NorthCape-SouthCape:
060206
Cured
Today we went from Livingstone in Zambia to Maun in Botswana,
682kms. The idea was to ride thorugh the Chobe National
Park but this was not allowed for safety reasons. I asked
why, and was told it was because of wild animals. We learned
this later during the day..
We took a ferry across the Zambezi river und wise from earlier
experience, Ian took the safety precautions in earnest.
Botswana is a stark contrast to the countries we have passed
sofar. The country has a population of 1.6 million and living
standard seems to be relatively high. There is diamond mining
here and the people can live here without climbing on top
of each other.
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We are travelling on a nice piece of road, when Lukas brakes to a
stop as a gigantic elephant turns up. I get the camera out, quickly
so the elephant, a wild animal, doesn’t run into the jungle
again. It’s a male, probably in the runting season, his snow
white tusks gigantic. His male organ is ready for action, shaming
any bull in Europe. If it had been of wood it would have been possible
to cut an 8-inch section a meter long.
Now everything happens quickly. The elephant rushes across the road
and happens to crush a tree in the process. Then he stops and I am
50 metres away and want to get closer to photograph Lukas and the
elephant, when he turns around and goes for Lukas. Two trees break
off and fall towards Lukas on the road. I don’t know what Lukas
thought, but I, 50 metres away, was cured completely from all thoughts
of a close-up shot of an elephant. The adrenaline was pumping like
it has since the Stone age and there was only one plan: get as far
away from the danger as possible. I needed the trigger finger for
life-preserving functions, like gassing the bike. Ian was between
us but even I had an experience I won’t forget in a long time.
Here are the promised situations from yesterday’s rafting –
that’s us!
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High
Performance Riding
www.pgdakar.com |
Per-Gunnar
Lundmark
Fjällbonäs 15
933 91 Arvidsjaur |
Per-Gunnar
Lundmark
Eva.PG.Lundmark@swipnet.se
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Updated
2006-02-08
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