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.

Tsodilo Hills – Bagani (20.050 km)

Small village in Botswana

Some friends

Hut made with beer cans

The sand is everywere!

On the way to Ngepi

Camping just on the river

Swimming with Hippos and crocodiles

A Stripe Bellid Sand Snake hunting

Alle nove di mattina Katja ci ha svegliato con il profumo del caffe’ preparato con la sua preziosissima moka. Dopo colazione Alex e Katja mi hanno scortato per una cinquantina di chilometri fino alla strada principale mostrandomi, tra l’altro, una pista in condizioni nettamente migliori rispetto a quella ache avevo fatto io all’andata.Alla frontiera con la Namibia sono passato senza problemi. Questa non e’ una frontiera molto trafficata. Io ero il primo della giornata che passava da li’ e credo anche l’ultimo.
Dopo la frontiera ho attraversato senza saperlo un Parco Naturale ed una volta arrivato all'ingresso/uscita del parco il renger mi ha guardato storto dicendomi che e' da pazzi attraversare il parco in motocicletta e che sono stato davvero fortunato a non aver incontrato alcun leone.
In questa zona della Namibia le strade sono messe abbastanza male e fa un caldo da stare male. Dopo due ore di guida sulla sabbia sotto il sole ero completamente sfinito. Cosi’ mi sono fermato al Ngepi Camp (S 18 06,959’ E 21 40,169’) dove ho fatto il bagno nel fiume Okavango in una grande gabbia che tiene ad una distanza di sicurezza i coccodrilli e gli ippopotami che ci nuotano attorno.I propietari del campeggio mi hanno detto di tenere gli occhi ben aperti perche’ da qualche giorno si aggirava nel campeggio un Black Mamba, uno dei serpenti piu’ pericolosi al mondo, ma per fortuna non mi e’ capitato tra i piedi. In compenso, pero’, ho trovato un piu’ innoquo Stripe Bellid Sand Snake che aveva appena catturato una lucertola piu’ grande di lui.La sera, invece, sono venuti a trovarmi tre ippopotami che mi hanno fatto compagnia pascolando per tutta la notte intorno alla mia tenda.

Colonna Sonora: “Kobra” Donatella Rettore

Katja woke us up at 9am with the scent of coffee, that she had prepared with the help of her precious moka. After breakfast Alex and Katja escorted me for about 50 km to the main road. They showed me, amongst other things, a trail in far better conditions than the one I had run through before.
I entered Namibia without any problem. It is not a very busy border. I was the first one to cross the border on that day, and maybe the last.
After the border crossing I found myself in a natural park I was unaware of. When I arrived at the park entrance/way out, the ranger looked badly at me and told me that only a madman would try to venture through the park by bike. I had been very lucky, he added, not to meet any lions.
In this part of Namibia the roads are in poor conditions and the heat is almost unbearable. After two hours of driving on the sand I was definitely dead beat. So I stopped at Ngepi Camp (S 18 06,959’ E 21 40,169’), where I swam in the Okavango River inside a cage protecting people from the crocodiles and hippos swimming nearby. The camping owners adviced me to keep my eyes wide open, for a Black Mamba, one of the most dangerous snakes in the world, was moving around in the camping grounds. I didn’t meet him, anyway, but I saw a harmless Stripe Bellid Sand Snake: he had just captured a lizard bigger than he was! In the evening, three hippos came to see me, and they grazed all night around my tent.

Soundtrack: “Kobra” Donatella Rettore

Sepupa – Tsodilo Hills (19.930 km)

Beautiful hill

Riding on the sand

Sand, sand and sand again...

Sand and rocks

Rock paintings

6.000 years old rock paintings

10 minutes old rock painting

Carlo, Katja, Alex and me

Oldest and newest design

New Ducati supporter

Tsodilo Hills e’ uno dei siti piu’ inaccessibili di tutta l’Africa. Per arrivare alla base di queste colline bisogna percorrere una “strada” terribile. Cinquanta chilometri di sabbia e rocce sotto un sole cocente. Per tre ore ho rivissuto l’incubo del lago Turkana.Una volta arrivato li’ ho fatto la bella scoperta che non c’e’ assolutamente alcun tipo di servizio. Il che significa niente cibo nel raggio di sessanta chilometri ed io, ovviamente, non avevo con me nessuna provvista quindi ho deciso di scalare in fretta una delle quattro colline per andare poi in Namibia a cercare qualcosa da mangiare.Su queste colline sono stati rinvenuti piu’ di 2750 pitture rupestri. Alcune risalgono addirittura a piu’ di 5000 anni fa.Quando sono tornato alla motocicletta ho incontrato una coppia di svizzeri che viaggia con un vecchio Land Cruiser. Mi hanno detto di conoscere tutta la mia storia ed il progetto che sto portando avanti qui in Africa ed a conferma di cio’ hanno saputo dire tutti i miei spostamenti precedenti.Mi hanno invitato a mangiare qualcosa con loro. Cosi’ abbiamo montato la tenda nella foresta alla base delle colline (S 18 45,638’ E 21 44,510’) e Alex ha cucinato degli ottimi spaghetti con pomodoro e verdure e, incredibilmente, anche un bel caffe’ espresso.

Colonna Sonora: “I Know a Place” Bob Marley

Tsodilo Hills is one of the worst sites to reach in Africa. We had to ride along a ‘road’ in very poor conditions to get to the hills. Fifty kilometres of rocks and sand under a scorching sun. I relived for three hours the nightmare of Lake Turkana. When we finally made it to our destination we found out there weren’t facilities of any sort, which means no food within 60 km. Of course, I had no food with me, so I decided to climb up in a hurry one of the four hills, in order to reach Namibia looking for something to eat. On these hills more than 2750 rock paintings have been found in the course of time. Some of them date back to more than 5000 years ago.
Back on the saddle, I met a Swiss couple travelling with an old Land Cruiser. They told me they knew all my story, as well as the project I’m involved in here in Africa. They were even able to report about my previous stops. They invited me to eat something in their company at the foot of the hills (S 18 45,638’ E 21 44,510’) and Alex cooked very good spaghetti with tomato and vegetables. He even provided us with an excellent expresso coffee.

Soundtrack: “I Know a Place” Bob Marley

Maun – Sepupa (19.843 km)

Beautiful pink flowers on the Okavango Delta

Stuck in the sand

"Non calpestare i fiori del deserto"

Crossing Nxaragha Valley

Wild horses

Trying to ride a wild horse

Okavango River

Riding through a village

La strada che porta a nord fino al confine con la Namibia compie una grande deviazione a sudest per aggirare il delta del fiume Okavango. Per accorciare ho deciso di tagliare attraverso il delta attraversando la valle Nxaragha. Non posso dire di aver fatto una scorciatoia perche’ ho impiegato tre ore piu’ del normale, pero’ ho avuto la possibilita’ di vedere da vicino le meraviglie del delta e gli incredibili e miracolosi effetti che puo’ provocare l’acqua in un ambiente cosi’ arido.
Qui non ci sono ne’ piste, ne’ tantomeno strade, ma l’erba che cresce sulla sabbia del deserto rende la superficie piu’ stabile ed e’ quindi piu’ facile guidare la motocicletta.
Il paesaggio e’ spettacolare. La sabbia e’ completamente ricoperta da una fitta distesa d’erba, da alcuni alberi e da diversi tipi di fiori che creano delle bellissime macchie di colore giallo, rosa e verde chiaro.
Prima di ritoranre sulla strada principale ho incontrato tantissimi asini e cavalli selvaggi che pascolano e girano liberamente in questa zona.
A Sepupa ci siamo fermata al Swamp Stop Camp (S 18 44,732’ E 22 11,858’) ed abbiamo montato la tenda proprio sulla riva del fiume Okavango.
Colonna Sonora: “Wild Horses” The Rolling Stones

The road leading North to the Namibia border detours southwest in order to get around the delta of the Okavango River. I took a shortcut and cruised through the delta, crossing the Nxaragha Valley. Actually, it was not a ‘shortcut’ (it took me three hours more than it should), but I had the chance to ride very close to the many wonders of the delta, and appreciated the incredible effects of the water on such a dry environment.
No trails here, no roads, but the grass growing on the desert sand makes the bike more steady, and driving is easier. The landscape is terrific: the sand is covered with thick grass, some trees and flowers, creating colourful scrubs (yellow, pink and green).
Before getting back on the main road I met lots of donkeys and wild horses grazing freely in these surroundings.
In Sepupa we spent the night at Stop Camp (S 18 44,732’ E 22 11,858’), camping just off the banks of the Okavango River.
Soundtrack: “Wild Horses” The Rolling Stones