Biking Archives - Page 46 of 99

Day 25,077 Windhoek to West Nest Lodge

Posted on March 24, 2016

Thursday 24 March 2016

No Strava there isn't a road — No Strava there isn’t a road

Anthea at Anjo Villa gave me a mega omelette plus a fruit salad for my early breakfast, I was on the road by 7.30 as I knew it was going to be a long haul. Anthea had spoken to the guys from West Nest Lodge and booked me in for a nights glamping. I started confidently following my Strava Route. Alas, as you can see it led me on a wild goose chase to parts where no road exists 🙁 very frustrating wasting nearly an hour in unnecessary hills.

The road is quite narrow with only a gravel verge. It’s obviously the main route in for fuel with huge tankers flying by plus equally huge double tipper trucks coupled with the minibuses and their trailers of baggages and of cause the 4X4s pounding by like F1 drivers. I had to escape to the gravel a couple of times to avoid an accident and if you get a double blast from a truck behind you then get out of the way quickly! tuck your right arm in and head for the grass 🙂 All with a rail track running parallel to the road!

To top it off I got my first rear wheel puncture in 3000 miles 🙁 the tyre is looking a bit thin but I replaced the tube with my super duper liquid filled one after pulling out another load of thorns.

Fortunately it was quite cloudy today so didn’t reach super hot levels although I still drank close on 5 litres of assorted liquids but was certainly glad of a few pints of beer when I arrived..

Tonight I’m in a tent at West Nest Lodge with real beds and electric, undoubtedly with a few mossies as well 🙁 The dinner was excellent, lets see what brekkie is like.

Strava says I did 106.7mi in 8:55:57 Moving Time and 1,735ft of ascent at a respectable 12mph helped a bit by the 800ft net descent during the day.

Pictures are here

Day 25,076 Windhoek Namibia

Posted on March 23, 2016

Wed 23 Mar 2016

The observant may ask how did I get here so quick 🙂 the answer is by riding on the overnight TransNamib train from Keetmanshoop on Monday night. Doing the 340 miles in 12 hours for about £8 . Eurostar it isn’t and in my experience the worst ride yet. The coach was made in 1975 and shows it! The ride was freezing due to the coach interconnection been split.

To make matters worse the front tyre went flat and I discovered it had numerous thorns in it 🙂 I debated fixing it on the train but left it to do on Windhoek station were I discovered the new inner tubes were useless as the valve diameter was greater than the hole diameter in the wheel. So more patches.

First job was to find a bike shop ending up at Mannies Bike Mecca, great place where he sold me two inner tubes which he put some sealing fluid in before reinserting the valve 🙂 I also managed to mount two water bottle holders onto the handlebars so I can now carry 4.5 litres on the bike plus another 3 litres on top of the bags.

I’m staying at Anjo Villa a real gem of a place run by Anthea who gave me a cooked breakfast at 11am when I arrived 🙂 today she even lent me a car to go and find the world’s largest crystal in Swakopmund . However, after fighting the early morning taxi rush getting lost in the process with my iPhone dieing from electron exhaustion I gave up when reaching Okahandja and returned to Windhoek to find a pharmacy to get some Coartem tablets (£20 for 20tablets) Doom deet & insect repellent ready for the swamps that beckon.

Tonight Anthea managed to fix me up at West Nest Lodge well over 100 miles away, lets hope there isn’t a headwind!

The spreadsheet shows I’ve actually biked 1374 miles (5000km) and 68,975 feet of climbing.

Strava says I have another 1,000 miles to Victoria Falls but only 18 days left, 56 miles every day 🙁 so a few more short cuts may be required 🙁

Day 25073 – Biking Namibia – Seeheim to Keetmanshoop

Posted on March 20, 2016March 21, 2016

Sunday 20 Mar 2016

A nice easy ride of only 33 miles and a steady continual climbing of 1,247 feet. Which was just as well as I had a terrible night’s sleep at the Seeheim Hotel the room was very stuffy and the fan very noisy. The breakfast, however, was more filling than last nights dinner. I felt quite sorry for the owner running a pretty big hotel down a dirt track with no mains electric etc.

On arrival at Keetmanshoop I went straight to the station and discovered that since it was Sunday the ticket office was closed till 4.15pm so I wandered around town trying to find a place to hangout. The Canyon Hotel was totally soulless so after a drink I moved on to Steers the burger / Pizza bar 🙁 the best place I found in the end was Central Lodge Hotel . At 4pm I returned to the station and read the other notice which said due to Independence Day tomorrow the train tonight was cancelled 🙁 🙁

So back to the Central Lodge where a party of Germans was unloading from a coach, fortunately they had a single room available cash only! and WiFi that works.

Unbelievably Picasa uploads also started working again creating new directories OK so maybe it was just a glitch in the changeover at Google.

The Strava is here

and pics here

Day 25072 Namibia cycling Aus to Seeheim

Posted on March 19, 2016March 20, 2016

Sat 19th March 2016

I’ve now given up on the route described by Thomas Anderson in his excellent blog. Basically me and my bike can’t hack the dirt roads or more precisely the sand -(

So today I sped along the gorgeous tarmac road towards Keetmanshoop. A fantastic 104 miler comfortably done under my own steam and easily in daylight! (7.30 to 4.30 including stops). I had booked into the Seeheim Hotel otherwise I might have done the extra 40km to Keetmanshoop.

I had a fabulous farewell from my SA farmer friends as their convoy overtook me hooting & waving. The road was pretty well deserted the rest of the day only an odd car and truck. No wind and slight downhill for long periods as I dropped from 5000 feet to 3000 feet.

Towards the end of the day as you get closer to The Fish River the hillsides became clothed in a fragrant yellow flower (Double Kiss in Afrikaans) and greenery started to appear.

A good day’s riding 106.4miles in 7:51:50 Moving Time and 2,139ft of ascent The pics are on Google here