'FIRST DAY IN CAPE TOWN AND THE STRESS RETURNED'

+ Click to Enlarge HALFWAY THERE: Spanish bikers Carlos Munoz and Tomas Hartman have trekked down Africa from their home in Malaga on a mission of exploration and mercy. It took them nearly five months - and soon they'll be heading home up the continent's east coast. Image: MICHAEL WALKER

December 22, 2009
By Jason Warner

Two friends, two motorcycles, the African coastline and 40 000km of sometimes messy, wet, or just dusty roads.

Tomas Hartman and Carlos Munoz have biked their way down Africa's west coast from Malaga, Spain, over the past five months, learning from "beautiful people" and living on the road.

The two, who have worked together for 10 years in the tourism industry on a Chinese yacht off the Spanish coast during the summer months, have spent "two months underwater" in a Congolese jungle, contracted malaria and donated more than 1000kg of medicine and clothes to those they met on their travels.

Last year Munoz, 47, persuaded Hartman, 30, to save money for a road trip to Dakar, Senegal. Their journey done and after seeing first-hand the plight of many Africans, the two decided to make another trip, but this time down the west coast of Africa, a stopover in Cape Town, and a return journey up the east coast.

Four months and 25 days into their epic expedition they've reached Cape Town where, they say, they often struggle when confronted with city life.

"On the first day you bring all the stress of the city with you," Hartman said. "It's hard adjusting to a city again. It's a different rhythm of life and sleeping in a house feels strange."

Munoz and Hartman travelled to Benin with a 4x4 loaded with medicine and clothes, their bikes on a trailer. There they met Spanish nuns who nursed them back to health after they contracted malaria.

They donated their car and goods to the nuns and carried on their trip on their bikes, a Yamaha XT 660 and Honda TransAlp 600.

"They're not bikes for showing off. They're real road bikes, and Honda and Yamaha have really helped us," Munoz said.

Their journey so far has gone through Mauritania, Morocco, Mali, Ivory Coast, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon, Angola, Namibia, South Africa and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

They've eaten termites, worms, snakes and camel and say Africa "should stay as natural, as beautiful" for ever.

Munoz said: "My wish is that it really must stay the way it is now... the true Africa."