8Days to go - 3000kms done!!!! Chewore - Kanyemba 103km We expected Aggi to be bleary eyed but he was up before anyone and made us all coffee. The route was another unknown although Ash had some Intel from his friend Andy Hunter about part of it. Due to the expected bad terrain Adrian advised us to send Gareth all the way around to Kanyemba and not to follow us which meant that Debbie Bots had 8 cyclists to back up! This was the exact excuse Botton needed to not ride at all and he made the wise decision to save his marriage and help Debs with the back up along with able assistant Craig. .. We said goodbye to Aggi, Tippy and Mana and off we went. As we left I noticed Joe was wearing track shoes although his pedals had cleats so I asked him if he wanted to borrow some proper cycling shoes to which he said no. Within the first half hour it was quite clear that we now had the REAL tree experts on board. I know a bit about trees. Ashley knows a lot about trees. Andrew, Debbie and Botton know a bit more but KB (Kevin) and Joe. ...this was the real deal. I saw crocodile bark dyospyrus, ebony, mahogany, the Y thorn torchwood balanyties and so on. Breakfast at 8.30 was a welcome break and the Bottons got busy with food, tea and refilling water bottles as well as sunscreen, tsetse repellent and darolyte rehydration salts. I had been quite concerned about Joe Wrights saddle which needed to go up but Andrew Brown took me aside and advised me that under no circumstances should I offer Joe ANY advice that would improve his performance. ...cyclists have a saying about new riders in Joes age bracket of All the gear and no idea. .. However I ascertained that Joe Wright has no gear and no idea and he is by far the strongest cyclist in the group beating everyone except KB up every hill by minutes! The hilly terrain was very different from the rest of the Valley and by 11a.m we had covered almost 60km and climbed 700m of our 1200m challenge for the day. ...The hills were not actually that bad and Ash and I found them a welcome break from the endless flat sand riding we had been doing. Of course where there is an up there is a downhill and these were sailed down with complete glee and the feeling that you had won the lottery with a km that didnt have to be pedalled! At some point I overhead Thomas telling someone he was deaf in one ear and couldnt hear on that side so he had to be aware which side he was riding on in order to have a conversation. I was gutted. ..I had thought he was a good listener and so interested in all I had to say meantime he just couldnt hear me! The good news however was that I could tell him all my stories again.... The next section of the Chewore was spectacular. It took us about an hour to do this 10km....not due to the incredibly steep hills but because it was so beautiful we had to keep stopping to take pictures and to just look at the magnificent views. In one of the valleys in between two ranges of mountains we cycled through a grove of Sterculia Quinquiloba (African tick tree) and these almost iridescent white behemoths were ghostly and haunting, particularly against the burnt backdrop of the ground beneath. At one point KB said he felt completely surreal and this is a good way to describe this day. Kevin felt surreal because he had been following the Zimboundary journey for 5 weeks (he is a good friend of both Ash and I) and now had been dropped right into it like Alice down the rabbit hole. For me the surreal came from the fact that I was riding with a group of my closest friends in the most unlikely place and the reality of it was very humbling. When you see things of such exquisite beauty you really want to share them and now we were. ... We stopped for lunch under a baobab tree and were completely spoilt by the back-up team. The heavenly treat of an ice cold coke and cold water was well received in the midday heat of the Valley. Shortly after lunch we came to a ledge along the mopane forest trail and realised there that we had reached our 3000km mark! Time for a celebration. ..Bots jumped out the cruiser and the next thing had an ice cold bottle of champagne that was passed round. The numbers went like this: Bots 156km to add to the 491km he had done with us at Tuli, Aggi 210km and his 2 longest rides ever, Thomas 250km, Debbie and Andrew 302km and KB and Joe 95km with us at a cool 3000! Out of the escarpment and into the flat lands approaching Kanyemba Joe Wright stopped us all to show us the Buffalo bean - a creeper which has a pod with horrifically itchy fine hairs that scatter on the wind and cause unrivalled havoc with the hapless recipient of them. These pods are renowned throughout Zimbabwe and we had all heard of them so it was super to have been stopped by Joe and shown the shape of this fiendish legend. We finished the day at Kanyemba after 103km and were relieved to find Gareth and Jimmy in camp having come all the way around. A cool off in the swimming pool and a few beers later I asked each of the cyclists for one sentence of input for todays blog and this was the response: Botton :Andrew Brown is the most precious prissy wimp I have ever had to second. .. Andrews comment was almost as mature Botton is a worse seconder than he is cyclist and thats bad. . Joe Wright, professional hunter said: There is no game in the Chewore area because the hunters have killed it all - but it wasnt me After that I gave up. Tomorrow we leave our friends (and Botton) and the Zambezi and head for Dande. Night all The Zimboundary team xx
Posted on: Thu, 14 Aug 2014 06:17:29 +0000
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