I woke up to the sound of multiple birds and some of the birds produced quite disturbing noises I had never heard before. I did think about using a book to distinguish all these amazing African birds that I've seen but a book would be useless as I'm sure not all black birds with white breasts that I've seen are penguins and that's about as far as my knowledge of spotting birds goes.
I packed up the tent quickly and pushed Nigel up to the restaurant for a big breakfast. I don't think the waitress knew my intentions when she offered to walk back and forth from the toaster to my table with one slice of bread for me each time. Its fair to say she deserved a well earned rest when i finally finished my carb loading! After my breakfast and morning rituals I headed out to the road for what was going to be one of my longest rides to date to get to a town called Francistown. As I pushed down on the pedals I had to change gear quickly to get through the section of thick sand before getting to the road. In that moment, one of the links of the chain broke and fell into the thick sand along with the rest of the chain, aaaaah maaaan! I had a good run I suppose! It was already half 9 and I was looking at a 180km day, a start like this was the last thing I needed!
I dragged Nigel over to a tree and looked down at the chain, it was wrecked! I had just oiled it as well and now it was submerged in sand, there was no way I was going to clean it. What's more, I couldn't find the link so I just chucked it away and got out the new chain I bought in Mombasa. Thankfully this change was quick and simple so it didn't take too much time out of my day but it did mean if the chain goes again within the next 180km, i'll be back to pushing.
I cycled past Nata Lodge in a lot more comfort than yesterday and got my head down for another long day. Unfortunately the new chain was not as good as the last as it wasn't worn in at all. This meant I was back to a single speed bike as the new chain pretty much slipped in every gear. This put immense pressure on my legs during any kind of uphill and could really destroy my momentum as my legs tired. Not ideal at all but I was moving and that was progress enough for me to keep going. My average map app on my phone displayed absolutely nothing for 180km until I hit Francistown but in reality there were a few little villages with a few wooden shacks for shops that I could've stopped at if I wanted to. I had in my mind that I wanted to reach Francistown though so that was what I was going to do. I took some time whilst cycling to decide whether it was a good idea or not to stay for a day in Francistown to replenish my spares kit and give the legs a rest. If I didn't rest in Francistown I would still have at least another 3 days solid riding till my scheduled rest day in Gaborone. Ideally I wanted to take just one day off between now and Lesotho and so the choice was Francistown or Gaborone and not both. I decided I would stay in Francistown. As the day dragged on my legs became heavier and heavier and the long days previously seemed to be catching up on me. I made a couple of stops, one at 60km and another at 120km. The temperature was perfect but annoyingly the headwind made it feel like I was cycling through water.
Darkness was setting in and I found myself slugging my way to the end. I was briefly sparked into life by a beast that scared the cycling shorts off of me. As I was slumped over the handlebars with my head hung over my arms and just concentrating on pushing my clumps of cement round and round, I was shocked bolt upright by a piercing scream from a donkey standing on the road just 10ft in front of me. I quickly swerved around him but in that instant I was more scared than the Hyena and Elephant incidents put together. Donkeys have a nasty kick (and punch) and this one had a bell round his neck so I knew he was probably the ringleader of a donkey gang and the last thing my tired legs wanted was to try and out pedal a gang of rogue donkeys! Luckily for me he wasn't too keen on running and I avoided experiencing his bite as his bark was enough to establish his position firmly above me on the food chain.
When I eventually arrived in Francistown it was like the anticipation/fear of spotting a wild animal had been replaced with noisy cars and the feeling of everybody staring at me (a feeling that I have grown accustom to since landing in Cairo) The sun had set and the near death experiences with speeding vehicles were a good sign to stay at the first place I found. As it happened, it seemed like there was only one place to choose from anyway and unfortunately it was pricey but I had no choice and was far too tired to even consider a wild camp.
The room was pricey but it was by far the best room I had had in ages and I was happy to lock myself away, collapse on the bed and let the fizzing burn in my legs drain out of me and into the mattrice. To feel the satisfactory relief of surviving and (sometimes) enjoying another day is very addictive and its one of many factors that keeps me going through the tough long days like today. It's almost as if I'm completely detached from the "normal" world like Frodo on his own individual mission whilst everybody else does their own thing obliviously around me. Obviously my ride doesn't hold the key to the future existence of Middle Earth but if it did then you would have to say that Nigel would be a very good Samwise and Beirdre would be an even better Golom!
I decided to stay and rest tomorrow aswell. I had to put things into perspective, was it worth paying for an extra night to recover and consequently be more prepared for the next few days or should I hammer my body for at least another 3 days just to save money. I went for relaxation and recovery and so I quickly made a list of things to do tomorrow and spent the rest of the night with a rare movie and some macaroni cheese! Bliss.
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