Cape Town to Kigali in under 12 days? It’s been done.

Most of us have been there. A fortnight off, a head full of ambition, and a calendar that laughs in your face. Scott Edwards from Texas had less than 12 days of annual leave and wanted to do something properly epic. Not a long weekend in the Lakes. Africa.

He got in touch with Andrew Vaughan, owner of Ride Down South – a South Africa-based tour company that builds bespoke adventure motorcycle trips around what you’ve actually got, not what you wish you had. Together, they mapped out a route. Cape Town to Kigali, Rwanda. Nine countries. Over 5,280 miles. Under two weeks. Both on Honda Africa Twins.

They headed out of Cape Town along the coastal roads of western South Africa and Namibia – well-maintained tarmac, sea views, the sort of riding that makes you wonder why you ever stay home. That didn’t last long. They peeled off the blacktop and onto dirt, into the arid Great Karoo plains, the Cederberg mountains cracking up out of the dry earth ahead of them. North it was. Into southern Namibia.

Trouble came early. Grinding through the Kupferberg Pass on gravel, a fork seal on Scott’s bike started weeping oil straight onto his front tyre and brakes. Not ideal on a mountain pass. Andrew’s background as a mechanical engineer came in handy, he rigged a field fix 190 miles short of Windhoek, and they nursed it there before dark. Cold beers that evening. Replacement seal in the morning. Onwards.

Turning east into Botswana and Zambia, the landscape shifted into savannah. Game reserves rolled past and the wildlife showed up – leopard, elephants, hippos, giraffe, zebra. A Land Rover’s fine for a safari. An Africa Twin is better.

They swung north-east towards the Great Rift Valley, took in the shores of Lake Malawi and Lake Victoria, and stopped at Victoria Falls – Mosi-oa-Tunya, ‘The Smoke that Thunders’ in the local Bantu language. Largest curtain of falling water in the world. Worth five minutes off the clock.

To claw back time, they folded two days of riding into one, over 650 miles along Zambia’s Great East Road to Malawi. By the time they reached Chipata, near the Zambian border, the local bar was calling. Neither of them heard it. They were asleep before they’d properly sat down.

A slow border crossing into Malawi cost them a few hours while Scott’s visa was processed. But then: Lake Malawi, camped on the shore, fire going, ancient stars overhead. There are worse places to lose an evening.

By day eight, it was early winter in the Southern Hemisphere, the light dropping fast, the roads getting rougher. Bats and insects scrapping in the beam of their headlights. Scott, a zookeeper by trade, spotted an Egyptian Cobra rearing up at him as he rode past. By the time he’d turned around, it was gone. They pushed on north into Tanzania along an unmarked gravel road, fuel running low near Ilungu, where a village schoolmaster took them in for the night.

Morning came. They rode for the shores of Lake Victoria, the largest tropical lake in the world, only Lake Superior ahead of it for total surface area. Big enough to watch the sun set over it like you’re looking out across the Pacific. The ecosystem around it has taken a hammering from invasive species and human settlement, and may look completely different in fifty years. They were glad to see it now.

Through the Serengeti, into Kenya, then Uganda. A section of road washed out by recent storms. Some locals. Collective problem-solving in the mud. They chose to ride the long way round the eastern shore of Lake Victoria rather than cut west, an extra 620 miles they couldn’t really afford, and didn’t regret for a second.

On the final day they rode south into Rwanda past tea and coffee plantations, praying the border wouldn’t bite. It didn’t. Scott had time for a shower and something to eat before saying goodbye to Andrew and heading for the airport.

Andrew, meanwhile, had another client waiting in Kigali. After a quick shower, he was back in the saddle, this time heading south at a more relaxed pace, with gorillas at Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, volcanic lakes, and the Ruwenzori mountains on the itinerary.

If your leave allowance has always felt like the thing standing between you and something worth telling people about, this trip suggests otherwise. Ride Down South’s whole thing is making this sort of tour work around real life. Worth a look.

Two wheels, one club.