The Preparation
I’ve been working on the preparation for more than a year, and it’s still surprising how much work such a journey takes.
Gathering Information
The most useful information I found where from books. I used the internet as a source too, but I also read about 20 guidebooks. And I read a lot of other books too.
The route
It takes a lot of time to find a route for every single country which encounters all the places of interest and avoids dangerous places. Even though I now have a planned route I will be forced to change it again and again as Africa is always changing. And you often can’t see what a track really is like if you only have a map in front of you.
The Equipment
A big part of my equipment was bought new. However wherever I could I used stuff which I already had or were already used. I spent hours looking for the exact right pieces of equipment and what I couldn’t buy in a local shop, I simply ordered on the Internet.
For the bicycle parts, I work together with Krapf Bicycle near my home who has always been reliable and supportive. You will find the details in "The Equipment"
The Bicycle
At first, I thought that I could just take my still quite new mountain bike for this tour. But I realise quickly that a normal bike wouldn’t meet the demanding for Africa. The disc brakes cylinders would rust in salty sea air, I couldn’t mount any baggage in the front, it would be impossible to repair the antishocks and so on.
So I went to my local bicycle trader and together we chose the bike and its parts according to my special wishes.
As I wanted a steel frame, there was only one single company in Switzerland who still manufactures this.
The company Aarios in Gretzenbach CH is building steel framed bicycles since 1976 and has already equipped a lot of big adventures. So I went there to check the details with the company.
Together with the senior chief, we selected all the parts I needed. He turned almost all of my ideas down and in the end I had completely different bike parts than I thought would be the best choices. However I have to admit, that He really knew what he was talking about and finally I got the bike I needed.
After a few weeks I finally received the “Aarios Expedition” and I really love this bike. Even fully equipped and on tracks which I wouldn’t’ even consider a track for hiking, the bike didn’t show any weakness.
More details in the chapter ”preparation tour” and “The Bike”.
Insurance
If you are on a budget, it is almost impossible to find any insurance for such a long journey. Somehow long time travellers simply don’t exist in the mind of an insurance company.
In the end there were only Statravel and worldnomads who offer affordable insurances with the conditions needed.
But it still takes a lot of time to read all terms of conditions and some parts of the journey still remain uncovered. I finally decided for worldnomads, as the Sta-travel only cover, what my overly expensive swiss insurance wouldn't cover.
Languages
One of the most important things is of course the languages. Everyone who ever travelled abroad will admit this. I had already studied English and so I began to learn Arabic. It might be difficult in the beginning to learn but it gets easier the more you know. After over a year I am at least able to do some smalltalk, reading and writing in High-Arabic. I also took courses to improve my French. I have to admit, that I prefer to learn Arabic instead of French as this language is much more logic and simple. Even though I speak much better French I sometimes knew the Arabic term while I completely missed the French one. That’s why I finally stopped to learn Arabic.
Finances
Almost all the money I’ve earned in the past two years are being used for my project. Everything has become at least twice as expensive as I calculated at first, forcing me to safe money wherever I could. In the end, I will have to live on a budget of just a few dollars per day.
But I can proudly say, that it is all money I’ve been working for and that there is no sponsoring.
Except some price reduction and some sponsored equipment parts and the priceless help of Velo Krapf.
Big adventures with the bicycle are no longer as extraordinaire as they used to be and it takes a lot to convince anybody to sponsor you. You need a good website, a lot of followers and you become obligate. And you already have to have achieved something and need to do something extraordinary to get the attention of the big sponsoring comapnies.
Training and mock tour
It is very important to take a mock tour. I drove to Italy (read mock tour under travel reports) and I am very glad that I did it. Even though I was well trained through my boxing training, I didn’t train bicycling during the winter. I could easily regenerate and never really came out of breath. However I took the tour too hard and fast and finally got problems with my knee. I then gave up my boxing training and started to drive at least four times per week.
There were some things with the equipment I had to change too. For example my newly bought small laptop didn’t work the way it should so I decided to take my old heavy laptop with me.
Or the dynamo didn’t produce enough power to load all the devices so I’ll have to take a lot of batteries with me. There were many other things which I had to change but in the end it pays to select the best possible equipment.
But the bike itself still has no scratches or problems despite the very bad road conditions and I am really happy, that I don’t have to worry about this part.
Visa
It was a real waste of time to try getting the Visa in Advance. There is almost no chance of getting a Visa in Africa in advance, when you travel overland. The requirements are vast and the visa are valuable only by three months after issue. I tried to contact the embassies and consulates in Switzerland, but either the e-mail addresses didn’t exist anymore or even if they had an up-to-date website, they wouldn’t answer when I asked for help.
That’s why I will have to try to organise the visa on location. This also means, that I will have to go to big cities I originally wanted to avoid
Safety
This is the only part I can’t really calculate. It is sometimes difficult to get accurate information for Africa and depending on the platform, the information can be quite dated and are often exaggerated.
I will have to ask on location about the current situations and I will have to register at the Swiss embassies in every country, so if anything happens to me, they would at least know where I was going and where they could find me.
Medical Aid
It is actually rather easy. You go to your doctor and he will tell you what kind of medication and vaccination you need. But additionally you also have to be able to treat yourself when there is no doctor around. I read some books about this topic and I’m really glad about the medical knowledge I could gather from it. The book “where there is no doctor” from travelknowhow is really a good and useful book. In my opinion, every traveller should have it with them.
I also read some other book to this topic and at least I now know how to sew a wound or how to prepare a numbing paste from Vaseline. You should in every case be prepared for every kind of incident!