Windhoek, Namibia - 10 000km

Hello everyone!

We have concluded a very long section of the tour from Livingstone, Zambia to Windhoek, Namibia. In just 10 riding days, we covered approx. 1500km so if you do the math, that is an average of 150km per day which is a long time to spend on a bicycle seat, especially day after day and with uncooperative winds. This section also included the longest day of the tour, a whopping 207km. They told us that in the past there is most surely a tailwind for this day...there was not. The last riders got into camp JUST before sunset. BUT, we made it safe and sound to Windhoek and are enjoying what is essentially the "first world" again.

On our last update, we told the story of how our cameras were stolen and our adventure with going to the police, etc. so we just thought we would update further on this. The morning that we got all the police report sorted out, we had been planning on going to Victoria Falls in the afternoon and to do so without a camera would have been a bit of a downer, and we could not find a camera to buy in town either. Luckily, a fellow rider, Allen, lent us his camera so that we could go take many beautiful shots of the falls and ourselves there, which was very kind of him. If that wasn't generous enough, a different rider, Peter happend to bring two cameras on the trip so he lent us one of them indefinately until we can find another one. This has turned out to be an absolutely invaluable act of kindness considering all the things there were to take pictures of along this section.

On the day we left Livingstone, we crossed the border (by ferry) into Botswana. Interestingly, because the countries of Botswana, Zambia, Namibia and Zimbabwe all converge at this one spot, we actually crossed into Zimbabwe while on the ferry. We were not expecting to go to that country, but we can now say we did. We are even bringing home a 100 Trillion Zimbabwean dollar bill which is worth essentially nothing. In fact, the Zimbabwe government redenominated the ZWD again on February 2, 2009 at a rate of 1,000,000,000,000 old ZWD to 1 new ZWD and the rate is still 279 ZWD to 1 USD. Crazy. On the night we got into Botswana, we went on a river safari on the Chobe River. It was a very incredible experience. In just 2 short hours, we saw an elephant bathing in the water, two familes of 10 and 2o hippos respectively, a crocodile and many beautiful birds and ungulates. It ended with a spectacular African sunset which we probably took about 20 pictures of. The next day, we saw about 6 elephants on the side of the road while riding and sadly, a little further on, we saw a dead elephant that had been poached (its leg had been snared and the whole face had been cut away). You do not want me to try and describe the smell of that experience...Judy almost vomited. The NEXT day, we saw 3 giraffes crossing the road but they were very timid and ran incredibly fast into the forest. And don't worry, we are coming home with pictures of all of this (thanks to the generosity previously mentioned). So, as you can see, Botswana offered us all the sites of animals that we could have wanted and one of the reasons is because there are almost NO people. It was an incredible contrast from most of the trip so far, as ever since Ethiopia (which was the worst) we have been going through heavily populated countires. It was a nice break to never see any people, anywhere...just animals.

Near the end of our time in Botswana, we both (again) developed a bit of a sickness. This time, it was nothing that affected our GI tract, which was nice because that is what has been happening off and on since Eithiopia. We just had some high fevers and aches, but nothing that Tylenol couldn't fix. Judy had it a bit worse, so they did a Malaria test on her, but it was negative...phew. At the same time we developed this feverish sickness, Judy also happened to pick up a worm infestation in her belly. Yes, worms. Actually, a few of the people on our trip had worm troubles throughout Botswana, some in their bellies, some just under the surface of their skin. Judy affectionatly named hers Harold and Josephine and then took "Worm Stop 500" and killed them and their offspring off. The effects of taking the worm medication were incredibly swift and as soon as she had, the aching belly went away. These sicknesses did keep us from riding a few days, the most dissapointing of which was the 207km day, but that is just how it goes sometimes.

Since getting into Namibia, we have spent most of the days crossing the Kalahari Desert. I am not sure what it is with our group and getting bad luck with rain and deserts, but two nights ago, we had an incredibly rain and wind storm overnight while camping in Witvlei. We ended up tying our tent to a tree in the middle of the night so that it didn't collaps/blow away. This was very effective, and luckily, even after 102 days of camping, we and all our stuff were 100% dry inside. Seriously, we think this tent is magic. If anyone is looking into buying a tent right now, buy a Kelty. Yesterday, while riding into Windhoek, we saw more animals! Just after passing the international airport, we saw about 30 monkies sitting on the fence along the side of the road and not long after that, 3 warthogs (or as we call them, "Pumba"s) crossed in front of us. We sang "Hakuna Matata" for about a half hour after that. It then rained AGAIN on the last few km into the city and we got a little wet. The terrain in the Kalahari desert and around Windhoek looks a lot like interior BC near Kamloops and the rolling hills as we went into the city, really brought us back to Canada.

Well, after 10 000km, we are getting ready for the last section of our tour: Windhoek to Cape Town. We leave here tomorrow (April 25) and ride over to the Namib desert and then south to South Africa and should arrive in Cape Town on May 9th. We can't believe it is almost coming to a close but after four and a half months travelling, we are pretty excited and quite ready to get home. We look forward to seeing you all when we do!

Lastly, you can read a newspaper article about us that was in the local Canmore newspaper here: http://www.albertalocalnews.com/rockymountainoutlook/news/42760627.html