Livingstone Police Station

Some of these offences are real funny ...

Images of Zambia

At the school supported by Markus' charity (Christain Children's Fund)

Markus and Rachel ... his sponsored child

Zambezi Sun, Livingstone ... luxury towards the end of a trip

Well, lets open this bag on the truck, at the border crossing, and lighten the load ...

But they say you get wet at the falls

Livingstone Update

Off to Botswana

So tomorrow we are off into another new country! We will have a timetrial out of Livingstone and off to the Botswana border. Hopefully we will get a TV and cricket coverage ... and hopefully the Proteas will not wilt one more time ... :-(

We then have several long days on very flat, very straight (up to 140km without a bend!!) roads between lots of elephants and other wildlife ... this is what I've waited for ... for a long time now!

Well, cheers to all ... and a special Hi to all those people I hear are regularly checking this blog ... Linda, Leon, Janeen, the Thomas family, Phil and Tara, Trina, Joke, John, J. Zuma and D. Tutu, Nix and everyone else ... I know there are many more, but these few stick out somehow from comments and messages via my fossils and brother ...

cheers for now



Hi there all ... from the Smoke that Thunders

It has been an interesting, exciting and restful last few days!!

We left Lusaka a few days ago ... straight into the same tedious, monotonous rolling hills and tall grass along the same tar roads heading for Livingstone. At some stage between causing shit with Phil and racing up some little hill I realised I was a little bored. Phil felt much the same ... and we plotted our plan to head of for Livingstone a little earlier.

Basically we felt we were a little bored of the same faces, same people, same routine, same roads and wanted to go and chill a few days. The second day out of Lusaka George (who felt the same), Phil and myself headed off for Livingstone ... two days before everyone else. It was a real good idea .. as we have had a real good break from the people and off the bike ... including the two planned rest days in Livingstone.

The day turned a little stressful yesterday ... firstly I played probably my worst round of golf ever (luckily Phil and Andy Paton were not much better) ... then Nurse Elaine got mugged/robbed (she is perfectly fine and uninjured, but has to trek off back to Lusaka to get a new passport ... aagghh) and in the evening poor George took a nasty tumble down a three meter deep well and injured his back a little - well not so little ... vasbyt ouman ... wishing you all the best and a quick recovery onto your bike again.


Livingstone

The falls are brilliant ... unbelievable water ... unfortunately too much for rafting, and one gets TOTALLY soaked when going down to the falls!! The Zambezi Sun (where my folks are currently staying) is a real great hotel, good food and right next to the falls. I'm staying at a small lodge - the Bushfront - also very decent, extremely friendly and nice. I missed the booze cruise last night - for Marc's 50th and for general unwinding - as I was helping Elaine at the cop-shop ... an experience on its own - very friendly, but slow, tedious and tough with different languages and cultural experiences. ;-)

We've done a lot of relaxing, some drinking and just general chilling. This Internet availability story though gets no better ... actually a slight pain in the arse if I may say so. It is so tough to get a good connection anywhere!

I missed the canoeing this morning ... after looking after George a little and heading back to where I was staying it was 01h00 ... and I was not keen to get up at 07h00 ... at least not on a rest day! So I enjoyed an awesome breakfast with my folks.


Cheers Howard

Well, we lost another person from the trip ... cheers Howard, it was good to meet you and I wish you all the best for the rest of your trip. I believe you will not mind too much - and actually agree - if I do point out that this trip was not the best thing for you ... you want your space and freedom thru Africa and I really hope you find that thru the last part of your trip ;-)

Cheers to the last member of the Grumpy Old Men ;-)


Dear Leigh-Anne

As most of you know, Leigh-Anne left us a while ago. I must say upfront that I have decided not to gossip thru my blog, or point fingers and critisize people on the tour ... but herewith I do wish to point out one or two things that you have indicated on your blog.

You seem to indicate that the Tour organisors/staff were not helpful, supportive and that they "neglected" you when you came down with Malaria. You seem to lay a fair amount of blame on the nurse not doing what you felt was her responsibility, and your expectations for certain care or attention which you believe you were supposed to get.

Leigh-Anne ... please remember that you had left the tour a week earlier - but this never excluded that the Tour was still accomodating to you and your needs. You approached the nurse very shortly before our departure, wanting her to go North up the country to fetch a friend (slightly impossible I'd say), then to maybe find your friends number ... which you didn't even have or make easily available. You were obviously not well and the Tour did offer to take you to the hospital and eventually they were the ones that informed and spoke to the camp's owners to help and organise your travel and appropriate care at a clinic or hospital,

Please don't get me wrong Leigh-Anne ... I'm not unsupportive of your dreams and ways of travelling thru Africa. I'm glad to have met you and wish you all the best for the future ... but I do believe you have given a very false perception and review of the Tour organisors, their conduct and help they offered to you in this case.


My new motto in life ...

I wish a long life to my ENEMIES
So they may see all my SUCCESS

(poster in a shop somewhere in Zambia)

Lusaka

Well I'm bushed ... tired and sore head. Gotta go pack and hit the sack ... aagghh ... and 160km tomorrow.

We had a good dinner at the Deputy German Ambassador yesterday ... really nice to hear some other news, information and ideas about a country on the trip. Good German food is also always welcome!!

Tausend Dank fuer die Einladung.

Today's trip out to Markus' sponsored child and the school/community development programmes was also real interesting. We were treated like semi-royalty and really enjoyed the dancing, food and children. It is an eye-opener to see first hand how little so many people really have. And nearly comical to listen to the over-zealous politicians hijacking the proceedings to contribute their little bit of propaganda ... ;-)

For now - good night ... I gotta rush and really need a good night's sleep.

Cheers

Zambia

And this against a decent head-wind ...

Welcome to Zambia ...

"Guys ... I hope you all closed your tents!!!"

Typical tall grass verges throughout Zambia

More pics

I'm in the middle of town ... no need to tell me ...

The powder enables the man to make the woman much happier ... ??

Pictures in Africa

As opposed to "used condoms"?

This should have been in Ethiopia

Hello from Lusaka

Hi there all.

well we made it too Lusaka ... that was one tough section!!! Hills, hills and more hills ... endless rolling hills. Not as steep as Ethiopia, but tough, endless stuff. The distances have also been much longer ... and very noticeable in the legs. Somewhat monotonous at times ... continuous tarred hill roads with tall grasses on the sides. Much fewer people, minimal Coke stops, few (but fast, self-centred, dangerous) cars and buses and vegetation all round.

It is the first time on the tour that I actually questioned myself why I was doing this ... during a brief tired, strained, aching moment ... which flashed by as soon as it appeared!!

It is actually quite interesting how tired and run down some people are ... actually to see how different people are suffering at different times. Some - including myself - took strain a while ago and now are racing along and enjoying every second; whereas others are only now going thru a definite slump.

Talking about slumps and taking strain ... we lost another cyclist in Lilongwe. Tom V. decided to pack up and leave. Sorry to loose you, but I fully understand your decision. There goes one of the stalwarts of the Grump Old Men ;-)

We have now unfortunately lost four cyclists in total ... Tom B., Leigh-Anne, Eric and Tom V. Nice to have met all of you and wishing all of you lots of fun and adventures for the future. There are several more who are taking a lot of strain ... and a few close to cracking totally ...

Well that is more or less all for now. I've got to rush off to the hairdresser ... to get rid of the stupid three stripes on my kop - I've got a dinner appointment and can't go like this. Then off to the hotel to replace the cassette on my bike and relax a little. Tomorrow is our off day - but I'm off with Marcus to see some charity projects and another angle to Zambia and their people.

I've got loads of lekker pictures on my camera ... no promises ... but I'll try to get them onto a USB drive and come back to this Internet Cafe tomorrow evening ... lets see how tired I am.

Some extra info:

• We've crossed the 7880km mark ... so less than 4000km left.
• My fossils are joining me at Victoria Falls in four days ... yeeha!
• We've got more long distances coming up ... Thursday, Friday, Saturday all around 170km!!
• Siggie ... you are still crazy! ;-)
• Termites DO eat tents!
• The sun is hot out here
• If you wish to loose weight ... do the Tour d'Afrique

Ciao

What lies ahead ...

Howdee and good night ...

I'm off for one more drink ... maybe two or three ... but then a good night's sleep and a well deserved rest tomorrow. The section from Iringa to Lilongwe has been quite tough and tiring ... and the route to follow is no easier.

I'm simply off to do some banking tomorrow ... get my Zambian Kwacha here in Lilongwe - apparently the changers at the border are notoriously criminal ...

• We leave on Good Friday with five tough days ... 150km, 195km (aagghh), 154km, 125km, 104km
• One rest day in Lusaka ... but real busy ... joining Marcus on a charity event and dinner at the "deputy" German Ambassador
• Then three quick days to Vic Falls ... and a visit from my Fossils ... Yeeha!!! Also two off days ... to drink, raft, sleep and drink ...

Well for now, keep well and have fun .. I definitely am!!

Thoughts of the trip

Me and my Boet ... in Malawi ... enjoying a much needed breather climbing from Chitimba to Mzuzu

Some more ideas, facts and thoughts:

• I've lost lotsa weight ... not sure what my current measurements are ... but my arm warmers are totally useless (can't stay up on my arm) and my casual trousers are way to big ... looking for a decent clothes shop in Lilongwe tomorrow.
• Cheers again to Donna, Ruth and Trina ... from BC, Canada ... it was fun to have you here. Trina ... I hope you have apologised to Donna for causing such a major cycling accident ... tut, tut, tut ... at least you made it up with those nice M&Ms!! ;-)
• "Rolling Hills" is really becoming a terrible term on our trip ... especially cause we constantly have them at the moment ... and the same term is being used for rolling mountains and rolling hills ... so we never know what to expect.
• We have been VERY lucky with the rain!!! I've only had one day with a ten minute light shower and ten minute torrential down pour ... on the whole trip. A couple of nights with severe or slight rain ... and some major morning dew which leaves the tents sopping wet. Overall - absolutely nothing. Last year they had three weeks of rain every day during Kenya, Tanzania and Malawi!!!
• Ethiopia still stands out as the most memorable and beautiful country on the trip. Sudan as the most impressive ... just the vast open nothingness and freedom of the open sand. Malawi is the friendliest, and Tanzania the lushest and greenest of them all.
• My Nile Crocodile ... plastic horn on my bike ... lost his voice and had to be removed. I actually seem faster and more mobile with less wind resistance!