Kenya to South Africa

[bellingc]

Hi All,

My partner and I are planning a new adventure setting off in Late March. We are tackling East/Southern Africa, cycling from the Equator in Kenya down to Cape Town in South Africa. We are broadly following the Tour d'Afrique route along the way, save for a few slight reroutes to hit some parts we want to see, passing through Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Botswana and Namibia.

Our two Surly Disc Truckers from Spa Cycles recently arrived and have been amassing most of the gear.

We are keen travellers, however are plunging into the deep end with this being our first tour so have spent many months leading up to now researching and getting as much information as possible.

Wondered if anyone here had done anything similar or had any advice?

[Kapalasa]

What type of things do you want to see? That will then dictate if you might want to alter your route. Personally, I'd find the stretch through Botswana and Namibia somewhat tedious, but that's just my opinion. To reach Cape Town via the West Coast, as opposed to riding the Garden Route is also not the choice I'd recommend, having ridden both. As I say though, there's no right and wrong, it just depends on what you want to see and experience on this trip.

[Gary Ronald]

Wow! That sounds like a lovely trip. How many KMs do you estimate overall? What is your timescale? How much do you think it will cost? Will you be camping or finding places to stay?
I have not been to the East side of Africa so I would not be able to help you with advice from that region but, I have done some touring having cycled around Ghana, also India and most of Western Europe. My next trip is in April 2019 from Mongolia to, and around Australia. If I can offer any advice on the ups and downs of cycle touring I would be pleased to help.
Kind regards.
Gary

[bellingc]

We think it will be ~7,000k over 4 months. Planning on riding ~100km per day, with rest every 4-5 days. In terms of accomodation, I think a mixture of both depending on where we are. Some of the more remote places (Namibia for instance) camping will be necessary (be it wild or in camps), however we will look to get cheap guest houses where possible.

Etosha is one place we are doing a slight re-route to get to, as well as Okavango, so we're prepared from some slightly boring days in Namibia/Botswana.

One of the things we're most unsure of at this stage is access to water and food along the way. We're probably going to take 2 x 10L Ortlieb Water Bags - does this sound like the right approach for those more remote locations?

[amaferanga]

For water, just pick up bottles or gerry cans if/when you need them. I think you'll mostly likely only need to carry as much as 10l in Namibia and Botswana and only if you're wild camping. You'll probably find 100 miles/day is quite easily doable in Namibia/Botswana anyway cos its flat with good roads so you'll pass towns and villages every day.

I'd definitely recommend wild camping any opportunity you get.