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Africa (Sept-Nov 2007)
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Netherlands. A few weeks back home to get a new passport, fix my bicycle for Africa, and a lot of more stuff to sort out.
First picture shows the bicycle I posted in Bangkok 3 and a half months ago and I had already given up.
Aug 13-Sep 4: Netherlands
Bike on plane. The KLM (royal Dutch airlines) provides excellent service for all those Dutchies wanting to bicycle abroad and bring their own bicycle on the plane.
It costs a fixed rate of 100 Euro including the box, so I brought a bicycle from the Netherlands in stead of buying one in Africa.
I bought my first bicycle of my trip around the world at the start in Canada, went with it to Mexico without any trouble, and brought it home on the plane.
I am going to use it again for Africa since it is not only the cheapest but also the best bicycle.
It has no unnecessary fancy stuff like front suspension which might let me down, and I had the Canadian shop put in higher quality wheels (Deore).
I should have done this with the other two bicycles as well because they gave me a lot of trouble with breaking spokes and bending rims due to my heavy load on the back.
Johannesburg. It is always a big hassle to get your bicycle into a big city (and even worse to get out), and because Jo'burg is not a very interesting (or safe) city, I decided to skip it alltogether, sleep on the airport, and bike east next morning. My first impressions remind me of Australia: hot and dry, endless roads over rolling hills with few trees, little towns far apart with spacious houses, and a lot of cattle and mining.
Biggest difference is probably all the security such as the high fences around the houses, but they get lower the further you get away from Jo'burg.
On the bike again. The first few days in a new country are always a bit more difficult because you have to get used to everything, and now I also had to get used to bicycling again after half a year. On top of this I also got sick and lost my appetite, not a good thing when I was still heavily underweight from India.
First picture shows how I had to camp out in the middle of a mining area, the second shows the bulletholes in the road signs.
Afrikaans. Very funny for a Dutchie to hear the language Afrikaans, it is like a simplified and old-fashioned Dutch which you can read and understand right away if they speak slowly: huurmotor means taxi, hoendervlerkjes means chicken wings, paneelkloppers means car repair. Very funny, joa.
Apartheid. It's over ten years now that apartheid has been abolished, but it will take a lot more time for the blacks to catch up economically if you look at the townships along the road and all the labour still being done by blacks.
I have chatted with lots of whites who insist on not being racists but keep on complaining about all their lost privileges and are thinking of moving to Australia if things get worse, especially the corruption.
Some are even afraid the country my slide down to black racism like in Zimbabwe.
Blyde River Canon. Also called Klein Drakenberg or the Drakenberg escarpment. Beautiful landscapes, great views, and the third biggest canyon in the world. And good backpackers to stay like Billy Bongo's.
Kruger NP. The famous Kruger Nationa Park is about half the size of the Netheralnds and hosts an incredible amount of animals.
The south is a dense bushy area (see first small row of pictures) where it is not always as easy to spot the animals, try to find the black rhine in the middel picture.
The north is more open field like savanne (2nd row) where you'll find more herds of zebra's and buffalo's.
Most animals you'll find along the rivers (3rd row),
and next to the man made lakes and waterholes (4th row). Unfortunately big areas of the park were recently burnt (last picture).
The big ones of Kruger NP. Elephant, hippopotamus, Cape buffalo, giraffe, white rinoceros, the rare black rhinoceros, wildebeest.
The big cats of Kruger NP. Lion, leopard, hyena. Unfortunately we didn't see a cheetah.
The antilopes of Kruger NP. Kudu, waterbok, nyala, steenbok, klipspringer, and loads of impala.
Monkeys and pigs of Kruger NP. Baboon, monkey, warthog.
Birds of Kruger NP. Fish eagle, ground hornbill, yellow beaked hornbill, black stork, and lots of weavers. We didn't see ostrich.
Reptiles and insects of Kruger NP. Crocodile, leguano, termites.
Roads of Kruger NP. One of the reasons why it is so easy to spot all the animals in Kruger is that there are so many roads and visitors, that most animals have become accustomed to cars. Sometimes it becomes very crowded, especially when someone has spotted lions or leopard.
Safety. South Africa isn't exactly the safest country on the planet, but most stories about safety are a bit exagerated and if you use your common sense it is safe to travel all around the world.
On to Mozambique. There is a lot more to see in South Africa but I'm limited in time and money, so I will save the rest for my honeymoon, and will move straigth on to Mozambique.
Sep 5: Johannesburg airport; 6: Bronkhorstspruit; 7: Vandyksdrif; 8: Carolina; 9: Dulstroom; 10: Sabie; 11: Graskop; 12: Blyde River NP, Hazyview; 13,14: Hazyview; 15,16: Kruger NP; 17: Nelspruit.
Maputo. A few nice pieces of architecture but for the rest a sleepy capital. The third picture shows a house designed by Gustav Eiffel (yes, the same one), completely made of steel panels, and therefor always as hot as an oven.
Biking kills. I got sick again, the biking in the heat lowers my body resistance so that dorming diseasing take their chance.
Besides the nausea (and flatu...) I even had to puke, so I started hithchiking and bussing through make it through Mozambique.
Vilanculo. Mozambique's main attraction is the beach, very laid back.
Chimoio to the border. "Doscientos? Estas brincando?". "Nao, vamos ao policia!". "Oke, vamos".
Sometimes you get charged extra for bringing a bike on the bus, but one guy tried to overcharge me so much that I refused.
I thought he was bluffing when he wanted to go to the police, but he wasn't. Fortunately I understand some Portugese, and even more fortunately the police turned out to be not corrupt.
They told the guy to bugger off because they had already overcharged me for the passenger ticket, and you can't overcharge twice, haha!.
My very last act in Mozambique was at the border, throwing another corrupt calculator of a money cahnger into the bushes...
sep 18,19: Maputo; 20: XaiXai; 21: Macia; 22: Quissico; 23,24: Vilanculo; 25,26: Chimoio.
border to Blantyre. people all over the world seem a lot friendlier on the countryside and when you're cycling, but as soon I crossed the border into Malawi, people seem a lot friendlier and many greet or wave.
Therefor Malawi is often nicknamed "the warm heart of Africa".
Malawian kids. Very funny, except for the 'give me money' mantra's, haha.
Selfmedication. I was still a bit sick, I had no diarrhea or fever, but felt nautious and my belly was so full of gas that I thought it might explode (or the room when I flicked the switch, haha).
Normal antibiotics (like Citroprox) didn't work so I stopped them after 2 days of trying.
I wasn't very eager to go to a hospital (and pick up some more diseases) but fortunately in Blantyre I happened to meet some doctors in my hostal who told me I probably had picked up Giardia.
Alright, I happened to have the medication (the antibiotic metronidazol) because in India Little A. give it to me (probably together with the disease, haha), so I started self-medication, and within one day it worked, I finally had my appetite back again, and instead of gas I was now exploding with energy again. Thank god for Mecical Science and sepecially antibiotics!
Blantyre to Zomba plateau. I had so much new energy that after a day on the bike I still wanted to climb the Zomba plateau as a relaxing afternoon ride, haha.
Liwonde National Park. Elephants are not the wise and friendly animals you might think they are, so before I cycled in the park I hired an M16 (1st picture).
This was not an unnecessary precaution as the 3rd picture shows a Landrover IIa with two holes of an unfriendly elephant (no joke).
8.1 MB MOVIE: malawi elephantspotting.avi
Liwonde national park. Liwonde NP does not have as many ans as spectacular animals as in other parks, but nevertheless it was very beautiful and relaxed.
First picture show the sable antilope. For the rest we saw some other antilopes, elephants, hippo's, and heared some hyena's that's it.
The fun however was in the walking safari (watch the buffalo's in the back), the night safari (surrounded by elephants in the pitch dark bush is very very exciting), and the cannooing safari.
Travelling by car or truck. The 1st picture shows that it is not always safer than biking.
The 2nd picture shows an overland truck, basically a tourist bus in Africa. They have company names like "African adventures" or so, which is quite ridiculous because everything is overorganised and your stuck with the same other whites for one or several months, something like Big Brother Apartheid on wheels to me, haha.
Before I visited Africa I had thought about joining one for a few weeks but when I heard them complaining at the camping about eachother and making jokes about using sanitary towels inside out, I lost interest, haha.
The 3rd picture shows a fully equiped Landrover as some tourist take across Africa. Why not bring your solar powered caravan too?
Lake of Starts Festival 2007. By chance I heard about the International Malawi Music Festival "Lake of Stars 2007", see also www.lakeofstars.co.uk.
Compared to Holland, there are not that many oportunities for good dance parties around the world, so I immediately abandoned my bicycle and jumped on the bus to make it to this 3-day festival of African and Dance music, the happening of the year in Malawi.
The ingredients: a lot of African and UK artists and DJ's with superbe music, a sunny festival camping right on the beach of Lake Malawi, and a lot of fun people to meet. One of the best festivals I have ever seen, and oh boy, did I have a good time!!!
Foreign aid. Travelling around Africa you get confronted with foreign aid a lot: you see a lot of buildings of NGO's with a lot of expensice cars in front. The NGO's are trying to help the countries develop, but unfortunately most money of foreign aid is spent in its own industry by big agency's on: (50%) bureaucracy back home in the West on endless reports and policy making, (10%) bureaucracy in the developed countries itself, (30%) on failed projects in developed countries, and the rest (10%) may get to the poor people themselves.
Most projects fail because the foreign aid agency don't understand anything about the local situation, beacuse they are not accountable for waisting money, because of bad coordination, and because of the local conditions they try to improve (health, transport, education,economy).
The first book above says we should spent a lot more on foreign aid to get the poorest countries out of the poverty trap with a Big Plan to end extreme poverty by 2025.
The second book explains why the first book is nonsense like all the Big Plans before in the history of foreign aid, instead we should search for small things with feedback what has actually worked, and have foreign aid agencies accountable for their results.
My advice would be: don't give any money to big NGO's because they waist most of it on themselves. Some years ago, just after I donated to Greenpeace for the first time, the newspapers told me that the Dutch top manager was earning more with his three day working week than our prime minister, what a shame!
So f*ck the big agencies. Instead read the second book, go on a holiday to poor countries, spent your money locally while enjoying yourself and creating jobs in the tourist industry. If you want to do more, take a volunteering holiday or job here.
Sep 27,28,29: Blantyre; 30: Zomba.
Oct 1,2: Liwonde; 3: Lilongwe; 4-7: Chintheche (Lake of Stars festival); 8-10: Lilongwe
South Luangwa NP. From Malawi I crossed into Zambia to visit the South Luangwa National Park for a few days, with oads of animals in beautiful landscapes.
We stayed in a tented camp near the river. After dark we were always escorted by a guard when we went to the toilet or the bar, because the elephants would walk on the campsite (last picture) to drink from the swimming pool, pretty exciting.
This kind of precaution is not exaggerated: during our stay, a couple of hundred meters up the river from our camp, a local boy got snapped by a crocodile while him mum was washing in the river...
And here's a movie to congratulate my uncle Jo and aunt Truus:
3.2 MB MOVIE: zambia jotruus.avi
Oct 11-13: Zambia South Luangwa NP;
Bad bacteries. It must have been just an insect's bite or a small scratch, but it was surely the swimming in Lake Malawi that had infected it with a nasty bacteria.
At first I thougth it was just a minor infection and the pharmacist said it was no problem (as any African says about anything) to go to see the doctor, so I just put on some anitbiotic creme.
However, in the tropics any minor health problem can quickly worsen and takes a long time to heal.
During my safari in Zambia the infection got worse and worse, so painfully even that I started limping.
Fortunately some of the other tourists were (almost) doctors and adviced me that I had to take real antibiotics (amoxycyclin).
When I returned from the Zambian safari to Lilongwe in Malawi, I immediately visited a doctor in a private clinic, who happened to be Dutch.
When he opened the bandage he said "Dat wordt een gat!". A hole it became indeed after he "emptied" it, because the very agressive bacteria had already killed a lot of my skin tissue.
Fortunately I had already started with the antibiotics two days before, otherwise the wound could have gone deeper, into my blood system causing "blood poisoning", which would have been realy dangerous.
So no diving or swimming for me in Africa, whoeha.
By the way, don't click on the first picture unless you want to see what's underneath the bandage.
Hanging around in Lilongwe. So now I had to wait a while until my leg seemed to get better.
Lilongwe however is probably the smallest and most boring capital of the world, but fortunately I could spend some time with some people I had met at the festival.
One of them was Tadala, a singer of the festival. Very interesting to see how she lived in the suburbs of Lilongwe, to hear her songs and see her videos, and hear the stories of everyday life in Malawi.
However, I remembered the advice of my sisters to take care in Africa, so I got out of Lilongwe in time, haha.
Biking along Lake Malawi through a very quiet region up to the border with Tanzania.
Bye bye Malawi, the best of Africa!
Oct 14-19: Lilongwe; 20: Muzuzu; 21: Chitetwa; 22: Karongo.
Through the southern higlands to Mbeya. A very unafrican landscape, with tea plantations and pine forests, and on the top of the mountains even alpine-like huts and cows with cowbells.
Happy days: Ripped of, pickpocketed, bike molested, tools stolen, etc. The morning already started bad when I overslept.
I wanted to take a bus from Mbeya a couple of hundred kilometers further to skip a boring road and win time.
When I had agreed on the price and had put the bike in the bus, they wanted to rip me off for the ticket. FOKKERDEFOK. I refused and took the bike out of the bus again and started biking.
Ten kilometers further at a busy junction I saw another bus, a luxury coach, whose driver agreed to take me and my bicycle.
Around stopping busses are always a lot of vendors and people hanging around (like first picture), the ideal situation for bag snatchers and pickpockets.
Normally, I always have my money belt hidden in my big backpack (very unlikely to be stolen).
I carry my camera and wallet in my trouser pockets, but when I wear my biking shorts I carry them in my small backpack which hangs around my saddle, and when I leave the bike and luggage (for shopping) I take only the small bag with me.
Now, when I walked around the bus to put my bicycle in the storage compartments underneath, somebody warned me that my little bag was opened.
I checked and yes, my camera was pickpocketed. FOKKERDEFOK. Pretty unlikely to travel the world for two and a half years and not being pickpocketed, haha, so finally it happened to me as well.
The camera was only two months old and there were a lot of pictures on it.
My wallet was fortunately deeper in the bag and still there.
Of course, I should have put my little bag in front of me when I walked through the crowd.
What to do now? I looked over the crowd who was gazing at me and shouted that I was willing to pay for retrieval, encouraging people who might have seen the thief to bring it back.
I had to ask the bus driver to wait for me to pull the bike out of the bus again to go to the police.
Miraculously, at his moment a guy came back with the camera!
He had probably seen the thief and followed him (or he was the thief or he was encouraged by my offer, I don't know).
I paid the guy a reward, considerd of staying to find the thief and punis him but decided to stay out of more trouble and to board the bus, so I had the bike and luggage shuffed back into the bus, jumped in, and we were gone.
It all happened in less than five minutes.
The guy next to me in the coach said that I had been extremely lucky and I agreed, just look at my smile (second picture).
But soon my smiling was to be gone...
That evening I found out that they had jammed my bicycle in the bus, not only my saddle was ripped (no problem) but the suspension bush of the left front V-brake had been broken (big problem). FOKKERDEFOK.
Later that evening I also found out that the Mbeya locals had advised me to bicycle from Mikumi onwards, but locals in Mikumi warned me that that was not a good idea because of the elephants, buffalo's, lions and leopards next to the road. FOKKERDEFOK.
So I had to take another bus the next day, and indeed we saw elephants and buffalo's and many other game just next to the road (no pictures).
In Dar Es Salaam I tried to buy a new front brake but a 3-millon city with dozens of bike shops didn't have any. FOKKERDEFOK.
So I tried to fix it my self, and then I found out that my biking tools were gone (stolen out of my front bag?). FOKKERDEFOK.
So I went out with the front brake bolt who was stuck in its broken bush.
All shops were already closed but I managed to buy a little wrench (excuse me, that wrench is not 5000 shilling but 1500 as you can see on the label of the other wrench, FOKKERDEFOK).
On the streets of Dar I saw a guy who was soldering a radiator with a torch, and we tried to loosen the bolt from the bush using the torch, but all I got was burnt fngers. FOKKERDEFOK.
Brilliant, a hole in my leg, a broken front braken, no decent bike shops and no tools but an inferior wrench.
Road side repairs. Time to improvise. With the wrench I broke off two peaces of sheet metal from a hose clamp (slangeklem, always handy) and hammered them with the wrech into two bushes who fit exactly around an old bolt, to replace the orignal bolt stuck in the broken bush.
Second, I took a trouser spring (broekklem; which is used to prevent your trouser to get into the bicycle chain) and bent it to fit in between the two fornt break levers to press them apart, and fixed it with some duct tape (always superhandy).
Believe it or not, but it works both perfectly, and I hope it will get me just a month more through Africa. Simple is not always the best, but the best is always simple .
Other road side repairs include (forelast picture) replacing the lost bike computer magnet with a piece of a smashed up load speaker attached with duct tape, and (last picture) the inevitable sewing of clothes and bags.
Buying and packing a hybrid bike for long distance. Most long distance bikers spent a lot of money on fancy long-distance bicycles and accessories and like to talk about it a lot.
They all have three little front bags (one on the steer and two on the fork), two larger rear bags on the rear, and some more stuff on top of the rear carrier.
Very good weigth distribution, but also very expensive.
Moreover, they are purists so they insist on biking every kilometer in stead of skipping boring stretches by bus.
Personally, I'm not a biking freak, I like to focus on the experience in stead of the equipment, I don't feel like cheating when I throw the bicycle on a bus, and I like to alternate biking with backpacking, because both ways of travels have their pro's and con's.
So here is a cheap and flexible alternative:
Buying a hybrid bike for long distance, and packing it with a backpack:
picture 1: In stead of buying an expansive long-distance bicycle, worry about it getting stolen, spending a lot of money putting it on planes, and waiting a lot time for special parts to be sent over if it breaks down, you can also buy just a simple and cheap bicycle.
Don't buy a mountain bike because the wheels are too small and the frame is too short.
Don't buy a city bike because its gearing is not useful for mountains and heavy load.
In stead buy a hybrid bicycle which is in between the former two, it has large wheels and good gearing.
It may come with front suspension but you don't need it, it is actually a disadvantage because it may break down and gives bad dynamics in curves.
Don't buy the cheapest version but the second cheapest version wich has reasonably quality components (e.g. Shimano Altus Or Deore).
You will have to replace the components anyway after an X-1000 km. The weakest part of your bicycle will be the rear wheel (rim, spokes), so spent some extra by buying your bicycle in a shop who replaces your rear wheel by a better one (eg. Shimano Deore).
Have the shop also install handle bars, a sturdy rear rack, bidon holders with bidons, a bike computer, mud fenders for the rain, and a lock.
This will turn your hybrid bike into a long distance bike.
If you like for extra power and stability, buy SPD ("click") shoes and pedals.
Buy a simple front bag to store your bicycle tools, puncture repair kit, grease or oil, spare inner tubes, gloves, etc.
picture 2 and 3: Buy cheap bicycle "grocery" bags (fietsboodschappentassen van de Aldi of Hema) to store your camping equipment (tent, sleeping bag and matress) and some extra stuff. If it rains, put them in garbage bags.
Because your hybrid bike has a shorter wheel distance than a long distance bike and because most rear carriers are pretty short and low (in comparison to the Dutch ones), you might risk hitting the bags with your heels when peddalling, but you can easily bypass this by extending your carrier (with a plank or here with two plastic pipes) so that you can put the bags a bit further behind.
picture 4: Throw the backpack across on the carrier so that the left-right weight is equal, and simply tighten it with a single (yellow) strap (spanband) which goes from the rear carrier over the backpack, around the saddle and back to the carrier. If it rains, use your standard backpack raincover.
picture 5: Just hang your little backpack with its bands around the saddle, so you can easily access you camera, wallet, guide book or maps, and take it of when you leave the bicycle to go inside a store.
picture 6: Ready to go! Put food and drinks in the bicycle grocery bags and/or strap it on top of your big backpack.
Simple is not always the best, but the best is always simple .
Advantages and disadvantages: It's cheap and flexible, if you decide to stop biking you can sell the bike or sent it home, and you continue backpacking.
The heavy and wide backpack on the rear top is not beneficial for riding dynamics and aerodynamica and puts a lot of load on your rear wheel, but it will give you extra protection in the traffic because you look wider and your hands/steer are no longer the widest part.
However, you will have to replace the cheaper components (chain, gear wheels, bearings) earlier.
The only thing I that made me jealous of the properly equiped long distance bicyclists was the Roeloff nave that most serious long disance bikers have, a very expensive nave without deailleur, which integrates 14 real gears into the nave, comparible to 3x8 normal gears with derailleurs, very reliable and maintenance free and less grease on your clothes!
HIV and Aids in Africa. The HIV infection rates of the African countries I visit are astonishing: South-Africa 22%, Mozambique 12%, Malawi 14%, Zambia 17%, Tanzania 7%, Kenia 7%, Uganda 4%. And I skipped the toppers: Zwaziland 39% and Botswana 37%.
One of the reasons not to go to an (inexpenisve) African hospital is that their patients have virtually all HIV.
Main problem is education, and most countries have now finally stopped the increase by educating the people.
However, if you look at the first picture, you might still have some doubts, because a lot of Africans go first to a traditonal healer and only later (too late) to western medicine (fortunately in the West it is the opposite, most people first go to a regular doctor and when this doesn't help they turn to alternative medicine).
I was told that in some rural areas in Malawi, it is still common practice that adolescent girls are "introduced" into intercourse by the village elder (comparable to the European mediaeval "droit de seigneur"), who thus might infect all girls.
Despite the fact that the AIDS epidemic in Africa has had a great impact on society, most deaths (especially infants) are still caused by malnutrition, diarrhea, malaria and other diseases.
The African way. In order: African clothing shop, African shopping centre, African bicycle repair shop, African hot shower, African car with airco, and African service company.
The African way: let women do the work. Somewhere in the seventies in the West, our society took a wrong turn.
Thanks to the women's emancipation, I cook meals, clean the house, wash and iron clothes, sew new clothes and repair old ones, spent a lot of time and effort aiding women in their not so trivial sexual reconnaissances and let them come first.
However, if a car, bicycle, house or garden needs a fix, my girlfriends don't (want to) know, and I have to do that too all by myself (let alone all my solitary reconnaissances, haha).
In this I have a lot of respect for the African man, whos sticks to the traditions. His wife not only has to do all household duties (including carrying lots of water and firewood) and take care of the children, but also work the land (the man is a hunter and shouldn't work on the land), and has to please her husband in any other imaginable way.
The best thing is that women don't even complain because they don't know better, and as my friend Tadala told me, when they get married they get instructed once more that their main reason of existence is to please the man.
Some seek approval of this system by looking at the lions: the lionesses hunt but the lions eat first, the lions only come into action when the lionesses are being attacked by a pack of hyenas or so.
I just wish I was a lion, or an African man...
Interesting people, no pictures. A good thing about Africa (just like India) is that you meet a lot of interesting people, because locals are far from shy and because travellers are more experienced.
Unfortunately I forget to take pictures most of the time, but sometimes that is a good way to protect these people for their own stories, haha:
- A local in Malawi explained me during a long night how things work in Africa.
Besides that, he told me the story that once he was drunk and slept with a lesbian friend of him, whose girlfriend told him afterwards they both had HIV, she had got it from hitting with her car a pedestrian who flew through the windscreen and had them both covered in glass and blood.
He had himself tested twice, positive, so he felt like a dead man walking.
A few years later he still hadn't caught AIDS, and tested again twice (a more expensive test): negative. My first reaction to him was: "F@%k, so you had no sex for three years!".
And he agreed that this was probably the worst thing that ever happened to him.
- A 50 year old UK guy who sold his grocery store to go on a 4-year trip on his KTM.
- A 80 year old granny from the States who had seen most of the world (includig Afghanistan, Antartica) and was now considering to visit Greenland.
- An austrian couple who planned to bike around the world for 5 years (www.2-play-on-earth.net) for a while together with a french guy (www.bruno-lafrikavelo.com).
- Loads of doctors in spe who work for a while in Africa as a volunteer or as an internship, such as the UK girl who worked in the middle of Tanzania where she learned a nun how to kiss.
- A Chilenean couple who interview 80 schools around the third world to learn from them (www.80schools.com).
- And loads of young African guys who like to date Euopean girls mainly to get out of the country...
Dar Es Salaam. In Tanzania, Kenia and Uganda they all speak the Swahili language (hakuna matata, safari, jambo).
The Swahili culture is a mix wich comes from Zanzibar, where the Arab and Indian traders (slaves, ivory, spices) mixed with the Africans.
In Tanzania, half the population is christian and half muslim, and the closer you come to the coast the more muslims.
In Dar Es Salaam you will find churches, mosques and Indian temples close to eachother, and in the streets you will see completely veiled women walking next to Indians or blacks, a very interesting cultural mix.
Ferry to Zanzibar.
Zanzibar Stone Town. A mediaeval town with the typical Swahili mix of people and lots of beautiful old buildings, with a maze of little alleys that had me lost all the time.
Zanzibar island. A tropical island with beaches of white sand so fine that you can bicycle on it.
The african way: relaxed and lazy. A lot of Western people feel sorry for all the poor Africans, always struck by famine, disease, war and poverty.
Indeed lots of these countries do not have many natural resources, are dry or infertile, and diseases take a lot of casualties.
Lost of the wars were fueled by the cold war, by tribal conflicts, by dictators typical for the postcolonial period (hopefully almost over), or by fights over rich resources.
Lots of the poverty and other problems in Africa are simply caused because it is very backward and underdeveloped, until recently most of the Africans were subsistence farmers living in a society comparable with the Stone Age, and you can not go from the Stone Age into a postindustrial society overnight, no matter how many money (foreign aid) you throw in.
But a lot of problems in Africa are also caused by its sheer laziness. Political incorrect? Yes. Racistic? No.
It has nothing to do with skin colour but everything with culture and education, and you will also notice it to a lesser extent in the Afro-American or the Afro-Brazilan culture.
Talk to any black (or white) African who has spent time abroad, or a Westerner who has spent time in Africa, and they will tell you the same.
In the West (especially USA) people work too much and have no enough time to enjoy their surplus of money, and in Africa people work too little and have not enough money to enjoy their surplus of free time.
Some expats choose a middle way: lazy in the West or busy in Africa.
The good side of the story is that Africans are very relaxed, the bad side is that they are very lazy.
They will always have time for social talk, they are not as stressed or depressed as in the West.
But if you want to have something done, it can be frustrating. Easy money (corruptness) is sometimes preferred above decent work (good service).
Personal example: while Vietnam tailors and painters have done everthing to please me and finish my orders overnight, wrap it and bring it to the post office to sent it, the African wood carvers answer me "I don't know how much it costs to ship this masks, you will have to ak yourself at the post office over there, that is not my responsibility".
With these differences in commercial attitude, it is not very surprising that the Asian economies grow like crazy and African economies are troublesome and rely on foreign aid.
The African way: professionalism. My bike chain was getting too loose so I had to take out a link to shorten it, but since my bike tools were stolen I had to take a tour again around the biking shops of Dar Es Salaam, but none had the tool.
One owner of a bike shop ensured me that they had the tool, I followed him to the other side of town, just to find out that they did not have it.
Another bike shop owner told me that his employees always stole his tools so it was no use buying new ones.
I have heard that before throughout Africa: it has nothing to do with poverty, even if you would triple their salary they would keep on stealing from the boss.
Theft is so common that it looks sometimes as if it is accepted. When I stayed at Tadala's place, one of her houseboys came telling us that the other one was stealing clothes, and in stead of kicking him out she just said that she didn't need the clothes anyway. But sometimes you also hear the stories that when a thief is caught he gets beaten up seriously or killed.
Back to the chain. No chain splitting tool, so they wanted to do the job with a hammer and a nail. "No problem" they say, as always.
Haha, for them it would not be a problem but for me it would be if they fuck up the job, and in Africa they generally fuck up the job.
The T-shirt of the guy didn't give me a lot of confidence either (see picture), so I decided to improvise with my old chain to see how far I would get, and a friendly bike shop owner (ex-Canadian) donated me a spare chain.
Some time ago, When I complemented a safari guide in Zambia with the day tour but added cautiously that all tourists in the car at night were complaining that they drove too fast and swung the torch too fast, he exploded with "I'm a professionalist" and he turned his back on me, and later came back to shout it again.
False pride and definitely not professional, haha.
When Malawi had sunk on the international ranking of corrupt countries, a newspaper spent a whole page on explaining they it was not realy true because Malawi had not become more corrupt but other countries had become less corrupt.
Another recent example: because mosts tourist in Tanzania prefer a western-managed tourist company because of the better service and reliability, the Tanzanian minister of tourism has just decided to ban all foreigners from the tourist industry.
Self-criticism is not Africa's strongest point, haha.
Usambara mountains. The first small picture shows a van which contained my personal record of me, 25 other adults, and a few kids (in original a 9 seater van), the secnd picture speaks for itself.
When I was biking in the beautiful Usamabara mountains, there was no maps available anywhere. It happend to me several times that when you ask directions, the first guy says left, the second standing next to him says right, ad the third one says you have to go back. By accident I ended up to sleep at a mission, where I had my first hot! bucketshower ever, see picture.
The day after I got even more lost and had to descend the mountains on goat tracks, and gave my bicycle a shower, haha, see pictures.
5.9 MB MOVIE: tanzania usambara choir.avi
The african way: working. I had my first puncture in Africa, not bad after almost 2000 km, probably because this time I brought from home one of the best (and most expensive) tires in the world, the Schwalbe Marathon Plus.
A South African guy gave me a lift, and I spent some time with him and his mate at their work, building mobile telecom masts all over Tanzania, lots of work because telecom companies are booming and they don't share masts here.
White South African workers have a hard time nowadays because they have lost their privileges of apartheid, lots have been fired, and for a new job they are last in a long line of blacks, women and handicapped.
About a quarter of the whites have already left the country to look for a job elsewhere. The guy I met was fired from the police corps, started a shop but was several times robbed at gunpoint, and therefor now working in Tanzania, a familiar story.
It was very interesting to see how they manage the workers, I have heard other bosses in Africa often called this 'micromanaging', haha.
This is a euphemism for explaining every detail, constantly checking the work, checking if nothing has been stolen, and encouraging them to work a little less "polli polli" (slowly).
I have seen quite different attitudes to it: in South Africa I have heard a lot of racistic remarks like every black being a stupid monkey, in Malawi a boss was always frustrated and shouting he had to work with grown-up kids, in Tanzania I met a relaxed boss who laughed and said he just closed the shopped when he went out because his employees would not work and only steal otherwise,
another boss in Tanzania says the glass is either half full (relaxed) or half empty (lazy), etcetera. The working attitude in Holland is fortunately quite different, allthough we don't make the most hours per week we have the highest productivity per hour of Europe, and still I find it hard to cope with some 'lesser motivated' colleagues, so I would surely go mental working in Africa, haha.
Mount Kilimanjaro, Mount Meru, Arusha. The first two pictures show the Kilimanjaro mountain, most of the time covered in clouds and ridiculously expensive to climb.
The 3rd picture shows the boomtown Arusha with on the back Mount Meru.
The 4th picture shows a guy replacing my old chain, very worn down by all the dirt, by a new one with... a hammer and a nail.
And the last picture shows the watchdog of my camping who stayed awake right in front of my tent all night to scare off the bad guys. Unfortunately he also 'marked' my tent, and when I rinsed the whole tent, a thirsty black ant colony invaded and attacked me.
The african way: commerce. One of the reasons Africans are so relaxed is that lots are mainly interested in making a living, nothing more.
If they have enough money/food to sustain themselves for the moment, they are not very interested in making more for the future, instead they relax.
If they might earn a lot of money, they don't save.
While in Asia anyone wants to finish a deal at 'any' cost, in Africa the bargaining game is often quite unfamiliar and unfinished.
They start with a high price, you say a low price, and then they stop bargaining: they either accept your low price or keep repeating their high price, but bargaining to a middle price is often not done.
Another example of African commerce. Everywhere around the world you can book a day tour at a lot of tour agency offices, if they don't have a full car they will hook you up with another company for a commission.
Not in Africa, they don't seem to work together, and you have to ask them to phone another company and that you will pay them for it, apparently a novel idea, haha.
Maasai tribe. Although you can find Maasai all over Tanzania, their homeland is in (Kenya and) the north of Tanzania around the Serengeti and Ngorongoro National Parks.
Lake Manyara NP. Safari time again. The first three small pictures show velvet monkey, dirk-dirk and banded mongoose.
Serengeti NP. This National Park was the inspiration for the animation movie 'the lion king', and indeed there is heaps of lions around.
Although this time of the year most of the big heards of wildebeest and zebra have moved to the Maasai Mara NP in Kenya, there is still loads of (other) animals left.
The first small pictures show: Grant's gazelle, Thompson's gazelle, topi, Coke's hartebeest, another hartebeest, ostrich, hyena, jackal, leopard, cheetah (!), superbe starling, maribu stork, warthog, and a hefty colored lizard.
Ngorongoro Crater NP. Very special: a 20 km crater (caldera) with a 600 m high wall, with inside grassland and a few lakes and forests. There is a large flamingo colony and the year round availabiity of water keeps the zebra's and wildebeest from migrating.
Oct 23: Tukuyu; 24: Mbeya; 25: Mikuni; 26,27: Dar Es Salaam; 28,29: Zanzibar; 30: Dar Es Salaam
Nov 1: Dar Es Salaam; 2: Loshuto; 3: Rangwi; 4: Buiko; 5: Mangwa; 6,7,8: Arusha; 9: Lake Myanara NP; 10,11: Serengeti NP; 12: Ngorongoro Crater NP, Arusha.
Border to Mbale. I transited Kenya on a night bus, had me drop of across the border in Uganda, and started biking to Mbale.
Ugandan history. Unlike Tanzania or Kenya, the colonial government in Uganda was not very strong, farmers sold their stuff through cooperations (first picture), so the different tribes were not very united to oppose the colonials. When they went, tribal conflicts drove Uganda into a long civil war, most remembered by the notorous Idi Amin.
However, those days are long gone, and since the end of the 80's Uganda has a 'good dictator' who keeps things together and has made it a prosperous and peacefull country.
Only the north near Sudan is still unsafe because of the Lord's Resistance Army with its child soldiers.
One smart move of the president was to invite back all the asians with their businesses (2nd picture), who were kicked out during the Amin years.
Often a minority in a country owns a lot of businesses (Arabs in Tanzania, Jews in pre-WWII Europe, Chinese in Indonesia, whities in Zimbabwe), and when things go bad they get the blame for everything, get kicked out, and their business is confiscated, and the country's economy slows donw.
Dirt roads. I missed a junction and took a short-cut on dirt roads through the middle of nowhere.
Most kids in Africa wave at you or shout "wazungu" (white man) and you wave back all day long as if you were the queen.
In remote areas however most of them just drop their jaw and stare at you.
Also I had kids say "good morning father" or even kneel, others try to touch my white hairy legs, and for some little ones I must have been the first whity because they are terrfied and run into the bushes.
Up to Sipi falls. A bit disappointing after climbing up to 1800 meters, but still a nice view.
The african way: biking behind. The first picture shows a pastor (with a goat) who bicycled next to me for a fair stretch.
This happened a lot in Vietnam as well, even with mopeds. In Africa however this is an exception, as some bikers want to bicycle right behind me so I can do all the work, pretty annoying.
When I accelerate or slow down, they do the same, and some even stop together with me, haha.
Biking behind them is no option because they will fall back to their African tempo.
So the only option is to shake 'm off by speeding up a mountain, by having a break, or...by taking pictures, haha.
Above shows the catch of just one day!
Across the wetlands. Sine the day before I had climbed the mountain and was so tired that I fell asleep early, I also woke up early and started biking early, very uncommon for me, hah.
When I reached the sign 'Jinja 50km' I had already bicycled about 150 km (!), my African record, and the sun had not even gone down yet.
I decided spontaneously to skip the next town and try to make it all the way to Jinja, which would be a record.
The circumstance were not ideal, I had not eaten a lot, Uganda is on the equator so pretty hot and humid, the road was not flat but rolling hills.
But on the other side, the sun was behind the clouds, there were no real mountains, and the road was reasonably quiet and in good shape, and pretty safe with a nice broad shoulder to bicycle on.
I doubted a bit, but when I found some Fanta and bread to buy I decided to go for it.
But just a few km further there was a junction, and then I saw this:
The longest, dirtiest, and most dangerous ride of my life: 202 km to Jinja. The last 40 km's to Jinja turned out to be a road in repair, with a zillion trucks and other traffic.
The question 'Will I make it to Jinja' was suddenly replaced by 'Will I make it to Jinja alive'.
My brain squeezed all the remaining serotonine, endorfines and all other built-in drugs into my brain and my tiredness was replaced my sharpness to get out of this alive.
It was chaos all over the place with trucks and cars swingin left to right, passing, and with the road constantly changing form Tarmac to dirt, one side or both, steep ditches on the sides, potholes, mudtracks, hils up and down, and all other imaginable disasters (not true: it didn't rain, I didn't get hit and no dog bit me).
The night fell soon, and I could hardly see anything because of the dust of the trucks and their head lights.
The craziest however was that whenever I stopped to drink or ask directions, the people would politely say as always 'Good evening sir, how are you?". I love Uganda, haha.
This was definitely the longest, dirtiest, and most dangerous ride of my life!
But it was not my hardest one, I could still smile when I arrived..
The next morning, I sold everything. "Stop at my top!", said the famous Dutch artist Herman Brood, standing on the roof of the Amsterdam Hilton. And then he jumped.
My personal interpretation at this point would be "Get out alive while you still can!", and the morning after my longest and most memorable ride ever, I sold my bicycle and all its accessories, and my tent and sleeping matress, to a guy in the hostel, Kanash, enjoy it!
Lots of people tell me that they can't imagine I will just stop travelling around the world, well, now I have sold everything they might believe it, haha.
No more biking around the world for me, just a few weeks left of backpacking.
Jinja, the source of the Nile. In a few days there will be a Common Wealth meeting in Uganda, so they are fixing roads etc to receive Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles, and when I visited the source of the Nile the president of Tanzania almost run me over.
Rafting grade 5. Rafting on the Nile is pretty rough, I had never before done grade 5 rafting, and we flipped a couple of times, realy hardcore. I survived, but my water proof casing of my camera, didn't, so no spectacular pictures this time (it was something like the 1st picture).
Jinja nights. Lots of fun to be the only wazungu (white people) in a Jinja disco.
Murchison Falls NP. Where the Nile pushes itself through a narrow gorge.
The last pictures show that there were almost as many wild animals on the camping as in the National Park, each night a hippo grazed between our tents.
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Ugandan countryside.
Kampala.
Nov 13: transit Kenia; 14: Mbale; 15: Sipi falls (Mnt Helgon); 16-19: Jinja; 20: Kampala; 21,22: Murchison Falls NP; 23-26: Kampala.
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