WILD TOURS
Horrible weather
Peeping Tom
SAFARI DAYS AND STARRY NIGHTS
Carolyn Lamb has an African Adventure with Kaapstad — part two
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ext day was to be one of the highlights of the trip. We were riding into Kruger Park. We were only the sixth party of motorbikes ever to be allowed into the park and later that day we would find out exactly why bikes are generally not allowed. In the meantime, we had several hundred kilometres of riding through the highlands of Swaziland. We stopped for a cool drink at the impressive Maguga dam hydro electric scheme and saw two fish eagles wheeling above the dam, but we couldn’t tarry long, we still had many miles to go. There are two aspects of motorcycling which are the same the world over. First, there is ‘small boy syndrome’. All small boys love motorbikes and the Swazi boys were no exception. They loved to wave to us and give the thumbs up as
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we sped past. The other syndrome is ‘target fixation’, a familiar concept to us all; if you look at something, you will ride straight at it! Unfortunately for one of our number, both phenomena coincided. She was waving at a crowd of small boys and simultaneously target fixated on them. The bike careered off the road straight towards the wee boys who scattered like peas and gave her a cheer as she rode up the ditch and back onto the road. Impressive off-roading sister! Needless to say, we ribbed her mercilessly at the next stop but thankfully no-one was hurt. Alex just shook his head in despair again. Next stop Kruger. I could barely contain my excitement. Alex has many skills. As well as being an expert biker and businessman, he is also a qualified tracker trained in wildlife conservation. He stopped us just before the entrance to the park and explained that there was an elephant trail crossing the road just inside the gates. He would enter the park first and ensure the way was clear for us. We would follow at his signal, coasting down towards the river. We did exactly as directed and sure enough, as we drew up beside him, a huge elephant crossed the road twenty yards in front of us. We sat amazed as the elephant plodded past. Just as we were about to start our engines and ride on, the elephant suddenly wheeled around and started trumpeting, flapping its ears and charging towards us. Alex mouthed that well-known biker’s prayer, “Oh f**k”, whilst I sat contemplating how quickly I could learn to do a u-turn and wondering if my death notice would say, ‘trampled to death on a motorbike by an elephant’. Alex drew his bike in front of us three women and was getting ready to make lots of noise
April-June 2020 • South East Biker Magazine
