We met up with world traveller “Rock” Fabry for a chat about his epic adventures…
We got a telephone call from the guys at Honda Wing SA to meet them within the hour at Motus Honda East Rand, they have a really interesting and exciting story for us. We duly wandered down and met with Cassels and Johnny from Honda Wing SA who introduced us to Fabrizio Buscaglia – better known all over social media as “Fabryrock”. Fabry had just ridden his CRF1100 Africa Twin all the way from the northern most point in Europe, “Nordkapp” or North Cape, to the most Southern point in Africa, Cape Agulhas. Firstly, he had to get there from his hometown of Genoa in Italy, which was a ten thousand kilometre trek through the snow and ice, (the latter once he got north of the artic circle). And No! This “Man amongst men” did not choose the various luxurious shelters from the cold, snow and ice offered by the bevvy of great hotels, lodges, Air B&B’s and etcetera in Europe, but… rather chose to ‘wild camp’ in his little tent along the way.
He only succumbed to the wiles of comfortable formal accommodations once he crossed the Mediterranean sea amid security concerns from the wildly radical groups peppered across our beautiful continent. Chatting to Fabry he says that, apart from aforementioned radicals, you just need a little bit of common sense and local guidance to navigate around the hot spots. He found everybody in Africa super friendly, incredibly helpful, innovative and extremely generous…
But let’s start from the beginning.
Fabry has toured all over the world on various bikes from the likes of Hondas behemoth, the Goldwing which he loves touring Europe and the U.S. on, to his Africa Twin and everything in between. He purchased his Twin brand new from his local Honda Wing Dealership and, apart from a little bit of crash protection, luggage and mounts for his multimedia equipment he literally just swung a leg over, pointed it north and hit the road… He carried an extra oil filter with him, cleaned his air filter regularly and relied on help from the locals along the way as and when he needed it… which wasn’t often at all, just a puncture and rim repair thanks to damage caused by African pot holes.
In fact he was at Honda East Rand to have an oil leak sorted on the front electronic suspension caused by more of our infamous pot holes and a major service before turning his bike back north and heading for home.
Fabry says:
“When I got to Nordkapp it was May 2023 and it was very, very cold with ice and snow everywhere.”
DT: We assume you were riding with winter gear on?, Yes, my winter riding gear really worked very well, but it was still very cold.
DT: And we understand you wild camped in the ice and snow?!?!?, Yes, of course! The Africa Twin is an adventure bike and what is more of an adventure than wild camping? I love sleeping in a tent, under natures canopy… it is part of the freedom and the good feelings you get from overlanding.”
DT: So, once you got to the south of Spain, where did you cross the Mediterranean? “Yes, I went to Tarifa and Bay of Algeciras in Andalusia in Spain which is the most southern port in Europe, and from Tarifa you can see Africa across the water, you can see Morocco. From there I took the ferry to Morocco, it is only an hour trip across the Mediterranean because it is so close. I disembarked in Tangiers and decided to head down the west cost of Africa, Morocco, Mauritania, Senegal, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Congo, Angola, Namibia and South Africa.”
DT: Now we have to ask you, Did you wild camp in Africa? “Yes, not as much as in Europe, but I did wild camp in Guinea as well as in Cameroon but not more than that… because… it is more… tricky in Africa, there are a lot of people everywhere. For example, if you are camping in the woods or jungle at night where you think you are alone some people will appear out of nowhere.”
DT: One of the reasons they moved the Paris-Dakar out of Africa was because of security concerns for the competitors – did you have any problems in this regard or feel unsafe anywhere? “There were times… of course, this is not Europe, it is very different here, (Africa), but it was mostly fine all the way. I was advised only to ride during the day, not only because of the security risks but also the pot holes in African roads are very plenty and very big and there are a lot of vehicles and the drivers have their own style and rules, so for road safety I kept to daytime riding only. But no problems with the people, there are always a lot of people everywhere in Africa, always very friendly, smiling all the time and waving and very helpful… I love Africa, especially Nigeria.”
DT: You mentioned that you spent quite a bit of time in Nigeria with the local biking community?… and this is where Fabry got visibly excited and started grinning from ear to ear and started dancing around a bit: “Yes! Yes!
The bikers community in Nigeria is very strong and they gave me lots of help, I spent a lot of time in Lagos with some guys that have a motorcycle school, so we rode around the Lagos area for a few days and then we went to a bike festival and there were a lot bikers from everywhere, I don’t know exact numbers, but lots of people from everywhere…. Was very interesting and exciting.”
DT: What was the most popular bike you saw in Africa? “This one here… (He says pointing to a Honda CB125 Ace), there are a lot of motorcycle taxis in Africa, when I got to Nigeria something changed, no so many motorcycles taxis and more bigger bikes, similar to here in South Africa and also with Namibia. Namibia and South Africa are different to the rest of Africa, more like Europe with the bigger bikes.”
DT: Tell us about an average day in the saddle, how many hours and etcetera… “It is different day by day depending on the weather, road conditions and the distance I need to cover. In Europe it was different to Africa, in Europe I would ride for twelve hours most days because road conditions and traffic are generally good. In Africa because of the condition of the roads, sometimes many potholes and plenty traffic coming from all directions at the same time – especially in Nigeria, other times thick sand or mud and also because of the heat I would get more tired from the intense concentration and from the heat, so six, seven maximum eight hours a day on the bike was enough.”
DT: how did you find riding off-road in Africa?) “I didn’t really do much off road riding because I am a solo rider and it a lot of places it was raining a lot, so plenty of mud and slippery conditions and the pot holes were filling with water making it difficult to see them, but did do some in the Ivory Coast and it was enjoyable. I also did some off riding in Cameroon, but it was very muddy. I had to go out through the north of Nigeria as it is not possible to cross the border between Nigeria and Cameroon because of a lot of troubles between the two countries. So I had to go to Chad then to Cameroon and ride back to the coastal rode through a lot of muddy off roads that way and also lots of thick sand in northern Nigeria.”
DT: Thick sand, with a heavy laden adventure bike like yours is, that must have been interesting?) “Yes, lots of sand, not too difficult on my Africa Twin. I had to ask the local people, and paid a taxi to show me where to go because are no roads, absolutely no roads not even on Google Maps… It was quite an adventure. I love this bike because it can handle a lot of weight and still easy to handle off road. I am a vlogger so I carry a lot more extra weight than most adventure riders with all my media equipment and this bike was really good in the baddest conditions of bad mud and thick sand… it is a very, very good bike, many people say it is a heavy bike but found it is easy to handle off road and I am not very tall. On the road, I wasn’t riding very fast because I was enjoying the scenery and the views, but it was very good on the tarmac as well, in total in the last four and a half months from Genoa to Nordkapp to Cape Agulhas and now to Johannesburg I have done 26,000 kilometres with no problems… except for one day, I was riding on tarmac, nice and relaxed, enjoying the scenery and not really concentrating too hard, you know, just a chilled ride. Unfortunately the sun was in my eyes and I didn’t see a pot hole and ended up hitting it and damaged the rear wheel and it was losing pressure. Unfortunately I was in the middle of the countryside in Northern Cameroon with no Gas stations in sight. I had two battery operated pumps with me and only just managed to make it to the next major city before the batteries ran out on the pumps. When I got into the city I managed to find quite a primitive tyre shop to help repair my rim with a fire and hammers… they did a very good job.”
DT: Travelling through the more remote areas of Africa, did you have any difficulty finding things like clean drinking water, fuel for your bike, decent food to eat? “I found clean bottled water everywhere with no problem and fuel also, although I did have some strange experiences in the north part of Nigeria and in Brazzaville in Congo because it was Christmas time there were fuel shortages. The gas stations were telling me that they didn’t have fuel but they do have a ‘friend on the black market’ that can help with fuel in bottles.
The problem is that sometimes that fuel in the bottles is dirty and that is a big problem with a fuel injection bike. So I tried to negotiate with the guys from the gas stations to sell me proper fuel and eventually they agreed. It was not an easy negotiation but I did manage to get enough fuel to get to the next major city where I found fuel easy enough.”
(DT: Preparing for an overland trip like you are doing, what preparations did you make to your motorcycle?) “To the mechanics of the motorcycle itself, I did nothing, of course it is a Honda Africa Twin and is designed for such an adventure. So I fitted some crash protection, some luggage racks, luggage and a tank bag from Givi and some camera mounts. Then I got wider foot pegs and metal reinforced handguard’s but the rest of the bike is one hundred percent stock… oh, I also got some ram mount mirrors off eBay so they wouldn’t break if I fell over. For me for overlanding it is best to keep everything as stock original as it comes from the factory because if you change something in the engine or somewhere else, for me that is not good and looking for trouble, so I purchase the best bike for that purpose. This bike, (Honda Africa Twin), is ready to travel the world straight off the show room floor”
(DT: So your plan was to fly back to Italy from Cape Town). “Yes, that was my plan, but I love Africa so very much and bike is so good and so much fun to ride that I decided to ride back to Italy up the eastern side of Africa, also as an ‘Overlander’ I don’t like to fly because you miss so much and I like to see everything, experience everything, taste everything… just experience as much of each country and culture as I can, when you up there you miss everything, this is the main reason I like to ride overland.”
“I want to say a very big Thank You to the guys from Honda Wing South Africa for arranging a major service and some repairs to my suspension seals with Motus Honda East Rand… they have even given me a motorcycle to ride around on for a few days while they work on my bike. Without them I could have been in big trouble, Thank You, Thank You… Thank You!”
If you are keen to follow Fabrizio on any of the social media platforms or You Tube just look up the handle “Fabryrock”
