I come back from a long cycling trip in Africa.
It was wonderful, the continent is truly blessed with gorgeous landscape and nature, as well lovely people.
I encourage anyone who would want to go on this journey to go. But I also want to remind you that this isn't for the fainthearted and it is very different than a cycling trip in Europe or the USA.
There are some things a lot of people miss out on telling you, of course focusing on the beauty of the continent but denying its downs.
So I just want to summarize a bit the things that you have to expect when going on a cycling trip in Africa:
– Corruption, from the police, the army, the parking guy, anyone that will find excuse to ask you for money. Remember as a westerner you are a walking wallet for them. There are different ways to deal with that. I crossed 10 countries without paying a single bribe or making a u-turn.
-Kids who ask you for money, do not give them. Moral dilemmas is huge, but you simply just shouldn't give these kids money, because then they will never go to school or learn a job.
-Extreme climate and lack of confort, in many different aspects, again, this is not Europe. I cycled places where it was more than 40C and adding to this intense humidity
-Visa and administrative catastrophy, this one was a little bit surprising but there are chances you really want to go to a specific country, have to apply for an e-visa and for no reason it will not be approved and you will lose money and the right to enter this country, therefore wasting a lot of time and energy.
– If you are white, be ready to be designated as such: toubab; blanco; le blanc; white boy… It isn't necessary with bad intentions but in the beginning for me, it felt a big disturbing. Eventually I got used to it.
– Malaria, you need to do researches on that absolutely.
-Don't arrive in any village or place at night.
I detail all of this better in a video I made where I cross the Sahara desert with my bicycle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjUh8Rvtelc
This was easy, honestly. Compared to countries such as Guinea or Ivory Coast of course.
But if you want to start a trip like this one, or are in the midst of one or whatever, I just came back and would be happy to share my experience here.
It was a great experience and I would do it again 1000x times, but before going please be aware of this.
by MrGTA68
6 Comments
And how did you avoid bribery then?
The swarm of children can be overwhelming. Them being in rags asking for money is heartbreaking. However, kids like to play and that’s what they’re doing asking for money. They’re so used to getting told no from their elders. I found the best way to handle the kids when they ask for money is to play, reply “no, you give ME money”. They find it hilarious. What did this “mzungu” say?!.. It’s like a big joke. They’ll ask you multiple times and just reply the same thing. “no, you give ME money :D”
It’ll only go on for a short while before you’re away from them.
Any experience when you felt unsafe?
I think you can relax a bit with the moral dilemmas of giving the kids a bit of money or what have you. I don’t believe a kid will drop out of school or stop learning a trade just because a European dude gave them some coins while passing by.
As someone who spent half his life as a citizen of a EU-adjacent country outside of the Schengen Zone, I totally understand your frustration with the visa administration. Just the other day my sister got a Schengen visa just so that they can visit us. After compiling 90-100 pages of documentation and spending hundreds of Euros, they were issued a 7-day visa which exactly covers their intended trip. And we were happy. If they have to postone the trip dur to sickness, they have to go through it again, but the default mode has been to reject visa applications nowadays.
Can you elaborate on “don’t arrive at any village or place at night”?
Ahaha un collègue à moi le Maroc c’est vraiment cool, de la famille la bas, mais certains endroits je me verrais pas rouler, trop de monde, pas agréable.
ta trouver comment la Mauritanie? j’ai grave envie de faire un road trip la bas, sinon pour les carte ta pris une grande map ou téléphone?
ta du adorer l’hospitalité au Maroc ou Mauritanie