My current plan for the rest of the trip
The original plan and how it evolved
My original idea for this trip was in no small part inspired by this book by Pamela Watson. I also wanted to go along the Kongo river on a boat and visit Timbuktu. As I am more familiar with East Africa from previous visits I wanted to go from east to west instead. And I really like the idea of starting cycling at home and arrive back there the same way which would make the whole thing one big round trip.
Right before I started I was planing to go something like this:
Then there was the conflict in Mali that took Timbuktu off my route, the unstable situation in Kongo that made me desert the idea of going on the river. Now there’s Boko Haram in Nigeria and Ebola out of control across a number of countries which finally made me decide to skip West Africa altogether.
At the time of writing this I’ve completed the European part of the trip and am in Uganda. Instead of going west and then up north back to Europe I’m going to go south to South Africa.
The biggest inspiration for the current plan as seen above were Hannes and Claudia and their route. I had the pleasure of running into them on a campsite in Austria when they were on their way back home. I guess you can still donate for the school project in Northern Malawi that they raised money for with their trip.
I’ll still adapt the route as I see fit along the way of course. If you know the area and have any tips about where to go and what to avoid please contact me.