the path through the jungle

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6-11/6 Cape Town/Johannesburg/Pretoria

8/6 Fish Hoek - Cape of Good Hope - Fish Hoek 85 km ‘day 0’ on the bike around Cape Town

12/6 Pretoria - Pienaars Rivier 60-70 km To infinity and beyond. First day all packed up, luckily no problems.

13/6 Pienaars Rivier - Modimolle (Nilstroom) 75 km Perfect day. Starting to like my new life!

14/6 Modimolle 20-30 km small bike problems, so chickened out and went back for a day of adjusting, resting ...and watching world cup (Denmark-Holland)

15/6 Modimolle - Vaalwater 62,7 km first bigger hills, and first rel consideration whether this really is thought throuh.

16/6 Vaalwater - Lephalale (Ellisras) 90,1 km Long day as no sleep (due to bad match of freezing temp. and a summer sleeping bag), and a few more bumps as well.

17/6 Lephalale 18,7 km Last RSA city, friendly family foolish enough to take me in, swimming pool and 5 star treatment. Somehow felt like a resting day.

18/6 Lephalale - Martins Drift (BOTSWANA!) 103,5 km First 100+ day and first border crossing. He's really off!

19/6 Martins Drift - Cattle farmer camp 147,1 km First (of many) experiences with 'african kilometers'. Told it was 120 max. and still fell short by 50+ km! Lucky to find friendly farmers at road side camp.

20/6 Cattle farmer camp - Francstown 133,5 km

21/6 Makgadikgadi Salt Pans, Nata 35 km Best resting day so far. Cycling around the salt pans.

22/6 Francistown - Ramokgwebane 75,8 km Worst day so far! The day the rim got bent! Fist experience with african 'magic' mechanics.

23/6 Ramokgwebane - Bulawayo (ZIMBABWE!)118,2 km Arrived 6 broken spokes and 1 very wobbly rim later. Happy arrival. Annoyed as hell.

24-25/6 Harare 0 Waiting for visa for Ethiopia and bike at repair shop

26-28/6 Bulawayo 0 Sick, bike still a mess so new try at new shop.

...luckily taken well care of by the best zimbabwean family in the world!

29/6 Bulawayo - Ken Maur 151,1 km Beautiful scenery in rural zimbabwe.

30/6 Ken Maur - Cross Dete 143,9 km still rural and tribal ...and hilly!

1/7 Cross Dete - Victoria Falls Town! 160,1 km Victoria Falls!! First defined goal after 3 long and unique days without shower or power but lots of smiling and special people/

2/7 Victoria Falls Town 16,4 km Vic Falls

3/7 Victoria Falls Town - Livingstone (ZAMBIA!)20,6 km Vic Falls, Zambian side

4/7 Livingstone - Simba 80 km

5/7 Simba - Choma 117,1 km First day with extreme headwind! ...worse than hills

6/7 Choma/Lusaka 60,2 km away, break-down, back, bus to Lusaka

7-9/7 Lusaka 70,0 km away, break-down, back to Lusaka again

10-11/7 Siavonga 66,7 km Detour to Lake Karibe and beaches while waiting for new rim from RSA. No probs with bike, but pretty much no weight either.

12/7 Lusaka/Chipata 0 Finally received new rim from South Africa but took bus to Chipata to make up for the lost week

13/7 Chipata/Mfuwe, South Luangwa NP 0 South Luangwa. Arguably Africas best wildlife park! Best off-bike exp. so far.

14/7 Mfuwe, South Luangwa National Park 0

15/7 Chipata - Random School (MALAWI!) 110,2 km

16/7 Random school - Ngala Beach Resort 140,2 km total climb = 1342m. Hills, wind, denied access
through national park, but luckily got a lift (from
a danish guy! Random!).

17/7 Ngala Beach resort - Nkhata Bay 122,7 km One of the most beautiful days so far at the lake.

18/7 Nkhata Bay - School near Bwengu 124,9 km Start with 1000m climb, slept at random school.

19/7 School near Bwengu - Chitimba 71,2 km Teaching at school and back to the lake.

20/7 Chitimba - Kasungulu (TANZANIA!) 136,7 km

21/7 Kasungulu - Mbeya 119,1 km total climb = 2162m! Up, up, up! Long day.

22/7 Mbeya - resting day 0 Needed!

23/7 Mbeya - Tunduma 108,0 km

24/7 Tunduma - Wild Camp 88,8 km Start of the dirt road days!

25/7 Wild Camp - Sumbawanga 131,2 km 11h on the bike. Sand, hills, more sand. Long day!

26/7 Sumbawanga - Lyazimbi 111,2 km

27/7 Lyazimbi - Mpanda 116,3 km Tough day. Tsetse flies, sand, heat, and stopped by
rangers for cycling in national park 10km before exit
(no signs!!)

28/7 Mpanda - Lyamaz 59,4 km Half resting day. Cut short at settlement for 140km

29/7 Lyamaz - Wild Camp 96,0 km Very long. Tough hills, even worse roads and low on
supplies

30/7 Wild Camp - Kigoma 168,5km total climb = 710m. To this day still don't know how
I got this far. But finally across, tarmac again.

31/7 Kigoma (resting day) 16,7km Day of wobbling legs and deserved relaxing at
beaches of Lake Tanganyika

1/8 Kigoma - Kamonanira (Burundi border) 83,4km total climb = 1534m! Back in dirt roads and hills!

2/8 Kamoninara - Bujumbura (BURUNDI) 172,7km! total climb = 991m - Tough day. Longest dist.
+ 1 border crossing, 30km sand track up a
mountain, 35 degrees and two quite frustrating
road side repairs. But unbeatable scenery next to
Lake Tanganyika and through local villages.

3/8 Bujumbura ca. 25km Waiting for visa, beach and hit the 4000 today!!!

4/8 Bujumbura (still waiting) 0 km

5/8 Bujumbura - Rwanda border (RWANDA!) 117,7km total climb = off the charts! Hills! Tough and big hills! But last day on the visa to had to push for the border.

6/8 Border town - Nyanza 79,9km Bus detour to Genocide Memorial and somehow the
bike stopped when I reached the milk capital,
Nyanza. (first drops of the white gold for a month!)

7/8 Nyanza - Kigali 95,7km Finally got money (no ATM's in Burundi, and told only one in Rwanda), ice cream and pizza. Went to bed happy.

8/8 Kigali - Musanze (Ruhengeri) 95,0 km total climb = 1525 (but felt like double as they were only distributed on two mountains.) Bus to Gisenyi for relaxing around Lake Kivu before Uganda.

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