The second day is splendid, people are always nice except sometimes a couple of « old witches » that mumble some words in the local language and shake their hands, surely to chase us away or to put a spell on us. The few drivers cars we see are greeting us in a friendly way, the children are open-mouthed and.... it is starting raining again. Here we are, the beginning of the calvary.... We are going under cover and waiting until the rain stops. Half an hour later, all is flooded, the road is muddy and more we are going down to Seronga, the more the mud is changing itself into wet sand and small ponds. At less than 15 kilometres from our goal, we decide to set camp and… then we are finding ourselves in trouble up to ears… Until Windhoek it’s going to rain every day, with 2-3 exceptions. To make fire with wet wood and under the rain it is not easy believe me, but when we are hungry, all is possible! (I received a new stove in Malawi, the modified African petrol has had the least of him and I’m going back to the usal way, making fire with wood).
The following day, we are hardly biking, we are pushing our bike which are stuck in the sandy and flooded road. We are arriving in Seronga. A good meal, at last, at the local restaurant and we are immediately finding a boat which is leaving the next day. We are camping in the property of the company for free and we are spending an evening in front of the satellite televion, with a living room and a superb kitchen at our disposal! For me, big luxury, it’s been a long time ago that I didn’t feel « civilized »… The next day, the boat is bringing us on the other side of Okavango and we can admire the famous swamps  of Okavango Delta. A beautiful stroll, the boat is threading into a labyrinth of small wys between the reeds which cover a surface which is 2 times larger than Switzerland. Lots of birds, a crocodile which is lying in the sun, an hippopotamus, snakes swimming in the water and after having a superb weather, the rain is coming back...
The rest of the trip is a succession of rainy days, we are wet, sometimes cold (especially Christine which is more sensitive to cold than me because she is been living for a long time in Africa.... I must be careful too as I am starting to loose my "natural swiss resistance to the cold", too much sun, too many heat waves, too many dryness... Moreover I’m getting almost blacker than a Black...). On the road, we have to say that the majority of people are really not nice with us. Well there are always exceptions and some nice people smiling at us, giving us some tea or exchanging some money on the balck market to help us, but the majority are arrogant, bad and sometimes aggressive. A problem mainly due to alcohol. Alcohol and perhaps also because it is the African country with the highest AIDS rate, according to statistics. Nearly 40% of the 15-25 years have got AIDS according to statistics' of a few years ago.
We are biking, the rain is coming, we are wet, we are waiting while biking for the rain to stop, then we are stopping, cooking, getting dry with the sun, hanging the clothes on the bike, we are biking again, stopping before the rain starts again in the evening, are making made fire quickly, we are cooking and.... we are eating in the tent while it’s raining again. Here is the program of the following days. Nothing to tell except the arrival in Ganzhi where we will burgle a supermarket (mmmh what a pleasure to find real supermarkets where we can find everything! Good but dangerous for me after so many of months of deprivation....). After that, we think the rain will stop, well no, it’s becoming worse! We are crossing a village where we are not welcome at all. The village is in a sad state, they have been flooded during the night and almost everything was destroyed. The next day we are stopping in a gas station before getting completely soaked. An old very nice black farmer is telling me that it has never rained so much in the last 10 years and I believe him ! In Gabarone, before the rain season, they were taling about « moving" the capital because the reserves were of 15% only and since 5 years they have been diminishing constantly. From now on the reserves are full, 100%, and they must open the dams to release water. We are biking some kilometres after the sunny spell and here is the customs. We are exiting the building and the rain is starting again.... On the road, nearly 30 centimeters water is bringing us to the Namibian border. A funny way of telling us goodbye....
Botswana, I loved Okavango Delta and the quiet days on the bike when we didn’t see almost anybody. On the other hand, I will never forget the bad welcome. I do not know why people have reacted like that with us? Racism? Arrogance? Is this part of the culture? Did we wear the false clothes or the bad color of tee-shirt? I do not know but it was so far, the worst welcome that I got during my trip, after well, Ethiopia and its launchers of stones. Another thing that I will never forget too, it is this rain! Botswana with its desert of Kalahari is supposed to be a very arid and dry country. Well it is the rain season and I expected to get wet, but this rain season made disasters (and it’s going on). All my stuff are still wet and I almost rotten by being wet all day long… The fields are also starting to rotten, too much water, they are flooded. We often believe that rain is always beneficial, it is in general and especially in Africa where there is never enough water but this year agriculture in Zimbabwe, in Zambia in Botswana and small part in Namibia, are suffering. For once that I am not the only one to suffer on my bike... Herve, let’s go! I have to go on! Next destination Namibia!