Beyond the Bike

When an unemployed teacher can rationally afford a taxi ride to Sunday lunch and the driver’s main job is as General Manager of the Coca Cola factory in Cape Town, economists’ alarm bells should start ringing. Welcome to the world of Uber. The said unemployed (economics) teacher took some time off ferrying Africans down their continent on his tandem and took advantage of the Rand’s weakness to enjoy a few motorised rides around the Cape…

South Africa is a country of huge contrasts; the richest and the poorest living in very close proximity, terrible stories of violent crime yet very kind and generous people and we did not have any problems at all in the six weeks we were travelling through. Politcally and economically, comparisons are currently being made to Zimbabwe. We hope that it does not go the same way...

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.