Livingstone Zambia to Maun Botswana. 5 long days in the saddle.

17^th April 2011. Livingstone, Zambia to Kasane, Botswana. 85kms. 8^th Country.

After having 2 rest days in one of the most fabulous hotels on earth, swimming, eating, go to Victoria Falls, it’s time to get back on the bike and enter our 8^th country.

We have 12 new riders joining the trip for the next section; some will ride all the way to Cape town.  We got back to the camp around 5.30am, giving us plenty of get dressed and sort out all of gear for the next 5 days on the road.

We left camp at around 6.50am for the ride to lunch at the 60km mark.  The first part we rode back into Livingstone and turned left for the ride to Kasangula and the ferry crossing into Botswana.  I last crossed this border in 2008 with Graciella when we stayed at Elephant Valley Lodge.  Now that’s a place that should be on your bucket list.

We rolled along out of the city and headed west for the long trip ahead.  Over the next 5 days we will be heading for the town of Maun, Botswana.  Today is 85, followed by 160, 160, 182, and 135.  Firstly I have to get through today.  I rode with Luke and Peter and was joined by Heather.  We had a nice pace going, but I wasn’t in the mood to be pushing it hard after having 2 days off the bike and eating like a pig.

After riding about 20kms we noticed some riders stopped on the side of the road, sure enough, one huge bull elephant eating by the side of the road.  Now we all know about how dangerous these animals can be, but we did have a good gap between him and us.  We took some photos and pushed onto the lunch stop, as we knew we’d be wasting time at the border crossing.

With a nice lunch of toasted sandwiches it was back for the final ½ hour ride to the border cross of Kasangula.  Just like in 2008, there were at least 200 trucks waiting to get on the ferry to cross into Botswana.  The trucks could take a more timely entry into Botswana via the Victoria Falls bridge, but this would be supporting the corrupt regime of Robert Mugabe, so one truck driver told me today.  The border crossing was really smooth and within no time we were on the ferry crossing the Zambezi River for the last time in my life.  There will be no return to Africa this time.

After completing the formalities at the Botswanan side of the border we were ready to enter our 8^th country of the tour.  It’s just mind blowing to think that we have travelled through 7 countries and covered over 8500kms.  Now that’s impressive.

The camp site is called Thebe River Camp which is excellent and has a swimming pool and nice area to pitch Tent Hilton.  It’s slightly less comfortable than the Royal Livingstone my tent. Luke and I went into the small town of Kasane to get some money, but NO, it’s Sunday, banks are shut.  Oh well, have to try tomorrow to get some Pula, the local currency.  

In the afternoon about 60 cyclists went on the Chobe River Cruise to check out the wildlife.  The Chobe National Park and River system has the highest number of elephants anywhere in the world.  We got to see heaps of elephants, crocodiles, birds, monitor lizards, and hippos over the 3 hour trip. For $35US it was a great deal. We just cruised along all afternoon, watching as the elephants came down to the river to cool off from the hot afternoon sun.  The hippos were doing what they do best, laying in the water doing nothing.  The crocodiles were hanging near the shore waiting for some unexpected animal to pop its head into the water and have it taken off.

It was fabulous afternoon with a stunning sunset as we finished the cruise.  We got back to camp just before dinner.  At the rider meeting I was presented with my Stage Winners plate, which I’m so proud of, and will have some nice photos taken before we hit the road.

During the meeting we had 2 guest speakers, one from Elephants without borders and a gentleman who has lived and worked with elephants and lions for over 40 years in Botswana.  Basically they said there’s a heap of dangerous animals on the road to Maun, and be careful.  Now that’s a lot of help when you’re on a bike and I’m not carrying rocket propelled launcher to take the thing out if it decides to chase me.  No problem I picked a slow bunch to ride with tomorrow, so the slowest will be screwed, not me.

So it’s time to hit the sack and hopefully get a good night’s sleep in another beautiful African country.

18^th April 2011.  Thebe River Camp, Kasane, Botswana, to Bush Camp.  170kms.

Finally I had a real good night’s sleep.  I had a bit of work to do after dinner with typing up the blog and trying to rearrange my locker so all my crap would fit in.  Basically I brought far too much gear for this holiday.  A lot will be donated to charity when I get to Cape Town.  So today we were suppose to have a 160km ride but was extended to 170 which was more suitable for camping.

I rode with Peter again and met some other riders along throughout the day.  We just cruised along at a leisurely pace enjoying the scenery of a billion sun flower plants and corn plants as well.  During the first part of the morning we had to slow down as there was an enormous elephant crossing the rode up ahead.  This was too big to try and pass, so we waited for a while and left him be.   We continued on searching the forests for elephants all day, but this was the only one we seen.  We did get to see a spectacular Chameleon which Peter picked up and placed on my shoulder for the photo shoot.  I am so brave.  Peter let it crawl up over his helmet and all over him.  These little creatures can change colour so quickly it’s just amazing to see.

The dinner truck was at 75kms.  Like every other lunch stop the food is plenty and of high quality.  You will never go hungry on this tour.  Peter and I continued on, but still no elephants on the horizon.  Due to the stage being extended, the Boss organised for a refresh stop at 140kms.  This is what we really need, a chance to fill the bottles and get some more food for the final 30km push to camp. 

We did stop at this petrol station in the middle of nowhere for a coke.  We had about 10 cyclists laying on the concrete floor outside the shop just relaxing, and some snoozing.  There absolutely no reason to rush to the bush camp, because there’s nothing much to do in these camps.  Just a dust bowl.

The wind picked up later in the afternoon and this helped us to sit on around 32kph for the final hour of the ride.  We arrived in camp at 3pm, giving me plenty of time to put up Tent Hilton, do some typing, get some soup with my can of tuna, and do nothing more.

Dinner will be served around 5.30pm, followed by a nice cup of tea and then it’s off to bed for a 1q/2 hour read of my new book titled ’Pompei’ by Robert Harris.  By the time I’ve read for 30 minutes it should be 7pm, which means lights out and go to sleep.Now that might seem rather regimental but this is life on the tour.  You have set time to get up, a time to eat, a time you need to be on the bike.  You ride to lunch and eat.  You ride to camp, put up tent, rest, eat, go to bed.  It’s that simple everyday of the week.

I do like sleeping in my tent, and I certainly like riding the bike, but getting up early give me the shits.  So it’s goodnight from a dust bowl about 140kms north of Nata, Botswana. 

19^th April 2011.  Bush Camp to Nata Lodge, Botswana. 148kms.

The reason we didn’t stay at our designated bush camp is because the director saw a python in the camp and the owner also indicated some lion prints around the camp.  It was decided to move the camp a further 12kms down the road to somewhere safer.

Now for today.  Another good night sleep and up at 5.25am.  I think I actually sleep better in my tent instead of some posh hotel room.  We headed out with the rider around 6.40am for a long day on the ride.  The first part was nice and easy with turns taken at the front of the bunch by all riders.  The lunch truck was at 75kms so we had about 2 & ½ hours of riding before we eat again, after all we had only eaten some 2 & ½ hours ago and we would be hungry by then.

The road was full of potholes and pointing out them to the riders behind is really important.  The land is really flat with just a slight raise every now and then.  The fields are covered with a short grass that sways in the wind and nothing else.  There was a huge elephant pointed out by the Boss on the side of the road, and man it was enormous.  It stayed in the bushes eating away, so we were pretty safe.  So back on the road and time for more food.

Still the road was terrible and made riding so much more draining trying to get over so many bumps and holes to avoid.  As soon as we hit the new road our speed picked up from about 27kph to 35kph, it was like riding on air.  We just cranked it up a notch and were flying.  By this time we had about 20 riders in the peloton. We kept riding in the same fashion passing through land that had never seen trees or had a crop planted for years.  In the 148km ride we did pass one small settlement and nothing else.  We roared into the town of Nata and immediately headed for the ATM to drain it of its most valuable resource, MONEY.  I can never get enough of it.

Together with Luke, Horst, Steven and Mike we devoured a double chicken burger, washed down with a coke.  We just keep shoveling it in, day after day not worrying about putting on weight, ready to burn it all off again tomorrow.  Oh yeah tomorrow is 182kms.

So after getting a new sim card for Luke we were on our way for the final 10kms to the finish line and our home for the night, Nata Lodge.  If you get the chance check it out on the internet, it’s a beautiful place, and has a swimming pool and bar.

As soon as I had put up Tent Hilton it was time to hit the pool and relax for the rest of the afternoon.  It’s Christine Wolfe’s birthday today and she’s putting on drinks at the bar after dinner, I’m sure some the cyclists will look pretty shabby tomorrow morning. So what, that’s Africa.

Time for dinner and try and fix up my spares bag that broke off my bike.  That’s the second one I’ve broke on this holiday.  I’ve got to get going as they’re having a water bomb competition, and I’m in one of the teams.  So it’s good night again from Nata Lodge, Botswana.

20^th April 2011.  Nata Lodge, Nata Botswana to Bush Camp.  184kms.

Well what it a night.  To it mildly, I had the worst sleep this tour.  I got to sleep around 7.30pm and from there on the night went to shit.  I heard some rain around 3am so of course I had to get out in the pouring rain in my underpants and fix the tent, because I had left some flaps hanging loose to let some more air in.  And of course I let 52 litres of rain water run through my expensive tent.

So I ended up with a wet mattress, wet sleeping bag and damp clothes.  To make things worse, I broke the major tent pole that holds the whole tent together when I was putting my tent down at 5.30am in the pouring rain. Now this sucks big time.  The only thing I can do is just get on with the day and sort out the mess when I get to camp after riding 184kms.   No big deal.

Before we even left the camp Luke, Scott and Tory wanted to go to the Lodge restaurant for a nice coffee.  The restaurant didn’t open to 7am so we had to wait, while all the cyclists were riding up the road.  We eventually left the lodge at 7.30am, the same time the rain was starting to ease up.  It was a good thing we waited instead of heading off at 6.30am like the rest of them in pouring down rain.

We rode up to speed straight away and sat on around 35kph till we reach the Wimpy shop at Nata.  There were heaps of cyclists and heaps that were riding the truck today.  We sat around for a while and decided to just get into the long day and push on.

Our group was about 12 strong all morning to the lunch stop at 85kms.  It was really hard pulling turns at 32-35kph but the slight tailwind was helping immensely.  The landscape we were riding through consisted of flat plains with small grass either side of the roadway, and not a village to be seen.  We only saw about 2 people all day.  There was one stage when we passed some thick bushland that elephants were sighted but we didn’t see any today.  

We had a quick lunch and continued onto Planet Baobab resort at the 105km mark.  This was a pretty good resort with a nice bar, restaurant and swimming pool.  I think the boys only like the swimming pool because of the 3 very healthy ladies that were sun baking around the pool.  I wasn’t interested to go and have a look, I was too tired and I still had another 80kms to go.  We stayed at the lodge for another hour drinking coke, coffee and some had the biggest slice of chocolate I had seen for some time.  I’m on a diet for the next month and concentrating on not eating rubbish food anymore.

So it was back on the road again.  Still the beautiful swaying grass pushed over in the direction we were travelling and we just kept pushing on and on into the early hours of the afternoon.  It was so hard to sit on 35kph when it became my turn, but I had too, because sitting on is not an option.  

The roads were flat like the Nullarbor Plains of Australia and just as straight.  There were no hills to think of and just long, very long roads with grass and some small pans.  The only animals hanging around were donkeys. We arrived in camp at 3.10pm, and I was very tired.  Now the fun began.  Firstly I had to pull out my wet tent and roll out matt and try and dry the things.  I got Sam to help me fix the tent pole and this worked perfectly.  My tent went up without a problem and is still up.  My roll out mat is now dried and my damp sleeping bag is still damp.  

I managed to get everything dried out by dinner and get Tent Hilton into some sort of order.  I can’t wait to get home and throw all my gear around the place.  Just imagine my bedroom is about 5m X 4m.  My tent is about 2.5m X 1.5m, now that‘s a lot of space to spread out in.  And I’ve got some crap with me.

Dinner was like usual, fabulous, and I went back for seconds. I’m now full and finished my blog update.  I hope to sleep well as I’ve got 135kms to Maun and then a rest day.  I really need a rest.  So it’s good night once again from yet another bush camp on my way to Cape Town, South Africa.  Just bring it on.

21^st April 2011. Bush Camp to Maun, Botswana.  136kms.

Last night I had a good night’s sleep and woke at 5.40am.  Now that doesn’t leave much time to get dressed, pack up Tent Hilton and put all the gear in my locker.  I managed to do everything and eat and be on my bike by 6.40am.

As soon as I put the power down I knew my legs were in trouble.  My legs were so sore and tired I knew that today was going to be a long day in the saddle.  To make things worse we had a head wind to content with.  Yeh, I know I’m a whinger, but I’m really tired. We rolled along around 32kph for the first 2 & ½ hours to the lunch break.  My legs were getting better as the day went on, but I could tell that some of the cyclists were struggling after the big kms this week.

The road was nice smooth pavement with very little traffic.  The only animals we saw were donkeys, goats, and a couple of horses.  Some of the other cyclists did get see some elephants later in the day.  We enjoyed a nice lunch and were back on the bike for the remaining 65kms to finish the day at the Sedia Riverside Hotel Maun.  

As we approached the outskirts of town Luke took off at the rate of knots trying to get to the hotel before the group arrived so we could get a room instead of staying in my damp tent for the next 2 nights.  It was a mad rush for the final 5kms and I was just about done when we pulled into the hotel grounds.  Luke and I did get a really nice room at $135per night.  I don’t really care about the expenses at this stage of the tour, because I’m sick and tired of sleeping in my tent.  I still have about 3 weeks of tenting and that I can manage.

I booked a flight over the Okavango delta for 4pm tomorrow with Luke, Scott Demoss and his father and Mr Rodney Hilton Sanders.  I’ve done a lot of reading about the delta over the years but now that I’ve got a chance to check it out, I can’t pass up on the opportunity.   A 1 hour flight costs $110 per person.

So tonight will be a drinking session for some of the young cyclists enjoying their birthdays, while I’ll be taking it easy and trying to recover from the tiredness I feel after the last 5 days of cycling.

And the most important thing about tomorrow is it’s our rest day.  Those means sleep in, and not even look at a tent.  Will update again tomorrow after the flight.