Kalahari, part I

June 17th, Day 6:
   
    We woke up around 9am to a beautiful day with minimal wind and lots of sun. It was my (Eric) birthday, so we like to think that had something to do with it. Our goal for the day was pretty ambitious, as we were trying to bike 140 kilometers to Brandvlei. We set a pretty fast pace and fortunately the ground was pretty flat. We had biked around 50 to 60 kilometers when my back tire blew out and the tube needed to be replaced. We changed the tube rather efficiently and got back onto our bikes and continued biking for another kilometer or so. Unfortunately, my back tire again went flat and we had to stop and check it out. Something seemed to be wrong besides the tube, because when we took the tube out it was not depressing like it should have if it had been punctured.
    At this point we were both getting very stressed because the time was ticking away and we still had a lot of ground to cover if we wanted a roof over our heads that night. We decided the only option was to hitch a ride to the next town and work on our bikes when we got there. After all that had gone wrong this day, we desperately needed something to go right. We got our wish granted by a truck driver going to kenhardt. He agreed to let us throw our bikes and gear into the back of his truck. We were both disappointed that we were not able to bike all the way, but we knew we were fortunate enough to be getting a ride so we did not have to sleep outside, especially on my birthday.
    We arrived at Kenhardt around 630pm after taking the ride with the truck driver and a few of his buddies. Kenhardt is a very small town, which we learned pretty fast after searching around for a restaurant, finally realizing that our hotel had the only one in town. We walked into the restaurant and it immediately felt like we had just been transported 50 years back in time, as I don’t think the restaurant has been renovated since then. It was not exactly the best birthday meal I ever had, but we were lucky to have been able to celebrate it the night before. The good news was we were able to make the necessary repairs to my bike and would be able to bike out of Kenhardt in the morning.

-Eric

June 18th, Day 7:

    We left Kenhardt later than we had anticipated due to some technical difficulties with the bicycles as well as personal matters that caused some delays. It was 120k to Upington on the paved roads, but roughly 10k out from town we saw a shortcut, a small dirt road that would cut 20-30k off the total distance. Worried about time and the condition of our bicycles, we made the rash decision to take this route instead.
    The dirt road started relatively well, and we made solid progress through the Kalahari for the first half-hour. We decided to take a short break in order to drink some water and strip off extra layers due to the unexpected heat. However, while sitting on the side of the road we noticed some rather large black insects that looked like hybrids between spiders and beetles, so we decided to get going.
    Our fortunes began to change as we went further down this empty road. The conditions got gradually worse the further we went, and the previously mentioned insects kept getting larger and larger until it got to the point where it seemed like we were dodging large rodents in the road rather than bugs. These things were nasty. Then we started noticing what appeared to be road-kill. The road was littered with small dead animals that looked as if they must have been either young hyenas or jackals, but the cause of their deaths seemed ominously mysterious. Not only did their remains appear completely intact with no evidence whatsoever of a collision, but we also had not seen a single vehicle on the road over the several hours we had been riding. We were creeped out, but our only choice was to keep biking, so that’s what we did.
    After several more miles, the road turned from dirt to sand, and riding became impossible. Faced with the prospect of being marooned in the middle of the Kalahari, we were determined to do anything possible to make it the remaining 50k to Upington, so we resorted to pushing our bicycles. Things were looking pretty hopeless, when all of a sudden a pickup truck sped by, stopped, and offered us a lift, as if sent by an angel! We immediately hopped in the back, but after 20k the road conditions improved to the point where they were rideable again so we decided to ditch the lift and continue our journey.
    We carried on for several more hours and rode through the sunset and into darkness. Finally, exhausted after a 100k ride, we made it to our destination: Upington. We quickly found a guesthouse, and got into our beds that night relieved to finally be in a city again for the first time since Cape Town. Our bodies and bicycles were both in serious need of repair, so we decided to spend the next few days in Upington to fully prepare ourselves for the road ahead.

-Aaron