Hillcrest resident living a bikers dream

Hillcrest resident, Ben Bayman is pursuing his dream as he prepares to set out on the adventure of a life time.

The former, machine tool technician gave up his job to travel through Africa and Europe on his extremely modified BMX G650x Challenge motorcycle.

He plans to leave from his family home in Hillcrest on 27 June and spend the next couple of years travelling through Africa and hopefully make it across to Europe. His plan is to take each day as it comes and not rush this unique and rewarding experience. With this in mind, he has not organised any travel permits or visas in advance but plans to get them along the way, and see how far he can get.

“It is more about the travel than the destination. It is daunting leaving everything you know behind but we just exist in normal life, you don’t often get to just truly live.”

The idea is to travel up the East Coast to Ethiopia cut across the Congo, then travel up the West Coast to Morocco, catch a ferry across to Spain and see from there.

“It was a good test for the bike and excellent preparation for my (next) main journey. I stuck mainly to dirt roads and stayed off tar as much as possible.”

The first big adventure was in January when he journeyed from Hillcrest to Cape Town and back, taking three and a half months to complete the 9780km journey. He travelled along the coast all the way up to the northern Cape, back down to Hermanus and back to Hillcrest via Lesotho.

“It was a good test for the bike and excellent preparation for my next journey. I stuck mainly to dirt roads and stayed off tar as much as possible.”

The total cost of accommodation for the trip came to just R245! He stayed at camp sites, worked for accommodation or relied on the generous hospitality of the locals.

“I enjoy sleeping under the stars and wanted to see if I could work for accommodation rather than just paying for it. I fixed buildings, worked at campsites, cut down wattle trees, slept on farms. People were very accommodating, not once did I tell them about what I am doing before asking for a place to stay. People were very encouraging and supportive of my dream.”

Ben who grew up with a love of the outdoors, hiking, camping, and motorised vehicles as been dreaming about this opportunity since he was sixteen.

“I have always wanted to do this but because of work, time and money, I kept pushing it down but then I realised that if I didn’t at least give it a try I would regret it. So I gave up my job and began my preparations.”

The motorbike as been specially designed by Ben with two storage boxes to carry his essentials, tools, spares, camping equipment and cell charger. The one luxury he can’t go without his is inflatable stand up paddleboard.

“It is totally worth it to be able to leave the bike on a river bank and just travel down a river somewhere exploring and checking things out.”

The hardest parts to the journey that Ben can foresee is in West Africa as they speak French and he doesn’t know any French; travelling in remote areas of Africa where he might not have phone signal and Europe where the strict rules and regulations might make it more difficult for him to complete his journey.

“I met the most amazing people and did some crazy adventures on my Cape Town journey and can only hope for a similar experience the rest of the trip.”

Ben’s adventures can be followed on his Facebook page: Wow Africa by Motorcycle.