The eve of the end... Bloubergstrand 30/03/2012

The end is in sight! Well, nearly anyway - if Table Mountain wasn't standing in the way it almost would be!

We have arrived in Bloubergstrand at the Salticrax backpackers and this is our last night on our adventure before it all comes to an end tomorrow afternoon. Neither of us can really comprehend that fact.

Earlier today we had to stop and squint into the distance when we saw what we thought was the feint outline of Table Mountain as we cycled down the R27 from Langebaan. When we were sure it was, we couldn't wipe the smiles off our faces. And when we got close enough we had to stop for a team photo with the iconic backdrop.

So we will try and enjoy this last evening as much as we can but I think neither of us can take our thoughts off tomorrow!

Keep checking for the next update...

Country Number 19 - Its nearly over!

James checking in after a bout of radio silence: We have just spent a
fantastic few days in the Cederberg mountains resting up the legs a
bit. Isobel came up from Cape Town (seeing her was absolutely
brilliant!) and we had a great time exploring the area,swimming in the
rock pools and eating some amazing South African fare, braai vibes! We
stayed at an awesome place called Alfa Excelsior (Connie and Lizzie)
and would definitely recommend it!

The last 1300km from Windhoek has been quite varied. The Namibian
section was relatively flat, fast thanks to a tailwind and had some
great campsites (not official ones...we became experts at fence
hopping with fully loaded bikes). Being the rainy season we had a few
wet afternoons with one hectic wind storm that prevented us from
pitching our tent. We just sat there huddled behind our bikes waiting
for the wind to cease. When it did we got the tent up and then the
heavens opened. We got the soap out and had a damn good wash! The last
100km to the Orange River and the SA border was not fun tough. The
tail wind became an awful headwind and the gradient increased
significantly. We thought it would be downhill all the way to the
river and even those rare down hills that we did come across required
pedalling just to get down them. We got to the river though without
losing our sense of humour and were welcomed by the Noordoewer Engen
Service Station. An oasis in a sweltering landscape of rock and sand.
We just had to have some milkshakes! Wimpy milkshakes of course. We
spent quite a while enjoying the air conditioning before cycling the
last few kays to the SA border, country number 19! Border formalities
were easy although I was ticked off for taking a photo in immigration.
Thought I would try my luck. Luckily my camera was not confiscated. We
crossed into SA with mixed emotions. Excited because we were back home
and would be seeing friends and loved soon, but also quite sad because
this big adventure was coming to an end although the thought of not
having to live out of panniers was a happy prospect. We were quite
cross that there was not a Welcome to South Africa sign!

We had been gobbling up the miles of late and had quite a few spare
days in the bag, denoted REST days, before our proposed arrival in
Cape Town. So we elected to take a rest day at a camp on the Orange
River called Aquacade. Luckily we did as the next four days proved to
be incredibly tough both mentallly and physically and rested legs were
needed. After lounging in the river and sipping Hansas we made our way
south fighting through the ever present headwind and up and over the
mountains of the Northern and Western Cape on the N7. Each day we
cursed the terrain and hope that the wind would change. It never did.
Still wind aside the scenery was amazing and the shops even more
amazing. We had a feast every night. We were told we came during the
wrong time of the year, the flowers were not out yet and it was very
hot. Still we spent some great nights camping in Springbok, Garies
(they really need to sort out their campsite), Vanrhynsdorp and
finally Clanwilliam. Just south of Vanrhynsdorp we decided to take the
old wagon road to Cape Town, an initially nice dirt road that turned
into a corrugated and sandy jeep track. Not ideal but it did afford us
a great swim in the Boelhoek Dam to rinse the dust off.

We are at Clanwilliam Dam tonight. Our ride today was really short, an
awesome descent of Parkhuis Pass, a beast of a pass we cycled up on
Friday to get to Alpha Excelsior. We continue our ride to Cape Town
tomorrow morning although we would both prefer to sit back and sip
some good local wine! Rather than heading straight down the N7 to Cape
Town we have decided to head to the West Coast tomorrow with our first
stop being Elandsbaai (for those non saffas, a bay named after a large
antelope...) Then, taking it really easy for a change, we will wind
our way down the coast via Langebaan to finish up at Cape Point (the
carpark at the restaurant/coffee shop thingy - I have never been
there!) on 31 March at 2pm. Well that's the theory at least! So if
you have a spare moment and want to have a giggle at these two crusty
cyclists, whip out your wild card and pop on down on Saturday. You can
test ride our bikes if you want!

The Big Ride - Africa is nearly finished! Neither of us can believe
it! Next adventure?

Maun to Windhoek - a test of mental strength! 10 March 2012

We have finally made it to Windhoek, the oasis of civilisation in the world of nothingness that is Namibia!.Ok, before we start getting death threats from any Namibian readers, I mean nothingness in a good way!

The utter remoteness and desolation in Namibia is one of the reasons many people come here. It is amazing when after climbing a slight hill, you look around you and for 360 degrees all you see is the road you're travelling on and bushveld, interrupted by the odd koppie (hill) sticking out of the flat plains.

Namibia does at least have some hills (especially as we neared Winhoek) which allows you these great vistas. Botswana on the other had is so flat, all you ever see is the bush on either side of the road, and if you're lucky you'll spot a bit of wildlife on the road or running across the road to take your mind off the cycling.

The ride from Maun in Botswana to Windhoek in Namibia was challenging in a new type of way for us.. The Africa we are used to cycling through has always been about screaming kids running after us, many villages along the road (where if we lucky we can get a cold Coke), uphills, downhills and other cyclists carrying either passengers or hundreds of kilos of bananas on the back. All of this is great for distracting your from, what can be, the tediousness of the cycling. In Namibia and particularly Botswana, there is none of the above, and so your mind is often focused on your odometer and counting every 10m increment, while you keep thinking to yourself, "are we there yet?".

I think its a combination of unchanging scenery and the lack of the "Coke" stops we've become used to (at least 4 a day usually) that has made the past few days so tough. However at the same time I must say I don't think we particularly miss the screaming kids (the utter lack of them is fantastic) and the fact that there was hardly any traffic on this stretch allowed us to have some lengthy chats. These would cover various topics ranging from how we would solve Africa's problems to how much money I would have to pay James to extract a mug of drinking water from a fresh pile of elephant dung!

 

We found ourselves spending the night mostly in the thick bush, surrounded by hungry jackals and Mosquitos. To get into the bush always requires us to hurdle a barbed wire fence with our bikes and all our kit in between traffic going past, which we have become quite good at but is always a bit frantic. One evening in Botswana we managed to convince the local police chief to let us set up camp at the back of his police station. Unfortunately we had to share this area with a horse and a donkey (tied together with a rope) who were friendly enough but didn't allow us much sleep with their loud eating right next to our tent.

We did manage one or two nights of relative comfort however. The first was a lovely campsite just after the border crossing into Namibia, which had the most lush green grass we have camped on since leaving the UK! And again in the farming town of Gobobis we found a nice campsite overlooking the local water reservoir dam. The great thing about these campsites is that they almost always have a swimming pool, which is the first thing we head for after getting off our bikes.

We have passed through some serious "one horse" towns along this stretch of road. Most of the land in these parts belong to either cattle or game farmers, and in one particular town called Witvlei we even had a cattle auction to keep us entertained while eating our pap & worse (maize meal and good sausage for the non-SA readers).

The people in this area are as varied and interesting as the different birds you see along route. There are the farmers in their big white toyota hilux double-cabs (they all drive exactly the same vehicles) who speed past you at 160kph without a wave. Then there are the indigenous San (bushmen) people who we encounter in the villages who discuss these crazy white boys on bicycles with the clicks and pops in their language, which is a treat to hear! There are also the cowboys on horses who race along with us on the side of the road, as well as the locals here in Namibia who have an accent that sounds like it originates in Mitchell's plain in SA.

When we finally did make it into Windhoek we were pleasantly surprised again by how un-typically African this city is. It's incredible how, just 3km out of the CBD we were still surrounded by hills and bushveld, and at no point did we pass through any slums or squatter camps.

Windhoek itself is a really relaxed city which is just what we needed. We've mostly been chilling out at the Cardboard Box backpackers and catching up with our old friend Heinz (who in fact had his camera stolen from him today unfortunately). But we have also been out and about in the city and stocking up on provisions for the long road south.

For us this is the start of the end, the last leg which at the beginning of the trip seemed like a distant world away that we would never get to. I think this last section is going to be bitter-sweet for both of us. We are really looking forward to seeing our girlfriends, family and friends again as well as all the mod cons and comforts we so miss. But at the same time we realise that possibly the greatest adventure of our lives is drawing to a close...

Windhoek Draught! Pint after pint

We are now in Windhoek enjoying a few well earned (well we think so at least) Windhoek Draughts. These have been complimented with some double thick Wimpy milkshakes... Your body craves weird things! And guess who we bumped into again? Heinz Stucke the 72 year old perpetual cycle tourer we first met in Rwanda. He is still trying to get into Cabinda but the Angolans think he is a spy and wont give him a visa! We are here for a few days to ready the legs for the last section. All downhill we hope? Bloody unlikely!

Elephants...and the joys of Botswana

Disclaimer: This blog has been typed on a iPhone connected to wifi that is functional for 1% of time and during that 1% you would struggle to download a single email. So I hope this ends up on the website in full! If not please forgive us and rather direct any rage to so called African Internet providers. It is for the same reason that we can't upload any photos.

Disclaimer aside we have made some decent progress since we left the oasis that is Livingstone. Our initial plan was to cycle through the Caprivi Strip in Namibia and then cycle through a game reserve to a little used border and then cross into Botswana and cycle south next to the Okavango Delta. The problem was that you had to have a permit to go through the reserve to the border. This permit was free but we could not ascertain whether you could cycle through the reserve despite emails to all and sundry and those in the know. So rather than risk not being able to cycle through Botswana without some serious backtracking we decided to cross into Botswana by ferry at the Kazungula border and then cycle south next to Chobe National Park to Nata and then westwards to Maun.  We would also have the added bonus of passing close to the Makgadigadi Pans.

Botswana is a flat country so we were expecting fast days in the saddle. We did expect the headwind! The ferry across the Zambezi was simple enough but we could not help but suggest that a bridge would be more effective especially when one truck takes up the whole ferry (it is actually a pontoon). We did our usual haggling with the money changers at the border. These guys got so irate when we decided to use a proper bureau de change but we explained to them that we will go for the best rate and unless they could match it, it was their loss. Cowboys!

From the border we had 300 km to the one horse town of Nata through an area nicknamed the elephant corridor by some. Everyone warned us about wild animals particularly elephants and lions. The fact that there are loads of warning signs along the road reiterated this. With water bags full to capacity we hit the road. We did not see anything except bushveld. After about 60 km we came upon an old abandoned road maintenance depot. It had cottage which was open and did not suffer from the usual mess that squatters would make. We felt this was the perfect place to spend the night. So like true squatters (the UK type) we let ourselves in without triggering the 'breaking and entering' law and set up our tent in what was the lounge. Just in time because as soon as we settled down to make some tea the heavens opened.

We were not so lucky the next night. Within an hour of being on the road we heard lion roars very close to the road and it was with relief that we saw some buildings up ahead. We stopped at the only petrol station along this stretch of road and enjoyed some rice and beef and stocked up on water before continuing south. We were in shock at this point because for the first time since Egypt the beef was actually chunks of meat rather than bones with some meat clinging to it. It also came with a bean salad and beetroot! And it came with serviettes and cutlery. We could not believe it! We thought back to all the previous countries were even being given a fork was highly unlikely and if asked for it takes on average half an hour before one is located. Two forks would be a miracle! With food in our bellies we did another 60 km into a strong headwind before we started looking for a place to camp.  Our first attempt resulted in me walking into an elephant while it was tearing a tree to pieces. Luckily I was up wind so managed to backtrack without incident.  We did another 10km before trying again. We found a comfy spot but unfortunately it was sandwiched between four game trails and had three watering holes very close by. We unleashed our tracking skills and examined the trails for any spoor. Not finding any we decided that we should be fine. We were until 8pm when a elephant made its way towards our camp eating as it went along. It was so close we could hear its stomach growling. You can just imagine the look on our faces. The elephant must have smelt us because it bypassed our little camp. We went to bed nervous. Justly so as we did not stop hearing various animals wandering very close to our tent, which is made of very thin nylon. None of this heavy duty canvas for us! Just after midnight there was one hell of storm, which kept the animals at bay. So much rain fell that the waterholes doubled in volume. We were happy to be on the road the next morning but the elephants siting did not cease. After passing through a vetenary checkpoint where we had to dip our shoes in chemicals, we spotted a further three elephants on the road one of which mock charged us before running away from our sweaty unwashed aroma.

We made it to Nata in good time and feasted on treats from the local shop. We enquired about campsites and there turned out to be one at Nata Lodge... Which was 10km in the wrong direction. It had a pool though so we made the effort and cycled out. It was definitely worth it. Pool, bar and campfire. We had the place to ourselves and were sad to leave the next day.

From Nata to Maun was another 300km. We decided to do it in three days as the heat was getting to us and Mark had a few saddle sores that were giving him an unpleasant time.  So we did 110 km on the first day and camped at Gweta Lodge. Again we were the only ones there. We had a good chat with two of the guys there Darren and Max who gave us some tips on the road ahead. It turned out to be Darren's birthday so we were treated to some cake later that evening.

The next day we passed by a spur of the Makgadigadi Pans. We could not resist heading out onto the salt pans. Luckily the pans were not that soft and we managed to ride out into the barren expanse. It was incredibly hot and the glare kept our sunglasses glued to our faces. We got some awesome photos. You will have to wait for these I'm afraid. We did some good distance on that day, mainly to get out of the national park, before setting up camp in a dense thicket of thorn bushes. There was no one around so we were safe from wild animals and the other danger, human beings. It was one of the first nights we actually slept in our sleeping bags although this was from 1am till about 5am. Both our thermarest mattress are delaminating so we have large bulges on them in the most unfortunate places but despite this we both slept really well.

The next day we had a short (80km) ride to Maun, a cowboy like town on the edge of the earth. We had seen and stayed in far worse so when we saw a massive supermarket, ATMs and familiar take away chains we were in heaven. Our lunch was huge: bananas, apples, a pasty, drinking yogurt, a large doughnut with cream and custard, a slab of chocolate and 2 l of coke. Probably about twice your daily calorie allowance. Earlier we had worked out that going by the daily allowances for sugar intake quoted on a can of coke we had regularly consumed 350% of our daily sugar allowance. I suppose cycling for 7 hours a day was not taken into consideration when coming up with these healthy living values.

Once our bellies were full we did some enquiries about a good place to stay. We decided on the Campsite at the Sedia Hotel because it had a pool, wifi and was not expensive. It was also closer to town than the backpackers that has a reputation for extreme drunkeness, which would be fine if we did not have to cycle. Campsite confirmed we stocked up on some more food and more importantly beer before heading out for the 7km ride.

The campsite is lovely (we are still here!), the pool is amazing, the wifi is non-existent (see disclaimer) and the staff our super friendly. We feel that all accommodation (ie hotels, guesthouses, etc) staff in the rest of Africa should come to Botswana for customer service training. They really need it! We are taking a rest day today before tackling 

the 500 odd km to the Charles Hill border to Namibia and eventually Windhoek. We have investigated trips into the delta but cant believe the cost. You could buy your own dugout canoe and poler for what the tour operators want to charge for a single day in the Delta. Its an excuse to come back though hopefully when we have traded in our bicycles for 4x4s!

We are getting closer and closer to Cape Town. The massive distances that lay before us when we crossed into Africa are a distant but happy memory. We have just less than 13000km on our odometers. Mark has less than me becuase he claims his cateye is more accurate. Im not so sure as it very old and has suffered a few breakdowns which Mark will deny! Arguments aside we have done some big miles and have about another 2500km to go. We plan to get to Cape Town at the end of March, finish line to be confirmed at a later date. Feel free to erect banners, lay out red carpets, etc.