Stop The Bus

Talk about dragging something out. Jeez. Well the good news is we’ve eventually bought our bus – turns out it’s more of a camper bus than the moerse big bus we originally dreamed about but nonetheless we are chaffed. Actually buzzing, doing flick flacks cos things are finally coming together.

December was a bit of a bummer month. I’m not referring to the 6 kg’s I picked up while on leave or the withdrawal symptoms I suffered from missing free internet access at work and being able to make a phone call without thinking twice. The bus saga brought me down cos we had a stunning party bus lined up and then if all fell through. Theo and Keith (my brother in law who knows about diesel engines) caught a greyhound up to Bloemfontein to buy a party bus for sale up there. The guy said the engine was great and we had visions of doing a few party trips and making some moela from the bus while tackling the outside renovations. I’d started phoning to make enquiries about public liability and visions of us taking party groups on trips to the beach and Theo whipping up a seafood braai all fell by the wayside when the bus turned out a dud. The puddle of oil under the engine was a give away and the bus barely made it round the block. 1 month of waiting for the guy to sort out the paper work all for nothing. I was starting to get despondent but we still had the option of a smaller school bus up in Struuisbaai to fall back on. We just had to wait for the guy to be available after new year before we could move on that. More time ho hum and I was starting to loose my pluck.

In the meantime I focused on Xmas, stuffed my face, tanned my cellulite and got horribly drunk on new years. Then we discovered that the Struuisbaai bus had a problem with the diff, wrong ratio and complicated to sort out. Mid January back at work and on the phone to dealers who could put a Nissan centre diff into an Isuzu engine in a Bedford bus. Not going well and we hadn’t even started on actual work yet. About to give up we considered buying a camper just to get going. Then we went back for a second looked at the very first camper bus we looked at in October, which at the time seemed crummy but suddenly seemed perfect. It’s smaller and lighter than a big bus yet bigger than a standard camper and it’s already kitted out. Just a few changes needed. It’s absolutely perfect. We will have to hook up a trailer for the bikes as apposed to hoisting then onto the back. No problem, in fact less work.

So now we are the very proud owners of a camper bus and are busy getting it ready for roadworthy. Yeehaa!

Trading Wheels

Well there’s no turning back now. I’ve sold my bike and after looking at a few old on/off road bikes we’ve bought an old Yamaha XT 550 thumper. This bike will definitely be for Theo since I don’t think my right knee cap, which is a metal jigsaw puzzle, will cope with kick starting the thing into life. Visions of me flying over the handlebars and developing a limp doesn’t do it for me. Theo says I’ll definitely have to get something with an electric start but that makes it more difficult to keep within our budget. We either have to get something more recent and bigger i.e. a 650 but that costs way more, or consider something smaller like a 250 but then I’m worried I’m gonna poer poer along at 80km/hr. mmmm – not into that. I’m definitely not getting one of those Chinese imports either. I’ve heard too many stories about things falling off and anyway there are far too many almost brand new ones up sale – warning lights.

I had a flicker of doubt when I realized I’m exchanging my nice shiny bike to buy something that looks like an old scrappy piece of junk. Oh well the up side is I won’t have to worry about polishing again. I suppose I’ll trade polish time for scraping mud off the engine and tightening nuts and bolts. I’m also aware of the fact that speed will no longer be a part of the equation. I know it’s going to be a different ride but what about counter steering and leaning in the corners? Many people have asked us if we’re getting old, what with trading our super bikes for dual bikes, while others have warned that offroading is scary and quite an adrenalin rush. I suppose I’ll find out for myself soon enough. Just gotta find a suitable bike.

Journey Into The Unknown

I’m finally ready. Mentally that is. Theo and I have wanted to change our lifestyles for some time now and that’s how we ended up deciding to sell everything, and buy an old diesel bus, hook up 2 on/off road bikes and travel South Africa. Indefinitely that is. Wow - scary and exciting. It’s taken me a while to get my mind, which I almost lost in the process, around the idea but that’s pretty par for course since I’m prone to getting lost. I mean you don’t just wake up one morning and say “gee let’s buy a bus and disappear into the sunset”. Mind you Theo did and at first I thought it was just another one of his schemes. Eventually my earthy side won the battle going on in my head and I thought what the heck, lets go for it.

We’ll be selling our car and our 2 road bikes in exchange for the bus and 2 old, cheapo on/off road bikes. We don’t have property to sell and we haven’t won the lotto and anyway if we did we’d still definitely go ahead with our idea. Our small work pensions will be our backup for new tyres or gear boxes etc so we plan to work at different things as we go along.

So you probably think our idea sounds a bit far fetched, ha, well picture this. We plan to convert the diesel bus to run on used fish ‘n chip oil. That got your attention I bet. It’s the latest rage overseas you know. The plan is, as we pass through towns, we’ll collect the old oil from fish and chip shops and the occasional restaurant. The oil gets strained and stored in a container under the bus but needs to be heated before it can run through the engine. If you don’t see us coming you might smell us.

We plan to buy a wind generator kit which we’ll attach to the roof of the bus as and when we need to generate more power. The electricity will be stored in a bunch of batteries and we should be able to run our laptop, a fridge, a sound system and 1 or 2 smaller items. Who needs more? Our TV will not be missed! I hope.

Besides a bed, a kitchen area and packing space, we plan to install a caravan type toilet, water tanks for running water which we could heat with gas. Luckily I’m not a finicky person and don’t have a problem peeing behind a bush. We will also be stopping at caravan parks occasionally, and not forgetting all the one stops so look out for us next time you all meet at one for a breakfast run. I suspect we’ll be very visible. Mind you I’ll probably be catching a shower while Theo sorts out the dump.

We plan to explore some out of the way places on our on/off road bikes. In fact I think that’s how the plan materialized. We got gatvol of riding the same roads around Cape Town and missed out on the dirt roads cos as you know road bikes don’t do well on gravel. We were ready to exchange the speed thing for getting back into nature. Well it was that combined with the fact that Theo was gatvol of his job and I was starting to feel like part of the furniture at mine. I got a fright when I realized I was getting sucked into the system shared with work colleges who thought it was a great achievement to retire after giving 40 years of service to the same company. My 20 year old son doesn’t need me around anymore to wipe his nose and I think his youthful ideas about quantum physics and thinking out the box has inspired me.

Every now and then my stomach churns when the scary thoughts enter my spacious mind but then I remind myself that it is what I want to do and it is possible. Getting off the grid is gonna be a challenge but it sure is gonna be an adventure and I can’t wait.