Day 48 – A First.

Bags packed and on the vehicle, the day kicked off at 5am, already in the mid 20s, with a jog through Mana Pools National Park. Never in the history of this park, to the knowledge of all, has anyone ever jogged here!! Why? Because there are lions, elephants, leopards and buffalo, to name but a few, in abundance around every corner. 6 of us ran for over an hour followed closely by a nervous guide called Henry in the landrover!! We all survived, and shortly after climbing aboard we came across a pride of lions just by the road together with a big bull elephant!!! Its all in the timing.

Back on the landrover we continued our journey from the end of the Canoe trip back to the Ruckomechi lodge at the beginning of the Canoe trail. From here we had a 40k boat trip back up the Zambezi to the bikes. During this part of the journey we saw another 2 prides of lions on the riverbank. Then followed a 200 klik ride to Kariba where we were intoduced to our new home for the next couple of days…a houseboat….and very splendid it is too. The bikes and cruiser were loaded up on a smaller sister barge and off we set…2 Kariba boats heading West towards the sunset which,as ever, in Africa was magnificent. We are now parked up on the sheltered side of a small island in the middle of the lake and we are convivially sipping our well-iced gin and tonics. For once no 5am wake up in the morning, although George is keen to finally hold his first keep fit class having failed to deliver for the whole trip so far!! J

The bikes cross Lake Kariba