Reset search
To the motherlandTo the motherland
SatelliteEdit route

To the motherland

September 2023 - March 2024
With a detour across the balkans
And an even longer detour across Turkey. Life happens. Read more
+5
  • 47footprints
  • 13countries
  • 185days
  • 390photos
  • 31videos
  • 12.5kkilometers
  • 1.0kkilometers
  • 973kilometers
Follow Calendar Share Bucket list
Date descending
  • TravelerTo the motherland
    Day 175

    Things that happen on the way

    March 9 in Rwanda ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C

    I have considered taking the bus for a while, because the heat, monotonous landscapes, and mud was getting to me. But I didn't want to give up on either Tanzania or the trip. And I wanted to experience these landscapes the best way I know how to: by cycling.

    Well I had to cross a few rivers (because I chose a recommended "shortcut"), maneuver through a mudpool (without again being stuck), but everything went well. Then actually the landcape gradually became greener, and after about 100 kilometers I stumbled on huge boulders in nature; I have no idea where they came from but it was an amazing sight! (Sorry for the bad pictures.) And then I almost got lost in a very Dutch-seeming landscape —except it was ricefields instead of polders—but as in a miracle a sign showed up, saying " jana-isaka road": Exactly where I was headed. And the road was a decent, newly built, gravel path, not flooded anywhere; a miracle or gift from above, saying I should continue.

    After that I went fasttracking my way to Kigali, only paved roads and following the quick route, to get there as soon as possible. I haven't done this much cycling during the entire trip, but I loved pushing it to finish the 1100 or so km in around a week. I also got some help from locals giving me momentary pulls; even an old man who was cycling faster than all the kids did.

    So I am now in Kigali, and will probably end this blog here. It's been fun. Although I ended it with a flu in Kigali and just spent a few days in bed.

    I guess I will end this with life lessons I have learned:

    Bring a towel
    Bring a toothbrush for cleaning your chain
    Bring ducttape (it has saved my trip on numerous occasions: and the cargo of others)
    Bring zipties
    Keep your chain clean
    Chamois cream rocks
    Get a better saddle
    I have not gotten enough of cycling yet    Read more

  • TravelerTo the motherland
    Day 170–173

    Arusha and maasai

    March 4 in Tanzania ⋅ ☁️ 24 °C

    Being in countries so bent on incomes from tourism, I also went on a safari and did tourism stuff with a friend here...

    All tourists that come here, and there are many, come for Kilimanjaro or Safaris. So I felt like I had to do one, to see what the fuss was about. Well, it's fun seeing these animals =). The coolest was spotting a hornbill (I think an eastern yellow-billed hornbill...), red and yellow barbets, and vultures... But no pictures of that.

    I am flying back soon from Kigali, and wanted to blast through the last days to end it with a bang. First day had to cycle up to the plateau of the ngorongoro crater (long climb), and yesterday along lake Eyasi: super long hot stretch with nothing to see except masaai walking around. And then the road turned into sandpaths, which disappeared, reappeared, and turned into a river... I had to call a friend to ask for translation, and apparently I could take a canoe across. Which was fun, except the other side was flooded, so the mud turned into clay, which clogged up my wheels completely... Again.

    So I spent that evening, just before dark, removing clay from the wheels and fenders, and about two hours the next morning because I was constantly stuck. If it wasn't for a local woman patiently helping me, I would probably still be in the mud (screaming). This was not fun. Oh, I also took of my front fender because it was the hardest to clean. So no rain anymore for the next stretch, please.

    But the pictures are nice.    Read more

  • TravelerTo the motherland
    Day 166

    Back to tanzania

    February 29 in Tanzania ⋅ ☁️ 25 °C

    So I just learned the origins of the word "mzungu". It has originally nothing to do with skin color, but rather came from the bantu meaning: wanderer. Kizungu actually means" behaving rich, and so locals could also be called "mzungu"; given this it is no surprise to me that they think all white people have money. Language games dictate lifestyles.

    Anyway leaving aside this philological preamble, I left Nairobi on a rainy day and quickly regretted it. Thing is, roads around Nairobi are busy with crazy driving, so I tried a detour, which made me get stuck in the mud for an hour or so: mud or clay got between the fender and my wheel and blocked everything. I managed to escape the mudhell with help from locals, got a bikewash, and following main roads, with tailwind, I got on my way to Moshi. I was recommended a country road and paths north of amboseli, which was absolutely beautiful: very little traffic, amazing views (also of mt Kilimanjaro 100 km away), and even some giraffes. Just sandroads occasionally though, which can be quite tricky to maneuver in.

    Like mentioned but deserving a special paragraph: mt Kilimanjaro towers over everything unlike anything I have seen before. Amboseli is nearly completely flat, and you can see the mountain from very far—if it is not in clouds, which it almost always is—standing alone in the Savannah.

    Those perpetual clouds also made me have to cross the border in rain, which also made it free from people offering to exchange money: normally there are at least 10 on both sides.

    In Moshi it is interesting for me to see the difference with Kenians: Tanzanians like to relax. Everything seems more slow — except the driving. I was very inclined in Moshi to also go and climb Kilimanjaro, but at 1600$ minimum, I will leave this for another time.

    I did visit the Materuni waterfall, which is amazing. I also think I got ripped off by a local guy, at the materuni village.    Read more

  • TravelerTo the motherland
    Day 158

    Nairobi (and some of Kenya)

    February 21 in Kenya ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    From the border at Kenya, where they have replaced visa with "electronic travel authorization" for which you have to apply and pay 30$ but which is _not_ a visum, because Kenya is "visa-free" (the biggest bullshit I have encountered anywhere on this trip), I went to Kakamega forest, the only rainforest in Kenya. On the way I again had problems with my front brake—it was getting worse — so I again did road-side piston cleaning somewhere in a small town, which only helped for a while. It was rubbing constantly, so I tried to brake as little as possible: kind of deathgripping some sections.

    Kenya is definitely more developed than Uganda, with much more schools, supermarkets, and buildings rather than "shacks" as in Uganda.

    In kakamega forest I joined a sunrise walk for amazing views, and spent the afternoon trying again to make the brake work: I got some improvement done. The next morning, earlier than my early alarm: diarrhea. So did a 30 km ride only with lots of climbing and with a visit to a local church where they were jamming like it was a party, helped by imodium. That only lasted one day though (probably caused by bad water...), so the next day I climbed yo nearly 3000 meters, first encountering lots of kenyan long distance runners (kapsabet), and then encountering very bad gravel roads downhill, with bad functioning brakes (just enough to save me, it was really cool actually).

    In the end of the day my front brakes really refused though, after the pistons were rubbbbbing again and pushing them back rendered them unusable, so I was forced to take a bus to Nairobi.

    Ok so now I get finally to talk about Nairobi. As you know I am interested in (in)equality, living conditions, observing cultures, etc. Well I read "going down river road" before I got here, and I was dropped off by the bus a street away from river road, in the center of "genuine" nairobi, the real deal, the real mess. The area around the busstop struck me as a shithole: busy, cheap, somewhat poor and dirty, with many beggars (I was corrected later that "those beggars were very few") but many friendly locals. Very very busy with traffic. Go a few blocks out and you have small shopping malls, which are like western cities. Go 5 kilometers out—were the bike shop was, a very good one by the way— to the UN complex, and it is a separate world, with western people living luxuriously, lots of international restaurants, guards everywhere, and clear cultural divisions: the locals serve the foreigners. Go a bit outside of that and you have massive villas and houses, where the expats and UN personnel live. The division and different worlds of Nairobi are unreal; the inequality is possibly the biggest I have experienced anywhere. What's more, near the hostel I am staying there is a street full off big houses and hotels, and the street itself is guarded because of it (no embassies or anything). Go one street behind it, and the people serving there live, in shacks, slumbs, and poor makeshift housing. It is just a city of divides, where the separation of colonialism has been swapped by a similar economic separation.

    I have heard a defence that these lifestyles also create jobs for the locals, and so it helps them. It's self-gratification; the poverty is not combatted by receiving big salaries and living in houses built by very low salaries.

    To end this polemic, let me rephrase what an austrian cycling couple I met here said about cycling in Rwanda with satisfaction: that they, after having their bikes carried by children, gave them "some cookies as a thanks". I flinched. At least give them something worth to them, if they help you that much... But of course, I am not solving anything myself. (Not blaming anyone, it just proves the different worlds we are in and how they are kept intact.)

    However despite all my quarrels with the city and, as a friend put it, " the UN where they manufacture poverty", my bikes is nearly fixed. The chain is fucked and the casette is fucked, but it will get me to Dar: on o ring in the piston seems damaged because there is air getting into the system, but they did an awesome job in getting it to work as good as possible. Plus, new pads.    Read more

  • TravelerTo the motherland
    1
    Day 152

    Scheisse on the way to Kenya

    February 15 in Kenya ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    I knew cycling out of Kampala wasn't going to be fun, but I hadn't counted on a bit of rain turning the gravel roads into sticky mud swamps, which demanded a lot of my brakes and drivetrain. That was one part. The other was the loads of traffic (once the rain stopped) which just makes cycling so boring. It was either sticky mud or heavy traffic (or both) for the morning; and since I stuck to the roads I started to get really annoyed with cycling here in the afternoon, too much traffic, nothing to see.

    So I accidentally ended up at a touristic campsite at the Victoria Nile, where I also went rafting the next day. (I was not motivated for cycling, just too much traffic.) Bit of a letdown bit of fun, but we did have one section where the boat flipped over and all of us where in the water. A huge tourism group was also staying at the campsite—some people were cool, some people just reinforced my prejudices about tourism groups. Hehe.

    The next day I first talked to another guy on a bike: a local guy carying a big stick, which he told me carried the spirit (I think) of his grandfathers or heritage, and he was part of the tribe of the buganda kingdom (Im sorry, I forgot)... Interesting to learn sth about the culture though. But I got to witness a lot of different tribes later that day.

    I took a detour from the road that was a detour from the main road, and ended up, via gravelroads and small tracks, to a singletrack through a swamp; I couldnt find the road anymore. Luckily in Uganda you are never alone, and an old guy on an old bike saved my day. I followed him for 15 km or so, and the old guy just ripped it down the hill on his shitty bike: so much fun. Then I got to very small villages with twenty or so (over exaggeration) different tribes, with I dont know how many languages between them. Every tribe has their own language, and so everyone speaks quite a few languages; at least the guy did who showed me to a hotel with dead cockroaches on the floor. Good times.

    Next morning was a nightmare. First, my front brake pistons were stuck, and I seemed to have broken one of the seals when pushing it back, rendering the brake totally unusable. Then I wanted to just make it to the main road, but the road was so muddy due to the rain, that my tires kept clogging up 5 times: every time took 10 minutes to clean at least. Kids pushed and helped me, and I finally managed to get out of the worst mud after an hour.

    I reached the main road and the first car mechanic immediately on the left was run by an american, with no knowledge on bikes but lots of knowledge of how to make makeshift tools, so we actually managed to bleed my brakes again and fix everything. Well, almost, I still spent another 2 hours elsewhere cleaning the pistons and am now carrying dot fluid just in case XD.

    But I made it to Kenya. Sorry for the delay: this "to Kenya" story ends here.    Read more

  • TravelerTo the motherland
    Day 144–145

    Avoiding mad drivers and watching birds

    February 7 in Uganda ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    I could just see something hovering over masaka city, and wasn't sure whether it was a drone, or a raptor: it is a raptor and someone is just having a lot of fun with his landmower. (It is the expensive part of the city; I like enjoying relative luxury once in a while.)

    Drivers in Uganda are crazy. Trucks barge past, leave you no room, and when I left to a sideroad (of very poor quality and constantly going up and down) the same thing was done by car drivers. I wave (sometimes rather frantically) at every single one to slow down and leave me space: I guess I am an unfriendly mzungu on the road but these people need to be taught how to drive; or at least leave me alive. They are friendly enough, just dangerous drivers. Although due to the constant alternation of climbing and descending, I got very tired of the constant "mzungu!", " how are you?!" (Sometimes with a weird emphasis on "you"), whistling, " hey hey!", etc... It's cool for a while but when I tired I want to just chill sometimes, which is difficult when around these people ^^. But somehow they stopped asking for money; maybe it is a regional thing.

    I am also going through the last few days backward: I first went to lake mburo national park, where they again try to make money off of you any way they can. And those rangers just sit around all day doing fuck all. Entrance is 40$, but you cannot only have entrance normally, you also have to do an activity, which you have to organize, which costs extra, which... Fuck off I'll just go outside the park. I did get to do an amazing gravel ride blasting from a deserted gate to the main gate for 2 hours in between monkeys, antelopes, turacoes; but I didn't see any buffaloes or zebras or bisons as that, of course, costs extra. I'm not complaining, I am just saying these park people will charge for everything if they can. And I am a difficult one.

    Also interesting is that I have been to two "fancier" lodges (for camping) here, and both are run by dutch people. For some reason only foreigners put their lodges on booking.com.

    The amount of birds you see on the side of the roads is really amazing though. Uganda has lots and lots of different species, and the number of sounds and colours is really awesome; I am trying to learn to identify some but suck at it.

    Other things you see along the road: pull-up or popup blood transfusion stations, announced by a loudspeaker, in open air. It is really weird to see 5 people sitting on the street getting blood transfusions. But I heard that in hospitals the situation is a lot more precurious, with lots of people being thrown in one room, some infectious, some with open wounds. I am not sure I want to see that: I just know things are not well organized in Uganda. (I have a good hunch where the development money goes—actually more than a hunch, as a Dutch couple on the campsite told me from direct experience that it disappeared.)    Read more

  • TravelerTo the motherland
    2
    Day 136

    I got tired of chasing national parks

    January 30 in Rwanda ⋅ 🌩️ 16 °C

    The title calls for an explanation, I know. It is hard for me to say where to begin, but I will summarize a few observations:
    -- in Bwindi NP hiking costs 70$, plus extra for the guides, but the village next to it does not have electricity.
    -- local "pygmies" were evicted from the national park, so left without a livelihood; but as compensation their lifestyle, on the border of the national park, has been made a tourist attraction, on which profits they now depend.
    -- most locals in volcanoes NP or Bwindi (from talking) never see a gorilla, monkeys, or whatnot, you only see white tourists visiting here to spend inordinate amounts (1500$/750$) for visiting gorillas. I was the only one doing a "nature walk" which costs $70 atminimum.

    Visiting National Parks feels like a travesty to me: everything of the culture you experience is distilled, blended with what tourists will want to see, and tuned to tourists' desires. Then again, it is the only place to see any nature where there are no people everywhere (and I mean everywhere); I guess I just wanted to relax without chasing tourist attractions for a bit. I did do some birdwatching in Bwindi, where I saw around 20-30 different kinds of birds I have never seen before.

    Ok with that rambling out of the way, let's look at some nice pictures of nature here, shall we?

    I went back to Rwanda for a week, hanging out with some people I met in Musanze city. Now I am in Uganda again, again on my way to another national park.    Read more

  • TravelerTo the motherland
    Day 129

    I just saved $1400

    January 23 in Rwanda ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C

    Sorry for the clickbait: I did not want to start with gorillas or monkeys or the bumpiest car rides ever.

    Volcanoes national park is known for the gorillas and people spend $1500 here to track them and spend some time with them, and the whole activity lasts a few hours. Instead I opted for the one day hike up the volcano mount bisoke, where you can sometimes get lucky. The hike was very steep, went up to 3711 meter with a beautiful crater lake at the top (no fish), and very very muddy. Beautiful flora but did not see any fauna; until we were almost all the way back down, went suddenly two silverback gorillas came across the corner. Not threatening at all, big strong muscular apes that are very chill; and so we saved quite a bit of money by getting lucky. Ok, we did not have time to hang around them, but after having felt myself what it feels like to have people constantly stare at you, I was totally satisfied with just leaving these animals alone.

    Also very interesting was the car ride to the start, which went over huge rocks for probably two kilometres, it was just a rock garden all the way; I guess they want to give a “genuine experience”. I don’t know if it’s genuine but its an experience. And the info and websites for the park are honestly really horrible, as I had to look forever to find where to book, the answer to a whatsapp question —“please contact us over whatsapp!”—was “we make your dreams a reality. Thank you for contacting us, we make your dreams a reality” (yes that was the answer), I called a service number which took me twenty minutes to find, which insisted that booking was very easy despite my objections to the contrary (it did not make it any easier), and then on the morning itself it turned out I should have also arranged a ride to the trail start (I wasn’t the only one who didn’t know). But yeah, everything worked out in the end, and nature makes you forget all that.

    Oh, there were also like 6 porters that joined and an equal number of armed personnel against buffaloes, alongside the guide; the porters join whether you ask them or not, and if you dont give them money, they don’t get paid. Well I carried my own backpack but “mine” did help in sections, so I happily gave this guy something for the help. A shit salary nonetheless.

    I decided to take another rest day before uganda, and was stressing a lot to try to find an atm that worked. People helped me a teeny tiny bit and asked for money; I was too tired so I gave in. And then something strap which is very important for my gear got stolen from my bike, which can really stress me out. Somehow other tourists seem to carry dollars with them for payment, but I am not that organised…

    Well if things go well I am heading to uganda tomorrow: Bwindi impenetrable national park, where I can again see wildlife.    Read more

  • TravelerTo the motherland
    11
    Day 127

    When I get rich I will buy you a car

    January 21 in Rwanda ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C

    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.    Read more

  • TravelerTo the motherland
    Day 121–123

    Nyungwe forest

    January 15 in Rwanda ⋅ ☁️ 20 °C

    Nyungwe forest is one of the best preserved rainforests in africa, with a very wide biodiversity of plants, birds, and, the primary visitor attraction, monkeys. And it has an canopy walkway.

    They advertise „chimpansee tracking“ and other kinds of tracking, to only go after that certain animal with some chance of success (it isn’t guaranteed), but also many nature walks which they advertise with all the things you can see. Which is what I did and, to cut straight to it, I hardly saw any monkeys. No chimps, no colobus monkeys, no other monkeys during the entire hike except for mountain monkeys and baboons on the road and the visitors center, and only a handful of birds worth mentioning: among them turacos, which are definitely very beautiful birds. The hike was nice, the info from the guide very interesting, but after paying 140$ I cannot help feeling that I kind of left empty-handed. (It was also foggy, so the grandiose views of lake kivu or burundi were also not given to us.

    Some words on the way there though: leaving kigali I, of course, had to climb a lot, and was accompanied by some of the most disgusting trucks and busses I have ever experienced. The black smoke that comes over those things — and they really crawl up the hill— is unbelievably disgusting. I did meet another cyclist on the way who had pretty much the same route in mind (rwanda, uganda, kenya) but we split up to go each at our own paces. I went to a museum of the old kings palace, took a detour across gravel which I thought would be quicker but was incredibly slow, and I stumbled on coffee plants. I actually thought they were trees but hugging these would probably result in me breaking something, so I refrained.Also, next to Nyungwe forest there are huge, really huge, tea plantations, and I absolutely love the tea with milk here. (Its like chai masala…)

    Before Nyungwe no nice children running alongside, only children and people begging for money: they come up to you and just say “give me money”. Its horrible that Kigali is so well-off, but there seems to be so much poverty in other districts. (Not all, villages are generally not very poor, but I constantly get approached for money in some parts; also while cycling.)

    My experience of people alongside the road changes in the next footprint ^^.    Read more

  • 2024© FindPenguins
  • Home
  • About us
  • Blog
  • Group Tracking
  • Press
  • Terms
  • Privacy Policy & Cookies
  • Support
  • Legal notice
  • English