“We had a tailwind behind us for most of the ride, which meant we managed to clock in the kilometres a lot quicker than in the past few days. Once we reached the town of Motsetse, which was around 108km, we decided to call it a day and locate a bush camping spot in the area,” says the team.

They found a well-driven dirt road just off the main road and Warrick and Gareth went to see if they could find the owner of the land to get permission to set up camp there. They were successful, and spoke to the owner, Mike, who had no problem with them bush camping on his land.

They found a relatively clear area surrounded by trees to set up the tents. Warrick was in his element and built a very decent fire for the night where the team enjoyed their first experience of bush camping in the middle of nowhere.

The next morning, they had to get up relatively early as they had a long ride ahead of them to get to Elephant Sands where they were now having two rest days.

“We all thought it was going to be around 110km, but Warrick had miscalculated and it was actually 125km. Within the first 10km, we started to see lots of Baobab trees and decided to stop to get a few photos. When we stopped, Gareth couldn’t unclip his shoe from the peddle, as it turned out that one of the screws had fallen off. After a few attempts to get the shoe off, he finally unclipped it but he needed to find a screw to put the cleat back into place on his shoe. Luckily, Gareth and Derrick managed to find a screw that they could saw down to size that was able to fix the problem,” they say.

They got back on the road and headed to the next main town,  Nata. As it was getting really hot (over 30 degrees), they decided to grab a quick ice-cream at the Engen garage. The boys were all still feeling hungry, so they then ended up at Barcelos for a chicken burger and chips.

“We were all feeling very full and sluggish after our burgers and ice-cream so it was mentally tough to get going again. We were all really hoping to see some elephants whilst we rode on the Kasane road to Elephant Sands as we kept on seeing the signs, but, unfortunately, none were to be seen except for some red hartebeest, a few cows, and donkeys,” says the team.

They finally made it to the Elephant Sands turnoff where Bobby met up with them as he had already gone ahead with the trailer to set up camp earlier in the day whilst Bryan followed the cyclists in the Jeep. 

As they turned onto the dirt road, Derrick came crashing down as they hit very soft sand, so he decided to call it a day. Camilla managed to ride about halfway up the very sandy road before getting into the car, but Warrick and Gareth deflated their tyres down so they could ride on the road all the way to camp.

“As we arrived at Elephant Sands, there was a herd of elephants drinking by the waterhole. It was such a treat to see them after a hard day in the saddle. The lodge has a deck literally overlooking the waterhole so you are able to get really close to the elephants here, which is amazing. We are staying here for two days to rest, sleep, and enjoy some time in the African bushveld,” they say.

Elephant Sands Wi-Fi had been down for the past week, but thanks to Bryan, the problem was soon fixed, which has allowed the team to update all their supporters again on their progress.

On Friday, 12 August they will be back on the road for about 100km of cycling up towards Pandamatenga where they will need to bush camp again.

For more information, visit www.Joburg2Kili.com. Alternatively, connect with them on Facebook, Twitter or on Instagram.