Wow. Botswana - Over 1000km of the most boring, straight LONG LONG biking days imaginable with mixed in rain and headwinds to boot. The Elephant highway tested all of the bikers ability to get through long 160+ days of riding with nothing to look at or do, but spin your legs over and over again. Almost every night we were treated to thunder and lightening storms and torrential downpours. Our poor tents were tested to their maximum as we lay vulnerable hoping and praying to get a good night’s sleep before the next riding day….
Our “Mando day” was 207km (our longest ride) following the previous days being 156 and then 140km. Waking up already tired and then getting on the bike for a day that long is daunting for the best riders and even more daunting for me, hoping there would be enough daylight to finish the day. We would be riding our way into Namibia so we had to reach the Namibian border before it closed. I made sure both Ipods were charged and I loaded my handlebar bag with lots of snacks for the day. My legs spun and spun and spun. My body was tired, and the day started off with pouring rain, so many people opted out from the minute they got out of their tent in the morning…(because if 207km isn’t hard enough, throw in some rain and headwinds and it quickly weeds people out). I rode the first 150km by myself, through the rain and wind. At the refresh stop (where the staff fills water bottles and gives extra snack bars I ran into Lani. Lani is a Canadian woman who just turned 59 years old. She started out the trip finishing half days most days. She had already rode her bike across Canada in 2008 and is one of the strongest, most inspirational women I have ever met. Since Tanzania she has rode every single inch. She gets on her bike no matter the weather or how tough the day is going to be… While some of the riders half her age are clambering onto the truck at any chance they get, Lani gets on her bike early and goes. She has become much faster at me at this point and she encourages me in my rides on the days that we ride together. We arrived at the gas station at 200km around 5pm. We loaded up on some drinks and candy and rode towards the border. On our way we were treated to a hail storm and a torrential downpour. This was miserable to end the already long day with. At that point the bucky came by, Paul (Race director) gave us a thumbs up to see how we were doing… not sure how to respond to that at that point… Hard to say. We did the thumbs up back and rode through to clear out of Botswana and into Namibia. At the Namibian border (205km) I began to fill out my customs sheet. Small drips of water came off my soaking wet sleeves and helmet and dripped onto the paper. Also my passport was soaking wet from being in my handlebar bag all day long…The woman informed me that I would have to fill out another form because she couldn’t accept wet forms AND I should put my passport in a ziplock bag next time. I informed her that I was not interested in her suggestions after the day I had just had. Lani and I finished up and rode the last three kilometers to camp. At camp, we arrived to “rider’s meeting” being called and a flooded campsite. Dinner was late for us and we finally got dried off into our tents where it poured rain all night long. Botswana was a test of patience, and the ability to spend countless hours with yourself. Looking forward to Namibia and the desert AGAIN.. Weird it feels like we are going full circle to where we began. Even though the weather is a little colder now.
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