Today I had arranged to play 9 holes of golf with Bastiaan and Liam. Got up a bit late and found myself rushing around trying to catch up. I had to also move out of the hostel and back to camp. After dropping off my bags I got a taxi to the golf course – though there was no need to rush in the end as I had to wait for those two! Anyway we played golf and I was terrible!! I think I topped the first 5 shots! Liam had never played before and Bastiaan only about three times – but you wouldn’t have thought I was any better! We all had caddies as they were only $3 each – it was really good as they carried our bags in the heat – but they also tried to “teach “ us which was not necessarily good! I was playing so bad they thought I was a beginner. They were also automatically handing us a driver each time so finally I asked for the 4 iron instead. And I finally began to play a little better! But it was very hot and we didn’t have any drinks – it took us about 3 hours to play 6 holes. Walking to the 7th hole we decided to skip to the 9th and only play 7 holes in total. The 9th was a par 5 – I hit the driver about 300 yards and then pulled out a 5 wood and hit it right next to the green - - but into some bushes – and it was gone!! It really was quite a difficult course – with narrow fair ways and not that short – and the rough was full length grass! We spent a lot of time looking for golf balls as we had only bought 3 each – luckily our caddies were good at finding them! So we just about made it with our three balls each! At the end we tipped the caddies with the tees and balls as well as cash!
Earlier back at camp I was told that I had won a raffle last night. It had been drawn for anyone who had been raising money for the TDA Foundation and they had drawn it while we were bungee jumping so I hadn’t known anything about it. Anyway Adele told me I had won a 2 hour horse ride in the safari park – not really my thing – but still I was up for it – it should be fun! They were still trying to find out the details when I left for golf so promised to get a message to me. Sure enough the message arrived - the horse ride had been cancelled and replaced by a helicopter ride instead at 3pm. So after golf another rush back to camp to pick up my voucher and get to the helicopter port! Again the rush was needless as I then had to sit around waiting for the trip! However I finally get to do my 15 minute flight – it was awesome!! No pictures unfortunately (I might be able to “borrow” some) But the experience was amazing! The Falls are incredible seen from above – you can see the bungee bridge and then the canyon zig zagging off into the distance. It was unbelievable. I liked that a lot!
After that I met up with the guys that make the bamboo bikes back in Lusaka. When I was ill I missed out on the visit to their factory which was a real shame – another time maybe? They had then joined the ride for a couple of days so at least I got to meet them now. Anyway they are giving us a great deal on these bikes - $350 instead of the $900 you would pay in America. What better souvenir of my African trip? They are talking about adding special TDA 2011 graphics and logos for us as there are about 25 people interested in buying a bike! I am quite excited about that!
I am back at camp now checked in to a room here – I need to get some decent sleep tonight as I am back on the bike tomorrow. It is only a short ride tomorrow and a non race day which will allow me to get back in the swing of things again and see how strong I feel! As it is so nice here we have already decided to take our time in the morning and have a proper breakfast before we set off – no point in rushing to get to camp!
So now I need to go eat and get to bed!
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