The Flying Fish

The lifestyle is completely different. The living conditions while not bad, take some getting used to; things like going from shopping store to shopping store to see who had stock of what that week, and who had jacked up their prices to astronomical amounts. But despite being a village in Africa, Maun has most things you’d get in any small city. The flying is also something else (obviously, going from instruction to charter). It’s quite a big leap, especially when operating from muddy strips, in hot conditions, fully loaded and at altitude. It’s an eye opener of note. But the view is something to behold. Stark contrasts between brown desert, blue waters and green swamps teeming with wildlife. The skies are bright blue with unlimited visibility on some days, and on others the smoke and dust means that seeing more than a kilometre or two is the best you ’re going to get. And the storms show the true power of nature. Slow build ups during the day, with rumbling thunder and cracks of...

I was privileged enough to spend a night at Mashatu before taking on the final stretch to Maun. This was my first real bush experience, and I was blown away. If you're looking for a beautiful place to stay, with good game viewing, and don't want to have to travel too far, I can highly recommend Mashatu Game Reserve. http://mashatu.com/

My Life in a Box - Cape to Maun I planned for at least a month. Routes, accommodation, budgets. I got my car, a 1998 Golf Chico with over 210 000km, road-trip-ready, and kitted it out with a toolbox, tyre pump, puncture fix, tie wraps, duct tape, oil, tow rope, jumper leads, everything I thought I might need. I fixed the dent in my door, and sorted out the speakers (which hadn’t worked for the past 4 years, and took all of 10 minutes to sort out). As you can see, I’m very much a DIY person, and I’m not afraid to get my hands dirty. Vehicle ready, it was time to get myself ready. How was I to pack up 22 years of stuff? Methodically, said the OCD part of me. And so, box after box was filled, and stored in my cupboard. And when the cupboard became full, the boxes lined my room. Wow, I have accumulated a lot of stuff over the years! The essentials were packed in different boxes, and into the car. Surprisingly, once everything was packed, there was ample room left over (I could’ve ta...

- The Introduction - The Planning - The Bike - The Ride The Introduction Last year I made a big move: I was going to spread my wings, and take on the world by myself. So I resigned, got a new job, new house, and moved to a new country. I had adopted a go-getter attitude, and I think it was because I was starting to realise and appreciate just how short life is. I always used to wait for that “perfect moment” before doing things, and I have come to realise that there is no such thing. All that money I had been working hard for and saving up for a ‘rainy day’ was just sitting there. And it dawned on me that if I get the opportunity to do something cool, I’m going to do it now! Why wait? You only live once, so why not. I think it was about a year ago when I started to think about doing a long distance bike trip. I mean, up until now I had done quite a lot of long distance trips: - I flew an aircraft from JHB to Cape Town, solo (cruising at a whole 85mph. It took me 3 d...