Under African skies – Cape Town to Victoria Falls Back to News List

compexp on 10 September 2019

Words and Images by Mick McDonald

Finally, after too many hours on a plane we touched down in Cape Town, South Africa; those first steps down the ramp onto African soil are always ones filled with anticipation and excitement, more so as I knew exactly what we were in for, being my 3^rdCharley Boorman ride from Cape Town to Victoria Falls.

Unfortunately, Charley could only be here in spirit this year as he was riding out of Ushuaia with his mate Ewan McGregor for the new series “Long Way Up”, while we rode out of Cape Town on brand new BMW R1250, F850 and a couple of R1200GSA’s

Quickly out of Cape Town, as the rising sun turned Table Mountain an impressive golden hue, we reached the westernmost point on the African continent at Cape of Good Hope by late morning.

After a night at the luxurious Franschhoek Hotel & Spa we soon hit the dirt tracks into the remarkable Cedarberg’s. We crossed into the North Cape, a region similar in size to Germany and offers some amazing back country riding through remote stations, opening & closing gates as we passed.

Crossing into stunning Namibia we marvelled at the second biggest canyon on earth, Fish River Canyon, before spending a wonderful night in a remote desert lodge having a few beers under a vast carpet of stars as a gentle warm breeze blew in, the silence was breathtaking, truly a special night to remember.

Onto Burgsdorf Goat farm for some of the most amazing Namibian farm hospitably and certainly some of the most wonderful “real country food” of the entire journey. A working farm Burgsdorf offers a real insight to the hard life of Namibian farmers but also how they manage to survive in such a tough environment.

We saw the week out at one of Namibia’s most iconic landscapes, that of the Namib-Nakluft National Park, a landscape of towering sand dunes that turned a wondered red at sunset, made all that special by our 5-star tented resort inside the national park. It certainly doesn’t get any better than having a beer on the edge of the desert watching Oryx pass by as the sun sets over the dunes, wonderful stuff.