Day 82 Tuesday April 2 Second rest day in Livingstone

by Henry

Rest day #2 in Livingstone.

Two main events today. The first is the annual TDA bike donation ceremony. A portion of the fees from each of the 34 riders from Cairo to Cape Town goes towards donating a brand new bicycle to local communities.

To date over last 21 years, 2,300 bikes have been donated to over 70 schools/organizations since 2003. The bicycles are donated to schools and entities, not individuals.

Part of the fees from sectional riders are collected in a fund to maintain and repair the bicycles.


5 of the 34 bicycles were brought to the ceremony. This year, the 34 bicycles were divided amongst eight schools. The keynote speech by Livingston’s school superintendent elucidated how bikes help students who live farther away from school to commute more efficiently, resulting in improvements in academic performance.


Students from a local boys’ high school expressed their appreciation for our contribution of five bicycles to their school, and how it would improve their lives.


We were served refreshments and pizza.


Drummers and dancers contributed to the festivities.

Second main event was to cross the border into Zimbabwe and spend an evening at the Victoria Falls Safari Lodge, which has a large deck overlooking a watering hole.

We hired a taxi to take us to the nearby Zambian border, where we got stamped out. 


Walking through no man’s land between Zambia and Zimbabwe, we caught a glimpse of a small section of Victoria Falls. At the Zimbabwe border, we paid our visa fee and got stamped into the country.


A second taxi ferried us to the Victoria Falls Safari Lodge. The accommodations are the most luxurious we have encountered to date in Africa.


The watering hole as viewed from the restaurant deck.


When the sun disappeared over the horizon and darkness fell, elephants and Cape buffalo appeared out of nowhere to drink the water.

It was a very relaxing rest day.