If you don’t know by now, Ville and I are back in the saddles and making our way north through Africa by bicycle. We started in Cape Town nearly three months ago and have had quite the adventure so far. See map below for our route. After the ‘U.S. Book Tour’ for ‘Joy Ride: A Bike Odyssey from Alaska to Argentina’ wrapped in October 2023, we flew to Havana, Cuba with used bikes (which we gave away to kind, deserving Cubans) + gear to bikepack for a month. We had an amazing time (read about it HERE) and returned for a final author event in Bend, Oregon before booking tickets to Cape Town, South Africa. Did we have a route plan? Absolutely not. We arrived with our Tumbleweed Bicycles and bikepacking gear and decided to ride east along the southern coast because a couple of people recommended it when we were in Cape Town. We had heat (40+C) and climbing, but semi-decent farm roads mixed with paved highways all the way to Jeffery’s Bay. From there we zig-zagged north to Lesotho. Along the way we camped in farmer’s yards, stayed with some Warmshowers Hosts and booked some guesthouses. While sitting at a cafe in Greyton, we were invited to stay at Richard and Karin’s house and stayed for four days! We saw baboons, springbok, monkeys, warthogs, but mainly cattle and sheep. Everything in South Africa is fenced, so we had to ride up farm roads to get permission to camp (not much stealth camping to be found). But farmers and South Africans were crazy nice and over half the time we were drug into the house, given beds, showers and meals. South African hospitality is next level! We decided to ride through Lesotho to see another country and because most people told us not to (“they steal cows”, they said. Perfect, we don't have cows, only bicycles). Lesotho was a touring cyclists dream! Mountain kingdom, beautiful grassy hills, herders moving animals everywhere, people selling food along the road and the friendliest people we had encountered so far in Africa. Everyone shouted, whistled and waved as we rode past. We camped in people’s yards and had to ask permission from the town’s chief before being allowed to camp. It was wild! Back in South Africa, we rode north on paved and farm roads towards Eswatini. We found a great bike shop in Bethlehem where the owner, Karel, took us home for a night after servicing our bikes. We avoided big cities and stuck to small towns, which meant struggling to find much to eat beyond meat pies, samosas, and meat. Eswatini was an experience. Lesotho climbing was challenging, but Eswatini was even tougher. Roads were 12+% grades. There was lots of tree farms everywhere so we enjoyed riding in shade for a change. Eswatini is also a mountain kingdom, except the king is a billionaire (owning 30% of everything, including the donation money that comes from NGOs) and all the people we passed along the road were not very friendly, only demanded money and food. Before you feel sorry for them, there GDP per capita is on par with many Eastern European countries and development and infrastructure (houses, buildings, farms) were far more advanced than in Lesotho. Clearly Eswatini has become dependent on donation money from U.S. and Europe, which has hindered entrepreneurial growth. Why work for your money when aid trucks drive around and just hand out money? If this sounds harsh, I highly recommend reading the book ‘Dead Aid: Why Aid is not Working and How There is a Better Way for Africa’ by Dambisa Moyo which explains, in detail, why the millions of dollars/euros that have been sent to Africa over the past fifty years have helped a small percentage of corrupt leaders to live lavish lifestyles while worsening poverty throughout Africa. We did enjoy a short stay at a friend’s house in Mbabane, Eswatini who works for an NGO. Ana hosted us while a tropical storm passed and had a big party/braai with her friends while we were there. We had a fabulous time teaching everyone how to hacky sack and learning about the cultural norms of polygamy in Eswatini (the king has 15 wives and 45 children). Because of the storm, we didn’t end up riding to Mozambique and rode north back into South Africa instead. We rode through forests and sugarcane fields, down into Nelspruit and then climbed north through humid jungle to Sabie, Graskop, and along the Paradise Route. We passed waterfalls, rainforest and beautiful views down into the lowlands. We camped on farms and ate lots of chicken dust (roadside grilled chicken) and paap (cornmeal). After the Paradise Route, we dropped down into the lowlands where we rode past nature parks and game parks (for sport hunting) and spotted zebras, impala, eland and dung beetles! We passed through Tzaneen, Morebeng, Louis Trichardt and Musina. We met some really nice people that ran the Crawdaddys Restaurant in Tzaneen, camped with a kind family managing a farm in Morebeng, stayed with an amazing couple in Louis Trichardt and were hosted by a girl, Wendy, in Musina. While staying with Wendy in Musina (a border town), her brother cleaned and serviced our bikes while Wendy helped us resupply. She spolied us with food and even made us T-shirts. What we love the most about traveling by bicycle, is meeting people and learning more about the places we travel through. South Africa, Lesotho and Eswatini did not disappoint!
Also, while we were traveling, the publisher of my book, Joy Ride (Hawthorne Books), emailed us with the good news that Joy Ride was selected as a Foreword Indies Awards Finalist (out of over 2,400 books)! The winners will be announced in June. Either way, I am so honored and grateful to have been nominated! Thank you to everyone who has followed along, hosted us, fed us and shared their time with us. We are so grateful to all of you for being a part of our journey. Next, we will be traveling through Zimbabwe and on to Botswana. If you or anyone you know is along our route, let us know. We are always excited to connect with people. Until next time, keep on keepin’ on…
1 Comment
Antti Jokinen
4/30/2024 01:24:32 am
Congrats on the Foreword Indies Awards 2023 Finalist selection, Kristen!!! I checked the Adventure and the Travel lists and found it on the latter :-) So cool. Safe riding forward! Watch out for the lio... cars!
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K.G. & VilleOn a Book Tour “Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride!” - Hunter S. Thompson
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