Bulawayo to Gaborone

FCB Joburg MD Thabang Skwambane founded Aluwani in 2007 when he cycled unsupported from Johannesburg to Kilimanjaro, and then summited the mountain. Warren Handley and Tom David are former Aluwani interns from SA walking the same distance in reverse to mark the 10th anniversary of that trip. As they walk, they reach out to the rural communities to talk about the importance of early childhood development.

This is how they got from Bulawayo to Gaborone.

"Once we crossed the border from Zim into Botswana, we immediately experienced the drastic change in population. With Botswana having just two-million citizens, we knew it was going to be tough to find people and food.

"The A1 from Francistown to Gaborone is 440km of highway with extremely little going on. With no prospect of finding suitable resting places, we decided to push ourselves to walk 12 days straight to Gaborone.

"The days were unbearably hot, reaching 30°C, while nights dropped to 4°C. Fortunately, the Vos family took us in and gave us a warm meal and warm bed after six gruelling days.

"The last 200km from Mahalapye to Gabs were incredibly tiring. With so little happening on the road and so little human interaction, Botswana has been one of our most difficult stretches.

"At this point, we are feeling the amount of time we have been away from home. Initially, the physical and emotional adjustment to the unknown consumed our days, but now we are left with having to overcome the amount of time we have in our own heads. With home soil just a few kilometres away, we have to remain patient and keep focused.

"Despite these difficulties, we remain optimistic. We're in Gaborone with an exciting week ahead of us as we have another workshop, training early childhood development practitioners on how to make toys and learning resources from reusable waste.

"We have 440km to go."

For more info, click here. View more galleries from the #WalkwithUs2017 journey.