17:40.6S 23:20.2E

16^th February, 2014

             Rob and I just before leaving Kasane….

Here I am at Mazambala Island Lodge, 3 kilometres west of Kongola, in Namibia. So what’s so special about that you may, rightly say?

Well, firstly I have now been in three countries, in two days, secondly we are some 300 kilometres were we were this morning, on our first joint motorcycling adventure, and thirdly, this is the lodge I stayed at way back in 2007 on my bicycle trip.  For the reader this probably still doesn’t mean much, but for me it ignites huge emotions of how I was feeling way back then, and sharing this with Rob, is also very special.

We weren’t have ‘supposed’ to have stopped here, rather have been the other side of the 210 kilometres of the Caprivi Strip, but nostalgic pulls forced an early end to the day!  This also came with some drama on the first day:  The lodge is 4km off the main road, an a very sandy road  to get to the camp site. With my fear of soft sand, I went very cautiously, clearly, frustrating Rob, who overtook me, and was showing me the way…. In true boys competitive style, except I don’t compete anymore!! Well definitely not on motorcycles!! Well, literally 50 metres before reaching the campsite, Rob hit a real soft patch, and whoopsie, the bike snaked, Rob couldn’t keep balance and over he went!  Fortunately, no injuries, lots of laughing, and just a slightly bruised ego!

Robbie walking the Road of Shame, out of the sand with assistance too!

Going back to the start of the day:

I needed  long walk to clear the overindulgence from the previous night, and so left before sunrise….. Gee, it was so nice just walking to nowhere, passing locals every now and then, always being greeted with such a friendly and welcoming face.

We had a ‘luxury’, full buffet breakfast at Chobe Safari Lodge, and both of commented when again we will have this type of semi luxury?  The nice thing about this adventure, is we never know whether we will be in semi-luxury or real basic survival accommodation / sustenance.

As planned, by 10am, we were on our bikes, chomping at the bits, having the photo below taken, before we left Kasane.

Within 30 minutes we were signing the entry books for Chobe Game Reserve, and then 20 minutes later, we were given a special present: Being off season, and Sunday, the road was all ours, and out the corner of my eye, I saw a herd of elephants just off the road. I signalled to Rob, and having passed them, we slowed down, and then turned around to go back and see them. Well they decided to move, and cross the road. We were then presented with the whole herd slowly crossing the road, with us just metres off. Finally, happy the whole herd had crossed, the big tusker crossed, and what a magnificent beast!  This is what the m/bike trip is about!

We made Katimo Mulilo around 1pm, and then we had a search for a place to have lunch….?  Our Sunday search didn’t turn up much, and we had to settle for a very ‘down market’ restaurant in an insignificant shopping centre. The choice was “Porridge or Fish?”, which wasn’t a choice!  The fish was apparently, Zambezi Bream, but Rob was only presented with a fish head! Mine was a whole fish, which turned out to be very tasty, and Rob and I ended sharing mine!

               The good fish, and………………………………….The bad fish!

Well back to our Island Lodge…. We are just having sundowners looking out over the Kwando River, towards Caprivi Park, where we will be riding tomorrow.  Dinner will follow, and we have very high hopes that it will be in a totally different league to our lunch!

That’s it for today!