June 2, 2016
My plan today to pedal into Namibia. It seemed like a fairly easy task. There is a 30 mile stretch of perfectly paved road, however, that cuts through Chobe National Park, one of the wildest places in Africa (as I wrote about yesterday). To be clear…it is not the same road that we did our game drive on the prior day so it should be ok?
It seems that the days that there are not any amazing photos to tell the story, my narratives and musings are much longer. This was one of those days.
It was 7 am. I loaded up my gear and was ready to get back on my bike after an off day. For the record, I asked no fewer than 17 people around Kasane whether I could pedal through Chobe and I got no fewer than 17 emphatic answers or variations of the same thing, “Are you crazy? There are elephants and lions in the park!” I did however ask 1 final person who said, “Pedal up to gate and find out.” Right answer! Why didn’t I think of that? It only takes one.
I pedaled the 8km from my hotel up to the gate and stopped to talk to the guard. I asked him if I could pedal through. With emotionless face, while barely acknowledging me and what he must have viewed as a nonsensical and absurd request, he said matter of factly, “No, there are elephants and lions in the park. See there…elephants crossing the road.” I’m not making this up…sure enough, 50m down the road, 4 elephants were crossing. Point taken. He did tell me that I could hitch a ride through the park…and so I waited, and waited. I had been there an hour with no luck. I pedaled down the road to the other park entrance (that I was at yesterday for the game drive) for other insight. In the lodge there was a map (which had been on the wall for a very long time – I’ll come back to this). The guard told me that I could take a boat across the Chobe River from town and enter Namibia that way. I thought to myself, “Now we’re getting somewhere”. I pedaled back to town, went to the marine immigration dock and inquired about getting on a boat. All the boats that were going over were essentially the size of a canoe but with a motor on it. Seemed like a good idea. Someone asked where I was going. I showed them a picture of the map from the lodge on my phone. He passed around my phone to several people at the dock and the answer came back, “This road is not there. It’s flooded.” I was confused. They had to be wrong. I looked at the map (which by the way did not match either of my other 2 maps I had and those 2 maps did NOT show a road at all… it just took 1 outdated map showing a road which didn’t exist to spark an idea.)
Deflated, I left the dock in search of a bus or taxi. I met a taxi driver who told me that he will get in trouble with the police with his particular plate on his vehicle passing through the park, but told me he could take it off and asked if I wanted to go tonight? It was at that point that I realized maybe I had hit the end of this idea. I’m going to Zimbabwe tomorrow.
A leisurely 30 mile spin
The other entrance where I found the “map”
My map showing only 2 roads in red between Kasane and Katima Mulilo
The outdated map showing this enticing road in white…precariously close to the river
A foiled idea to get to Namibia. My boat was on the left
Wow, what a risk to ride 30 miles to the gate of the park not knowing whether you could easily get to the other side. On the edge of my seat waiting to learn how you get out of this situation. Hope you’re wearing your lion repellent cologne!