Gweta - Magkadikadi salt pans

50 foot me

matt's book cover idea put to the test in the pans
check the sun coming through the bike. beautiful

camp
the sunrise the following day



free to be
nothing to look at but the line


getting to the pans

Jupiter's travels shot - you gotta have it
hot day, loads of bike gear. bad cocktail

riding on a salt pan has been a dream of mine for a long time. ever since ive dreamed of this trip i have an image of myself riding through a salt pan with nothing in sight. well on that fine day i did it. it was a hard 70km ride through deep sand to get there. and over lots of shrubs and other indescribables. but mamma mia was it worth it. on arrival your greeted with this nothingness. and its goes on forever. an infinte nothingness. it feels like a scene from the neverending story. where the word was lost to emptiness. all your left with is simplicity. the sky and the white earth. theres a line you can draw at the horizon and its all you have. its a magical feeling being out there. i kind of felt like i was in my mind. in my subconsious. i was all alone out there and so it was quiet. just me and myself and the line. everything i amplified. your breathing, your swallowing. theres no sound, so a breath has the force of a hurricane and a click of your tongue is the sound of a lightening bolt. i felt so free. at one point i took all my clothes off and ran naked with my eyes closed in the nothing. and i did it for a long time. that really touched me - and no, not down there.

i then layed myself down and closed my eyes. the brightness was hurting and as i didnt have any sunglasses i could get sun-blindness very quickly. i slept under the shade of the ducati with nothing to do the whole day but look occasionally at the line and think about who i was and where i was. my life and my loved ones. and its all so simple out there. i felt like lifes complexities were broken down. that i knew what mattered, that i truly knew who and what i was.

i put up my tent and cooked a simple dinner. the sun went down and it was a magnificent sunset. the setting sun's light pans out horizontally across the nothingness and the gradients of colour were both perfect and new to me in their tones. i slept. during the night there was a large animal sniffing around my tent. i had a dream that the animal was pulling me out. i woke up in the morning to the predawn sunrise. and it was more. the colour range could have killed a goldfish.

i left. i was sad to go. but you cant hang around the nothingness too long. i think you would go mad. mad with its infinity and beauty. it was one of the most beautiful moments ive had on this trip. and what made it even more special was that i was all alone with me myself and i.

Livingstone - Gweta

etc etc etc..
no comment

sunset on vic falls. wont forget that in a hurry
mist in africa!
me and some local chinas chilling on the ferry boat
zambiam botswana border crossing
another straight road calls for another bob marley song in hebrew

Well left Livingstone early in the morning for a long days ride to botswana gweta. krikey the roads in zambia and botswana are boring. so boring in fact that i fall asleep. the only way to keep me awake is to drink coke

or red bull. but im so tired that it really helps. so i sing to myself. i sing all kinds of songs. i make some of them up and then i often sing songs that i know in chinese, russian, dutch or german. i cant speak any of these languages but singing away in strange tongues does one thing for me, it keeps me awake and alert! strange i know...

i came acorss a big truck flipped onto it's side. we see a lot of that in africa. incredible accidents in chilled out places on the road. how do they crash things like that in these places? well never know.so apart from nearly having a huge truck reverse into me at the border the other highlight of the day was getting hit by a huge bug and whilst i was peering down i hit a great big wopping pothole. a big one. and i thought,,, thats it, here we go again! turns out i only badly damaged my rim (later i realized it went a lot further - but thats another story). so nothing really exciting exept long straight boring roads with a bearded weirdo singing the russian of Staying alive.

Keetmanshoop - Fish River Canyon (23.490 km)

Il Fish River Canyon (S 27 35,417' E 17 36,210') e' uno dei posti piu' affascinanti della Namibia. Misura 160 km in lunghezza, 27 km in larghezza e raggiunge una profondita' di 550 m. Davanti a quest'enorme corridoio di roccia scavato dal fiume ci si sente veramente piccoli e non so perche', ma guardando il canyon dal bordo del crepaccio si prova un'irresistibile tentazione a saltarci dentro e provare a volare.
Colonna sonora: "Find the river" R.E.M.

The Fish River Canyon (S 27 35,417' E 17 36,210') is one of the most fascinating places in Namibia. It’s 160 km long, 27 km wide and 550 m deep. You feel like you are very small indeed in front of this corridor made of rocks carved by the river. I don’t know why, but looking down to the canyon from the edge of the cliff you really feel like jumping into it trying to fly.
Soundtrack: "Find the river" R.E.M.

Maltahohe - Keetmanshoop (23.324 km)

Da Maltahohe mi sono spostato a Keetmanshoop. Questo posto e' famoso per la presenza dei Kokerbooms, degli strani e buffi alberi che sembrano appartenere piu' al mondo delle fate e dei folletti che non al pianeta terra. Qui ho incontrato un gruppo di ciclisti che a colpi di pedale attraversa tutta l'Africa dal Cairo a Cape Town. A loro il merito di tanta tenacia e costanza. Io non ne sarei capace. Troppa fatica per i miei gusti. Quella notte mi sono accampato in un bellissimo terreno roccioso proprio in mezzo ad alcuni Kekerbooms.
Colonna sonora: "Mad about you" Hooverphonic

From Maltahohe I continued to Keetmanshoop. This place is famous for the presence of the Kokerbooms: these funny trees seem to belong better to a fairy-world rather than to planet earth. Here I met a group of cyclists, who are pedalling all the way through Africa from Cairo to Cape Town. Well, hats off to their tenacity and steadfastness. I couldn’t do that. Too tiring for me. I camped for the night in a picturesque rocky terrain just in the middle of some Kekebooms.

Soundtrack: "Mad about you" Hooverphonic

Sossusvlei - Maltahohe (22.944 km)

Dopo soli 160 km mi sono dovuto fermare perche' ero troppo stanco per andare avanti. Probabilmente tutti i chilometri su sterrato che ho fatto in Namibia iniziavano a farsi sentire. Cosi', alcuni chilometri prima di Maltahohe, ho montato la tenda a qualche centinaio di metri dalla strada tra alcuni cespugli (S 24 51,958' E 16 59,060'). La notte senza luna e' terribilmente buia e quando si e' accampati da soli in mezzo al nulla lo e' ancora di piu'. Durante la notte sono venuti due animali (probabilmente sciacalli) ad annusare la tenda girandoci un paio di volte attorno. Inutile dire che non sia riuscito a dormire molte ore quella notte.
Colonna sonora: "Darkness on the edge of town" Bruce Springsteen

I had to stop after only 160 km: I was too tired to go on. Probably the dirt road kilometres in Namibia had been one too many. So just a few kilometres before Maltahohe I set up my tent in the bush a few hundred meters away from the road (S 24 51,958' E 16 59,060'). The night with no moon is so dark, and for a lonely camper in the middle of nowhere it is even darker. During the night two animals (probably jackals) came and made a couple of rounds sniffing at my tent. No need saying, I could sleep but a few hours that night.

Soundtrack: "Darkness on the edge of town" Bruce Springsteen

Sesriem - Sossusvlei (22.780 km)

Tutte le mattine alle 5:15 si apre il cancello che da' accesso alla valle in mezzo alle dune e puntualmente inizia la folle corsa dei turisti per arrivare per primi alla Duna 45 e poter lasciare le proprie impronte sulla sabbia immacolata rimodellata dal vento della notte precedente. Io me la sono presa con comodo e sono partito quasi mezz'ora dopo tutti gli altri, ma quando sono arrivato alla duna (S 24 43,297' E 15 34,482'), stranamente, non ho trovato nessuno. Mi sono arrampicato fino in cima ed in completa solitudine ho aspettato che il sole spuntasse dall'orizzonte ed accendesse le onde del deserto per me. E' stato davvero emozionante. Sono rimasto per piu' di due ore immobile immerso nel silenzio piu' assoluto del deserto ad osservare quest'incredibile spettacolo naturale che pur essendo cosi' unico e bello si ripete all'infinito tutte le mattine da un'eternita'.
Dopo essere sceso dalla duna mi sono diretto verso il fondo della valle e mi sono reso conto che in realta' avevo scalato la duna sbagliata ed e' per questo motivo che non c'era nessun'altro oltre me.
Dopo aver camminato per circa mezz'ora in mezzo alle dune al di la' della valle ho raggiunto la Dead Vlei (S 24 45,403' E 15 18,024'). Questo e' uno degli ecosistemi piu' aridi di tutto il pianeta, tuttavia in questo posto cosi' inospitale sopravvivono piante ed animali. Ci sono insetti, rettili, uccelli, oryx, e persino dei bellissimi fiori gialli che spuntano direttamente dalla sabbia. Ma l'animale piu' numeroso, piu' buffo e piu' curioso e' senza dubbio il turista che, nonostante possa camuffarsi nelle forme piu' strane, lo si ritrova in ogni angolo del pianeta.
Colonna sonora: "High" James Blunt

Every morning at 5:15am they open the gateway to the dunes in the valley, and punctually a crowd of tourists rushes to Dune 45 in order to leave their foorprints on the immaculate sand that the wind has remodelled the night before. I took it slowly and easy, and started about half an hour after the other people had left, but when I got to the dune (S 24 43,297' E 15 34,482') I didn’t find anybody there, oddly enough. I climbed to the top and waited for the sun to rise from the horizon, lighting up the desert sands for me. It was quite something. I lingered in the silence of the desert for more than two hours watching this astonishing sight offered by nature: so beautiful, so unique and still repeating itself every morning since the beginning of the world.
I eventually went down from the dune and while heading towards the end of the valley I realized I had climbed up the wrong dune, and that’s why nobody had been there with me. I walked for about half an hour to the Dead Vlei (S 24 45,403' E 15 18,024'). It’s one of the driest ecosystems in the planet, but still many animals and plants live here: insects, reptiles, birds, oryx and even some fine yellow flowers sprouting from the sand. But no doubt: the most numerous, funniest and curious animals are the tourists. Even in disguise you can find them anywhere!

Soundtrack: "High" James Blunt