May 10 - CAPETOWN

Saturday May 10th - end of the journey

0530 - wake up and crawl out of the tent in the dark for the last time. Luckily there was a dry breeze overnight so the inside of the fly is dry and we can roll up the tent and not open it until we get it back to Canada.

Breakfast in the dark and as soon as it's light, start the final leg. 65 km to Kleeft Bay where we assemble for photos and then a police-escorted 25-km convoy along the coast to Cape Town, through the town centre, finally arriving at the waterfront for the arrival ceremonies.

We rode with Henk and Louisa...

...and had one last tea/coffee/coke stop about 5 km short of lunch in a cafe that is worlds different from the roadside stops at the beginning of the journey.

Then the photos... the entire group...

...Canadians...

...Tour d'Afrique and African Routes staff.

Hero shot of the two of us...

...Ursula...


...Rae...


...then a bit of a cold wait - it was cool and windy - for the convoy into town. Nice tailwind when we got going, and soon we passed beneath the finish banner at the waterfront.



A bit later the closing ceremony took place at the amphitheatre.


Dinner that night seemed rather anti-climactic. We all knew the adventure itself was over. We all had thoughts that were beginning to return to whatever 'real' world was relevant to us. I suspect that many of us had barely begun what will likely be an extended process of consolidating and digesting all that we'd experienced in the last four months. Some goodbyes were said that night, others the following morning at the hotel.

So, faithful blog-watchers, this amazing journey is over. Thanks for sharing our adventure with us. You can still support Rae's fundraising for the Canadian Arthritis Society at www.arthritis.ca/joints/ontario/raesimpson

or Ursula's - the Tour d'Afrique foundation: http://www.tourdafrique.com/foundation/ .

We will spend almost two weeks in Cape Town being tourists before returning to Canada, but his is the end of the blog story except that when we get back to Canada, we will add some more reflections, 'lessons-learned' and thoughts that might be useful for someone contemplating taking part in a future Tour d'Afrique. If that is you, then check back periodically and see if we've posted something new. Alternatively, leave a comment with your email address and we'll get back to you when we're back in Canada in June.

The Final Week

Monday May 4 to Friday May 9 - The final week.


Sunrise over the Orange River on Monday May 4th, South Africa on the other side.



We load the 'permanent bags' onto the support trucks for the last time - these are the bags to which we do not have access on a daily basis.

Ten kilometres down the road and we see signs for the first time to our destination of Cape Town.

Across the Orange River...

...and into South Africa.

Here Rae rides with Tony who earlier single-handedly defied the Kenyan political situation by riding through on his own without any of the normal support provided by Tour d'Afrique.

Monday morning was beautiful weather but steadily uphill and against the wind, so slow discouraging progress.

A wind shift and a change to down hill made the afternoon a lot more fun than the morning.

The next day was miserable, scotch mist, wind, cold, and a lot of uphill. Wednesday was a return to better weather...

...and more downhill to help us along.



This was the final week for us to face the dangers of the African continent - a scorpion found by somebody's tent...



...the wind, especially when it was on the nose as it so often was...



...bicycles!... my goodness... they found us out... the enemy is us!



...and this one must have been made just for me.


With only three days to go, my rear tire decided to come apart on the sidewall, but it held on for the balance of the day and I changed it before we went back on dirt roads.




Thursday we headed for the coast, passing some very European-looking scenery...

...before getting onto our final bout of dirt roads.

The shore was shrouded in fog, so we didn't get to see the Atlantic until we were there.

Second last night - campsite is at the shore - ideal for getting sand in all the zippers of the tent for one last time...

...and an ocean sunset.

Friday the shoreline remains misty...

...and the first few kilometres were again on dirt.

The final night dinner was a good one - the last we'd eat from the travelling kitchen, and in fact the last one that African Routes would serve to anyone as this trip is the company's final one before closing its doors - not a business failure, but a conscious decision by the owner that it was time to retire rather than refurbish the fleet.

Tomorrow is the end of the journey. It's fair to say the mood tonight is different.

One Week to go

Monday April 28 to Saturday May 3 - Windhoek Namibia south to the border with the Republic of South Africa - second last week of the journey to Cape Town.

Departing Windhoek on Monday, just outside town, we pass near "Heroes Acre", a memorial to those who gave their lives in the struggle for independence. I wish I'd taken the time to detour to the memorial although when you ride near the back of the pack like I do, you run the risk of getting detached from the organized group unless the sweep rider knows what you're doing, and we have 155 km to ride today.



We continue south, after lunch crossing the Tropic of Capricorn. The Kenyan political situation robbed us of the chance for photos crossing the equator, so this is the next best thing.


Despite now no longer being in the tropics, the sky remains clear and the day hot. Another colourful sunset, then we eat in the dark and crawl into our tents and are asleep by 8 p.m.


Tuesday night sees us camped by the Gibeon railway station after a 175-km day. The train still runs and it even stops there, but the station is now abandoned.



Across the tracks is a cemetary, a section of which is a well-kept Commonwealth War Graves section from a 1916 battle.



German soldiers who died in the same battle are buried right beside them, but sadly this section seems not to be maintained.


Wednesday is another 150 km to just north of Keetmanshoop to a very pretty campsite with the distinctive Quiver trees...



...and another glorious sunset...



...and equally rich early morning hues just after dawn.



Thursday was 'only' 120 km. When it's that short, it's because you're on rough dirt roads or have steep climbs. Today was both. I was 7 hours and 58 minutes in the saddle - and that doesn't count stops for lunch or picture taking. That's a long shadow and still 20 minutes from camp.



Sun set just before I got in.


Friday was even shorter - 85 km - it was mostly dirt road, few hills, the toughest thing being a headwind for the last 40 km. Along the way was this enormous nest belonging to 'sociable weaver birds'.



Mid-morning we were treated to dark skies and thunder and lightning but no more than a few drops of rain on us as a front went by.




The reason for the short day was to allow us to overnight near the Fish River Canyon.

They bussed us down to a lookout over the canyon and brought part of our mobile kitchen with them and fed us dinner there.





Saturday we paid for the short day on Friday - 180 km to the camp on the Orange River near Noordoewer on the Namibian side of the border with South Africa. We started with a fairly steep climb out of the camp and away from the canyon.

Then through some lovely desert scenery on dirt roads.

Ursula once again was strong and rode the entire distance. Rae rode the lunch truck from lunch at 60 km to a refreshment stop at 120 km. Not a wise choice. The last 40 km was paved road but against a strong headwind. Eventually we descended into the Orange River Valley, passing this school on the way...

...and eventually reaching the Felix Unite campsite where we got one of these nice cabanas for our two nights and rest day. The Orange River and South Africa are in the background.

This is the last rest day of the journey. Next week we ride six days, arriving in Cape Town on Saturday.

Windhoek, Namibia - 26 April

Monday 21 April to Friday 25 April - We're back on the bicycles for five riding days from Maun, Botswana, to Windhoek, Namibia - about 840 km. Wednesday was the longest - 207 km. Rae got a lift on the lunch truck for about 50 km that day, but Ursula was amazing, remained strong, and did the whole thing.

The route is along the north edge of the Kalahari Desert. It is flat, not many bends in the road. The soil is mostly sand, but there's enough moisture to support small trees and grass. There is some agriculture here and there and grazing for cattle. The scenery is beautiful, but it doesn't change very fast.

The biggest trees were on Monday.


The biggest cow on Tuesday.

A big curve on Wednesday.

No curve on Thursday.

At last, a feature on the horizon on Friday.



Little things broke the monotony... like this warning sign for warthogs (we didn't see any)...



...or these things that somebody said were armoured crickets. The body is about 2 inches long; we saw them on the road all week either engaged in combat with each other or - they must be cannibalistic - consuming the remains of their own.



Soaring raptors were far prettier.



There was only one turn all week and we didn't want to miss it... seems that some of our number have left messages for others.



Most days we were on the road at dawn which gave us some nice shadows and early morning light.



Long days, sparsely settled, few coke stops, so we rest at roadside.



Eventually, in the last 40 km entering Windhoek, we get into very attractive hillside scenery.

This blog has previously mentioned the physical exhaustion and mental fatigue that come with riding the bike for 6 to 8 hours day after day. There are other stresses including insect bites and ordinary cuts and scrapes that don't behave the way we'd expect in normal life in Canada. As early as in Ethiopia, several people had scrapes that didn't heal quickly and in some cases resulted in infection that didn't want to go away.

Coming out of the Okavango, both of us had bites - not sure what from - that got infected. Ursula's appeared to be several bites on her ankle, accompanied by swelling of the foot and pain in lymph nodes.

Rae's was on the hand. That tiny blister on Sunday evening grew to three times its size (in the inset) overnight and broke open. By evening, the hand was swollen.

Both of us have responded okay to antibiotic - we're probably lucky we're in the drier climate of Namibia as that seems to help the healing. We both had bites back in the middle of March in Tanzania that have only dried up after leaving the wet and humid conditions in Tanzania, Malawi, and Zambia. We usually heal much faster than that.

One of our fellow riders has managed to get the larva of some worm that is usually resident in cats or dogs into her foot. It moves around beneath the skin and is excrutiating itchy. Apparently it will die off by itself when it discovers that it can't survive in humans, but she got medication to speed up the process.

There are many theories around the group about whether people's immune systems are low from the constant physical effort or whether the bugs and bites that we get in Africa are more severe, or a combination of factors. It's a good thing we have a doctor and nurse on the TdA staff - we have all been helped by them.

Weather can be another surprising factor for us. It may be hard to see in this photo, but that's frost on the tent. We woke up Wednesday morning to ice instead of condensation on the underside of the fly... and, yes, we're still in the tropics. Skies were completely clear all week - hot in the daytime sun, cold during the night.



The highlight of last week was surely Ursula's birthday on Thursday. Here she enjoys the warmth of a fire at the campsite with Basil on the left providing the musical interlude, Henk and Luisa and Eugene on the right.



We had enjoyed a little red wine with dinner, and we had some birthday cake. In fact, we got cake enough to feed everybody on the Tour - cake and sweets are not part of the normal menu. But it's hard to carry cakes on a bicycle, so it wouldn't have happened without the effort of Randy, the deputy Tour Director, who did the shopping for us. He scoured the little town between lunch and camp and bought all three cakes in the town. Thanks Randy.



As well as the nice campfire on a cool night, Thursday's campsite had some unique architecture in the facilities - such as this heart-shaped bathtub built of stone that was part of the outdoor washroom - a far cry from some of the... let's say 'basic'... loos earlier in this adventure.

Saturday and Sunday... rest days in Windhoek... culture shock... downtown has multi-story buildings, shops like we left behind when we left Canada almost four months ago... they take credit cards.

Windhoek is the capital of Namibia which gained its independence less than 20 years ago. The Tintenpalast built in 1913 houses the parliament.

Nearby is the Christus Kirche that dates back to 1910. Behind it is the 1892 Alte Fest that served colonial German troops until after World War I. The Alte Fest now serves as a national museum with a wing devoted to the resistance to the German colonial power and the later struggle for independence.



Beside the fort is a monument to German soldiers and sailors who lost their lives putting down resistance in the early 1900s. This colourful lizard is resident in the monument.



We had a more formal birthday dinner for Ursula, here with Louisa (Henk was taking the picture) and Rae - can you guess why we're in Windhoek... hint... t-shirts.

We finishing with some handmade Namibian chocolates and expressos, luxuries that we had almost forgotten existed.

Next week we head south. By Monday night, we'll be out of the tropics. Next Sunday will be our last rest day, immediately before crossing into South Africa and the final week of the Tour d'Afrique.

The Okavango Delta

Wednesday night we camped at the Delta Rain campsight from where we'd leave for the Delta.

Thought you like to see how the facilities work - the building in the background is the toilets and showers. Hot water around the clock from the wood-burning boiler in the foreground. Someone adds wood around the clock. The water tank is up at the top left. And the showers were wonderfully hot and clean.

An hour-and-a-half drive takes us to the mokoro launch point. The mokoro was traditionally a boat carved out of the trunk of a sausage tree - indeed ours was one of these. There are now fibreglass mokoros also.

All we had to do was to sit back and enjoy the ride while our guide, 'Shoes' (because he plays soccer), propels the boat with his pole.

We went for a bit over an hour with most of the scenery being grass...

...plus water lilies...

...and this little frog - it's about the size of your thumb.

We camped on a small island - got there before lunch and then relaxed during the heat of the day before going on a late afternoon walk on a nearby larger island.

The major sighting was a pair of spotted hyena.

A beautiful sunset - we've come to expect that every night...

...and we returned to the campsite.

Early morning we went out for a longer walk...

...seeing woodland cranes...

...and storks.

These giraffes are observing us as carefully as were are them. They tend not to want us too close.

Later, a number of Zebra and two Wildebeast galloped towards us...

...then galloped off in another direction.

On the way back to camp, we saw this brown snake eagle.

During the day, we had a swim in one of the channels, but generally relaxed again during the heat of the day. The evening excursion was work only for our guides who poled us around to a hippopotamus hole where again one keeps a respectful distance and so do they.

The next morning, before packing up, we had a short walk mainly in search of birds.

Then it was back to the landing point. As we departed the area on our overland vehicle, the local folk, all of whom had been out with one group or another, were walking back to their village.

Returning to Maun, we drove past a cemetary. Gravestones were shaded from the hot sun.

We'll be back on the bicycles with the Tour after the rest day in Maun on Sunday. Next week is five days of riding to Windhoek, Namibia.

Mack Air - a Gem of an Airline

Maun is the jumping-off spot for the Okavango Delta. Our flight was on a Cessna Caravan operated by Mack Air (the photo is from the company notice-board), a Maun-based carrier that operates about a dozen airplanes, the Caravan being the largest.



I have to comment on Mack Air. These days, there are all sorts of concerns for the safety record of African airlines, small air-taxi operators, and Cessna Caravans (icing problems). The fact is that on balance, no other mode of transport can match aviation for safety. In recent years, safety management has become the focus as we try to eliminate the hazards that continue to show up as causes of accidents. Company safety culture is looked at as part of the regular oversight by Transport Canada inspectors during audits, and it is examined in the event of an investigation into a mishap. The trick is to try to get everbody even remotely connected to aircraft operations in a company to embrace safety concepts in his or her everyday way of working. A good safety culture usually reflects well on management style, employee commitment and competence, and on overall operational efficiency and safety.

Enough of the lecture. Mack Air seemed to be a gleaming gem by all those standards. The airplane was pristine. The flight departed on time - early in fact. The three of us were the only passengers and the pilot gave us an informative safety briefing. During the flight, the pilot told us about their engine maintenance programme, including health and trend monitoring with regular consultation with the manufacturer and rigid adherence to their recommendations. He explained various measures they took to avoid unecessary engine cycles and stresses. With a fleet of single-engine airplanes, their programmes have resulted in the greatest single threat to airborne safety being vultures and storks.


When the flight was booked, we were told to go and pay at the airline's office when we got to Maun. On the ground, their ground staff took all the bags and carried them across the road to their office. The office staff told us that our pilot was the owner of the company and proceeded to tell us how wonderful a man he was, how great the company was, how much they enjoyed their co-workers. The office was clean and neat. They went out of their way to look after us, and one commented that that was just the way they did their business.


From our brief glimpse of Mack Air, their safety culture appeared pretty hard to beat. If I'm back in Botswana, I'll be looking to them to fly me around. If they read this, I hope they don't become complacent.


Before we got flying, we watched this pristine South-African-registered DC-4 depart. I had to put in the photo for aviation buffs.



During the flight to Maun, we flew across the Chobe Park. The road is a dirt road from Kasane to Maun, not always passable, and you need four-wheel drive.



From 8500 feet and a low-resolution picture on the web, it's hard to see the elephants, but they are at this watering hole.




This year is wetter than usual and we're seeing more watering holes than normal. You can see the animal tracks from miles around to this one.





This photo shows water in a river. Apparently is has been several years since the last time that happened.





Approaching Maun, we overflew part of the Okavango Delta. The Okavango flows from Angola into Botswana where the water basically empties into desert and dries up. More river flow (i.e., from rain in Angola) and the water is high. Ironically, high water means tall grass which means more to burn when the dry season comes, therefore a greater fire hazard.





The Okavango Delta has vast expanses of marsh land with islands here and there, accessible by the flat-bottom makoro boats that are poled through the grass. That's what we'll be doing for the next three days.

Botswana - Chobe National Park

Tuesday April 15 - We depart Victoria Falls for a short day - about 90 km - leaving Zambia and entering Botswana, the seventh country for the Tour. The destination was Kasane, at the northeast corner of Botswana near where Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, and Zimbabwe come together. That entailed a ferry trip and a lot of waiting to get across the Zambezi River.

The crossing is served by two ferries that can carry only one transport truck at a time plus one or two smaller vehicles which by my guess gives the border crossing a capacity of at most 8 transports an hour. And trucks are lined up for several kilometres on both sides of the border. You have to get your feet wet to get on.


Botswana has vast expanses of wilderness that are home to significant numbers of animals and birds. We were able to get on a sunset cruise on the Chobe River to observe wildlife along the edge of Chobe National Park, one of Botswana's wildlife reserves, greeted early on by this silhouette of an elephant on the shore.


Another elephant demonstrated its swimming skills with a hitchhiking egret on its back...


...but hippopotamus can't swim...


...yet they spend all day in the water!


A late afternoon shower was illuminated by the setting sun giving us a nice rainbow...


...while a cormorant was drying its wings on the other side of the boat.


Along with one of our fellow riders, Eugene Garver from Minneapolis, we took four days off from cycling to see some more of Botswana's wildlife starting on Wednesday morning with a three-hour excursion by land rover in Chobe National Park.

The highlight was these lion on the riverbank, drinking as if it's a long time between water stops.

Amongst other sightings was this impala...

...and this one with a hitchhiker on its back...


...and mongooses (or is it mesgeese) digging ants out of the sandy soil. We had dozens of them around the campsite last night too.


Young baboons often cling to mom under her belly. This one is piggy-backing on her back.


This Redbilled Hornbill was back at the campsite.


We were back at the campsite at 0900 and now had to figure out how to get to Maun. The last bus of the day is at 0800 and we didn't want to spend all day in Kasane. The people at Thebe River Safari (the operators of the campsite) were terrific, found us a flight leaving at 1230, and took us out to the airport at 1100.