Celebrity on motorbike?

The other day I came out of Pick'n'Pay shop in Linden in Johannesburg. It was just before the dark. There was a white guy standing in front of my motorbike. He told me he saw my motorbike on the parking space and the sticker 'motoafrica.blogspot.com' on it. He told me he is subscribed to my blog for some time and that he read much of my adventures. He said he admires the LITE way of my travel. He is familiar with Wild Dogs, huge south african society of motorbikers.
Really amazing that somebody recognized me on the street, thousands of miles away from my home. Am I a celebrity? :) It's such a small world. Today I've met a beautiful girl named Kelly for the second time in my life.  One year and half ago we've met on the top of Table Mountain in Cape Town, 2000 kms away. We've chatted for few minutes and that was it. Since then we have been friends on Facebook. Today when walking in the crowd in Johannesburg we've bumped to each other at Deutsche Schule Beer festival near downtown Joburg. It's such a small world. :)

Visiting Mandela's house

I arrived to Johannesburg one week ago. I flew with Turkish airlines from Ljubljana via Istambul. It was a pleasant flight and I could even had a stop in Istambul for few hours. Istambul is a huge city so I decided to visit just the old part called Sultanahmet. We were hanging around together with Petra who I know from before and her boyfriend Gorazd from my country Slovenia. We met coincidentally on the airplane. Great fun, thank you both for nice moments.

After landing in Jozi I was picked up by coolest friend Joanne.:) She drove me with her car from OR Tamba straight away to pick my motorbike. It was parked at the spot since June 2013. Thanks to Willem it was not rusted as he was spraying it with Q20. Amazing Willem, thank you.

After beeing busy around Jozi for some days, I decided to drive to Soweto this afternoon. I checked Mandela's and Desmond Tutu's house on Vilakazi street. I ate delicous sendvich at Snack Kiosk.

New helmet Shoei Neotec

My previous helmet was Shoei Multitec. She did more than 50.000 kms with me, 37.000 of them in Africa. She saved my head many times. I am staying loyal to her but like king of Swaziland I was tempted by poligamy too.

Thank you Gregor Pavcnik from Ljubljana, Slovenia and Shoei for trusting me and introducing me to the Shoei Neotec, Multitec's younger sister. Although I will never forget the old one, new one feels simply refreshing.

Shoei Neotec

New tyres Mitas E-07

I have to 'Knock on wood' after mounting new Mitas E-07 rear tyre. The previous one (not Mitas) did almost 20.000 kms without any puncture. Thank you World of Yamaha in Sandton, South Africa to show me how to manually replace the tyre on my motorbike. It's really not that simple. Very special thanks also to Janja, Beno and Uros at Savatech company (ex Sava, now Mitas tyres) from my hometown Kranj, Slovenia who are supporting me at my ON and OFF-road trips in Africa and elsewhere.

Panorama Drive, Roodepoort, Johannesburg

Plans for May/June/July 2014

Please check my campaign for more details.

Kalahari desert crossing. From Namibia through Botswana to South Africa.

After two inspiring weeks in Windhoek, capital of Namibia, the road was leading me east, towards Kalahari desert in Botswana. As my plan after Kalahari was to re-enter South Africa, I needed to handle my SA visa in advance in Windhoek. Of course it was long procedure like always, I drove off Windhoek in early afternoon and was caught by the night still in Namibia. I decided to sleep at Xain Quaz, nice lodge & camping facilities just 10 kms before Gobabis. At Xain Quaz I've met the owner Dannie, his wife, their few months old son and springbok (animal), called Diggy Ding. I booked the night at the hut, I was the only guest anyway. I slepted like a baby, covered with two blankets, the night was freezing, close to 0C. In the morning I was surprised by hot black coffee and bisquits waiting on the table in front of my hut. Fresh air, combined with Diggy Ding company was more than enjoyable for me, not mentioning the sunrise.

Still the same morning I arrived to Gobabis, last town in Namibia before entering Botswana. Soon after leaving Xain Quaz I noticed some bad sound, coming from my rear wheel. I assumed it was bearings. In minutes noise became louder and louder. I stopped in the town. I went to petrol station and asked for mechanics. I was driving from one to another and at the end found Pottie's Mechanical Store & Workshop. They told me they have no spares. I insisted to open my rear wheel. As they opened it, the mechanic smiled and said, 'hey, it's the same bearings as for Hinda XL250. And you know what, I have them. :)'. They replaced my wasted bearings with new ones in one hour. That was big luck for me. I hit the road in direction of Kang still on the same day. Yihaaaaa!!!! :)

I started around thousand kms long drive on Trans-Kalahari highway. I've heard it is very lonesome & long road and you meet only animals and almost no cars / humans. It came out true. I saw lots of cows, donkeys, sheep and warthogs. Most of them were freely walking in the middle of the road. I really needed to be careful not to hit some. Luckilly didn't meet any lions, hyennas or similar.

Around 200 kms before reaching town called Kang, I was again caught by the night. I drove for another hour but then decided to stop somewhere and find a place to sleep. As there was nothing to see for long long time. But then I saw the sign "Lone tree camp". I thought it might be a camping or so. I turned off the road and stopped next to the fence. In a minute or two there were two off-road cars arriving just after me. I was really surprise as I was in the middle of nowhere and I didn't see cars for a while. People in cars didn't care much about me. They opened the gates and entered. As they locked the gate, I asked them 'What about me? Are there some camping facilities or similar?' They told me this is not camping but camp for anti-poachers. Anti-poachers?? I asked if I could possibly stay overnight somewhere as it is freezing outside. They let me in and I sent me to Isaac, chief of anti-poachers in that camp. Isaac was kind and he offered me a place in his house. I accepted. Thank you Isaac.

Next day I drove to Kang, drank a coke and drove another 500 kms to South African border. I crossed the border on Wednesday June 5th at Lobatse border post. I drove to Pretoria, actually to University of Pretoria where I held a presentation of my life experience for UP students and the staff. It was nice gathering and I really enjoyed it. Thank you to Prof. Heino Heyman and Dean Mr. Marion Meyer at Plant Science department for inviting me. I've met these two guys in Sesfontein in Namibia, one month before. They were there for business, doing research on so called 'fairy circles'.

After nice days spent in Pretoria I drove to Johannesburg where I've visited very cool folked Rise and Shine Acoustic Music Festival. Thank you Misha for the tickets. :) I also attended Converse music festival in downtown Joburg to enjoy the music and said hello to Misha Teasdale and Jeremy Loops, camerades from Cape Town. The other day I visited Markex exhibiton in Sandton and that was it. More than enough for five days overall staying in Joburg. Thank you Zarko, Henri and Nick for having me in Joburg and Cobus & co. for the dinner and so good bread. :) Thank you Joanne for taking me to the airport. What a wonderful experience and memories I have on Johannesburg and Pretoria. And Namibia and Botswana. And South Africa in general and Mozambique. And Kenya and Tanzania. And Swaziland. :) And ........ :))

My hut @ Xain Quaz lodge
in Namibia, near Botswana

Springbok Diggy Ding,
photo by Iphone, no zoom

Repairing my bike in Gobabis

Wasted bearings

Dawie replacing my bearings

Last kilometer of Namibia

I thought it was a camping 
but it was an antipoacher camp.
Botswana. Freezing at night.

Isaac, antipoacher from
Lonetree camp in Kalahari.
He gave me shelter.

Next morning at the sign. It is just
100 kms before Kang, Botswana

Leftovers

Trans-Kalahari highway
in Botswana

Leaving Avanti Lodge in 
Zeerust, South Africa

Where I've cut my long hair
in Zeerust, South Africa

My presentation at University 
of Pretoria, announced 
by prof. Heino Heyman

My temporary room @ 
Faculty of Plant Science

Train station in Pretoria,
South Africa

University of South Africa
in Pretoria

Rise and Shine Acoustic Music 
Festival in Sandton Johannesburg

Visiting BATT, representative
of Slovenian (Sava) tires 
in Johannesburg

Invited to taste delicious bread,
baked by Cobus Du Plessis
in Johannesburg

e-Learning conference in Windhoek

Some of "my days" in Windhoek were especially extraordinary and inspiring. I was honored to attend an event called eLearning Africa. It is a global conference and expo, organized by ICWE gmbh from Berlin. I was excited to meet some of most influential people from learning industry. Hopefully we meet again in Uganda 2014. :)

Blogger Mac-Jordan Degadjor 
from Ghana and legendary 
Beate Wedekind (on the left) 
at "Press workshop"

Prime minister of Namibia,
"checking" the solutions

Well-known prof. Sugata Mitra,
winner of TED Prize 2013.
Famous for "Granny in the cloud"
and "Hole in the wall" projects.

Journalist from Namibia
at gala evening night.
It was great party.