After dreaming of being well enough to get back in the saddle, it’s sad to say that the first two days of peddling were not filled with cycling joy. The almost 200km to Tsumeb were painful and slow. We had absolutely nothing in the tank to power us forwards and every slight incline felt like Everest. With waves of nausea persisting, and dizzy spells throwing us off - Naomi couldn’t even drink on the go for fear of wobbling over. It was grim, and not what we had hoped for, which is why the three days on safari in Etosha could not have come at a better time.
We arrived in Tsumeb (our gateway to Etosha) and pitched our tent for the night. Not even bothering with proper food, we made scrappy sandwiches and fell into our sleeping bags by 7pm. To be fair, it was an early start the next morning - 5am wake up calls to be on the road and at the park gates for the sunrise opening. Our guide through Etosha was Jan Schubert of Born to Explore Safaris. We had really struggled to find a way into Etosha without a vehicle and with a need to loop back to collect our bikes where we left them in Tsumeb. Jan and his team were accommodating and provided a tailor made service to suit our particular adventure.
A snoozy hour’s drive to the gates and we were the third car into the park that morning. The excitement for our day was palpable. Etosha National Park had being something that was on both our bucket lists for a long time. And we were not let down at all by what we experienced. Etosha is a huge national park that includes and surrounds the massive Etosha Pan. We spent two days in the park, driving the from the north-eastern Von Lindequist Gate to the southern Andresson Gate and then back again.
And in the middle, another two nights at a Gondwana Collection Lodge, this time the wonderfully eccentric Etosha Safari Camp (themed to be like one of shebeens found throughout this part of the world).
The park itself was so different to anything we'd seen before. Whilst our first safari in Tanzania was very much in the wet season with long green grass making animal spotting more difficult, Etosha is in the dry season this time of year meaning dusty plains and small scrubs were the norm throughout the park. This gave a very different feel to the safari and gave us some scenes that were truly African.
The roads through the park are set up with waterholes dotted every 10km or so. These waterholes provided the amazing views of the animals coexisting with each other across our two days. It was not uncommon to turn to the waterholes and find a combination (or all of) giraffes, zebras, wildebeest, oryx, kudu and ostriches all standing about by the water.
The sheer density of animals at the park is amazing. Zebras, springbok and wildebeest in particular line the roads. At one point we stopped to look out over the pan and there must be have been a couple of hundred zebra walking together along with a big group of wildebeest following closely behind.
Of course, a key attraction of any park is predators. We were luckily able to spot a young male lion sleeping under a tree by the road. Despite all our best efforts, and Jan having seen one the day before we visited, there was no leopard to complete our Big 5 spotting.
Etosha was something truly memorable for us. We now feel like we have adequately had our fill of African wildlife on our trip, although it does remain always amazing whenever you spot something new.
Rising to leave Tsumeb, at least the morning wasn’t bitterly cold as we had seen before as we packed up the tent. We had originally intended to have a 60km day but what with wasting time in hospital beds, this became a 110km ride. There was a little bit of nervousness (particularly from Naomi) that the legs wouldn’t be strong and the going would still be slow. But that all fell away as we hit the beautiful winding roads. The legs were back! The cycling pleasure (you know the one - when your legs turn in perfect rhythm and you fly around bends and attack the hills to feel the breezy declines) was back! It was a relief and a purely joyous day on the bikes. I guess that’s one thing we can thank that African parasite for - showing us that even after 3 months, the simple pleasure of riding our bikes isn’t diminished.
