Rundu, Namibia - Polarsteps

-Came into Botswana on an old? bad? cyclist recommendation that the public road through Chobe Park would be a great alternative to the Zambian road to Katima Mulilo. Stayed one night in a Botswanan campground and stocked up on food and water for our single day riding through Botswana. Set out in the morning, excited. -Hit the gate to the park and were told that under no circumstances would we be allowed to cycle the road through it. -Were saved by Mr. T., our Botswanan farmer hero who let us and the bikes hitch a ride in his pick-up to the Namibian border. Saw two herds of elephants huddled in the shade of trees right next to the road; were glad we were in a pick-up. -Crossed into Namibia, stayed at an overpriced campground a 2km deep-sand push off the road. -Tried to bike to Katima Mulilo, but Kini ate something weird and/or didn't adapt quickly enough to drinking borehole water, and for some reason couldn't ride in 40-degree heat while also vomitting. We pulled over for an earlier-than-anticipated first wild camp in Namibia. Re-set our "It seems safe enough" bar to "There's only one elephant poo and it looks old." -Successfully convinced the guards to Caprivi Game Park that we had memorized all our charging-elephant protocols, were prepared to fix our own flat tires, and would not hold them responsible if we were eaten by lions. Ultimately only saw one road elephant, lots of dung beetles rolling their balls of dung across the road, one tree full of baboons, a herd of ostriches, a lot of cows, and one million children running at our bikes yelling, "SWEETS" (thanks, Santa Claus overlanders, for this flashback to the Moroccan desert and some particularly touristy areas of Tanzania. Thanks, Namibian kids, for being too gentle to throw rocks at us or try to pull us over into traffic). -Had such a good time with our sweet hosts on the Okavango River that we stayed an extra night in their beautiful campground, and they took us down the road to the best hippo-viewing point in town. -Camped in a police station parking lot; were put within view of an open prison window, and cooked our noodles to gentle heckling in a goofy voice all evening. Were not deterred from doing more police station parking lot camping down the road. -Re-applied the superglue that's holding our cracked tires together; begging the bikes to hold on to Cape Town.

Country Guides:

Namibia