This was my “plan” before leaving.
View the route I actually cycled.
This is a rough idea of my itinerary.
Feel free to add a comment here if you know, along the way or not too far from it, a scenic road, a secret viewpoint, a friend who could host me, or if you’re travelling in the same area to meet or even cycle a bit!
View FreeWheely in a larger map
I don’t know yet which way is the best to cross from West Africa to the other side. There are various options that I’m not planning now as many things could change until I get there, but please send me feedback on visas and stuff if you have done it.
Hi JB, I’m from Nigeria. I want to start cycling too. I don’t know how to read maps. can you explain to me how to use your map?? Thanks
Hi, I am also a Nigerian living in RSA! It’s cool to link with fellow brothers and sisters that are into bicycle Touring! Just be on the lookout for me. O’ Bicycle Touring
Don’t know if you will ever read this, but, a map is a drawing of a region/country/continent from above, looking down. You see various cities/regions/countries and lines joining those places. The lines are normally the roads (other lines, such as borders (amongst other things), are also found on maps).
First find where you are, then where you want to go, then find the line that joins those two places. In Europe, the roads often have name (in the UK they are called things like A1 A2, A3 etc, in Africa they may be named some other way). You find the name of the road on the map, then ask around to find that road in the real world. Travel along the road to get to your destination!
Bonsoir,
Vos “exploits” se propagent jusqu’aux confins du haut-Doubs
Seriez-vous partant pour évoquer votre périple dans un article à paraître dans le journal La Presse Pontissalienne ?
cordialement
Frédéric Cartaud
Hi J.B.
Watch out in South Africa for Yves, another French cycler!
Where are you now? I am curious?
Cycle on, regards Cindy
Watching closely how you cross after Nigeria. Me, I have been trying to get into DRC for a while now – a safe entry vector is challenging. I’ve now opted to go back down from Uganda (where I am now again), back into Rwanda, Burundi and then believe it or not continue back into Zambia and go in from the south. only a 2500km detour.
Nice to hear from you!
Have you considered or tried the visa for Angola? DR Congo by the southwest or the train line is what I thought of. But I also read about a Swedish girl who cycled through it along the west coast (http://theskippingkangaroo.com/). I’ll give a try. So far the west african experience has been fantastic, polish your french and enjoy! (plus you’ll be in the dry season so no worries about road conditions)
Me Again, a few months later. I’m in Lusaka, trying unsuccessfully to get into DRC. So for now I’m going back into Namibia and going to try an Angolan Visa. These are the single most difficult countries in the world to get into I would say – And I know the way to get into DRC from the North by getting a Visa in TOGO – as you can get a residency permit for about $40 although you are well past there now. We will likely cross paths if you are coming down through Angola. I expect to leave Lusaka january 10th, and then should be in Windhoek for the Embassy clusterfuck by the end of the month. It’ll take 10-25 days for me to get it. I hope. otherwise I’m crushed, as I refuse to go through Tanzania again.
Try Equatorial Guinea for your list of do-they-really-deliver-visas? countries … But fortunately it’s easy to go around.
Regarding our major roadblock: I’m in Dolisie, Congo, and got little from the Angolan consulate here. I’ll try harder in Pointe-Noire. There is (apparently) a ferry from Cabinda to Soyo jumping over the narrow DRC land around the Congo river mouth (I don’t have a visa for DRC). I’ll know soon what they say.
UN GRAND SALUT DE LA RUE COLIN
un passionné de vélo
SPORTIVEMENT
ARMAND ROTA
Comme tu me fais rêver avec tes photos, tes histoires, tes stats de voyage!
Pédale bien, et fais gaffe à pas passer par le Mali…
ciao jean! ce que tu fais est merveilleux!!
je voulais te dire que j’ai des contacts au burkina faso si t’as besoin… surtout sur ouagadougou mais si jamais je peux me renseigner pour trouver plus au sud!
miticoooo! divertiti! alice
Merci! On verra ca le temps venu
hey jb!
what you are doing is soooo awesome!!! i will follow your adventrues very closely now. what you wrote is so inspiring to cycle more myself. maybe i will take my bike to sweden next summer … 🙂
but now my little hint for your route:
i visited a town called san jose in 2004. it is close to almeria in the south of spain. it is located inside a national park called “cabo de gata”. my experience was that san jose is a very remote village with a very pretty coast. the town itself is very “hippie”. i would highly recommend it to you as you seem to pass by somewhat close anyway … unfortunately i don’t know anybody there. and i don’t know if it is a good season to go now. but nature stays always beautiful – in winter or summer, either way.
if you are planning to visit a city you might consider granada more than any other city in south of spain. i really like the arabic influence there.
i wish you a guarding angel and very safe travels my friend! looking forward to every new post on your blog!
take care!
niko
I skipped Cabo de gata but indeed, heard good things about it too. The season right now is like 20°C in the day and big sun. The landscape in Andalusia has been great everyday so far, it would for sure need a dedicated tour around it!
When you are around Toulouse and looking for extremes, you might wanna check out Lourdes for instance. There is a huge religious roman catholic community over there – becuse it is supposedly a place where three kids saw Virgin Mary(‘s spirit / ghost) about a hundred years ago and ever since pilgrims are obsessed with the city. They hope and pray for a miracle – llike healing from being paralized etc. My (deeply religious) grandma stole money from her husband to get there with a praying organized trip about 20 years ago… There could be tens of thousands of people around one tiny cave and a pretty huge church with torches and singing, praying procession… (and a whole pilgrim industry grew out of these stealing old ladies :D…)
http://www.hervan.be/category.php?articleno=943&catno=242&lang=FR
Thanks, I had already checked this … mysterious business, but it’s a bit too much on the west this time.
bonsoir,
je vois que tu as déjà galéré avec cette neige précoce,qqs belles photos ! bon courage , a+
Hello !
cool de pouvoir déjà commencer à te suivre…avant même ton départ !
comme déjà dit, t’es le bienvenu chez moi à Lausanne.
peut te mettre en contact avec mon oncle et ma cousine qui habitent en Andalousie (Fuengirola, entre Malaga et Marbella) et sont très accueillants. Autrement en Espagne, peut aussi te mettre en contact avec gens proches de Barcelone.
pis je t’envoie aussi le blog d’un gars qui est parti récemment de Montreux pour le Sud du Maroc: il pourra sans doute te filer qques contacts ou tuyaux utiles sur la route d’ici au Maroc où il se trouve en ce moment:
http://survivaure.ch/fabien-a-velo.html
Et un autre blog d’un français à vélo en route vers le Maroc, qui est actuellement en Espagne:
http://chapologie.blogspot.ch/
Je vois que ton itineraire te fait passer par (ou a proximite de) Laguiole (Nord-Aveyron), mon village natal. Je suis pas sur d’etre la-bas quand tu passeras, mais je pense que mes parents pourraient t’heberger quand meme si ca t’interesse.
hello Jb. t’es très motivé à ce que je vois !
tu passes quand sur Lausanne ? si t’as besoin je pourrais t’heberger, et même rouler un peu avec toi en direction de pontarlier.
a+