Today has been rather eventless—an easy 135km ride on flat tar roads into Maun, where we’re having a rest day tomorrow. For a stretch of about 10-20km, massive disgusting-looking bugs (the size of a palm with long legs) kept crossing the road. Half of them were squashed by traffic, some were busy eating each other,...
Day 95: It’s more fun to ride a bike than sit in a vehicle—exceptions proving the rule
Botswana is a relatively dry country, covered by a mixture of desert and dry bush land. On today’s ride, we were supposed to see the legendary Makgadikgadi Pan, one of the world’s largest salt flats. Instead, we saw what most people around here had never seen before—the plains flooded with water. At one point,...
Day 94: It only takes one elephant in the room to spoil the party
The morning was rather eventless. Like yesterday, we’ve cycled on almost perfectly straight roads cutting through dry bush land. After lunch, I saw our fastest riders gathered to the side of the road, waiting. Reason for their delay—a big elephant right to the side of the road, just some 50 meters ahead. While we...
Day 93: Wild animals are more afraid of us than we are of them
Today and tomorrow are exciting days that we’ve all been looking forward to—in awe or with keen aspiration. We’re cycling through the northern reaches of the Kalahari basin, territory of wild animals. Elephants, lions, leopards, hyenas and wild dogs have all been seen on this stretch. Finally, it’s been time for Tallis to brief...
Day 92: There’s no point getting upset about things outside of our control
Today promised to be an almost perfect day. We only had to cycle some 80km overall, on good roads and with pleasant temperatures—piece of cake! After crossing the border into Botswana, we all arrived at camp before noon and had plenty of time to get cash, a local SIM as well as food in...
Days 89–91: After every LOW, there will be another HIGH
My first two rest days at the Victoria Falls were kind of wasted going to the doctor and resting my swollen feet. Having said that, chilling by the Waterfront pool bar with my laptop was not necessarily the worst spot to recover. While I had planned to update my blog, different riders kept coming...
Day 88: Don’t get fixated on highly improbable worst case scenarios
Despite taking antibiotics, my ankles are swelling up again in the afternoon. The infection doesn’t seem to have improved at all, and the sores look as nasty as ever. I go to bed early again and google for “sandflies Zambia”. The bites very much resembled sandfly bites I had in Malaysia 15 years ago (minus...
Day 87: Don’t accept short-term gain for long-term pain
Today has been our longest riding day yet and the third longest day on the entire tour—181km. Other than the fact that I’m still low on energy (though I’ve felt a lot better this morning than last night), this shouldn’t have been such a challenge. Flattish roads on perfect tar with benign wind would...
Day 86: Don’t leave small issues unattended, or they might become big issues
I mentioned few days ago my nasty insect bites which were so itchy I couldn’t resist scratching. While I have since made sure to disinfect them regularly, I haven’t covered them up nor used topical antibiotic. Since I stocked up on antihistamines in Lusaka, I’ve no longer given them much attention. That’s seemed fine, until this afternoon. When...
Day 84: When we stop taking things for granted, we learn to appreciate them again
When was the last time you truly enjoyed a hot shower? When was the last time you felt grateful for toilet paper in the bathroom? When was the last time you literally drooled over a food menu because you felt spoilt with choice? On Tour d’Afrique, we’ve learnt to stop taking things for granted. When...