Elephant Highway

We are taking a rest day in Maun, Botswana.  The memory from Victoria Falls still lingers in my mind.  Victoria Falls was beautiful.  But, Victoria Falls at night with the full moon was out of this world.  Heather, Chris and I went to see "moonbow" or lunar rainbow on the last rest day.  It only happens when the spray is high and there is a full moon.  It was an unforgettable experience.  The full moon, the roaring of the falls, and a faint but highly colorful double rainbow created a surreal experience.

We crossed the Chobe River from Zambia to Botswana.  During the crossing, we actually were in four different countries: Zambia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Namibia.  This might be the only place where four countires share a common border across a river.  It would have been much easier if they all got together and built a bridge.  But Mugabe of Zimbabwe wanted to charge a lot of money for the use of their land.  The ferry ride was rather funky, big trucks, cars, passengers and bikers all got on this platform ferry.

Botswana is flat.  The roads are straight and long, which means very long rides.  All of our rides here are over 100 miles.  I might have seen more elephants than people in the fisrt five days we are here.  The population of Botswana is only slightly over a million.  The country is very developed, all the western conveniences are available.

Marelie, Deon, Chris, Roger and I took a flight over the Okavango Delta, the world's largest in-land delta.  Unlike most rivers in the world that flows into the ocean, the Okavango River just disappears into the land, creating a massive inland delta and wetlands.  There were a lot of animals in the delta: elephants, giraffes, zebras, rhinos, etc.

This coming week will be tough, all 100 miles rides, including a 125 miler.

Stage 70 - We started a new section called the Elephant Highway.  What an appropriate way to start the day by seeing an elephant on the highway!  It was a young male elephant by the side of the road.  I think it got aggitated as we rode by.  In fact I heard some people got off their bike to take pictures and the elephant charged them.

After arriving at the camp, most of us took a Chobe river cruise to see wildlife.  There were so many elephants, kudus, impalas, and crocdiles.  We even saw a croc eat a bird out of the water.

Stage 71 - As we left the camp, I saw a buffaloe running along the banks of the Chobe river.  The sky was painted red as the sun was just about to break the horizon.  This was scheduled to be a long day at 159kms.  It got even longer when our support team told us there were lion tracks and vipers at that camp.  Botswana is long and flat.  We past huge farms of sorgham and sun flowers.  The sun flower fields were endless with millions and millions of sun flowers facing the sun.

Stage 72 - We had a little thunder storm the night before, but everything dried up in the morning.  The ride to Nata was long and straight.  There were almost no people along the road.  A few folks saw elephants on the road, but I was not lucky enough to see them.  There were a lot of wild rosemary bushes along the road.  The fragrant smell from rosemary tingled the senses.

Stage 73 - The Nata lodge we stayed in was beautiful.  It was Christine's birthday as well.  So we had a bit of fun.  Paul and Christine had a part at the bar and picked up the tab for drinks and deserts.  We had a great time.  Needless to say, some people rode the truck today.

182kms ride started with a heavy rain storm in the morning.  The rain stayed with us for the first 50kms.  I rode with Paul and Adam for a while.  They were "cruising" at 40kph.  I tagged along with Horst rest of the morning, still going at 35kph.  After lunch, we had a Coke stop at a Shell gas station.  I had some local food and a cold beer.  As I was cycling along in the afternoon, I spotted a huge elephant about 200 meters in the bush.  I stopped and saw three more elephants near by.  They are really magnificent.

Stage 74 - Another long day going into our rest day.  I stayed with Tori, the womens race leader, and Kevin. We rotated and pulled each other for over 100kms.  A fun rest day is waiting for all of us!!!