Beyond the Bike
A further eight cyclists joined Beyond the Bike in Livingstone, with another support driver - Jo Mackay - who runs Beyond Ourselves operations in Zambia. This stage of the ride was sponsored by Copperbelt Energy, who had generously bought the Zambikes. The bikes were assembled in Lusaka by an interesting US-Zambian social enterprise that we would donate to the Beyond Ourselves schools in the Copperbelt at the end of the ride. Perhaps the perfect "big society" model for David Cameron back home? A corporation working with a social enterprise to help their needy community with the assistance of volunteers...
Botswana is one of the few countries whose per capita GDP growth has kept up with China's over the last 15 years. Perhaps easier to do in a country with a population of only 1.5 million (compared to some 150k elephants!). Nonetheless, we enjoyed superb hospitalilty in what turned out to be a very chilled, albeit tiring, ten days in this former British protectorate (formerly known as Bechuanaland).
I am writing up the South African leg from the calms of Botswana. We are camping at a lovely place called "Elephant Sands"- appropriately if not orginally named due to the two main features of the area. Neither are great for bicycles but more on that later.
Following a lecture from Tim Harford on innovation and longshots, the importance of innovation on economic growth, and the incentives behind technological advancement, are considered.
This is a question that anyone with more than a passing interest in Africa would like to know the answer to and one that I hope to understand more during my journey. Before I set off, what better place to start than asking the man who coined the famous BRICs acronym...
One of the joys of cycle touring is that you can't take on too many calories. I put it to the test with a man who calls himself the HUNGRY CYCLIST.