Caprivi dash
An easy day of riding ahead with no drama, well that was the plan anyway, and plans seldom go to schedule it seems.
Tarmac was the only way today as the Caprivi strip gave up its secrets under our wheels. Dry grasses sprouted from the roadside with wide swathes of burned grass as slash and burn regenerates the earth with bright green sprouts of fresh grass. Billowing clouds in the distance gave away the location of another massive burn. It’s commonplace but disconcerting.
The GPS has been faultless, mostly, and any error has mainly been rider error. However, Mike, one of the Aussies, had waited by the roadside to guide me into our last few kilometers of sandy driveway to our lodge. It was obvious from the outset that this was a mistake as wheels sank in soft talcum powder. I stopped, now aware that there were no tracks leading into this sand trap – just Mikes ahead.
After a bit of bush driving we extracted ourselves and sheepishly found the correct driveway a few metres down the road.
Hippo and water birds greeted us on a sunset cruise down the river as the pace again changed in the blink of an eye. Water lilies, pied kingfishers and bee-eaters followed our progress as we meandered through tall grasses in this waterworld. A curious troop of baboons watched as we disembarked for a sundowner curiously mimicking our actions next to the waters edge.
The tour is almost at an end and a melancholic air is beginning to impact the group. Talk turns to home and missed loved ones, also of leaving this group, which has bonded through some tough kilometers. Friendships borne on the road will soon be over, but for now Zambia and Victoria Falls awaits.
Hippo chortle tonight and a Grey lourie calls “˜go-away, go- away’, soon enough.
