“THE sun is sinking, the air is cooling and our legs are pumping up and down, powering us toward a horizon unbroken by a cellphone tower, a house or even a fence. I’m looking over the bicycle’s handlebars at the veld unfurling in front of me - the baobab trees in bloom, the hawks circling, a miniskyline of anthills rising in the distance, thinking that 15 miles per hour is about the perfect pace to soak this all up.

“And then along come the flies.”