Dibete to Mahalapye (Pictures)

July 5th, Day 24:

We woke up early in order to get a good start on the day so as not to get as exhausted as the day before; for safety reasons I did not want to become nauseous and lightheaded, worrying about whether I would faint while riding and spill onto the middle of the road. However, to my dismay, as soon as I stepped out the front of the small abode we had slept in and into the village I felt a wind more powerful than any we had encountered yet, and blowing, once again, directly from the direction we would be heading. Disheartened, I finished packing up my things and set out for what I expected to be a long and miserable day of cycling.

 Leaving the village was not quite as exciting as when we had entered, but it was still fun waving goodbye to all people as we maneuvered through the sand paths towards the main road out of town. A group of young children playing soccer all stopped dead in their tracks upon seeing us, and chased after us laughing and waving us goodbye. We waved back as we started the days journey.

 The first few miles were so grueling that I thought it would be impossiblee to make it the fully 50 that day. The wind was gusting at up to 15-20mph and we were making very slow progress. However, we realized that much of our fatigue was probably due to the fact that we had not had a real meal in over 24 hours, so we feasted on energy bars in order to replenish our bodies and within a half-hour we began to feel much better.

 The day then took a turn for the better as the winds began to die and the riding became easier. We managed to get to 30 miles without any incident, but when we stopped for our break we realized that we were thirsty, and were both out of water. The next 20 miles would be miserable if we could not find any way to hydrate, so we set out on a water mission. We noticed 3 options and pursued each:

1) There were strange fruits along the road that resembled extremely small watermelons. After our success in eating the Ubunzu berries several days earlier we decided to test these out to see if they were good and full of water. We managed to smash a particularly nice looking one open with a rock and it looked just like a watermelon inside, only it was greenish/yellow rather than watermelon pink. However, the similarities ended as soon as we tasted it. It wasn't just bad, it was completely inedible. The taste was so unimaginably bitter that we both immediately spat it out and tried to kick the taste from our tongues for 15 minutes or so.

2) We noticed a water pipe that was passing beside the road we were on. Upon examination we saw a leak that was gushing water out that looked relatively potable. We climbed the barbed wire fence that was guarding the pipe and inspected. It looked good enough, but since we could only speculate that it was a waterpipe rather than a sewage line or something of that nature we decided to leave it as a last resort.

3) We saw beside the road a great deal on cattle, which indicated to us that there may be a farm or village near. Even though we could not see any signs of a settlement, we thought there was a chance that if we followed the cattle trail we might find one. Unable to take our bikes down the road, we decided that I would stay with the bikes while Eric went to investigate. Eric took 2 water bottles with him and dissapeared into the Botswanan bush. He returned 30 minutes later with the bottles full of water! He explained that he had stumbled after some time into a little village and the people were shocked to see him. However, he managed to explain that we needed water and they had ladled some water out of a metal pot for us. Unsure of the water quality, we dropped some iodine tablets in, and then continued with our journey, happy to have succeeeded in getting our water!

 The journey continued uneventfully and after our final break at 40 miles we were all set to push through for the final 10 miles to Mahalapye, eager to get to our destination. Unforuntately, nothing ever seems to go right for us, and at roughly 41 miles Eric's rear tire went flat. We were frustrated, but immediately set to fixing it. We had gotten good at replacing flats, and within about 10-15 minutes were back on the road, only to have the tire suddenly go flat again. This was the final straw. We did not know what was going on with the tire, and were exhausted and cold as it was starting to get late, so we had to resort to hitching a ride for the final 9 miles.

  Botswana is a nice place to hitch rides however, because it is a very common form of trsnportaion in their culture. Many people use it as their only form of transportation, and "bus-stops" are not primarily used to wait for busses but rather as a hub for hitchhiking. So after about 30 minutes of waiting a pickup truck finally stopped and we loaded our bikes into the back. The driver was a professer from the University of Botswana and was very friendly. He dropped us off at a guesthouse, we exchanged cards, and then said our goodbyes. 

  We were tired, but got a quick bite to eat and returned to our rooms to repair Eric's bike. However, when we tried to take the rear-wheel off disaster struck. The skewer which connects the wheel to the frame snapped. While we managed to figure out how the fix the problem of the recurring flat tires, we were out of luck with the skewer, as it would require a new part. We decided to go to sleep and worry about what to do in the morning.

-Aaron