A bike trip from South Africa to the UK, 14,000 miles for a father and son duo

In 1997, Lawrence Bransby and his son, Gareth, left Creighton, South Africa, about 100 miles inland from Durban as the crow flies, for Wales. On motorcycles. This is Lawrence’s account; a fascinating story that will intrigue the reader and challenge him to look beyond his own horizons.
Ed Maurer, editor

Rather than flying from South Africa to the UK my dad (right) and I rode there on two XT500 motorbikes. The trip took 3 months and we covered a distance of 14,000 miles. My dad kept a diary of the trip. It was written every day while we travelled so it is quite detailed and very real. The photo above was taken in northern Kenya, a little south of the Ethiopian border. Gareth Bransby

TRANS-AFRICA ON MOTORCYCLES: A FATHER'S DIARY
By Lawrence Bransby

When I was twelve, my father, elder brother and I walked from Umhlanga Rocks, just north of Durban, to what was then Lorenco Marques in Mozambique, a distance of some 375 miles.  

The adventure emerged from the many long walks the three of us undertook together on Sunday afternoons through the sugar plantations and virgin coastal bush which covered the north coast of Natal in those days, following overgrown paths smelling of wet mould, with grey wood moths the colour of shadows and the sounds of unseen birds and snake-lilies like small fires in the undergrowth; of balancing on the winding rails of  the sugar cane train which puffed its way busily along rustling contours, tooting with urgent high-pitched squeals whenever it came across us in the way.

Those were good days, being twelve amongst the rolling green of sugar cane, with clod fights and bows and arrows and a bonfire in the back-yard which my brother and I tended for eight uninterrupted days during a school holiday, creeping out in the early dawn to coax it into flame with titbits of twig; a time before the tyranny of girls...

And then, on a blustery day deep inside the rustling green of the cane, it was decided: we'll do a long walk; an adventurous walk!

I don't remember who suggested it first, but it emerged and was seized upon with that excitement which constricts the chest and makes being alive in this mysterious world wonderful.