Trees, tar and thorns

Friday 13th April

A smooth exit to Maun, unlike Nairobi! Our taxi driver showed up at the specified 5.30am, and delivered us back to camp…he even provided some confirming information about some fellow tour riders he had been shuttling around. Conversation at breakfast was mostly about the long distances we would be doing over the next few days. For some reason it took me longer to leave camp than normal. Usually it’s about 20minutes after breakfast, today it was 30. Sounds trivial but it meant that I was leaving near the back of the group. I wasn’t particularly concerned about it. David and I set off together, and as we left, Alistair, Marty and Richard were actually still sitting at the gate (usually they are the first to leave). 160ish km to a bush camp. I decided to aim for average speed above 25 again. We breezed along pretty easily. The one revelation was that the consideration Botwanan drivers show in the rural areas is not extended to the towns. Drivers were passing so close they were practically brushing me handlebars. We passed through town pretty briskly, the traffic maybe lasted 10km. The road was flat and there was a tail wind. Despite this we still got overtaken by the tandem. This is the second time this has happened to me recently. It is a bit depressing feeling like you are moving briskly, and then getting overtaken by those who are normally reasonably far behind. David and I picked up the pace a little, although were then passed by Alistair, Marty, Tom and Richard. I accelerated and decided to hold on as long as I could. They were averaging 33km/h, doing 5km pulls at the front. Marty is the MC for the Steam Train (although this was a variation of the train rather than the original crew as they had left separately this morning) and calls change and drink. It is a running joke because every 20mins he will call the time and ‘Have a drink’. I am anti-dictatorship and authority and therefore do not drink when I am told to….although there is a bizarre effect in which when he calls ‘have a drink’, I am not thirsty, but within a few minutes I find myself thinking ‘maybe I do want a drink’. It was actually a really enjoyable morning. I ended up in behind Alistair, who I haven’t cycled with for at least a week, and we were pushing the pace a bit.

I enjoyed moving fast, it felt like we were getting somewhere. I also enjoyed that there was more of a physical challenge than when cycling by myself, and also the mental stimulation of concentrating on keeping up but not overdoing it. I was never out of breath, not until the last 2km before lunch when David picked the pace up to 44km/h. i refused to be ‘spat out the back’ before lunch so worked hard to keep up. In my opinion that is not really ‘peloton etiquette’, when other people have helped you to get where you are, and taken their turn at the front, to then speed off when you get to the front isn’t really repaying the favour! The scenery has changed since leaving Maun. The road has improved again too. We are now riding through a road lined my trees (about 20-50m from the roadside), and grassland between eh road and trees. The African game/wildlife has been replaced by horses, cows, goats and donkeys. Apparetnyl the abundance of horses is due to the foot and mouth. The government culled farmers livestock during an outbreak, and compensated them with horses. I am not sure if this is true, but this is what I have been told. If this was what happened, it seems short sighted given that horses can be a vector for foot and mouth disease (from what I remember). I enjoyed the scenery alot more too. In all the countries we have passed through, Botswana has definitely had the least number of villages and people. This morning we passed ‘large’ crowds (maybe up to 10-15) at bus stops with coloured clothes on, bags and boxes. They were sitting on the roadside curb waiting. Most of them were very friendly and waved. We also passed older kids in well kept school uniforms, on their way to school. The place where we had lunch was beside two wooden posts, with a few tin cans having from them. There were quite a few structures like this along the roadside, maybe every few hundred meters. It prevails that these are markers of tracks down to small houses/settlements behind the trees. A man appeared from the one by the lunch truck and informed Ryan that he was parked on his land. The man was happy for us to eat there (he had thought we were camping, which was not so cool), if he could have the leftovers! After lunch was finished, the man was no where to be seen. Ryan and Sophie drove down the sandy track in search of the landowner. They couldn’t find him, but Sophie said that they passed numerous groups of tents (permentantly pitched, we suspect by local workers etc) and some mud houses. She said you would have no idea when you look from the road, that so many people live there. She also said that they were obviously inhabited, but the area was deserted (presumably being 11am on Friday). We continued together after lunch, but dropped the pace slightly. I have developed a chesty cough, and was struggling to breath a little when I was at the front. Not far from lunch we passed car stuck in the sand at the side of the road. Tom noticed it and suggested we went over to help. A quick u turn and we approached the two men.

They were happy for some assistance. It didn’t take long at all. Alistair placed the foot mats from the car under the front wheels, we lifted the front of the car slightly as it was running a ground on the sand and then pushed. Once it had reversed about 5m he had enough traction for the wheels and engine to take over. Both were very grateful, Im not quite sure what they would have done otherwise. Maybe flag someone down. Good deed done for the day, we continued. Once again, not far from our previous stop, Marty noticed David’s tyre was looking ‘spongy’. Another flat! This time it was caused by an acacia thorn.

Tom helped him change it, David handled it well, and we were back on the road again. The scenery improved even more with the introduction of some undulations in the road, some burnt out cars and some rusty barrels! More than we have had in a long time. At one point we even reached the top of an undulation high enough to give us view of the plains ahead….and some hills on the horizon! A rolling refresh 12.5km from camp allowed Jenna to overtake us. Camp was just off the road, in the middle of an acacia patch. Actually the road after lunch had pretty much been lined by Acacia bushes. We arrived pretty early…about 4h50 riding time…the benefit of a tail wind…but there wasn’t much at camp. I found somewhere to pitch which seemed relatively thorn free, and at that point in time, free of snorers. Pitched. Then went for a bush bottle shower. It was so warm that I dried in the sun almost without a towel.

Spent the afternoon sitting by the truck reading a book that Lisa K recommend, about a Coffee Shop in Kabul. This section of the tour has been very male dominated. Alex has had to fly to London for personal reasons, Karen is in Jo’burg for health reasons, we lost Jacqui and Liz in Vic Falls. That leaves Lesa, Mo, Jenna, Steph, Catherine, Agnes, Erin and me amongst the riders. The slight change in group riding dynamics, and the disbanding of the Party Bus has also meant that riding groups have becoming male heavy. It was particularly poignant at this camp, not sure why. The crew had picked up some beers, cider, ice and coke which we could buy. There was a drinking crowd on one side and a less rowdy quite time crowd on the other side of the truck. As the afternoon went on, and the standard of conversation on the ‘bar’ side of the truck deteriorated more and more people migrated. At one point someone was heard to say ‘this is the male side of the truck, you can’t be here unless you take your t’shirt off.’. It was in jest, and that attitude is in the minority, but it was poignant this afternoon. That said, the mood in the group has vastly improved following the rest day in Maun. Everyone is more positive, there isn’t the same angst and animosity that was hanging around last week. I had a really pleasing day. We managaed to pick up a camp dog too. We named him George and Errol (the cook) talked to him all afternoon, and fed him anything that was going.

There has been an increase in dogs again in Botswana and the recent dog chases on bikes has been about 5. I disappeared off in to the bushes at about 9pm to empty my bladder before going to bed. Usually at night I turn my head torch off when I have identified a location - to minimise risk of being seen. Tonight was no exception, and I was also admiring the stars, when I heard a rustling and something darted past me…quite close. I tried to stay calm and didn’t move, then there was another thing rustle and dart past on the other side. I was worried it was an animal that was predatory and would bite. Not wanting to scream, and wake people up, I turned on the torch and stayed where I was crouched. An animal resembling a gerbil rustled out a bush and ran within 10cm of my toes, it paused about a foot away from me and just sat and watched. What a relief! That explains all the little holes around camp too. Saturday 14th April Cycled a the back all day with Catherine, Erin and Steph today. Was a really nice ride. Nothing much of note scenery wise, still a long road…but this time more open. It was entertaining to ride with people I rarely ride with, and therefore don’t often socialise with. We were at the back of the group and picked up Sophie at lunch (riding sweep). Stopped about 10km from camp at a petrol station and had an ice cream.

The last 3km was on soft sand. I was very unimpressed. Managed to cycle about 1.5-2km of it, most people seem to have walked. The worst thing is that we are going to have to navigate it again tomorrow. Tomorrow is our longest day, 208km. Surely TDA could have found a campsite near the road…or at least with a cycle-able entrance/exit. We also cross into Namibia tomorrow - the penultimate country.