Plan B
June 29, 2021
After my last attempt to row the ocean to Miami I decided to finish off my human powered to Kilimanjaro. Last year I had to hurry back from the Republic of Congo as borders where closing with the beginning of the pandemic. My bike stayed at the Swiss Consul for that time. The 25th of June I flew out to the Republic of Congo again, to pick up my bike and continue cycling.
Nice to see you again!
Arriving here is strange because I’ve left it with a very big unknown when I would come back and what would’ve changed by then. Most is back to a kind of normal here, except the usual like wearing masks, pcr test for border crossings etc. Another concern I had is that my bike, which was one year in a warm humid climate, would be rusted or some parts wouldn’t function well. Luckily it didn’t, although I had to replace something which was already broken and that took me a long time. Next was to unpack the bike from the box and get everything set!
curious about the damage inside 
reasonably happy 
happy and ready to go!
The new route
My original plan was to cycle from here South to Angola, I heard it’s an amazing country to cycle so it was on my list. Sadly their borders are still closed off because of covid, there’s another route which is more demanding (and rewarding?). Tomorrow I will start to cycle from Dolisie (if my covid test is negative tonight) south towards a small border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC, so there’s 2 “Congo’s”, confusing I know). I hope to be able to enter there and pass to Matadi and further to Kinshasa. There I’ll visit some friends, recover and prepare for the next leg. Then it’s cycling South-East to Lubumbashi and from there into Zambia. This part in the DRC will be the most demanding one according to others who travelled there by motorcycle and car. It consists of mainly dirt and sandy roads which means pushing the bike. For some of them it took 3 weeks to cover a distance of 2000 km with a motorised vehicle. I hope it will be okay by bicycle but I’m prepared for some good adventure time!
The not so accurate route, I’m estimating to add up to 1000 km because maps doesn’t know about road conditions
Cooling down
After the DRC I’ll be cycling from Zambia into Tanzania over (probably) mainly asphalt roads. I hope to arrive in Machame (the base of Kilimanjaro) by the 10th of September. Then I’ll have a couple of days rest before my friends arrive and we can start the climb together.
As usual keep following here or follow me on the map where I am in the next couple of months.
Thank you very much to my sponsors who make theseSecutec Seven Summits possible.
