Ask a tourist what their favourite thing to do is, and expect them to say “travelling” — but if you asked Polish citizen Anna Zak, you will be treated to an intriguing story.
Since 2016, Zak has visited a medley of countries and climates unknown to most, and all of it for the “thrill of the experience”.
An innate love for the great outdoors led the intrepid traveller and a friend on a 14,000km journey from her home country to Australia seven years ago.
Six continents later, the freelance IT project manager is on the first leg of an African expedition.
Her departure from Olsztyn, Poland, marked the start of the odyssey three weeks ago.
She rode into SA via Vioolsdrif on the main border to Namibia, northwest of Namaqualand in the Northern Cape.
After a curious turn, which included a wild ride in the Great Karoo, the adventurer cranked up her two-wheeler and arrived at the Cape of Good Hope.
“It was a significant halfway milestone for the trip,” Zak said ahead of a looming trek back to Europe along East Africa.
Zak made her way into Nelson Mandela Bay on Tuesday last week, booking her bike in for a tyre change.
“I had left Europe and came all the way to [Gqeberha] with only one set of tyres,” she said.
“I wanted the same type of tyres to return to Poland without buying another set.”
A few hours later, she toggled her compass to the next point in the journey — Baviaanskloofrivier via Hankey.
But an unexpected breakdown put a spanner in the works.
“It was a beautiful unpaved stretch of road on the way to Baviaanskloofrivier. But my bike broke down on the highway.”
Afterwards, Chevonne Bishop, who Zak had met outside Xtreme Yamaha a day earlier, drove out to lend her a helping hand.
“I noticed she was a [lone] lady on a bike. She had saddlebags, indicating she was travelling far distances.
“We chatted briefly ... and off she went to Baviaanskloofrivier,” Bishop said of the chance encounter.
“A little while later, [after reaching] Hankey, she called me. Her bike had stopped working.”
After picking up Zak, the women drove to the bike service centre in Walmer.
“She thought it was the fuel filter and, lo and behold, she was right,” Bishop said.
An impressed Bishop invited Zak to spend a night at her home in Essexvale before leaving the next day.
“[Chevonne] saved me,” the biker said on Monday after continuing her journey to Senekal in the Free State.
“When you travel this way, you meet friends for life.”
Her trip from Hankey took her through Prince Alfred’s Pass, where she had another breakdown.
Another kind stranger came to her rescue.
She hade planned to travel to East London but settled on Bloemfontein, 700km away, to get motorcycle parts before heading to Senekal.
By Thursday, with only one week left of her 30-day visa in SA, the nomad was trekking through the Sani Pass between Himeville, west of KwaZulu-Natal, and Mokhotlong, Lesotho.
A planned venture into Lesotho would not go ahead.
“Polish citizens, to enter Lesotho, must pay $150 [about R2,720] for a visa.
“I decided to [instead] go around Lesotho towards the Underberg and then the top of Sani Pass.”
Left to wander alone after her companion on the Australian trip opted for a less travelled life, the Covid-19 pandemic put the skids on Zak’s first solo joyride during a trip to South America.
“I had worked for 18 months and decided to put my bike in a container in 2018.
“I spent 20 months riding through South and Central America and Mexico, then Covid-19 started,” she said.
Due to the restrictions, she remained at the US border, only departing after four months.
But to her dismay, she could not take her 644cc single-cylinder dual-sport Suzuki DR650 back to Poland.
Once the borders opened in April 2022, she returned to the US border hoping to retrieve it.
“Sadly, the bike was in a bad way,” Zak said.
“It was corroded inside a storage container close to the sea.
“A mechanic tried fixing it, but after 5,000km, I got zero compression on the engine.”
A Honda CRF she had acquired in 2020 was on hand to replace it. Back in the pound seat, Zak revved her engine.
Two weeks after arriving home from America, a trip to Nordkapp in Norway kick-started the next leg of her expedition.
“As I had not reached Alaska on my first trip, I decided I’d tour Africa,” Zak said.
“That ‘test drive’ took me into Lithuania, Finland [and] back through Sweden, Denmark and Germany.”
Impressed after her bike passed the all-important distance test, she ran a final maintenance check, eventually starting her journey into the plains of Africa on September 19 2022.
“I rode through Europe, arriving in Spain, where I took a ferry to Morocco.
“From there, I began travelling towards SA on the west coast of Africa through Mauritania, Senegal, Guinea and Ivory Coast.”
After an ADV ride through Le Dent de Man and the Wli waterfalls in Ghana, she reached Benin through Togo, continuing the descent past Nigeria, Cameroon, Congo and Angola.
Her travels along the East African coast from SA next week will take her to Mozambique.
“I don’t have much time left,” Zak said.
“I will do Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania, Kenya and maybe Uganda.
“I’ll go towards Ethiopia depending on the situation there, or ship the bike from Mombasa [in Kenya] to Oman [in the Middle East] and go back home.”
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