Once Elvis heard that we want to ride some roads that would take us further away from populated areas, he said – “let me bring my map”. He pulled out his foldable paper map. You could see that the map was well used, he traveled all Tanzania with it. Elvis is a local conservationist who does a lot of scouting and route planning. He showed us some areas south of Arusha where we could take small gravel roads all the way to Dodoma. We got really excited and the next morning off we went. The small gravel roads that took us deep into the bush were very good quality except…

Today we sat down with Alex from Germany. We have talked about the other Alex, also about Hanz, Kelvin then Henry and a couple of other people. Paul and Julie Moments earlier we had a pleasure to spend some time together with Paul and Julie. It was inspiring and stimulating. Yesterday, while sitting quietly in our safari 4×4 I was listening to Lio’s travel intinerary. He is from Japan and currently is traveling Africa as a part of his world tour.LioOr Bev – we had a pleasure to share one beautiful afternoon in Nairobi couple of weeks ago. Also Margie’s daughter is naturally curious and adventurous young lady from our…

With a couple of weeks in a relatively remote South Omo Valley in Ethiopia warming us up for the 4-day stretch in a truly remote west Turkana in Kenya we learned what water insecurity means, how nearest power lines 100 km away affect the quality of life, what sand does to your buggers, and what daily 40 degrees Celsius in a shade feels like. As an add on, common things we are used to seeing morphed into new shapes and meanings. Goats The stretch of Omo Valley up to Omorate was just an introduction to the realities of the Turkana. There are a few things in abundance here: sun, sand,…

As we move further towards our next destination – Bale Mountains National Park – we discover a completely different Oromo. Same Ethiopia, even same federal region (Oromo), but our cycling experience changed with each kilometer we pedaled South. We took Adama – Dinsho highway that goes straight South via Asella town. It is a very good quality paved road. It’s elevation profile is much friendlier for cyclists than our previous route to Harar. You still get hills and plenty of climbing but as you cross the Rift Valley you also get stretches of flat(ish) riding via lush farmlands and some distant mountains in your side view. It reminded us pretty…

Captain’s thoughts We are little over two weeks in this unique country. First thing – cycling is really hard here. It is a very mountainous terrain. Every direction which is further than 100 km you will have to do some continuous climbing. On a loaded tandem bicycle climbing is always slow, on your lowest gear. This slow speed inevitably allows all the local children to not only run by your side but also to investigate what is in your panniers, or have a lot of fun while trying to provoke you for racing with them. If you happen to be sensitive to touching and constant attention, well, this might be…

1. Visa. We land from Istanbul on Monday, just around midnight, so it’s nearly Tuesday. We had 7th row seats so we’re pretty much the first to get off the plane and come to the visa-on-arrival windows. Well, guess what, we overlooked that Lithuanian passport is good for e-visa but not for one at the airport. We are nicely asked to fill out the electronic application using a great Wi-Fi at the airport. Then we are taken to their office to wait for approval. The problem is, it’s midnight and consular officers are asleep. After several call attempts to their main office, we’re being told it may take until 12…

After just two hours of sleep and eyes wide open you wander if the day has started already? It’s just a little bit after midnight. It’s pitch dark outside, most of your 17 million neighbors are still asleep. Do you follow their call for some quiet and rest? Should you tamper with almost uncontrollable flow of ruthless reciting of everything what happened yesterday, day before yesterday? Just 4 days ago you were kneeling on the Lake Shore Drive bike trail, looking closely at the bike’s crank arm and trying to figure out how to mount the pedal back. Kindness of the universe was already manifesting itself in newly acquired friend,…