T R A V E L F E A T U R E - S o uth A f r i c a
CAROLYN LAMB
YOU DON'T SEE
THAT IN SOUTHWAITE
“
Shhhh!” I whispered to Jane, “I
think there is a baboon on the
roof”.
“Oh no! What if it’s at the
bikes?” she replied quietly as my
insurance excess flashed before my
eyes. The thought of a baboon sit-
ting on a BMW GS and going “vroom
vroom” set us off giggling … ”shhhh!
It will hear us!”
The sun was coming up over a
chalet hut in Golden Gate safari park
high up in the mountains on the Le-
sotho border with South Africa. Our
party had spent the previous day rid-
ing out from Johannesburg on rented
GS 750 motorbikes with our guide,
Alex Jackson of Kaapstad Motorcycle
Adventure Tours.
On the first day of our tour, we
had already seen zebras, and many
impala and several ostriches, but
rather excitingly, we also saw a cobra!
While riding along a dual carriage-
way there were often people walking
along the verges, going about their
TRAVERSE 49
business. All of a sudden, a lad leapt
six feet in the air and dashed out in
front of Alex who executed a perfect
swerve avoidance and missed the lad
by inches but as we rode past, we all
got a wonderful view of a bluey-green
cobra rearing up out of the grass. The
lad obviously fancied his chances on
a 120 kilometre per hour dual-car-
riageway rather than with the cobra.
Thus, was our introduction to riding
in South Africa.
There were three of us on the trip.
My friend Jane, another lady called
Liz, and myself. We are all members
of the Curvy Riders and both Liz and
I had passed an IAM Advanced test.
Alex was our guide for the duration of
the tour. He was blissfully unaware of
what the next ten days would hold for
him accompanying three lady riders.
Golden Gate was well named, set
amongst golden rocks and mountains
and numerous little golden birds had
amused us in the evening as night
fell and the stars came out. The