Distance: 72.9 km
Ride time: 3:38:15
Average: 20.0 km/h
Max speed: 25.6 km/h
Total: 46532 km
I sometimes think about the “days since leaving home” as years. There was day 1776 when I was on Long Island in New York, and 1945 when I was in Southern Namibia. I was born in 1983, so today had to be a good day 🙂 Oh, and 2016 is coming up…
I could have crossed into Zambia right here at Katima, but I decided to make a short detour into Botswana and Zimbabwe to see Victoria Falls – and well, also to add two countries to my list 🙂
The border formalities went nice and easy as the visa for Botswana is free – just like South Africa and Namibia. I will soon enough have to pay $30, $50, $75 for the visas at the next borders I plan to cross, so I enjoyed my last free one.
The friendly border officer said “Welcome to Botswana and watch out for the animals” as I left the building. And she had a point, right at the border the Chobe National Park begins, and it fact it is very much illegal (and a bad idea) to cycle through. Just as I got to the park gate a local bus with a trailer showed up, and I asked if I could come along to Kasane. Sure enough, no problem…
It was a very local bus where the passangers were bringing chickens alive and everything. When I giraffe passed the road in front of us the other people in the bus couldn’t care less – this was certainly not a safari.
After paying 75 cents for the ride I was in Kasane – a little sad that I have no longer really cycled all the way from Cape Town, but at least I still have two arms and two legs.
The price level for accommodation has certainly gone up. I was having a hard time finding a room for under 100$, that was until I found the Waterlily Lodge. Their normal rooms were 100$ as well, but they had a dorm room for 20 “and if you take it we won’t let anyone else in there”. Now I suddenly had my own fancy private room with aircondition and everything for 20$, and I promptly decided to stay an extra day!
My stay in Botswana will be a very short one, just two days. Next stop Zimbabwe!
