Cycling The Globe

Distance: 91.2 km
Ride time: 5:46:11
Average: 15.8 km/h
Max speed: 51.5 km/h
Total: 45325 km

I had been looking forward to reach Windhoek. The Namibian country side has been an amazing experience, but it’s also very remote out there. A bit of civilization is nice once in a while.

The landscape continued to turn more green as I climbed my way up to Windhoek located at 1600 meters. I liked to be among mountains again – I much prefer this kind of landscape compared to the flat plateau I have been riding the last couple of days. A beautiful ride indeed!

Like yesterday, the only problem was that the road was so narrow that two trucks could just about pass each other. I had to keep looking over my shoulder to make sure I got off the road when a truck was coming.

One would think that the temperature would be a bit cooler up here, but we reached 35 degrees at midday. Good thing I’m not down near sea level!

Another climb up to a pass at 1937 meters and I was rolling down towards Windhoek which I could now see in the distance. It’s 1500 kilometers since I left Cape Town, and most towns I have visited have only been a few hundred inhabitants big. With 270.000 seuls Windhoek is one of the smaller capitals in the world. Yet, for a cyclist there is anything you need here.

I wondered if this was the first traffic light I had seen in 3 weeks.

As I checked into my hostel I noticed another bicycle in the yard. It belonged to Olivier (www.bikeforafrica.ch) from Lausanne, Switzerland – the same city where I had spend a year as an exchange student 10 years ago! Oliver had been riding all the way from Switzerland and had many interesting Africa stories to tell.

Olivier told that he hadn’t met another cyclist since September, but soon another two bicycle tourers would check into our Windhoek hostel. Couldn’t have asked for a better place for a break!