Hi!
I’m JB and I completed a 26600 KM trip across Africa via the West coast, from Zürich to Cape Town, between 2012 and 2014. This website relates this wonderful and strenuous experience in geotagged posts, thousands of photos and videos, about cycling through the Sahara, the muddy roads of Sierra Leone and Liberia during the rainy season, the checkpoints in Nigeria, the undiscovered scenic roads of Angola, the stunning landscapes of Namibia …
I have been lucky enough with my timing to avoid the Ebola outbreak and local conflicts, and to get all the visas on the way to complete the entire trip solo and overland. Every day, I have logged my stats, my detailed route and my budget.
| Cycling Africa | |
|---|---|
| How long? | 666 days (1 year 10 months) of travel 2660 hours on the saddle |
| How far? | 26660 KM |
| How many? | 24 countries |
| How hard? | 30% of dirt roads 200 KM of elevation gained |
After some time in Cape Town, I returned to Europe for the Summer 2016. I cycled again, this time to the North Cape, in Norway. This is in a way the short missing segment of the Cape to Cape journey … More details on the Cycling to the North Cape page.
![These are two videos I had forgotten to post, and that makes the last article of this website and adventure. In the first one, I have compiled the shots from cycling […]](https://freewheely.com/wp-content/data/2015/08/vidAfricanCities_snapshot-309x178.jpg?x73782 "Insane rides and animals")
![And that’s another rough night around Galicia. We departed from Vigo at around 2 am, and the whole morning has been sleepless for me. After checking the roll amplitude on […]](https://freewheely.com/wp-content/data/2015/06/featured_cargotrip3_8983-309x178.jpg?x73782 "Freighter travel (3/3) Arrival in Rotterdam")
![During lunch, I ask the captain “and what if I fall off the ship without anyone noticing?“. It’s not like taking a plane or a bus. Here, I can take […]](https://freewheely.com/wp-content/data/2015/06/featured_cargotrip2_8528-309x178.jpg?x73782 "Freighter travel (2/3) Atlantic and Vigo")
![I eventually cycled 26’600 KM in 24 countries, a little bit more than the 15’000 KM planned before departure, with Google Maps straight lines … The truth is that, upon […]](https://freewheely.com/wp-content/data/2012/10/FREEWHEELY-route-cycled-309x178.jpg?x73782 "Route cycled")
![Like all the cycle tourers with a website, here is my gear list. Rather detailed, as it’s also the first thing I look at on other websites. On the other […]](https://freewheely.com/wp-content/data/2012/10/DSC_9094-309x178.jpg?x73782 "Equipment")
![One question that came often to me was “where do you find all that money to travel?“. Well, first, I don’t just “find it“, it’s my savings, and more relevantly […]](https://freewheely.com/wp-content/data/2015/05/featured_howmuchdiditcost-309x178.jpg?x73782 "How much did it cost?")
![For the last country on my Trans-African cycling journey, South Africa, I didn’t have enough videos to make a short movie. Therefore I included a recap of the 23 countries […]](https://freewheely.com/wp-content/data/2015/05/vidSouthAfrica_snapshot-309x178.jpg?x73782 "Cycling South Africa, actually the whole Africa to Good Hope, and back by ship")
![The adventure is over, and this article is my attempt at summarizing 26600 KM and 666 days into one single page. One HTML page, of course. I will illustrate it with 30 items from […]](https://freewheely.com/wp-content/data/2015/05/featured_freewheely-wrap-up-309x178.jpg?x73782 "Freewheely, wrapping up the adventure")
![In Namibia more than in any other country, my first thought, as soon as I get out of the tent, is to squeeze my tires. And this morning again, my […]](https://freewheely.com/wp-content/data/2015/01/featured_D707-309x178.jpg?x73782 "The D707, a fashionable notion of remoteness")
![This part of Africa on the Atlantic coast is quite tricky: between the southern parallels 5° and 6°, from Pointe-Noire (Congo) to Soyo (Angola), there are three border crossings within […]](https://freewheely.com/wp-content/data/2014/03/featured-chata-cabinda-soyo_8547-309x178.jpg?x73782 "Congo – Cabinda – DRC – Angola, quite an adventure")
![– “You won’t cycle 20 km in Nigeria before they attack you.” – “You plan to go camping there? Haha, they’ll find your body and sell your organs.” – “Don’t […]](https://freewheely.com/wp-content/data/2013/11/featured-nigeria-to-go-or-not_3288-309x178.jpg?x73782 "Nigeria: to go or not to go")
![Today is the day we start on the supposedly bad roads. There is no more tar from Bandajuma until the Liberian border and I hope the rain didn’t ruin the […]](https://freewheely.com/wp-content/data/2013/07/featured-sierraleone-5-tiwai-IMG_0804-309x178.jpg?x73782 "The waterlogged roads to Tiwai Island")
![“Hide your Moroccan flag until you get out of the city” tells me in Spanish a man passing by, as I am re-packing in Laayoune in the early morning before […]](https://freewheely.com/wp-content/data/2013/03/featured-swallowing-kilometers-DSC_7407-309x178.jpg?x73782 "Sahara: Swallowing kilometers")
![I am back at the feet of the mountains, the south side of the High Atlas, in Tinghir. A week ago, I was just on the other side. I contemplated […]](https://freewheely.com/wp-content/data/2013/02/featured-highatlas-todra-DSC_6097-309x178.jpg?x73782 "Up the Atlas through the Todra")
