Take On Africa

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It’s nearly the end of 2010 and I’ve just hit 20,000km – time for some more statistics. Now according to my original plan, I should be in Cape Town by now, having covered that far. But the best thing about plans, like rules, they’re made to be broken. So Happy Christmas all. Greetings from Livingstone, [...]

Chapter 1 – Entering the Congo One way to enter the Democratic Republic of Congo is at Kinshasa, by taking a boat from Brazzaville in the Republic of Congo. The boat crossing takes only 20 minutes. It will only be 20 minutes late leaving. Sometimes it is good to wait. You will spend five minutes [...]

90km after Kikwit and the tarmac ended. Abruptly. From smooth asphalt to shocking deep sand. And just at that point it chucked it down with rain. Sheltering in a local hut until it subsided I then spent a good while pushing my bike alongside the truck tracks that are the road in the slightly less [...]

Six days after leaving Kinshasa, cycling 500km on a good tarmac road, and I’ve arrived in Kikwit. It may have been a good surface but the endless hills and scorching sun made it tough enough! Apart from a couple of minor incidents (one corrupt non-official wanting money and screaming villagers chasing me) it’s been an [...]

In the nearly two weeks I spent doing very little in Kinshasa, I did manage to get off my backside and do a short 2-day trip on a less-loaded bike. After seeing the bonobos at the Lola Ya Sanctuary, I headed to the Zongo falls. Here are the photos from the ride and at the [...]

I’m currently in Kinshasa and really enjoying it here. It’s a busy city in complete contrast to Brazzaville just over the river. I’ve been planning the next part of the trip – a route to get me to east Africa….here it is: (Link to large map of planned route across DRC on everytrail) (I’m waiting [...]

It’s been a while since I published any stats, so for those who like numbers – Kilometres cycled: 17,123 Kilometres paddled: 350 Days since first leaving the UK: 427 Nights spent in Africa: 339 Nights spent in Africa without paying for accommodation: 179 Most consecutive nights in a tent: 39 Days spent cycling: 198 Number [...]

Here are some photos from the latest part of the journey. I travelled south from Yaounde in Cameroon through Gabon to a small town called Booue. Having drunk some dodgy water and thrown up in the middle of the town crossroads, I thought it best to leave as soon as possible. This I did by [...]

I debated a long time whether to get a bike with a Rohloff hub, or a regular dérailleur system. In the end, not knowing much about bike maintenance and being inherently lazy, the appeal of a low maintenance piece of equipment won. If, in the unlikely event something went seriously wrong and the hub had [...]

This is quite a thorough list of how the bike, panniers and racks have held up and problems I have had. Most people won’t want to read beyond this intro, which is fine. I just hope that perhaps for anyone planning a similar trip, they may find some of these notes useful in helping decide [...]