Allright - everybody should be home again! Yes, the internet here is faster - but the temperatures are quite a bit colder as well...

Here are some more fotos of our last few days in beautiful South Africa, riding from Oudtshoorn to Cape Town.

Oudtshoorn - meet the ostrich!

Swartberg Pass - a South African classic!

Another classic - it is not what you think it is...

Montagu - the place for wine tasting!

Barbara and Udo at Cape Agulhas, the southernmost point of Africa

Aleksei relaxing at False Bay

Cape Town from the ocean - Reinhold, Sabine and Karin enjoying the scenery

Priceless!

The final day - on the way to Cape of Good Hope!

Picnic with a view

Penguins!

We made it - Cape of Good Hope!

Now the bikes have been returned and everybody is getting ready for the Farewell Dinner! It is amazing, how fast the two weeks have gone by!

We saw and endless amount of beautiful sights, took a very close look at the South African heritage - and I guess one or the other fell in love with this beautiful country!

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Day 11:

We left Port Elizabeth with beautiful sunshine - we even saw some dolphins playing in the surf!

P.E. - Donkin Reserve

Today our schedule held a special highlight for us - the famous Garden Route! The bridges made the biggest impression: first the Paul Sauer bridge, and then, about twice as high, the famous Bungee Bridge. 216m - too high for us, but it was exciting enough to see some guys (or girls) jump!

Paul Sauer Bridge, Karin, Ud

Bungy - but no volunteers

Then it was time for our second picnic on this trip, this time in Nature's Valley. We were hoping to see some baboons while we were eating - but I guess they had lunch before.

Picnic time!

Knysna was the next stop - we got there just before another downpour started, which lasted almost all the way to our destination today, Oudtshoorn.

This is the center of the ostrich farms - let's see what's for dinner tonight!

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Day 10:

The sun is back - and another great day of riding lies ahead of us.

First stop: the big pineapple in Bathhurst!

Udo, Pineapple, R nineT

The next stop was Grahamstown, a beautiful town mixed with British and South African elements. And then we headed back to the coast, the Indian Ocean is just too beautiful!

For our friends in Germany: the white stuff is not snow

This night we will spend in Port Elizabeth, once again in close proximity to the ocean!

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Day 9:

The day started out cloudy again, and after our first coffee stop we had the first real heavy rain shower on this tour - not bad after almost 3000 kilometers! To warm up again, we found a great restaurant on the coast in Buffalo City, just across from the mandatory German sightseeing stop, the German Settlers Monument!

Lunch in Buffalo City

Nobody left hungry, escpecially Julia and Aleksei

Barbara, Sabine and Udo - the German settlers...

Upon leaving the restaurant, Udo's bike had suddenly grown a horn...

Udo's unicorn

Our hotel tonight was quite remarkable - a great location to drink a bottle of beer!

There is always time for a beer - after the riding!

What a view!

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Day 8:

On the way to the Drakensberg Mountains. From Pietermaritzburg we turned south and could already see our destination on the horizon - the Drakensberg mountains. It was a little cloudy today, so the high peaks (more than 3000m) were unfortunately hidden in the clouds. But the scenery below was beautiful as well!

On the way to the Drakensberge

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Day 7:

In the morning, we had a final meeting with our Zulu friends - they taught us, how to be a real Zulu warrior. Udo was so good at fighting, they almost kept him!

Udo - the Zulu warrior

Another "wild" animal tried to hitch a ride - maybe had heard that our next stop would be the famous Edelweiss Picnic...

Green beauty on blue GS

For the picnic, we had found a suitable location - on the beach, in the shade and with a cooling breeze. There were definitely no complaints about the view!

Picnic - Edelweiss style

In the afternoon, some curvy roads took us through gigantic sugarcane fields and led us up into the hills of Durban. Coffeestop in Wartburg and a little bit of sightseeing in Pietermaritzburg were a good finish for a beautiful day!

Mr. Ghandi

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Day 6:

We started out with a bit of rain - but fortunately, that gave way to perfectly blue skies as soon as we reached the coast. Today, the iSimangaliso Wetlands Park was our first destination. As it is nature, you never what you see - but I guess we deserved it and were rewarded with hippos and some pretty big crocodiles!

Yes, those are real crocodiles, in the middle between Reto, Reinhold, Bethuel and Udo!

Close enough...

Cellphone photo - no big lens required here...

After the crocs, we walked down to the Indian Ocean:

Bethuel, Sabine and Reto enjoying the sunshine

Julia and Aleksei almost taking a bath

After this quite amazing stop , the next surprise was just two hours away. Our hotel tonight was actually a Zulu village, and we had the chance to get a close look at the culture and traditions of the famous Zulu warriors.

King Aleksei - just in case you wonder: it is the white guy

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Day 5:

After a luxurious night in the Royal Swazi Spa and Hotel, we were ready to continue our trip.

Who said that bikers can't have a bit of luxury?

We started the day with a dose of culture: we visited the famous Swazi candle factory, where you can watch the hand making of the incredibly beautiful Swazi candles!

Swazi candles

We continued the motorcycle tour through the quite mountainous Swazi countryside, before we crossed the border to South Africa again. Now we have arrived in the land of the famous Zulus, where a special highlight will wait for us tomorrow!

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Day 4:

Back to our usual routine: we continue on our route through South Africa! Today we are headed for the Kingdom of Swaziland! We avoided obstacles like slight rain or the local animals...

No hippos around, just a great group of bikers!

After all the excitement, we needed a bit of food! So we stopped at a one of the many stands that line South African roads - quite memorable!

Grocery shopping - South African style

Karin and Bethuel - bananas!

Karin - you look different today

After the fairly old fashioned border control procedure, we found a great place for lunch: a friendly owner that even spoke some German, incredible views and great food - what a perfect welcome to the beautiful Kingdom of Swaziland!

The ladies at lunch - Julia, Karin, Sabine and Barbara

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Day 3:

Rest day! But is a day where you have to get up at 5:30 really a rest day? But any way you see it, for us it was definitely worth it! We met our safari guide, Harald, at 6:00 in the morning and went straight to Kruger Park, looking for adventure and animals!

No bikes today...

And yes, we saw animals - here is a little selection:

Zebras

Giraffes

Rhinos

The lonely elephant

It is not too easy to express the feelings after experiencing such an once in a lifetime experience...but this picture says it all:

Karin - happy

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Day 2:

After a quiet and cool night in the "Misty Mountains", everybody was ready for another day. And today was supposed to be full of highlights - and it was!

A day that starts like this can't be bad!

Some of us couldn't even wait until the group was ready to go and took a few extra kilometers on Long Tom Pass...

Reinhold at work

But at nine, everybody was ready and we hit the road. After two very scenic mountain passes, we reached the old gold digger town of Pilgrim's Rest. As we were there before the tour busses arrived, we had the town almost for ourselves and enjoyed the step back in time (and the modern cappuccino)!

Udo and Barbara meet the locals!

After lunch, we continued to another South African highlight: The Blyde River Canyon, the third largest canyon in the world! Of course we stopped at some of the mandatory view points: God's Window and the Three Rondeveels!

The Three Rondeveels

The Three Tourists - Reto, Barbara and Udo

And then we left the High Veld and dropped down into the Low Veld - unfortunately, the temperature didn't drop as well, it rather climbed to 38°C. We needed a cool down, and of course, in the middle of nowhere, we have found a lovely cafe with even lovelier ice-coffee!

Sabine, Karin, Reinhold and Reto cooling down!

Just before sunset, we finally arrived in our hotel for the next two nights - Kruger Park, here we come!

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Day 1:

Under a beautiful blue sky, we started our African Adventure! Our group, with members from Russia, Switzerland and Germany left Johannesburg in the morning and headed east, towards the mountains. Middleburg was our first stop - riding makes you hungry!

Barbara, Karin, Reinhold, Reto and Udo at Lunch

A bit later - old metal meets new metal:

Sabine and her R nineT - what a beautiful couple!

370 km today - quite a workout - and like in the good old days in Europe, somebody is doing the work for you, when you bike needs fresh food!

Udo at the fuel station

And then, just before we arrived at our very beautiful hotel, we had our first group foot on top of Long Tom Pass!

Long Tom Pass

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The bikes are ready to go, the weather is warm and sunny - one more day and we'll be on the road!

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Preparations are in full swing:

the motorcycles are being prepared, riding gear (which had been stored for winter) is pulled out again... South Africa, here we come!

In one week, the whole group will meet in Johannesburg - and then the adventure can begin!

See you in South Africa!