Tuesday 23rd May Final Blog Leg 18

Sorry this Blog is late, I had no time to write this blog on route as I found myself running to make connecting flights. When I arrived in Houston I thought I had 1,5 hours to pass through customs, collect my luggage, re-check my little bag and then go through security and find my Boarding Gate, but when I looked at my phone I had lost an hour due to the time difference, so I almost did not make my flight. The same happened in NY, lost another hour there and once again found myself running for the gate, hitching. rides on the back of the golf-carts and using the “Lost Puppy Face” to get help making my flight.

But here it is now:

Above is the data for Leg 18, done over 6231kms, and that was sadly not enough to push our total kilometres traveled to over 100 000 km, we are just shy of this milestone with less than 1000km, so this will be broken on Leg 19. We did however cross over to more than 300 Days riding in total. Pie tells me that he will stop riding when we reach 365 days, it does not matter if we are in the middle of nowhere, he stops then. Let’s see if we can reach the bottom of Argentina before day 365. Our Average speed is down to 79km per hour and our fuel consumption also down to only 5lt per hundred, this is due to less open roads.

Last night we had our Last Supper and we wished Regillio well for his sole ride back to Reynosa, he will take highways as much as he can and he never cancelled his Temporary Import Permits when he left each country like us, so he won’t have any pain entering each country as he won’t need to re-apply for an import permit, but he will have to cancel each permit when he leaves each country, but that does not take so long.

This trip was always going to be the difficult trip, sort of like China was always going to be our difficult trip in crossing the Asian Continent, but one tries to make the best of it and I am happy that we made the most of this very difficult trip. We had to cross 6 Borders and we just had to push through, and now the future Legs will start being fun again, more about being a tourist on a Motorbike than riding with the truckers, ticking off the borders.

This was a very difficult trip for me, and I guess all the others battled as well, we are so used to doing these trips our way, planning our own routes, being in charge of where we stop for a coffee or lunch. In the past I always stopped when I saw a photographic opportunity, this time I did not feel comfortable to stop when I wanted to stop as the group would only stop when the group were told top stop. Once or twice I stopped and then Doc would stop and wait with me and then it was a chase to catch to other guys, so I stopped stopping for photos along the route.

It frustrated me not to know our destination each day,  or knowing  how far we still needed to go, and when I knew how far we still needed to go it frustrated me more to see the lack of urgency to get going again after a fuel stop, coffee stop or the Ice-cream stops. Doc and co are super relaxed and have no problem with time, they are also OK with riding in the dark, something we only do in an emergency. The two different groups were just so different in the pace we moved. And because it was so hot we really suffered when you find yourself with your helmet on your head and your jacket zipped up and then you see one of the hosts run to the toilet without even having started getting zipped up.

The invention of our bike-air-con was a big help, but the wet jacket dried in less than an hour as riding in the dry heat of 41 degrees (the average temperature we rode in on this Leg,) was like riding in a tumble drier and the jacket would be none dry before your next opportunity to re-load the air-con.

Towards the end we wrestled back control and Doc and Co had a glimpse of how future legs with us will be, apart from that they will also have to start dealing with Gravel Road which was absent from this trip.

For me Leg 18 will go down as the most frustrating and difficult trip we have done so far, but we are very glad we have done the big push through Central America, it is going to get much easier and better in future. I doubt the next few legs will be much cooler as we cross the Equator on the next trip, but hopefully the closer we get to the Southern Tip it will cool down.

What are my impressions of Central America? Well, isn’t it just sad that these countries who has so much to offer to tourist will not become tourist attractions due to the drug trafficking, gangs and crime. This has killed any prospects for tourism. In El Salvador the government took a hard stand against drug trafficking and anyone connected with crime and drugs were arrested and taken off the streets, even those who just had tattoos that was gang related were rounded up, not much Human Rights in this country, but now the community is flourishing, but who knows how long this will last?

My Deep Thoughts During This Leg :

Early in the trip I could not stop thinking how lucky my dogs are that they stay under my roof and were not street dogs staying next to the road in Mexico, (or any other road in one of the other countries we crossed.) Only the clever dogs or very lucky dumb dogs makes it. If you are a female dog you will suffer more and have two litters of puppies per year, with no one feeding you it is a tuff-life with lots of scavenging and running across the busy road several times a day, dodging traffic. But I also saw many dogs who were loved and fat, I once saw a dog getting a lift home on the scooter with the husband steering with the small child fast asleep lying on the fuel tank between his legs, with mom, riding side-saddle, holding the dog sitting on her lap with the toddler holding onto her, sitting at the back of the scooter.

But then we came across the Venezuelan Kids walking 5000km in search of a better life and that shook me badly. When the 2 girls that were of the same age as my two daughters started crying when I spoke to them something inside me just broke. The next day I thought about their father who had to watch them walk away, it would have broken my heart to see my two daughters leave and walk away because that was the only option left to them, the best option available.

Worst is that there is no guarantee they will make it to the border with the USA, many dangers lies along this trek, many predators wanting to exploit them and who are prepared to rob them of the little they have. Rape is another probability, especially when crossing the Darien Gap between Colombia and Panama, its rife with bandits and drug traffickers.

And even if they make it to the border there is no guarantee that they will make it into the land of Milk & Honey, they might be deported back in spite of walking all the way there. What makes them take that next step, day after day when you know it might all be in-vain? And each step must hurt as walking in plastic shoes can’t be comfortable.

But then I realised that there are some parallels to be drawn between these kids and my own daughters, (and many of the youth in South Africa.) Our kids might not have to walk 5000km but they are flying 10 000km to other opportunities abroad, the future for them in South Africa is no longer certain and the odds are stacked up against them based on  their skin colour, so why not leave? Things in South Africa are deteriorating and there is no guarantee that the country won’t become another Venezuela or Zimbabwe with hyper inflation and riots and shortages of medicine, food and fuel, where the government can no longer supply Water and Electricity, so rather leave now before one need to run later, its maybe the better decision.

I made peace that my daughters might leave in search of better opportunities, and just like the kids walking to the USA I have no doubt that they (if they get into the USA,) and my kids, will become part of the “Contributing Society” the ones who create their own wealth, or at least earn an income, they will add value to society, earn a living, pay Taxes, be contributors to society, be on the Plus side, the giving side.

But there are unfortunately a growing number of “Sponges” they will come across, those who contribute nothing, just use, sponge on others, living off the wealth created by a grandfather or successful mother, or depending on the Government for hand-outs. Unfortunately there are far too many Safety Nets in the 1st World, or for people in the 3rd World who were born into the comfort of a family with wealth. Someone will provide for me, so why work?

In South Africa the Sponge Society is also growing even though the hand-out from Government is small. Many stopped looking for work and others are simply too lazy, their fathers did not work, so why should I work. In their defence, they never had a good example to follow.

I am less critical of people who never had a good example, there are kids in the U.K. who are the 3rd generation that depends on Social Welfare every month, they never had the example like I did, my grandfather worked very hard and then my dad worked very hard as that was the example he had, so then I worked very hard and my kids learnt from my example and they will be hard workers. But what makes people just “lose the plot” and go from being a “Contributor to Society” to being a “Sponge” ? Are all the Safety Nets not the problem? Are we raising our kids without making them hungry? The Venezuelan Kids have no options, no Safety Net for them. When we rode through Norway we met a doctor who was very critical about his Government who looked after the Spongers very well and he only worked half day to reduce his tax as he felt the harder he worked the more money went to the Sponges. He said they almost lived as well as he did, with one exception “they don’t get holiday, I do” he said.

The problem I have with the “Sponge Society” is that they are very entitled, they want and want but are not prepared to1st do the job and then get the reward, they want the reward without putting in the time. All of a sudden they are shouting about their rights but forget that they also have responsibilities. As they don’t really work they have a lot of time on their hands and some of them then start grappling with their Identity, it becomes fashionable to identify as something else, and all of a sudden their pronouns must change. So what example will they be to their children should the person who identify as a Furry Animal and the man with a beard who identify as a woman have children, what are the chances that any of their kids will become Contributors to Society ? Is society not just breeding more Spongers ? The moral decay is gathering speed, what will it look like in another 20 years?

Unfortunately drugs also comes into play and further decimates young lives and I believe also plays a roll in attracting normal well functioning kids to lose direction and become Sponges.

If you are fighting for your own survival you don’t have time to thinking about crap, like the new group of vegans who has stopped eating mushrooms as they believe that mushrooms has a vocabulary of 50 words and communicate with each other, really, we believe this now?

At least the “Sponge Society” are in the minority, they are just very loud. I said before, I think the black minority in the USA is the tail wagging the dog, and that is exactly how I feel about this minority, they are also screaming loud and wagging the dog. How long before the rest of society gets tired of this? I have no problem if you want to identify as a Wolf, but please don’t keep on reminding me of this, if I wanted to know what you identify as I will ask you.

There is currently a case being reported on in the media of a male who was sentenced for raping several woman who has now said he identifies as a woman and argued successfully to be sent to a Female Prison. Who entertains such madness. It is like the other case where a person who was being rescued is being sued by the rescuers as they got injured when trying to rescue him?  Has society gone completely mad?

There are many people from West and North Africa who walks to South Africa in search of a better life, so I have an idea how the people from the USA feels about this. But are those who have walked 5000km not better candidates to move society forward than the spongers we are already carrying in our society? And another thought, for how long will the people still be walking to South Africa, won’t they be better off to rather walk to Egypt or Ghana or Rwanda than South Africa where corruption and crime is reaching new levels?

I don’t have any answers, time will tell, maybe I will be proven wrong when someone identifying as a Night Creature finds a cure to Cancer, but I highly doubt this, I will rather put my money on the kid that walked 5000km to do something big.

We are looking at dates for Leg 19 and it will either be the middle 2 weeks of  September or November. I hope you will then join us again and ride along and share in our experiences.

Look after yourselves!!!!!!

Fleisch