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!!!

Oct 21st

OCT 21
Aussenkehr


Erik:

Today we went into our first real african village. The workers on the vineyards come here for harvest season from the north. So it is a northern style village in the south.

We also found out that right across the Orange river there is a diamond mine that was (still is) (allegedly)owned by the Bin Laden family. Creepy.
In the morning, Steph and I kanoed on the Orange River. Steph wanted to cross to the other side (South Africa) illegally but I said no. Antonie took us on a 4x4 track through the desert. The landscapes were humbling. The mountains shimmer because of the shale rock they are made of. There were also some great rock climbing places as well.

Where are the sand people?

I wish I could upload more pics, but internet is very slow here.
Anyway, a bit later on we saw wild horses, loads of springbock and clipsprings.
It was an amazing bit of the Namib desert, oldest in the world.

Oct 20th

October 20

Vioolsdrif – Aussenkehr

35 Miles

Erik:

We crossed to Namibia! The landscape is a bit surreal. It looks like Jawas should be popping out everywhere.

Steph:

As we left the border station, sharp mountains popped up in the distance. We kept raising our fists and couragously yelling "TO ISENGUARD!". Haha! God, we're nerds. The border was incredibly easy to cross. Everyone was friendly and pleasant. No biggie.

The landscape really just got weirder and weirder. Parts of it were very much like AZ. The colors of the mountains were the same browns, reds and greys. But everything was so barren. We took some epic photos to share with everyone. They don't really do it justice, but it's better than having me ramble away about it. I was in awe the whole entire ride though. The road was cool. It wasn't the main highway, so there were no cars and we could ride side by side (instead of hugging the edge of tar for dear life). We arrived in Aussenkehr around noon and met Antonie. It turns out he is the General Manager of one of the several Vineyards that make up this town. His house is right on the Orange River and is beautiful. He is very nice and clearly passionate about this place. His little Jack Russel is the buffest most "Jacked" (see what I did there?) little dog I've ever seen. His name is David.

We had a sweet braai as well. His friends and collegues, Sean and Pete, were very fun.

We made it!

Peanut Butter. Gods gift to cyclists. 

To Isengaurd!

Oct 19th

October 19

Springbok – Vioolsdrif

75 Miles

Steph:

Oh man, today was weird. It rained last night and was freezing. My sleeping bag rocks. Especially now that I've figured out how to use the hood. When I woke up, the last thing I wanted to do was get up and ride 75 miles. But we did. To the awe and surprise of our neighbors. They thought we were nuts. It started raining enough for us to get our ponchos, which are not fun on a bike, btw. The first 1.5hrs we were pedalling as fast as we could to out run the rain and cold. For the most part we succeeded. A little later, we had a surprise. A 12 mile downhill (so much better than 9 mile hill in Scottsdale) into some very strange landscapes (avg speed there was 25mph). The vegetation disappeared and we were in MORDOR. There were mountains in the distance but they looked like they had sunk into the ground. When we finally arrived at the base of the mountains we continued going downhill. It was so weird. Just crumbling rocks. No plants.
I had been singing The Sound of Music songs all day, but I had to stop at this point. It was almost creepy.
It really was like Mount Doom. That makes me sound like a huge nerd, but there is literally no other way to describe it. Frodo and Sam's last stretch, when they're literally crawling up the mountain hiding from the eye? Yeah, you know what I'm talking about.

We spent the night at the only hotel by the border. It cost us a pretty penny, but we figured it was our last hoorah in SA.
We could look across the orange river right into Namibia.

Erik:

When we came down into the canyon just before the river, the wind really picked up. My bike has a larger profile, so the wind affects me a bit more. So we would round a bend, all going down hill, and I would just stop. Steph goes sailing down the hill tra-la-la-la-la all the way and I would pedal my butt off just to go DOWN a hill. It was only a few km though, so it was all good. I dont know what was harder, a head wind or a side wind. But we made it to Vioolsdrif Mordor. Then we tried to make pasta in a microwave and technology won. Worst pasta ever. It was very sad.

Our awesome descent. Look how the road sinks into the mountains.

Oct 17th & 18th

October 17

Kamieskroon – Springbok

46 Miles

Erik:

We woke up with some fog that made the day way easier and pretty enjoyable. It was stephs first time in a real fog, so she loved it. There was one point when we were going down the mountain and all we could do was stare at the sun peaking through and making the whole valley a lush green. Lots of downhills and the uphills weren't so bad. We found a nice Caravan Park in Springbok and have really friendly neighbors (Devon and Charne from Cape Town). Overall, a solid day!

Fog! 

Our Laundry drying. 

Looking back. This is the thick of Namaqualand, SA

October 18

Springbok

0 Miles

Erik:

We decided we needed a rest day. We want to make it to the Namibian border tomorrow which is 70 miles from here, so we may as well chill out. There's a Meercat that keeps wandering into our camp. Steph calls him Timon. We took pictures like the tourists we are (I feel the fool after making fun of all the asians taking pictures of squirrels  . The landscape looks like Nevada. Maybe a bit greener, but the same kind of mountains. Rocky and filled with shrubs.

Timon!! With creepy red eyes.

Oct 16th

October 16

Garies – Kamieskroon

31 Miles

Erik:

What bad day. 97% uphill. Mountains. 1000ft elevation gain in the first 4 miles. Ugh. It was rough.

We made it to a little town just as unfriendly as the last. The camp ground was nice though and so was the owner.

The only highlight were the baboons. Big guys. Just feet away. I'm glad they didn't see us. When steph first saw them I just assumed she was hallucinating because of the heat. Haha. 

Steph:

We were coming up a hill and around a switchback and I saw two large black thing moving behind the railing. Erik was behind me and when I told him he said I was making it up. But then we really turned the corner and this HUGE male walked across the street behind the other two. HE WAS HUGE!!

I don't make stuff up.  

Oct 15th

October 15

Nuwerus – Garies

48 Miles

Steph:

This morning, Rosa woke up early with us and cooked us breakfast. It was awesome. She gave us some cookies and sent us on our way happy, rested and well fed.

I noticed a huge difference in my legs right away. So much better than yesterday. Today was truly enjoyable. I was able to push and spin all the crazy hills with a normal and acceptable amount of pain. And guess what?! The coolest thing happened! We were coming up a hill and noticed something in the distance. It wasn't a car or a truck, it was another fully loaded bicycle!! Her name was Abbie and she became my hero instantly. She was from New zealand and had started her journey in Uganda. Her end goal was Cape Town and she had done the whole thing in 5 months! She told us that she had no support at all from her family and friends which made me really sad for her, since we have the greatest support ever. But she was happy and positive and laid back. We asked her tons of questions and she really couldn't stop talking :). It was so cool to hear about how she had just done what seemed like such a huge and nearly impossible undertaking just a day before. Erik and I felt so pumped!

About 1.5 hrs later, a baaki (pickup) pulled over right in front of us and offered us water and candy. These two gentlemen (Sean and Alf) were father and son and wanted to know all about what we were doing. They gave us great tips on things to do in Namibia and were just so excited for us. Alf is part of a cycling club in Cape Town and said that it was the coolest thing.

Erik:

Both of these things were very encouraging. The "nay-saying" gets to you after a while. It was good to hear from someone who has already done it and someone who believes you can do it. And both were genuine about how awesome they think it is.

We ended the day on a high note at a B+B in Garies, which was actually pretty sketch. Not a very friendly town. Tomorrow will be long and hilly.

Abbie from New Zealand! Cycled from Uganda to Cape Town in 5 months!! By herself!

Oct 14th

October 14

Lutzville – Nuwerus

35 Miles

Erik:

Due to having too much fun the night before, the 14^th was pretty much hell. "Jetoncia" was out in full swing (this is what we call stephanie when she is not her usual lovely self). We were hungover and weak and it was uphill and uphill. We left really late so it was super hot early on in the ride. After about 10 miles the road turned to gravel. Seventeen miles. Steph and I were dying. The ups and downs were steep and difficult to ride on our road bikes. Corrugated and sandy. Our backs and shoulders were sore from absorbing all the shock. The downs are usually a small break but were just as bad, if not worse, than the uphills. We were on our brakes the whole time and super alert. Steph was in a horrible mood.

Finally though, we arrived in Nuwerus. We rode up to the first farm that we saw and knocked on the door. Rosa greeted us (70yr old farm owner) and said it was ok to pitch our tent and have a hot bath. She insisted we have tea with her and her daughter. After tea she graciously offered to let us sleep in the spare bedroom. She had just slaughtered two sheep the day before and let us have some meat to braai as well. The best meat I've ever had. We went to sleep early. Much needed.

Steph:

I hated today.

Daily Update

Hello again!
We have internet again! Woo!
Here's what we're going to do. Since we're super behind and yet have seen so many cool things, we're going to schedule this thing to publish a post every day until we're caught up! Saavy?

Stay tuned!!

South Africa!

Hello!
It's been a few days since we've had internet. To be honest I don't even know what day it is. If the first week is running together I can't imagine what we'll feel like in 4 months. What I can tell you is that it's been pretty awesome. Also, that the hospitality of South Africans we've met has been incredibly generous and amazing.

I don't have much internet time left (we called our parents) so this can't be a super drawn out "stephanie message". I'll give you the main points:

Lambert's Bay! Very pretty little town on the coast. We rode 60 miles that day! Our farthest and fastest yet! Most of it was a slight downhill (the best) and the wind was at our backs. We went up our first legitimate hill...and had to walk it...like pansies. Haha. Don't worry though, since then we've gotten better. The night was spent in a secluded "caravan park" right by the beach. It was very nice. As far as animals, we saw a few turtles on the road and a bunch of cats stalked us at the camp site. That's the closest we've gotten to a lion.

Lutzville! The next day was a little slower. We left the coast and headed inland, which means that the wind was fighting us a little more and the hills picked up. Part of this route took us on a dirt road, a toll dirt road. It really wasn't that bad! Our skinny tires did very well and we saw at least 40 turtles. They were everywhere. They're pretty cute.
That afternoon we were pretty tired though so as soon as we entered town, we looked for somewhere to stay. We found the loveliest people! Marzaan and Riann own a B+B and took us in like we were family! The room was lovely and the Braai (bbq) that night was epic. We drank, stayed up late and definitely felt it the next morning...but it was well worth it!

ok, I'm out of time :( But we'll update you on the rest of the week in a few days. By then we'll have crossed into NAMIBIA!!! Our first border crossing! Woo!

We miss and love you all!

-Steph

2 cycling days down...

There is free internet at the library here in SA. That is a major plus. Well, we have made it about 100 mi north of cape town. We are on a one day rest period, and tomorrow we head to Lamberts bay.

the first day we made it to Yzerfontien and camped out there. It was about 48 miles from cape town and lots of ups and downs. Very hilly. We went through a major down pour right at the begining, but nothing could ruin the views and scenery around us. Verdent and green. Bright pinky, yellow and purple flowers everywhere! We saw our first wild ostriches. Funny birds. After we got into town we found the only caravan park (overpriced due to the local) and stayed there. Yzerfontien is a little getaway town for Cape Town. So we watched the sun set over the Atlantic and went to bed very early.

The second day we got off to a bit of a late start. We both slept in a little bit. So we were off at about 9. Same glorious scenery, wind at our backs, and a wide skirt (shoulder) to ride on. The up hills were much steeper, but the down hills were long and enjoyable. The ocean is a perfect blue green color. We saw our first WILD ZEBRAS! woooo. It was sureal. There were 2 zebras just staring at us, and 4 Springbuck with 3 baby spring bucks. The road cut through a nature reserve, and these guys were chillin right next to the fence. After that it was all farms and wheat/barley fields all the way into Veldriff. Everyone we talk to is really nice and interested in what we are doing. Tonight we are staying gratis at the ex mayor, ex parlimentry representative of veldriff and western cape. Cool dude.

We were wiped out after our ride, so today we spent relaxing and reorginizing. Our quads are going to rock after this venture.

So far SA hasnt seemed to third worldly, I certainly feel safer here than I did in mexico city, but you can still see some real poverty around as you go through. All in all it has had its ups and downs, but we haven't given up yet (that's good right? 3 days and still going strong!). I am about out of time on the computer so until next time!

First Weeks 2

So on Sunday we got to have quite an adventure. Ourselves, Chris, Tamlyn, Roman, and a few other of Chris's friends rode our scooters along the coast down to the cape of good hope.

It was my first time riding a scooter... ever. So I took it around the block a few times to get used to the gears (it's not automatic) and the feel. It has a different feel from a motorcycle, but still very much the same. We all loaded up and rode into the city. My rear tire went flat right accross from the world cup stadium. I was able to push it up onto the sidewalk and heins changed the tire out, 10 minutes later we were on the road again.

We rode down the cape and it was getting colder and more rainy, but that didnt really ruin our mood. The views were just amazing, the landscape was gorgeous. Up and down the windy mountain roads, right along the coast, it was breathtaking. And then, we saw BABOONS! There is a guy that watches them and makes sure they dont bother the drivers. We were told that baboons will try to steal bags, open door, and just do mean baboonish things. They left us alone, happily eating flowers.
We did a lot of driving, and a lot of stopping. One of our stops we were at the docks looking at the fish and seals. A boat pulled in and started to unload the fish where our scooters were parked. So we went over to move them. It was crazy busy and I think I got a bit nervous by all the people watching, I started the bike, and went to push it off the stand but I didnt hold the clutch in. So I pushed it right into gear and it tried to jump into the harbour and run people over. Thankfully I was able to grab the clutch and bring it back down onto two wheels without killing anyone or smooshing very many fish. Everyone laughed at me. It was good times.

We then rode around the other side of table mountain through some really great neighborhoods. Scootering was quite fun, and unexpected. We certainly didnt expect a free 150km tour of Cape Town and the Cape of Good Hope, not to mention doing it on scooters in a whole scoot gang (I just made that up, scoot gang. It's good). So tomorrow we peddle out and they tell us we will see the real africa after about 30 miles.

Cape Town is great. The whole area is so green, full of flowers, and just has epic views. The city itself is very clean. Cleaner than a lot of american cities.

We are unsure when we will next have internet, but maybe 1 to 2 weeks and we'll have another update.

So far so good!

Look how cool we are

A seal at the docks

Baboons next to the coast

Steph and I next to the "big 5". . . in case we don't see the real thing

As we first started out on our adventure

Our crew

The whole coast looked like this. Breath taking. 

First Weeks

It's hard to believe we're here. It's hard to believe that we've been in Africa for almost a week!

I don't know if it's because we've just been waiting to get here for so long or because this week has seemed more like a very cush and incredibly pleasant holiday instead of a hard core, roughing-it, sweat and grime filled camping trip. It's been awesome :)

We left Phoenix on Monday morning. I had been nervous all week long. There was no reason for it, honestly. Especially because I was more prepared for this trip than I have ever been for any other one. Erik had packed the bikes up days before, I packed up all of our equipment as well. I actually slept sunday night, which is very unusual. Erik thought the reason I was freaked out was that we were going to go cycle from Cape Town to Nairobi. Haha. Probably.

Our first flight from Phoenix to Atlanta was very uneventful, even though our nerves were every where. We kept saying that we were going to Africa and laughing nervously. Maybe that was just me :). In Atlanta we had some high quality McDonalds and made last minute phone calls. It went by pretty quickly. Our 16 hour flight was also relatively easy. The guy next to me was from Durban and very nice. He liked to talk, a lot, so it was good that the lights basically went out right after we were fed. We were actually very impressed with how much food we got on that flight. Both of us slept a fair amount and watched a few movies. We landed in Johannesburg the next day, went through customs, picked up our bikes, rechecked everything and climbed into the next plane. Two hours later we were in Cape Town! Woo! Again, our bikes showed up without a problem and only a few minor dents on the boxes.

We walked out of the gate and there was Chris!! Chris contacted us on Couchsurfing.com after we posted that we needed a place to stay in Cape Town. He very graciously offered his home to us and then even more graciously picked us up from the airport. It took us a while to get the bikes in the car but somehow we managed and headed to his and Tamlyn's lovely house.

We can't even begin to express our gratitude to these guys.

-Steph