So at Victoria Falls we did a booze cruise and I got drunk and everyone convinced me to stay on until Maun. So I did. One last country with the tour, Botswana!
We started out with a sketchy ferry ride… I didn’t ride because my day two plan was 172 km on one of the African bikes… I have no idea why I thought this was a good plan… But this was what I wanted to do! I did not manage it. After 65 km into even the slightest headwind we had, I was done. Justin took over for the 10 km into lunch and then I borrowed Brad’s bike (Thanks Brad!!) for the rest of the day.
It took all day to see an elephant on the Elephant Highway, but we did! At the end, and then again in camp! Very cool! We saw even more the next day riding in the truck to Nata.
One thing about the tour, they love staying outside of towns. We never stay in a town, it’s always 5-10 km away… making it impossible to buy anything quickly… :S
Anyways, after Nata I did a big run in the morning, letting the trucks catch me at 19 km where I jumped on… then went on to camp. The 5th day I didn’t ride… 1 out of 5 isn’t bad, right? lol.
At least the elephants were exciting!!
It was sad saying bye to everyone, but it was definitely my time to go… Off to Cape Town!
First few km out of Vic Falls, we blow an axle on the trailer…Lining up for the sketch ferry from Zambia to Botswana.Jennilea and Sandro saved this Chameleon from certain drowning… And then Michael adopted him.Myself and a gator! Er, crocodile.Monkeys!Crocodile!Birds of a feather..Fish EagleFish Eagle on the hunt… for these goslings.More giraffe! Doesn’t get old!Eagle town!Then our boat dies.Pull start isn’t working either…Riding the African bike! Not with Michael on it though, oh man, I wouldn’t’ve made it 20 km!Caution, Elephants!Caution, Elephants!Caution, Elephants!Weeeee!This was more comfortable for Justin given how tall he is!Bina riding!Sorghum crops! Remember sorghum from Sudan?Elephant on the road sighting!Daryl, our Elephant whisperer.Elephant in camp!Too cool!Baobab tree!How appropriate, Baobab Planet, a hotel/restaurant to break up our day.It was nice here!Burning garbage, a tradition at TDA, a sport in Pennsylvania.Going away drinks!Birgit got me a coke hippo, in memory of all our coke stops and seeing hippos together! Awwww! Thanks Birgit!Staff Appreciation breakfast!Making Bacon Pancakes! (ok maybe not bacon)I’m leaving, on a jet plane… don’t know when I’ll be back again…Table Mountain! Cape Town!! 😀 Blogs about that later.
So I’m way behind in blogging, it looks like we left Lilongwe way back on March 31, and I still haven’t posted about it. I’ll blame lack of good internet and having too much fun in Victoria Falls.
Instead of cycling the day out of Lilongwe, I got shuttled to the Zambia border and ran from Malawi to the first town in Zambia, Chipata, exactly 21.1km (a half marathon) away… Was so happy to get this run in and prove I could at least still bust out a half if I needed!
I’m mostly gonna just post some pictures because I can’t remember a whole lot about these days… Zambia was pretty but it was also very boring… Everything was very similar, day after day. At least the people were nice and we had some good rest days!
In Lusaka a bunch of us went to Captain America and out for dinner after… It was nice to feel western and human again!
For me the beginning of the end was a day or so outside of Lusaka… I got dropped off in town for a run and just got harassed one time too many for money with the ol’ “Hello friend…” African greeting and I just had a terrible 11 km walk instead of running at all. By the time we hit Victoria Falls, I knew I wanted to go home… I wouldn’t be cycling to Cape Town.
Perhaps this is why I haven’t blogged yet.. I don’t really have a great explanation for my feelings, other than I was just sick of Africa, the trip got easy again (though supposedly more challenging in Namibia, it’s back to the ‘roads’ that are for mountain bikes), and we’re staying in lodges, and it’s hot all the time, and I just wanted to go home and get on with things there, do some runs, enjoy some cooler weather, stop having to wake up at 5am every day whether I was cycling or not. Many people on the trip tried to talk me into staying, but once the decision was made, I was happy for it.
Erica, Jill, and Randy’s bikes got stolen at a camp in Zambia and Danielle asked me how I would’ve felt if it was my bike and my answer was relieved… It was clear I was done with the trip, and even though it’s only a few weeks more, I just didn’t want to finish. I lent my bike to Erica for her to complete the trip (she also had a Surly Long Haul Trucker!)… I’ll go up to Alaska and get it someday… or something!
Anyways, here’s some pictures! Still some beautiful scenery and interesting Africa-ness! 😀
Ready to run! Always happier on run days.. hahaThese guys and their bike loads!What’d I find at km 21 of my run? CANDY!And a burger joint!I was still 8 km from camp so I took a bike taxi.. Where I just sat on his rack.The day after the half marathon I cranked out 176km by myself mostly, with some chats with Michel and Diederik along the way… Very fun, pushing harder!My tent and dry-tree. I lost at least one pair of bike shorts like this though, lol.#camplifeAlex delivered this to Steven at lunch and I thought he was joking, but Stevie took some pieces off it and ate it, omg!Luangwa Bridge, which we were told not to photograph, so of course I really wanted a picture.Luangwa Bridge Camp… Nice place, but the owners seemed really unhappy to be in Africa and didn’t have much nice to say about the locals… Why would you live there and do this for 10 years then?#yoloNice view from the pool!Justin and Bina!Drinking wine from a cup… We’re classy on the TDA.Kept up with Ina the next day for 81km before I bonked and caught a truck… was a nice day of riding with her though!Super was beef kabobs! The best meal yet, I had 11 kabobs… There was so many!Moustache March results get announced!Lusaka! Wimpy burger!TDA buys some African bikes for us to ride into Vic Falls with.100mL packs of booze… the best. lolFIRE! This is the day of my 11k walk.Riding into Vic Falls on the Atlas bike! 50km, Bina and Justin and I rode it together… Justin and I could’ve won the male race, but we assumed we weren’t in it, so we stopped at Steers (burger place) for about an hour… Alas! Could’ve had a stage plate. lol. Instead German Dave won again after Ina towed him in due to a lost chain.Then we gave the African bikes away! They really are terrible though.. =\Sunset on the Zambezi river!
