Gas Station to Nata; Aaron's Brother Arrives (Pictures)

July 10th, Day 29:

The day started earlier than we would have liked thanks to the gas station attendants thinking it quite funny to wake us up at around 5:45 am, well before sunrise. However, we had a long day ahead of us so we took the opportunity to our advantage. We needed to get to Nata which was almost 140k from our starting location in order to meet my brother, who was planning to arrive in a pickup truck to assist us through the stretch of Botswana between Nata and Kasane which was said to be impossibly dangerous to do on our own thanks to countless lions and lack of villages (we found out later that these were huge exaggerations). We gathered up some food to take and hit the road running.

It was looking like an ideal riding day, but whenever things seem to be going well something always goes wrong. On this day it was Eric's rear tire once again. Not only did the tire go flat, but the rear skewer was already broken which means we couldn't take the wheel off to fix it which led to some very annoying and complicated procedures. After quite a bit of time and energy we managed to repair the bicycle and continue on our journey. We rode for a good 50 miles before it was even 3pm but had run out of water so we were desperate to find a village to rehydrate at. Luckily, we managed to find a nice little settlement on the side of the road and pulled in to see what we could find. We were immediately greeted by a host of young children, extremely excited to see us. We thought we deserved a break, so we sat with them for a while and chatted while drinking water and handing out candy bars. We were having a great time with the children, but realized that it would be cool if there were some sort of trinkets or souvenirs we could give them so Eric rummaged through his things and found an Obama sticker that he had brought with him. One lucky kid claimed it first, and then the whole group gathered with the Obama logo for a picture that would have been worth millions during campaign season, but is still pretty cool to see now.

However, by the time we had finished getting food and talking with the children it was getting close to sunset and despite having already rode over 50 miles, we still had about 30 more to go. Under normal circumstances we would have just camped the night where we were, but because we had already planned to meet my brother in Nata we were forced to hitch 30 miles. This ended up being far harder than we expected. After trying hopelessly to wave down trucks someone finally stopped to talk with us. The good news was that they were heading to Nata and willing to give us a ride, the bad news was that they were some of the least likable characters we had yet met in Botswana, were drunk, and demanded a 6-pack of beer each as payment upon arrival in Nata. Having little bargaining power, we accepted the terms and climbed about 10-feet up into the giant truck. The ride was interesting, as it appeared that we were sitting right at the bottom of the bed of an empty dump truck, surrounded on all sides by a 4 foot wrought-iron wall. However, we figured it was probably lucky that we were riding in something the mass of a tank considering we had little faith in our drivers. Our safety concerns suddenly increased when we lurched to a sudden stop and flew several feet forward. Confused, we stood on our tip-toes to look over the edge of the truck wall and see what was going on. Beside the road was smoking, flipped pickup truck that appeared to have just careened off the road. Concerned, we tried to hop out of the truck to see if we could help. However, once outside we realized that everyone had not stopped to assist, but were instead gathering around to observe the spectacle. People were simply amused by the excitement of the scene. Confused and a bit disgusted, we got back into the truck and finished the final leg to Nata.

Arriving in Nata was a bit strange. The scenery had begun to change and start looking much more like the stereotypical African bush that you generally see on National Geographic, which was cool. What was not cool was that our drivers had stopped at a bar and wanted us to fulfill the deal of getting them a 6-pack each. However, since we were at a bar, this meant we would have to buy them 12 seperate beers. After hopelessly negotiating we gave in and paid up. However, we should note that this was possibly the only truly negative experience we have yet had with local people along the way and stood out so much to us because of the contrast. Usually people go out of their way to be as helpful and friendly as possible.
  We then got the cheapest room we could find and waited for my brothers arrival. He got in, exhausted, at around 9, but we decided we should all go out to a local bar to celebrate. We managed to find a small place by the gas station with a a couple people standing around a pool table drinking beers. It turned out this was the main scene in town for the night. However, after a couple beers we started feeling a bit swarmed by people trying to ask us questions about what we were doing there. They were friendly, but it gets a little tedious looking so out of place sometimes, so we decided to call it a night and head to bed.

-Aaron