Dave Conroy's Blog, page 3

Digital Panhandling

Digital Panhandling
Posted on: Monday, September 30th, 2013 at 2:30pm

Lately over the past few months I’ve been noticing a disturbing alarming trend on the internet from people who have embarked on long-term journeys on a bicycle (and I’m sure this is occurring with other methods of movement). It’s becoming more frequent, and I felt it was time to stand up and voice my opinion publicly in an attempt to open some discussion with others. I call it Digital Panhandling. Surely this is going to cause some commotion, but what do I have to lose?

Services like Indiegogo, Kickstarter, GoFundme are sites setup for inventors, idea makers, product designers, to use as a mechanism to gauge interest on a tangible project/object, offering interested parties to “Back” the project by providing payment hereby showing their support. They call this crowd-funding, and some amazing products by independent designers have had their chance to make it to the market, giving customers and tech seekers alternate products offered by the major dominating corporations. We’ve seen museums been built to honour the late Nikola Tesla, Computer games, and then there is even projects for hungry bicycle tourists wanting to cook delicious recipes. Obviously Crowd funding works. People want to back new and wild ideas and it’s more often than not the initial fund target are well met, and sometimes doubled, tripled and then some. If you have an idea, try it out!

Here’s where it gets weird. Some (no names required, I don’t want to single anyone out) bicycle tourists have been using this service as a mechanism to support and fund their bicycle trip. OK – great, You have a huge following, and you’ve decided to embark on a long journey. If you are raising money for a cause, fantastic – Your readers should expect to see some sort of financials and proof that the money collected is going to the intended destination. I’ve got no issues with that sort of thing, I’ve crowd funded even on this website in the past, but won’t do it again for reasons I’d care not to discuss at this time. What I’m talking about are ones who are not providing anything in return other than a thanks to help them live the dream by riding a bicycle long distances, staying in hotels, eating food, and drinking beer. What’s going on here?

First off – If you are setting off on a long journey, and you don’t have the money to do so in the first place – have you thought long and hard about your idea? Bicycle Touring is hard work, you need to put a lot of food in you, invest in a significant amount of equipment and be ready for anything to come at you, most of the time this needs money. In 2009, I planned that I would need on average $15 USD a day to make it around the world, over the course of three years. Well, I’m well past the three-year mark, and my estimations are still pretty on track. You can visit my Statistics page and see just how much I’m spending (even though some of these numbers are skewed, as I refused to note how much money I was spending on cigars and cigarettes). But definitely, am on track due to careful monitoring of my funds and budget. Living cheaply, spending time with locals, using hospitality networks for lodging, and sleeping in the bush has drastically kept my expenses down. Yeah, it’s a lifestyle change, and it takes work to keep it together, but isn’t what we signed up for? But still, I’ve even asked for help when I’ve needed it – I’m trying to keep my costs down and look into alternate solutions to get parts and products to and from different parts of the world, as the shipping costs equate to a full 2 months of bicycle touring. Something I can’t justify, being the penny pincher that I am. If it gets to that point where there is no option but deal with those high shipping prices, I guess that’s something I’m going to have to swallow eventually, but it doesn’t hurt to try to put some effort into finding contacts who may be able to assist. I’m not saying that what I’m doing is write, especially when you read the end of this and find out that I’ve got my own mechanism in place here.

My issue is those who have “exhausted all other avenues of income generation” and turn to crowd funding to support their lifestyle. The funds requested are huge, some in the 5 figures, yet seem to be bringing in backers daily to realize their dream. It’s great that people want to help, but it’s certainly not doing anything good for the reputation of long-term bicycle tourists who saved their money, sold their possessions, and budgeted along the way to make sure the trip was going to finish. I’ve seen it first hand, when setting forth on an epic journey with another traveler. When faced with a minor meltdown, I watched an online pouting session to fund the replacements, when so early on in the trip they had more than enough funds in order to repair it in the first place. I let them go on their own the next day.

Here’s an avenue, go back home and live with your parents (no matter how old you are) and work for 1 year – See how much money you have saved throughout that year and recommence the journey. Another bit of advice – It’s really not that hard to make money while on the road. Meeting people along the way who need help doesn’t need to be always about currency. Write reviews on your website of your gear, and create partnerships with various manufacturers and retailers so then when you blow a tire you can get it at a cheaper cost. Trade some labour/skills for food/water/lodging. It’s easier to the person requiring as it’s something they already had in the first place, and both parties feel satisfied that an effort was put forth to assist some ones needs. Offering the opportunity to one of your “backers” the ability to come riding with you and ‘become a part of the journey’. $600 dollars to take someone around on a bicycle for two days with their own gear is about $600 too much. Bring them along for free – let them discover the joys of bicycle touring without having to feel like it’s a high-priced ticket to the upper echelon of the elite. We’re guys (and gals) who like being outdoors, crave adventure, and enjoy challenges. Not superstars.

A can of jam, a spreadsheet chronicling how big your muscles changed,nor a postcard does not equate to a tangible product to support an extra long vacation/self centered adventure, and I’ve become quite bitter at the fact that it’s being used this way over and over again, repeatedly. I can’t tell you to not support them, as that’s your own perogative. But it certainly doesn’t mesh well into my mechanics and upbringing, where I had to bust my ass as early as 8 years old to get what I wanted.. Write a book, sell a calendar, sell your photos, for gosh sake put some effort into it. What’s happening now is no better than someone sitting on the side of the road with a cardboard sign looking morose and hoping to capitalize from pity alone. I fail to see where those who left careers from working in IT (what’s that a minimum of $40,000 all the way to over $100,000 a year), working as doctors (*cough* six figure salaries anyone?),  artists, photographers, and inventors (all make their own respective set of income based on the amount of effort put forth) have really messed up that badly and don’t have any money to put food in their guts.

The problem is, is that these cries for help are working, and I think this is only going to get worse. This spoiled way of travel is going to become more popular, with those who think they are greater than oneself ‘truly changing the world’ by going on a bike ride. It’s not that hard. It’s ridiculous, in insult to those who know how to plan, budget, and know when to admit defeat, or at least put things on pause, in order to realign priorities and finances without having to be some sort of cheap bum pretending that it’s a matter of life or death if you don’t get to your destination. Give it a rest?

Ironically, I’ve got a donate button hidden away on this site. I battled back and forth in August of 2011 if I should put it online after repeated pestering from friends. Am I pushing it hard and in your face, no, not so much. Do I make anything from it? A couple bucks a month, where it goes directly into a beer fund, and I send the donator a gift, a thanks, or a copy of a product I’ve created. I don’t need the money, So should I still keep it up?  Am I just throwing myself into the same category with the “like the blog, buy me a beer” to the “Fund my Vacation?” Am I too harsh on this?? Am I just jealous that I didn’t think or this master plan to pad a bank account before anyone else did?  I’d love to hear your comments.  You’ll decide the fate of where this is going in the future.

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Things I wish someone told me before setting off on a World Tour

Things I wish someone told me before setting off on a World Tour
Posted on: Saturday, September 28th, 2013 at 3:04pm

I’ve had a lot of time to think over the past few years, cycling solo and making do with what life throws at me, hopefully prepared with the massive amount of gear that gets hauled along for the journey, up the hills, down the hills, packed and repacked daily. In fact, I didn’t really know what to expect about world travel before I actually set out and did it. All the times that I was waiting for it to occur my mind was creating vivid fairy-tales and assumptions when certain scenarios occurred. It turns out I was dead wrong. I wish someone took me aside and told me these things before setting out on a long term bicycle journey. I feel it’s my duty to share what I’ve picked up along the way -

1. Water Filtration

I’ve been hauling this damn MSR Miniworks EX Filter with me for 4 years now. First, My mentality was that I should get used to the extra space and weight it has when I was in “safe” areas, and then when I came to what were known as “unsafe” areas, I still didn’t use it. This thing has been patiently sitting in my trunk bag adding 1lb onto my daily gear. Even worse, I even bought the annual maintenance kit for it thinking It would need servicing! Leave the filter for people who are trekking in the worlds and canoeing.

MSR MiniWorks EX Microfilter

Price: $78.45

(140 customer reviews)

My reasoning: Water is everywhere. It’s the key of life. Everyone’s drinking it, and if they aren’t, they are dead. It doesn’t matter if it’s in a 1st world, 2nd world, 3rd world country – it’s there. You might have to look harder for it, but trust me, if there is life, there is water. Bottled water is absolutely everywhere, and can be found in huge 5 litre containers or more at places where there are stores. Most locals have access to boreholes, underground manual water pumps, and streams with decent water. If you are really that far away from civilization that you have no access to water for more than a day, I think you need to get out of that area entirely and stop torturing yourself. If you are unsure of the water, boil it. Even better, if the water in the area is really bad, you’ll find drops in the shops for the water anyways! Sure, if you don’t you run a risk of a waterborne illness, and if you don’t filter it, it may be cloudy and sediment, but how Is that different from you already farting in your shorts all day long and not following proper hygiene in the first place?

My solution: Carry as much as you can, ask the locals where the water source is, and press when they say they are only drinking bottled water. You’ll eventually find out where it’s coming from and be able to judge accordingly what you want to do to treat it. Invest in some larger water bottle cages on your bike that hold 1.5 litre bottles like these BBB Fuel Tank XL ones. Topeak also offers similar products, but don’t seem to have the same quality latching mechanism, and I don’t support Topeak due to their snarky customer service, anyways.

BBB bike bottle holder water bottle cage Fueltank XL matt black

Price: $21.17

(0 customer reviews)

Topeak Modula Cage XL Waterbottle Cage

Price: $12.09

(11 customer reviews)

Finally, if that’s not enough, invest in a large water carrying device, like the MSR Dromedary. It comes in 2,4,6,10 litre sizes – is tough (4 years and I’ve yet to pop the damn thing) and is easy to clean. I have owned the 10 litre in the past, and found it to be too large (and heavy! full is 20lb) for my needs and have since scaled down to the 6 litre unit which has gotten me through Canada’s Arctic, Namibia’s Deserts, and long times without seeing civilization There’s even an attachment where you can use it as a shower to wash yourself off at the end of the day. I put it on my rear rack, and let the other gear sit ontop of it. Works fine.

MSR Dromedary Bag with Fill Handle, 4 Liter (Black)

Price: $32.57

(74 customer reviews)

And if all else fails, you could drink your own pee.

2. Power Adapters

All of my components are suitable for running either at 5V 500mA (USB, to be charged from a computer or for a battery), or capable of of running wall AC Voltages from 110-240, meaning they will work around the world without exploding. The problem is, the plugs don’t work in every socket around the world! Heaven forbid you get to the other side of the world and not be able to use your components.

My reasoning: Well, first off, you aren’t the only one travelling to this remote place. Second of all, people do import products from other parts of the world for usage in these areas. So that $20 “Travel Adapter” to let you plug your components into the wall properly? Forget about it. It’s too heavy, likely to fall out of the crappy wall socket you are to plug it into, and horribly overpriced.

My solution: Walk into any store and show them your plug. Then point at the wall. You don’t even need to know the language. The locals buy the same adapter for half of a dollar. Even better – They come with 3 outlets, so you can plug more stuff into!. If that’s not enough, you can even find power bars with 4-6-10 outlets that will take any plug as well! All for less than what you paid for that silly adapter.

 

3. International Warranties for Products

I spent a huge amount of money on a tent, advertised to be guaranteed ‘for life’. I also bought a set of parts that were meant to last for up to 3 years before replacement. Also, adding onto that, I bought an electronic device that offered a global warranty, no questions asked. For a world traveller, a warranty is important. After all, you are likely to be unemployed, wanting to get as much value for your purchase, and wanting to invest in quality components. Even the best go wrong sometimes. I’m not rethinking just exactly what I buy, after being accepted for service for my failed parts, only to find out that shipping the products at my expense and back from the manufacturer is often half or 3/4 of the parts.

My reasoning: Parts fail, but usually after a certain period of time. Your manufacturer is going to solve the problem and get it back to you, while you are still stuck with the same unit which is likely to develop further problems as it ages, goes through wear and tear, or just decides to flat out break. These things happen. You can keep sending it back to the manufacturer at extended cost, be without your parts for who knows, and then jump through the rigmarole of dealing with import duties and customs (“Honest, it’s a warranty replacement!” – I dare you to try it in an area where no one understands you). Just to be back on your feet.

My Solution: I don’t really have one. Sometimes you need these parts, and the components that you buy in your remote location are often inferior, too heavy, not suitable for the conditions, or just don’t work well whatsoever. To put it bluntly, in my experience to get replacements I’ve had to settle with cheap run off crap from China. Sure, all products come from China right? Well, this stuff must come from the nether regions where they’ve been saving it for the right time to dump it on a society. Often, the parts are so horribly overpriced anyways, It’s maybe easier to just suck it up, deal with the shipping costs, or find alternate solutions.

4. Spare Parts

3 chains, 3 spare tires, 10 tubes, 5 puncture repair kits, 3 brake cables, nearly 500mL of lubrication, 50 screws/washers/nuts, extra cycling shorts, shirts, socks, pants – You know everything I need as a spare when something breaks, I can continue moving at the same quality and style I’ve been accustomed to in the past, all at the expense of more hassle, heavier weight, not to mention. Is it necessary? Well, like above, sometimes it is necessary to have spares when faced with disaster. But is it really necessary?

My reasoning: Again, you haven’t been dropped in a barren wasteland, where satellites have snapped photos of the geography. Everything in this world has been explored, and you are certainly not breaking ground here. If you are, it’s likely a foolish move and you are going to get pissed off, hate yourself for trying it, and likely run out of water, and have to drink your own pee.

My Solution: You’ll get by, but having to take some sacrifices along the way while waiting for replacement parts to come from other parts of the world. But instead of paying for the high prices of shipping, look to see if there are travellers/business people coming over into your region. Most of the time these people are more than happy to help an intrepid adventurer like yourself, you gain a friend, and the parts make it past the duty and import restrictions if you were to pay for shipping! Services Like Couchsurfing are for the backpackers/wanderers/travellers, Facebook usually has groups setup for the location you are heading to (Hint: Try Searching for “Expats” and the Country name, and then there are also services like Internations, And Expat Blog. Which may help. Or you can send an email to all your friends and find out if they know someone in the area. Finally, you can cry out for help on your blog, like I do sometimes. Anyways, it’s not the end of the world. You aren’t “stranded”. Just take it how it comes and get creative with what’s available locally.

5. Staying in Touch

Heading away on a long term journey shouldn’t mean disappearing from the world – right? After all, you are likely blogging about it, posting photos on sites, and even knee deep in Social Media. But you should really call your Mom. Your Dad too! It’s pretty important to have a lifeline on this globe even if you wish to be nomadic and pretend that you were magically transplanted as is onto this earth with no prior teachings by humans. You should have a device for communication.

My reasoning: For the first few years, it was exactly that – No phone, and any communication was done on a computer, via email, or voice applications over the internet. That’s fine, but eventually you are also going to meet other people. You are also going to have to call someone eventually. Payphones? A relic of the past. Sure, in some villages they exist, but not in the way that one would expect, and walking up to a stranger to ask them to use their phone is just weird. Going to an Internet Café is frustrating, virus laden, and often slower than molasses as you sweat it out with a dozen other people all frantically mashing the reload key in hopes of it displaying that one more line of data. Even if you’ve got a laptop and plug in, you are tied to this one location, and that kind of stinks.

Buy a Phone: They are everywhere. And Unlike the USA and Canada where phones are locked to a certain provider so you are tied to their subpar service for 3 years at a time, these phones will work on any network around the world. You can even get one for $10. OK, that’s going to do basic calling and frustrate you trying to send a short message to another person, but if you throw another $20 or $30 dollars at it you can get yourself a smartphone that will get you to make calls, and get you onto the internet, and most usually – even let you use it’s internet connection for your laptop or other devices! Cellular services are cheap in other parts of the world that haven’t been gobbled up by Western Mentality. Developing nations where there is no traditional line and central office termination points often are years ahead in technology at a fraction of the cost. Go walk into a shop, pick up a phone, buy a SIM Card, and add some credit to the phone, you are ready to go! A note however – If you are going to just go and buy a bundle of a predetermined amount of data, you are likely going to not get that good of a deal. Lesser privileged people than you who don’t have the same amount of money also need to get on the internet right? They also need to make calls and send text messages right? Find the combination packages from the provider that usually offers a wealth of minutes, messages, and a large amount of internet good for a day or a week at a time. You’ll find it’s usually 1/5th of the cost of the data plan alone, and if for some reason you hit the limit before it expires, just go and buy another SIM Card. In this day and age, SMSing is being replaced by data messaging services which, after the initial setup is independent of what SIM Card/number it is using. I bet your Mom or Dad even has Skype/WhatsApp too to avoid the high cost of International calling.

 

6. Currency

Wondering how I was going to going to deal with the differences in currency I always made sure I had backup spare US Dollars with me at any given moment. Hiding them in the handlebars or in a bag just heightens your risk, and you always fear that someone is going to find your hiding spot. Emergency US currency will get you nowhere in a village or small town when the locals have no idea how to deal with the bill in question. If they do, get ready for 20% of it to be used as “exchange fee”. Travellers Cheques are impossible to cash – There are better ways.

My Solution: You can’t get away from Foreign Exchange fees, but you can find ways to combat it. I’m a big fan of using my credit card while travelling. Not only is it accepted for payment at shops and restaurants (in small underdeveloped countries and villages not so much), but it’s a must for withdrawing funds out of an ATM. Try to use your Bank issued Debit card to withdraw funds, and find that it won’t work, or if it does, you get hit with a huge withdrawal fee, and other charges. I’ve found that in my scenario, if I preload my Visa Card with funds so that I have a Surplus, I can withdraw those funds directly from an ATM while not being charged withdrawal, cash advance, or any other fees but currency exchange. This by far is the cheapest most suitable option if visiting many countries at once. Take a bit extra out if you know you are heading to a country, most of the time you are not going to get that bad of a deal from the currency exchange houses close to the new border, and even from the shady sellers even closer to the border who want to exchange money for you. You might even luck out and be able to swap some of those USD that you are still carrying with you because you don’t agree with my solution. Problem solved, you have a small amount of currency for the new country, until being able to source out an ATM. There’s a bonus to using a card – Your family if need be can find out where you last looked for money if you’ve still decided to go off the deep end and not make any contact with anyone for long periods of time. You can even trade some of your things to the locals in exchange for phone service, food, lodging. The locals don’t have the access to the cool stuff that you carry around, and are more than happy to trade something so that they can be a new owner of your goods. I make sure I carry a couple trinkets with me at any time and successfully trade them when the time is right, with no currency exchanged at all. You are likely to get more value from this approach, and both parties are going to go away happy.

 

7. Transit Visas

Sometimes you arrive at a border, and there is no problem with entry – No fee, just a stamp in your passport and maybe a check of your immunizations, and off you go. Other times, it involves an entry visa, accompanied with a currency exchange, giving you access to visit the country for a period of time, say 90 days. But what if you are only visiting for 7 days? Still, that 90 days is what they give you. And most of the time it means that if you leave the country, you need to pay the high fee just to come back in, unless of course you purchase the much more expensive “Multiple Entry” visa. Crazy right?

My Solution: If you are on a journey, and you know you aren’t going to get lazy and stay in a country until the very last day (it happens, trust me) you are allowed to be in it for, you can always find out and see if the country offers such things as a “Transit” Visa. For Example – in the coming weeks I need to cross into Burundi, on my way to Tanzania. I’ve already been to Burundi, have mixed reviews on it, and am really only passing through because I know the road in Tanzania getting to my destination is poor and will drive me crazy. Burundi charges me $80 USD to enter their country for 30 days, and $30 USD for 3 days, as I am just passing through. The transit time is shorter, but I will have no problem getting into Tanzania, where again I’ll purchase a transit visa for the cost of $30, which is valid for 2 weeks, as opposed to the 90 day visa at $50. I have no intentions of staying any longer in either of the countries, as I am passing through on my way to Zambia. Time it properly and you can save considerable amounts of money on your visas if you are hell-bent on getting to a destination, and don’t feel like deviating from your plan and exploring the countries for longer than anticipated.

 

8. Drugs

Watch out for this, watch out for that, if you don’t take this your whole body is going to turn to liquefied puss! So they say, and fine, some drugs are necessary. It’s up to you if you want to take drugs for Malaria, it’s up to you if you want to take drugs for worms, but when the time comes, you are going to need them when some superbug comes along and demobilizes you. Should I get them all at home before going somewhere else first?

My Reasoning: Buy the drugs where you are. If you are in the west, I can guarantee you that you are getting ripped of. Case in point I at one point wanted to make sure I had Anti Malarial Pills (Doxycyclene). The Doctor, for 90 days wanted to charge me $70 for the unit. Then I also wanted to carry enough for 4 cycles of Ciprofloxacin for those extra crazy moments, to the cost of $130. I held off as I thought the cost itself was insane, and bough everything I needed, along with a couple other goodies to be used when things got a little bit hairy for under $8. You don’t need prescriptions – just do your research and know what you are putting in your body. If you’ve been sitting on the saddle to long, you can even pick up a 4 pack of Viagra for under $2 if that’s your thing. Don’t wear spandex for 12 hours, k?

Hopefully these little tidbits of info I’ve picked up along the way can set your mind at ease. Do you have any more Gotchas that you’ve picked up along the way on a long term journey?

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I need help. You might be able to!

I need help. You might be able to!
Posted on: Thursday, September 26th, 2013 at 10:54am

Guys – I need some international help here. For some reason, September is kicking my ass and I’m going through major equipment failures. I don’t want your money – I want your connections. I desperately need to find a few people who are traveling from different parts of the world to areas in Africa that I’ll be in the next few months – I’ve had a wheel meltdown (no front brakes, and I happen to be in Rwanda and Burundi soon where I hit a max of 83km a few months back), my tent is beyond repair – Poles snapped, Zippers Failed, and my laptop no longer works with warranty already gone on the unit, but the company nice enough to extend it for a few weeks.

What I am looking for – Someone coming over from the UK/EU Zone into Rwanda/Burundi in the next 3 weeks – OR – Zambia in next 2 months. Also, someone coming over from USA to the above. Also, someone in Africa heading down to South Africa – and if luck has it, someone coming back up into Zambia from anywhere in South Africa.

The reason why I ask this is that shipping for laptop ($400+), new tent ($200), and new wheel ($250) is out of control – almost $1000 for shipping when the parts are worth half of that (I also don’t have those types of funds at present) . I Was hoping someone would be able to bring a few things along with them, and I’d be forever happy – At present this is going to stall, if not end my travels for the foreseeable future – Please ask your friends, relatives, VSOs, Peace Corp Volunteer Friends, Travelers, Trekkers, Overlanders, Whomever for me. Thanks.

Please share this with others if you can.

This is the least of my problems. Along with a front wheel that cannot use brakes and is likely to shatter at any time. A tent that doesn’t close and lets bugs and water in, and a computer that is rapidly running out of warranty and the abilty to have it repaired, I’m calling out readers to see if they know anyone who is coming to Zambia, Rwanda, Burundi in the near future, or someone who is going from Zambia to South Africa, and Visa Versa. I appreciate any leads that I can follow up on. — -Dave

 

 

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Return to Rwanda

Return to Rwanda

Return to Rwanda
Posted on: Thursday, September 26th, 2013 at 9:05am

I’m so very pleased to be back in Kigali, the capital city of the small country of Rwanda. Like my previous visit three months earlier, I’m consistently blown away by how different this country is compared to the other African, and even worldly neighbours. It’s odd being able to hear jets landing again, as opposed to 108% music being blasted from moving ad vehicles, bars, and any store that has a large sound system. It’s even more strange to look on the ground and not find it littered with garbage, I’ve yet to even find a cigarette butt no matter how hard I try. This is where our world should be going.
I spent my last few days cycling out of Tanzania, where the hills became steeper, and the villages seemed to disappear, where 60km of riding would be common before seeing any signs of life. It’s also a huge animal and wildlife sanctuary, which actually makes for some boring riding. The music blasts and I lose myself to thought as the kilometres stack up. Eventually I found myself at the Rusomo Tanzanian/Rwandan border crossing – an exercise in frustration going back and forth to get my entrance stamp, pay the visa fee, deal with customs, etc. Although I am pleased to say that I was able to make it through without printing my entrance visa as they asked for in their email. I decided I’d push the limits and keep it on my phone for the border guard to look at. He commented briefly on why I didn’t have it, and my response of “wanting to save the environment and keep less litter in Rwanda” seemed agreeable to him. 2 hours later, I was riding in remarkably different road conditions, and the people appeared – Do recall Rwandan has the most population density of any African country, so it’s hard to find solace when you need to pull over to the side of the road and take a leak.

I’d been chatting with someone via a hospitality network for a few months, and after a few failed meetups in various cities I made the decision about heading into their town of Kibungo (Chee-Boon-goo). With the border guards explaining it was 45km away, my friend stating the same, yet the GPS telling me that it was 60km, I moved forward anyways, knowing that I had to move the entire time to make it to the destination before dark. Not a problem, until I recalled that Rwanda is made of up hills, and there is rarely any flat sections whatsoever in the entire country. At the 48km mark I had 10 minutes of light left, and I scrambled into action of finding a place to sleep in a small village. The entire community staring at me, not understanding what I was saying, with the drunkards at the bar making assess out of themselves I rode up a rocky hill until I found a gorup of children, explaining crudely that I needed to sleep. No problem! Down the hill we went and I found myself being welcomed into a house of a young family, curious about my travels. Language Barriers are big, but we worked it out, that I could keep my bicycle inside, but use my tent _outside_ for temperature reasons, and I would be gone in the morning. A crowd of 30 stayed nearby as I pitched the tent (and for the first time ever, snapped a tent pole! another problem!), made dinner, and settled off to sleep. In the morning, the family appeared, showing me the problem with the mother’s/wife’s hand. The thumb was the size of a sausage, and looked like it had gangrene on it. They asked if I could help, and the best I could do was clean up any of the ooze, hand over a couple of painkillers and say to go to the doctor. I’m sure there wasn’t a doctor nearby, nor the funds available to be seen, so I hope she didn’t lose her hand in the meantime. I pedalled on waving to my new friends arriving at my intended destination 1.5 hours later after a nasty 400metre climb. It’s too bad, as we only were able to spend a mere 15 minutes before having to say goodbye, as they were off to work and away for the weekend. Thankfully I was given the keys to the house and I spent two days lounging about, dealing with laundry, cooking and eating food through a proper stove, and getting prepped for the final day into Kigali. Kibungo is a small town and I spent one of my afternoons pushing a guy around with no legs in his wheelchair, in exchange for some conversation about life, and everything that goes along side it.

I didn’t think I would make it here however, things went from bad to worse with the broken wheel and I spent the last 100km riding carefully on a wheel that could shatter at any given moment, sending sharp shards of metal into my leg, or worse, sending my bicycles front end grinding into the ground wrecking the frame, fork, and any possibility of future plans of having children. A large piece of the rim seperated and was clicking against the brake pads, so I started to mark the rim where it initially split, and at each 10km mark inspected the rim for further damage, marking it again in an attempt to guess when the rim was going to collapse entirely. I found myself limiting my speeds to 15km when descending from the steep hills, holding onto the rear brake as hard as possible trying to keep the speeds in check from a fully loaded touring bicycle that just wanted to go faster and faster. Eventually the wheel went out of true causing wobbly humps each revolution for the final 30. But it held, as usually things always work out. No stress, just patience and keeping the head clear of dark thoughts likely assisted me throughout the process. What was I to do? Park my bicycle at the side of the road, and start crying, hoping that a rim would come falling from the sky ala ‘The Gods must be crazy’?

Another dark blot on my bicycle touring experience however on that same day. When I had stopped to look at my wheel it seems I caused a bit of commotion and attention. With that came the screeching tires of a Dala Dala/Taxi/Public Transport Van, and the loud thump of impact. An older woman (40?) had been hit quite severely, one of the two involved in the collision not paying attention likely due to distraction. Memories quickly welled up when I saw the young boy get killed in Zambia, and I stuck my mental walls up before approaching the scene. Her two cellphones were in pieces all over the road, and I stopped oncoming traffic to retrieve, by this time a crowd had gathered and they were moving her over to a grassy area. I returned to my bicycle, dug around in my front pannier for my first aid kit, and walked over to see the situation. Not good. Blood and fatty tissue exposed in many other parts, and worse, a broke arm. Her face had obviously been hurt when falling to the ground, chipping a tooth, and causing a huge road rash on the lip. The legs were ripped open athe knees and shins. Shaking, I put on my gloves, asked the crowd to give me some space, and glared at the police offier who came by, looked at the situation and walked away. I suppose if there’s someone helping there is no need for further assistance is there?

I’ve gotta get rid of this first aid kit. It’s filled to the brim of bandages, splints, sutures, drugs, wraps, and some other goodies. I’ve yet to use it onmyself other than a small gauze pad, and find myself stopping frequently to help others. I want to help, but I don’t think I’m built to deal with blood and flesh. Regardless, I worked with the woman for 45 minutes cleaning up her wounds, wrapping them with bandages, and using hand signals and forcing her to look directly at my eyes when I knew what I was doing was going to cause her pain. Setting her arm in a sling, cleaning her face, and again offering a handful of high powered pain medications along with the last of my uneaten breakfast, all I could do was hope she understood my dosage instructions for the pills, and off I went. I know she’ll be taken care of my the community and people, sometimes you have to just walk/ride away. I’m going to let this kit run out and I won’t refill.

The good news, I’ve lined up someone to bring over a new rim, new spokes, 2 new Schwalbe Marathon Extreme tires (26×2.25 however, a bit wide for my liking, but the price was too good to pass up and I know I only get 9000km out of them regardless, and I’ve got some nasty dirt roads ahead), and I even went ahead and bought a new light for my Dyno Hub, as I’ve been unable to ride at night properly even to go and zip out and get groceries/head over to a friends place if I find myself staying in one location for a period of time. Tired of wanting to rely on public transportation, or taking my life into someone elses hands on the back of a motorcycle. The problem is, these parts arrive in Zambia October 24, I’m unlikely to take receipt until November 5th – so I have a ways away using a temporary wheel that I sourced here in Kigali. Finding bicycle parts for ‘European’ bikes as they call it is a frustrating, time consuming process. I went ahead and emailed a contact I had for the Rwandan National Cycling Team, who quickly responded telling me she had just left to South Africa, and was returning that very day with 71kg of parts of the team – too bad as I could have dealt with my laptop and received a suitable rim if I had only been a day earlier. A couple friends of mine in town pointed me to an area 13km from where I was staying that sold used bicycles. Leery, I hopped on my bike with its trashed wheel, rode over to the place where they had mentioned, only seeing a parking lot. Disappointed I continued ahead looking for a place to turn around, when I spied a small shop selling shoes, and low and behold, a stack of old mountain bikes. Speaking to them in combined English, French, and Kiswahili we were able to sort out a new rim, and a new hub for $20. They wouldn’t let me leave without putting front brakes back on (My old rim used special pads, that would disintegrate on first applications on a non CSS/Ceramic rim). I happened to have a copy of my book with me and we spent an hour conversing about different aspects of cycling, while they introduced me to Rwanda’s one legged cycling champion (Believe it or not, there are over 20 who compete regularly). I sniped the spokes off the old wheel to be used for art projects, put the (heavy) old Dyno Hub in my Pannier, and gave the rim to a child who was more than happy to receive this new gift that he could now spend countless hours with running down streets with trying to keep it balanced. The metal shard I pulled off the rim , put it in my handlebar bag and will hold onto it as a souveneir.

Don’t think it’s all easy here. This is a Red Cross Refugee Camp housing refugees from the Congolese crisis occurring next door.

 

So this means I’m now rolling properly again, and there is no reason for me to head in the direction here I had hoped to go – which is Northwest, about 10 kilometres from the Ugandan border, while passing by the politically/military active border of D.R.Congo, where in recent weeks fire between M23 Rebels and UN n the city has Goma has seen shells come over the border and injure Rwandans. Things seem to have quieted down a bit and I’m not concerned about anything happening. The road however is known to be excessively hilly, rough with patches of rocks and dirt – paired with the fact that it’s rainy season here. It’s 180km which is sure to drive me crazy, but I’d really like to cycle alongside Lake Kivu, before spending my last few days in tihs country, only to race through Burundi using a similar route as my last visit. I’m hoping to meet the Rwandan Cycling team and go for a ride with them somewhere along the way.

So far, Rwanda has been fantastic. It’s been different this time around, not riding with Peter as before and using different routes. This time I’ve had a chance to see more rural Rwanda, and see that it’s not all glamour and glitz – and the villages are quite impoverished. They do have a different feeling to them though – I can’t get over how nice the bricks are on the buildings, and even the fact that the people here have taken it a step further and are using Cob Houses for their residences. The hills are extreme, the prices are expensive, but no matter what, you can always see a smile coming from each and every one of them. If it’s the kids screaming “Nice Time!”, the schoolgirls laughing to each other when you pass, the young men stopping with jaws dropped followed promptly by a thumbs up, or the adults always giving some sort of wave or greeting – this really is a special place.

A typical Rwandese Household, Cob house style.

 

Lodging in Rwanda is more expensive than other places in Africa, and even if you are going to the “low” end one can expect to pay $12 for a small room with no water, loud noises, and uncomfortable bed. I did that for one night in Kigali and figured that if I was going to stay for 10 days as planned, to suck it up, pay extra, and enjoy myself. I think I have one of the best views of the entire city, along with massage services, sauna, a huge bed, private patio, free internet, television, and hot water. Yeah, it’s expensive, but I decided to splurge. It’s money, but money was made to be spent, and can be made again. Sure beats living inside a tent that has no working zippers. I know that time is coming in the coming days, so I’m trying to make the most out of it.

Elevation Chart 

A Final note – The Black and White (222 page) copy of the Book has been discontinued. In its place is a new 240 page copy (albeit at a higher price) which has also been setup for international distribution in bookstores. I had to jump through a lot of hoops and come up with a new solution to get it listed in the stores, and this was the way it happened. The Colour copies still remain the same, but are now in limited supply, moving to only being sold during public speaking engagements. That being said, many people from Canada have queried me as to availability of a copy – In Canada there are 30 copies that can be shipped to you courtesy of a friend. If you want one, contact me privately and we can work out payment for cheaper than what they are going for retail.

 

 

 

 

 

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I need help. You might be able to!

I need help. You might be able to!
Posted on: Friday, September 20th, 2013 at 11:54am

Guys – I need some international help here. For some reason, September is kicking my ass and I’m going through major equipment failures. I don’t want your money – I want your connections. I desperately need to find a few people who are traveling from different parts of the world to areas in Africa that I’ll be in the next few months – I’ve had a wheel meltdown (no front brakes, and I happen to be in Rwanda and Burundi soon where I hit a max of 83km a few months back), my tent is beyond repair – Poles snapped, Zippers Failed, and my laptop no longer works with warranty already gone on the unit, but the company nice enough to extend it for a few weeks.

What I am looking for – Someone coming over from the UK/EU Zone into Rwanda/Burundi in the next 3 weeks – OR – Zambia in next 2 months. Also, someone coming over from USA to the above. Also, someone in Africa heading down to South Africa – and if luck has it, someone coming back up into Zambia from anywhere in South Africa.

The reason why I ask this is that shipping for laptop ($400+), new tent ($200), and new wheel ($250) is out of control – almost $1000 for shipping when the parts are worth half of that (I also don’t have those types of funds at present) . I Was hoping someone would be able to bring a few things along with them, and I’d be forever happy – At present this is going to stall, if not end my travels for the foreseeable future – Please ask your friends, relatives, VSOs, Peace Corp Volunteer Friends, Travelers, Trekkers, Overlanders, Whomever for me. Thanks.

Please share this with others if you can.

This is the least of my problems. Along with a front wheel that cannot use brakes and is likely to shatter at any time. A tent that doesn’t close and lets bugs and water in, and a computer that is rapidly running out of warranty and the abilty to have it repaired, I’m calling out readers to see if they know anyone who is coming to Zambia, Rwanda, Burundi in the near future, or someone who is going from Zambia to South Africa, and Visa Versa. I appreciate any leads that I can follow up on. — -Dave

 

 

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Pondering a Career Change

Pondering a Career Change
Posted on: Wednesday, September 18th, 2013 at 8:22pm

I’ve decided to take up a new career in songwriting. It seems based on past events I’d be a wonderful country singing star, and I think I can use this to my advantage for the future. Hits like My ass is sore and I forgot to apply medicated lotion, Tweaked my knee and now there’s an 11% grade ahead, and who can forget Lotion is for suckers, just burn you wimp, all seem to hold real dear to my heart.  But I think the best one which is sure to raise a storm in the line dancing circuit is, the real throwback to 50’s western style My tent door won’t close, My laptop won’t power on, and I ain’t got no front brakes, baby. I always found the ones who sang Country to be coming straight from the heart, crooning over past experiences, so we just may have something for me should I decide to hang up the helmet. What do you think?

For real though, everything is quite a mess at this moment, so it is. My laptop – You know, the one I was to be without for a few weeks for repair, and I wasn’t supposed the blog the entire time – was hit with a $400 shipping bill to send to South Africa and back. I couldn’t justify that sort of expense for shipping a sub 3 pound piece of metal and silicone a mere 6000km south and have been holding onto it as I ride, looking for cheaper shipping options, and at this stage throwing around ideas of just going to hand deliver the damn thing to the warranty factory – what’s another couple thousand kilometers? I bet I can ride there for cheaper than the shipping. My tent, which I so happily loaned out to someone wanting to tour the country of Uganda, seems to be damaged. Now I won’t pass all the blame on this person, the tent has been used a fair share, and the Hilleberg tents are known to have crap zippers considering the many complaints on the internet – but it is causing some problems for the whole “camping in the bush” thing. With one hundred mosquitos buzzing around you at night it sure makes things difficult to get a peaceful sleep.The teeth don’t stick so the zipping mechanism for the inner tent is useless, and I’ve yet to talk to Hilleberg about their “Lifetime Warranty”. Recall back over three years ago when I Had a similar problem with their tent… Hence why I’m not really moving too quickly on starting a warranty repair query, knowing it’s going to cost another $200 or more just to get it to Sweden/Estonia. Then there is this whole brake thing. It’s true! I’m riding without front brakes on a fully loaded touring bike! Not on purpose of course. When I was still in the infancy (

Here are my options:

#1 – African Style – Ride it until it falls apart: Sure there are risks with this, you know, like damaging my bicycle, and potentially impaling my crotch with a fast fall the ground if the wheel flattens itself. But it just might make it the whole 2500km distance. That is unless I really need to brake from large descents in areas where required, you know, like in Rwanda, or Burundi where I once shattered speed records going over 69.8km the first time, and then a 83.6km/h on another descent. I obviously wasn’t using brakes then though..

#2 – Order a new one to Kigali, RW – The rim, spokes, tape, and other gadgets come to about $125 USD after it’s all said and done. The shipping however, is $200. That’s more than all the parts. Something makes me feel dirty, abused, and not so right with what’s happening in the world with this option. Then there’s the aspect of finding someone who has a truing stand, and entering into a crash course in wheel building.

#3 – Put a new rim on it from an African bike, hold onto old one until the time is right – This is likely the safest, but also involves changing brake pads, having spare equipment, and the African wheels can’t likely deal with the abuse I throw at equipment properly.

So obviously #1 sounds the funnest, most logical, and while at the same time most craziest. I have access to a truing stand in Zambia, will be resting for a few weeks, and I get to see how much abuse broken equipment can actually take – Sounds like a plan.

On the shelter front, it’s lucky there are so many people around, and guest houses can be had for a reasonable price. Still expensive in some places but nothing like in the west. Take for example this Guesthouse / Brothel I stayed at in Uganda. For reference, 2650 shillings equates to a $1 USD bill. I stayed for the whole night, so paid under $3 for a room with a drain that I could pee in without having to walk outside, a semi comfortable bed, and a door that shut. It seems that the place is quite popular with villagers to sneak away from, and each room is tastefully decorated with posters of white men with their shirts off. I was a bit confused until I found this drawing outside my front door of my room. When I asked the hostess she simply told me point blank that it was to help me later on at night, as she vigorously shook a water bottle.

Other guesthouse experiences have been in their own right, weird as well. One night staying with a group of police officers who were there only to drop off illegal refugees at their respective borders, no good byes, just a good swift kick to the butt on their way, and one were three sisters attempted to ensure my stay was as comfortable as possible between the epic sound system noise in the room next door (the tenant had left for the night), demanding I show them the photos I took of them (I can’t, there is no power there, and the laptop – bah you know the story), and so on and so on. At $2 it was a steal, even though I was getting snacked on by bugs and when I woke up my water bottles that I had left to be refilled were missing.

Some higher priced options came with a friendly fellow who delivered hot water in a pail for washing, along with a fan mounted to the ceiling ($15), and another for $10 which had a plastic chair in the room. It really varies. Don’t get me wrong, some of these places are quite nice compared to what they could be, but nothing compares to the solitude of being able to go into a tent and sleep without talking to anyone. I’ve decided I’m going to get a new tent, give up the Hilleberg brand for good, moving back to the MSR Hubba Hubba which I semi-trashed back in 2011. It ma not be everything I need, but certainly stood up to abuse, and is cheap enough, should I be able to find someone coming over from the US to Africa.

 

So those are my three big failures so far – I guess not counting the fact that I skillfully found myself holding onto the handlebars out of control screaming at the top of my lungs at 60km/h when my rear wheel ripped open. The no front brakes thing? Ya. It happened. Coming to a stop the first time I noticed a large tear in the tire (which perhaps maybe only has 9000km on it), which I figured I could repair with a Tire Boot. After all, I know people who have gone a thousand kilometres using a book binder as a boot on heavy dirt track with great success. 15km later, the same thing happened, with a large pop as the tube exploded. Practicing my tire flinging skills, it ended up in a farmers field to the cheers of the locals standing around and watching as I repaired the new rip in the tube and put one of my spares. Down to one now – I fully expected the front tire to go a long time back, but it just keeps rolling along. Marathon XR’s, you can’t beat ‘em.

Other than that it has been smooth sailing. The weather, rainy, cloudy, sunny, and windy has been hard to track, and I’ve found myself covered in weird sunburns again, this time on purpose as I attempt to ride without sleeves & gloves on my way to Rwanda. SIck of the constant tan lines I’ve picked up over the years I figured I’d instead wrap my gloves around my handlebar grips (The Ergon grips can get awfully soft and sticky making a mess of your hands otherwise) and see how I fared with a muscle shirt on. As you can expect, there are some serious burns going on all over the body, and the flaking is just starting now. Whatever, you just need to burn it once for it to be golden right? Great moments in Bicycle Touring.

My body isn’t giving the aches and pains that it usually does, short of a few rashes and friction bumps on the rear, likely due to moisture from getting dumped upon by rain at various stages. It creeps up so quickly and you soon find yourself looking for a tree or a village to hide at to let it pass. I have to say I witnessed one of the heaviest rainfalls in my life recently watching roads turn into a muddy rivers in a matter of two minutes as they continued to clog ditches and made locals run for cover from the forks of lightning shooting to the ground around us. It’s rainy season, it’s late, and it’s fierce. Again, what can go wrong with my planned route? Lots, but I’m not letting it get to me. I desperately need to get outdoors, some kilometres on the saddle and recommence the thinking process. It’s sometimes just too easy to stop and enjoy the surroundings – detracting from the original goal. I’m not hard lining to commit and finish what I started, but I should at least think about doing more than 6000km this year no?

The riding itself has been challenging, but exciting. Steep descents, rolling hills and mostly nice tarmac to use while travelling through Uganda into Tanzania and then some. I’m even warming up a bit to Tanzania, knowing that it’s the way the country is, minimal services, and just to prepare in advance for its drawbacks. Still, the people are great, the beer is mediocre, and the roads I have chosen are in pretty decent shape. Nothing really to complain about. And that’s good, as I’m doing enough with all of these shipping costs. I’ll ask for your help in the next post re: contacts.

Elevation Chart and Distance

[image error]You're reading the RSS feed for Tired of I.T! Did you know that the website contains much more information such as articles, gear list, daily statistics, videos and photos and more! You can also get real time micro-updates by following on Twitter and Facebook! Now Available, Tired of I.T! - How I learnd to stop worrying and love the Bicycle - detailing just how far one has to go to embark on a long term bicycle journey, stories not found on the website, and a few lifes lessons thrown in there. Available in Digital and Paperback copes at http://www.tiredofit.ca/book/ and Amazon.

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Day 21 – Drastic Change of Course

Vacation is Over

Vacation is Over
Posted on: Tuesday, September 10th, 2013 at 9:56am

That went quick, too quick actually –  Seems like I just arrived in Kampala, Uganda again but it has actually been nearly six weeks. As with previous stops, it’s time to get moving before I become a permanent fixture here. Not that that is a bad thing of course! Kampala ranks as my favourite capital city in Africa for just being able to get what you need, move around, take in a dose of entertainment, and not always have to watch your back. I could live here. I am living here! It remains to be seen if I make it back, there are always other cities to explore.

I had it all planned out that I was going to come here, see some friends, and move into a house, but alas when I got here the friends had already left, the house was occupied and I found myself victim to being robbed for the first time in my life. I had just arrived as well and hadn’t had a chance to return to get rid of the wad of cash I was carrying around – losing about $200 – fine – take it, but unfortunately what also went was yet another knife,  that doubled as a money clip. Again, these dang SpyderCo knives have a near cult following, and are hard to replace once they go out of production – so back to holding crumpled bills in my pockets. That event questioned my return to Uganda, but after a few cocktails and new friends I sprung into action, found a new place to live and have been enjoying myself ever since. Luck had it that I was able to rent a place from someone gone for a vacation to the UK – all utilities included, top floor apartment in a very quiet area. I seem to be the only white dude around in a kilometre and naturally attract a lot of attention. But the real bonus to this place was that it came with a cat – Desperately I needed the companionship of an animal for mutual torment and play times,  as it seems the only thing I truly miss about my old life was the daily cat escapades. I’m sure I’ve spoiled ‘Shadow’ and he would react differently around his real family, but for now we’re in party and pig out mode.

The only photo to this stop-gap post – Shadow the cat. Love these creatures – If borders weren’t such a pain in the ass I’d find a way to get one on a basket and tour with one.

So what have I been doing for the past six weeks? Meeting other cyclists passing through – a few heading up through Ethiopia and Sudan, hoping to cross through Egypt (a crazy endeavor in my opinion right now), and one that I met at a bar who approached me querying my knowledge of bicycles. I replied that I knew a few things about them and it soon turned out that their dream was to ride a bicycle around a country, and were questioning the safety of Uganda for the adventure. With a resounding yes I found myself helping them plan a route, finding a bicycle and even giving them my gear for a few weeks as they set off on an adventure. Being able to live vicariously through them upon return of the trials, tribulations, fun, sore muscles, animal encounters helped me as I spent the time wishing to be back on the road and making loose plans for what comes next.

I had the chance to nerd out a bit – Over 170+ edits were made to the book and I sent the newly spellchecked/grammar/duplicate sentence repaired version to the publishers – Electronic Copies have been updated and you’ll find the newer copies for sale in the usual places as before. This had been bothering me for some time, as no matter how many edits and people reviewed the final copy  mistakes still appeared, and lots of them. Thanks to AM and DL for providing valuable feedback and having eagle eyes. Once that was done, I got to fixing what had been bothering me for a year, this website! You’ve probably noticed it’s more polished, faster loading, and the layout has changed slightly. Last years annual update was too chunky, plain and caused all sorts of problems for different browsers, so I set upon looking into how to make it better for everyone – I’m quite pleased with the result and we’ll keep it this way for a while now, keeping true to the phrase ‘Once you go black, you don’t go back”.  If you notice a problem drop me a line and I’ll fix it. Eventually.  After hearing about the various breaches of privacy and public trust in the past three months relating to documents released by Edward Snowden detailing the United States role in spying on nearly everyone’s internet traffic, maintaining a dossier on people, illegally wiretapping internet exchanges, while at the same time working with major companies and standards groups to build backdoors into systems so that they could access resources at any given time.   I won’t bother rehashing the news here, but I took some steps into my own hands. I stopped trusting any company with my data, and started building in mechanisms to further encrypt and obfuscate my transmissions to get a small shred of my privacy back.  Hey, I’ve got nothing to hide, I’m living in the public eye – but I have nothing to gain at the same time with an entity cataloguing every activity that I do. While I’m not the slightest bit surprised, I’m confused at how passive the general public is reacting to this news. Companies that we put our trust in to allow the supposedly free internet to operate, facilitating free speech, creativity, and the ability to be anonymous have just bent over backwards handing over the key to the lock in a major “that’s not cool, dude” ethics sort of way.

That pretty much details the nerd part of vacation – the rest was spent roaming around town on bicycle, meeting friends, staying awake way too late in loud confined environments, sampling beers, sampling pizzas, watching movies, reading books, and drinking coffee. The weather hasn’t been optimal as we’re in rainy season here, so there was less urgency to get up at 8am and go and start the days tasks – some days I didn’t find myself opening the front door  until 2pm. Just what I was after.. Rest.

It’s over now! And for the next month and a half I’ll be cycling back through countries that I’ve visited in the past – Tanzania, Rwanda, and Burundi. My end goal is to head back into Zambia by the end of October and I figured heading through these countries was a good chance to see them through a different viewpoint, and not have to travel the same road twice, something I do my best to avoid. Out of the 40,000km perhaps 250km have been duplicates. By the end of the 2500km trek to Zambia I’ll probably have doubled that duplicate amount, in order to avoid my 2013 mandate: Avoid Dirt Roads at any cost. This cost of having to enter into the countries and re pay visa fees outweighs the torture, frustration, and mental grind of riding on a dirty dusty road with limited services, bumps. OK, I don’t mind them that bad, but I do mind them in Tanzania – maybe that is what the mandate is, avoid all dirt roads in Tanzania at any cost. Memories of 2012 resurface and cause my face to revert to a grimace when recalling heading from Iringa –> Arusha while sick on who knows what African Disease that was. Going back to Zambia seems like a regression from traveling across Africa, but it just seems right to find a safe entry point into D.R. Congo that way as things here on the east don’t look the slightest bit promising.

The thing that will be different on this segment of the tour however is that I’ll be travelling without a laptop, I really need to send this away on Warranty and the company was nice enough to extend my warranty for a month until I was ready to leave Uganda. Now’s the time, so I’ll be not only lighter weight, but less connected as before, so limited posts, limited updates for the Statistics section, and photos not get uploaded – Instead I’ll spend my time posting on Facebook  and Twitter – so if you care to have some updates in piecemeal micro format, be my guest and follow along. So there might be a bit more of a delay till we actually get to talking about cycling here, but I wanted to get a post out to show that I’m still around and making movement. Onwards!

[image error]You're reading the RSS feed for Tired of I.T! Did you know that the website contains much more information such as articles, gear list, daily statistics, videos and photos and more! You can also get real time micro-updates by following on Twitter and Facebook! Now Available, Tired of I.T! - How I learnd to stop worrying and love the Bicycle - detailing just how far one has to go to embark on a long term bicycle journey, stories not found on the website, and a few lifes lessons thrown in there. Available in Digital and Paperback copes at http://www.tiredofit.ca/book/ and Amazon.

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Victorian Loop

Victorian Loop
Posted on: Thursday, July 25th, 2013 at 5:23pm

Time flies, even when you aren’t cycling it seems. It’s been nearly a month since I’ve been on the saddle full time, spending nearly all of my time at the southern point of Lake Victoria in the city of Mwanza, Tanzania’s second biggest city. It doesn’t seem like it, surely cities like Arusha have much more activity going on from the outset but if population is a factor then I suppose that what they say is actually valid. What’s it like? Dusty. Like most of Tanzania, lack of paved roads, erosion from mountains, and strong winds bring a huge amount of dust to this city, where leaving your bicycle parked outside for an hour will find it covered in a fine layer of silky smooth silt. Then it gets on your clothes, in your lungs, electronics. Rainy season doesn’t come for a while and that seems to be only a temporary solution before it starts back up again. It’s not all that bad. Mwanza is a port town, and quite scenic in some parts with its geological rock formations and the way that the city has been constructed. Shanty towns on the sides of mountains perched precariously above one another with no running water or electricity make the daily trek for services challenging for the hundreds of thousands of people that call these houses their home.

I made it here just before the end of June, after finishing off some hardcore cycling through Burundi, and its many hills. Burundi consistently left a bad taste in my mouth upon dealing with shop owners, innkeepers, restaurant owners – the feeling of always being shaken down for extra money left it quite bitter, and I vowed never to go back after one morning being surrounded by three men wielding bricks, with the owner of an inn stating ‘I will kill you’. That is a story that sat in my head for a long time, and it’s likely best I don’t repeat the lead up and how it all went down and let it be a bygone as something that just happened during my trip in Africa. I’m sure having my head bashed in with a brick would have made for good stories, and so since it didn’t happen we won’t go there. Different Cultures, Different mentalities, different upbringing, different set of logic. As my friend Gerrit in Zambia says ‘Some people just didn’t grow up using lego’. Truth. I’ve even put it all aside and willing to give Burundi one more try in the coming months as I make my way back to Zambia. What?

 

First things first – I knew it would come at some point in time, going back to Zambia – the country is good enough for a three-peat, and I had hoped it would be my most visited country in Africa (it turns out this is my fourth time in Tanzania, and there is likely two more visits in the coming weeks). I made a great set of friends in Zambia, enjoyed the people I lived with, and had the opportunity to rest for a while in the past, and figure that it would be a good time to settle and make a plan for the next phase of the trip. Recall I’ve been wishy washy on how I’ve wanted to do things, where I’ve wanted to go, that sort of thing over the past year and a half. Well, nothing has changed – I’m still doing it, just realizing that I can kill two birds with one stone with a revisit to Zambia, and find an easier crossing into Democratic Republic of Congo, as right now things in the east on the Ugandan, Rwandan, and Burundian borders are a mess, putting it lightly. But hold on, I have to get to Zambia right? Why didn’t I when I had the chance at the southern tip of Burundi, crossing into Tanzania and taking a ferry from Kigoma? Good Question. I’d have to say I enjoyed Peter Gostelow’s company so much I decided to go along with him back for the tail end the trip. There was also an opportunity to get some mail delivered from the UK tax and duty free – and while I didn’t need much, I jumped at the chance to get some stuff shipped over. I’ll get to that.

So off we went through Burundi, into Tanzania, not knowing if I had crossed illegally without an entry stamp as immigration just didn’t seem to exist at the border. It turns out it was 8km up the road in a more busier area. $50 gone out of my pocket for another 90 day visa and the search began to find a working ATM, a SIM Card for the telephone, and get some distance as there was about 400km to go and we were on a deadline. The ATM didn’t pan out – it took 300km to find a working ATM, luckily I was able to borrow some Tanzanian Shillings, and the SIM Card? I now own 4 Airtel SIM Cards. It seems that only these SIM Cards reboot my phone randomly when the data switches from 3G to EDGE. Other networks don’t suffer the same problem, but other networks also don’t offer such good pricing on voice/text/data plans ($4 for 2GB of Data, 5000 SMS, and 250 minutes to any network in the country) so I dealt with the problem. It helped if I burned through the limit I could just switch my card to another one and start the weekly plan all over again. It doesn’t matter to me,  I knew no one that I wanted to give my phone number to, and anyone who stays in touch with me has me on WhatsApp anyways –no biggie. But all of these problems were a reminder of my last long term visit in Tanzania. Bad roads, little to no care from shop owners when you wanted to purchase something, water difficult to be found and hard to find reasonable food in grocery stores brought me right back to where I was a year earlier. Funny, I even celebrated my 35th birthday this year again in Tanzania, as I did the same the year prior when in Dar Es’ Salaam waiting to head to Zambia.

Waiting for mail to come in was tedious – Getting the mail to ship to the country was no problem, until customs got in the way – delaying the package for a week causing mass frustration. I waited patiently, working on outstanding projects on the website I wanted to finish (check out the new map/graph/stats thing going on at the bottom of the posts now!) and get around to editing the 2nd edition of the Book, after being embarrassed constantly that I allowed so many spelling/grammar mistakes into the first edition. I see where the value in a professional editor is – but I can’t justify the money for it– it’s double what the book has brought in overall [image error] In the process I went about losing my Leatherman Wave MultiTool – yup, going onto the third one. I left it at a telephone shop one day, and went back 5 minutes later and the sales clerk claimed he never saw it. When I went back the third time that day on an unrelated issue, he wouldn’t look me in the eye. What can you do. Then my phone, along with its rebooting, started getting corrupted and wouldn’t boot. Finally – the laptop power supply I have just up and stopped working. After paying $50 USD for a universal power replacement It soon ceased to work after less than 24 hours. Finally, today, the battery of the laptop is no longer recognized in the computer even though that if you pull the power plug out, the unit still functions – only the system doesn’t know it exists. I’m about done with dealing with technology components – just want things to work, and don’t have time to hack, tweak or fiddle with things. I only wish that a lot of the problems occurred before the mail package from the UK was shipped – I’d save a bundle, have better quality parts, and actually be able to replace things. For now I’m hobbling along.

So what did I order from the UK? A new headphone jack for my Samsung S3. It’s too big for my frame bag and when listening to music with speakers the cable pushed too hard on the jack damaging it. $6 replacement, easy. I’ve got right angle USB charging cables and right angled 3.5mm audio jacks coming over from the USA in a few days on another order (along with a replacement Leatherman) to make sure that doesn’t happen in the future. I also picked up a new Otterbox case for this Samsung S3. I’ve been carrying an extended battery for the longest time, and wasn’t satisfied with protection with its included casing. Instead I bought this new rugged case, promptly voided the warranty by melting the back plastic backing with a knife so the bigger dimensions of the battery could fit. With the silicone rubber outer you can’t tell what I did, but now I get a good 6 hours screen on battery life. On the voiding the warranty front, I destroyed any possibility of getting service on a pretty important part of my gear as well – the bike itself! After the manufacturer (and my previous bicycle’s manufacturer) sternly warned me that putting a kickstand on the bicycle could bend the frame, cause problems, and not get fixed by them, I went ahead and did it anyways. I have the Plescher Esge dual leg kickstand which is mounted delicately on the chainstay wrapped in rubber and tightened lightly so as to not crush the steel. They say it’s good for holding 25kg, but I’d argue that considering my bicycle is again more loaded than it ever has been and it’s working out fine. One of the wheels, either front or rear gets elevated with the kickstand is in use, and it’s great not having to find a place to lean it on, or worse, tip it over on the ground. Wish me luck that it works out. I had bad luck with “Click Stand”’s, folding bicycle kickstands that looked like tent poles, which couldn’t put up with the abuse that fully loaded African Bicycle Touring brings. I also said enough was enough, and upgraded my water bottle cages. Moving to a quite heavy steel cage made by BBB, the benefit of these cages is that they can hold regular 1.5 litre bottles of water which can be found pretty much anywhere in the world! My old bottles were a pain in the ass to clean often, becoming dirty and filled with algae, and only held 600mL in each of the three. I kept one, and the other two were donated to someone who needed them. I now have the capability of carrying 5.2 litres just in bottles on the bicycle, more than enough for at the end of the day when you want to clean, cook, and hydrate yourself. I often skipped one of the three in the past. Guess which one.

Some abnormal brake pad wear on the front after last years rim breakdown. I changed these pads 25000km in. The rear still have lots of life!

Other items of non significance to touring but certainly useful was 10 bandanas. I was on a lose one a week scenario in the past, and wanted to stock up. They’re cheap and the colours bleed but at least they protect my bald head when cycling. Another 1TB hard disk is coming along for backup and video storage – I generally swap out a hard disk a year for backup and storage, sending them back to Canada to satisfy my paranoia. 3TB on the bicycle should do me. Or maybe I should just delete the movies on one of them that I never watch anyways. I’d rather read. I have enough clothes to last me for months, and I even have my suit and tie and some dress shoes with me at this point in time. They were sent over from Nairobi, I’ll get around to wearing it sometime before burning them like I always wanted to as well. So with these parts (other than I suppose a new battery and power adapter to order) I’m on a no buying kick for the next year. Thank goodness – I’m running out of cash- need to find a way to make some cheese.

So this is why I’m now writing this post in the middle of Lake Victoria – stowed away on the MS Serengeti, a cargo ship crossing from Mwanza, Tanzania to Kampala , Uganda. The city has been in my mind since the day I left, and always wanted to come back and see if it meets and exceeds the good times I had before in the past, or if it was a one time deal.  It was a bonus when I found out that one could get onto a ship to cross the lake as the ferry that used to transport the public sunk and killed hundreds of people a few years back. I had to ask the captain nicely at the ship yard, and wait patiently for the boat to leave (yes, it’s leaving tomorrow, I don’t know what time, just show up, no not today the cargo isn’t here, I will call you when it goes, etc.), but eventually found myself on board the boat loaded down with sacks of peanuts, Styrofoam, beer, and sunflower seeds. The captain appeared tipsy, unable to stand and we didn’t leave until later than expected, but I wasn’t too worried with the cargo we had on board. I held off on giving him the big bottle of gin I purchased as a thank you gift, it’ll be for when we are at dock after our 320km straight line across the lake. 30 hours is the estimate for the entire journey, and I was fortunate enough to have been given a room beside the captain with a bed, power plugs, a window, and a desk as I wait the trip out. The crew (approximately 12) have been more than welcoming, showing me their various duties, and not one has taken me aside as I’ve found in other situations trying to ask for tips or money. I’m even getting fed 4 times daily along with a beer per meal, so the 30,000 TSH (Under $20) I paid for this to come on is no different than living in a city, although you don’t have the flexibility to just pull it out and pee off the sidewalk into the road like you can on this boat, har har. So Kampala it is, I have some contacts at a backpackers who could use some fresh thinking from my end as they move physical locations, and I am going to try to trade some lodging in exchange for a bit of help,  which at the same time would give me the opportunity to stop and focus &  _finish_ some other nagging projects. Need to clear up loose ends if I’m going to meet my deadline of getting off the continent before 2014. Plus, why not? What else do I have to do at this stage. I’m timing things to beat the rainy seasons in Congo, need a month window to see if I can even get a visa, and have the other opportunity of taking care of someone’s kitten for a few weeks. Therapy at its finest. I’ll also get some bicycle touring over to Jinja as I skipped it the last time, and well, who knows. Fashion Show? Ballet? Ah, that was passé, last time, am sure this time will me full of surprises. I figure this is the best plan while I wait for more mail to arrive, and hope to head back into Rwanda (I feel I didn’t spend enough time in the country even though it is so small), go back into Burundi through another border on a three day transit visa, riding as fast as possible to get back into Tanzania (This is all because the road that parallels Burundi is a dirt track, and 2013 is the year of no dirt roads for me) before catching that ferry I spoke of into Zambia. Yeah, there’s likely to be another rest there, but after another 2000km I think its well deserved. The only sad thing is that I left Nairobi this year with great gusto eager to ride great distances over my measly 6000km total kilomtres for 2012 – it seems this year only will be 4500km. Focus Dave, 2014! That’s my excuse, I’m sticking with it. So, there’s your post for the month – I’m still alive, back soon!

Stats

[image error]You're reading the RSS feed for Tired of I.T! Did you know that the website contains much more information such as articles, gear list, daily statistics, videos and photos and more! You can also get real time micro-updates by following on Twitter and Facebook!
Now Available, Tired of I.T! - How I learnd to stop worrying and love the Bicycle - detailing just how far one has to go to embark on a long term bicycle journey, stories not found on the website, and a few lifes lessons thrown in there. Available in Digital and Paperback copes at http://www.tiredofit.ca/book/ and Amazon.

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Ups and Downs

Ups and Downs
Posted on: Monday, June 24th, 2013 at 7:18pm

I Was supposed to be separating from Peter to head west over to Lake Kivu into the small town of Ciangugu, while he headed South into Burundi due to his limited time to tour. After peering at the elevation chart and finding out that there was to be a climb to 2750m, and then 200 kilometres of downhill on dirt track I changed my tune, and went along with him. I’ve been having problems with momentum and motivation lately and figured it would be a good chance to stay focused on touring and not get stuck in cities like I have been as of late. An early morning attempt at leaving Butare in the Southern Province of Rwanda was quickly derailed by finding CXC – Coffee Connexxions on the cities perimeter beckoning me in for a visit. Definitely worth the trip. An actual coffee shop with couches, books, power plugs, and even an industrial grade roaster that can handle 20kg in 30 minutes all inside the facilities where one of the two baristas grinds fresh coffee especially for your order. The Rwandan ‘Bourbon’ coffee was brought over and planted in early 1900’s under German colonial times and has been flourishing ever since, and so far it’s been the best tasting coffee I’ve had in Africa. Move over Kenya.  I was suffering to even swallow a sip in Uganda as their coffee seems to have a funky aftertaste and tastes like Peanuts to me. So faced with a situation of a food pannier that was waiting to be filled with food to get me to other countries, I opted instead to fill it up with coffee – Priorities! 1.5kg of Fresh Coffee now took over the empty pack, and off I went through the remaining areas of Rwanda wit its breathtaking viewpoints, windy roads and steep descents.

 

 

It didn’t take longer than two and a half hours to reach the Burundian Border, where the guards wrote everything by hand in a tattered ledger book, with little to no technology in sight. I’d have been surprised if power even existed in the area. Upon Entry it was apparent this was a new country, and likely the way Rwanda looked before the buckets of money flowed their way as a world wide apology for turning their back during the civil issues of the 1990s. Tattered clothing on children, houses and shacks made from straw, little to no goods available to purchase, and if you could purchase them you’d use tattered Burundian Francs, that seem to be if you touch them they would fall apart. Get the sanitizer ready after touching one of them, these things are carrying some nasties with them. Upon entering into the country is a steep climb, with a beautiful view of the valley where the borders meet, only it seems that new Africa is starting to take shape. A huge sign advertising telephone service wrecks the view, quite odd for an area that has no power of technology to begin with. At least Burundi does not have the many buildings painted with advertisements for the paint companies, telephone companies, or cooking oil – That phenomenon of strings of 10 buildings painted the same colour with the same ad in a row never made it here… yet.

In a village where there is no power, this sign seems out of place, it’s also huge.

 

At 75 cents for a 730mL bottle you can only wish that this one is actually for sale. It’s OK beer, better cold.

 

Burundi is situated in the same geological shelf as Rwanda, and parts of D.R. Congo, so the hills are coming non stop, taxing energy for climbing, and offering some very long descents. Dropping over 1400metres in one run into the capital city of Bujumbura made for some amazing riding, where the temperature went from a ‘hands frozen on the grips’ to a ‘perma smile on the face enjoying the breeze’ before stopping at 750metres above sea level, where the land meets the shores of Lake Tanganyika, the longest lake in the world, and also the second deepest. But let’s talk about that place later. There are people everywhere in Burundi, with little to do in the mountains for jobs everyone seems to be lazing around if they are adults, drinking cheap beer (It seems for under .75 cents you can get a 730ml Primus! Cheapest Beer yet in terms of volume yet in Africa), yelling or cheering when cycling past either in French, English, Kiswahili, KiRwandan, or their own native language Kirundi. Any conversation with a local can be any one of the languages and often shifts along the way to whatever is preferable, quite unique. If it’s not the adults, it’s the massive amounts of children everywhere peering in their ratty clothes, or running behind the bicycle yelling, trying to get attention. It’s probably best to say that upon stopping anywhere in this country that within a minute one is to be swarmed by people. It’s impossible to gain silence without people watching you – as some have likely not seen a Mzungu in the area for a long time, especially in some of the villages. We were forced to go into a village and seek the help of a local to find a place to stay after losing light and not being able to find a guesthouse to stay in. A friendly woman offered to host us at her place, but changed her town as soon as the rest of the men found out in the drinking establishment, taking us on a long drawn out trek across the village to introduce various shopkeepers, a drunk Police Officer who took us back to his workplace, letting us camp on the facilities, not before telling us to leave passports with him over night. Not a chance. It’s funny, in these situations you just have to remember to have a huge smile on your face but also be assertive at the same time. With dozens of people crowded around as the tents were setup, food was cooked, finally dispersing when I faked going to sleep retiring to the tent and letting out a few choice farts did they disappear, until 6am when the crowds started all over again.

The young men are carrying charcoal, goods, vegetables, onions, and other things back and forth to other villages and the capital cities on their rickety Chinese or Indian made bikes, where its even a struggle for a well tuned touring bicycle to navigate upon. The solution? Hang onto the back of one of the many trucks that are passing! It saves the leg muscles from tiring out, although it may cause a bit of stress on the arms. I’ve hung on a few times in my life, often scared that I’d hit a pothole, or find myself getting the handlebars trapped under the truck causing a crash and a twisted frame, also finding the process unstable at anything higher than 10km/h. Not these guys – at speeds of over 40km/h they sit on their top tube sideways, ascending and descending the hills, getting them to their destination in a fraction of time. Obviously following the rule of Safety Third, whatever one and two are I have not a clue, but I managed to capture a series of photos and even some video of this madness of four or five cyclists at a time holding onto one truck, or another bicycle, or just hanging off the back of the doors.  Crazy. I shattered my previous top speed record in 2011 in Burundi, flying down a hill at a mind blowing 82.6km/h – I didn’t think my bike could move that fast. I wouldn’t dare hit the brakes in fears of heating up the rims resulting in a tire blowout.

The capital of Burundi of Bujumbura was a bit of a let down – no real areas for lodging other than for $25 minimum a night in places that could be better used as broom closets, and while even though they offered hot water and internet, the internet was unusable, and hot water just wasn’t enough for justification for paying such a high price. Not only that, quarrels with hotel managers over changing fees were a problem, where we had a friend reserve rooms over the telephone for a specific price (30,000 Burundian Francs = $20) where upon arrival to the hotel and showing the skin colour the price immediately rose to $30 USD. First off, who carries USD in a country that doesn’t accept it as regular currency in  the first place. After many battles of asking to look at the guest register to see what everyone else was paying, and attempting to speak to the manager it erupted into a he said she said shouting match for three hours outside the front gates, an angry mob searching for justice, from any of the sides. Not the way I wanted to spend a day, when it could have been spent at the beach, forcing the movement to yet another hotel, at similar prices, in poorer conditions. Bujumbura doesn’t have much going on for arts and culture, it’s a flat city with roads clogged with traffic and people hawking their wares on the corners all selling seemingly the same thing, until randomly out of nowhere one can find a ship selling fine Belgian Wines, or a Supermarket that sells Belgian Beers, and even sex toys (!). There’s a huge UN Presence here so they are likely the target market. After 3 days of trying to get anything accomplished in the capital city, frustrated at the fact the overpriced service on the telephone that only worked half the time, getting ripped off by anyone who you tried to speak to, it was time to leave, but not before visiting the coffee factory and adding yet MORE weight to the food pannier. I should be good for coffee for about two months now.

Peter making ammends with hotel manager after being royally ripped off – 3.5 hours later.

 

Off I went riding down Lake Tanganyika, where a strong headwind limited any sort of coasting for the entire time on a road which was in reasonable condition, a nice surprise as information that I’ve been hearing over the past year stated that it was a dusty dirt road and challenging to ride. Electronic mapping programs even routed away from the Lake for that reason up until this years release, so it was a breath of fresh air, all the way to the next big town where the prices dropped by 2/3 and the quality of rooms, food and beer prices, and friendliness jumped a couple hundred percent. The first few days of the country left me frustrated and angry, and I was beginning to write it off as a whole until these better days came. Going out to the only nightclub in the town was a letdown, similar to Rwanda where Karaoke/Lip-syncing seems to be all the rage, where everyone sits in plastic chairs and watches someone make a fool out of themselves, dancing, singing, often at music that is pitched up 20% without changing the key, so it sounds like a bunch of chipmunks. The performances are lackluster, but some of them get downright raunchy.

The same went for the final day of riding on the lake, ending in NyanzaLac, stopping at a bright, clean, hotel that could be classified as a resort in some countries with large portions of food, breathtaking sunsets, and even the possibility to swim in the lake, with its high waves from the large amounts of wind in the area, D.R. Congo showing off in the distance with not a single light shining when darkness came. Looking back, I would have much rather spent more time at this location as opposed to the complete rip off of Bujumbura – that city will go down as the worst Capital city to spend time in while in Africa.

There are thousands of Palm trees lining the lake, and being used for Palm Oil, which you can find for sale in large 5 gallon buckets, a dark red coloured substance that seems to be used for everything in cooking. It’s extremely heavy and while it keeps everything moving smoothly under the hood, it leaves quite an aftertaste, often resulting in some incredible heart burn and near barf experiences. It reminds me of the experience in Mozambique where everything was soaked in it as well, resulting in some very strange colorations of food. The omelettes are radioactive yellow, the beans are clown nose red, and everything just has a strange hue to it. If you aren’t eating something swimming in Palm Oil, it’s cheese, which seems to be quite the norm – for $1 a plate filled with cubes of decent cheese fill you up, often bunging up the internal movement system (hence the return to the Palm Oil food), and some of the locally caught fish is extremely flavourful. Inland it seems that cattle and goat meat is everywhere, bars offering “Nyama Choma” with plenty of warm beer to wash it down with. The only problem is that in such villages you seem to find a few locals which latch onto you for the entire night, often trying to squeeze you for a few beers, or in the midst of having your hands full help themselves to your plate of food, often disappearing when the plate is empty. It’s annoying, and hasn’t been seen this bad in any other country. Welcome back to Africa I guess Dave, I suppose I’d been spoilt with Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda.

Something seems to be seriously wrong with peoples eyes here. I’m not sure if its because I am noticing the massive amounts of people wearing a certain type of round smoked lens glasses, or noticing the opticians offices everywhere, but somethings up. Whoever brought the glasses here, whether it be an early 90’s stock overflow dumping over to Burundi, or a fascination with people like Denzel Washington it’s starting to actually weird me out. Even crazier are some of the haircuts on the women. We’ve seen the ‘Denzel’, the ‘Morgan Freeman’, and the personal favourite, the “Mike Tyson”. Pair it with the glasses and it’s hard not to crack up while riding by. At least the hair is natural, where in other countries its horse hair weaved into the scalp. Still, this is an eye opener, glasses or not.

NyanzaLac is extremely close to to the Tanzanian border, and the original plan was to ride into the port town of Kigoma, and take a ferry back into Zambia for my annual rest, but seeing as the visa for Burundi was a wallet thinning $90 USD for 30 days, I’ve opted to stick around a bit, riding inland through the mountains and cross back into Tanzania at a more northern border crossing. I’ve even decided against crossing into Zambia for the time being, opting to follow Peter back to his place of Mwanza for some rest, and to figure out what I want to do next. Uganda still holds a lot of appeal for me to ride and relax, Rwanda is screaming my name, jumping up and down for a revisit to explore every corner, and Zambia is sitting in the background wondering when I’ll be coming back for my third visit and ride. All of these countries are bordering where I’ve been stalling for the past year, Democratic Republic of Congo. It’s not safe in my mind to cross in at the east, insurgency and political strife still remain, and it’s be a 70% chance I’d find myself kidnapped, robbed entirely or worse to enter through these access points. I’ve been waiting patiently for a good entry vector, but nothing seems to be lightening up. I could use a rest, but I could also use some momentum as I fear the longer I stay idle, the more comfortable I get, but I actually do want to keep riding. I’ll give it a few weeks of thought in July to find out what’s happening and then set forward. I refuse to take a plane, taking apart the bicycle where components have rusted on, losing parts along the way just to cross a large expanse of land. Everything will work out, it always does, creative thought control and patience seem to be the key here.

Elevation Chart

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300 covered, 700 to go..

300 covered, 700 to go..
Posted on: Sunday, June 16th, 2013 at 3:55pm

Hello from Rwanda, the most densely populated country in Africa based on its size. I’m sure there would be much more if it wasn’t for the many hills that limit movement, agriculture, and fall victim to erosion. At a population of over 12 million it’s exploded since some of it’s darker moments. I knew this was coming all along that I’m starting to head into areas which has seen massive conflict, lives lost, and political dissent. I said a fond farewell to my friends in Uganda one last time and rode the fairly flat 26km to the Rwandan border, where I had already been granted a visa through a painful process in Kampala a few weeks before. The website was broken which would have made it easier and allowed to save a page in my rapidly filling passport for future countries – 4 days of returning to the embassy armed with photos, letters on intent, $30 USD that needed to be deposited to a bank across the city, I was issued it. Rwanda is trying to become the Eastern African technology hub, they might want to work on getting their technical infrastructure sorted that’s facing the world sorted first.

 

There were some huge changes I noticed upon crossing into the country – The first was the cheering, yelling, and smiling from all the people around – Usually borders are grim places where people try to shake you down for your last bit of money, to change it into their own counterfeit currency, general chaos, traffic, uzi’s and machine guns, cattle and goats running everywhere. Instead I was politely asked to show my entry stamp at the gate and I found myself climbing a hill, my first in Rwanda – They call this the land of 1000 hills, hence the title of this post. Upon that climb of the first hill is when the next surprise came – a man on a bicycle coming towards me at high speed pointing to the other side of the road.. Yes, right side driving again – Such a foreign concept to me since 2011. The next came 5 minutes later when I found a bank, and walking my bicycle over to the AK47 wielding security guard (askari) he asked me if I looked tired, in french (tu est fatigue?) to which I replied fluently in return without even thinking of it. So I guess that French Immersion schooling I opted for back in the 80s and 90s did some usage after all. Getting money wasn’t a hassle at all, compared to what everyone said it would be, and I continued the cycle through tarmac and dirt roads that were graded and ready to be paved, riding quite fast, weaving in between the traffic lines on this quiet road waving and saying hello to all of the locals that were in the small villages, shops, tea fields, and schools. What a friendly bunch of people I found, as I even made it a day ahead of schedule into the capital city of Kigali (Chee-gally) watching its large towers in the distance become closer. Sure there are some skyscrapers but what I didn’t realize is that the whole city is on many different mountains, and all of the roads wind in spiral around each other creating an intricate maze, often frustrating to get where you need to go. You can assure yourself that there’s a hill to be climbed, and in some cases it might be of grades 18% or higher, on cobblestone.

One of the many humps of the capital city of Kigali, Rwanda

I was quite pleased to arrive in the city early, as I’ve been in talks with another cyclist for the past few years, and we were finally able to cross paths. Peter Gostelow is well known in the cycling community for riding from Japan to England for three years before spending another three years travelling from Scotland to Cape Town, a legend in my books for sticking with it after taking a few machetes to the arms in Senegal, getting completely robbed clean in Kenya, and then losing his testicle in Zimbabwe. In fact, he’s the reason why I ended up over here – with the “Well, if he can do it, so can I’ mentality. It didn’t take more than 2 minutes for us t find our groove, and plan on doing some city exploring, and touring for the next few weeks. He’s back here after completing his 3 year journey, now taking up residency in nearby Tanzania teaching English for the next two years. We get along well, it’s nice to ride with experienced cyclists with all their own gear, knowledge of how to deal with the many situations that may arise, and to share some stories over some of the beers here. There’s been a lot of that. We both went and picked up our Burundian Visa at the chest tightening cost of $90 for 30 days entry with little to no run around in the capital city before exploring, meeting other friends and taking advantage of what bigger cities have to offer by means of food, nightlife, and Rwanda’s best kept secret – the coffee. I even went as far as getting rid of my Ugandan coffee as the difference was so extreme.

Peter Gostelow descending down one of the many steep hills in Kigali. I’m slightly jealous he’s only packing half the gear I am..

This was 18% grade, struggling to get up with a huge crowd of onlookers. There was no way out of it – either climb it or stay at the bottom.

The next differences of Rwanda started to become apparent as well – This is the cleanest country I’ve ever visited. No garbage on the sides of the roads, no one is burning large piles of trash, and you even see garbage cans nailed to trees in communities. In fact, on the last Thursday of every month each resident of Rwanda is required to clean up their neighbourhood for hours. A very much progressive way of thinking to which the president even banned the usage of plastic bags – where they search belongings at border for their existence. It’s punishable by a large fine and even jail time, so having one out in the open is sure to be found by one of the many police officers standing on every corner dressed in bright neon yellow jackets with stern faces. If it’s not that, it’s the parading military combatants marching with assault rifles and machine guns in random places. Apparently if you cross their path is also punishable. It’s also the quietest country I’ve visited in Africa, no loud bars running until 5am, the public transport no longer blare reggae music at high volumes, and everything looks in order with no cars on the roads requiring maintenance. I would think they would have to be pretty maintained to try to make it up one of these hills that start immediately after you descent from the prior one.

I clocked 69.8km on one of them one day, and nearly all have been hitting the mid 60’s since then. Slightly dangerous as I ride without a helmet, but whatever. I’m not sure I even got into that I made that decision a few months ago to ride without – my reasoning was that the foam on the inside had melted away and the Styrofoam was causing irritation to my forehead. I snapped it on the back of my bike one day and rode with it that was for 30 days until leaving it in Kampala by accident. I’m getting a wee bit sunburnt on my head but otherwise it’s fine. One less thing to worry about – and if I was to meet my maker from a high speed collision with something It’s probably best to say I’d rather call it quits right there as opposed to having a perfectly working head and everything else unusable, confined to a chair or bed for the rest of my life. It’s a highly contested issue around the world isn’t it. The only downside is that I keep losing Bandana’s on a regular basis. I’ve lost 3 in one week, some of them gifts. Sorry.

I managed to take a video of the descent where I reached the speed, and thankful to the low cost of internet in Rwanda (7GB for $7 USD) I’m able to upload it at an amazing 42 megabits a second. This has been the fastest and most cost effective internet yet. Let’s hope for other future advancements! Mom, Dad, don’t watch the part where I nearly get creamed by the Semi Truck.

Primus Beer is everywhere – At $1.20 for a 720ml bottle its the best deal on beer in Africa so far..

These young boys were carrying their goats back from their feeding pasture for the day

Rwanda is a police state, let’s face it. There’s a weird sense of fear among the residents, but also extreme generosity received from everyone I meet, that I’ve never seen before. I’m not sure if it is just the way the people are (It’s true every Rwandan I’ve met outside the country has been fantastic), or if it’s a way of saying thanks, as many of the western world countries poured an abnormally large amount of money into the country after what happened here in the 1990s when over 1 million lives were lost in a genocide. The fallout is apparent everywhere you go, with signs speaking of it being the 19th anniversary of it happening, mass grave sites everywhere and a huge education campaign to educate locals and foreigners alike. I had the opportunity to visit one of the many memorial centres present in the country – mine being the largest where 250,000 bodies were uncovered in mass graves near the capital of Kigali by the Hutu tribe in an attempt to destroy the (what they said) inferior Tutsi tribe. This is tribalism gone out of control. It didn’t just happen over night, it dates back to the early 1900s when it was under German rule, and Christian teachings brought with them ideology that a superior tribe should only exist. This continued throughout the years causing discontent among the residents and locals before bubbling over in the late ‘80s, with random acts of violence occurring, 300 killings in a village occurring as a precursor common, as state run newspapers and radio stations began broadcasting hate messages. Many people began fleeing to nearby D.R. Congo, Tanzania, Uganda while the United Nations stepped in – creating something known as the “Arusha Accord” to bring peace talks to the table in 1990.

Too little too late, as when I say the UN stepped in, they stepped in, and walked right back out letting things reach their boiling point until April 6th, 1994 when upon arrival to the Kigali Airport the plane carrying both the president to Rwanda and neighbouring country Burundi was shot down at 8:27pm in the evening. By 10:15 roadblocks had appeared around the capital city, and thousands of trained militants armed with machetes, sticks, grenades and guns (seemingly supplied by the French Government) went from door to door following their list of who was belonged ot what tribe, setting houses ablaze, hacking off their arms, forcing victims to kill their loved ones before themselves being caught, chained together and set on fire, herded into a church for the solace of safety before being ambushed, locked in and having grenades and fire bombs thrown inside, children being placed in burlap sacks, tied shut and thrown into rivers, women being taunted and raped before being killed, and for those ones who were HIV+, left to live to suffer a longer lasting nightmare in a country where ARV’s were not yet available do to a patent agreement spat between major drug companies. It didn’t matter if you were best friends for 20 years with your neighbour. If you were a Tutsi (which in itself is not clearly defined, at some point the switch between tribes occurred when one had 10 cows in their possession), you were to die.

Piles of bodies lie in the street while dogs snacked on the remains causing huge disease outbreaks, and those sent to the hills ran in fear without stable sources of water or food for days on end, often perishing before being able to find refuge. Luckily not everyone was against each other – there are stories of traditional doctors housing dozens of fleeing Tutsi’s in a room on her land playing on the fear that the locals had of her thinking she was possessed by demons, and other humanitarians realizing that the hate propaganda that was being spread for decades was wrong. The rest of the world heard bits of fragments of the “civil war” occurring, choosing to sit on their hands for three months before order being restored by the Rwandan Patriotic Front, an army of Tutsi’s who had been amassing in Uganda. Similar killings followed before the international community stepped in and commenced restoration of peace. It’s a complicated story, and I’m likely not the best person to explain it. Do some reading, and shake your head at the tragic loss of lives that occurred due to ignorance, hate, and hierarchy. I’ve shared private talks with both Hutu’s and Tutsi’s and it still exists – hate that is programmed from a young age is hard to displace, yet all the persons I have talked to have stated they are not supposed to talk about which side they belong to – a sort of fear that is common throughout the country. It’s a sad way to see the landscape as I cycle through this wonderful country, with an overlay of dead bodies piled in ditches, displaced family and sites of torture when all I’d really like to see is the greenery.

This wasn’t the first as I travelled tthrough Canada and USA where the planned extermination of aboriginal occurred in many regions, and also through various colonial rules in South Africa, Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe – oh screw it, every country i’ve visited has seen something happen in its past. One’s I haven’t seen involving the extermination of Jewish people in Europe, the German led genocide in Namibia, the Islamic led attacks militant attacks on places like Somalia, Djibouti are just around the corner for me, but it seems that the damage has been far greater with little attempt to sweep it under the carpet like other places. Tribalism isn’t just for old times, today it’s happening in Kenya, apparent between the most populous Kikuyu tribe and the Luo happening in Kenya, where even their newly elected president is standing trial for crimes against humanity for sparking rounds of violence and riots in 2007. I thought we learned all of these when we were younger – no side wins when someone decides they are greater than the other. Still, It’s happening right now in Mali, D.R. Congo, Syria, Israel, Egypt, Afghanistan, and even happening in your own country, probably just under a different guise – lives may not be lost but the constant barrage of information detailing what’s better for you than the other competing product/policy/thought process is doing a damn good job at etching its propaganda into your mind. We aren’t born with it – it has to come from somewhere. I wonder, am I doing it too? Are you?

A collection of skulls found from the hundreds of mass graves situated from around the country.

Many memorial sites line the roads as you pass making sure that everyone is aware of what our fellow human beings have done to each other.

The plan it seems now is to head west towards the southern tip of Lake Kivu in Rwanda, as the locals go out of their way to show welcome, with highly intelligent conversation either in French, English Kiswahili, or Kirwandan, bordering the D.R. Congo before descending into yet another country faced with problems (I’ve actually received 3 warnings from various embassies in the past couple weeks), Burundi where apparently the capital of Bujumbura offers some of the most stunning beaches and quality of life in this part of the world. I’ve got a partner with me to offset the lonely days, and keeping in good spirits, and the gear just keeps getting lighter – as planned my clothes are tearing into shreds and I’m finally able to use the spares that were brought over during my extended stays in Zambia and Kenya last year..

You’ve gotta be pretty hardcore to ride Rwanda with its steep climbs, but the reward is beautiful landscapes, smiling people, and a wonderful opportunity to watch a nation rebuild itself and do what’s right for everyone. Certainly a model country for Africa, and the whole world as a whole. Recommended, and I will be back.

Water seems to be an issue here – women often carry these 20 litre containers for kilometres before finding a source from a river, stream or spring

A steep countryside with major erosion problems.

 

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