Geoff Jones

Thurs 31 March and Friday 1st April

Sarah & Scott had cycled the route I intended doing, down The Elephant Road from Kasingula to Nata then across to Maun. A distance of about 382 miles on tarmac, they however had camped & carried food. In my youth I would have just done it but age is beginning to take its toll and so I started to look at alternatives 🙁

They had also mentioned Mack Air, So I popped around to their office in Maun, they said  a fixed wing flight from Maun to Kasane would be $275 but were very unsure as if a bike would fit into their small prop planes 🙁

Next stop was Helicopter Horizons but they wanted $665 for a 45 minute jaunt to the delta and back. Although it would drop to ‘only’ $228 each for three people 🙂 However the very kind lady, Maryke, said she would put the word out about my dilemma and see if anyone would drive me & bike through the 230 or so miles through the Chobe National Park to Kasane.

Maryke came up trumps and after some to and froing on the phone I eventually made contact with Naga Safaris and the delightful Lesley who immediately came up with a price  and said they could do it on Saturday. They would provide the Land Cruiser, driver and camping stuff. (The roads are so bad it is virtually impossible to do it in a day) all I would need is the food!  Lesley said she would pick me up the next morning and do the shopping with me and the driver would then pick me up Sat morning 🙂

Whilst in her office I also booked a b&b in Kasane for two nights and the Backpackers in Victoria Falls town for 4 nights  with a flight to Jo’burg on Saturday 9th April and then two nights in a hotel in Jo’burg. So all booked up 🙂

Ridden 29 Mar 2016

After yesterdays rest day were the checkout supervisor at Choppies kindly sorted out my Orange SIM card for me, although I felt a bit bad about giving Orange 400 Pula so I could buy 2 gigs of data. The retail shop wages are 4.32 an hour so it’s nearly the equivalent of 100 hours work!

At 8.15 I was part of the queue at Barclays to try and get my card back, the place opened at 8.30 but not much action happened – I went to every till/information window where I was promised the card back in an hour or two! Eventually I located the manager and shamed him into opening up the ATM quicker. So at 8.54 I eventually was on my way.

Today was either going to be very short, camping at El Fari after only 70km or going the whole way to a guest house at 200+Km  I was making good progress so opted for the latter.

I made good time even having a race with a donkey at one point. However, I had left to late so by the time I arrived in Sehithwa it was pitch black with no street lighting. the 24hr Shell garage didn’t have much idea except pointing back to the few houses I past. Eventually at a junction a shop had lights on, to my surprise when I asked them about the lodge they said the owner was right behind me 🙂

So of we went me frantically pedalling to keep up with his truck!  Monlek Lodge was OK but some confusion over a meal eventually a young lad bought over a tray of stuff which certainly helped to fill the empty space created by 121 miles of biking. A bit of a modern record distance for me 🙂

Strava says I did 121.1mi Distance in 9:21:35 Moving Time 140ft of climbing. Although it omits the 900 feet or so of descent.

The pics are here