Victoria Falls to Cape Town2024-03-03T23:36:53+00:00

Victoria Falls to Cape Town

This one way tour from Victoria Falls to Cape Town is a blend of highlights from three others routes. A week of safaris and animal encounters including a private plane charter and camping night in the Okavango Delta, a week of dunes and remote roads in Namibia, and a week in South Africa following the famous Garden Route into Cape Town. Popular with couples, this tour is for those who want to see as many of southwest Africa’s highlights in one tour, and enjoy gravel roads.

from

CAD $19,355

per person

BASIC DIFFICULTY

MORE INFO

DURATION

23

DISTANCE 5000 km / 3100 mi

PAVED 80%

GRAVEL 20%

TOUR HIGHLIGHTS

PRICES AND DATES

Prices

CAD $19,355 with BMW F750GS and shared accommodation

OPTIONS

  • Passenger price +CAD $11,645

  • BMW F850GS +CAD $255

  • BMW R1250GS +CAD $2,095

  • BMW R1300GS +CAD $2,225

  • Single room supplement +CAD $2,445

Includes

  • All highlights as noted

  • 22 nights accommodation

  • All breakfasts

  • Lunches and dinners on ride days

  • Guide on motorcycle
  • Second guide in chase truck

  • Trailer with spare bike
  • Park entrance fees and tolls
  • Airport transfers
  • Motorcycle rental with basic insurance
  • Dedicated office staff for trip planning
  • Road book for day-to-day routing
  • The BEST welcome pack in the motorcycle touring world!
See full list in Terms and Conditions

Excludes

  • Visas, pre-trip medical items, trip & medical insurance
  • Personal travel to or from Tour
  • Lunches and dinners on rest days
  • Alcoholic drinks
  • Fuel
  • Staff and local guide gratuities

Dates

2024
April 4 – 26 | 2 Spots available
August 22 – September 13 | Open
October 10  – November 1 | Open

2025
April 3 – 25 | Open
August 21 – Sept 12 | Open
October 9 – 31 | Open

ITINERARY

DAY 1

Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
No riding

Your flight will likely arrive by 1pm, and we’ll arrange your transportation to the hotel in the town of Victoria Falls.

Our official duties for the day include getting to the Falls and the most fantastic dinner at the legendary Victoria Falls Hotel—a complete step back in time. If you can, it would be wise to arrive here a day early and take advantage of the many tourist activities nearby.

Walking with lion cubs, elephant rides, helicopter rides over the Falls, zip-line or bungee jumping, and even white water rafting. Although these sound “touristy,” these get wonderful reviews from previous riders.

DAY 2

Kasane
No riding
Accommodation near Kasane

Our shuttle to Botswana will pick us up in front of the hotel at noon. We check into our hotel in Kasane, Botswana, and quickly get onto our houseboat that leaves in the early afternoon to prepare for one of the animal highlights of the trip: a sunset scenic river cruise on the Chobe River. Elephants coming to drink at the rivers edge, crocs, hippos, they’re all here.

Caution: Elephants! Road sign standing beside road Namibia Africa.

DAY 3

Nata, Botswana
303km
Accommodation near Nata

Southward through one of the main farming areas of Botswana (there is typically plenty of game on these roads so our low mileage for the day will be appreciated). We are adjacent to the Chobe Park here, which boasts the highest concentration of elephants in the world.

DAY 4

Okavango Delta
302km
Accommodation in tented camp in the Okavango Delta

We arrive at Maun by late morning. Maun is the gateway town for the Okavango Delta and has developed quickly in the last few years. The Okavango Delta is the world’s largest inland delta and spreads over 15,000 square kilometers. It is the result of the Okavango River, having no natural outlet so it leaves its waters in the desert, creating a massive wetland wilderness. The only real way to appreciate the immensity of the delta is to see it from above. We drop the bikes in town and hurry to the airport where a private chartered airplane takes us on on a scenic flight over the Delta, before landing us at a private airfield where our bush crew will meet us. We spend the night in a bush camp – tents, stretcher beds, and linens are provided.

DAY 5

Maun
No Riding
Accommodation in Maun

Early start and a full morning of game viewing, including tea in the bush. We’ll be back in camp by noon for lunch. After lunch we have a three hour drive back to Maun and the beautiful lodge and full en-suite facilities.

DAY 6

Ghanzi
285km
Accommodation near Ghanzi

We have a lazy start to this day as we head west into the Kalahari Desert. This is the largest continuous stretch of sand in the world, and we will appreciate the tarmac roads that we’re on as the kilometers pass by.

DAY 7

Windhoek
543km
Accommodation in Windhoek

Another bigger day on the bikes, and our first border crossing on the motorcycles. Let us do the paperwork, and if all goes well, we will be done in an hour or so and finish the day with a 320 kms run to Windhoek, the capitol city of Namibia

DAY 8

TBD
Option day. No Riding.
Accommodation in Windhoek

DAY 9

Windhoek
Option day. No Riding.
Accommodation in Windhoek

 

[/fusion_builder_column]

We take this day to work on bikes, and to resupply. You can take the day to explore Windhoek, shop, or relax.

DAY 10

Solitaire to Sasreim
95km paved / 237km gravel
Accommodation near Sesreim

Our appreciation of Namibia’s excellent gravel roads will start today. We exit the city and after a short spell on the highway, we say goodbye blacktop and hello dust. The famous apple strudel in the tiny town of Solitaire is on the menu for today.

This is one of our longer days of gravel and we will arrive in late afternoon, just in time to experience the sun set against the mountains and sand dunes of the Namib desert, arguably the oldest in the world, and a World Heritage Site.

DAY 11

Dune Tour, Sossusvlei
No Riding
Accommodation near Sesreim

An early start has us to the sand dunes at sunrise. The dunes in the Namib Desert can rise 1,300’, and are among the highest in the world. We have a personalized tour of Sossusvlei and a walking tour of Dead Vlei, a surreal valley holding 900-year old standing tree skeletons, burned black from the sun and anchored lifeless in a valley that is too dry for them to decompose. The movie The Cell had several scenes shot here, allowing nature to deliver scenes of haunting solitude and isolation that not even Hollywood could dream up.

We’re back to the lodge by early afternoon and get a well-deserved afternoon off to relax by the pool, read, or rest. If you’re still eager to get out, walking trails bring you into the small mountains nearby where you can enjoy the intimate sounds of the Namib’s bird and insect life that is normally blocked out by your motorcycle helmet. As the sun begins its fall onto the dunes to the east, the fire is stoked to provide another meal for us.

DAY 12

Aus
5km paved / 270km gravel
Accommodation near Aus

Only 5 kms of paved road today! From morning to night we are on natural surfaced (gravel) roads. Part of the reason they do not tar these roads is because of low traffic volumes. It is not unusual to have hours pass by with no other vehicles on the roads. The group can stretch out and on this day more than most we get that wonderful feeling of riding somewhere very foreign yet welcoming.

DAY 13

Namib Desert


Optional 250km paved
Accommodation near Aus

Across the Namib desert we ride, keeping our eyes open for one of the last herds of feral horses left in the world. We arrive at the coastal town of Luderitz for a tour of Kolmanskop, a diamond mining town abandoned lock, stock, and barrel when bigger diamonds were found further south. The sand dunes are slowly reclaiming the town, but there is still a fascinating story that comes with the old buildings. This is a guided tour. After lunch we return to Aus for our second night. This is an optional (but recommended!) day. It can be extremely windy at the coast, so we have cancelled this days ride before, cross your fingers for calm winds!

DAY 14

Fish River Canyon
167km paved / 141km gravel
Accommodation in Fish River Canyon

Flora lovers will be fascinated with Namibia’s national tree, the kokerboom, which is actually a large flowering aloe, and exemplifies the beauty that can arise in such an arid place. We have a relaxed pace today as we continue to get used to watching for game while riding on both gravel and tarmac roads. Before we check into the lodge, we take a relaxed visit to the second largest canyon in the world, the Fish River Canyon.

DAY 15

Springbok, Northern Cape
168km paved / 127km gravel
Accommodation near Springbok

Our last few kilometers of gravel road brings us to the hot springs at Ais-Ais, and after a quick soak we continue on one of everybody’s favorite gravel sections to the junction with the tarmac road near the Orange River, the geographic border between Namibia and South Africa.

The border crossing will go quickly, and we use tarmac roads to hurry us along our first few kilometers in South Africa and our simple hotel near Springbok, a quiet town known for it’s tough mining history.

DAY 16

Clanwilliam, Western Cape
348km
Accommodation near Clanwilliam

Short travel day heading south. We have a drastic change in scenery as we leave the Northern Cape province and enter the Western Cape province. Crossing the Olifants River sees immediate effects of irrigation and large, rolling citrus crops. We normally spend the afternoon working on bikes, while guests visit in town and learn about the health effects of rooibos tea, grown here and nowhere else!

DAY 17

TBD
348km
Accommodation near Clanwilliam

Short travel day heading south. We have a drastic change in scenery as we leave the Northern Cape province and enter the Western Cape province. Crossing the Olifants River sees immediate effects of irrigation and large, rolling citrus crops. We normally spend the afternoon working on bikes, while guests visit in town and learn about the health effects of rooibos tea, grown here and nowhere else!

 

 

DAY 18

Oudtshoorn
400km paved / 80km gravel
Accommodation near Oudtshoorn

To break up our paved roads of the last few days, we will start to sneak in some of our favourite gravel passes today. This is a big day filled with beautiful passes. Our destination is Oudtshoorn, the ostrich capitol of South Africa. Guess what’s for dinner?

DAY 19

Oudtshoorn
Optional Riding Day.
Accommodation near Oudtshoorn

Day off. You’ve earned it. There are wildlife centers to visit, ostriches to ride, or do nothing and sit by the pool and catch up with your blog and diary. If you are keen on more riding, we have a lovely loop set up that takes in fantastic little towns and the mighty Swartberg Pass, a tremendous and beautiful gravel pass that should really be experienced

DAY 20

Arniston
240km paved / 30km gravel
Accommodation in Arniston

There is a famous drive along Route 62 in South Africa, and we will hit the best parts of it today, ending up at the most southern tip of Africa – a fitting celebration point from where we began almost three weeks ago. Not far from here we find our rest for the night in the charming beach-side Arniston Hotel.

Beside the hotel are the nationally landmarked Fisherman’s cottages with their whitewashed walls and thatched roofs set off against a turquoise sea and colourful fishing boats, a magnet for photographers and artists from around the world, spurred on no doubt by the proclaiming of Arniston as one of the World’s Ten Best Hideaways by Time Magazine (May 1996).

By special arrangement we have organized a fresh, traditional, fish dinner from one of the old fishing families that still lives in the village.

DAY 21

Stellenbosch
240km
Accommodation near Stellenbosch

Today is a busy day as we get to Hermanus for lunch, the self-proclaimed whale capital of South Africa. We lunch while spotting Southern Right Whales who calve here from July through November. We continue along the coast of False Bay arriving in mid-afternoon to a private tour of Monkey Town, a primate sanctuary. We spent the next two nights in South Africa’s second oldest city—Stellenbosch, famous also for its university and wineries.

Take a day off, go shark cage diving, go riding, go on a wine tour, or drink coffee and write postcards in the beautiful old city of Stellenbosch. This is a day to do whatever your body is telling you to do. Another favourite spot to visit is the Franschoek Motor Museum – a epic collections of vehicles in a beautiful setting

DAY 22

Cape Town

Accommodation near Cape Town’s waterfront.

Our last day on the bikes and it is a beauty as we take on one of South Africa’s most scenic ocean-side roads—Chapman’s Peak Drive.

Our continued route through the Cape Point Nature Reserve offers quiet roads and panoramas of green fields, rocky cliffs, and the legendary Cape of Good Hope. This outcropping of south-west Africa has made sailors nervous for 500 years (and remains the mythical home of the damned Flying Dutchman), but from our land-side approach, we can admire the Cape without discomfort, staring out from the beach to the south where 4,000 kilometers of Atlantic Ocean separate us from Antarctica.

Consider staying a day or two after the tour finishes to catch up on all the passes and attractions that we are unable to squeeze into a three-week trip. This is our last night together and we will spend it in Cape Towns beautiful V&A Waterfront watching the harbor life and sharing stories.

DAY 23

Fly out

Our tour from Victoria falls to Cape Town last day, and after breakfast the final paperwork is gone over for the bikes, and our trip is officially complete. If you are curious to stay in Cape Town or the surrounding areas longer to do more riding, wine tours, shark cage diving, bungee jumping… let us know and we can get you on the right track.

VOICE OF EXPERIENCE

LOCAL LORE

Go to Top