Windhoek, Namibia

The Flight over the Okavanga Delta turned out to be incredible, the water was high so the animals where grouped and fairly easy to spot. The pilot was keen to play a bit and at one point did a long low level pass over one of the tributaries, we where literally at head height of the giraffes we flew past, im not really sure who was more surprised, us or them. Another plane came in behind us from the same company and follwed us for most of the trip. These guys are clearly bored of shuffling tourists around and the other pilot was trying to tempt our guy into playing, he dropped in below, flew beneath around and up on the other side waving and laughing at our guy who showed some incredible self control and didn't mess with him, If it had been me we would have been playin Top Gun the whole time, another reason I should not become a pilot.

The week has been a tough one, each day over 160kms. The longest day of the tour was also this week at 207kms it was flat but windy so turned into another 8 hours in the saddle. My arse was pretty raw at the end of that one, its definatly looking forward to not sittin on a bike for a few days when we get to Cape Town. Everyone is tired and its not letting up either, the next two days are close to 160 but offroad. We're heading out to the dunes of Namibia at Sesriem the photos I've seen on the postcards here are incredible.

Windhoek is also a cool place, i'm finally starting to feel civilised again as we have been going along things that i've been craving are becoming available, we are getting decent showers regularly, and sitting on a toilet is becoming more normal, I think there is only one more day sleeping in the bush, which I will probably start missing now. Grass is always greener! We had a staff meal last night in a really cool place and got to eat loads of game, my plate had Zebra, Crocodile, Eland, Springbok,Oryx and Ostritch all of which was incredible except Crocodile which did nothing for me - a confused meat half way between fish and chicken, that shit is just wrong.

13 days of riding and around 2000kms left and counting.

Maun, Botswana.

Victoria Falls turned out to be a pretty impressive place, I figure its a bit like Whistler in that when you are there you feel like you'll probably be back again at some point in your life. The falls themselves were somewhat mismanaged but no real surprise there. As it's the tail end of the rainy season right now the falls where in full flow, consequently you could only see a little of them as the spray thrown back up from the sheer amount of water dropping 200m meant that you where looking through a constant rain cloud.



You can walk along on the opposite side of the falls where there is a sheer cliff down into the canyon and you can sneak peaks when the wind blows the rain out of the way. Within a few steps on the opposite side I was soaked through my rain jacket to the bone, there is a small suspension bridge that crossed one side of the canyon and had a small river flowing over it from the volume of rain. While crossing it I tried to look over the edge but couldnt see anything, the rain was coming up from below into your eyes, it came from in front of you when you walked and it dropped from above when you looked up.



After taking a walk around we headed up to the top and sat a 100m up the river in the sun to dry out, people where letting their kids play in the edge of the river less than 50m from the actual falls and the river at this point was borderline white water. I'm fairly sure a bit of natural selection as happened at that point once or twice. I also got myself weighed at the bungy bridge and im weighing in at 76.5 kg's now, I was 89 kgs when I arrived. Not sure what that is in stone but im fairly sure losing 12.5kgs will make climbing mountains a whole lot easier.

We crossed into Botswana the next day after an easy 80kms, Botswana has been a welcome relief, it has 1.7 million population in space the size of france, it makes for some incredible riding and for the first time for a while where you can be out on the road without being shouted or jeered at, one of the things that has been really wearing on me has been the constant barrage of noise form the poeple as you pass, it fun to begin with, but it is non stop and most of the time its dumb things that are shouted at you. The Elehant highway is the section we are on and the road has been relentlessly straight, predominantly flat, brutally cold first thing in the morning then hot as the day goes on. Most of al though it has been quiet. The trucks and cars that pass you every 20 minutes or so leave plenty of room and almost all give you a wave while resisting the urge to sit on the horn like the rest of the nation, in short the riding has been very pleasant and gives you alot of time to think.

I have ended up riding a great deal of these roads alone, mostly to get some space and to enjoy the tranquility, I havent even had my ipod on prefering to settle down to a nice rythm and cruise. Almost everyday has been around 160kms and not to hard on you all in however 160kms is still a fair bit of time on the bike however you look at it. Yet again i've found myself having conversations with things that pass by, birds - insects that try and play chicken with you, lizards and at one point I had a long chat with a bull Elephant that was at one of the watering holes we rode past. In all honesty he scared the crap out of me, I was totally in my own little world when out of the corner of my eye I saw a huge great grey thing moving fast on my right. After jumping enough to almost fall off the bike I realised that I had had the same effect on him and had startled him enough for him to have jumped up out of the mud he was rolling in and he was running away from me. He crossed to the other side of the small watering hole at the edge of the bushes and turned to face me ears out and alert. I composed myself and checked my shorts then we stood a distance away from one another and had a chat. Conversation went something like this:

Me : 'seriously dude, why are you scared of me, I should be the one hidin in the bush?'
Elephant: (silence with flap of ears)
Me: 'c'mon I mean what really do you think a guy in lycra can do to you?'
Elephant: (silence with trunk moving toward me to take another smell, ears at full length with him seeming to grow another 5 feet every breath.)
Me: 'c'mon come back to the water and take a drink, carry on with your bath, whatever, don't be shy.'
Elephant: long growly type noise loud enough to feel through your feet
Me: 'ok, try and scare me, your the big man here.'
Elephant: wrap trunk around near bush and pull it in half without budging the rest of body
Me: 'sure take it out on the bush, he scare you too?'
Elephant walk's toward the water with pace making me think he is going to come at me
Me - climbing on bike and checking im in a good gear to move quick if I need to.
Elephant: looking happy that I was about to run stops at waters edge and sticks trunk in looking smug that again I had to check my shorts.
Me 'cool well if your gonna play that game im gonna do the tourist thing and take pics of you, that cool?'
Elephant: spray water around still looking happy with himself.



We are down to 17 riding days left now, its a weird sensation - so much to look forward to, but also I know after a trip like this you are always left feeling a bit low when its done. Bear Back will be kicking off a day after I get home with Seb, Jamie, Pete, Nat and Tristan flying in on the same day and the the first guests Colin and Ian arriving a day later...good times, no idea what the snow is looking like, hope its hot there right now and that shit is melting fast.

Heading out on a plane over the Okavango Delta in about 30 mins, life sucks huh.

m

Livingston, Zambia

Its getting to a point now where I have to stop and think what country we are in, kinda sad but the borders seem to be often, the money changes again, you dont know how much a beer should be and inevitably you get ripped off somewhere along the way.

We are down to 23 riding days left, the last few days have all been around 160kms or 100 miles, this is pretty much the standard now until the end. I couldnt tell you exactly how it feels as ive been off the bike for the last few days. Im not really ill or anything, but I have absolutly no appetite, I look at food and feel sick thus have no energy to jump on and do day after day of these distances.

Don't get me wrong, im enjoying a few days off, I think its needed. You have to listen to your body and mine is saying 'no thanks, Id rather sit my arse on a truck.' We have just reached livingston today, home of the great Victoria Falls and I have hijacked the only internet port in camp before all the riders get in. We tend to wreck everything we hit as a group of 60 normally very hungry people, we make a mess of the places we stay when we are not in the bush.
the fast guys arrive and rush for the shower as hot water will not last long, by the time 6 or 8 are through its all gone. Food is ordered at the bar early as the rush delays everything and you'll usually wait an hour for anything to surface from the kitchen by which time your ready to order again anyways. The beer goes down but not as fast as you might think (there are exceptions but for a change im not one of them). And pretty much without fail before you retire for the night all the toilets have been blocked and people are walking off to their own piece of privacy with a shoval again.

We have had guys from the Lonely Planet along for the ride from the begining, they swap at different times and we had the guy who started the whole thing - Tony Wheeler nice enough guy but likes to talk about himself alot. Most have been fairly interesting guys but not really what I would expect from a travel book that is supposed to inspire you. Often they have had little interest in their surroundings and local culture. The Two guys at the moment are definatly the exception. Nate and David both authers will stop for anything and everything. I seem to come across them in the smallest little hamlets normally eating something I would never consider and chatting away to a fat local like they have been friends for years. Fun to see and refreshing when everyone around you is becoming more bitter and twisted as the days go by. (me included).

Ill be home may 15th and while im not counting the days I am starting to look forwrad to it. Namibia is the big one dangling in front of me now as the dunes are apparetly one of the highlights of the trip.

Lilongwe, Malawi.

We cross into Zambia tommorow, in my mind were still only halfway down the continent however actually looking at a map of the grand scheme of things tells a different story, we have 1/3 left to go timewise and still around 5000km's. The days are about to get longer with a 210 km day coming up and a week of over 160kms every day. The struggle becomes trying to get enough food in you to sustain that length of riding and obviously we are in the tropics still so you have to force feed yourself liquids all day long.

I have heard that Namibia is going to be one of the highlights of the entire tour. we will spend alot of time back in the desert again which im looking forward to. There is something very simple about the riding in the deserts. You hardly see any other people, those that you do just stand and stare in some form of disbelief. Digging your toilet is generally very simple though you sometimes have to take a hike to do so. Bottle showers are simple and you dry before you have time to pick up your towel. There are no mosquitoes - a big bonus. Your tent is bone dry in the morning and all you stuff doesnt have the damp smell it has developed in Tanzania and Malawi. And most of all when you do come across a shop that sellls cold drinks, they are the best drink you have ever had in your life.

Back to whats been going on, in all honesty its been a little lifeless in the last week or so. No big incidents to gossip except finally one of the guys got laid! He shall remain nameless but the smile on his face the next morning was priceless. He met the lucky lady at the camp on Chitimba beach and she was dumb enough to get talked into joining us riding for a day - 135km's with alot of climbing. i watched her roll into camp pretty much as the sun was going down after having left at 6am, 13 hours on the bike, she could hardly climb off let alone walk herself to a seat. A few of us where laughing thinking he had no chance that night, if she didint fall asleep, 13 hours on a bike saddle should do enough damage to put her off the idea for a few days, but when he appeared in the morning the grin gave everything away.

Lilongwe is an easy going town for a rest day, we have gained a day as the rains have brought down a bridge so we took a different route through the mountains rather than along the lake - go figure. No complaints though, I got my work all done on the day we arrived into Lilongwe and have had some time off and a couple of swims in the pool that is sitting about 6 metres infront of the thatched A frame hut I can hardly pull myself out of.