Up close with an Elephant - April 20

A long day of 186 km ahead of us. We had already decided to go to the Wimpy for breakfast – however when we woke it was pouring with rain – and people kept changing their minds as to what to do – Yes, Wimpy – No, Wimpy!! I too was undecided – maybe have breakfast at the hotel if it was included in the price – it wasn’t and so I decided on the Wimpy! I had already told Steve anyway! So Dennis and I rode to the Wimpy together – but then he carried on. The Wimpy was packed – so many riders there! I stood in one line for coffee – but they ran out so I had to join the other one to order breakfast as well. Finally Kari and I managed to order. The trucks were also there – quite a few riders had decided to ride the trucks today because of the rain and the distance involved – and finally the place began to empty. Then Bastiaan and Liam turned up – they had overslept!! Anyway – they too ordered breakfast. It was such a mad mess in there – our receipts had some how got lost – someone had cleared them away – and so we had no proof we had even ordered – and had to argue that! Finally we got our order and some coffee and Bastiaan and Liam eventually got their’s too. By the time we had eaten the 4 of us were nearly three hours behind the riders with 175 km or so ahead of us!! Even the sweep was in front of us! But the 4 of us rode really well together and I was really beginning to feel a lot better. At about 50 km we stopped and had some juices in a cool little village. It was very flat – and the scenery would alternate between trees and barren areas with long grass. We were constantly looking out for animals but not seeing anything. Finally at 85 km we made I tto lunch. They were really nice to us but trying to pack away so we were as quick as possible and soon continued on. Elvis is the afternoon sweep so he rode with us – he has some great stories to tell!! The 5 of us were going pretty good. We had been told about a really nice place to stop at 106 km – with swimming pool and snacks. So we pulled over and hung out there for a while – we ordered chicken sandwiches and milk shakes – Bastiaan and Kari went for a swim in the pool. Another 2 km detour for our longest day on the road – but all good fun! As we finally set off again I calculated that we had still had 80 km to go and it would be dark in about 3 hours. We needed to pick up the pace! Of course the wind picked up as well – a headwind now and really blowing! We are actually riding pretty well though – trying to get the miles done – trying not to hurt Kari too much – she is riding really well but doesn’t like to go quite as fast as Bastiaan and Liam – neither do I at the moment! Elvis as the sweep is happy to sit behind! Then suddenly Elvis shouts “Elephants” – and finally we see some elephants! 3 big males – off down a dirt road – so not too close! Then we carry on and one of the trucks drives back to tell us to hurry up and at the next rest stop – 30 km out of camp – they shout “Come on – you’re late!!” So we didn’t stop – just rode straight through! Elvis got on the truck here and so the truck followed us instead as the sweep!! Then the truck was in front slowing us down – as there was another big group of elephants on the right hand side – again safely quite far away! However another 10 km down the road and the truck stops us and sits itself in the middle of the road. There is a big bull elephant – just off to the side of the road in the trees – we were less than 50 m away from him! Really cool!! The truck drove past very slowly and sheltered us as we ride alongside. Very exciting!!
Just to round it all off a little further along we saw some warthogs and were then treated to an amazing sunset as we rode into camp at 5 minutes to 6 (official sun set was at 5 minutes past – so we only just made it!!) What an incredible day!!!

Here is Kari's version of events:
Kari's blog

Group Riding - April 19

Set off from camp back down a sandy road and on to the main road. We quickly became a pretty good group of 6, then 8, then 10 – people joining us from behind, picking up people in front. Soon get to the point where we are a group of 20. Even the racers caught us up from behind and stayed with us. Today is now only 140 something km because of the extra 12 we had to do yesterday!! The road started to get worse and worse – they are building a new one here but we couldn’t decide whether they had just laid it down quickly or what – it was tarmaced but with lots of patched potholes – in a dreadful state! It was quite hard to ride especially in that big a group. The pace was good though – about 30kmph. Every now and then somebody would pick it up a bit – which did hurt me – but generally it was fairly good. It was great to have so many riding together. We rode most of the day like that – even after lunch. About 40 km from the end Dennis and Adam took off and rode off the front – nobody else seemed to care though! About 8 km from the end was a village where we stopped to sort out money and even went on the internet. There was also a Wimpy – we sat there talking about how nice it is that although Scott, myself and Jorg are racing each other we are quite happy to stop together at a Wimpy like this. Jorg is third in the race, Scott 5th and I am now 6th – Tori just behind in 7th . We had chicken sandwiches and milkshakes and planned to return in the morning. At camp there were hotel rooms and I just couldn’t resist. We actually went to look at their “luxury” tents – which seemed really nice – however in the end we opted for the wooden chalet rooms with air conditioning and a great bathroom!! It was very cool!!

Elephant Highway - April 18

This morning I managed to get my tent away in decent time and had decided I wanted to ride with the racers today. We head off back the way we came before taking a right turn. It was a fairly good pace to start but almost immediately we turned the pace began to pick up. On the turn I saw a warthog which was pretty cool – we are hoping to see plenty of animals now we have started the Elephant Highway! But to be honest I wasn’t looking at much but the wheel in front of me as the speed started to build. This was the first time I had ridden with the racers for quite a while since being ill!! It was a pretty good group – and we were travelling at about 35 – 40 kmph. I just kept thinking to myself” Hang on a little longer ….hang on a little longer …..hang on a little longer…” Well I managed to hang on for about 50 km. Today is pretty long – about 160 km in all. I then dropped off though and really slowed down. There was a bit of a headwind and the road was harsh gravel – big chunky tarmac – no hills though! Eventually Horst and Daniel caught me and I asked if I could sit on behind for a while – they said “Fine” and so that was really good for the next 15km into lunch!! Still struggling with lunch – sandwiches are all a bit much so I grabbed some pears and bananas and waited there for a bigger group to turn up to ride the afternoon section with. Eventually we had a group of 8 and rode well together – now on the look out for elephants. There was a strong cross wind – but we rode well chatting as we went along. At 110 km there was a coke stop. Then Sharita turned up in the truck and told us that she has had to move today’s camp – apparently she had not only seen lion footprints but had also spotted a large python at the planned site – so thought it best to move – it means we have an extra 12 km to cycle today. So I suggested she might want to buy us a coke – to which she agreed which was very nice of her!! Back on our bikes and the road was full of patched potholes – quite bumpy – the guys just wanted to get to camp now so really picked up the pace again. But no – this was really hurting me now – I didn’t want to do it anymore – so I dropped off and rode the last 15 km on my own! I was really aching – my bum and my lower back! It was so good to finally get to camp – which was set up in a construction area – reminded us of being back in Sudan. I pitched my tent as close to the truck as possible and I was so tired that as soon as dinner was over I went to bed. Not bad really for only my second day back on the bike!

First Day Back on the Bike - April 17

Had decided the night before that we wanted to have a good breakfast this morning – the Royal Livingstone Hotel is back down the Highway – the wrong direction for us, back towards Victoria Falls – but they have a really, really good breakfast so we decided it was worth the extra ride. So we told the staff our plans and hopped on our bikes to ride the 9k in the opposite direction! We enjoyed an amazing buffet breakfast – fairly expensive but I think we got our money’s worth! We were at the top of the Falls, at the widest part of the river – great views – very cool! There was a good group of us – 9 in total. It took 2 ½ hours in total and then we were ready to leave for the day’s ride! It was a group of strong riders but as a non race day didn’t really matter. We rode well together straight through to lunch. It was a lovely sunny day and the road conditions good – we kept the speed fairly low – about 30ish kmp – and spent some of the time messing around seeing how fast we could spin our pedals in the easiest gear and going downhill – just good fun! We were the last ones in to lunch and grilled cheese sandwiches – however we were still so full from breakfast it was hard to do them justice! I forced myself to eat a few! Then we had a nice casual bike ride all the way to camp (and into Botswana). I never pushed myself today although I did hurt a little and had to slow down a few times to recover. In general though I found it fairly easy for my first day back on the bike!
Happy birthday dad!!

The Last Mando Day

Yes - he did win it!!

The Spencer Family is on the Move

Marie and Will have arrived in South Africa! They plan to drive the Garden Route from Port Elizabeth to Cape Town, ready to meet Paul next Saturday for the celebrations!!
The tracker is working today and shows Paul's progress towards Felix Unite on the last Mando day. Rest day tomorrow!

Just Another Day's Adventure

This blog was posted by Brian on the TDA website with news from today's lunch stop! After yesterday's exhausting grind through the mud today's ride involved a detour because of an impassable river crossing! Hope they made it to the Fish River Canyon OK!
Read about it here:
Rain, Rain Go Away