Between November 2011 and December 2012 I cycled through Africa from Cape Town to Nairobi. Here is a taster into the trip.
Sani pass is infamous among South African mountain bikers and 4×4 enthusiasts. With a gentle climb from the Sani lodge backpackers for the first couple of km’s then from the SA border its about a 1000m climb in 8km to the Lesotho border at almost 2900m. The road is of very poor quality with many loose rocks, gravel and the gradient of the last couple of km’s is between 15-25%.
I was foolish enough to attempt it with a touring bike which including food+water weighs about 50kg.
What usually is a 2-4 hour ride took me 8.
Some times when you’ve been alone in the the desert for too long strange things happen…….
To read how it all went wrong:
Cycle touring X-factor:
Whats your entry ?
Taking a rather small dirt road I encountered the Fish River.
It was either 50km back and a long detour or a river crossing…….
3 shuttle runs to the island and during the other 3 to the far shore I had my doubts weather I’d made the right decision…
But I got lucky and didn’t get swept away:)
Trans-Kalahari, Caprivi, Okavango….the road all looks the same,
Nice scenery, but 1000km is a little too much of the same…
Whilst cycling the Trans-Kalahari Highway I went out of my mind with boredom. I decided it was time to end it all by lying in the middle of the road so a car could run over me.
After ten minutes I got bored of waiting for a car to run over me so had dinner and a dance instead 🙂
In November 2011 I started my little bicycle journey through Africa in Cape Town. Here is an impression of the first 6 months.
In short….I love this life…
Live Life Now.
This incident is was one of about 6 big storms my Hubba Hubba had to endure during the rainy season in Southern Africa.
This demonstrated to me why you should travel with a free standing tent, Had the tent not been free standing it would of been quite a mess because my weight was the only thing keeping the tent on the ground, the pegs went flying in the first 5 minutes.
Lightening bolts hitting the ground only 3-400m away meant this was one of the few times during this trip I’ve feared for my life…
so, If you don’t mind running the risk of being a lions breakfast or being trampled by elephants, Botswana is great for wild camping.
Shame I opened my fat mouth so you can”t hear the birds…….
