TravelBlog » chrisonabike

chrisonabike - chris

Hello. I'm Chris and over the past 2 years I've been wined and dined by British Antartica Survey…in Antarctica and now, like a chick told to go find its own worms, I'll shortly be cast ashore in Cape Town South Africa, having to do my own shopping.
On board the Shackleton I have my bicycle, shipped out in 2005.
It has been left outside over 2 winters in temperatures dropping to
-40C. Now it is about to roll down the gangplank and roll at least into town.
I shall be heading north through Africa, although I don’t know yet the final destination. That will depend on Africa and how hard or easy cycling through this country might be.

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Joined on: January 5th 2008
Last Login: July 3rd 2008

Blog Entries: 15
Photos: 10

TB Code: [blogger=56415]
Status: BLOGGER

Blogs & Travel Journals

by chrisonabike, order by Date newest first.

By chrisonabike
June 3rd 2008

Nairobi, last call

Africa » Kenya » Nairobi Province

Can I take your photo/
Not that I'm good at putting the camera in someones face

Nairobi: The final stop, one degree short of the northern hemisphere. Quite a city. I've decided that this is as far as I'm going. I could have pushed for Addis Ababa, but this seems more a fitting end to the journey and I fill happy with the distance. It was never meant to be too much of an expedition. The trailer was dropped off in Moshi,Tanzania, donated to Key's Hotel. I came to the conclusion it would be too awkward and heavy to get back to the UK. For now I have a plane to catch. [View Full Entry]

By chrisonabike
May 26th 2008

not the best day in Tanzania

Africa » Tanzania » North » Moshi

I don't know what happened to Iringa, but I ended up staying at a dirty truck stop, which was a breeding pground for mosquitos. Anyhow, the decision to avoid the poor road to Dodema was easy to make. So I ended up in Morogoro at the New Acropol Hotel. It had been a long day to Morogoro, infact 2 days back to back of 160kms and in all that time I just hadn't been thirsty. For long 160km days I normally wouldn't have breakfast and this day I'd had a pineapple and 4bannanas. I then popped out to buy some biscuits. [View Full Entry]

By chrisonabike
May 10th 2008

Hilly start to Tanzania

Africa » Tanzania » West » Mbeya

Malawi was fun, though very hilly, but then I didn't realise how hilly the Poloto mountains in Tanzania would be. There was an interesting 8km climb, which took a long time. Reaching the top all the school kids pilled out of class and whistling and shouting "dongle" or "dongler" they ran with me up the hill, laughing and joking. It really was an occasion to make me smile. Those little kids can really run. There has been a barrage of greetings and I try my best to wave back. Anyhow, Lake Malawi was quite beautiful and I took a wrong turning [View Full Entry]

By chrisonabike
April 28th 2008

moving along

Africa » Malawi » Lake Malawi

Well I'm out of Zambia, one of the happiest nations, well there are always the few non-smillers. Lusaka to Chipata is a highly populated continuous collection of small farms run by the locals, each with a collection of kids who see me coming from a long way off and welcome me with "how are you?", "how far?", "where to?" and occassionally "give me money." This is all nice, but wears you out in the continous barrage along the way. The trailer holds a lot of interest to people and mainly follows a smile as I creep up the hills, although a [View Full Entry]

By chrisonabike
April 19th 2008

Change on the road

Africa » Zambia » Lusaka

Lusaka and I'm at the eureka campsite 12km outside of town and the wrong side of town. The road from Livingstone had for a while the smoothest road I've been on, but then at Monze is was back to the bumpy stuff. Somewhere there's a tourist office, but I think its been demolished. There's no sign. For a change I've been in the company of locals on bikes. They are most friendly and very fast. A guy, his wife and baby on the bike rack were going very fast just the other day, of course on the other side of the [View Full Entry]

By chrisonabike
April 8th 2008

elephants in the bush

Africa » Botswana

road stop
normally sign posted as a tree 1km further on, but the swing bins are emptied all over the place by the animals

Kasane town 6km from the border crosssing into Zambia. I should be in Livingstone tomorrow. Northern Botswana has been hard work, yet satisfying when I look at the map. It also gave me my first 200km ride between towns: nata to panda and because of the closed in bush, the wind was for a change in my favour, or reduced. It did take 11hours. I've now seen elephants and giraffes in the wild. The poor road conditions also meant the trailer nuts came loose and a wheel bounced off. Still, otherwise, the rattle frightens most animals away. I was warned about [View Full Entry]

By chrisonabike
March 28th 2008

Maun Botswana

Africa » Botswana » North-East

Maun, Botswana. It's an interesting town with some smart shops and a vitality about it. For once the corrugated shacks have been replaced with some nice small huts and bushman huts. I get the feeling there's a lot of employment here. That gives people money and that makes them happy, although Botswanans are generally happy people from waht I've experienced. I decided to take the road through Botswana - Gobabis, Ghanzi, Maun, Gweta, Nata and Kasane. It's a long straight road, an endless road and I just count off the 10km markers, which in general take about 33minutes to complete with [View Full Entry]

By chrisonabike
March 12th 2008

windhoek

Africa » Namibia » Windhoek

tortoise
Big for a tortoise

It all changed once I reached Grunau on the N7 heading north in Namibia. The hot sun was replaced by clouds, the wind became northerly. Towns became a lot further apart. Water wasn't piped in the large town of Tses and the road got narrower. As always, not booking ahead, and finding places still, I came to the capital to find places full up. So that was a first also. Still, that was then on the way up to Windhoek. But I met a tortoise and dribbled water on its head, not to know later a down pour would supply a [View Full Entry]

By chrisonabike
March 5th 2008

long roads in Namibia

Africa » Namibia

mountain walk
dog with a long tongue

It's the rainy season here, so my shoes have got muddy. But in central lodge, I have a whirlpool bath, just that my toe won't fit in the water injectors on button. Yesterday I cycled 120km from Savannah guest farm, which allowed me a day in the mountains, as that is what they have , a mountain range in the back garden. The roads here are long, straight and mainly with a slight incline, to hard work. Towns inbetween are scarce too. Water is in towns only, but then it rained. That meant some crablike bugs invaded the road. Oh, I [View Full Entry]

By chrisonabike
February 25th 2008

N7 northern cape

Africa » South Africa » Northern Cape » Springbok

springbok: camped indoors. I wonder how big an insect needs to be to hear it scuttling across the floor? Some big bugs got up at 4am, crossed the floor and then climbed the walls in all directions, so I put my tent up on the bed, not wanting some black bug crawling across my face in the nite. It stands quite nicely on a flat bed with the two ends attached to the bed posts. I've been carrying 6 liters of water and still got caught out in Kamieskroon with the granite mountains and something like 34 degrees. 60kms to Garies [View Full Entry]