I didn’t have far left to go to exit Nigeria, but it would turn out to be a challenging enough day, that left me and the bike soaked and covered in mud!

Continue reading “Benin and Togo” →

I left Bali (not that Bali) and continued following the road’s big loop around the mountains. I’d made it across the potentially dangerous border zone but Nigeria still had corrupt police and kidnapping gangs to be wary of.

Continue reading “Nigeria part 2” →

Nigeria and Cameroon share a long border. In the coastal region, there’s unrest due to anglophone separatists. Further inland, Boko Haram wage their jihad on both sides of the border. Between these crisis zones there’s one semi-open border crossing, high in the mountains. That’s where I was headed.

Continue reading “Nigeria (Part 1)” →

It was an even more misty morning than usual when I started cycling toward Bitam, the last town on the Gabonese side of the border.

Continue reading “Cameroon” →

I thought it was drizzling when I woke up. It wasn’t; it’s just so humid that water was condensing on to the tree leaves above me and then falling off. It’s called a rainforest for a reason.

Continue reading “Gabon” →

After six slow, bumpy kilometres I arrived in the village of Ndalatando, the last village in the DRC. As I rode toward the immigration office, a man stopped me in the street and told me he was the immigration chief. Right from the start he seemed angry and unfriendly.

Continue reading “Congo-Brazzaville” →

Back in Uganda, I looked over into the DRC and said it’d be about 15,000km before I got there. It’s been a little over 14,000km – so not a bad guess! The DRC is a huge country but I’ll just be cycling across a small part of it, the narrow corridor that links the vast interior to the coast.

Continue reading “The Democratic Republic of the Congo” →

I realised that at the rate I was going, I’d reach Angola’s capital, Luanda, on a Friday and therefore be stuck waiting over the weekend. I decided to pick up the pace and aimed to arrive on Thursday instead.

Continue reading “Northern Angola” →

After an hour or so of riding I reached the town of Cahama. Though it was the largest town I’d been in for a week or so it was still pretty small, with no shop larger than a minimarket. I didn’t stop there long before riding on, along the quiet main road.

Continue reading “Inner Tube Drama” →

After a bit of a slow start I set off around nine. This part of Northern Namibia had a couple of similarities to the rest of the country: it was flat and there was a headwind. Otherwise, it was quite different. The road was unfenced! Trees were dotted around, giving good shade. The grass between them was kept short by herds of cattle or goats, watched over mostly by children. Occasional small patches were planted with crops, mostly maize.

Continue reading “Angolan Desert” →