Yes I am, cycling to Cape Town

[fiets-ster]

Het zit je tegen, klinkt ook niet leuk allemaal. Gelukkig had dit stukje een happy end. Gedeelde smart is halve smart. Hebben jullie nu dezelfde route en kunnen jullie een stuk samen doen?

Ga je naar Dogon country? Kan je even de leuke kant van West Afrika zien, zeker de moeite waard! Als het niet op je route ligt, gewoon fiets opslaan en even wat anders doen misschien.

Ik hoop dat het weer wat leuker en gemakkelijker wordt!

In ieder geval komt hier het koude weer het heeft al gesneeuwd in Nederland en vriest hier nu, daar is het weer vast lekkerder.

[lars de wit]

Hoi,

Bedankt velen voor de steun, gelukkig gaat het weer beter.
Mijn portemonne, wat een rotwoord, schrijf ik hetgoed ? , was gejat in Bamako.
Bad news ?
Dacht het niet, het is mijn fake wallet met wat kleingeld erin, een euro of 25 aan afrikaans geld en wat dollars en verlopen bankpasjes.
Nee, de dame die iets verderop sliep, haar HELE backpack wasgejat !!!

Nogmaals thanks en op naar het volgende, leukere berichtje

Lars

[Shane]

Gaat lekker daar!

Nog meer reden om wild te kamperen, alleen jammer dat je naar de . steden m oet om visums te regelen..

Sterkte, ik hoop dat je reis heel snel een leuker wending neemt:)

[lars de wit]

Bonjour !

The people of Mali are great, when you ride your bike through the little villages, with the tiny mud coated huts, they wave and laugh at you as of you are bringing in the winning lotery ticket !
A huge smile on their face and waving, sometimes even clapping their hands.
And when you stop you have to shake hands with most of the man.


The kids are also fun, when they do not ask for money, or a pen, or your bidon or your bike
And, sometimes when they see me late, they are scared and run away, like the wind !
Ofcourse I help them even go faster by shouting : Boehoeee !!!! And wave my arms like a ghost hahaha.
Had some great laughs with this.

The gendarmerie is also nice, not wanting to see your passport all the time but just letting you through, great !

So I survived riding out of Bamako and had some great campsites in the bush, with every night a big bottle of beer

From San I took the ferry across river Bani to cycle the dirt road to Djenne, where I am right now.
It was impossible to loose track I thought, because the path just followed the river.
How wrong I was became clear next day ...
Driving out of one of the many villages I followed a track, hoping it would lead me to the ' maintrack '.
But the path became smallet and smaller, no good ...
At the end I was cycling through swamp ...
I decide to turn my bike but where to go ?
The maintrack should be norteast from here so I walked with my bike norteast.
But then I hit a really swamp, muddy too ...
Shit, shit, shit ...
I first tried without bike, stepping over huge grass in muddy ground, slipping away.
Easy there could be snakes here, which I couldn't see.
So I made a lot of noise and managed to break through, went back for my bike and made it out of the swamp !
And, I found a little track which brought me to the maintrack, which brought me all the wah to Djenne, where I am right now !
The mosque, the greatest mud building in the world, is indeed huge !
Tomorow, in good light I will make some nice pictures I hope, before leaving for Bandiagara and Dogon country, look forward to that !

And then to Ouagadougou, if only for the name ...

Greetings !

[fiets-ster]

"Easy there could be snakes here, which I couldn't see.
So I made a lot of noise"

Je weet wel dat slangen doof zijn? Ze voelen wel trillingen, stampen dus.

Mag je de moskee inmiddels ook weer in? Was in mijn tijd verboden omdat playboy er schaars geklede vrouwen had gefotograveerd...zo ging het verhaal tenminste.

[lars de wit]

Bonjour !

So, long time not heared from me huh !
Good or you want to read some stories, then please proceed

New balance, that's the title and that's what I am looking for.
A new balance in travelling because I didn't enjoy enough, I blamed it on the lariam pills but thought at the same time of something else ...
Every day cycling a 100 , 120 km, trying to reach next town before then and then, always in a hurry ...
Not so much time to relax and enjoy.
And when I had to cycle to a tiny village of mud huts I almost every time lost track so at last, I didn't like riding through those villages anymore !
Asking road directions in a hurry ...

So I was thinking I had to change my way of travelling, gong slowly, enjoy much more, finding a new balance ...

The same with my life, last year has been a tough one, one of the hardest, loosing my mum ...
In that too I have to find a new balance ...

But I am learning !

From Ouagadougou I rode a very interesting, mainly gravel road to the border with Niger, where I am right now. I rode through a National Park with elephants, unlucky I didn't see any of those magnificent animals. But the road was very nice and the new way of travelling too !

Today I went to the Nigerian embassy, where a very unhelpful clerk ' helped ' me ...
Can you believe it took him an hour to give me the visa form I had to fill in ???
And asking all stupid questions and looking in my passport at ALL my visa stamps, carefully reading them all, then saying my passport is almost not good. I asked, why not ? He said, no more pages for the visa !
( I have at least 5 empty pages and like 5 or 6 only half full ) So I said, no that's not true, look, here is a empty page ! He said, no, there is a stamp on it ( but the stamp was on the other side, barely visable ... )
What a prick, looking, trying everything to discomfort me ...
I showed him another empty page and then that ' problem ' was solved .

The he said he had to ask inside if I could get a form and maybe, MAYBE then I could get a visa.
After another 15 minutes he returned with more bad news, he said he spoke to his boss and he said I could get a 10 day's visa. 10 day's ? I almost screamed ! That is so not good, I am not paying a 100 euro for a 10 day transit visa ! I need 30 day's !
He said I go ask but maybe, maybe he will give you 3 weeks ...
Another 15 minutes later he returned, 30 day's not possible, 10 days yes, maybe 3 weeks.
So that was it, mmm not so happy but 3 weeks is better then nothing I thought because this guy was soooo unhelpful !
And maybe, just maybe the guy inside will give me 30 days, which is actually normal for a visa, which I told him.
So again he was gone inside with my passport, returning maybe 20 minutes later.
I asked when I could come back for pick up my passport and he asked if I would like to pay 10.000 CFA ( 15 euro ) and pick up my passport today, I said, another 10.000 ??? He said, is that much ? I said yes, he then asked for 5000 CFA but I said, look, I have paid 65.000 for a visa, that is a lot of money and I do not even know for sure IF I get this visa so no thank you, I will not pay more money.
That last one I didn't actually say but my intentions were clear, no more money, no bribe.
Then he said, come back at 13.30 to pick up your passport and I was stunned ...
Is it then ready at 13.30 ??? ( that was an hour from now ( I was there at 10.00 ... )
And he said yes.
So I came back an hour later and ...
I got a visa but only for 21 days.
Now I had to find another new balance, travelling slow but still going fast huh hahaha.
But I will not hurry anymore, if I cannot make it in three weeks I take a bus !

Planning to visit Kano and Jos, some nice cities.

But first tomorrow, I will leave Niamey and go to Koure or Kourou, forgot the name ...
It's a place where some of the last giraffes live here, and they must be very tame, look forward to it !

Oh, and I bought some new shoes, second hand but almost brand new for only 15 euro !
The brand ?
Make an educated guess

Lars

[Shane]

Nike?

Have fun with your new way of life

[frank bueters]

The brand ?
Make an educated guess

Lars

dat moet haast wel New Balance zijn Keep up !

[VoorheenRJ]

Saucony?
GENIET Lars, GENIET!

[fiets-ster]

Hartstikke goed hoor Lars die nieuwe balans! Ik hoop dat je wat leuke dingen tegenkomt die je plezier geven.

Toen ik je verhaal begon te lezen dacht ik al die vent wil geld, en ja hoor. Nou ja, die man heeft waarschijnlijk weinig inkomen en zit elke dag dit te doen, daar kan hij nooit gelukkig van worden, dan ben jij op de fiets beter af, laat het maar van je af glijden. Ik vraag mij af hoe ze zouden reageren als je hun indentiteitspapier vraagt en gegevens overschrijft, een foto van hem maakt of een bon voor de bribe, maar ja dan krijg je die 3 weken natuurlijk ook niet.

Merk schoen: Michelin?
Ik heb daar alleen slippers van gezien (gemaakt van oude autobanden) en daar is 15 euro misschien duur voor, maar wie weet kunnen ze nu meer.

[lars de wit]

Hello !

Leaving Niamey to see some of the last wild giraffes in western Africa, only 60 km southeast from Niamey !
So I bought a ticket, hired a guide and a motorcycle amd off we went. Driving 20 km on the mainroad and then a left turn into the bush, where we rode for another 2 km and then they were there; my favorite animals of Africa together with elephants but the latter were not here anymore.
Beautiful elegant those giraffes and quite tame, we could walk to them and they didn't run away. 15 meters close, it was a great sight !

Because of my visa problem with Nigeria, I only got 21 day's and the visa said it started on day of issue, which was 20-12, I wanted to enter Nigeria as fast as possible, taking a bus again. I also read in my lonely planet that at the border immigration would ask the length of stay, which would mean the 21 day's would start at the border ...
But because I didn't want to take the risk I took a bus again, so I thought ...

Yhe small minivan to Dosso wasn't a problem; arriving early that day in Dosso I went looking for the bus to Maradi, 500 km furter east, and learned that the bus left next morning at 6, so I cycled out of Dosso and made camp.
Next morning at 06.30 no bus. 07.00, no bus. 07.30 no bus and everybody started to leave so I asked, where is bus ? They told me bus was still in Niamey, broken ...
Shit, shit shit ...
I asked my money back and raced to another bus station, had to hurry because all busses leave early.
When I found it there was a bus, to Maradi but there was no space for my bicycle.
So I rode to bus nr 3, same story. Bus nr 4, same story ...
Oh no, what now ?
When I went back to the first bus station they also said my bike was the problem.
But ...
I could take a minubus to Maradi ( very tiring one man said and he would be so right ... )

I found a minubus to Maradi, leaving at 09.30, they said .
We left at 10.15 and within 1 km had 4 stops, loading and unloading passengers and cargo.
The last stop took almost an hour ...
To make a long story short, it took me 5 minibusses, 9 hours of waiting and 7 hours of riding to reach Maradi.
It was 23.00 hours ...

Bought some bread, a beer and cycled out of Maradi to find a perfect camp spot within 5 km.
I slept well I can tell !

The border with Nigeria only 50 km away.
With about 4 officers I had to go through nr 1 was the best.
This guy was asking me silly questions, answered by me with silly aswers
Profession ?
Clown.
Clown ?
Yeah you know, a circus, a silly man with a red nose, long shoes doing crazy things ?
Ahh, yes, he said.
Asking questions like, who is your contactperson, where do you go, if I had the telephone nr of the Hilton hotel in Abuja and knew somebody there ...
Then he asked me the name of my bicycle and I was stunned ...
You want to know the name of my bicycle ?
I started to laugh, harder and harder.
You want to know the name of my bicycle ???
Hahaha, tears were rolling down my face from laughter !
Oh men, the best laugh in months !

Then I told him the name ( which Gudy gave to me : LEO ( Lars Even Onderweg ))
He even wanted to know the nr so I gave him the nr of my Colorado nr plate, still laughing hahaha, the name of my bike, pffew !
Afetr completing the form I was told I could go, to immigration nr 2 where I got my entry stamp and ... 21 day's starting today ! So lonely planet was right

Very happy I took immi nr 3 and 4 and moved on, into Nigeria, land nr 10 this trip !

Beacause I wanted to spend Cristmas in Kano and because I was a little tired of 4000 km of headwinds ( now I know why most cyclists to Cape Town take the route fron Cairo I took private taxi to Kano.
A taxi because the minivans here do not have roof tops for my bicycle and big buses only ride in the south ? I payed 3000 N which is 15 euro, not too bad for a 170 km ride .

It isn't in the lonely planet but if you are in Kano you have to go to Ahmadu Bello Way / Magain Rumfa Road crossing where the funniest police man is controlling traffic; he is waving with his arms, marching up and down, making funny moves with his hands, standing on one leg, the other, together with one arm, skyhigh, waving traffic through like this !
I was looking and laughing for like 5 minutes, ( people gave him money by the way ).
Now, HE was a clown !
Just great to look at !

Now, tomorrow I will cycle out of Kano, on my way to Abuja, not sure which road to take but I want to ride the Jos plateau. Because of the recent problems in Jos I do not want to sleep there ( with new years's eve ) so I probably spend that one in the bush.

A, what the hell, as long as I am happy and I have to tell, THAT feeling is returning slowly

Greetings and a happy new year !

Lars

And many thanks ALL of you !

[Frank]

Hallo Lars,

goed om weer van je te horen.

Ik hoor op de radio dat er na een bomaanslag gewelddadige conflicten zijn tussen christenen en moslims in de buurt van Jos. Ik zou een andere route nemen als ik jou was. Wees voorzichtig en pas goed op.

Groetjes,
Frank

[lars de wit]

Ps, natuurlijk had Frank Bueters het goede antwoord
Ps 2 ik ben maar niet naar Jos gegaan vanwege de onlusten ...

Word vervolgd

[anja1963]

Hallo Lars,

ik hoorde van Nanette dat je weer een geweldige reis aan het maken bent.
Heb net al je avonturen gelezen, geweldig!
Heel veel plezier nog en succes met je reis verder
groetjes

[lars de wit]

Hoi Anja en anderen,

Bedankt !
Ik neem aan dat je de Anja, vroegere vriendin van Nicole bent ?

Okay, copy / paste and here it is, part 19 ???

Hello,

Long time no hear huh ?!
Because : it took me 9 day's of cycling to get out of Nigeria and enter Cameroon.
But lets start 10 day's, new years eve.
I spend that one in bed, I bought a nice bottle of whiskey but because my stomach hurted a little combined with diarree I decided not to go to a party at the Sheraton but go to bed.
Too bad ...

Next day I started to get myself out of Nigeria, 5 day's with diarree would follow but I could eat and didn't feel week so not a real problem, just annoying it wouldn't stop, even the Loperamide didn't help ...

Maybe I was just sick of Nigeria and, sorry to say, the people.
146 million of them and it seemes to me all of them were shouting at me the craziest thnings : white man ! how far ! hello ! what's your dollar ! ( meaning ??? ) and all staring at me, when I sat down in a little village or a city, in 30 seconds I was surrounded by dozens of them, coming from the other end of town just to stare at me, most uncomfortable for me, didn't like it a lot.
Overtaking me on the road, the mopeds didn't look one time over their shoulder, not two times but three times minimum ... grrrr
And when I explained I needed some air, wanted to be alone I was talking to the bushes ...

Better stop complaining by saying Cameroon is sooooooooo much more relaxed and ...
I entered rain forest !
Have to say, it started in Nigeria, just before the border. okay, one more last complain, where it took me only 2 offices in Cameroon to get my stamp and passport checked, in Nigeria it were 6 offices .... one of them asking for something, I said, I hope you are not asking for money
No, no he said but he sure as hell was ...

I am in Bamenda right now, very much enjoing a day's rest.
Pretty mountains here although almost all day cloudy / misty, late in the afternoon it is best.

Tomorrow I will cycle in 4 day's I think, no hurry , to Yaounde where I might do something unexpected, in order to avoid the rain ...
Curious ?
Sorry, you have to wait

And, I haven't mailed too much but ofcourse, all the best for 2011 !

With love

[lars de wit]

Hello, hello, hello !

Boy, a new man is typing here, this time for sure and hopefully for long !
The thing that changed me ?
A package from Holland.

But lets start at the beginning: leaving Rockanje I was asking road directions to Cape Town hahaha, a lady looked a little strange at me, I asked, at Hoevelaken rechtsaf toch ???
No serious, I left Bamenda with a 20 km climb, between 8 and 15 percent ....
Some hard work !
And unexpected, so even harder ...
I still cycled 90 km that day, with more then 1600 altitude meters not too bad.
Looking for a house to camp because bushcamping is impossible here in Cameroon, due to dense jungle, impossible to picht a tent.
So since I left N.....a , hahaha, I am house camping !
Sometimes very nice, one night was not so good, a women in this little village was argueing, shooting for more than an hour, when she stopped some guy's started fighting and jelling, all night long it seemed ...
Even my earplugs didn't help much.

So, house camping and .... every day is a palm wine tour, people selling it along the road, a liter for only 16 cents
Bit you have to taste, hips, a lot before you have the right, hips one. Some are sweet and sour, mjammie, some are rather tasteless.
It is very nice to drink I can tell !

So, drunk as hell haha just kidding, I arrived in Yaounde, where I found my guesthouse very quick, thanks to the very good city maps in the Lonely Planet, dumped my bags and raced to the Post Office, to look if my package had arrived>
the lady told me to look it up myself in a book and the last name in it was mine ! So just arrived I think.
I started to jump a little around, arms in the air and a big smile on my face, jippie !! It arrived !!!

Racing back to my guesthouse and opening it was like christmas, all the ' presents ' inside, a special pump for my front suspension, a new zipper for my tent, enough needles to start a business ( thanks Corry ! ) a new hook for one of my bags which was broken, a roadmap of southern Africa, a Lonely Planet of southern africa and a christmastcard, how nice and last but not least, a VISA creditcard, so I am able to use the ATM machines here and in coming countries, almost none of them support Mastercard which is useless here ...

And so my mind and mood changed, within seconds because ....
I was this close of coming back home, all morning I was thinking of flying back to Holland and I have to be honest, the feeling it gave me was more than good ...
So I was pretty determined, even with the package which I then wouldn't need anymore that I was going back home, the idea was to surprise my father on his birhtday, the 26 th of januari.
Sorry dad, I booked today a flight, not back to Holland but to .....

LUSAKA , ZAMBIA !

Great great just great !

Had to use the VISA creditcard to pay which was only possible in the Hilton hotel were there was a travel agency, even the Kenya airways office in town didin't want my creditcard.... sometimes Africa is so tyring and rediculous !

Now I am flying coming tuesday to Lusaka for a lot of reasons, I am home sooner ( good for my work ( I can start again were I left, isn't that great !!! )), back before the famous hemelvaarttrektocht van de wereldfietser, I see my family and friends sooner, I can buy that more then great motorbike I saw on the website of Rockanje Motors ( a red Honda racebike 750 cc and above all, I am avoiding rainy season in Gabon, Congo and DR Congo, where, when it rains roads become impossible to ride.
So I just fly over the clouds, isn't that great !?!

I am so happy, I can typ foreever but my time is running out, therefore,

See you again, from Zambia , yahoooooooooooo !!!!!!!

Lars

[harry-fietsenaar]

Hé, ho Lars Niet zo snel joh! Het is geen race!! Afrika moet langzaam! Neem eens de tijd om, net als de mannen daar doen, met een grote grijns de hele dag onder een boom te zitten. Dan leer je Afrika kennen. Die hemelvaarttrektocht is vreselijk suf, een heel slap surrogaat van wat jij aan het doen bent, daar moet je nu helemaal niet over nadenken. In 2012 is er weer een. En we kunnen toch echt niet zonder je verhalen! Ik moet straks de rubriek 'Fietsers onderweg' in het tijdschrift weer vullen. Hoe ga ik dat voorelkaar krijgen? Blijf alsjeblieft nog even weg. Veel plezier nog

Ehh...ik had er zelf geloof ik ook wel eens een handje van...

[Shane]

Fijn dat je weer blij ben Lars, je moet doen waar je zin in hebt, ik kan wel voorstellen dat Gabon en Congo niet aantrekkelijk zijn in de regen tijd.

Je hoeft niet alles te fietsen, het gaat om genieten van een leuk reis, een uurtje in de vliegtuig kan wel maanden ellende besparen

[lars de wit]

Hello,

Lusaka was great, what a nice city compared with the western africa cities !
Much more modern, nice supermarkets, very nice hostal and people don't blowing their horns constantly !
Which is such a relief

I decided to cycle out of Lusaka in stead of taking the train; first of all the weather looked good and I heared that the train took like 2 to 3day's, instead of the 18 hours mentioned in my Lonely Planet.

Southern Zambia is very green now, because of the rainy season.
Very beautiful !
Difficult to camp in the bush though so I did some ( great ) housecamping and two times in a little village with all the mud round huts.
Just ask for the chief of the village, show him your picture of your tent and ask if you can sleep here, which is almost allways no problem !

At night heavy rains but I could keep it dry in my tent; at daytime it was playing with the clouds ...
I saw many dark ones with some heavy rain in it and tried to avoid them, sometimes speeding up to pass the clouds as quickly as possible, sometimes going slow to let the cloud go by.
And sometimes catch some drops which was actually quite nice and cool after the heat of western africa.

It took me 4 days to reach Livingstone, where I am now.
Today I will visit the Victoria Falls on the zambian side, tomorrow I will go into Zimbabwe and visit the falls from that side.

Last day cycling into Livingstone I got pretty wet, couldn't avoid the clouds ...
Well, you cannot win them all, can ya ?

Greetings !

[fiets-ster]

Wat een goed besluit naar oost Afrika vliegen. Ik wordt al enthousiast van jou enthousiasme. Oost Afrika is zo anders. Is west Afrika vooral overleven en afzien met weinig leuks ertegenover dan is oost Afrika zoals je denkt dat Afrika zou moeten zijn (in mijn ervaring dan).

Vicfalls zijn schitterend beide kanten. En ook vanuit de lucht, ik heb er een microlight vlucht genomen, aanrader (voor zowel de vluchtervaring als het uitzicht)!!!

Geniet vooral ook van de andere dingen dan alleen fietsen want dat kan hier weer. Een leuke wandel bergtrektocht, wildparken, enz.

Ik hoop dat je het nu weer erg naar je zin krijgt en dat gaat volgens mij wel lukken.

Wat wordt je nieuwe route of pak je de oorspronkelijke route hier weer op? Misschien heb je door je vlucht nu tijd om een extra rondje Zimbabwe te doen. Bijvoorbeeld een kanotrektocht op de Zambesi tussen de krokodillen, nijlpaarden, olifanten en steile rotswanden. Ik weet niet of Zimbabwe ondertussen weer velig is. Of van Botswana, via de strip Namibië in en dan pas naar Zuid Afrika, Namibië vind ik een van de mooiste landen in de wereld. Je zit nu in een gebied waar je zoveel leuks kan doen.