Cycling The Globe

Distance: 101.7 km
Ride time: 5:46:58
Average: 17.6 km/h
Max speed: 27.7 km/h
Total: 46348 km

After the close call with the truck last week, I felt I was somehow seeing things in a new light. Not that I would say that I’m getting more nervous, but a different kind of perspective has emerged – including a rethinking of my route.

Today, a monotonous day with flat an straight roads, was a good day to think about the trip, and I came to the conclusion that I would skip Angola, Congo, and Western Africa all together, and instead head towards Cairo in Egypt. My 6th sense tells me that this is the best thing to do, and my 6th sense has worked well before; Back in 2011 after cycling through most of the Middle East I felt it was time to fly to Dubai and then onwards to India. 10 days later the whole Arab Spring erupted.

Like yesterday I was spending the whole day cycling through the Caprivi Game Reserve, but I had almost given up on seeing any wildlife. I was very much in my own thoughts as I heard what sounded like an elephants trunk call! Sure enough, hidden in the bush a big elephant had just said hello to me! Sorry for the blurry pic, but if you look right in the middle you will see the big ear of my new friend.

I thought it had been nice enough to see the wild animals in Etosha National Park, but meeting an elephant on the road where I was cycling was even more special. Africa is not a boring place to cycle!

With the new plan of going towards East Africa it looks like I will miss both Angola and Congo – but oh well, I got to spend the night in the small village of Kongola. That must be almost as good 🙂