Gaborone has been great to me, but it’s time to move on.

Wow, I can hardly believe it is already September and I’ve already been in Botswana for more than a month and a half. Time sure flies, but in this case a little too fast.  I’m already feeling the pressure of my visa expiring in mid-October and this means I’ll be a bit rushed on my cycle trip across Botswana.  That was exactly what I was hoping to avoid, as I’d initially planned and pictured it as a leisurely cruise, but oh well.  Let’s get up to speed on what’s going on out here.

I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again, long term travel like this often has dull or uneventful days.  At this point I was having a few of them and starting to get a little restless, however I wasn’t able to move on just yet so patience was an order.  One very important item I’d been waiting on was this tent.  I bought a large two person tent in South Africa when I first came out here, but not only was it a bit of an issue due to its size and weight, two of the poles got broken in transport, so I had my mother mail me my backpacking tent from home.  It’s a substantial upgrade given what I’ll be using it for, and while I tried to find a quality tent here in Gaborone, there were no good options.  Having this piece of equipment finally, I was nearing completion of my necessary gear.

The next evening, after yet another day running around town in search a few items such a bike computer, I joined Michael on the University of Botswana campus.  My previous time on campus was just hanging out with the international students around the dorms, but on this night I was happy to experience ‘411’, the student bar on campus with the locals.  It’s a pretty run down looking place to be honest, but it is truly local, and the beers are only 9.5 pula, by far the cheapest I’d seen anywhere to date.  In recent years, the president has been pushing to change Botswana alcohol culture, including a near doubling of prices, reduced hours for bars and reduced hours on bottle stores.  I’m not sure if it is a result of that campaign or not, but at the entrance to the student bar, there is a sign that reads “Alcohol is like love, the first kiss is like magic, the second is intimate, the third is routine.  Control your drinking, Too much alcohol can put you at risk of life threatening situations.”  I’m not sure of the efficacy of these efforts, to my eyes people here seem to drink pretty hard, when they can afford it that is. 

When Paul and I had gone to Mokolodi Game Reserve for the (rather useless) animal snare search a while back, we saw a sign for a star gazing night and decided to go.  We arrived at the park in the evening after the sun had gone down and piled into the safari trucks for the drive out to the site.  I was unsure of what to expect, but I was hoping for a telescope, a handful of people and a clearly visible Milky Way.  As we arrived and climbed out of the trucks it seemed none of this was true.  There were maybe 100+ people, no telescope and the skies were a bit hazy.  After chatting for a while and eating a buffet dinner (which was pretty good by the way) everyone sat down to a lecture of sorts about the skies above us.  While I don’t intend to demean their efforts, the older expat couple speaking were amateur at best and I couldn’t help but feel disappointed by the whole event…

In the morning, there was another farmers market and Paul, Stewart, Philipp and I all set out to enjoy the afternoon.  This event was at a different location than the last, on a small farm 20 minutes or so out of Gaborone.  Being a rather small community, I saw a number of familiar faces from the other event, but it was well organized and enjoyable.  The family who owned the farm were not initially farmers, but after their home burned down a few years back a new path in life emerged and the idea was born.  We stuck around for a few hours looking at the crops, eating food off the braii and even a bit of cotton candy from a stand.  In the afternoon we headed to the Grand Palm Hotel and Casino for a drink, and then called it a day. 

I had time on my hands, so I decided to explore the city a big on my bicycle a bit.  One stop on my wanderings was the ‘Three Dikgosi Monument.’  These statues, depicting the founding fathers of Botswana are in the CBD opposite the new High Court building and situated in a nice, clean, quiet park.  Had I not wanted to keep exploring, it would have been a nice place to sit with a book.  As I was leaving, the security guard stopped me and asked me to sign the register book, then asked me if I wanted to pay or see the park for free.  I was slightly confused by the question, but as a fee was not required nor really justified, I opted not to hand over any pula, and rode on through the city. 

Another day running around town.  I dropped by the post office on Main Mall to send a few post cards home to my family, met Michael at UB, bought some gasoline for my MSR Whisperlite stove and fully loaded my bike for the first time to test it out.  I knew it was going to be interesting, but to be honest I was surprised how much weight it all added up to and how it made the bike feel.  I’d never ridden a loaded bike before and the fact I was not using panniers meant my center of gravity is pretty high.  Oh well, it seemed like it was going to work well enough for my purposes, haha.  That evening, I went wandering again, and stopped to watch some students playing soccer in the last minutes of daylight.

Wanting to spend a fair amount of time on my bike and because Michael and I had a good time on our ride to the South African border the other week, this time we set out for the Gaborone Dam.  We intended on visiting the Yacht Club, however due to three men dying in mysterious circumstances, it was closed.  We were not deterred in our goal of getting lakeside, so we found a road that seems to be used for testing out line-painting trucks and set off. 

After a short while on the road, we ducked off into the bush and walked towards the water, eventually settling on a tall group of round boulders to chat and enjoy the peaceful scenery. 

We saw one or two locals heading farther around the bend, so we hopped back on our bikes to do some off roading.  Now mostly slick, semi-narrow tires are far from ideal when negotiating sand and bushes, but I’m already going to be testing this bike to its limits, so I might as well start now.  After a bit more riding and a lot more fun, Michael had to return to UB for class and we headed back through the mud, sand, grass and thorns back into town. 

Once again, I had time to kill and realized I still hadn’t visited the National Museum.  It is just at Main Mall and entrance is free, so I locked up my bike to a lamp post and headed in.  Now it’s certainly not the greatest museum around, but it does teach a lot about the history of the country and has some fairly nice exhibits of stuffed lions, vultures and bucks.  One thing I found particularly interesting however was the section on the San people (often known as the ‘bushmen’).  The display was talking about how they find water in the Kalahari desert, and explained how some of the roots shown here can hold as much as three liters of water!  (that is if you know how to find them)

The next evening, it was back to UB with the international students.  Instead of the student bar however, we went off campus to a place called the Officers Mess.  Like the student bar, it is a very local affair, drinks are cheap, and the patrons are almost entirely young males.

For a few days now, Paul and I had been trying to find information on the ‘Afri-can International Music and Cultural Festival’ to no avail.  It was intended to be a large three-day festival near the Gaborone Dam, but due to all sorts of organizational problems, it had turned into a single day event, far out of town, with a whole lot less to do than initially promised.  It was supposed to begin around 10am, but when we showed up around 2pm, all we saw was a huge empty field and about 30 people sitting in the shade, made up entirely of the UB international students!  That said, there was a large and truly professional stage, sound and light system, probably the best stage setup ever to be built in Botswana (not kidding about that) and it showed the lofty aspirations of the organizer.  Unfortunately, there was almost no advertising, and few people even knew the event was happening.

There were supposed to be events and activities all day and to be fair, there was a children’s bouncy-castle(!), but the music didn’t start until about 6pm.  Despite the 5 hours of waiting, I was having a great time hanging out, eating food and making new friends.  The event might have been an obvious disaster in terms of attendance, but it had a lot of potential, a good vibe and a faraway but good location. 

From the first band going on until I left at about midnight, there was an excellent mix of music; reggae, hip hop, jazzy stuff and more.  The Metrophones and The Chicken Bus were two standouts of the evening, putting on top notch performance’s that stand up against just about any other festival show I’ve been too. 

Despite the small numbers, those of us who were actually there all had a great night of music and dance.  The audience comprised of about half locals and about half international students were all in the highest of sprits and the dancing, while dusty, was energetic and loose.  Around midnight, I decided to call it a night, and because Paul, Ally and Philipp had returned home earlier in the evening, I took the provided shuttle bus back into town which was a nice (and necessary) feature of the event.

Part of the reason to leave the festival before the music was over, was that the next morning I was joining Michael and his friend Kao to a church in the town of Kanye.  Kao’s mother is the pastor of this small congregation, so she invited us to join her for the Sunday service.  Now I’m not exactly a church-going person, but it sounded like an interesting experience and one I wanted to take part in.  We met at the bus rank, and at 7:30am, caught a bus to Kanye.  As it didn’t take us all the way into town, we hitch hiked the rest of the way, a common, safe and easy way to get around Botswana. 

The church itself is a non-descript white shoebox of a building, simple and utilitarian from the outside, but inside richly decorated with colourful cloth on the ceiling and walls and filled with about 35 plastic lawn chairs.  The beginning of the service was mostly singing, led by the five women at the front (Kao on the right) and then joined by the whole congregation.  The singing itself seemed to be Christian standards with a bit of a Botswana touch, and the sound was every bit as beautiful as that of the concerts the night before.  Once the singing was over there were readings from the bible, much talk of the ‘thirst for Jesus’, members coming to the front for individual blessings (often resulting in them collapsing on the floor) and finally the Sunday school kids giving some birthday presents to the pastor.  I was impressed and pleased I woke up early to join. 

After the service, we joined Kao to visit some of her family in Kanye, and then hitched the 95km back to Gaborone.  I didn’t arrive home until about 5pm, but maybe due to divine intervention, I arrived home to Paul cooking up a huge feast on the braii, haha! 

Because I came to Botswana specifically to ride across it on a bike, it was time for a few day test ride before the real deal.  I finally had all the necessary gear, and while I didn’t know where I was even going to go, I loaded up my bike and set off for the first time.  On the front of the bike, below the factory rack is dual 10 litre water jugs, on the rack is my day backpack, and on the rear rack is my tent and my large backpack.  Between my choice of bike, not buying cycling pannier bags and riding in flip flops, I have to be one of the most foolish looking cycle tour riders ever, but hey, that’s kind of the point! 

I headed south out of Gaborone, past Mokolodi and towards the town of Otse.  Although riding through town was a bit dodgy, once I was out on the open road it was smooth sailing.  The roads in Botswana are quite good, some places the shoulder is a full 4 feet wide and traffic is light.  I was certainly feeling the weight of my gear, but also feeling strong and confident.  About 25km into the ride, I encountered my first hill, a challenge for the heavily loaded single speed bike and the out of shape rider sitting on it.  I pushed on; realizing the only effective way to climb was keeping my speed up as much as possible and refusing to stop.  It wasn’t exactly easy, but it wasn’t too bad either.  At the apex, I stopped to catch my breath, had some water, and let gravity take me down the other side. 

The reason I was headed to Otse was to see the Manyelanong Game Reserve, a spot where engendered Cape Vultures nest on the cliffs.  There is essentially nothing in Otse, but with directions from the locals I found the Otse Wildlife Station and spoke with the staff.  I told the women I would be camping somewhere, and without even asking, she said I could set up my tent in the station compound in a carport. 

Hoping to see the vultures, I dropped my gear and rode to the base of the hill and the cliff.  The area is surrounded by a high fence to protect the birds from interference.  After passing two women carrying bundles of sticks for firewood and a man herding cattle, I arrived at the viewing point but the birds were nowhere in sight.  The only evidence of their presence being the white poop stains on the rocks where they stay.  I’d ridden 65km on this first day out, and feeling a mixture of tiredness and excitement for my little journey, I returned to my camp, cooked dinner, read in my book and went to sleep.

The next morning I awoke early to check the birds again, but this time again it was a bust, not a single vulture in sight.  I was told this was because they were in their nesting period and less active, but a week or two back Michael had seen them when he visited, so I wasn’t sure why I was having such poor luck.  After breakfast, I packed up my things and hit the road again.

Another example of the roads I was riding.  Once again big shoulders, light traffic and well signed routes made for easy travel.  On this day, I was passing through the larger town of Lobatse and on to Kanye, then town I had just been for church on Sunday. 

Stopping under a tree for some shade and a lunch break.

I was feeling my legs from the day before, and this time I filled my water jugs almost full to see how riding with the increased weight would affect everything.  On top of that, I had headwinds that seemed to show up every time I was going up even the slightest hill, making my work twice as hard.  I’m usually pretty tolerant of bad weather and though conditions, but wind just irritates me like nothing else and from time to time found myself shouting at it to leave me alone.  The wind didn’t seem to listen. 

While Botswana is usually a very dry country, as you ride you see evidence of what must be a huge flood of water when the rains come and while I was very curious what that might look like, I was also happy to be staying dry. 

I pushed on and up what seemed to be a 3-4km uphill into Kanye, bringing me into town around 5pm.  The sun was starting to go down, traffic was at its peak and the riding was a bit challenging.  Getting plenty of funny looks and cars honking at me, I arrived at the grocery store on the other side of town, bought some cold drinks, veggies, and pushed my way out of town as fast as possible, trying to beat the rapidly falling sun.

Having just been on this same route a few days prior, I knew the bush outside of town would be a good place to camp and ducked off the main road down a dirt track to look for a spot.  As I arrived, I saw I’d ridden 95km and was more than happy to get off the bike for the day.  I set up camp between some thorn bushes, cooked a delicious dinner under a thin layer of clouds and after more time with my book went to sleep.  I was awoken at midnight not by people, but by two cows and the loudly clanging bells around their necks.  Unable to sleep with the racket around me, I climbed out of my tent to scare them away but quickly realized how futile these efforts would be.  Luckily I always carry ear plugs with me when I travel for noisy buses or dorm rooms in backpackers, but I never thought I’d need them for bush camping! 

I decided that this was only going to be a three day trip, as I knew what I needed to know (that I had everything I needed, that the bike performed well, what the roads were going to be like, etc) and wanted to get back to Gabs and prepare to set off for good.  This photo is by far the largest hill I experienced on my ride.  Luckily I was going down it, but I’ll be headed in the opposite direction on the real ride and I now for a fact I’ll be pushing the bike up this one…

Road construction on the way to Gabs.  I’m pretty sure they just took every road sign and empty barrel they had and threw them in the middle of the road, haha.

I arrived back home at about 3:30, having pushed fairly hard for another 95km day; for a total of 255km over the three days.  Not bad all things considered!  Everything went well, I was sore but confident in my setup and in myself, and happy to know that this thing was finally happening. 

I spent the next day simply resting and recovering.  But after that, I had work to do again.  I’ll be crossing from Botswana into Zambia next and it was not entirely clear the rules for entering Zambia as I’d read conflicting reports.  Luckily, the Zambian embassy is right on Main Mall and I was told that yes, I can get a tourist visa on arrival for $50, good for three months.  This was my understanding originally, but it was nice to hear it from Zambia itself.

Locals playing the ‘shell game’ outside Game City Mall.’  Every time I walk past they try to get me to make a bet, however I know I’d just be throwing my money away on their tricks and never take the bait. 

Lying in bed the next morning, I finally finished the book Dark Star Safari, by Paul Theroux.  I’d originally picked this book up in Seattle before I started my trip, but it ended up getting forgotten at home.  Luckily I came across it again while staying with Britt in her village a while back and took it with me.  It is a wonderful story of an adventurous and intelligent traveller in Africa, with fantastic observations on the current status of the continent.  I especially enjoyed it because in Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, and South Africa he was writing about areas I’d been and things I’d seen as well and could compare his observations to my own.  It's probably as close to traveling in Africa as you can get without a plane ticket.  Yes, I know that is an absurdly chicle description, but it's honestly true.  Highly, highly recommended. 

That evening it was back to UB campus to join Michael and Michelle for a dinner and dancing that was being put on by UB Grad Student Association.  The evening consisted of a few dull speeches and a dinner of cafeteria food that didn’t start until 9:30 or 10, but once the music and dancing started, it turned out to be a very fun night.  Not quite sure how it happened, but the three of us ended up hanging around this small grad student party dancing until 3am!

Sundays are usually for lazing around with Paul and the crew and after a bit of that Paul, Philipp, Stewart, Stephan and I headed off to the dam and the Gaborone Yacht Club for lunch.  It used to be an island apparently when water levels were higher, but today is a dirt road to what is now just a rocky hill with a nice view of the dam and water.  There is a large collection of kayaks, canoes and small sail boats there in various states of functionality, and I didn’t see anyone on the water the whole time I’ve been in Gabs, but the club is a pretty nice place to relax and eat a meal. 

From there we decided to go back into town and the CBD for coffee.  This is the Masa Center, one of the countless new high end commercial developments in the city, and like the rest of them one with questionable financial and business sense behind it… then it was back home to complete the lazy Sunday with a movie.  Might as well enjoy my last days in the city, huh?

My last full day before my departure has been filled once again with running around town picking up last minute supplies and taking care of other errands.  Moving into warmer weather and closer to the equator as well, I did yet another short of my gear and sent home some of my warm clothes.  While it is a good feeling to reduce what I am carrying on my bike and later on my back, it seems that that as I get rid of one thing I add another.  That said, the things I've been adding is camping gear which will give me a lot more flexibility in more rural Africa, so I guess I can't complain.

This evening Michael came over to say goodbye and I gave him my copy of Dark Star Safari, then I went to dinner with Paul and Philipp.  We went out for Indian food and I ate like a fat kid, I figure it's my last proper meal before a long ride, so once again I might as well enjoy myself, haha.

Paul, thank you so much for your hospitality the whole time I've stayed with you.  When I connected with you through CouchSurfing, I figured it would be for maybe a few days, instead I managed to become practically a full fledged housemate, staying for more than a month!  I always felt at home at your place and staying with you has allowed me to both see and enjoy Gaborone properly as well as effectively prepare for my upcoming cycle trip.  Thanks for being such a friendly guy and I hope I can return the favor some day. 

So tomorrow morning I should be setting out if everything goes to plan:  it is that from Gaborone I will ride 5-6 days to a small town where I will be meeting with Alex, another CouchSurfing host and Peace Corps volunteer, then on to Ghanzi.  There, I am hoping to spend a few days in the bush with the San people but not sure if that will work out.  Next, I will head north to Maun and the Okavango Delta, where I will hopefully do some animal watching, then east towards the Makgadikgadi salt pans and finally turn north at Nata towards the border with Zambia where I will reach Victoria falls.  Sounds easy right? As I said above, I'm starting to run up against my 90-day visa expiring.  My original idea was that I'd only spend two or three weeks in Gaborone at most, then would have a leisurely ride across the country.  That's not going to happen anymore, so there will defiantly be days when I have to push depending on the days off riding I end up taking for other activities.  Right now I'm just looking forward to setting out, testing myself and sleeping under the clear Botswana skies.  

Stay tuned, this ought to be interesting!

Good Times in Gaborone, Botswana

Well I am still in Gaborone, the capital of Botswana and other than the few days I spent with Virginia and Britt in the town of Khakhea (thanks again!), I have been in Gaborone for basically a month now.  This was never the plan and I certainly didn’t expect this to happen but, A) preparing/gearing up always takes longer than expected, B) I’ve met tons of cool people here, C) what is a ‘plan’ anyway and why do I need one? D) I’m having too much fun to care it’s been a month.   So with that out of the way, here is what I’ve been up to:

Through Couchsurfing.org, I met Paul.  (By the way, CouchSurfing is the greatest thing ever invented for travellers.)  Paul is from London but is here in Gaborone for a year on work.  I tied up my bags onto my bike and began riding to Paul’s place which was fairly close.  This was the first time I’d ridden my bike, or any bike for that matter loaded, and while I was a little concerned when I first felt it, as soon as I started moving it was easy enough.  Then disaster.  About 5 minutes in, the cotter pin holding the crankset came out.  Without a hammer I was unable to fix it, and pushed my bike the rest of the way to Pauls’ (very nice) townhouse complex where I met him and moved in.  Thanks Paul, you are an awesome host!

(left to right: Paul, Philipp, Ally and Stuart)

After moving my (once again) broken bicycle into the garage and my bags into a nice room with a queen-size bed (it’s a 3-bedroom 4-bathroom place he has to himself), Paul asked me if I wanted to join him and some friends to the ‘2012 Biltong & Pot Festival.”  Naturally I said yes and off we went.  Basically biltong is beef jerky and pot refers to the style of cast iron pots used to cook stews over fires. 

Both of these are generally South African things, so the audience was in large part South Africans and/or Afrikaners who live in Gabs (Gaborone) hanging around earing copious amounts of meat and buying in bulk to bring home.  Not that I was complaining, it was delicious! 

That evening was the heavy metal show I had been planning to see.  Some time ago on Vice.com, I saw photos from FrankMarshall on Botswana’s ‘Heavy metal cowboy scene.’ At the time I thought to myself “huh, that’s interesting’ but nothing more.  Then I found myself in Botswana, and then I happened to see a hand painted sign on a fence for just such a show!  The show was at a bar called Eros Bar in Tlokweng, and the bands preforming were Skinflint, Remuda and Amok.

I arrived fairly early with Ally (again, the guy on the right), who used to listen to Botswana metal up in Maun where he is from and where much of the scene started.  There were only a handful of people there, so I sat down and started chatting to a few of them.  He was humble about it and only casually mentioned it, but here I was, with Frank, the guy who took those original photos I’d seen which got the Botswana metal culture worldwide coverage (it was also on CNN) and his awesome sister Rachelle!  It was awesome to chat with them, as they knew a lot about the metal culture here and knew tons of the guys in the scene. 

Now I’m not really even a metal fan, but I love live music, meeting real people when I travel, and interesting subcultures, so this was awesome for me.  It’s funny actually, because when I was traveling in India, I found myself at an underground metal show as well! 

Let’s be honest, metal music is a mostly white culture.  Because of this finding a thriving metal scene in Botswana of all places, is pretty unique.  But the other thing that makes this scene truly unique is fairly obvious in this photo: the way they dress.  Black leather, chrome spikes, cowboy hats, chains, skulls, ammo belts, these guys take style in a whole new direction and do it with passion and dedication.  I love it.  I posted photos from this event on Reddit.coms /travel and /metal sections, and within two days my photo album had over a quarter million views!  During the discussion of the event, someone asked me “How did it feel to be the least metal and most Fabio guy there?”  My response was that it felt fine!  Everyone was extremely friendly to me, wanted to have their photo taken, wanted me to help publicize the scene, wanted to talk and wanted to buy me drinks.  They look tough, but man they are some of the nicest people I’ve met.

The fans were certainly wild.  These guys in particular were fond of spraying beer on themselves and on each other. 

I’m not sure where you buy black leather and cowboy hats in Botswana (and apparently they try to keep their sources a secret), but containers of this stuff winds up in Botswana because of this scene and I’m told you can buy good used leather jackets for as little as $25! 

One of the scenes elder statesmen.  A more reserved style, but still full on cowboy and full on America!

Skinlint, the headlining band of the show rocking out.  So how was it?  Fantastic.  As I said, the people were friendly, the music was good, the energy of the crowd was out of this world and man I never thought I’d be able to say I wound up at a metal show in Botswana.  Thanks to everyone there, and when I come to Maun in the north, I’ll certainly come to another show!

So the next day, this was pretty much the polar opposite of an African heavy metal show, a mostly expat farmers market!  We drank cappuccinos, admired the organic produce and local crafts and did a wine tasting.  This didn’t feel like Africa at all, but certainly interesting to see out here in Gabs. 

That night back at Pauls’ place, we had a nice BBQ dinner, then relaxed on the couches and watched the Olympics on TV.  I never thought I’d wind up in a nice house, enjoying wifi and 4 channels of Olympics in HD here in Botswana, but here I was and it was exactly what I wanted.

The next day it was time to get a few things done: laundry, work on my bike, emails, etc.  That said, I figured someone had to use the pool.  Paul has lived here 4 months and never been in the pool, and I doubt many other people ever have either.  It may be 80 degrees and clear sunny skies, but it’s “winter” here, so everyone things it’s actually cold.  I decided since the pool looked lonely, and since I had a perfect view from the balcony in my room (yes, I have my own balcony at Pauls place) I had to jump in at least once and get a photo to prove it was used.  I guess I got lucky, because I got this one first try using the self-timer.  Not bad eh?

That night Paul, Philipp and I went to the theatre to see a performance of Blue, Black & White, a one-man show (with Mophato Dance Theater group supporting in the background) about Seretse Khama, the first president of Botswana.  It is a very interesting story about Khama marrying a white woman in the UK, the design of the flag and Botswana gaining independence in 1966. 

Wow, is it really the first of August?  I guess so, but I stopped paying attention to the calendar when I left the USA.  The only dates that matter to me are when my visas for a country expire or when I have a flight.  I’ve said it before, but this is exactly the near absolute freedom I was seeking when I headed out to Africa in December.

So my bike, I took it back to The Bike Shop to fix the crankset.  A very easy fix, but I didn’t have a hammer and they did it for free.  (I highly recommend this shop by the way).  At this point I was starting to get pretty fed up with this bike… I brought it to Gaborone Garage and Cycles to get some spare parts, and they wanted to fix the crooked handlebars.  The Bike Shop had looked at it but decided not to fix it because if it was removed, it would not go back together without a lot of new parts due to the shop I bought it at, Duka City (NOT recommended) building the bike improperly.  They put the wrong size parts together, and then smashed it into place with a hammer so it would stay.  Gaborone Garage and Cycles thought they could fix it easily and soon my bike was in pieces and would not go back together. Ugh.  They said they could fix it, but couldn’t give me any estimate, but said they would call me before doing the work. (they didn’t, more on this later).

With my bike in pieces AGAIN, I walked down the street past one of the areas where women get their hair done.  Certain parts of the streets are just like this, filled with women (and yes, it 100% women) sitting in plastic lawn chairs getting their hair done by other women.  Hot tip: most of the women in Gabs have fake hair.  I asked, and was told it costs 100-200 pula (about $13-$26) to have the fake hair braided in, and women often have it done twice a week.

A few meters past this, I was about to cross the street when one woman got my attention and said she would do my hair for free!  To be honest, I’m shocked it took 7 months for this to happen, but obviously I said yes and sat down in the plastic chair in the dust on the side of the road.

Wow, I didn’t realize my hair was getting this long… The whole process took about 45 minutes and I certainly became an item of curiosity to the locals during that period but it was great fun.  It involved a lot of pulling and was somewhat uncomfortable at times, but not too bad really.  I chatted with the one doing my hair, as well as the other women around me and found a number of them are from Zimbabwe, which seems to be fairly common around here actually. 

It was another night at Bull & Bush, meeting Paul (London), Leo and Lekgotla (Botswana) Jess (Canada) and more for dinner and drinks.  Everyone got a kick out of my new hair.

Most days I’m riding around town taking care of errands and this day was no exception.  I woke up with a problem, which was my braids were starting to come undone already.  I guess being a white guy with only wavy hair meant the braids didn’t stay in as well as they do on the local women.  I thought about how to fix this and came up with a brilliant idea: I’d seen an orthodontist a few days before, and having had braces in the past knew they had tiny rubber bands.  I figured these would be perfect for putting on the ends of the braids to keep them together and headed to the office.  It took some coaxing, but knowing how seriously women take their hair and explaining why I needed them, they said yes.  Once they gave me a pack however, I was told get out before they got in trouble! 

After visiting my other Zimbabwean friends at their pool table at the bus rank, I headed back to Main Mall to pick up some mending I had done.  First item was a pair of boardshorts I had the zipper replaced on (one of my most worn pieces of clothing actually) and a long sleeve shirt.  It only cost 45 pula (~$6) and while I love being able to fix things that in the States would be tossed, to be honest she didn't do a great job…

I returned to the ‘road side hair salon’ to get the once piece of hair that was coming undone fixed, and while I thought they would be impressed by my ingenuity with the tiny rubber bands I’d acquired, instead they decided it would be better to just redo the entire thing, only FAR tighter.  Chatting with the women as before, I mentioned how tight it was, and how it hurts to lay down on a pillow at night on freshly done braids.  All the women got a good laugh out of this as we were obviously sharing a common experience, told me to take some pain killers or drink before bed, and I felt like I’d been initiated into a secret club. 

The next morning Paul and I headed off to Mokolodi Nature Reserve, a small game park just outside of the city.  The idea was that we were searching for snares set by poachers who were trapping, killing and selling animals caught in the park for meat.  We met in the morning and set off in the safari trucks to a fence on the far end of the park.

We walked through the bush paralleling the fence where they had problems in the past, but within 45 minutes we were back at the truck and at the end of our search.  Maybe I’m just more used to hard work and crashing through the brush, but I couldn’t help but feel like we’d really done nothing.

I didn’t know what to expect from a park right outside a city, but I was plesently surprised.  Although we pretty much just blasted through the park without even slowing down, I still saw (very briefly) giraffes, zebras, warthog, ostrich, springbok, kudu and a few others.

On Sunday I was supposed to join some Americans I’d met on a little rock climbing journey but it was called off at the last minute.  Once again, I intended to hike up Kgale Hill, but once again decided against it because I was alone, I didn’t see any other people around and I’d been warned about robbers in the area.  Instead, I wandered back home, stopping at Rail Park Mall to watch a dance group preforming for a few minutes.

Thanks to a combination of having plenty of time on my hands, good HDTV service, and Pauls interest in the Olympics as well (being from London and all) I think I’ve watched more Olympics this year than any other year ever.  Not that I’m complaining, it’s been great!

So I’d intended to ride across Botswana on a classic Humber bicycle, but the knockoff I’d bought had been one disaster after another.  I intended to replace it with the original Humber, which I didn’t realize was available when I bought the one I did and is far better quality, but that was going to be 1450 pula, about $188.  This was my plan until returned to The Bike Shop, and realized I could get one of these built by Specalized, Globe Live 1 bikes.  It is still a simple, single speed bike with classic styling, but it is also a modern bike built to US requirements and due to a special deal The Bike Shop had, I could get it for less than the old fashion Humber, only 950 pula ($123)!  .  To be honest I was a little sad that I’d be losing some of the magic of riding an original Humber through Africa, but not only was it a modern bike I had a lot more faith in, it too good a deal to pass up this time and I was upset at the other bike shop (Gaborone Garage and Cycles) and didn’t want to give them any more of my business. 

It’s not exactly designed to be a touring bike either, but it feels great, the integrated front rack is awesome, and I really like it already.  All I did was add some bigger tires (which meant removing the fenders as they no longer fit) and put a rack on the back for my gear.  Now it’s time to get rid of the other bike…

While at The Bike Shop, I met Michael (left), an exchange student from Austria.  I was already planning on going to Bull & Bush (yes, again) to meet Liz (right) from Canada, who I’d met on Main Mall a while back, and invited him to join us for dinner.  After riding together towards our respective homes in the dark, Michael and I decided we ought to ride together again, and made a plan for a ride later in the week.

Without going into too many details (because I’m over it) Gaborone Garage and Cycles charged me 520 pula to repair an 800 bike, without asking me if I even wanted the work done.  They didn’t even manage to fix it properly, in fact, it was worse than before, and this resulted in a shouting match with the owner.  Not proud of it, but both of us were clearly in a bad mood at that moment and it happened.  I wanted a full refund and was going to take my bike, in pieces to the shop I bought it at (who ruined it from the start when they built it incorrectly), but it didn’t work out that way.  They did end up fixing it, and I took it back to the shop I bought it from and demanded a refund.  At this point I’d paid about 600 pula to fix a brand new bike that cost 800 pula and I wanted this piece of crap bike out of my life.  This bike and all the problems it had caused me has been the biggest frustration of my whole trip basically and I was done.  After much haggling, I got the shop to take the bike back (at another big loss to me) and it was finally over.  Take a deep breath, let go, move on.

That night, I joined Paul and Philipp for dinner at the convention center.  The rib special was quite good, and helped put me in a better mood after a difficult day.

I awoke early (7am is early for me these days!) and at 8, met Michael on Main Mall to go on a little bike journey.  He’d bought his mountain bike the same day I’d bought my Globe 1, so we were both looking forward to putting them through their paces.

We had no planed route, so I pointed a direction and we set off not knowing where it would lead us.  Hot, flat, dry, mostly empty.  This is Botswana, and while it sounds boring and needlessly difficult to most, it is actually what I came to this country for! 

A while in, we realized we were headed towards the Tlokweng border post with South Africa, where I’d first crossed into Botswana from SA.  No problem, let’s go the border just for kicks and turn back!  To have something to do there, we decided to find some coffee, but there were no shops.  We ended up having coffee with a bored office worker who was clearly happy to have someone to talk to, and we had a great time chatting with him as well.  (no, he’s not in jail, that’s just security bars the office to keep the public from the office workers in case of any trouble).

On the way back, Michael and I had a snack under a tree, and that is where I had to remove the fenders on my bike due to the addition of the larger tires.  The bike ride was only a few easy hours, but it was great fun seeing some different areas at a different pace, giving the bike a bit of a test and hanging out with a new traveller friend.

I’m even getting tired of typing Bull & Bush, I’ve been there so many times!  But there is a specific reason we came here tonight.  Once again, I was hanging out with Paul and Philipp and we met at Riverwalk Mall to see the new Batman movie, something I was quite excited about being able to do.  About an hour into the movie, blackouts hit the mall and surrounding area, so, no more movie.  This is supposed to be ‘the premier shopping destination of Gaborone,’ but not only do the lack a generator, they even lack any sort of emergency lighting in the theatre in the event of power failure!  The few people at the movie stumbled out via light from their cell phones, and using a small batter powered light, the staff stamped our tickets to allow us to return another night.

So that is why we were at Bull & Bush again.  But because of that little power mishap, we got to see a great sports moment, Botswana’s Nijel Amos witting the countries first every Olympic medal, a silver in the 800m! 

Another rather dull day riding around town running errands.  This time my big mission was to find tie-down straps, which I will be using for attaching my bags and water to my bicycle.  I probably went to 6 different shops to find a simple item that if I were home I would know exactly where to find it, but that’s part of the fun out here, haha.

That evening, I met Michael on the University of Botswana campus.  The school, just like the whole city really, is quite new and generally seems quite well done.  I was impressed to see the huge swimming pool and diving platforms, and the dorms had nice courtyards with covered areas.  As I continued on, I passed through an area where seemingly hundreds of students were hanging out in the street and parking lot drinking, playing music from their cars and generally partying. Obviously colleges in the US party as well, but I was a little surprised to see it going so strongly out here, right in the street.  Also, people here like to break glass bottles, shards of glass were everywhere and I had to carefully weave my bike through it all to avoid punctures.  That said, as soon as you were away from this ‘party epicentre’ the entire rest of the large campus seemed very clean and quiet.  It all seemed very familiar really, very much in tune with any college in the States. 

I met Michael and soon was in the dorms hanging out with a number of other exchange students drinking beer and playing guitar.  Yep, school is the same everywhere on earth!  One person from the group, Zoe was actually from the Tacoma area so I got to chat about some northwest things for a bit.  It was a pretty low key night that included some interesting discussions with other students and it really brought me back to my days on campus in college.

It wasn’t easy to find information about it, but Gaborone having a ‘25^th Anniversary Silver Jubilee celebration’ and eventually we made our way to the UB stadium (where I’d watched the rugby games a two weeks back) to enjoy the show.  The bleachers were packed so we had to stand which made for particularly poor viewing, especially given the chainlink fence and barbwire in our line of sight. 

When we arrived there was a comedy troupe preforming, then some traditional music and dancing.  The show took a break for lunch, and we decided it was time to move on. 

This day also had another big event, a big rap show at the GSS grounds, which is basically a big patch of dirt by the Main Mall.  When I’d arrived earlier in the day with Paul and Philipp, there was a performer on stage, but about two people in front watching.  The grounds were mostly empty, except for a handful of people hiding from the sun under the sparse trees out the edges of the field.  By 5pm it was a totally different story.

Hundreds of young people mingled around the field chatting, drinking, cooking over BBQs, dancing and enjoying the show. 

At one point, one or two cars decided to rev their engines and then do doughnuts in the field, which both kicked up huge amounts of dust and really got the crowds riled up.  I enjoyed it as well.

As usual, I stand out a little bit, and as usual the locals are happy to smile and chat with me.  These guys were passing cups around and trying to teach me some of their dance moves.  I’m not sure how well I did them, but I tried my best at least and we all got a good laugh out of it.

I’m don’t actually know the names of any of the performers, but I had a good time at the show and was glad I went.  It was quite a scene, and between this and the metal show I attended earlier, I was doing my best to get my live music fix, something I’ve been missing on my travels so far. 

That said, this show was here I had my first ever problem with theft.  While I was standing in the crowd watching the show and taking photos, someone opened the top of my backpack and stole my sunglasses.  This is actually the first time I’ve ever had something stolen from me during my travels, but it is still upsetting.  This is the kind of thing that can happen anywhere really, and I should have been more careful, but now whenever someone asks me about problems with theft/safety when traveling in Africa, I can no longer say I’ve been lucky to be trouble free.  So congratulations, you got some horribly scratched sunglasses and made your country look bad, nice work…

Just like the metal show to the farmers market, this was another big change, rap show to bike race!  Earlier in the week when I was at The Bike Shop I was told about the first ever Cyclo Grand Prix race happening at Airport Junction mall.  It sounded cool, and they had a Humber/single speed race division so I decided I had to come!

There were many divisions, open (the most serious of the races), mountain bike, kids, Humber and teams.  The course was about 500m long, winding around the parking lot of the mall and had some pretty tight turns that caused a number of wipeouts I saw.  Made for exciting racing for sure!

Not just a bike race, it was also an exhibition to promote bike culture in Botswana.  Part of doing this was having a trials bike rider from South Africa come and preform.  He did all kinds of jumps, and balance tricks, hopping between the boxes and the van as well as over spectators laying on the ground. 

There was a tent full of spinning bikes, a group of motorcyclists who rode around the track, a Ferrari acting as a pace car, a big pit area, bridge to get over the course, it was all pretty cool to see happening in Botswana.  Not only that, but the entire event was put thought up and organized in one month.  Nice work guys.

So my race.  The Humber division was actually pretty large, around 30 people.  Many were on the same Globe bike I had, and many were on the proper old Humber.  In the future these need to be two different divisions because the modern bikes dominated, but to be fair I was beat by more than one guy on the old Humber.  There were two heats of four laps and top ten moved into the finals.  It was basically a sprint race.  I had no trouble staying in the top ten, so it was up to the final race.  Obviously I was just here for laughs; I haven’t spent significant time on a bicycle in years and am generally out of shape from traveling but I still did my best in the race.  Somehow of all the races, this was the only one with price money, 2000 pula for first place!  This gave plenty of motivation to everyone and naturally I didn’t stand a chance against proper cyclists! 

This crane company was one of the sponsors of the event and from the hook was the random drawing price, a 15,000 pula road bike, about $2,000!  They were drawing names, and said “This persons initials are S…B….” and for a second I thought I really might be the winner, until they said it was Sean Brewer or something, what are the odds?  All in all, the first ever Cyclo Grand Prix race was a fantastic event and I’m sure next year it will be even bigger and even better.

That night, Ally and Philipp came over and Paul and Philipp cooked a lovely dinner.  Thanks guys. 

So the usual question, what’s next?  Well, the obvious thing is my cycle trip across the country.  I’m finalizing my gear right now, which included having my small backpacking tent shipped here from all the way from home and trying to make sure I’m prepared to camp in the bush.  From the gear side I’m finally getting close, but there may be a new and exciting twist to the bike trip as a result of someone I met at the races.  That said, it’s still in the idea phase so I don’t want to revel it yet, sorry, haha.  I’ll probably end up in Gabs for another week or two and by then I really hope to set off on my ride north.  I’m a month into my three month visa, and I want to start sooner rather than later, as I don’t want to be in a hurry for this ride. 

Well, that’s it for now, until next time everyone.