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South Africa - Lesotho - Namibia


- 11:20 pm (wednesday), flight from Paris to Johannesburg
- 11:00am (thursday) Ryno who picked me up at the airport proved me he did not sold my sidecar
- 2 pm I start opening the motor
- 4 pm Conrad open the distribution
- 5 pm the unique high performance camsaft Ilya and Sergey gave me in Seattle is in place
- That's what I call a productive day !?!?!



We were 15 to share a very nice moment together at the Closerie des Lilas tonight.

Feel the mood at the Tex-Mex party of Barfleur on this short video.


Our Tex-Mex open party was a success, 36 bikers and Barfleuriens showed up for our chili con carne.


The bikers came from Paris, Vire, Vannes, Nantes and Anger..


Thank you Gerard & Monique
my new cover for the sidecar made of the same material as of the convertible car is fantastic !?!?!


Tuesday
1/7/14

Open House

 

Friday January 10th starting at 6pm...

17 Thomas Street, Barfleur, France

Come enjoy an evening with our friends from Barfleur and you can sleep upstairs if you want.

 

 

 

Share a moment

 

Tuesday January 14th starting at 6pm at "La Closerie des Lilas"

171 Boulevard du Montparnasse, 75006 Paris, métro Port Royal.

I would love to meet with you (again) the day before I fly back to South Africa.


As per Eve's & Peter in Jersey this weekend, isn't the grass always greener on the other side of the fence !?!?!


I had the pleasure to have lunch with an other character, Ian from Jersey, UK that I met at Skeleton Bay in Namibia.
Ian just came back from 6 weeks in the frigid water of Iceland, camping in his rental car in search of the best surfing spot !!!


Thursday
2/1/14

Just updated my web site for the year 2014 including India in the top menu (just for in case but don't blame me if  it changes to Australia, who knows ?!?!?). Also included is a "Cool Links" on the left column where I tag the interesting people I met on the road because they become lost in the blahblahblog or in the stories after a while. Also the top right now indicates "10th Year" (except the main page and the blahblahblog page) even if it will be only on February 16 at 6:04am but having to reload to the server every single page of my website, I took advantage of the speedy connection I have here.


Happy New Year everybody... and Jean-Louis still riding the Southern Africa countries.


Monday

12/30/13

After 2 weeks with Jessica in California for Chritmas, we are back in Barfleur, Normandie for New Year's Eve.


We were a group of 10 from the "Moto Meeto" biker's group runned by Alex last night at Fox & Goose,
it was nice meeting you all and I hope not to miss Ro-bear and Ree-chard next time I came in Sacramento !!!


Don't miss the video "For the Ural 2014 Injected, it's all about Torque" !!!


Spending the day at the Ural headquarter of Seattle with Ilya, Madina, Sergey and the Ural team, I was very
impressed to be able to pull-up a front wheelie at the start with the new 2014 Ural injection already shipping !!!



Merry Christmas everybody from Jessica's house in California with my beloved Lorraine.


Monday

12/23/2013

Share a drink

 

Friday December 27 starting at 6pm...

Fox & Goose at R & 10, Sacramento.

Come share a drink before I go back to France and South Africa.

 


Saturday

12/21/13

I thought, I had reached the lowest possible point by being without camera and without computer at the same time, but wait to see what happened yesterday !!!

I went on a ride on Jessica's sidecar (my old BMW/Ural) to visit A&S BMW of Roseville, the Ural dealer of Sacramento and do some last minutes Christmas shoppind. 5 miles before I arrived at A&S, the shift lever spring inside the gearbox gave up !!! (sorry no photo). It already happened in Panama in the past and I know it onlly cost $15 but you have to remove all the rear end of the bike before you can remove the gearbox to open it !!!

Merry Christmas Jessica!


Friday

12/20/13

While in New York for less than a day, I managed to stop by B&H, the "mecca" of the photographic stores. I sold my big Nikon D300s with the 28/300mm lens and I bought the Panasonic FZ200 (thank you Janice). To have the ideal specs in half the size was unthinkable just a few years ago... (25/600mm opening at 2.8 all along  at the cost of only a portion of the Nikon). The photographic industry is still in full mutation mode. To avoid paying the New York taxes, I had it ship to Jessica in California.

I also sent in (thank you Kiwon) my pocket size Olympus TG-2 under warranty because of a video sound problem.

I thought I had reach the lowest point because living without a camera for me is like you living without your cell phone !?!?!

 

The day we arrived in California at Jessica's house, shit happened! A cup of coffee explored the inside of my MacBook Air computer (thank you Lorraine) (sorry no photo). Now I know I have reached the lowest possible point by being without camera and without computer at the same time.

I ran to the Apple Genius who opened it and told me it would cost me $750 to fix. I did not want to pay that much to fix a 3 year old computer, even if I was still very happy with it, so I took the opportunity of Santa Claus to get a new top of the line MacBook Air. Fortunately, my back up was up to date and in less than 24 hours life was back to normal. My turbo MacBook Air is amazingly fast. Just waiting for camera to show up at the door !!! (Thank you Santa).


Tuesday

12/17/13

Before flying to New York and California, I visited my favorite doctor Sylvie Delanian. She is very happy with my condition and all my blood test numbers. I will keep her treatment for the next 9 month just to be sure nothing come back but then we will only see each other for diner, thank you again Sylvie !!!

She told me that from the period between september when I started with her and February 2013 she was worry to lost me like it happened to others like me. I told her how lucky I was that Lorraine find her on internet being the only doctor who research fribrosis for the last 16 years !!!


New York is still one of the 5 most beautiful city of the world !!!


Saturday

12/14/13

Open House

 

Friday January 10th starting at 6pm...

17 Thomas Street, Barfleur, France

Come enjoy an evening with our friends from Barfleur and you can sleep upstairs if you want.

 

 

 

Share a moment

 

Tuesday January 14th starting at 6pm at "La Closerie des Lilas"

171 Boulevard du Montparnasse, 75006 Paris, métro Port Royal.

I would love to meet with you (again) the day before I fly back to South Africa.


Saturday

12/7/13

3 years ago, Bernard was running his restaurant "Le Chat qui Rit" in Marrakech when we met him with Jean-Louis. He became very enthusiastic about our travel and annonced to us he would sell his restaurant and travel the world. Last thursday the sale was finally closed. He'll fly december 18 to Buenos Aires & start travelling on his motorcycle! Click here to follow Bernard website.


What a joy to meet Bernard (center) and Nico today in Paris.


Thursday

12/5/13

One more time, our path separate with Jean-Louis, he is going South for a while then in Mozambic while I will fly today to Paris to be with Lorraine for the Christmas holiday and visit my daughters in UK and in California.

I will be back to South Africa at Ryno's where I leave my sidecar mid January.

 

Jean-Louis and I had a symbiotic ride together this last couple of months travelling through South Africa, a country full of diversity where people welcome you all along.

 

I was very happy to see that I could handle like before a 12 hours a day riding my sidecar in nasty rocky mountains tracks, thank you Sylvie Delanian that I will see next week.

 

I have many stories on the back burner  since the Cape of Good Hope that I will do now that I will not be on the road everyday for a while.


When You Come to a Fork in the Road, Take It! - Yogi berra.


A  weekend with Ryno's Ural Sidecar Team of South Africa in the Inyoni mountains.


Thursday

11/28/13

Lesotho is a small country enclaved inside South Africa.

Entering Lesotho from South Africa we felt the same contrast we experienced when entering Bolivia from Argentina, but when riding it's populated mountains, I thought I was in Kyrgyzstan and after a couple of days I saw the same authenticity in these people than I saw in Mongolia !!!

Am I confused of just in love ?!?!?


Amazing Lesotho, a country where people express their "joy of life" even on their way to work !!!


On gravel roads, I lower the tire pressure to 19psi on the front and sidecar wheel and 22psi on the rear.
It gives an extreme softness to absorb the uneven gravel, rocky or corrugated roads.


Thank you so much for your hospitality Joseph & Wade, we slept like angels in your garden in Uitenhage


Monday

11/18/2013

We waited this rainy weekend for 3 Heidenau tires Ryno (Ural dealer of South Africa) send us to be picked up not far from here today. I did only 4100 miles with my rear tire this time and so did Jean-Louis!


We relaxed this weekend at Dijembe, a good backpacker of Storm River, our second 2 days stop since a month.


Thank you Chinzo, I was able to send an other truck of coal to Pourou's family in Mongolia for this winter - 11/8/13


Tuesday

11/12/2013

We are on the road riding through South Africa, a country with a huge diversity of country side with very welcoming people, at the begining of the summer season - ideal - doing wild camping everyday, life on the road at it's best.

We are riding mostly on gravel road but just to give you an idea, since Nieuwoudtville, we went through the Cederberg region, passed the wine country, landed in Cape Town. Then we started to ride East between the coast and the mountains, rode the very famous Route 62 and may arrive in George tonight where we hope to meet with Elmarie's sister, an ex dancer from the Paradis Latin.

I have many stories behind me that will come one of these days !!!


The Swatberg Pass, highly recommended for an early coffee in the morning when wakind up.


5 Stars amenities for us in South Africa.


Monday

11/5/2013

We are leaving Cape Town this morning riding East between the coast line and the muontains. More stories to come.


The Cape of Good Hope is a symbol like Tuktoyaktuk, Panama Canal, Cape Horn
or North Cape but being there with Jean-Louis gave it an other dimension for me.


Thursday

10/31/2013

We arrived in Cape Town this afternoon under heavy rain.

Life on the road is fabulous, I have many stories to do since I left Walvis Bay 2 weeks ago.

Happy Halloween everybody !!!


These deserted gravel roads took us down to Cape Town, South Africa.


African reunion with Jean-Louis at Nieuwoudtville, South Africa


Grilled rack of lamb in the wild, nothing can beat that !!!


It's a small world. In Port Nolloth, this couple from South Africa
and travelling on a 1200GS said "We saw you on the road in Kimberley (600 miles away) a few days ago".
In fact they saw Jean-Louis who is travelling from Johannesburg to Cape Town where we will meet in a few days.


I entered South Africa by the very remote and pleasant border of Sendelingsdrif


Hallelujah I am a bum again !!!


Up to 50 km from the coast, the violent wind that habit Lüderitz  is in fact a nasty sand storm hard to handle on a motorycle. On my way there, I was not prepared, so for my return (Lüderitz is a dead end) the fleece turtle neck and the sand storm goggle (from Siberia) I worn were a perfect face protection. But not wearing my red glasses, I could not see my camera was set on macro, just beleive me, it worked perfectly !!!



I was on my way to the campsite of Shark Island in Lüderitz that François calls the "6 men tent".

The wind is so strong that you need to be 6 to set it up. I settled for a luxury room not recommended for bump !!!


Riding now the Immense open wide space south of the tourism area, I saw 4 cars today.


For my first night on the road I was a "luxury bump" !!!
My camp site of Sossusvlei has private hot shower, restromm, electricity and WIFI !!!


It feels good to be back on the road after all this time. Tonight, I sleep at Sossusvlei in the Namib desert.


Thursday

10/16/2013

Hubert in Walvis Bay - GONE !!!

 

I am on the road going south toward Cape Town in South Africa by the coastal road.


At the 1/4 mile race, this guy from Walvis Bay on his old Ural 650cc beaten me big time !!!


Friday is "fish day" as they say, but here in Namibia, it's "Eisben" day !!!


Celebrating my 67th birthday with Kirby and Jai in the dunes of the Namib desert. Life is beautiful !!!


Tuesday

10/1/2013

Today, we are going to celebrate my 67th birthday by grilling some Oryx fillet and saussage in the desert with my friend Kirby (who bought a Ural sidecar after he saw me passing by last year), his wife Marieke, Jai (Indian born and raised in Singapore, lived in Australia and actually in Namibia) his wife Gomati (borned and raised in india and study in USA) and their daughter Chitra.


This weekend, I met some great people at the motorcycle rally of Walvis Bay.
(L to R) - Ion, Romanian, escaped communism in 1988 and lives since in Namibia.
Alberto, Paolo & Mario, Portuguese friends travelling Southern Africa on they BMW GS for 2 months vacation...


and some people not as great !!!


I had a gas filter problem and of course, I started to change the petcock,
then I trouble-shoot a few electrical malfunctions I had, but I think I have it all under control by now.


I checked and refiled the charcoal I carry in this tube under the sidecar because
in the Southern Africa countries, there are a lot of oportunities to use it when wild camping.


Wednesday

9/18/2013

I already noticed that "syndrome" is like "alcoolism" if you had it, you will fight it all your life !!!


Monday

9/16/2013

Just for in case you did not saw it, there are 2 news stories on "Where is Hubert!".


I jumped on a ride in the dunes with Francois to witness the widlife of the Namib desert.


We had to help it a little bit, but it was really no big deal, within 15 minutes, we were back sailing the dunes.


Monday

9/9/2013

Since I came back to Namibia, I am reacquainting with my sidear and all my equipement I left behing over a year ago. There is a lot of it and more accurately, there is too much of it.

I have been cutting down the weight I carry in my sidecar as much as possible and I went from 486lb in june 2012 to 272lb today !!!

It includes extra gas, tires, tools, spare parts, electronic, photo, clothes, camping etc...

You will see the details of my Herculean work in the next story photo to come soon.


Emptyinng all my bags at once was eye opening, I had so much backup, it's pathetic !!!


Thursday

9/5/2013

I am making tremendous progress in shaving my overweight stuff. I am not yet done, but it start to look substential. I hope to have a final count in a couple of days.

My Carnet de Passage (custom paperwork for the sidecar) is now in order.


To surf one day in the barrel of a wave like this one (look carefully) at Donkey Bay in Namibia, Hugues
flew from France, Ian from Jersey, UK, Dylan from South Africa all inhabited by the same passion.


Hugues (French) "sealing" the waves of Cap Cross, Namibia. 


Saturday

8/31/2013

I was able to move to my favorite room today at Francois and Lala's B&B so I could empty the sidecar 100% to sort out my stuff because if I forgot I have something, there is no need to carry it with me!

Tomorrow, I go with Francois and Hugues at Cap Cross Bay that I missed to reach last year. This is where seals by thousands lives and I stopped myself a couple of time on a wild beach before reaching it. Hugues will surf the waves with the seals and I will smell them!


The test ride on my first day coming back to Namibia went very well


Thursday

8/29/2013

Do I feel rusty going back on my sidecar ? you bet I do !!!

After charging the battery overnight there were no sign of electricity when I turned the ignition on. It took me some time to realise I was using the wrong battery switch putting it on the winter spare battery I had for Mongolia. Because we emptied the carb 100% before storage, after blowing the gas backward from the carbs to the gas tank the motor spinned at the first sollicitation and it surely felt very good.

This afternoon, I will go on a test ride to the custom office to try to straighten out my carnet de passage over stay in Namibia.


Thank you Francois and Lala for taking a good care of my sidecar during this year.


Wednesday

8/28/2013

The 26 hours plane ride France > Qatar > South Africa > Namibia was non eventful.

Francois pick me up at the airport and we went directly spend the afternoon watch the surfers on this wild beach very well known from the pros all over the world.

Francois already brought back my sidecar from his garage, we are charging the batterie over night.


At Donkey Bay, there is a set of wave (3-4) every 20 mn that the surfers can ride on 3/4 miles long in 1 shot !!!


Tuesday

8/27/2013

Don't think for a second that I did not like spending time in Europe or in the USA or that I did not like being with you there but today, I have AFRICA !!!

 

So I go take my plane to Africa and I will talk to you from there.

 



Enjoying my last radishes in the train bringing me from Barflleur to Paris before
I take my plane to Namibia august 27 where my sidecar is waiting for me since over a year. August 23, 20013



Tuesday

8/20/2013

I went to have a drink with Patrick (see photo below) in a parisian bistrot with his friend Jean-Michel. After talking all afternoon (6 hours) about traveling - they are both bikers and world travellers, I realized then the progress I made in my recovery. Being stopped since over a year, when I was telling stories about my travels in the past I was always under the impression that I was telling somebody else story but not this time. I felt again I was the one who lived the dozens and dozens of anecdoctes I could tell them by just answering the questions they were asking me !!!

 

Now to answer some of the questions people ask me the most these days:

 

- How sick were you during this year ?

At the hospital during 60 days, I was very stressed not knowing what I had. Then. 60lb thinner, I met doctor Syvlie Delanian who told me she had her computer full of people having the samething as me (fibrosis) and that even if there are no cure, she had a treatment that would put me back on track in a few months. Her treatment started working immediatly and slowly improving constantly, my moral was excellent. Last month, she told me I could go back to my sidecar in Africa.

 

- Are you 100% healthy

No, I am not. I am still under treatment from doctor Sylvie Delanian but no more under heavy drugs like cortisone and antobiotic. I feel dizziness quite oftenly, I have frequent diarhea, swallowing is still a problem, I cannot eat and speak at the same time, I cannot talk loudly or scream, my neck muscle are premanently sour and other little problems. I learned a long time ago that human functions - intelectual and physicals - can only decrease as life goes on and so far, I know how to live with what I have left, be happy with it and I still enjoy life a lot.

 

- Didn't you get bored during this year of recovery ?

Not at all, in fact I get along pretty well with myself and I don't need to have something to do not to get bored. Being happy at doing nothing is my specialty! On top of that, I spend the year with my beloved wife Lorraine, seeing my daughters on several occasion, it was very nice to be together like that. It surprised me to see how easy it was to have an unexpected year off the road vs usually sidecaring off-road.

 

- How do you feel about going back on the road ?

For me it's not a question, I need it for my own sanity.

 

- Where is your sidecar ?

My sidecar is in Namibia where I left it over a year ago for a month vacation with Lorraine in France.

 

- What are you going to do when you get in Namibia ?

After I spend some time with Francois and Lala who kept my sidecar all this time in the safety of their house, I hope to go back on my isolated beach in the Namib desert to re-disconect from this world. There there are no rules, no governement, no laws, no bureaucracy no cell phone, no radio, no internet... where I can feel really free. I will be a happy person with my old style russian Ural sidecar and my cameras, equiped with my individuals values, and standard of conduct in life. The more simple I am, the less complex my life is.

 

- Where are you going after Namibia ?

I promess you that if I knew I would be telling you, but I don't know. I may go to Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Tanzania or South Africa first but I will not go further north in Africa and I will be looking for a boat to go to India from there.

 

- Will you meet with Jean-Louis ?

Jean-Louis is coming back from New York to South Africa on October 9. We don't need an appointment to see each other and I am sure we will.

 

-When will you go to India ?

Any time between one week and one year after I return to Namibia.

 

I WILL KEEP TRAVELLING WITHOUT ITINERARY, WITHOUT SCHEDULE OR OBLIGATION TOWARD ANYONE. THIS IS MY FREEDOM !!!

 

I want to thank all of you who supported me through this year and I am looking foward to meet with you somewhere on the road one of these day!

 

Hubert

 

 

 

PS: Now that I am going back on the road, this marks the end of the one year long "blablablog" posts, but if you want to see what happened during this year in more details, just click here.

 


I met with Patrick (left), in a parisian bistrot, who follow me on my website since the begining
of my travel with his 2 daughters Sarah and Yona. We already met once in Sao Paulo in november 2006.


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