Day 82 – Leafless

Long smooth big dipper dirt roads this morning. Bright sunshine, about 28 degrees. Roads well maintained. Speed about 100kph. Easy biking. Except for the bends with loose gravel. And the ridges of gravel created by car tyres that set the bike off in a different direction to the passenger. Oh and the dips. The dips tend to accumulate more gravel and sand which can cause a bit of a wobble. And the compression tends to splay the back end out a bit. Other than that, easy!! Woe betide he who gets cocky, or loses concentration. Particularly at 100kph.

The Ratcliffe Christmas Tree 2012

Lloyd has returned to Purros with some new bits of leaf spring and welding kit. The trailer hopefully will be back on the road soon. We have a temporary vehicle transporting the luggage and Tim has chosen to follow this on his bike a slightly shorter route. A gentle lunch stop now in Khorixas, burgers on the way.

And more of the same this afternoon. Not too taxing, temperature up to mid 30s. About 250k today.

We finally arrived at our lodgings which are built on another geological extravagansa. Huge red boulders the size of small houses, others the size of Toyota pickups and egg shaped. The lodge is built into this rock formation and comprises lots of dome shaped thatched rooved buildings that complement the backdrop perfectly.

There is never a dull day in the bush.

And, Lloyd has just returned, at 10pm, sunken eyes and stubbled, complete with trailer. One leaf spring now has only 4 leaves instead of 8, as all the others had snapped. So we now need to go easy and minimise the load on the trailer. J