JOÃO PEDRO AND RU
When we schedule a trip we always have friends, and that's what happened every time I went to Namibia.
My partner Dunas Safari, in addition to Tour Operator, also had a Guesthouse and in 2010 was where we stayed ... just for sleeping, as meals were always spent at their home.
More than friends, João Pedro and Ru always insisted that I belong to the family.
Thank you my brother and my "Xuxu" for all the love you have always had with me since the first day I met you
SPECIAL POLICE
When we arrived at Cape of Good Hope in South Africa, it was the day after the Portugal vs Korea match for the World Cup.
For this reason the Cape was full of Koreans.
As we parked the bikes they started to come closer to us and one asked, "Are you a Special Police?" I burst out laughing and said no and said, "Why did you think that?" He said, "I thought the Lord in Gray was the Officer and you are the operatives, and how this event is going on, I thought you were a Special Police."
In short when you ride with friends and dress the same you already know that you will be confused by police, sometimes can be an advantage
DR. JOÃO GARCIA BIRES
Uncle Garcia Bires, as I have been pleased to treat him since the day I was born.
In 2010 he was the Angolan Ambassador to Mozambique and in Maputo received us in a diplomatic and at the same time familiar way, as only he knows.
A true gentleman, diplomat by profession and passionate writer with an above average culture is a person impossible to dislike.
Later in 2013, when he was the Angolan Ambassador to China, he made every effort to make it possible for us to go to China by motorcycle, which unfortunately did not happen.
OVER SPEEDING
Caught in over speeding.
We were at 120 km / h on a road 20 km long, traffic-free road with no settlement within 200 km in Botswana.
We were ordered to stop and there I had to go negotiate with the police for the fine.
But when I told him I was from Angola, the problem was immediately solved, because he just said: "You pay a tip and you can leave."
The fame of the Angolan tip's comes everywhere.
GSA RUNS WITHOUT OIL
On a trip to Lubango in 2011, passing a mini lagoon, muddy water entered the engine through the air vents.
After getting all the oil out, I was going to put in new oil, but I only had 33cl.
So I made about 100 km with this oil in the tank to the nearest gas station. When I got to there, I asked if they had any oil and the lady said, "We have this one." I looked and it was a can with the open top full of oil.
That might have been frying oil, but that was what it was.
I filled the tank with this oil and made another 600 kilometers to Luanda. To sum up the 2010 BMW 1200 GSA oil-cooled, runs without oil or with any kind of oil you can imagine.
NATIONAL HERO
On 11/11/11, we departed from Luanda (Angola) towards Porto (Portugal) and the departure was in front of the Luanda Provincial Government, with state honors.
There was a lot people who were there, one of those people was Commander Bety of the National Police.
My father talking to her knew that we would have police escort until we left Luanda and told her: "My son and this guys will represent Angola and not Luanda, so make the escort all over the country and not only in Luanda"
I heard my dad and I smiled, thinking, "Just my dad to think I'm that important".
To my surprise the Angolan National Police escort us from departure to the border of Santa Clara, we are talking about 1300km in 3 days.
I felt like a true National Hero.
IMPRESSIVE
When we stopped in Victoria Falls, it was raining a lot.
While some went to see the falls I stayed in the shop / bar.
When they arrived they were worried about me, because I had a very strange face.
The reason for my face was that I had met an Englishman who when he saw the motorbikes came to me happily and told me that he also loved motorbikes and that he had done the Isle of Man twice in a row and that he was going to do his third 6 years after the last one.
Naturally I asked him what he thought of the Isle of Man.
He replied: "The first one I loved it, but the second one I didn't like that much, even because I lost both legs in this race." And with a smile on his lips he lifted his pants so I could see the two prostheses he had, from knee down.
He added, laughing "I don't know how it will be this year, because with the prostheses, I don't know if I get off"
Of course, I was unresponsive to see a person who has lost both legs in a race but still has a good disposition to talk about it and has the courage to go back there.
ALMOST HANDLED BY A GIRAFFE
In Isiolo Kenya in 2011 our stay was within a nature reserve.
We got there around 3 pm and were waiting for permission to enter until 6 pm, so when we entered it was already night.
As it was a nature reserve with animals, some dangerous, we had to go with a car in front.
From the gate to the lodge were about 10 km of sting, which with the rains was a torment.
During this route I realized that on my left side came a giraffe and slowed the pace, she stopped and I accelerated, as I accelerated it too and passed the front of my motorcycle, no more than 1 meter.
I never imagined seeing a giraffe so close.
WHEN YOU THINK YOU CAN NO LONGER DRIVE
On the Moyale Road, at a distance of 500 meters, I fell 7 times.
I was desperate and so tired that I stopped and thought I couldn't ride a motorcycle anymore.
I stood the motorcycle, sat down and started. I drove it 10 meters and fell. This was because there was to much mud that it held the front wheel, but until I found that out, I had a hard time.
I was so tired that instead of having the intelligence to unscrew the front fender ... I cut him off.
The worst was later when the mud was over and everything came to my face.
ONE WEEK EATING CRACKERS AND PITA BREAD
In Kenya due to torrential rain we were "trapped" between Marsabit and Moyale for a week, part of that time spent in a village called Turbi.
As it was a remote area of Kenya the only food that existed was lamb, rice, eggs and pita bread.
The chickens were not killed because they gave eggs, so the only thing to eat was lamb.
I hate lamb, so I spent a week on crackers and pita bread.
Notice on the left side of the picture, where I'm smoking, while the rest of the staff are all happy to eat .... lamb.
I just thought, "How can they eat this !!!"
BIGGER DISTANCE DRIVING
When asked, "How far have you been driving?"
I answer 900 km and everybody always look at me, thinking. Only????
Yes, I say only 900 km, but it took me 48 hours to make them, so the 1,800 km I've done driving, I don't consider anything special.
This journey of 900 km in 48 hours, was the link between Turbi and Addis Ababa, as Miguel Mota had to catch the return plane, I, Miguel Carreira and Alexandre Santos, join him and made a direct.
Along the way we had some adventures, among one someone (not me) was careless and had to cut his underwear and do the rest of the trip without them, another who decided to eat some "dubious" eggs and stayed after bed 2 days with a food poisoning that gave him fever very high (not me either).
But in the end everything turned out fine.
PUNCTURING THE TIRE 3 TIMES AT SAME TIME
Puncturing the tire 3 times on the same trip is noT normal.
I had 3 holes in the same tire, at the same time.
In Ethiopia, on a paved road I have punctured, so far all normal.
I stopped the motorcycle and went to repair the hole, I quickly realized that it was not a hole ... but 3.
I think it was better because after 8 years I never had a puncture tire again.
CARE FOR CHILDREN
When traveling around Africa, everyone warns us, watch out for animals. What I was not prepared to do was to go through what happened in Ethiopia.
Besides being careful with the animals, I had to be careful with the children.
I crossed the whole of Ethiopia with thousands of children who, hearing the noise of the motorcycles, came running to the road and literally jumped into it.
They screamed, laughed and said goodbye in a lush way.
Although I felt loved, I was also very afraid, because I was watching when one of them was going to jump to me or the motorcycle
LIBYA
Cross Libya 2 months after the death of Muammar al-Gaddafi.
Without doubt one of the most fantastic moments of my travels.
When I crossed the border from Egypt to Libya, there was a heavily armed force waiting for us and escorting us across Libya to the Tunisian border. In Benghazi we stayed in a 5 star hotel where we were the only guests and around the hotel they created a security perimeter that looked more like a barracks.
Visit the gutter where Gaddafi was killed in Sirte (photo).
Arrive Misrata where we were greeted by BMW's but cars doing stunts. Spending Christmas night at the hotel in Misrata eating chicken was the only thing they had.
To have a guy shooting an anti-aircraft from above a pickup by the time I was about to pass and I thought it was against us, but it was to celebrate our passing.
Watching cars pass me by, with 10-year-olds outside with a pistol in hand all happy.
Visit the 3 Greek-Roman cities.
Everything in Libya was remarkable, both positive and negative.
FANTASTIC RUSSIAN (PART 1)
When we left Portugal our destination was to Beijing, but unfortunately in Prague we received the news that we could not go with our motorbikes. So we decided to go to Vladivostok.
But we also wanted to go to Kazakhstan and as we only had one entry visa to Russia we went to the Russian Embassy in Tallinn Estonia to have the visa for the second entry.
We stopped the motorcycles at the embassy door and rang the bell.
A lady came to say they were closed and only when the Ambassador arrived could she say anything.
After a while a gentleman came out to admire the bikes and introduced himself.
He was the Ambassador and he loved motorcycles.
He invited us in and told the two ladies at the embassy to solve our problem.
So we left with the second visa to Russia without paying anything and thanks to the Ambassador we were able to go to Kazakhstan.
FANTASTIC RUSSIAN (PART 2)
When speaking about Russians, people often say they are unfriendly.
My opinion is the opposite, they are a fantastic people.
As we left Irkutsk Miguel Carreira's motorcycle broke his swinging arm in a hole.
The only solution was to get a shuttle back to Irkutsk and try to solve the problem.
We started to signal the vans coming on the road to stop and try to get transport.
A white van comes, we signaled and it stopped.
The driver got out, opened the side door and motioned for us to load the bike.
He took the motorcycle to the hotel door and there with the help of the receptionist we wanted to pay for the transportation. He refused.
We then asked him to have dinner with us and he said, "Thanks, but I have to go back 200 km to get back to my house."
In short he had done 200 km more than where he was going, just to bring us the motorcycle and did not accept any payment, just wanted a photo with Miguel, all without speaking or understanding a word of what we said.
The spare part arrived 2 days after from a city 2,500 km away.
SMOKING ROOM
In Ufa, Russia.
I was in a restaurant and as a smoker I asked if I could smoke.
As in all of Russia, communication is not easy as it is very difficult to find someone who speaks a language other than Russian.
After not being able to explain, I put a cigarette in my mouth and the employee just pointed to the toilet.
And I said, I don't want to go to the toilet, I want to smoke.
After a while he grabbed my hand and led me to the toilet.
When I entered I realized !!!
In addition to toilet was also the smoking room.
Only in Russia .... UFA
SAME PRICE vs DIFFERENT CONDITIONS
Anyone who travels around the world is subject to having to sleep anywhere.
Sometimes these places are 10 stars, sometimes not 1 star.
In M'banza Congo (Angola) the only place I could sleep was this annex of a house, without water and I had to sleep in the sleeping bag (left side of the photo). In Moscow (Russia) I stayed in a Palace that I was even ashamed to go in with as dirty as it was inside the room (right side of the photo).
The most spectacular thing is that I paid the same price for one and the other.
These are the cases of extremes in terms of nights, because I always look fto stay in a simple place that has hot water and a bed to stretch the skeleton, often this is not possible and a tent serves to rest.
I say rest because I am not one who thinks a tent is enough to sleep well, I only stay in tents if I have no alternative ... but the tent and the sleeping bag always go with me when traveling in complicated countries.
ABANDONED LODGE
In 2012 near Ghanzi in Botswana, we arrived at the place we had booked to sleep and had no one.
As we had done about 20 km of clay and arrived at night, around 23 hours, there was no one in the Lodge.
We honk, we scream and nothing.
With the lights the only thing we saw were animal eyes shining in the night.
With lanterns we went for a walk and we saw two bungalows with the beds made and we thought.
We'll sleep here and see tomorrow we see.
When we woke up the next day and headed for the reception we had the breakfast table set and we didn't know what had happened.
We talked to the staff and they explained that as we were the only guests and how late it was they thought we were no longer coming and left.
The eyes of the animals that were shining at night were hundreds of antelopes that existed in the Lodge.
EAT OR NOT
In the U.S. this was the ad that was on the door of a restaurant.
When I read it, I wondered if I ate or not.
Then the maid comes in with the food and was completely crazy.
For the first time I wondered if I would get up from a restaurant and leave, or stay and eat.
I decided to stay and eat.
The truth is that 4 years later I have not had any strange symptoms. American extremism is driven to the point where restaurants have warnings of these.
LOOKS LIKE?
We were having dinner in the U.S. and a very good-looking girl came in and chatted with us.
She looked at Jorge Portugal and began the conversation:
Girl - "I know you from anywhere"
JP - "I look a lot like Mel Gibson"
Girl - "No .... I already know Saddam Hussein"
I never saw JP get so sad and of course we all started to laugh.
NATIONALISM
Placing the Angolan flag on the Uyuni Salar was undoubtedly one of the unforgettable moments.
When you put the flag of your country in a place where there are dozens of flags and you are the first of your country to put yours is something remarkable, because it may mean that you are the first Angolan to visit that place and if you were not the first, it means that you were the first to worry about demonstrating to the world that your country exists.
PORTUGAL, PORTUGAL
I was in Oslo checking in at the hotel when a lady came to me and asked: -The Portuguese motorcycle that is out there is your's?
-Yes, it's mine
-How cute, don't you tell me you came here on purpose to watch the game?
-Sorry, but what game?
-Of our team, we will play tomorrow with Norway, come here.
And she took me and started to introduce the players and the technical team of the Portuguese Women's Football Team.
Of course the other day there I was at the invitation of the national team to watch the game and screaming, PORTUGAL, PORTUGAL. Unfortunately Portugal lost, but I could see that we also have some "Cristiana's Ronalda's".
AUSTRALIA WITHOUT KANGAROOS
As strange as it may seem, after spending a month and a half in Australia, I can say that the only living kangaroos I saw were in Tasmania.
I crossed almost all of Australia and saw thousands of kangaroos killed on the roads, but alive I saw none.
The reason for seeing many dead is simple, during the night the tar has r small water canisters because of the condensation and they go to the middle of the road to drink. The Road Trains with its 50 meters of length cannot stop suddenly and as such they are killing all the kangaroos that are there.
The reason for not seeing them alive, is due to the fact that they are more visible along the roads in the late afternoon and by that time I was already resting at the hotel.
FEEL LIKE SLEEPING
I never imagined feeling like sleeping on a motorbike, as it happened on Eyre Highway, the longest straight in Australia with its 146.6 kilometers long.
The road is so long that they even took the opportunity to make an emergency airstrip on it.
The worst thing is that beyond its extension the landscape is extremely tiring.
BUSH FIRES
When we decided to make the trip to Australia in November / December, we knew we were going to catch the hottest season, what we never thought was that we were going to catch one of the worst years of fires. Riding a motorcycle at 43ºc is difficult, riding at 43ºc and smoking is much more difficult.
Despite the difficulties we were very lucky, as we never caught any fires directly, but we caught the smoke that came from the nearby fires.
We had to change the route twice, but we ended up being lucky, which the Australians did not have, because it was the worst years for them.
BATHING FORBIDDEN
Staying on one of the most paradisiacal beaches I have ever seen, with water at 28ºc and not being able to bathe is frustrating.
When I arrived at the hotel, I didn't want to believe in the beauty where I was and looking at the sea water the first thing I thought was "I'm going to take a bath", I put on my bathing suit and went to the beach, to my surprise at the reception they told me right away that I didn't even think about going into the water.
I asked him why and he replied:
"For three reasons, Sharks, Saltwater Crocodiles and Jellyfish, which kill in 20 minutes".
After hearing this, as you can quickly understand I lost the desire to take a bath.
