North-South Carrier

The North-South Carrier (NSC) is a pipeline that will deliver water to Gaborone from the north of Botswana. The current source is the Dikgatlhong dam in the Shashe river near Francistown, but the pipeline could be extended to draw water from the Zambezi at Kasane/Kazungula, according to the NSC’s Wikipedia page. Currently the terminus of the pipeline is at Palapye, the site of which is located next door to BIUST (Botswana International University of Science and Technology - my current employer) at the Western tip of the Tswapong Hills.

NSC near Palapye

 The merits of the project is not what I would like to discuss, but rather the inspection road running along the pipeline. A properly built road with almost no sandy patches, thus ideal for cycling since there is almost no traffic (it does not connect any villages). The kicker is it runs into the prevailing Easterly wind and is almost pancake flat. Thus it is good for burning calories, but take your mp3 player along.

I have cycled the section closest to Palapye, but would not mind going all the way to Selebi Phikwe and back (200 km).