Circling the Great Karoo

There is a sense of great exhilaration when you set off on a long motorbike journey - alone. Especially when it entails riding the Great Karoo's minor dirt roads seldom visited by anybody other than the diehards who farm there, and who manage to co-exist with one of the harshest environments and climates on the planet.

But this is not just any journey through the Karoo; it is a journey that also delves into both its recent and ancient evolutionary past. The result: a historical treasure-trove filled with stories about South Africa's earliest and more recent inhabitants, Europeans explorers' and outlaws' trails, accounts of the Anglo-Boer war battles that pop up along the way and revelations about mammal-like reptiles and first true dinosaur fossils that are uncovered during the journey.