Well, we have arrived in Namibia ... more specifically Windhoek and am now travelling thru more familiar territories ... nothing majorly new for me therefore, except doing the routes by bicycle this time.
Herewith a brief summary of what I've felt, seen and experienced on the way ... these are all relative generalisations and dependent upon my personal experiences ...
Egypt
The cycling was fast ... very fast ... on tar roads, with a tail wind and while everyone was still strong and energised. Lots of desert and open space ... where there is no farming and settlements ... and quite lush and dense vegetation (plus farming) along the River Nile.
The country as a whole is probably the least memorable of all of them. The country is fairly dirty ... litter all over! And the people are in general very pushy and irritating ... constantly trying to sell stuff, get you into shops and just pester you non stop.
With regards to the Pyramids, Temples and other sights ... this country DOES surpass all others on the trip (with respect to sights and history) and has so much history and knowledge tucked away!!
Egypt was quite cold at night (especially around sunrise), cool and windy during the days, but warmer as we went south.
Sudan
One of my favourites by far - for the awesome people and the endless space! I love the open, empty deserts. The sand, sand and more sand - split thru by the Nile and the lush green vegetation where it flows. The calm and peace ... and pure nothingness! The cycling was tough in the soft sand ... and it is sad that they are building a top-notch tar road throughout ... so those heading here in three years time will loose lots of this feeling ...
The people are wonderful ... friendly and real pretty. More so in the North. Further South, to Ethiopia, one looses the sense of freedom and openness as the country becomes more developed and populated, for some reason the relaxed, open friendliness of the people also becomes more reserved and distant.
Hot, hot, hot during the day ... dry and dusty!! To begin with evenings were still cool, but later got quite warm.
Ethiopia
This place takes the cake for beauty, mountains and mixed emotions! I will definitely come back here! We covered about 1 800km in three weeks and had a total accumulated elevation of nineteen thousand meters! The mountains just keep rolling on-and-on. The countryside is also very green, tropical, lush vegetation.
The people (and there are millions of them ... 50% of the population is 18years and younger ... i.e. children everywhere) all mean well - and they are all merely greatly interested in these spandex clad, colourful people on racing machines. Unfortunately their constant screaming, monotonous questions, stone throwing and unsocial (by our standards) behaviour at times caused lots of unhappiness and heated debates amongst us.
I personally believe they are not evil and merely struggle to communicate with us as we race thru their back yards ... and I'll be back to see more for myself later.
We had some cold and damp weather, cool nights ... but mainly due to the high altitude. Days in general quite warm.
Kenya
TOUGH! Northern Kenya has a total lack of comfortable cycling roads ... and caused lots of pain and discomfort. Up North the country is very beautiful and empty ... but apparently occupied by many bandits and thus not too safe.
Further South it becomes lush and populated. The roads become better ... although quite potted throughout. We felt like we found civilisation again when we got good roads, ice-cream and cold milk in the fridges. But unfortunatelly a little dirty and neglected in many areas.
Overall it is a country with many opposites ... with respect to roads, people and the countryside. Unfortunately it didn't live up to the "sparkle" of Africa I had somehow imagined and dreamt of from films and stories of old colonial Africa and ended up merely being another country on en-route ...
Hot days, comfortable nights ... the odd shower at night ...
Tanzania
Alongside Ethiopia ... as number one for lush, green beauty and hills galore. I absolutely loved the route. We had top notch tar roads and dirt roads fit for hell. The rains caught us briefly (actually so far on our trip I have had only two days of rain in over 100 days of cycling!!) and turned everything into an interesting logistical task of getting trucks thru and finding suitable camps.
The people are really great, plentiful snacks and drinks along the way and some real tough cycling.
The best part was the way up to Mbeya and then over the range and down to Malawi ... simply breathtaking beauty!!
Warm and a little humid ... but not bad. Some night showers and some major rains on one or two days ... should have been much more - but we were real lucky!!
Malawi
Correctly labelled The Heart of Africa ... nowhere will you find more friendly locals ...! They were extremely friendly, well spoken and interested in what we were doing. Also very clean ... hardly any litter anywhere.
The Lake was amazing ... it has been a dream for a very long time to come swim in Lake Malawi ... and definitely worth the wait for the water and the views. Chitimba Beach, close to Livingstonia, is an amazing place!!
The roads were definite "rolling hills" ... and got quite tiring ... which continued into Zambia.
The days were quite hot ... intense, burning heat ... but also quite humid. We had our worst night on the trip - pissing all night and hot and humid at the same time ... aagghh!
Zambia
Zambia is a real nice place ... not brilliant, but not bad at all. The route is continually "rolling hills" ... tough and tiring!! And the route becomes quite boring and monotonous ... tall grasses along the sides, few people and hill, after hill, after hill ... it was the first time I started feeling a little bored and the legs started hurting ... !!
We were lucky we had a fair amount of cloud cover ... as it could have been a lot hotter. We had our second day of pissing rain. The roads are totally potted with potholes for about 100km inwards from both border crossings.
Botswana
Lekker Land of Elephants!! I really like this place ... and will come back real soon. I'm actually a little disappointed in myself that I haven't been here sooner ... and I live so close ...
The roads were real tedious though ... kilometers and kilometers of endless flat roads ... actually: Flat, No Bends and Turns, No People, No Coke Stops, Little Vegetation Changes and Lotsa Wind! I also found the place to be real clean and tidy all round.
The elephants along the national road are amazing ... the (stupid) racers ploughed along day after day and even passed one herd of roughly 25 elephants without seeing any!! We took our time and saw plenty ... at one stage I was lost in my own world and suddenly had one mock charge me from the right at only 5m away ... "heel boy!"
The heat was quite intense ... and the nights were still very comfortable, with the odd chilly morning just before sunrise.
Namibia
This country is real great ... I have loved all my trips here so far! The experience so far though is different ... long, slightly undulating roads, little spectacular views and very few people along the road.
Now I know what Namibia has to offer, cause I've been here before ... and it has a lot of amazing places and sights! It gets me thinking of our current trip thru Africa ... where we obviously see very little and definitely miss out on so much more ... the little we experience and see along the way is minuscule compared to what every country has to offer on a whole!
The nights have become very cold all of a sudden! The days are still hot and intense ... but bound to cool off even more as we head south ... I actually just went shopping to get warmer trousers and a decent fleece top.
South Africa
Well ... I'm excited to see how I feel riding thru the country ... it is home and I do know it quite well. I would have loved our trip to go thru the Southern cape or Wild Coast, even Natal or Mpumalanga ... as these have such amazing views and sites to experience. But traffic would have been hell thru here and the extra time would have been a bit tedious ... we all seem to be getting to the end of our endurance abilities ...
And the weather ... well Cape Town and the Westcoast is currently real cold, pissing with rain and snow on the Swartberg Mountains ... aagghh!!
Sundowners with my folks at the Zambezi, just before the waters fall
Breaking wind just before the (time) trial
At the Zambezi ferry (Zambia to Botswana)
