| Kenya
- Cape Town '94/95, solo by bicycle... ...an unforgettable experience! See the story here: |
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It's an unforgettable experience to ride a bike through Africa! In 1994/95 it took me 7 months to make 10'180 km from the Equator in Kenya to the Cape of Good Hope, the southern tip of Africa. I wanted to be as close as possible to the wild animals and visited nearly all the National Parks along the main road between Cape Town, Harare, Zanzibar and Nairobi. Here you can find first-hand information about the dangers and the fun of such a dream-trip!
Duration:
from 14. of August 1994 to 12. April 1995
Distance:
10'180 km (6360 miles)
Countries:
Kenya – Tanzania – Malawi – Mozambique – Zimbabwe -Zambia - South Africa – Swaziland - Lesotho
Route:
Lake Bogoria – Nairobi – Arusha – Pemba Island – Zanzibar – Dar es Salaam – Mbeya – Mzuzu – Senga Bay - Tete – Harare – Kariba – Victoria Falls – Bulawayo – Nelspruit – Mbabane – Durban – Sani Pass – Aliwal North – Uitenhage – Garden Route – Cape Town - Cape of Good Hope
Visited National Parks (not all of them by bike):
Kenya: Lake Bogoria, Lake Baringo, Lake Nakuru, Massai Mara
Tanzania: Ngorongoro Crater, Mt. Kilimanjaro, Jozani Forest (Zanzibar), Mikumi
Malawi: Nyika Plateau, Lake Malawi at Senga Bay
Zimbabwe: Lake Kariba, Victoria Falls, Matopos
South Africa: Krüger, St. Lucia, Mountain Zebra, Addo Elephant, Tsitsikamma, Wilderness, Cape of G. H.
Bike:
The bike was self composed and built at a bicycle-shop called "Velociped" in Kriens, Switzerland. It's a touring-bike with 21 gears, 32 mm tires and weighs app. 11 kg.
Equipment:
Tent (1.9 kg, North Face tadpole), sleeping-bag, water-filter (never used), 3 spare tires, tools, clothes, medicine, journal, lonely-planet travel guides, 2 camera-bodies with zoom-lenses 20-35 mm, 35 - 105 mm and 100 - 300 mm. All together: 20 kg.
Read the story here!
AFRICA BIKE SAFARI from the Equator to the Cape of Good Hope |
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The journey started on the 14th of August 1994 in one of the most spectacular places on earth! Welcome to Lake Bogoria, host of the world's largest flamingo-population, where 2 millions of this specie could be encountered in 1994. Volcanic hot-springs and many other wild animals can be found as well. While riding a bike along the flamingo-crowded 30-km-lakeshore, I was almost bitten by a spitting-cobra! Take care, there are many... |
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One week later, I arrived at Lake Naivasha and spent some days at the famous Fisherman's Camp and in hell's Gate National Park. When I wanted to see the hippos by a small rudder-boat with 3 Spanish friends, a huge male attacked us. We got about 200 liters of water in the boat and almost sunk! Remember: No other animal kills more people in Africa than the hippo! |
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I escaped Nairobi alive and found myself just some kilometers south of town in an absolutely scenic, wild land! This road, the link between Nairobi and Arusha, is leading exactly through the area between the two National Parks Amboseli and Massai Mara, so this is the right road for never-scared-survival-cyclists! I saw many dead giraffes, killed by the road, a hyena (without consciousness in the middle of the road), vultures all over (waiting for my bones may be?) and many more animals! |
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Kilimanjaro: I have reached Gilman's point, 5600 m ASL, on Africa's highest peak. |
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The glaciers of Mt. Kilimanjaro. Imagine: Within the next 20 years all this ice will melt because of the greenhouse-effect and global warming! |
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Great Island: Zanzibar. Great touristic infrastructure, you get almost everything you need. Beautiful beaches and very nice local people. |
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The Zanzibar-leopard. Despite of much ignorance around biologists, this is the world's rarest cat! When I first heard about the situation of this cat and I saw the footprints, I contacted the IUCN when I got home. 15 months later, when the first biologists were finally sent to the Island for a field-study, there were no more leopards left! This is the only Zanzibar-leopard that you can see, stuffed since 1945 in the Zanzibar-museum. There's not even one picture of a living one! Special: Brown spots, eats fish and is very small! |
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Spectacular sunset on the East Coast of Zanzibar |
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"MIKUMI NATIONAL PARK, Danger, Wild Animals next 50 kms" |
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I was warned: Mikumi is full of lions! Fresh footprints along the road showed me that it must be true... |
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Inside Mikumi National Park. The excellent, new road allows not only to ride the bike fast enough... |
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... but it also makes truck- and bus-drivers drive like crazy. Every two months, an elefant is hit by a heavy vehicle! Every day, at least one zebra or gazel is a victim of road-kill. |
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Don't worry, if you sit in a bus and the breaks don't work. For sure something will stop it! This bus has just knocked down two houses, and one passenger was killed. |
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Malawi, the heart of Africa. Even in Africa's second poorest country you can find an excellent main road, connecting the North with the South. The only thing you won't find on it: traffic. One car every five minutes, that's Malawi's rush-hour! |
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This poor country is rich inside its Lake Malawi. In this, nearly 800 kms long lake, more than 200 species of fish are hunted and exported into Aquariums all over the world. 24 hours after leaving the fish-farm in Senga Bay, the fish already arrives by air-freight at the fish-dealer in Amsterdam, Zürich or New York, alive! |
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Malawi suffered a big drought in 1994 / 95, so people had to kill this hippo because it ate all the crops he found in people's gardens. Smoked hippo - the first time I had meat in Malawi since weeks! |
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Malawi's HIV-rate is one of the highest of the world, reaching more than 20 %. Still the death-rate is highest for diarrea and even malaria kills more people than HIV. But because a woman has an average of 8 children, the population-rate doesn't sink. I don't even want to imagine how my favourite country will look like in ten years... |
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The poorest country of the world is Mozambique, unemployment reaching 98%. The 17-years-long war just ended in 1991, but it wasn't wise in 1994 to cross the tete-corridor by bike. So I hitchhicked by truck.
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These 240 kms took me three hours, without stopping. The villages looked like they looked 10'000 years ago. I've never seen such a poor land, where many houses don't even have walls, where a whole generation of people has never gone to school. |
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What a shock, another culture in Zimbabwe. Great, very developed country! My favourite place: Kariba. In this little town you can see elephants walking around during dry-season, in November / December. |
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Every year about 10 people are killed in Kariba by wild animals, half of them by elephants, another half by buffalos. In this campground, the dangerous males walked around the tents in the night. |
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If you approach an elephant too close, it will attack you. Don't run away, it's faster anyway. I've seen people shouting at young males to scare them away! Want to try? Go to Kariba! |
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Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe / Sambia |
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The world's only National Park where you can enter by bike and see wild rhinos: Matopos, near Bulawayo. |
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Like soaring in the Drakensberge in South Africa? The glider-club of Underberg can offer you a cheap flight every week-end. |
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Climbing Africa's highest street, the Sani-Pass, 2900 m. ASL. This is the Southern border between South Africa and Lesotho. |
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Trough the Karoo in the middle of South Africa... |
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Tsitsikamma National Park, Garden Route, South Africa. |
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When I finally reached Cape Town, I made it on the front page of the Argus, Cape Town's Newspaper. "The Swiss ciclyst has finally reached C.T., after 10'000 kms..." |
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The highlight of my trip: Just on the last day, one day before my flight was booked, I could participate in the world's largest cicyling-race, called Argus. The beautifull trip led 105 kms around the Cape of Good Hope, and 25'000 ciclysts joined the event, including me! What a coinsidence! |
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10'180 kms, 25 punctures, 9 countries, 7 months, 4 changed tires and 3 animal-attacks, since Lake Bogoria... Cape of Good Hope - finish on 14th of April 1995 |
Interested in cycling through Africa? Be careful and just do it!
Need information's about the road? |
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| Danger because of wild animals? | |
| What about crime? | |
| What languages are spoken? | |
| Which National Parks are open to bicycles? |
For more informations contact Lajos Jozsa: wave@freesurf.ch