Day 5
Kupfer Quelle, Tsumeb to The Waterfront Lodge, Zambia
Distance: 1000 km (a bloody long way)
We spent most of Day 5 on the road. With 1 000 kilometres to cover before 17h00 (the time that the Katimo Mulilo border post to Zambia closes) it was essential. However, even when pressed for time we managed to have some fun. Dan Nash, for instance, found a new form of transport.
Pimp my cattle
We also finally got the chance to put some of those soccer balls (the Put Foot Rally HQ vehicle is crammed full of them – read about it in my first post: Put Foot Rally – Day 1) to good use. Basically, we’re handing out soccer balls to kids along the way. Often they have nothing but rolled up straw and makeshift polygons to play a sport that they love so much, evident at our first hand over – which had some hilarious consequences …
We stopped along the road to the Zambian border and rally chief Daryn Hillhouse handed a soccer ball to three kids. Like most kids with a new toy, they completely forget about their daily chores. Unfortunately, their chores had legs … and weren’t hanging around.
‘Dude, I think you’re cows are getting away’
Whopa!
Daryn, with three kids in tow, bolted after the wayward livestock. Luckily they’re not the fastest of beasts and the entourage wrangled them back in no time. We hung around, chatted to the kids and settled in for a rather one-sided game of one bounce. In the moments that followed I learned yet another exciting fact about our crew: we’re all pathetic footballers. The kids were the stars of the show and I resigned myself to taking photos so as not to look like a flat-footed plonker.
After what must have seemed to the kids like an agonising amount of time knocking about with limbically inept mlungus, we got back on the road and made a tsetse-fly line for the border. But not before having a quick team photo with the Put Foot Foundation ambassadors, Dan Nash and Mike Sharman.
Team photo
Thinking back, this small act of kindness turned what would have been an otherwise uneventful sprint through the last bits of Namibia into an interesting day filled with, you guessed it, learning! You know how much I love learning. It’s been said that travel broadens the mind, however many of us still travel quite singlemindedly, myself included. We’re always thinking about where I am going next, how I am going to get there, what happens if I run out of money etc. So, while giving away a soccer ball is a small gesture, the idea behind it is large enough to shift actions, revoke apathy and ultimately turn the idea of travel into something more than a centripetal usurping of cultural experiences. It’s part of the reason this rally started and it’s something to think about … I’ve certainly thought about it a little differently since being on such an adventure.
We hurried to the border, made it with less than 30 minutes to spare … and then waited. Those who’ve spent any time there will know that it’s a phretologic workaround that can take hours to get through. ‘Perfect!’ I thought, enough time to get my first sunset shot of the rally, which also happened to be taken in the garden of one of the border officials homes … sorry about the flowers, here’s your photo:
Sunset at Katima Mulilo
Yesterday, Day 6 of the rally, Bob Skinstad joined us at The Waterfront Lodge in Livingstone for an epic cook up, a round of golf, a cruise on the Zambezi and some serious bar banter, but more on that in my next post.
