INTRO by Editor 'arris

A few weeks back we introduced you to Canadian adventure rider Rene Cormier, who had recently completed the first leg of his around the world trip, with a tour around north, central and south America. After a brief return to Canada to replenish his bank account, Rene re-crated his BMW F650GS and headed off to South Africa for the second part of his epic adventure.

What we're going to do now is follow Rene's trip with monthly photo-essays, the first one being this, as he explores takes a trip further north into Mozambique, Swaziland, Botswana and Namibia ...

AFRICA – THE PLAN by Rene Cormier

Upon my arrival in Africa at the end of August '06, my plan was simple – squeeze a quick tour through the southern parts of Africa before hurrying through the middle of the continent and into the Middle East by Christmas; south to north in four months.

Having altered his initial plan, Rene now has more time in which to explore Africa before heading into Yemen and the Middle East.

This hits a few highlights in Africa and gets me into (and out of) the Middle East before the heat becomes life threatening. I would arrive in India in early summer and stay there for a year, departing the following spring. This would allow me to travel north with the warming temperatures, hitting Mongolia in high summer.

This plan lasted two weeks, after which it made no sense to me any more. I realized I’d have to hurry through spectacular Africa, only to be waiting on my heels in India for the following spring to come. I decided to spend more time in southern Africa, taking refuge from the Nov - Apr rainy season in the only dry part of my route – the southwest area surrounding Cape Town, South Africa.

Once I decided to spend 9 months instead of 2 in southern Africa, I could afford to take a lazier approach to seeing the lower half of the African continent. My first trip would get me as north as the Angolan border with Namibia before heading slowly down to South Africa to spend the bulk of the November - April time

Here I could wait for the weather to improve in the rest of the countries further north. Right now in fact, Cyclone Eline and its 200 km/h wind is slamming into the coast of Mozambique, so I'm glad to be in the much drier (and less hazardous) southern tip.

Staying in South Africa for this time has allowed me to hook up with local groups and get to do rides that I would not normally do, and get a real feel for living in the murder capital of the world – if you believe those BBC folks! I'll be covering some of these trips in the next few installments, but for now we're going to play catch up with my northern – pre-rainy season – trip to Namibia.

Take me to Rene's photo essay (pictures and words by Rene Cormier)!