Friday, April 13

Today I keep my promise and go to a place 10 kilometers behind the namibian/southafrican border. Here, two years ago a horrible accident occurred and a wonderfull person died much to young at the age of 12 years. In Windhoek I promissed his mother to come here, pray for the soul of her son and bring flowers to the site.

Thank you Rushan, only the lord can judge us and decide where the road will lead us to. May god bless your way and your strenght eternally!

Saturday, 14. April 2007

Now I’m only 400 kilometers away from Capetown. Instead of heading down all the way on the main road, I decide to get on the gravel again and to cross the western part of the Caroo Mountains.

I’m already at the northwestern cape and the landscape is scenic.

Some parts of the road need to be done with decent speed control, just to make sure not to go airborne. It is really great to spend the day in the mountains without seeing a single car.

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In the evening I reach the small town of Clanwilliam. There is a nice lake with a campsite located next to it. A good and silent place to stay.

Sunday, April 15

As I get up in the morning Capetown is really close. I take it easy and go for a run around the lake. After a true southafrican breakfast I hit highway N7. The closer I get, the more unreal the whole thing starts to become. It is hard to believe that I have just gone down all the way on my own motorbike.

I reach the „sexiest city on earth“ in the afternoon and take a ride along the waterfront and seapoint area. There are girls working out in hotpants on rollerblades, just next to porsches cruising down the boulevard. Beeing a classic overlander on a dusty motorbike I really get the feeling I’ve just entered a different world. Africa is over, this looks like Monaco! The heat is on…

I stay next to the corniche and ride along the scenic mountainroad. My destination is still ahead and behind the mountains it waits for me. The Cape of Good Hope.

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Long and winding the Capman’s Drive leads up the mountain and offers great views over the bay and the table mountain. The cape of Africa could not have given me any warmer welcome.

The tarmac is so good it is unreal and the evening sun is breaking the light in colors. This is bikers paradise. As dusk starts to creep in I stop in the small village of Simonstown and get myself a room for the night. Its my last night for dreaming because tomorrow I will start my engine and make my dream come true. I will ride my bike to the Cape of Good Hope.

Monday, April 16

I get up at 6 in the morning, take my breakfast and start my bike. Only 10 kilometers are between me and the Cape of God Hope. Eversince I was little boy I have dreamt of riding my motorbike down the lengh of Africa and drive it to the Cape. It took me almost 9 years of preparation to make this dream come true. Now the moment is there and it is very emotional.

I can already see the Lighthouse of Capepoint appearing on the horizon. Just around the corner the road ends. I look at my GPS, I have done 18989 kilometers and I have been on the road for 6 months. I have made it now, I have just reached the Cape of Good Hope, the most south western point of Africa!

This moment of my life is called happiness!

For the next 2 months I’ll be based in Capetown and from here I will organize my motorcycle transport by ship to Argentina. From Capetown a direct line operates to Buenos Aires, which only needs 2 weeks for the trip.

My motorcycle is overhauled completely by BMW south Africa and we put a new set of tires on. After nearly 20000 kilometers down the length of Africa surprisingly only a little has to be done, basically after a full service my companion is ready for the next large adventure, South America.

Also the South African press becomes attentive to my project and the Capetowner brings an interview with me as well as a report over my voyage round the world for UNICEF.

The cape of Africa represents one of the most exclusive places on earth with Capetown, the mothercity, beeing in its center. The landscape around and the view from the table mountain over the metropolis between the two oceans are astounding and make the place not in vain the most beautiful cape of the world!

The climate here is felt as pleasant nearly over the whole year and usually functions according to a simple principle.

View over the cape from Capepoint, from the left the Atlantic brings in cold air and fog from northwest, the right side shows the fog-free and warmer Indian Ocean.

The northwest wind is a safe indication of bad weather and usually alternates after to two days with the southeast wind, the so-called „Capedoctor “. This brings weather improvement again.

For me the city is actually the ultimate place. When I get up in the early morning I can choose if I like to run along the coast from Seapoint via Bantrybay to Campsbay, or whether I want to make a long round over the Signalhill up to the top of tablemountain.

Bantrybay is the most expensive Suburb of Africa, here David Beckham and Madonna posses their mansions at the sea and at the beach of Campsbay, just next to it, the jet set gladly meets up for a Sundowner on the veranda of the club Ignite. The coastal road here has got the flair of the Corniche at the Cote D' Azure and everything is „very up market “.

The runningtrail up on the table mountain however offers a proper mountain run, which does not need to shrink from the comparison with our alps. You begin along the route of the cablecar and finally run a steep ravine up to the plateau.

Over boards and through wild-romantic swampland it goes to the summit and if one likes to preserve his knees, there is always space in the cablecar to take you down again. After a good cup of roibos tea, of course.

In Capetown rarely one afternoon passes without me jumping on the bike and going for a ride. The roads go from stunning to unreal. As for example the well-known Chapman' s drive, on which one can drive over a narrow mountain route besides the sea, directly into the sunset.

Of course, one of the absolute must sees around is Robben Island. 12km off shore the city lies this small island where Nelson Mandela was arrested for 18 years.

Robben Island was used as a high security prison just until 1996!, almost exclusively for political prisoners. The prison conditions were deeply beyond human dignity and beeing arrested on Robben Island had the purpose to break the will of the prisoners. An escape was impossible due to the strong currents around the island and would one of the prisoners nevertheless have tried to swim the 11km up to the mainland, sharks and cold water would have done the rest.

The view from Robben Island to the table mountain.

Many never left the island alive. Now the prison is a museum and you can visit it with a guide.

In this inner court the prisoners had one hour of walking each day.

The prisoners arrested on Robben Island were divided into sections. From the government as particularly dangerous classified prisoners were not allowed to leave their cells at all and they were generally forbidden to have to contact with other inmates. The life itself happened for them in a cell with a size of 2 times 3 meters. Very often for a lifetime and without any sort of hope, because even if someone found a way to survive the cruel prison conditions over some decades, the setting forbade parole for those arrested for political reasons. 

During the day, the prisoners had to perform their work in the quarry. Here a small cave was at their disposal, in which they were allowed to spend a short break. Before it, the guards stood and none of them was allowed to leave the hole during the work break. Nelson Mandela and his sameminded companions used this short break in the cave for the political education of other inmates and in fact in this tiny cave actually the first democratic government of South Africa was formed!

At the age of 54 years Nelson Mandela was released from prison in 1990 and became president of South Africa in 1994. When he took over his duty, he abolished the over 46 years persisting apartheid, and by officially stopping the separation between black and white he reminded to never forget human suffering during this dark time but to forgive and to create a new society from the experience, of which all humans can be proud. Thus he created the base of today's South Africa with people of all skin colors living together peacefully and equally. For his great achievements Nelson Mandela received the Nobel Prize of peace already in 1993!