and you don't have insurance, you have
to pay for the damage.

And just watch it driving out there, we may drive on the same side of the
road in SA, but words can't really describe how bad a lot of the drivers are
there...

Have fun, in any case.

 

No idea whether or not you can hire a bike there. But FFS man *watch out for
the pot-holes*. The N4 (assuming you are going that way) as far as
Nielspruit isn't too bad, but it ain't that good in places either. Expect it
to get worse thereafter. If you're following a more scenic route expect
utter shite all the way. These potholes can be *big*. Certainly big enough
to off you in spectacular style :-/

Other hints:
As a rule South African petrol stations don't take credit cards, so be
prepared to pay cash. Fortunately most have cash points.
SA petrol stations are not self service. Don't try to fill up until one of
the attendants comes to sort you out. They can check your oil and top it up
if necessary as well though, which is cool.
Don't be freaked when the attendant shoves the filler into your tank and
then lets go, it'll keep running, just be prepared to stop it before your
tank overflows. The attendant should stop it but they aren't always terribly
bright.
Tip the guy who fills your tank, they make next to **** all and a few extra
rand will cost you next to nothing (R10 is a reasonable tip).
Don't stop for anyone unless it's the police, even then be very wary.
Typically bikes don't get hijacked though.
Watch out for dodgy lane changing; people driving along the hard shoulder;
or doing a U-turn in the central reservation, SA driving standards are way
worse than UK ones.
Watch out for major shit on the road, again SA standards are way worse than
UK ones.
Some SA vehicles, particularly the minibuses, are in way worse condition
than anything you can expect to see on British roads, so don't expect them
to have brakes, indicators, brake lights, etc.
Be aware that you almost certainly *will* encounter people crossing or
trying to cross the motorway on foot.
By all means drive above the speed limit if you wish (120kmh in most
places), but be aware that in Gauteng the cops are somewhat more on the case
than they are in Mpumalanga. Watch out for speed traps (which they sometimes
camoflage), they're bastards for it. Mind you, a British / foreign licence
seems to cover most problems cos the stupid sods don't know what to do about
it.
If you get stopped at a roadblock do whatever the buggers tell you to, and
don't be too surprised if the military are there as well. Being stopped by
loads of dudes pointing submachine guns at you can be an effective cure for
constipation!

 

Wot he said.

 

I would say this is very likely. The odds of being allowed to take a vehicle
into Mozambique without paying some hefty
excess is remote.

Yes you probably could - I don't know the answer re whehter you need
insurance, but they are getting better at such things and I would be
surprised if you were allowed to buy one without SOME sort of question being
asked about it.

The furhter north you go, the worse the roads are going to get - therefore a
GSX-R may not be the most practical of bike choices

Petrol stations don't take cash.
Some places don't have petrol stations.
You should be able to get unleaded almost everywhere - but possibly not in
Mozambique

Most of the people who own bikes in SA seem to love them, so I would say
you're likely to have more fun then not.

 

Fb

Fairy muff

Won't be too bad. I've driven in Taipei, Manila, New York, and Paris so a
little
erratic driving won't bother me.

Will try to. ;-)

 

Zobo Kolonie

Should be alright, when I took the local bus from Beira to Inhambane
(Mozambique)
we passed potholes which would have literally swallowed the bus, so I half
expected that.

S'wat I experienced when I was in Zimbabwe and Zambia.

On a bike?

As mentioned in the other post, I've experienced some of the worst possible
driving and riding in some asian cities and didn't expect it to be much
better
there.

Sound like a plan, though with the possible potholes and other road garbage
I believe I won't be going for the land speed record.

Yup, had that in Mozambique once. Was 'accompanied' on the back of a
pickup-truck,
I hitched a ride on, by a a member of the Frelimo and his 'trusty' AK47. He
pointed
the loaded? [1] gun at me for the next four hours with the biggest grin on
his face
introducing himself as Orlando [2].

[1] Can one tell from the outside if gun is loaded? I sort of assumed it
wasn't
as he probably couldn't afford the bullets.

[2] How does one say in Portugese, "Nice to meet you Orlando, would you mind
pointing that gun the other way?"

 

dwb

S'what I gathered so far.

How I interprete it from other replies you don't need insurance,

No kidding, I was thinking of a medium crosser, 400, 500 or 600. Not too
heavy
though.

Err? That's the opposite Zobo said, innit?

Actually Mozambique is not really a problem for petrol.

That's what I was hoping. ta.

 

[Snip biking Jo'burg->Mozambique]

Having met those blokes I bet that they try
Most of the petrol station attendants are really friendly, though I wouldn't
turn my back on them IYSWIM. I'm sure that they are not above a little petty
crime, but all in all they're a nice bunch and many of them will try to
offer just about any "value added" service that they can think of, to get a
few extra bob-shillings out of you.
In the really out of the way areas it's not unusual for them to smoke whilst
filling petrol, and some of the stations stink to high heaven of petrol,
which can be more than a tad disconcerting (my worst experiences of this
were in Lesotho, one station was practically awash with spilt petrol, though
thankfully the attendants had enough sense not to smoke at the time). You
shouldn't encounter this at motorway service stations or in built up areas.

Sounds like you've got it sussed... though there is one other thing that I
should mention just in case...
If you take the N4 you will pass SAPI (South African Paper Industries? Think
so), IIRC the speed limit drops to 75kmh. Take damn good care thereabouts!
There are side entrances to the motorway, wacking great big ones, not on /
off ramps but more like regular side street turnings only on a monster
scale. The biggest, most decrepid, ill maintained, and slow logging trucks
that I have ever seen have a habit of just driving straight out of them from
the paper mills and onto the motorway. There will also almost certainly be a
few dozen people lingering around and / or trying to cross the road. It's
way dodgy mate, and I can't remember if there are any traffic lights (there
must be surely? can't 'member).

Oh, and on bad days you can smell the paper mills for miles around.

They also don't appear to have heard the term "pollution control".

Pothole dodging at 180kmh is *interesting*

Obviously I can't be certain but it almost certainly was loaded. The thing
about carrying a gun in Africa is that you expect to have to use it.

No idea, smile sweetly and pray perhaps?

Another thing springs to mind, if you see a sign that says "robot" it means
"traffic light".

HTH and have a great trip!

 

I meant cards.

 

Zobo Kolonie

[Snip Paper Mill Stuff]

Good bit of advise, haven't checked for a possible route yet.

I did the smiling and shared my pineapple [1]

Ta,


[1] No, that's not an euphemism.

 

I crossed into Zimbabwe from SA by car in 2001, and it was compulsory to buy
insurance at the border. Possibly this is also the case for Moz?

 

Unless you want to go the really scenic route (which is a possibility, I
wouldn't rule it out, depends how much time you've got though) then you'll
have to take the N4.

If you can collect the bike from the airport then it's out of the airport,
follow the signs for the R21, head down the R21, turn north onto the N1
towards Pretoria, head into town, turn east onto the N4, and drive the
boring if pretty in places drive. But FFS get a map cos my directions are
usually piss poor and I'm writing this from confused memory

Between Pretoria and Nielspruit there are two tolls, they are quite
expensive too, so make sure you have some local currency on you (ISTR that
come to about R50+ between them for a car). If you've got no cash then
tollbooths take credit cards but I shouldn't rely on that if I were you cos
Sarf Efrikans can on occassion get all wobbly about foreign CCs, and as for
debit cards, yeeeeesh... some places *do not* like them.

I've never driven east of Nielspruit (at least not on the N4 I haven't) so
any information that I can give you goes only as far as there, and
Nielspruit is the last pit stop before the bad lands ;-) Maputo in
Mozambique is sign posted from there.

Jo'burg international -> Pretoria, allow an hour. Pretoria -> Nielspruit,
allow four hours (assuming as you say that you're not out to break land
speed records), after that I dunno, but it looks like another three hours or
so to me (more if the roads get bad, which I suspect that they will), plus
time for the border crossing of course.

If you've got some time and fancy an explore I can recommend a nice place to
stay near Hazyview on the banks of the river Sabie (about an hour or so out
of Nielspruit), there's a goodly few things to see in and around that area,
though I'm sure that they won't let you into the Kruger Park on a bike, but
there's plenty of other sights.

If you've got a lot of time and fancy an explore then try dropping down into
Natal for a look around; maybe see Rorke's Drift if you find yourself near
it, but don't go out of your way for it cos there's not much there really,
oh and the roads around it are stunningly bad, a trailie would be a
necessity IMO. Head north out of Natal and you're in Mozambique (or
Swaziland if you fancy a look about there too) You could head into Natal
via Lesotho if you felt like it, and I'd recommend it for a couple of days
actually, I went there once and was stunned, they don't call it a mountain
kingdom for nothing! (advisory: expect to climb to over 3,000m on the roads
so make sure the engine's up to it).

HTH