The elephant highway has been a challenging section. Long days in the saddle up to 207km, which took me 9 hours on my bike to complete. Botswana was flat, the scenery unchanging. Thorn tree after thorn tree, my slick tyres wore out so I've been riding the last few weeks with my semi- slicks which means slightly harder work. I just tell myself I'll be fitter for it when I get home! To make life more exciting I ride with different people everyday. I spent one whole day riding with the sweep rider - Shanny and Henry in the morning then Alex in the afternoon. Sometimes I still ride alone and listen to my MP3 player. I ride with Sonja, Viv, Isabel, Mara, & Lloyd taking it in turns in a peloton to get through the wind. I ride with Tim and Bruce where we take 10minute turns on the front. There's meant to be prevailing tail winds but the weather doesn't seem to want to behave itself. I'm pleased to have reached Namibia, and the next 7 days are unpaved road. Woohoo!!! As well as the challenging long days the mentality of the riders has been somewhat lower. We can see the end approaching but it still seemed so far away. Only 2 more weeeks now and I think there'll be a mixture of excitement and sadness as we get closer and closer to Capetown.
3.5 months of camping is a long time to spend in your tent and now that we have reached Namibia we are below the high risk malaria area. The first two nights in Namibia I don't pitch my tent and sleep under the stars. The first night works fine, but the second night got a bit more exciting. The sky was clear when I went to sleep somewhere around 7:30pm. 10pm I wake to raindrops falling on my face. Everyone is frantically putting their flies on. I am the only one camping out and I crawl under the lunch truck where it is somewhat dryer and go back to sleep. The wind picks up and the rain gets heavier and I move over so that I'm not getting wet, and eventually I go back to sleep. At 2am I'm awake again. Its still raining and the moisture has collected on the pipes under the truck and is dripping quite heavily on me and my sleeping bag. I make a dash for it with my sleeping mat and sleeping bag to the campground kitchen, but when I get there I find that the fabric awning that shelters it is not waterproof. The only dry spot I can see is in the corner under the kitchen sleep so that is where I sleep. I wake extra early at 4:30 when James is up making scrambled eggs for us for breakfast. I give him a hand cracking eggs and drop a heap of egg shell into the mixture which makes me giggle (and everyone tells me the first thing they heard that morning was me giggling!). Sometimes we are so well supported I feel like I'm on a luxury tour and I really want this to be an intrepid expedition, which is how I felt that night!
The next day riding we get some rain, and I get nicely soaked and freezing cold on my way into Windhoek. Even though I am freezing cold and can barely see, I have a big giggle just because I am feeling so mad yet so alive!
Next time I don't pitch my tent I'll have to prearrange with someone to gatecrash if it rains!
Friday, April 24, 2009
Saturday, April 18, 2009
The Elephant and The Worm
I have pedalled the last 5 days along the section titled "The Elephant Highway", named so because there is a high chance of seeing elephants along the way! And the first day riding we are disappointed. I see plenty of butterflies. Plenty of caterpillars. Plenty of grasshoppers. Plenty of elephant poo (which we're told not to ride through because as well as obvious reasons, elephants like eating acacia trees which are thorny and the thorns don't digest too well and unless you really like fixing flats...).
The second day is better. There's more elephant poo to dodge. I see a deer-like creature which starts with the letter L but I can't pronounce the name or have any idea how to spell it! And then we pass by the biggest piece of road kill I have ever seen - man dead elephant stinks!!! We also pass by some hyena road kill. And then drinking by the waterhole is Bob, the biggest elephant I have ever seen. He's about 50m away from me and Evelyn (who doesn't spell her name like that but I don't know the right way to spell it) and staring at us. Don't think he sees too many bicycles. We get photos of ourselves with him in the background and he takes a few steps towards rider Simon, flapping his ears, and we think he's going to charge. He doesn't though but we don't linger too long and leave him to drink without being watched.
I see two more elephants that day, one crosses the road right in front of me, another I don't see until I've spooked it riding along beside it.
The following day we get warned of the rogue elephant who likes to stand on the highway and take on the cars. He's off duty thankfully when we pass though!
Ok - so now the story with the worm.
Worms are much smaller than elephants and in the Botswanian sand lies some larvae. The larvae have buried there way under at least 3 riders skin and grown into worms that wriggle and itch right under the skin. Some riders are also ill with intestinal worms too, and the treatment for both worms is apparantly the same - so now there is some talk that we all should take prophylactic worm medication. I am thankfully still asymptomatic - but very intrigued about these worms!
The long days in the saddle have led me to now understand what it feels like to have pressure areas! Nothing too major down there yet though!
Hope all is well with everyone back home :)
The second day is better. There's more elephant poo to dodge. I see a deer-like creature which starts with the letter L but I can't pronounce the name or have any idea how to spell it! And then we pass by the biggest piece of road kill I have ever seen - man dead elephant stinks!!! We also pass by some hyena road kill. And then drinking by the waterhole is Bob, the biggest elephant I have ever seen. He's about 50m away from me and Evelyn (who doesn't spell her name like that but I don't know the right way to spell it) and staring at us. Don't think he sees too many bicycles. We get photos of ourselves with him in the background and he takes a few steps towards rider Simon, flapping his ears, and we think he's going to charge. He doesn't though but we don't linger too long and leave him to drink without being watched.
I see two more elephants that day, one crosses the road right in front of me, another I don't see until I've spooked it riding along beside it.
The following day we get warned of the rogue elephant who likes to stand on the highway and take on the cars. He's off duty thankfully when we pass though!
Ok - so now the story with the worm.
Worms are much smaller than elephants and in the Botswanian sand lies some larvae. The larvae have buried there way under at least 3 riders skin and grown into worms that wriggle and itch right under the skin. Some riders are also ill with intestinal worms too, and the treatment for both worms is apparantly the same - so now there is some talk that we all should take prophylactic worm medication. I am thankfully still asymptomatic - but very intrigued about these worms!
The long days in the saddle have led me to now understand what it feels like to have pressure areas! Nothing too major down there yet though!
Hope all is well with everyone back home :)
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Victoria Falls - the adrenaline capital of Africa
It took 3 days for us to pedal the 480km between Lusaka to Livingstone, the town near Victoria Falls.
Victoria Falls is the adrenaline capital of Africa so of course I don't miss out on the opportunity of lots of adrenaline activities. I am a brave person - brave enough to bike across Africa, brave enough to venture from the suburbs into town on local transport in the city of Lusaka and back again by myself (which I did because everyone else was simply hanging out at the western mall on our last rest day and I wanted to check out the markets in town!). I'm quite proud of myself for this because it was tricky figuring out which bus to get back on again - but definitely worth it and even though I gave up on finding the snake stone, I did find the Rambo Tot (which turned out to be a sachet of orange flavoured liquor), another item we were meant to find for the scavanger hunt. Jolyane and I came second in the great hunt anyhow!!!
Yesterday however I went on the gorge swing. The gorge swing consists of a rope suspended in the middle of the gorge. You stand on a platform on the edge of a cliff, and step off, and after you have had a free fall of 53 metres the rope swing catches you and you fly back up into the air again, fall again, and then its just like a massive massive swing.
I'm standing on the platform in my harness feeling ok, and I walk closer to the edge. The guy at the top says to me
"Are you ready?"
And I look down suddenly scared, and terrified. I don't really want to walk off the side of a cliff. This is crazy. But I am crazy - I know that already (enough people told me before I left, and enough of the locals over here tell us the same thing!).
"No" I tell him. "I'm scared".
He smiles...
"3-2-1" he says
I know thats my cue to walk off the side of the cliff.
"Can we do the counting thing again?" I ask.
And he counts again.
And I walk off the side of a massively high cliff, and fall at 140km/hr down the 53 metres watching the trees at the bottom of the gorge come closer and closer.
The rope catches me and I get the giggles at myself for getting so scared about something that only lasts a few seconds and check out the view of the gorge while I'm swinging backwards and forwards until they lower me to the ground.
I have 2 more goes on the swings - both of them are tandems. It wasn't any easier going over the edge. The next time is with Malcolm the Giant. Malcolm and I get harnessed up again, we get shown where to hold each others harnesses and they tie our feet together. Going tandem you have to go over the side of the cliff backwards. Malcolm is more brave than I am and as we're leaning backwards to fall over the side of the cliff he's leaning backwards faster than I am. I'm scared and start leaning forwards. He starts leaning forwards then too (he says anyway - I didn't realise!) and I pluck up enough courage to firstly swear ("oh f*** it") before I lean backwards and pull Malcolm with me over the side of the cliff. And we're going head first towards the hard rocky cliff face on the other side of the gorge, faster than before (180km/hr maybe) because tandems are faster, and heavier.
It's a funny story now because lots of us are aware that we swear more than we did before we came, but I'm still not a big swearer yet!
This morning I spend more of my hard earned $s (I keep using the excuse that I don't know when the next time I'll be in Africa will be) and take a flight on a microlight glider to see the falls and it was a really cool!!! So much fun. Microlights are kind of like a hang glider with a motor. John my cool Aussie pilot from Alice Springs points out some hippos below us.
There's some more long days awaiting us and tomorrow is going to be an easy 82km day to get us across and into Botswana. 3 countries to go and only 4 weeks.
Janey - you asked if I was looking forward to coming home or sad to be leaving. And the honest answer is that at the moment I'm happy, and in 4 weeks time I will be ready to come home. I love biking, but at the moment I spend 7-8 hours actually sitting on my bike covering all these kms. 5-6 hours a day would be sufficient I think!!! So yes, starting to look forward to coming home, but still enjoying the pedalling (although feeling challenged by the end of the day - which is the whole idea in the first place. This trip wasn't meant to be easy!)
Annie Jo - thanks for your email, looking forward to hearing Adams band when I get home!!!
HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!!!!
Victoria Falls is the adrenaline capital of Africa so of course I don't miss out on the opportunity of lots of adrenaline activities. I am a brave person - brave enough to bike across Africa, brave enough to venture from the suburbs into town on local transport in the city of Lusaka and back again by myself (which I did because everyone else was simply hanging out at the western mall on our last rest day and I wanted to check out the markets in town!). I'm quite proud of myself for this because it was tricky figuring out which bus to get back on again - but definitely worth it and even though I gave up on finding the snake stone, I did find the Rambo Tot (which turned out to be a sachet of orange flavoured liquor), another item we were meant to find for the scavanger hunt. Jolyane and I came second in the great hunt anyhow!!!
Yesterday however I went on the gorge swing. The gorge swing consists of a rope suspended in the middle of the gorge. You stand on a platform on the edge of a cliff, and step off, and after you have had a free fall of 53 metres the rope swing catches you and you fly back up into the air again, fall again, and then its just like a massive massive swing.
I'm standing on the platform in my harness feeling ok, and I walk closer to the edge. The guy at the top says to me
"Are you ready?"
And I look down suddenly scared, and terrified. I don't really want to walk off the side of a cliff. This is crazy. But I am crazy - I know that already (enough people told me before I left, and enough of the locals over here tell us the same thing!).
"No" I tell him. "I'm scared".
He smiles...
"3-2-1" he says
I know thats my cue to walk off the side of the cliff.
"Can we do the counting thing again?" I ask.
And he counts again.
And I walk off the side of a massively high cliff, and fall at 140km/hr down the 53 metres watching the trees at the bottom of the gorge come closer and closer.
The rope catches me and I get the giggles at myself for getting so scared about something that only lasts a few seconds and check out the view of the gorge while I'm swinging backwards and forwards until they lower me to the ground.
I have 2 more goes on the swings - both of them are tandems. It wasn't any easier going over the edge. The next time is with Malcolm the Giant. Malcolm and I get harnessed up again, we get shown where to hold each others harnesses and they tie our feet together. Going tandem you have to go over the side of the cliff backwards. Malcolm is more brave than I am and as we're leaning backwards to fall over the side of the cliff he's leaning backwards faster than I am. I'm scared and start leaning forwards. He starts leaning forwards then too (he says anyway - I didn't realise!) and I pluck up enough courage to firstly swear ("oh f*** it") before I lean backwards and pull Malcolm with me over the side of the cliff. And we're going head first towards the hard rocky cliff face on the other side of the gorge, faster than before (180km/hr maybe) because tandems are faster, and heavier.
It's a funny story now because lots of us are aware that we swear more than we did before we came, but I'm still not a big swearer yet!
This morning I spend more of my hard earned $s (I keep using the excuse that I don't know when the next time I'll be in Africa will be) and take a flight on a microlight glider to see the falls and it was a really cool!!! So much fun. Microlights are kind of like a hang glider with a motor. John my cool Aussie pilot from Alice Springs points out some hippos below us.
There's some more long days awaiting us and tomorrow is going to be an easy 82km day to get us across and into Botswana. 3 countries to go and only 4 weeks.
Janey - you asked if I was looking forward to coming home or sad to be leaving. And the honest answer is that at the moment I'm happy, and in 4 weeks time I will be ready to come home. I love biking, but at the moment I spend 7-8 hours actually sitting on my bike covering all these kms. 5-6 hours a day would be sufficient I think!!! So yes, starting to look forward to coming home, but still enjoying the pedalling (although feeling challenged by the end of the day - which is the whole idea in the first place. This trip wasn't meant to be easy!)
Annie Jo - thanks for your email, looking forward to hearing Adams band when I get home!!!
HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!!!!
Monday, April 6, 2009
Long days, the great scavenger hunt and a good nights rest
I have a new purpose as I pedal my way through Zambia - finding objects for The Great Zambian Scavenger Hunt. It's lots of fun and I feel kind of like I'm doing the amazing race! The hunt is all over at 5pm tomorrow and my partner in crime - the wonderful Jolyane and I still have a few more things to find. There is a list of 20 things on the list we need to find and so far we have scavenged:
- a broken discarded shoe
- a piece of amalesa (which we had to firstly find out what it was - charcoal!)
- a ngwe - which is an old Zambian coin no longer used
- a seed from a baobab tree
- a mozi (brand of beer) bottle cap
- a rusty nail
- and many more equally random objects.
We also needed a picture of me on a local bicycle - I chose one with a 3 year old kid on the back, and the frame was really huge and it was a really hard bike to ride, not to mention how worried I was that the kid would fall off the back!!! We have a picture of a Zambian person doing the TDA pose (holding their bicycle above their head).
Today we thought we might have had a lead for the "snake stone" which I think is apparently a special black stone that you rub on a snake bite thats supposed to fix you up. We need to find a Witch Doctor to get one of these. We saw a sign to the "Black Doctor" though 400m off the main road, which we followed into a little village which obviously (although only 50km from Lusaka) saw very few white people. They were very accommodating of us and although the doctor did not have a snake stone one of his 5 wives made us tea, and gave us bread and beans and we had a good chat... it was one of those great moments you get when you're travelling. The doctor himself was 79 years old and looking good. He said he had 62 children, who had 9 different mothers (but only 5 wives). He had some very cute kids (or maybe they were grandkids- I'm not sure!). Anyhow, Jolyane, Miranda, Nate, Dave & I (who were all with me in the village) managed to get behind the sweep rider so everyone was wondering where we were at lunchtime! And then Eric who was the afternoon sweep rider caught me finding my rusty nail in the afternoon. It was only the 2nd time I'd been caught by the sweep - I'm usually up near the front of the pack!
Anyhow, I'm in Lusaka now, the capital of Zambia. And thankful that tomorrow is a rest day because I am feeling tired - the last 5 days have been long - 145km, 175km, 141km, 151km, and today only 105km. But the rolling hills are never ending and there have been some big climbs. Thankfully however I have a new thermarest, kindly donated to a needy rider by Werner who had to go home early in Tanzania after he was hit by a truck and broke his elbow. Werner's thermarest is thick - at least half as thick as mine when it used to inflate, and it has a built in pillow. At night time even though I'm still on the ground in my tent, I feel like I'm back in my bed at home!!!
Mitch the Rockhopper is now feeling like new after Dr Mark operated on him recently and gave him an operation - a Total Drivetrain, casette and chainwheel Replacement he had. He's shifting again like he did when he was new!
- a broken discarded shoe
- a piece of amalesa (which we had to firstly find out what it was - charcoal!)
- a ngwe - which is an old Zambian coin no longer used
- a seed from a baobab tree
- a mozi (brand of beer) bottle cap
- a rusty nail
- and many more equally random objects.
We also needed a picture of me on a local bicycle - I chose one with a 3 year old kid on the back, and the frame was really huge and it was a really hard bike to ride, not to mention how worried I was that the kid would fall off the back!!! We have a picture of a Zambian person doing the TDA pose (holding their bicycle above their head).
Today we thought we might have had a lead for the "snake stone" which I think is apparently a special black stone that you rub on a snake bite thats supposed to fix you up. We need to find a Witch Doctor to get one of these. We saw a sign to the "Black Doctor" though 400m off the main road, which we followed into a little village which obviously (although only 50km from Lusaka) saw very few white people. They were very accommodating of us and although the doctor did not have a snake stone one of his 5 wives made us tea, and gave us bread and beans and we had a good chat... it was one of those great moments you get when you're travelling. The doctor himself was 79 years old and looking good. He said he had 62 children, who had 9 different mothers (but only 5 wives). He had some very cute kids (or maybe they were grandkids- I'm not sure!). Anyhow, Jolyane, Miranda, Nate, Dave & I (who were all with me in the village) managed to get behind the sweep rider so everyone was wondering where we were at lunchtime! And then Eric who was the afternoon sweep rider caught me finding my rusty nail in the afternoon. It was only the 2nd time I'd been caught by the sweep - I'm usually up near the front of the pack!
Anyhow, I'm in Lusaka now, the capital of Zambia. And thankful that tomorrow is a rest day because I am feeling tired - the last 5 days have been long - 145km, 175km, 141km, 151km, and today only 105km. But the rolling hills are never ending and there have been some big climbs. Thankfully however I have a new thermarest, kindly donated to a needy rider by Werner who had to go home early in Tanzania after he was hit by a truck and broke his elbow. Werner's thermarest is thick - at least half as thick as mine when it used to inflate, and it has a built in pillow. At night time even though I'm still on the ground in my tent, I feel like I'm back in my bed at home!!!
Mitch the Rockhopper is now feeling like new after Dr Mark operated on him recently and gave him an operation - a Total Drivetrain, casette and chainwheel Replacement he had. He's shifting again like he did when he was new!
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