T Minus One

Livingstone, Zambia - I can hardly believe it, but tomorrow commences my 966 mile journey from Victoria Falls to Windhoek! 

Jerry and I arrived here on Friday - just a few hours before the TDA riders started rolling in. Everybody was looking forward to two days off from riding, not to mention the comfort of a camp with showers and flushing toilets. There are about 65 riders and staff and we pretty much took over the Livingstone Safari Lodge.

I got my bike put back together right away, thanks to the highly efficient TDA mechanics. It has been great to talk to riders who are actually doing this thing, as opposed to the speculation that has been going on in my head. I also met up with several members of Team Lonely Planet. I watched Nate Cavalieri and David Nelson roll over the finish line. David's finish was particularly dramatic as he had suffered a pretty nasty fall on his last day of riding. But both of them were in excellent spirits, having just completed the ride of their life.

The next day, I was pleasantly surprised when Fiona Siesman walked into camp! She is another member of the Lonely Planet team who had completed the previous leg, from Iringa, Tanzania to Lilongwe, Malawi, then she took off on safari in Zambia for 10 days, then met up with the riders again at Vic Falls. Yesterday, my riding partner Tom Hall showed up. So Nate and David passed us the virtual baton so we can continue the LP ride.

Jerry left me this morning to return home. He was doing a very good job hiding any signs of envy about the bike ride! We will be off bright and early tomorrow morning. The first day is relatively short: 80km (50 miles) from Livingstone, Zambia to Kasane, Botswana.