Final Land Border is Crossed

my route is in green, overnight stops get a red circle

When I remarked on the great view of Johannesburg from my hostel's reception office, the manager responded with a "yeah......you wouldn't think the streets are teaming with crime from up here". Perhaps an exaggeration but ever since arriving in South Africa I have received warnings from well wishing locals:

"Don't pull over by the side of the road- only use service stations"

"Are you going to Jo'Burg?....oh be very careful there" etc.

So whilst expecting to get robbed or mugged, i didn't expect to be driven into by an old man carrying a minibus full of school children. And this is precisely what happened as i was driving into Soweto last week. The guy completely ignored the stop sign and hit me side on. After hobbling around in shock for a couple of minutes i picked up the bike with the help of the crowd that had rapidly congregated. I inspected the damage: The clutch lever had snapped, the left pannier was ripped off (again), one foot peg mangled and the front wheel was had twisted 30 degrees out of line. On top of that the engine was refusing to start. The driver, a sweet humble old man, accepted full responsibility but clearly was not going to be able to pay for the damage. Insurance is not mandatory here and therefore neither of us had any cover. We agreed that he would use his van to transport the bike to a garage if need be, rather than him pay me cash that he didn't have.

After a trip to one of the Soweto cop shops to complete the incident report, the bike decided to start enabling me to ride precariously to to the homely Soweto Backpackers Hostel where i managed to straighten the steering and repair the pannier (with a hammer and bit of wood). I had a spare clutch lever in the spares box and i decided the i could ride just the same with the mangled foot peg. My right leg was just bruised so i was back in business. I had worried briefly earlier in the day that the bike might not make it to Cape Town.

I spent another day in Soweto and did a fabulous guided bicycle tour seeing the good bad and the ugly of what is now quite a prosperous, friendly and relatively safe township (excluding traffic accidents).

5 days before i did what will probably be my last bit of adventurous riding of the trip across the Makgagikgadi Pans in Botswana. A fall (the 3rd decent one of the trip) on the dirt tracks heading into the pans left me and the already weak left pannier laying in the sand- no damage done.

The perfectly flat, salt encrusted pans are interrupted by grassy 'islands' and an array of 4x4 tracks - some leading to nowhere. After a mellow night at a campsite on a rocky outcrop covered in 4000 year old baobab trees i managed to pick up one of these tracks that headed to nowhere and found myself not exactly lost, but not where i wanted to be and with no visible way off the pans. After loving the morning of riding over this stark, bright landscape and stopping to take loads of photos, i suddenly felt the fear. I had not seen another vehicle or person all morning. I back tracked all the way back to the campsite where some friendly big bellied South Africans were fortunately still around and pointed me in the direction of the correct set of tracks. Very clear once i was on them.

I was off the pans and into the bush repairing a puncture in the front tyre (puncture No 6 of the trip) when a lone boy strolled up and asked for water. I had only a litre left and wasn't sure where the next village/town was and the way my day was going was reluctant to share. I reasoned that he thought I had loads and plus he being local, must have set off from where ever knowing how far he had to walk. He hung around and i felt like a real tight ass. When i had the wheel back on i shared my water and custard creams with him and felt my conscience easing.

Now i have inadvertently wiped my cameras memory card and lost all the pics since i last backed up in Namibia so not many new pics here. I have dropped a few in that i picked up from Laura when i met her in Windhoek plus my route to date.

I am currently in St Lucia, Kwazula-Natal making the most of the warm weather and abundant wildlife. Off to get a pizza!

I just missed capturing the one on the right taking a lazy 'mid-sleep' poo

Morocco (inc Western Sahara)

West Africa. Mauritania- Nigeria

Central Africa Cameroon- Angola

Tom and I, Congo

Botwana- Zambia

The Okavango Delta, Botswana

The welding job on Wilfred's Land Cruiser went on and on until i decided i couldn't hang around any longer. My time in Namibia was coming up to 1 month and i wanted to get going so i travelled back to Windhoek from Damaraland where we had arranged to meet. I was also suffering from my second bout of African 'man flu' so hanging around in basic camp sites in the bush was loosing its appeal. The timing worked out well as Tom and Laura were in town having driven up from Cape Town in the hire van. They were gutted not to be in their 4x4 that had taken them most of the way across Africa, but at the same time more relaxed at having reliable set of wheels complete with a sink and fridge!

nice place for a puncture- number 5 of the tip and the first in the front tyre

The day after hooking up with T&L again, i took the road heading east to the Botswana border. That evening i found myself holding hands in circle around the fire with 2 lovely South African couples as one of them said grace in Afrikaans. They had taken pity on me in my little tent on the bitterly cold night and invited me over to share in their braii (BBQ). They had a load of south african meat that could not be taken over the border for some reason, so i happily made sure none of it went to waste. Both the guys were fruit farmers supplying Asda in the UK with sun kissed apples and peaches. They said that had tried to set up trade with Waitrose and M&S but their buyers were so damn picky about the appearance of the fruit that it just wasn't profitable. In the morning the condensation on the tent had frozen!

Riding through Botswana takes me within 500km of Victoria Falls on the Zimbabwe/ Zambia border which i thought was too close and too good an opportunity to miss. The plan for the final part of the trip was in place. Cruise through Botswana to Jo'burg making a detour to Livingstone to see the falls, then from Jo'burg- Durban and the coastal route to the Cape.

Paul takes a poling lesson

The first stop in Botswana was the town of Maune. A bit of a sprawling tourist town to access the Okvango Delta but i stayed in a great lodge by the the river owned and ran by 3 heavy drinking Botwanans and an English girl who grew up 10 miles from Tunbridge Wells. And when i say heavy drinking- it was not unusual to see the one of the owners and local white business men at bar at ten in the morning with a beer and a sambucca. From here i took a 2 day mokoro (a kind of dug out canoe) trip into the delta through the shallow waters and reeds to one of the large islands where we (Saul the guide/poler, a Japanese girl and I) set up a bush camp for the night and Saul gave gave us each a poling lesson in he mokoro- i was rubbish at it.

After short safety brief which was along the lines of 'if an elephant gets too close run' and 'if a lion gets too close hold your ground and keep looking at it', we headed off on foot in search game. Whilst i didn't see as much wildlife as in Etosha National Park it was a real buzz to be out of the protection of a vehicle walking around. Ironically, the animals were really wary of us walking around, where as they tend to be totally at ease when your in a car. Most of the animals we saw made a run for it as soon as we started approaching.

I'm now spending my final night in Livingstone, Zambia right next to Victoria Falls. Its been real holiday here over last few days. White water rafting, all you can drink sunset booze cruises and this morning i took a microlight flight over the falls which was amazing. My pilot had driven his motorbike here 15 years previously so after bonding over our similar experiences he foolishly let me take over the controls. Controls is over selling it a little- Its basically a bar connected to the fixed wing, but i definately fancy another go sometime.

Gin and Fanta on the Zambezi

The dunes near Swakopmund, Namibia