Friday 11 April 2014

A lot of Zambia...

Zambia is big, with long, straight tarmac roads... time to speed up a bit, with long daily distances, covering Lilongwe to Livingstone in 8 riding days. To prevent boredom, the Phoenix stage was invented, a 50 km stretch on a local, steel single speed bike. It was a lot of fun, even though I was not riding a Phoenix, but towing a team mate for 20 km whose chain broke after 30 km. He still came in as the fastest man, a title that I partly earned as wel ;-) More on that here.

The Zambezi Zone section ended with three well deserved rest days in Livingstone, home to the Victoria Falls, the biggest waterfalls in the world. Having seen them in the dry season from the Zimbabwean side, I was very curious to visit them again in the rain season. Well... a hell of a lot of water! That was not a spray from the falls, but a rainstorm that made it hard to breathe anywhere near the falls. I won a sling over the Zambezi river (thanks for that, TdA and SafPar!) crossing the gorge that is the border between Zam and Zim. Quite high, and spectacular views!

From here we ride into Botswana tomorrow, in five days to Maun. Tarmac, flat, and one right turn after two days, otherwise straight. But.... as elephant sightings are quite commom, I am excited! We got a little what-to-do-when-encountering-an-elephant-briefing, so I am ready!