Zoom in to see exact roads we have biked. We were very happy to get back on our tandem again. Prior to that, 3 days were spent getting ourselves to Kigoma from Dodoma on a train and another 4 to fully recover from unknown fever symptoms. In the meantime I took care of our troubled rear wheel – had to true and re-tension the spokes again. We have also managed to find a rather rare battery for our film camera. We felt very ready for our next adventure! We estimated that the road ahead of us won’t be easy, but that is the main reason we wanted to ride it!…
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Tandem touring “the real Africa”. From Arusha to Kigoma, Tanzania
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…
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The Travelers
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…
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Zebra butts & more – from Nairobi to Arusha on a bicycle
Nairobi The sweet encounters with wildlife on the way around Lake Elementeita and the Reteti Elephant Sanctuary experience made us change our mind about visiting Tsavo Parks in Kenya. By the time we reached Nairobi we’ve seen a bunch of zebras, some giraffes, buffalo, pumba (warthogs), monkeys… And baby elephants! But we couldn’t leave Africa without seeing full size elephants, lions or cheetahs… So we thought we’ll go to Nairobi National Park and see all those that we haven’t seen. It’s a small park so it should be crawling with life! Well, guess what, we were driving around for half a day, occasionally spotting some herbivores and rushing to the…
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Having fun on epic Kenyan roads and human-like baby elephants
Last two weeks we were cycling a lot. This was the longest stretch of cycling without having a day off.After we have reached Kisumu we found a nice mini apartment where lovely hosts “tricked” us into staying there for 6 days. They were so nice by showing us around and the area was so tranquil that we kept extending our stay at Kisumu. After lots off lazying around and eating many kilograms of sweets we felt that we had enough and it’s time to hit the road again. We also walked around and did some very cool kayaking in Victoria lake. Saw happy hipos and kingfishers. I think our first…
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Re-building our rear wheel and chasing a spoke tensiometer in Nairobi, Kenya
After some intensive but very fun riding glorious Kenyan roads, our robust bike started to fail evantually. More specifically, rear rim started cracking and failing. Rear tire also was shredded to its last threads and barely managed to survive until we have reached Nairobi. Knowing where we were riding and that we carried some 160 kg more than your regular bicycle I tend to think that the wheel has served well. I am not sure if it’s just Kenyan phonomenon (as I have heard Tanzania is the same way), but most likely, the less developed country the rougher the roads are. Some people we have met claim that in West…
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Into abundance: Turkana to Kisumu
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,…
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Crossing Ethiopian – Kenyan border and cycling in Turkana, Kenya
After a brutal 4 day ride we have finally reached our first bigger civilization in 3 weeks. Lodwar is a provincial capital of Turkana County and its biggest town. We are in Kenya. Kenya and Lodwar gave us a few “firsts”! Here we have tried a first yogurt in two months. We were asked for a bribe and reluctantly gave one, also very first 🙂 The bribe. The worst is that later I found out this bribe/fee was completely unnecessary for our proceedings and we could have simply refused one. I guess it is same in most cases with the bribe giving. Kenya – Ethiopia border crossing at Todonyang does…
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Cycling the rough roads of South Omo, Ethiopia
Omo Valley is a remote tribal region tucked in South Western corner of Ethiopia. It is rapidly changing though. Various mega agricultural and hydropower projects plus ever expanding tourism sector is inevitably changing the face of the Omo Valley region. One young Karo (tribe known for its intricate body painting rituals Korcho man told us that even some 10 years ago their village did not had any bars. He probably saw his first white person only at the age of 9 (he is 24 now). Nowadays his Korcho village hosts at least two bars powered by diesel generators with music mercilessly blasting popular Ethiopian music and probably at least ten…
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Chasing wolves in Bale Mountains. 6 day brake from cycling.
But it is all about money, or maybe about not knowing what to do with one’s money, or maybe nothing is complete, or maybe… Our guide Mohamed knows a thing or two about money and about the meaning of life. He definitely knows about Bale. Born and raised in Bale. Now I am blanking on how many years he works as a guide, definitely more than 7. I believe he told once that 10 years. He is 33 years old. Bale Mountains National Park is a vast plateau with its peaks and valleys that was our next destination. We wanted to hike, to backpack far and deep, to loose people,…
