Africa

I was in in Zambia, Namibia and Botswana, and not only did border crossings take a whole day, but i'm thinking cycling was not the best way of travelling... the roads (3 week road trip) could barely be handled in a 4x4...

patience is a virtue out there as well
african time is about 3x as slow as london time
if they say the bus will be leaving in about an hour count on 3 hrs ...... just sit back relax and watch the world go by rather than agitated that your bus hasn't left when it should have .... 3 hrs ago

It would be one of the only times I'd contemplate a high viz jacket. Or three.

I was driven down a road between Kampala and Entebbe that had a speed bump very 5 metres. For 5 kilometres. But you may as well add Uganda on to your tour list - it'd be silly to miss it if you're going to Tanzania and Kenya, or at least do some of Lake Victoria.

snowy was it you who spend a few months in uganda recently ?

ah yes so it was read the reports of your stay in kampala and sesei islands
sounds brilliant
did you get up to kasese and fort portal west uganda
rwenzori's ?

The lonely planet forum might be a good place to ask at too.

Dicki - we got to Fort Portal, and Kibale Forest NP, but the Rwenzori's / Gorillas were just too much money - the reserve fees are high to ensure that tourism covers the cost and doesn't get too popular. We then found out that friends could get us the cheaper Nationals passes as we'd stayed in the country long enough. Drat.

It's not exactly bike touring country - the lorry drivers are lunatics, but there's a fair few people using bikes to transport crops / water / people / charcoal on the roads.

I'm doing some work on a project in Kitgum, in Northern Uganda at the moment, and just got some EU funding, so hopefully, there's a return visit planned next year.

west africa sucks, balki
east africa is the only place to go

If you like Contiki tours I guess.

patience is a virtue out there as well
african time is about 3x as slow as london time

It's much worse than that, 3x would be outside the M25, Africa is more like hours = days.

Yep. I seem to remember catching a train that left 20hours late in Tanzania. No one batted an eyelid.

thanks for all your input!

someone else is planning this trip and he's being quite vigilant about making sure the route is as safe as possible. it would be a 3 month - 3,000 mile excursion, which means 30 miles/day average (of course there will be 100 mile days and 0 mile days) - so i don't think it'll be a terribly grueling pace/we should be able to spare days for border crossing.

i am worried about the roads! and i'd probably buzz my hair so i looked less girly/required less personal maintenance.

does anybody know anything about getting a trip like this sponsored?

also, all the other kids going went to jesuit (a classicaly studious form of catholicism) universities, and they've already spoken with a rep for monks of that order, with whom we would get free and safe lodging at many points along the way. kind of a cool aspect i think.

^ the guys I mentioned somehow managed to blag a couple of high-specced Galaxys from Dawes at trade prices. I'll ask them how they managed, but I'm pretty sure it was just from asking nicely. They were already doing it for a charity though, which no doubt would have helped.

Very jealous btw!

Sounds awesome, and the Schwinn would be a perfect steed for this... Do it!

they've already spoken with a rep for monks of that order, with whom we would get free and safe lodging at many points along the way.

This might become a habit

Hhahaha, joe, though you'll be proud to know i am STILL riding the decrepit schwinn, it will NOT be coming to africa!

and jonlubi, that would be so cool if you could ask your friends about that/ maybe give me an email address to get in touch with them. i haven't been able to find much about this type of ride online.

NICE PUN RPM

Whatever your budget is, add 50% and have it accessible via money transfer / credit cards / debit cards etc.

There's lots of things that you can cut costs on when you find the right person, and you can always pay your way out of admin slip ups or general tardiness. A missed flight home was originally going to cost us $1500, which then dropped to $750 when they found out I worked for an NGO, then dropped to $30 when I found a doctor who could confirm that I had malaria for 24 hours.

But a hundred mile days seems optimistic. Even the more temperate East African nations are mid twenties most of the year, and roads that would allow you to ride consistently at the speed needed for that, will also be full of taxis, coaches, lorries, who won't be thinking about the safety of cyclists.

Maybe PM teddy about his bikes for africa contacts?

oooh forgot about bikes for africa. harry was working for them too as i recall!

and jonlubi, that would be so cool if you could ask your friends about that/ maybe give me an email address to get in touch with them. i haven't been able to find much about this type of ride online.

I'm not in touch any more with the one that actually dealt with Dawes, but the other guy says they did just call up and explain that they were doing the ride to raise money for a project in Tanzania building schools. They got 50% off two new rides!
I expect a lot of manufacturers would respond in a similar way - if you ARE doing the trip for charity that is, for which you would need to provide documentation/proof.
Could add a nice angle to the trip. You get to visit the people the money is helping, even hand deliver it.