6 days to go!!!! We are currently camped under the stars beneath the Zambezi Escarpment about 20km from Mukumbura....We have been blown quite off course in the last two days and we are both very very tired. ...bone weary tired. We are supposed to have a rest day tomorrow but neither of us wants it so we will press on. I know you are thinking that if we are so tired we should rest but one day off will not help this kind of tiredness. ... We left the wonderful Karunga Camp this morning and were a little subdued that this is our last proper shower until Aberfoyle (just warning those of you coming to see us in!!). Alpha, Bongi, George and all lined up to see us off having cooked us a full breakfast of eggs, sausage and toast. We really loved this camp, it was a beautiful place to gather our thoughts for the final press home and the staff were a huge part of this. To our amazement within a kilometre from the camp a majestic Roan Antelope bull walked regally across the road. I have only ever seen one of these before and we could not believe our luck. We set off with Bongis directions and the first 40km was completed pretty quickly as usual but we were still well off track when we stopped for breakfast. We miss the sumptuous back-up food of Debbie Bottons group and think nostalgically of the ice cold water and cokes always available in their cooler box. Our cold box is used for pre-cooked meals and we are back to drinking blood warm water with the metallic taint of purifying chemicals.... We had switched to using a!1:1000000 map to navigate so by the time we had tackled 60km we had zig zagged around a lot. There was still no local knowledge of the border road and we had been unable to open the attachment Tom Dibbs had sent us (he works in the area). We decided to track more south again and the villages rolled by, Musengezi, Chadereka, Hoya, where we turned East again. Every Zimbabwean knows that the prevailing wind is easterly and now travelling directly towards the Mozambique border the wind was head on and made the ride a tough slog. Ashley admits he didnt much like today and while I found it inspiring to see the huge Zambezi escarpment rearing up in front of us and getting visually closer every km it was also beginning to drag on somewhat. We play a game now to pass the time. Its called Just imagine this time next week - what will you be doing? we cant imagine it but we have fun trying. Several of the friends who rode with us last week asked each of us in turn how we will cope with the ppd (depression) once this is over and we were both quite surprised to note that now the finish line is becoming slowly visible over the misty blue Nyanga mountains we cannot wait. For the first 5 weeks we had a daily excitement rush to get on with the day, now we are going through the motions but the exhaustion seeps into everything. This is a bad frame of mind to be in - it casts everything with a negative shadow and we are too tired to talk ourselves out of it. ... We call the day over at 4.20p.m with 114km done and set camp quite far off the road in a palm grove. These nights of free camping are important to the Zimboundary team as we gain a certain strength in each other but it is a solemn moment when I get a message from my daughter to tell us that the Asian Rhino has officially been declared extinct.....Will our ride actually make any difference? Is this toil and hardship heard or will we sit at our home fire one evening and hear that the African Elephant has been declared extinct but that we were privileged enough to ride with such animals once upon a time. .... Good night all - only one Blue Cross left to do! P.s 8.15p.m We have just had a phone call from Bots - apparently he has been instructed by his dad to come and find us and ride the last day to Aberfoyle with us! We are delighted. ...and even more delighted to hear that Debbie will back him up which probably means we will have cold cokes and water for our last days ride!!
Posted on: Thu, 14 Aug 2014 18:12:23 +0000
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