I want to give everybody some advice: Don't cycle in botswana unless you really really love riding in a straight line on a flat road with nothing to see apart from bushes and trees. Don't gte me wrong, botswana is a really amazing country but the last four days of riding have been very mentally challenging. Therefore i have created some games to ease the boredom, such as weaving in and out of the white lines in different patterns. Ok well thats the only game i have come up with but it is pretty hard to keep riding when the road doesn't bend for 30miles!
It has been amazing to see how desolate and unpopulated botswana is, we are used to being mobbed by locals every 500meters but here we see maybe 3 people per day. You reach as sign for a town and all there is are 2 huts and a petrol station. It is very bizarre. On the map all these towns look like they should be big but they are just petrol stations and convenience stores. It is pretty clear that this road is there simply to get from south africa and namibia to northern africa and not much else. We have only seen one elephant on the 'elephant highway' so far, not that i am complaining because i dont want to be trampled. There has been alot of pace line activity which usually makes the day go faster, yesterday we were in a double train of 16 people and absolutely bombed it to lunch which we reached at 8:50 in the morning. I am glad to be in maun because the last 4 days have been very hard because there isnt enoughg variety to keep your mind or body occupied so by usuing the same muscles and riding in the same position causes me to become more and more lethargic and achey. However today has been very relaxing, there was a thunderstorm last night (i think there has been a thunderstorm eveery night in Botswana (another strange phenomenon. The htel is nice with a pool and a bar, last night it was Reiners 70th birthday so he bought everybody drinks for 2 hours which was amazing. The group is really relaxed and chilled out at the moment with Cape Town almost in sight (only 3 rest days left) which will come very quickly. I think the next 5 days will be the toughest and then from Windhoek we should return to a more varied terrain and shorter days. When i look at maps of africa it is pretty astounding to imagine how far i have ridden my bike. Its pretty hard to process in one go.
Anyway, i will speak to you again in Windhoek when hopefully i will upload you some more snaps if the internet is fast.

Love to everyone,
Jacob