The Merry Way to Maun

Today we left the Elephant Highway and continued on our merry way to Maun, our rest day tomorrow. Our destination was a bush camp 170km down the road which was flat and offered spectacular views of the country around us. The tailwind appeared, putting a smile on everyone’s faces as they arrived at lunch to the sound of Hotel Costes, Volume Four which belted out some very chilled-out funky tunes over the Botswana countryside. About 30km down the road, we arrived at a camp called Planet Baobab which provided us not only with a pool to swim in but a bar area that served tea, coffee, cold drinks, beer, gin and tonics, banana bread and carrot cake with super friendly staff all eager to hear about the trip so far. So you can imagine that no one was willing to leave, even the racers stayed for a long time enjoying the atmosphere, food, drinks and of course the pool area! The afternoon was hot but some welcome relief arrived in the form of a herd of about 50 elephants along the road approximately 20kms from camp. Riders stopped, racers rode back and everyone had a good story to tell at camp tonight (that was before round 8 of our tour quiz night). Tomorrow, the first 40km is a team time trial organized by countries so at the moment people are talking tactics, bikes are getting prepared and the girls are taking it all very seriously. After that, it’s a non race day to Maun, a plane ride over the delta, a rest day, another swimming pool and just another gorgeous day in Africa!