In many ways, the past week has encapsulated everything that could be expected from an unsupported first timers bike tour through Africa: unique adventures, the kindness of strangers, hot hot days, all the hills and a bike issue or two. Whilst we have been seeing and doing things that we would never have the opportunity to experience unless on this human powered journey; things have not always been smooth sailing. Our journey from Chipata in Zambia's east to the capital Lusaka was a constant ride of ups and downs: the terrain fluctuated between nice, gentle, rolling hills where we could push the pace to not-so-nice and not-so-gentle mountains with seemingly never ending climbs and non-existent descents.
Our first full day on the Big Dipper that is the Great East Road led us to Katete and Tiko Lodge. Tiko Lodge is a community set up by a wonderful German-Australian, Elke, to provide a homely pitstop for weary travellers as well as provide education, jobs and a sense of belonging to the poverty stricken local community. Oh, and they make cracking peanut butter - a staple food for us!
Despite a whole host of strange animal noises, and even a small bat invasion during the night leading to very little sleep - we hit the road hard the next morning. We hit Petauke, our planned destination, by 12.30pm and once again became greedy for more kilometres. We knew that Nyimba was 65km away and we decided to push on. Arriving in Nyimba after 150km, we were knackered. And very hot. The Taitana Lodge had been recommended, and superficially it was easy to see why. Look a little closer and the recommendation became a little more confusing... Yes a swimming pool! No, no water in that. Yes lovely little chalets! No, no electricity in there. Yes a restaurant! No, no food for hours. The ladies running the joint almost made up for it with their very Zambian humour and interesting questions (“Do you have children?” “No” “Ohhhh, you practice family planning”). After deciding to plough on from Petauke, we sent a chance email to a game reserve that looked relatively close to Nyimba. The morning after our stay at the delightful Taitana, we received a response from Nicky at Munyamadzi Game Reserve: Yes, we can collect you from Nyimba for a night on the reserve. Awesome, that felt like an excellent way to spend a day banked from cycling ahead of schedule. The road to Munyamadzi was a little bumpy and as the car weaved through little villages and straw huts into the mountains we wondered how on Earth we’d get down the next day at any reasonable hour to get back in the saddle. However, when we arrived at Munyamadzi all concerns with leaving and practicalities fell away: the spot was stunning. The hippos caught our attention first, about 20m away wallowing in the water making the most inelegant noises! Nicky took us on a beautiful sundowners trip where the sun set over a giant baobab and hyenas howled in the background. Our open chalet for the night led straight out onto the river and made for interesting sleep accompanying noises when the hippos retreated to our banks for some cheeky night time mating...
Cycling to Kachalolo the next day was easy and quick, although the rest of our stay at the little village was not to be as straightforward. The only hotel in town was full and so we had to camp on the front grounds. Naomi struggled with the whole feel of the place, it didn’t quite sit right with the rest of the friendly warm Zambia that we had come to know. Anyway, the tent was set up on a concrete platform and we tried to sleep...just as the only kid within 30 miles with a generator and a penchant for Justin Bieber started up his speakers. The music didn’t end until 3am and our alarm went off a couple of hours later. Safe to say, the worst night we’ve had so far.
Jumping on the bikes the next morning was slow business and we started the day with nothing in the tank - not great. The heat set in early and what would usually be a swift first few hours dragged and we were really struggling. At Luangwa Bridge we stopped for soft drinks in silence and contemplated the foretold hills over the next 80km that we were about to face. There’s very little to say about the next few hours other than, we were in pain: tired headaches and nausea; helluva lot of cursing at the vertical and constant climbs and an overwhelmed moment of tears for the boy in our duo. 135km and some soul searching later, we arrived in Karoma where we ate and slept. The following day was intended to be less hilly and a more simple ride. Unfortunately, within minutes of setting off Charlie had a puncture. We stopped, patched, pumped and set off again. Then the wheel deflated. We stopped patched a new hole, pumped and peddled off again. Then another. And another. And another. Every 8 minutes. With accompanying howls of frustration and a swearing. Instead of the easy morning ride to beat the heat, we sat in the scorching sun and slowly went insane wondering what we had done to deserve such torture. In the end poor Charlie peddled with a slow puncture and we just re-inflated every 15 minutes. The rainbow moment of the day came when a car of strangers pulled over to hand us some ice cold water. Clearly they could sense our despair, and their kindness at least put smiles on our faces. Our destination town had no accommodation (another unwelcome discovery) and the beat the puncture game was required to continue for another 20km.
We spent a great deal of time at our stop in Chinyunyu working with the inner tubes and bowls of water and patches and scouring the tyres for naughty foreign sharpies just trying to figure out the problem. We were non-the-wiser and had to hope that it was just bad luck. Setting off on our final ride to Lusaka and we seemed to have cracked it. Until 30km in when the tell tale hiss and slow deflation of Charlie’s back wheel brought us close to tears again. Charlie peddled on with the slow flat in the hope that Lusaka would hold the answers to our problems. And in many ways it really was. In Lusaka we were lucky enough to stay on the beautiful farm of some friends of Egmont. Luxuries big (a swimming pool, a driver to help us run errands and home cooked food) and small (the BEST shower, time and space to sort out our kit) were aplenty. It was a complete refresh. And given the days we had just endured and the fact that we are almost halfway through the trip, it was much needed.
As well as resting and repairing ourselves and the bikes, we were also treated to an introduction to Tebo. One of 46 Wide Mouth Rhinos remaining in Zambia. And he was a bloody massive beauty (and also a recent murderer as it turned out as he had a bit of a tussle with his old female companion he was supposed to be making babies with).
After being fed delicious food and having a full kit clean and sort; we are feeling fighting fit for the remaining 4,000km... ***THREE GREAT REASONS TO DONATE*** 1. You’re inspired/impressed/shocked at our peddling skills and think that climbing the equivalent of Everest over three times since we set off and conquering 3,000km in 7 weeks deserves a penny or two; 2. You’ve read our blogs on the African charity partners, and agree that the work they do is incredible and that they deserve as much funding and support as possible; 3. Reading this blog saved you from awkward eye contact with someone on the tube and you think that’s worth at least a fiver. Do a great thing, hit up this link and support The Egmont Trust https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/equatortocape
