I set off riding toward Malawi, my 92nd country. The 40km to the border passed quickly as I descended 1000m, dropping to an elevation of 500m – my lowest in months.

Continue reading “Malawi (Part 1)” →

There was a storm a couple hours before sunrise, and I waited for the rain to finish before setting off. I’d been riding for about an hour and a half when my freehub stopped engaging – turning the pedals wouldn’t turn the wheel.

Continue reading “Tanzania (Part 2)” →

I had a late start; waiting for the phone shop to open and for the rain to stop. Another bit of waiting at the phone shop for my sim to be activated, and then I set off cycling out of Kigoma.

Continue reading “Tanzania (Part 1)” →

I headed off in the morning, riding towards the border. Not, as the title of this post might suggest, to Burundi, but rather to Tanzania.

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For the northern half of the shores of Lake Kivu, I decided to follow another bikepacking route: the Congo-Nile trail. And so, after a few kilometres on tarmac, I turned off onto dirt track.

Continue reading “Rwanda (Part 2)” →

As I rode out of town, a couple people asked if I was cycling to Kigali, then wished me a safe journey. In the countryside, I passed hundreds of people but it was more than 20 minutes before I heard the word Mzungu. There was still a bit of shouting, whistling and hissing but it was a couple orders of magnitude less than in western Uganda, a very welcome respite.

Continue reading “Rwanda (Part 1)” →

A tarmac rode lasted a few kilometres out of town, and then it was back to dirt. Soon I reached a river which, 300m downstream, became the border to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. However, I expect to cycle another 15,000 km before I get there (Omicron variant dependant…)

Continue reading “Uganda (Part 3)” →

A couple hours cycling along rolling hills brought me to a junction with a major road. There were a few more vehicles, but a lot less foot/cycle traffic. Most importantly to me, perfectly smooth tarmac replaced chipseal.

Continue reading “Uganda (Part 2)” →

There’s a circular route around Uganda on the website bikepacking.com, which I intended to (roughly) follow during my time in the country. Following this route, the distance to the town of Lira was just over 160km. I decided to try and complete my first dirty century, 100 miles (160 km) on unpaved surfaces.

Continue reading “Uganda (Part 1)” →

I set off from Sekenani, initially backtracking along the road I’d ridden on the way here. I’ll be heading back north (well, northwest) for a few days now as I make my way towards Uganda.

Continue reading “Western Kenya (Yes, I’m running out of ideas for titles!)” →