Itchy Boots

amorley said:
I think Noraly is a bit more organized than she is putting on but I credit her bravery to fly to the worst COVID hot spot in Africa to escape from the Netherlands. Interesting to understand her decision process.
Click to expand...

Well, as far as COVID goes, she's travelling from the Netherlands (population 17mil) where's there been about 1 million cases and 15,000 deaths to South Africa (population 58mil) where's been about 1.5mil cases and about 50,000 deaths. If she were really brave in that respect she'd have travelled to the United States or Brazil where things are much more dire.

I am sort of curious how she managed to get to South Africa in the first place though. I thought it was still under lockdown with travel restrictions. There were only 3 people on the jet with her, which was really weird but not uncommon for some international flights these days. I wonder if she'll tell us the backstory.
 
Scarce said:
Well, as far as COVID goes, she's travelling from the Netherlands (population 17mil) where's there been about 1 million cases and 15,000 deaths to South Africa (population 58mil) where's been about 1.5mil cases and about 50,000 deaths. If she were really brave in that respect she'd have travelled to the United States or Brazil where things are much more dire.
Click to expand...
Much more dire? In the States?
I'm not trying to start an argument, but based on your numbers and thumbing my calculator, I get these results (deaths divided by population, to get a percentage):
0.0015 USA
0.015 Netherlands
8.62 South Africa
I used a conservative 330mil and 500k deaths for the USA population.
 
Hoping this thread doesn't drift more than its original intent ...

And forbid there's a *hint* of political influence, cause that'll lock this thread :/

My opinion - the COVID stats are meaningless at this point.
Noraly is an educated, intelligent person who has made a (maybe not obvious) calculated decision, and I'm eager to see what her next exploits are
(what bike? where to go? provide us with experiences we won't ... ad nauseum ...)
 
caldercay said:
Hoping this thread doesn't drift more than its original intent ...

And forbid there's a *hint* of political influence, cause that'll lock this thread :/

My opinion - the COVID stats are meaningless at this point.
Noraly is an educated, intelligent person who has made a (maybe not obvious) calculated decision, and I'm eager to see what her next exploits are
(what bike? where to go? provide us with experiences we won't ... ad nauseum ...)
Click to expand...

Or calculators.

South Africa, at about 1/6 the population as the United States would have about 350,000 deaths if equivalent, which isn't great, but isn't the 500,000 plus of the States.
 
caldercay said:
Noraly is an educated, intelligent person who has made a (maybe not obvious) calculated decision, and I'm eager to see what her next exploits are
(what bike? where to go? provide us with experiences we won't ... ad nauseum ...)
Click to expand...
No argument. Exchange rates aside, selling Ronin (a movie I enjoyed) should give her a leg up on his replacement.
Plenty of offroading available, too.
I hope her intelligence, judgment and experience keeps her out of harm's way. I look at some regions of SoAf like our own Wild West back in the day.
May the adventure continue!
 
Last edited:
Shes a gutsy gal - but she is smart like a fox too. Having said that, SA is a pretty dangerous place - hope she's OK.

As for her choice of destination, my read is that she chose it mainly on the basis of climate for riding and the fact that she could get a long-term visa.
 
Last edited:
sky.high said:
Noraly has more balls than most men, good for her!
Click to expand...
Couldn't agree more!
She's worked in a male-dominated field, in all parts of the world. She's traveled the world.....by herself. She is smart and takes risks....but knows when to stop pushing the edge too.
Not afraid of cold, rain, or discomfort. Doesn't need 5 star dining or lodging. No use for 800 lb. 150hp bikes with bells and whistles out the wazoo.
Not only more balls than most men.....but has lived more than most also.
 
MaxPete said:
As for her choice of destination, my read is that she chose it mainly on the basis of climate for riding and the fact that she could get a long-term visa.
Click to expand...
That, and likely the Dutch culture / history of SoAf. Afrikaans (sp?) is basically an adaptation of her native tongue, to my (limited) understanding.
"Well, I've never been to J'burg..." -- with apologies to Three Dog Night.
 
Sadlsor said:
That, and likely the Dutch culture / history of SoAf. Afrikaans (sp?) is basically an adaptation of her native tongue, to my (limited) understanding.
"Well, I've never been to J'burg..." -- with apologies to Three Dog Night.
Click to expand...
It’s an older form of thelanguage, the dialect is hard for me to grasp at times. She will manage of course. When I was living in Holland we used to watch a lot of shows from South Africa, and even then they were subtitled into Dutch. ;)
 
She bought the right sort of bike. A used Honda CRF250 for R45000 (~€2500) seems decent from a dealer, even if she went to one of posher areas of Johannesburg, where everyone seems to live behind walls, fences, and gates. Those bikes are super reliable and don't weigh too much. Not a lot of speed, but she's used to that when she rode the Himalayan. She's not going there to ride highways anyway though.

Good choice. :thumb:
 
GryST said:
The odd thing is that she's moving from winter into winter again. Although SoAf winter weather is probably milder.
Click to expand...

The overall climate is fairly mild, with not too hot a summer and not too cold in winter, with freezing temperatures, snow, etc, rare unless you head up on a mountain somewhere. Even in their winter, most days will still be above +10c or so, especially in the south, around Cape Town, where the winters are even milder.
 
Noraly is obviously a Shellback, but I wonder if she's ever gone through the actual "line crossing" ceremony? Not sure why I'm thinking about that. (and, no, I'm not a Pollywog!)
 
caldercay said:
Noraly is obviously a Shellback, but I wonder if she's ever gone through the actual "line crossing" ceremony? Not sure why I'm thinking about that. (and, no, I'm not a Pollywog!)
Click to expand...
The only experience I have with the concept is via the USN, but I imagine the Coasties and the Merchant Marines do that. (Men can get bored with long stints at sea.)
No doubt "real" sailors do it to this day, but I haven't met many of the civilian sailors. The US government pays most of their seamen (and -gals these days), and that's a bunch of 'em.
 
Great choice of bike for what she wants to do.
My daughter used one on our Mongolian trip. Couple of drawbacks are small tanks and not great on tarmac speed wise but other than that, it was more than adequate. Being as reliable as an anvil is a great asset and even if it does breakdown, it can be fixed most anywhere. I never cease to be amazed and the ingenuity, in lesser developed countries, that there is when it comes to vehicle repairs.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom