Motorcycle Exploration

I rode a motorbike a little as a teenage on a farm north of where I grew up. That little experience seems to have given me enough of the bug to do a bit more while here in Cameroon. Another volunteer Lance, only here for four weeks, turned out to be a motorbike mechanic, which was a huge opportunity for me to learn as much as I could.

One weekend after work we headed off around part of what is known as the Ring Road, which circles the main range of mountains in this north west region, for a complete distance of 367km. Due to the rains and unreliable bikes we just did a small section, but this still included a lot of technical rough riding, a fairly serious river crossing, a fantastic waterfall, and a visit to the local chiefs palace.

On the way we had various fuel leaks, my clutch not working for half a day, one flat tire, and a chain coming off three times. I only crashed once, we only got lost once (ended up in the middle of a farmers field after the river crossing somehow), and only got caught in the rain once (and the dark, while limping back home to Belo).

I've spent quite a bit of my spare time working more on my adopted 'Black Beauty' to see if I can get the reliability up enough to try some more two wheeled exploring during the coming dry season. Keep you posted.

Comments

patrick said…
Speaking of black beauty.. have you ever read the book?

It's written in first person horse.

I got to about page 6.. (a long time ago).
8:19 am
Cecile said…
Hey Richard,
nice project that you are into. Very close to the beneficiary ! Good to see that you and Elodie are fine. Pass my greetings to her. I've started a job in Malawi 4 months ago. I pass on the donor side... i work for the european commission in transport and water infrastructure projects. Very different, quite interesting. For 3 years and then might go back to NGO.
Take care,
Cecile (from bentiu, South sudan)
7:29 am
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