Their day in Botswana was spent in Kasane (Chobe), and ended off on a three hour boat cruise with Thebe River Safaris. The river cruise takes you into the Chobe National Park on the Zambezi River.
The next day, the team left Thebe River Safari Campsite fairly early as they knew they had a border crossing to contend with and they weren’t sure how long it would take them to get through to Zambia. The Kazungula border crossing is quite unique as you have to cross over the Zambezi river on a ferry to get to the Zambian side of the border. The four cyclists crossed over ahead of the cars.
“As there was a lot of paperwork to deal with to get the cars across, we decided to get a local to help with all the admin which, in hindsight, cost us a lot more than we would have liked, but they really helped Bryan and Bobby to get through the process quicker which ended up being over three hours. A lot of lessons were learnt at this border crossing which we will take with us to all border crossings going forward,” says the team.
Due to the delay, the team only started cycling around midday, in the heat of the day. To make the conditions more challenging, they also had a headwind to contend with and a couple of hills which they haven’t seen in weeks since riding along the flat roads of Botswana. After probably one of their toughest but shorter rides, the team finally made it to the Jollyboys Campsite.
As Warrick works in the action sports industry, he has good working relationships with a lot of the action-sport companies in Livingstone. One of Warrick’s colleagues is Tony Barnett, who, a few months ago, suggested that he would be able to arrange for the team to bungee jump with a Qhubeka bicycle whilst in Livingstone. Both Derrick and Gareth made history by being the first ever to jump off the Victoria Falls Bridge with a single-speed, 20+kg bicycle.
Warrick, Bryan, and Camilla decided to walk over to Zimbabwe to go view one of the natural wonders of the world, the Victoria Falls. The rest of the team stayed behind at the Bungee restaurant to celebrate the successful jumps.
To keep the adrenaline pumping the next day, Barnett helped organise for the whole Joburg2Kili team to go for a half day trip White Water Rafting down the Zambezi in the Batoka Gorge with Safari Par Excellence.
“Although we only did a half day trip, this still included the 10 biggest rapids. The river guide, Boyd, was really fantastic and even though he was taking us through the hardest lines on the first six rapids, we managed to not tip over. It was only at lucky number seven that things took a flip. Camilla, Warrick and Gareth fell out of the raft at 7 and at Rapid 7b, the boys went down into the rapid and hit the first wave, which flipped the entire raft over. This was followed by another flip at rapid 8. Rapid 9 is a compulsory portage as it is a class 6 rapid which is extremely dangerous. We managed the final rapid, number 10, with ease,” says the team
Once off the rafts, the team had to hike up a 200m gorge which had incredible views from the top. They were then taken back to David Livingstone Hotel for lunch before being taken back to Jollyboys Campsite. In the evening, the team treated themselves to drinks at the famous Livingstone Hotel that overlooks the Zambezi.
As there are so many great things to do in Livingstone, the team decided to take an additional rest day. Warrick, Camilla, and Bobby decided to have full body massages at a recommended local spa called Namakau, which was much needed after all the cycling they’ve been doing. Gareth and Derrick went through to the Victoria Falls to view the incredible natural wonder of the world along with Bryan.
One of Warrick’s contacts, Calvin Mapiye, kindly helped arrange a helicopter tour over the Victoria Falls with the Zambezi Helicopter Company for both him and Camilla, so they went through to Zimbabwe to the helipad. The team then met up again for sun-downers at a viewpoint overlooking rapid 7 of the Batoka Gorge.
The team are currently heading north on their bicycles towards Lusaka. They are now just past Choma, and have been welcomed to stay on two different local farms the past two nights.