The beginning of an amazing expedition

Xavier with Herero lady

There have been two projects which have really impressed me.  One of them was a community run ecological conservation project in a small village called Khi Khi.  We could only stay one night there but it appeared to me to be really positive and well managed.

The second was the most constructive project I’ve seen.  It is based in the Okovango delta and it is researching African wild dogs which are one of the most endangered wild animals in the world.  Clever ideas are coming out of it and it is really well established.  They are using a football program to help introduce to the community their conservation ideas.  I think it is a really innovative program and looks as though it is working well.  We also had an afternoon in the bush in a safari vehicle joining one of the researches as he tracked the wild dogs.  The landscape and the animals we saw (giraffes, hippos, elephants, crocodiles and a pack of wild dogs) was just Awesome Dude!!!!!!!!!!”

Nearing the end after some of the best days of my life 

Having left Maun we cycled several hundred kilometres to get to the Maghadigadi salt pans which are a vast area of nothing but mud and salt and when we were there I had some of my most beautiful days in Africa and probably one of the best in my life.

We spent two and a half days cycling on the pans.  At times there was nothing to see for 360 degrees around.  Not even a blade of grass.  The sky was pure blue and there was complete silence.  I felt as though I was on the top of the world in a massive bubble.  When cycling we played a game where you could just cycle with your eyes closed knowing that there was nothing in your way.  Complete freedom!  In the evening we lay around talking and staring at the most amazing sky of stars.

The second day was one of the physically toughest days of my life.  We started cycling at 6am and the mud was all cut up and rock solid which made it very bumpy and uncomfortable to cycle on.  After that we had to push our bikes through long sharp grass which cut our legs and then the surface became soft and sludgy which meant it felt like you were always cycling up a hill.  By the middle of the day the temperature must have reached into the 40s!  By the end of the day around 7pm when the sun was going down we thought we were finally at the end of the journey.  However we managed to stray a few kilometres off course into salty water which made it impossible to cycle our bikes and burnt the cuts on our legs.  Our satellite phone (our only mode of communication) was broken and the night was encroaching so we couldn’t see where we were going. We took a gamble and just walked and walked.  Some of the team started to panic but for some reason I just thought it was really funny.  When we finally made it to the camp on the side of the pans my body was completely shattered but in my mind I was so happy for what I had experienced over the last couple of days.
 

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