November 16 & 17 - recharge

16 November

28 Miles

Junction – Ghanzi

Steph:

Aside from the funny stories yesterday, it was actually a very tough day. In fact, ever since we entered Botswana, it's been tough. Mentally and physically. We never found a good place to rest with real shade so the sun and heat really took it out of us. The end of the day was a sprint to the Junction. Here, you could either turn right and head towards the capital, Gaborone, or you go north to Ghanzi and Maun. Those, btw, are the 3 of the 4 big cities in Botswana. We weren't sure if there was a gas station at the junction and did not want to risk missing it before we went to bed. It was a dumb decision though because we ended up riding well past our "stop time" which is 6pm and there was nothing there. We had killed ourselves for absolutely nothing and now we had to find a place to camp. I was done. We finally went to bed exhausted, dirty and paranoid after hearing voices and seeing lights.

The next morning we finished the last 28 miles to Ghanzi. We were so tired. The last 10km were pathetically slow. We barely pedalled and were being deliriously goofy. We kept threatening to take pictures of the posters of animals along the road because we haven't really seen anything other than cows and donkeys. It was about 9:45am when we arrived at the only hotel here. It's a very nice place with some very pricey rooms but luckilly they had camping! For 50pula per person ($13 total)!! With a pool! A beautiful pool!

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17 November

0 Miles

Ghanzi

Erik:

It may be silly, but that pool has helped get our spirits up again. The temperatures here are rather hot. Like mid 90's to hundreds. It is supposed to be the start of the rainy season, so it is SUPPOSED to cool down in the afternoon. . . with rain. Well, the weather has been weird for the past few years, and the rainy season is not being as rainy as it is supposed to be. So it is bloody hot.

With all this in mind, we need to stop cycling and find shade at around 11 30 every day. If we don't find a good place to rest and stay in the shade, it is very wearing and mentally draining. So the last 2 days we did not find a place to do this. Every shade tree is either covered in ants, or cows. On top of that we ended up putting our camp up too late. And it is too hot to fall asleep right away, so we just sweat in our tent miserably. All this and we've only seen 10 wildabeest. I seriously wanted to take a bus to the beach and retire there. Ghanzi however offers no support. No car rental. No buses. I guess we'll keep on biking. We have very carefully gone over the map of the upcoming villages and water stops. From here to the junction that takes us north is going to be a tough bit, but after that there are villages about 40mi apart. We'll take it as it comes. I had better see something else besides burnt out landscape though!

Steph:

Yesterday, we realized that we needed an attitude adjustment. Since we left Windhoek it has really been up and down. The temperatures have been challenging, the wind, the lack of proper rest when we are bush camping... everything is getting to us. These past few days have not been pleasant at all and we've found ourselves dreading almost every part of the day, except the very early morning. Like Erik said, we were ready to rent a car and drive to Zambia. Since that is not an option, we need to buck up and just get it done. If we organize our day correctly; wake up earlier and get most of our riding done in the morning, then all we really need is a good tree to wait out the sun under. When the clouds roll in, we should be able to ride another few hours before finding a good spot to camp. Early.

I think we can do it. I know we can do it. It's not going to be easy and it might really take it out of us, but if we have water, that's all that really matters. Once we reach the northwest corner of Botswana and re-enter Namibia, we'll have some guaranteed Rest Camps and a guaranteed shower. From then, the towns are a little closer together and we should see some animals. Hopefully.

For now, we will spend another day here tomorrow and stock up. It should take us about a week to get to the north, so we'll need enough food and supplies. Until then, that pool will make us happy, cool and optimistic.

This landscape was not exactly inspiring at this point

At least there's a little color. Everything else is dry and dead.

November 15 - pula!? sweets!? water!?

15 November

67 Miles

Tsootsha – Junction

Steph:

We only had to ride about 10 miles to Tsootsha, a little village by the road. It was important that we find water, because we were low and I could tell it would be very hot that day. The first thing we saw was a closed, abandoned, slightly destroyed Shell Oil station. The only thing there were two shy donkeys. After a few more min of cycling we arrived in Tsootsha. I saw some trucks parked off the main road and figured there would be a gas station or shop there. A nice lady filled up one of our water bottles and told us the shop by the petrol station would open at 8 (only 20 min from then). So we sat by the curb and watched this little town wake up. I liked it. People were super polite and interested. One young man named Jethro came up to us and asked where we came from and where were going. After telling him that we were raising money for the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust he nodded and said, "well, I only have 7 Pula to give you" (about a dollar). I thought he was joking and said, "any little bit will help". He smiled, nodded and left. A few minutes later, he came back with two coins and wished us a safe journey. I was so amazed and grateful. The people here seem less reserved than in Namibia. When we say hello, they say it back and add something to it, rather than just starring at us like aliens. Which, by the way, I'm completely aware we look like. We really do look so silly in our helmets and ridiculous bicycles.

After leaving Tsootsha, it got hotter and more windy. There were some people working on the side of the road, clearing out weeds. They saw us and asked for water. I stopped and they came running over, just the men. They drank almost all of it. It was silly, but I thought it would be ok since the next town was only 10km away and we could just refill. I immediatly regretted it when a woman from the next group of people we saw asked us what we had given the men. We told her and she said, "well if they got water, then I want sweets". Really? You want sweets? Erik told her we had no sweets and that they had taken all our water and we took off. It was dumb. We clearly got taken advantage of. We were even more mad when we found out this next village was 5km away from the main road. Another headwind. It could've been worse though. This village, Chobokwane, clearly does not get many visitors. The children started screaming when they saw us ride by. There were signs pointing towards the "Chobokwane Camp Site", so clearly, we followed those, thinking there would be water there. The final sign pointed to a sand road that went nowhere with 5 cows just standing there chewing on something (sand?(erik adds: their cud)). There was a hut off to the side with some children running around it. As we got closer, we saw a group of women lying in the shade gossiping. The very large one filled up a few of our bottles and asked if we wanted to see the Camp Site. We said "sure" and she said, "It's under construction". Haha! We looked around and there was literally NOTHING there. Oh wait! No! There was one half built hut very sadly sitting in the sand. I politely asked when it would be done and she said, "maybe next year". Can I just point out that these guys had posted signs MILES before the village, miles after the village and ALL over the village. It was pretty funny. As we left the woman laid back down on the ground and continued chatting. I have a feeling that the Chobokwane Camp Site will look about the same next year. We ended up getting the rest of our water at the Police Station where we kind of, interrupted a Town Meeting. A lot of very well dressed men sitting under a tree discussing important matters of the village. Very nice people. As we rode off, the whole place either shouted, waved or just stared at us. One man started jumping up and down and sprinted towards us yelling in a language that was not english. We stopped to say hi and it turned out to be a old bushman. He smiled his toothless smile, grabbed my hand and kissed it. He did the same to Erik and talked and talked and talked. We just smiled until he had finished. When he was done he paused and then just said, "Pula! Pula! Pula!" (botswanian $). This little rascal just wanted our money! Erik couldn't help himself and gave him a few. Even though he was clearly not starving to death.

But seriously, we can't keep doing this. We need our water (my bad) and we definitely do not have and cash to spare. That sounds horrible, I know. But, unfortunately, it's true. Oi. So that was our lesson for the day.

Noted.

The "Camp Site" Haha!

Pretty cute kids though!

November 12, 13 & 14

12 November

0 Miles

W.P.'s Farm (Herzog)

Steph:

This morning was lovely again. We're still at the farm and enjoying every minute of it. Since it's monday, WP had actual work to do, especially with the clean up after the fire. Johan also needed to take a few hours to work. This was perfectly fine with us, since we had some things to take care of. Erik read and played cards. He took most of the day to figure out the rules of a card game my oma taught us last year. I spent my time cleaning my bike chain and fiixng our handle bar tape. Our injuries from the night before had us sore all day. Erik's toe was surprisingly ok, while the bruise on the side of his leg was getting bigger and more purple. I had hit my elbow pretty hard but my worst battle wound was, by far, my wrist. By the end of the day I finally discovered that the pain was most likely a sprain. I could barely move my hand up and down and definitely could not grab anything with my right hand. I wasn't too worried about it though and the day ended on a very lovely note with Johan's Oxtail dinner. Delicious. It's going to be hard leaving these lovely people. I'm already feeling really sad about it. We've both grown so fond of them and really feel like we've gotten to know them well this past weekend. They already promised to come visit us in Phoenix in February of 2014. They had better do it.

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13 November

23 Miles

Herzog Farm – Botswana Border

Steph:

Today we are actually leaving Herzog Farm. BUT! Since we only have a little over 20 miles to the border, we can afford to sleep in, have breakfast and then go. After saying good-bye to Johan, WP drove us through more of his farm to the tar road. He dropped us off at a rest stop and sent us on our way with some candy and biltong. Totally delicious. We spent about 2 hours at the rest stop because it was still incredibly hot. Around 3pm we headed out under very comfortable cloud cover. My wrist really bothered me though. I couldn't put any weight on it and any sort of movement was not fun. The ride was very nice. Relaxing and relatively fast. We spent the whole time talking about super random things and by 4:30pm we were at the border. We stayed at a rest camp that was very clean and very cheap and went to bed after a beautiful sunset.

Downhill to Botswana!

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14 November

49 Miles

Botswana Border – Tsootsha (Bush Camp)

Steph:

Oi. Today was tough. We entered Botswana at around 8am with no problems whatsoever. As promised, the first animals we saw were donkeys on the side of the road. They were pretty funny and very cute. Soon, the fence on the side of the road disappeared as well! Woo! Bush camping! The only problem was that the wind picked up substantially and really slowed us down. What also slowed us down was me. :( My wrist had been hurting all day. I put my weight on my ther arm, which then screwed up my shoulder and then screwed up my back. I was a hot mess. On top of that, after taking our first dose of the malaria pills, I immediatly became nauseous and sick. I lost a lot of water. But we had to move on to find a suitable camping spot. I ate some of our candy and we started riding again. It's funny that a lollipop made it all better. After about 10 more miles, we pulled off the side of the road and set up camp. With the exception of all the ant hills, and the uneven ground, it turned out to be ok. Dinner tasted like heaven.

We did see a herd of wildebeest! Finally! Woo!

November 11 - FIRE!!!

FIRE!!

11 November

0 Miles

W.P.'s Farm (Herzog)

Steph:

Well, we stayed the next day anyway! Haha! We just like these guys so much and love it here on the farm and talking to them and I don't want to leave. Ever. :)

Erik:

Today started out very easy and relaxed. We walked out to the sheep and got to hold some lambs. We talked about Namibia and the state of the country, which was very interesting. WP made a delicious lunch of chicken around noon. We all spent some time in the pool. Afterwards we played with the horses. WP and I caught a foal that was about a week old to pet him. He was cute. At 5pm, some of their friends came over for tea. WP brought out his champion stallion to show him off. He was pretty cool and majestic. Steph wants one.

Johan and I 

Baboons running across the road

Took awhile, but we caught him

Playing with babies!

Steph:

Two hours later, we were standing on the back of this "tanked out" (by 'tanked out' steph means it is a heavily modified toyota) pick up truck (baaki), in the dark, charging towards some pretty big, brightly burning flames. FLAMES! I was filthy black, covered in scratches, hanging on for dear life as we rolled over trees and thick brush.

How, on earth, did we get into this?

We were in the middle of the Kalahari Desert very actively FIGHTING A WILDFIRE.

Haha! At one point, we found each other in the chaos, surrounded by flames and people running around and couldn't help laughing. This was ridiculous.

In the middle of the Kalahari Desert, in Africa, on the border of Namibia and Botswana, surrounded by ~40 farmers and workers, fighting very tall, very fast moving flames that were threatening wildlife, cattle and these people's livelihoods.

Ahhhh! How bad ass are we?

Erik:

When the people came over for tea, the lightening had been going on for a while. We saw some smoke and realized it was on WP's land. Johan told us to put on shoes and pants and the workers started filling up the water tank on the back of WP's "Kalahari Spider". This thing is a toyota pick up truck that has been converted into a steel topped tank, specifically designed to go through the bush.

Once the truck was filled, we headed towards the fire.

Steph:

I was really nervous. Erik wasn't because he's trained for this and has actually experienced fire before. I had never even really seen one up close. As we drove out towards the smoke, another baaki sped past and ahead of us. The other farmers had heard and were already on their way to help. It was still light out at this point so we could only see smoke, but when we got closer, we realized that it was two seperate fires. We split up and the spider turned off the dirt road and into the bush. It was crazy how that thing just plowed though anything in its way. WP was driving and expertly navigated through the maze of trees and heavily thorned bushes. There were 5 others in the truck. Erik, hree farm workers (Chappi, Markus and Hans) and myself. When we arrived at the fire, Chippa jumped out with the hose. While he sprayed the big flames, Erik helped clear the hose over bushes and trees. Markus and Hans had shovels and were putting out the remaining flames or those that had jumped back up by shovelling sand and dirt on them. I had nothing to do so I followed Markus and Hans and just used my feet to kick out the small stuff. It was intense!

Erik says that it took about an hour to get that one out. I'm not really sure. I thought it was less. The next one was big. The sun was starting to go down, so we could see a faint red glow in the distance. We met up with Fanny and switched out water tanks with the one he brought. There were a lot more of us hanging off the back of the spider and whenever we got close to one those thorned bushes (called "wait-a-bit") we would all have to duck or be ripped apart. Fanny didn't see one in time and got a whole branch stuck in his arm. It was completely covered in blood.

When we reached the next fire we all realized how big it was. No one really knew how to approach it. The wind was very strong and I was shocked at how fast the flames were spreading. You only see this kind of thing on TV. But by now I was excited and pumped though and ready to get to work. For this fire I had a spade and actually felt like I was contributing!

As the number of people helping grew, so did the number of fires. The sun was going down as well so it felt like everywhere I looked, there was the red glow of another one. Everyone was so well organized and knew exactly what to do and where to go. All we had to do was hang on and put out the next one.

Erik:

By now, there were about 6 other pickups with us. It's good, because those last two fires were big.

Steph, Johan and I played cleanup. But the winds kept changing directions. At one point, Johan and I were putting out flames on one side when the wind changed direction and the flames came right at us. I side stepped but he had to jump right through the flames. This one took a long time to put out.

So now there was only one left. And it was HUGE and deep in the bush (far from the dirt roads). It was also the first one to actually threaten the cattle. We drove bumpily towards the fire through very thick brush. When we finally got there, we split up, 2 trucks went north and 3 south. About 30 minutes into it, right in the middle of everything, we ran out of water. But just before that, we hit two large warthog holes. One after the other. The tank bounced onto my foot and slammed me into the side of the truck. I thought my toe was broken, it hurt so bad. Luckily it wasn't, but the bruise on my quad is rather bad.

Ok, so we ran out of water and had to head back to fill up. It was about 30 min getting bounced around. By the time we got out of the field and filled up, the fire was dying and a rain had started.

We headed back to the house. Johan made us some soup and we crashed into bed.

The scenery that night was insane! Everything was aglow in red. When the rain started, the white steamy smoke covered everything and made it tough to breathe. It was amazing to see everyone work together to get the fires under control. All said and done, we went to bed around 1am.

Steph:

It was very dark and very bright at the same time. The most prominent light was the intense yellow and red of the actual flames. These fires were big enough that you could see the flames from very far away. Then there was the glow above the flames, a light orange. The smoke would catch a more subdued version of that color and carry it up to the sky where it would light up the bush around it. It was like a full moon without a moon. The trees and brush in front of them were beautifully sihluetted in black against the bright red, oranges and browns. And then on top of that, lightening was still going crazy ALL around us. Completely breathtaking. I stood on the back of the spider as it sped down the sand roads and didn't want to blink. I know that none of what I'm writing will ever do it justice. I'm not a good enough writer to describe it, but man... the colors, the noise of the trucks, the shouting of the men, the crackle of the trees, the wind, the heat of the flames and then the cold rain...

It was an incredible experience.

Us after the fire. 

These are photos that we found online of fires in the area that represent what things looked like. 

November 10

10 November

0 Miles

W.P.'s Farm (Herzog)

Steph:

Today was lovely. WP and Johan invited us to stay the day and learn about the farm. We got spoiled with an amazing breakfast and coffee. It's awesome. The more we talk to these guys, the more we have to talk about. It's so nice. I feel like we've known them for way longer than just less than a day. After breakfast, they took us for a tour of the "feld" (field). It's a cattle farm about 12,000 hectares and abslutely beautiful. They have certain blocks fenced off and rotate the herds around throughout the year. There are also wild Kudu roaming around as well as WP's horses. He lets his arabians roam around with the cows for most of the year. Before being beautiful show champions and breeding machines, he wants them to be happy, free horses. You can tell that WP has his heart and soul invested in these animals and genuinely cares about their well being, rather than just about the money they make him. He says that whenever the calves get big enough and are shipped off to meet their fate, it makes him sick. I can definitely see that. Johan has also become very involved in farming and says he enjoys learning about it. He seems to really revel in the tranquility and simplicity that comes with it. He still does some freelance architecture when he wants to and has also begun investing in cattle and horses. It was very interesting learning about the whole operation.

The land here is as dry as Arizona in the summer, so fires are something that farmers have to deal with a lot this time of year. The rain isn't quite here yet but the storms bring just enough power for lightening. Dry brush and lightening are never good together. There is no fire department here so the farmers band together to fight them and save the land. It's a very tight knit community, which I find very nice.

We ended the night at Fanny and Henriette's farm house "next door". They invited us to dinner along with their children, Luann, WP and Nadine. Their farm is a dairy farm and their facitlities were very impressive. We got to try fresh milk and everything. Delicious. Henriette, Nadine and I got along really well and I enjoyed observing their easy relationship. It made me miss my mami even more.

Off in the distance the men spotted some smoke. WP called the farmer whose land it was coming from to make sure they knew about it. Johann told us that if we were called to help then we'd have to spend another night with them. Eventually the fires were put out by the other farmers and we went home to bed.

Our hosts, Johan and W.P. with their dog Gem

Time lag

So by the time you reach this post, we will be well into Botswana (we should cross on the 12th). We don't know what the internet situation will be like, but we will update as regularly as we can of course.

Future route:

From the border of Botswana we will be going through Ghanzi, and then up the western side of the Okovango Delta. We cross into the Caprivi strip (Namibia again), and then head east into Zambia. I imagine at Ghanzi and Livingston we will have internet. We expect to stay at Fawlty Towers backpackers in Zambia, if you want to look it up and see how cool it is.

So to wrap things up, there may be a little while where there are no updates, and pictures take forEVER to upload. But, this is Africa. And we love nearly every minute of it :)

November 9

9 November

53 Miles

Bush camp – Gobabis – Johan's farm

Erik:

Packed out and left by about 7. Both of us feel a lot better today than yesterday. We reached Gobabis at about 830 am. Fairly big town, not too unfriendly. Some kid stole an empty water bottle. Whatever. Shopped for some food, refilled on water and headed out. Stopped at about noon again for our siesta.

I feel that our most demanding part is just about to come up. The route up Botswana is going to be hot, and getting water may be a challenge at times. And even in the Caprivi area there isn't much civilization. But I'm looking forward to it. Both cyclists enjoyed the northern parts (well north of us, so central really) quite a lot, and were a bit disappointed by the southern area. Good news for us! It is only going to get better.

So we rode on at about 3. We were shooting for about 10 more miles til we hit a side road to bush camp. Steph was a bit beat up, and I felt bad because there really is no good place to bush camp here. On my map there was a farm, but it was still 3 more miles away from where we were (already 3.5 miles into the gravel road) and where we were there was an O.K. place to camp. So I unloaded my bike and rode to the farm. Here I met another Johan. Different spelling, Dutch decent this time. I asked if we could stay the night in our tent on his land. He said yes. In fact, he told us we were invited to dinner and we could stay in the spare room. So we hung out with him and Paul (his partner). They raise cattle and breed Arabian horses. We had dinner with them and some other friends of theirs came over. We got invited to stay the next day at the farm to explore and meet the horses and cows. AND we got invited to have Poike' with another family tomorrow night. Another good day.

Also, as it turns out, all of them saw us over the last 3 days cycling. So we are known by the locals... as the idiots on the bikes :)

Idiot number 1

Idiot number 2. Very pretty though

Stephanie was kung-fu fighting

Just an idea of what we get to see every afternoon now

November 8

8 November

45 Miles

Farm-Witvlei-Bush camp

Erik:

Today was a tougher day. It was much hotter than yesterday! So our progress was slow, but the landscape is still wonderful. Just outside of Witfvlei we met another tour cyclist! His name is Johann and he started 13 months ago in Stuttgart Germany. His route was very similar to what we are doing (except longer) so we talked for more than an hour. He said he missed the real Africa  and that the people here were just so far and few between as well as being just a little bit closed off. But it was very nice. We exchanged information and parted ways. Another great moral boost!

We found a great spot to bush camp right next to a water pump, so we had nice cool showers.

Shower time

Amazing sunset

November 7

November 7

Windhoek – Stephan's farm.

69 Miles

Erik:

Dustin rode out with us today. He went about 20k with us (an official escort) before turning around. We enjoyed the ride and the conversation. 

We saw warthogs today! A bunch of little Pumbas running away from us with their funny little tails in the air. Pretty funny little creatures. Also saw quite a large group of Baboons by the road. AND this HUGE Kudu standing by the road. It was definitely over 7 feet tall. Taller than the road sign it was standing next to.

At about 1 we stopped and took a nap. We both zonked out for like 2 hours. When we woke up it was 3:30 and cloudy! So we rode on a bit further. We found a nice spot to bush camp on a side road a bit away from the tar road. While setting up for the night a truck drove by, stopped and came back our way. A big German speaking white guy gets out and goes "wouldn't you rather sleep inside for the nigh?"

We said yeeeeesssss. And he told us his farm was just a bit down the road, and we could sleep in the extra room there. So we got a nice shower and a bed to sleep on.

That night he had some people over and we watched a champions league football game. The Germans beat the french 6-1.

The generosity we receive from people never ceases to amaze.

After our climb out of Windhoek

Dustin, our official escort. . . from north carolina

November 2 - 6

November 2-6

Swakopmund

0 Miles

Erik:

On the night of the first, we got on the train to Swakopmund. The train left at around 9 p.m.

Swakop is a German beach town directly west of Windhoek, Surrounded by dunes, desert and ocean.

The night train wasn't terrible. We didn't get much sleep on the way there because we were a little uncomfortable. We arrived at the station in Swakopmund at about 5 a.m. At which point we realized we had no idea where the backpackers (hostel) was, or where we were (look at the map fail). We figured out how to look it up on our phone, and the train station was only 400 meters away from the backpackers lodge. When we went to check in there, they gave us a free breakfast. As soon as we were able to actually get to our rooms, we took a very long nap.

In general we just did some tourist stuff. We walked to the dunes and ran around there for a bit. It was amazing to see all these dunes, and know that they go on for thousands of miles into the Namib desert. We also laid on the beach a lot, and read, played chess, stretched and just let our bodies recover a little bit.

The people we met were amazing. The lodge hosts a group called EHRA (elephant human relations association) and we were able to meet the volunteers associated with that. EHRA basically teaches the locals about how to live with elephants and helps them repair fencing and whatnot. Then they do elephant tracking as well. The groups bond very closely during the event, and it was neat to see.

So there is:

Lexi – A woman from New York. She volunteered last year, and this year she got hired as an assistant. For the 6 weeks she is going to be working there, she'll get 500N$ every two weeks. So about $60 (USD).

Matt – 35, lawyer from San Francisco  He was a small claims lawyer who quit his firm and wanted to do something far different than lawyering. So he chose to volunteer with EHRA for 2 weeks, travel through Africa for 2 weeks, and then 2 more weeks with EHRA.

Alex – She is a young woman from the U.K. She once drove from England to Mongolia just for the adventure. When we met her, she had just finished volunteering for a while and was about to find a ride to Cape Town before flying back to England. As we were parting ways she gave us "the Alchemist" to read. This particular book is passed from traveler to traveler along the way. So when steph and I finish it we will pass it on to someone else along the way.

Kenji – From Kyoto Japan, he started his overland trip in south east Asia in January 2010. He did all of Asia  the middle east (including Iran, Iraq, the "stans", Syria (twice during the uprising)), a lot of Europe  Then in January of this year he headed into Africa, via Morocco and has been going to west Africa ever since. He was in Mali during the coup. He told us "there weren't very many tourists at that time, and I couldn't see Timbuktu, but it was a very nice place". On his travels he learned Chinese, Spanish, French, German, Arabic and English. Amazing guy.

All of these people we've met were very inspirational to us. Whether for 2 weeks, or 3 years, they set the time aside to go and experience the world, in a way that gives a full personal perspective of place that most people have never even heard of.

So Swakopmund was a very nice place to meet travelers of all types. A bit touristy, but very nice.

On the night of the 5^th we headed back to Windhoek. In the morning (of the 6^th) we saw our first game of the "Big 5" (the "big 5" is Wilda-beast  Elephants, Hippo, Giraffe and Lion). So we saw Loads of Wilda-beast and about 20 Giraffe just chillin' out by the train tracks. We were very excited.

For the rest of the day we just packed and got resupplied for our ride.

The start of the dunes

The angle of the camera makes it impressive!

Flamingos! (for you Donna)

A very German looking town

The lighthouse 

Oct 31st & Nov 1st

October 31

Windhoek!!

0 Miles

Erik:

We have decided to take some time off. We arrived in Windhoek almost 2 weeks ahead of schedule and still want to see some things before we leave Namibia. Sooooooo, we are taking a night train to Swakopund for a few days. Swakopmund is a city on the coast. The coolest thing about it is that there are dunes! And it's on the beach. Win. It should be a nice break from the bikes.

We explored Windhoek today. It's very cool. Small but very cosmopolitan. It has a very good mix of people. We love Namibians, btw. Very nice and down to earth.

Steph made pasta for all of us (Steph, Erik, Matthias & Dustin). So we ate together, drank and talked until 11pm.

Steph:

I really like this city and had so much fun people watching today. There's a little bit of everything here. Business people, locals, tourists, students, everything. It makes sense since this is the capital. It has everything a big city has to offer (museums, art, shopping, theatre, architecture, etc) just on a smaller scale than usual. There were people of every race and background and everyone was happy and getting along. A little better than the off-standish vibe we got in SA.

I got a really bad sunburn on my shoulders. I never learn. Oi. We also ate Doner! In Africa! I've only ever seen those in Berlin! And they were delicious. It's filled with germans over here, btw. It's fun. We walked to the train stations to buy our tickets for tomorrow and ended our stroll with lemon ice cream. The best.

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November 1

Windhoek

0 Miles

Steph:

I've literally spent all day updating blog entries today. We need to figure out a more efficient way of doing this :) Hopefully this isn't too boring for everyone.

We'll try to add more photos as well.

I miss everyone at home and hope you all know how important you are to me!

Oct 30th - Erik's B-day

October 30

Rehoboth – WINDHOEK!

57 Miles

We reached 1000 Miles today!!

Total Miles: 1005

Total Days: 22

Erik:

The road this morning was super busy. We had to jump off the road a few times to not get squashed.

A lot of hills... Well, not really. It was fine. And then we were in Windhoek!

Hooray!

Very cool city. Clean. It seems to have everything you'd need and is very modern. We found our couch-host Matthias' house and he came over from work to let us in. Very nice guy.

When he got home from work, he took us to a nice Portugese Restaurant for my birthday. I had Oryx. It was amazing. We happilly chatted the night away and went to bed a little past 10pm. Which is 2 hours later than we're used to.

So now I'm 26. I feel old and crippled. :P

Not a bad birthday at all.

Steph:

The ride today was lovely! I already said this but I love this scenery. It's beautiful. The weather was nice and cloudy which always makes colors pop out nicely. We had heard horror stories about the hills to Windhoek and I wasn't really in the mood to work hard. Haha! But it was fine. Much easier than the gps predicted.

We saw our first legit band of baboons today. It was sweet. We were coming down a hill and saw a large group of short animals crossing the street way down at the bottom of it. At first we thought they were just goats, but I wanted to see, so we pushed as fast as we could down the mountain. When we came to that spot however, I couldn't see anything. No goats, no sheep, nothing. All of a sudden though, we passed a bigger tree and I yelled "BABOONS!!!". I sqealed to a stop and we saw that the whole tree was full of them!! At least 15! 20 yards away! Then we looked to the side and there was one sitting on a fence post! Then we looked at the other side of the road and there were so many! Just walking around, waiting to cross the street! I had taken my camera out but by the time we noticed we were surrounded, Erik was frantically whispering to put it away and to go, we had to go. It was amazing. They really were everywhere. I think the total number in that area had to be at least 60 monkeys.

So cool :)

Kalahari :) 

Holy Cow Baboons!!

Yay! Only 6 more stupid hills to go!!

Happy Birthday Erik! You're almost an adult!

We made it to Windhoek! Our first city since Cape Town!

Oct 29th

October 29

Kalkrand – Rehoboth

65 Miles

Erik:

Today's ride was pleasant. Mostly flat. The scenery has changed into more of how I imagined most of Africa to be. We entered the Kalahari!! A lot more greens and trees. Very pretty. Not much wildlife though. We did cross the Tropic of Capricorn! That was exciting. It's the first time I do on land rather than at sea.

Rehoboth is alot bigger than Kalkrand. We ended up finding a B+B. The only camp site here is 7km down a dirt road (we're avoiding those) and costs N$600 per person!! ($70USD). Outrageous! So we got internet and got to dip into a little pool. We're a bit spoiled. Oh well.

The ride tomorrow is supposed to be tough. Up into Windhoek.

We also got invited to a braai!! Free food! I love it.

Steph:

I love this landscape!!!! It's so green and yet still desert-y and the trees! I keep expecting giraffes and rhinos to look up at us as we ride by. Haha! But no. Just goats and sheep. :)

The B+B we're staying in is lovely. It's called Aleen's B+B. The husband is german (and is clearly the one who decorated the place) and the wife is from here. They had a good bye braai planned for some dutch guests who have been here for a week. They are part of a volunteer group that comes to Rehoboth to help build an Orphanage and school. We met the guy who started this project. He is an ex-professional speed skater from Holland who came to visit Namibia in 2005. He fell in love with the place and noticed the bad part of town (like a township) and the state of the children. So he went home and started a huge fundraising campaign to help out. He's raised over 1 million USD to build this place and brings volunteers from Holland to help with construction. He said that it's been incredibly difficult to complete this task but it's all worth it when you see the kids playing in the new playgrounds. Hopefully they will finish by the end of next year.

It was very humbling to be among these people for a while. You can see how passionate they are about the country and the kids. Very refreshing and wonderful.

Oct 27th

October 27

Mariental – Kalkrand

47 Miles

Steph:

After saying goodbye to Allan this morning, we hit the road just after 7. It's a bit later than we wanted but we didn't have that far to go. I felt ok, especially since most of it was nice and flat. But as we continued my energy just tanked. Erik's too. We're clearly still recovering from the "Death March". It was a nice ride though, we talked a lot and took it easy.

Erik:

We made it to Kalrand around noon. It's a small and very friendly town. Everyone talked to us and helped us get drinking water. There just happened to be a backpackers lodge and camp behind the gas station (that basically made up the town) called the Kalkrand Rest Camp and Tea Garden.

It has lots of birds out back, is clean and classy and we get our own bathroom. All for N$50 per person, as opposed to yesterday's hole which charged N$80 each.

I think we'll stay here tomorrow as well. Sunday traffic is supposed to be rough and our space for biking on the road isn't exactly ample to begin with.

Steph was nervous about getting back on the bike last night and this morning, but we were fine. Just need to continue chugging water and eating well.

Oh yeah, our dutch lady friends passed us on the road today! They slowed down and cheered us on. It was nice.

Now I'm going to kick Steph's butt at chess. Again.

Score: 4 – 0 Bahahaha!

updated chess score: 5 – 0!!!!!!

updated chess score: 5 – 1 :(

Changing landscapes... More grass, a little less "desert-y" :)

Oct 26th

October 26

Grunau – Mariental

244 Miles

Steph:

By 8am this morning, our bikes and bags were cramped into the back of the car and we were on the road.

Allan is 74 years old and was born in Wales, Britain. He moved to SA in the late 60's with his family to work in the mines near Durban. He has three children, his youngest daughter's name is Stephanie. He calls himself a South African and loves it there. Since his wife passed away from leukemia, he spends most of his time and fortune travelling around all south african countries in his car and camper. He likes to tell corny/dirty jokes. He loves talking in general, and he was absolutely delightful to drive with. When we arrived in Keetmanshoop, he offered to take us the remaining 260km (144miles) to Mariental. We gladly accepted the offer since there was literally NOTHING but desert between the two towns. He talked the whole time and we learned a lot about his perspective on South Africa and the current state of the government. It was very interesting to hear and compare to thoughts we'd heard from everyone else we'd met so far.

When we arrived in Mariental, Allan decided to stay the night there as well so we shared a camp site and braii'd. Very nice :)

Allan Hatch from Wales!! Lovely fellow :)

Erik:

Two very nice ladies from Holland (Hermien and her friend) have joined us in our camp site. We are all sharing the facilities nicely. Tomorrow we plan to continue and are hoping to bush camp to make up for how pricey it's been recovering from our death march.

We're gathering information about Zambia and Zimbabwe from everyone we can to help decide our next move. Everyone says that Zambia is amazing and Zimbabwe can be dicey. We shall see.

The landscape around here is bleh. If we don't start seeing some animals I'm sure we'll go crazy. At this point, cows are exciting.

It's been really nice meeting so many people though. These ladies are very cool. Two friends that come to Africa every year and just drive around everywhere. They clearly know a lot about the area. Hermien is a very well travelled person. Our neighbors at the next site are South Africans moving to Namibia abd have 2 dogs, 1 silly looking shaved cat and a monkey in a cage. Weirdos. There is this huge dog just chilling with us. Steph says I need more "feelings" in my journal. I feel hot and tired and I'm going to bed.  

Oct 24th & 25th

October 24

Bush Camping – Grunau

58 Miles

Steph:

Since we only got about 8 Miles out of Ai Ais the night before, today we had to cover ~36 miles of dirt road and then 20 miles of blessed tar to the town of Grunau.

I'm not going to go into detail about our "death march".

Bottom line: the dirt road slowed us down, it was hot, it got hotter, no shade, ran out of water, it was really hot, didn't eat all day, no water, got heat exhaustion. Barely made it.

We stayed at the first hotel we saw and the staff were extremely helpful. They went above and beyond in trying to get us what we needed. That night, after headaches and the dry-heaving and the uncontrollable shivers, we crawled (literally) into bed and looked forward to our day off tomorrow.

Lessons learned:

• Always be fully stocked on water.
• Don't underestimate dirt roads.
• Don't run out of food.
• In this weather, it is imperative that we are off the bikes and under shelter between 11am and 4pm.

Erik:

We weren't prepared for this day. We were basically out of water by the time we got to the tar B1 road. Longest 19 miles Ever. Clostest we've been to giving up. By far, our hardest day yet. Both had heat exhaustion and were in bad shape.

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October 25

Grunau

rest

Steph:

I actually woke up feeling much better than I thought I would. The compression tights did their magical job of saving my legs and now we both just had to start replacing all the fluids and energy that we had lost. We also had to figure out what to do next. The next town was Keetmanshoop and was 100 miles away. The next town after that was Mariental and was 144 miles away from Keetmans. Not exactly something that we can do with the limited amt of water that we carry. Let alone in our current state. So we decided to try and hitch a ride to these places and go from there.

We rode out to the gas station and set up shop. What we needed was a empty Baaki (pickup truck) that was heading north. Easier said than done. There really aren't that many people that come by here. Namibia is, after all, the least populated country in Africa. Most were big freight trucks and the baaki's that did come by were already loaded with hitch-hikers or tourists still nervous about driving on the wrong side of the road. We actually almost made it on a big truck, but that fell through when the driver wanted to charge us and just lay our bikes on top of the spares wheels underneath the truck. No thank you.

New plan. Go back to the hotel, get some more rest, wake up at 3am and see how far into the 100 miles we get before it gets hot. Bleh.

As he was checking back into the hotel, Erik met Allen Hatch. He was on his way up to Windhoek and offered to make room for us in his already packed SUV. It was very nice of him. We went to bed relaxed and relieved.

Also, I've been wrestling with this all day. Do I think we're cheating by hitching a ride? I don't know. In a way, yes. We're supposed to be biking through africa. But then I think about yesterday and how bad it got, and I honestly don't think we have a choice at this point. Not a responsible one, at least. So yeah...I'm cool with it.  

Oct 23rd

Oct 23

Ai-Ais – Bush camping

8 brutal miles

Erik:

We stayed at Ai-Ais most of the day. We were drained and felt as though we needed to maximize our use of the pool we had paid for.

During the day we talked to a lot of people, and some germans had told us about a very outrageous thing that had happened there. The day before some baboons had been caught in the park. One was a mom with her baby, and the other was an older female. Now, we think to ourselves, wildlife resort. . . you expect some wildlife. Just dont feed them, and set it up so the people are safe from the animals. Well the employees went above and beyond. They had captured the mother and baby and kept them in cages, upsetting the whole baboon family, hitting them with sticks etc. Then they spray painted the other female white. So now, every time that baboon tries to go to her family they run away because she is a different color. Apparently, this tactic was meant to teach them not to come close to the resort. Steph and I were very upset when we heard this.

We have no idea why you would spray paint the baboon, what positive outcome can come out of treating pretty darn intelligent animals like that. In the US, you couldnt do that to a dog, but they did it to a baboon here. We can't find (online) why this would be done.

This park is run by Namibian Wildlife Resorts (NWR). They are also the ones that run the accommodations in Etosha park up north. We dont know what employees did this, seasonal or permanent or what, but we are going to contact NWR and ask if they know that it went on and what they plan to do about it. There is a namibian magazine called insight NAMIBIA that wrote a rather scathing article on NWR. They are apperently not making waste management any sort of priority. Making illegal dumping sites on national parks, things of that nature... No bueno.

Spray painted baboon in the campground, eating from the trashcan. So the "tactic" obviously had no effect.

Around 4 we decided to get out of the canyon (8 miles) to a bush camping site. Bushcamping was amazing, watching the moon and stars, and the sunset was great. No lights or people anywhere in sight.

Oct 22nd

October 22

Aussenkehr - Ai-Ais

50 miles

Steph:

Oh man, today was tough for me. It actually started out very nicely. As per Antonie's advice, we took the dirt road to Ai-Ais. It was fine at first, a few sand patches here and there but relatively smooth. The landscape continued to be awe inspiring. Rocky, crumbly mountains to the left. On the right, nothing. Absulutley nothing. It made me feel very small and insignificant. We were completely alone. I think we saw about 7 cars that day and they looked like mirrages in the distance with a puff of dust behind them. The sun and heat started beating us down around noon and there's no shade anywhere. At one point, I was going donwhill and went a bit too fast. I have about 22lbs of water on the bag of my bike that likes to wobble around, so that's hard to control on this kind of road. I hit a patch of sand and went down pretty hard. Erik thought I had broken the bike, which wouldve been a bad thing way out in the middle of nowhere. But we were both OK. My mood really began to sour after that though. The road was taking it out of me. Our shoulders and arms were super sore and we just wanted to get to this town. Well, we finally did get there and it ended up NOT being a town. Instead, it was a spa/resort thing with natural hot springs. I wanted to cry thinking about having to push our bikes back out of the canyon. Luckily they had camping spots. Wooo! . Expensive camping. We had been going for over 9 hours, so it didn't matter at that point. The good thing was there was a pool! Cold and delicious! After dinner we passed out for 10 hrs straight.
Oh, something really gross happened to Erik. Haha! Really. Gross. He can tell you about it though. :)

Looking back the way we came.

Erik:

Made it to Ai-Ais. Forget gravel roads. They kicked our butts.

We left and pushed through sand and dirt for a bit. The roads are comprable to the gravel toll road we took in RSA, if not a bit worse.

At one point, going down hill I heard a yell, slammed on my brakes and looked back to find that steph had hit a sand patch and crashed. She and the bike were both OK. Just a little bruise on her knee, shin and pride.

The landscapes were still spectaclular. The mountains are huge, barren and imposing. There are vast stretches of nothingness with these behemouth, rocky gaurdians watching over them. Even at my most grumpy/hot/tired phase, the landscapes still inspired awe.

A funny side story. We camped right next to the river at Antonie's the night before which has the general aquatic wildlife you would expect to find. Anyway, so I was pretty tired and foggy in the brain in the morning. I did the usual shake the shoe out to make sure nothing is there before putting it on. I fumbled putting my socks on, and didn't feel like correcting the lumpyness in the front was a requirement. So my right foot was cramped at the toes (I assumed because of the sock situation). Didn't care... for about 5.5 hours. Then all my toes fell asleep. But it was hot, I was grumpy and stopped for a water break anyway, so I finally got to the point where I wanted to fix my sock. Took my shoe off and my sock was perfectly fine. Applied on my foot as though I had been doing it for years. Very expertly done. So now I was confused. Why had my shoe shrunk?

I looked in it and saw a black blob at the end, that really could only have been some leaves or something.

I turned the shoe over and shook vigourously.

Out came the dead frog.

Steph screamed for a bit and I, myself felt terrible. Death by foot can't be a great way to go. Also, it explained the new stains on my sock.


Steph:

Ahhhhhhh! Blehhhhhh!! So GROSS!!!