When I get rich I will buy you a car

After Nyungwe forest I left south along a gravel road that went east past the national park, past whatI think was called the Rukarara, a supposed source of the nile. And, it being rather early before class, I was joined by schoolclasses running alongside just shouting “good morning good morning!!”, where everyone we encountered was also picked up to join the crew. This was further from the main road, and less people begged, and everyone seemed a lot happier; a really cool start to the cycling madness with thousands of meters to climb the following days.

Had tea in some small village — some guy showed me the way, and wanted my number afterwards, and also called me later where I kind of thought “hey dude, why you calling, what’s up”, but everyone wants my number and to write me here… — with about 6 people staring at me, but then at a village where I just wanted to buy fruits and stock up on water, things just got out of hand. It turned up a notch. Let me paint the picture: I cannot get near my bike because everyone is staring at it, to pick up my water bottle I have to ask if I can please get through, and I was doing nothing out of the ordinary. Now if I were eating a mango like I do, with a knive (I think they eat the peel here), or make coffee, I can relate. But buying bananas or water? Were they inspecting my bike for electric motors maybe?

Ok when I had coffee after the next hill, I did gather a crew around me, but they have never seen a stove, and they kept a distance =).

The landscapes are absolutely stunning, but brutally hard and the road quickly turned to really, really rough gravel where it was more like mountainbiking… After a long descent to Kivu lake the following day — I also made camp with the military of Rwanda one night, where the translator also wanted my number afterwards,really chill guy— I used my brake so much that the pads were all but worn out to the plate. But the views of lake kivu at the campsite made up for it. (I was struggling with the new pads which were too thick the next day, so had to cycle with extra resistance the first 50 km).

Then I had a coffeetour in the gitesi coffee washing station, which was amazing: so much knowledge on quality, varieties, processing; and we also roasted the coffee the traditional way. Check them out. https://gitesicoffee.com/ also had a long talk with the guy about coming to work in europe, which they think is a lot easier than it is… But then their conditions are sometimes really poor, so I cannot blame them.

But probably the best accompaniment on the bike I got by a 15 year old kid, who ran with me up the mountain (to his grandmother), just to have a conversation. He did ask for money, but not pushy, and explained it. He wanted to become a doctor, and said he was going to be rich, and then he would buy me a car, because why was I going by bike? And he ran with me all the way, even saying that other guys along the road were “bad people”, because they told him to get money from me. I gave him some small amount afterwards, which means a big deal to them… sadly immediately after I was greeted by other kids doing he “give money” thing.

Ok I will wrap this one up. One more thing: my exped sleeping matt is fucked somehow and totally unusable, but I probably cannot find a replacement until Nairobi. (Yeah I have warranty but what good is that…). And I am now near volcanoes national park, where I will again spend money to go hiking and maybe see some monkeys.Läs mer