Despite having the day off I still needed to be up early to change rooms into a smaller one. I was forced to settle for a double room last night as that was all they had but today I downgraded to a single. On my to do list today was:
1. Try and adjust my gears so I could use more than one.
2. Buy a backup chain
3. Buy more Mozzy pills
4. Get money from ATM
5. Watch the football
I set out on Nigel in the very convenient and sheltered courtyard area of the guesthouse. The shelter was necessary as it was a very cold and grey day and started to rain. I adjusted the gears in record time and was more than happy with myself. I should've really taken him for a test drive but I was so shocked and excited that I hadn't even broken a sweat, I packed my things up quick smart and set off into town to tick off numbers 2,3 and 4. I would find out tomorrow for sure whether my handy work was successful or not.
Next job was to find a cycle shop and I knew from my cycle through the town centre yesterday that this shouldn't be a problem at all. My guesthouse was situated in quite a dirty and rough looking area and as I walked towards the cleaner streets it became clear that every shop sold everything as every shop was a discount shop. My task changed from finding a chain to finding the cheapest/best chain. I asked a guy where i would find bicycle parts and he said something that i couldn't understand. I asked him again and he repeated with the same incoherent noise as before. Now i found myself in that familiar situation of asking a second time, still not understanding and having to make the choice to either ask a third (and final) time or just smile, say thank you and move on to someone else. The noise the man made sounded like "cat price" that could make sense I thought, cat price, short for catalogue price, could be like a Botswanan Argos. I convinced myself very quickly that I was looking for "Cat Price" and so proceeded to walk down the street asking people where "Cat Price" was. They all seemed to understand me and they all pointed me to a shop whose entrance I stood at and looked up to see the name "Cut Price." "Aaaaaah that makes more sense" I thought. Now I felt like a right plonker as the locals probably thought I was putting on some below par rasta accent to try and fit in!
I managed to pick one up and amazingly found a chemist almost as quickly as I fixed Nigel so next stop was the ATM which was also a breeze and before I knew it I had completed 80% of my tasks before 10:30!
Francistown is a strange town because even though I managed to complete all my tasks and the town looked as if it had lots to offer, there was really nothing to it as all the shops were the same. It had two nice looking Malls either side of a nice looking Casino but the shops were pony. Discount shops or printing shops, no variety and nothing very interesting to see at all. On top of this, the one bar that was recommended to me by almost everyone to watch the football in, didn't have the channel that the Saints were on! This forced me to have a really relaxing day and retreat back to my bed for some blogging and Australia Masterchef.
On my way back I was outraged with a bald local barber's very poorly constructed sentence of "you need haircut?" I've questioned marked the sentence but it was a borderline demand. I replied with, "you need wig" and a wink seemed to defuse the situation as I don't think he took my snappy response with the humour that it was intended.
I laid in bed and the extra down time really gave me a chance to take in that I only have 9 days left if all goes to plan. I always have to say "if all goes to plan" because there are literally no guarantees in this ride until I'm standing on that "Football for Hope" pitch. My plan though is to be there in 9 days with no more rest days, next stop Palapye.
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