Report/Cycling around Lake Kariba (14 days)

[craig van rensburg]

Around Lake Kariba Cycling Report (14 days)
We have just returned from our cycle tour around Lake Kariba. Quite an adventure of some brutal and then easy riding.The three of us from Sedgefield and Knysna ,Stephen , Richard and me Craig
Left Vic Falls 13 Aug and head along the river front road wild camping next to the road.Water and shops are pretty limited so you have to eat and fill up whenever you can.Most kiosks will sell Pepsi and water baked beans and Bully Beef if you lucky
Thing went fairly smoothly until the area around the Gokwe turnoff where we started
to encounter “Shanghai Sand” which is actually “shin high powder”
There is mining in the area and those 18 wheelers are grinding up the road into the finest
powder.
Impossible to pedal in , you can just hear the gears and chain starting to grind.
The powder is so thick in parts that you can’t see if there are rocks or stones so eventually
you have to walk the downhills as well.
We spent about 5 hours walking a couple of kilos when we decided to turn around.
I should mention that Stephen is 65 and an above the knee amputee.He was even having problems locking his prosthetic leg into walking mode because of that fine powder getting in all the moving parts.
As evening approached we decided to backtrack a couple of kilos and then decide in the morning what to do.
The next morning we could hear a truck approaching and we waved it down.
It was a chap by the name of Ben an engineer from Harare who is busy putting up a base station at Bumi Hills.
He was a lifesaver and gave us a lift past what he said was the worst of the road by taking a
a bypass south of the Binga/Karoi Rd and then joining up with it again later.
Eventually we made our way to the Karoi turnoff as the sun was setting with no place to set up camp so we cycled a couple of kilos and turned up a track and found a small settlement
where the elder kindly allowed us to set up camp for the night.
When we saw the condition of the road the next morning and the lack of shoulder I said it isn’t an option to cycle having done that road a couple of times to Mana Pools.
50 Dollars later we got to Makuti and had our first meal on a plate in 9 days
at Makuti Lodge , great hamburgers , we had 2 each.
About 5 hrs later we rolled into Kariba and booked into Warthogs for 2 nights, great spot on the Lake with nice restaurant.
Most mornings we started about 6h30. The temp would climb to about 30 by 9AM
and then up to 40 for most of the afternoon .
We crossed the border over the Dam Wall and into Zambia where we road into the night and ended at the village of Changa , trying to find a place to camp at night is not a good idea.
The next day was another fairly flat day to Munyumbwe where the climbing started.
The 30km climb up to the Gwembe took us about 6 hrs, its steep and unridable in places.
After that we hit the T1 to Livingstone and had a couple of good days the longest about 155km.
Its was a great experience with 2 good mates Richard and Stephen. You can’t be to fussy about food and hygiene on a trip like this with water and food being fairly scarce.
The locals will offer you there water which they have to walk kilometers to fetch and are the friendliest people living under some extremely harsh conditions
The Zimbabwe side was definately the tougher half. Richard and Stephen both said it was like the Attakwas which they have taken part in a number of times.


The one moment we will never forget was on the 3rd day I was cycling ahead of Richard
and Stephen when I noticed a man maybe in his forties cycling slowly towards us sitting on a homemade wooden hand cycle. As he came up next to me he stopped and had an absolute look of despair. He looked like he had polio. I gave him packet of biscuits and then Stephen and Richard arrived.When Stephen went up to shake his hand and he saw Stephens prosthetic leg he put his arm across his chest as he seemed to identify with what Stephen has also experienced , a very moving moment.
Stephen took out a pair of sunglasses which Richard and him had brought along for such
a moment and gave it to him , well the look of relief on his face when he put them on will never
be forgotten , the biggest smile ever.
The whole trip was worth it just for that one special moment.

On lighter note when we got stopped at the Vet fence on the way home I took Stephens
leg and dipped it in the solution which would get a very confused reaction from the guys working
the control points

[Maplesyrup]

Great read. You guys are tough, I was tired doing this in a Hilux 😀