D90….Easy Rider

Blissfully easy riding today. No skill required. And no one is complaining. Perfect gravel roads of many colours. At one stage we had a pale sage coloured road, bordered by salmon pink sand ( reminiscent of those lovely buildings in Mount Street in the middle of Mayfair), lilac coloured stony desert, wisps of golden grass and deep magenta mountains shimmering in the distance. And all this could be appreciated as one could finally take ones eyes off the road, albeit only fleetingly.

This semi desert terrain today is like a furnace. Already by midday the temperature had hit 37 degrees. This is body temperature and anything more than this challenges the human radiator beyond its normal working range. The afternoon saw temperatures in the 40s. This is too much for bikers. We have visited three places now where we have seen temperatures sit well above 40. The Zambezi in Zimbabwe, the Makgadigadi salt pans in Botswana and now Southern Namibia. There is no air conditioning on bikes so we just bake and drink vast quantities of water.

We visited the Fish River Canyon this afternoon. This is the second largest canyon in the world. The largest being obvious to all. It was most impressive but in contrast to its larger brother there is simply nothing here. Not a building, not a car, not an ice cream salesman, no MacDonalds and no big fat wobbly people! Just nothing but desert and a river a few thousand feet below our feet.

It is Georges birthday today. I forgot. At breakfast Tim said he had reminded me yesterday. I said that was of little use as it wasn’t his birthday yesterday. He is 24 and seems rather settled into the bike adventurer role here in Africa.

We have had a few classic lines recently. Mainly since Felicity arrived. I quote a few.

“How do you know when you have a puncture?” (Felicity) The tyre goes flat.

The back of a Harley Davidson jacket. ‘If you can read this the bitch has fallen off’.

Tim carrying a handful of nuts at the evening sundowner. “Gobby how did you know I was looking forward to your nuts?” (Felicity)

Where does the Orange River wine come from? “Holland?” (Felicity)…its actually in Namibia.

“I wonder why Frank doesn’t have dentures?” (Felicity). Probably because he still has all his teeth. (Frank is her father).

Another good day from Africa100. J