Bots-wana watch a movie?

Tuesday 8th April

It's fair to say that when I woke up I felt disgusting. Not in a hangover sense, in a film of dust and dirt covering my body sense. The sand was the wet sand that is possible to shake out of a towel only it wasn't in a towel, it was in my hair, in my pores and in my bum. I had a breakfast that echoed yesterday's cycling performance...gritty. It was a chip butty that I made myself (obviously bought the chips) but they must make the bread on the floor because I'm constantly buying loaves, cutting them into slices and crunching on sand that has found itself mixed in with the flour.

The second I got on the road it felt like I hadn't been away from it. My legs were tired and the headwind didn't help this but the fact I didn't have far to cycle thanks to my long day yesterday meant that mentally I could pull my body through.

The road was really good and my legs soon loosened up the closer to Gaborone I was getting. When I arrived in Gaborone I have to say I was pretty disappointed. I was expecting big things, big shops, big malls etc but I managed to cycle through it in 2 minutes. There were big buildings but none of any interest to me and my search for a place to stay was pretty unsuccessful. I couldn't see any cheap guest houses or Motels at all and so I had to cut back on myself and go slightly of the main road to see if my senses could guide me to somewhere decent. I saw a sign saying Kgale view lodge and seeing as I hadn't seen anything else in 15 minutes I was just hoping the price was right.

The place looked nice, probably too nice for a mess like me but I met the manager Irshaad and he was immediately interested in my ride. "Seeing as you're a traveller in need" he said, "I will give you 50% off" what a legend!! After discount the room was still a little over my budget but I wasn't going to haggle and I accepted his generosity. (I would make it up over the free breakfast) The room was very nice and had all the creature comforts you could imagine. It was a great way to spend my last day in Botswana and the Lodge was right next to a mall which are always fun to look around in, get stared at and dream about buying new clothes in the future. 

All I really wanted was a shower. My skin was disintegrating like rubber shavings from a heavy-handed artist. I had movie channels (rare) I had free tea and coffee (more rare) i even had free wifi that I could access from my bed! (only at the Ritz!) but did I have water? Course I didn't! When the water finally arrived I was lucky enough to have a shower that was the temperature and consistency of a sneeze from the an Ice Queen. It coughed and spluttered and in the end the towel did more cleaning than the shower did as I scraped myself down to a state of just a bit grubby as opposed to soiled.

I walked around the Mall and decided against a fancy lunch. Wimpy is not actually that cheap, I have no clue what the fuss is all about! I moseyed around the supermarkets comparing prices of Shoprite against Game (I had time on my hands, what else was there to do!)

Due to the lack of selection (I honestly can not wait to see my good friend Asda again!) I struggled to decide what I was going to have for dinner. Well I have the movie channels, I thought. Why not a movie night with chips and dip to celebrate finishing Botswana!!! I know what you're thinking, did I wax my legs and dye my hair as well? But even the blokiest of blokes enjoy a movie night and if its got fancy kettle chips, garlic dip and the odd packet of Haribo and bar of Cadburys chucked in there then it would be very hard for me to think about doing anything else! I didn't even check the calories, I didn't have to, I was cycling to another country tomorrow so I could do what I liked!

As I got settled into bed I was pleased i had pushed so hard yesterday. Despite cycling a bit in the morning, today did feel like a rest day especially compared to previous days on the bike. Tomorrow I will be entering South Africa and I can officially say I have cycled from England to South Africa, has a nice ring to it doesn't it.