I bought a flight from Bombay to Nairobi in Kenya. This was not so easy to do without internet--I went to the airport in Bombay and spent a day asking about prices to "anywhere in Africa". A really nice lady told me Qatar airlines had some promotion but they didn't have an office at the airport. I explained I didn't use internet and she searched the address for me (so, in a way I guess this is technically using internet).
Up until that point, I could always ask locals and get a good feel for the next place I'd be. But now I am on a plane going across an ocean knowing absolutely nothing about Kenya or east Africa in general. I did have a map and thought I would cycle south down to Capetown and then up the west coast eventually reaching Morocco and crossing into Europe. After speaking with cyclists in Tanzania and Zambia I realized that such a route would not be possible--the west coast was a plethora of border crossings and visa restrictions and it would not be passable overland with an American passport; plus there were no visas for the autonomous western Sahara region. So I decided to head towards the west coast immediately and then down to SA and back north along the east coast all the way to Egypt. But my money was dwindling and I knew I'd need to find work soon.
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| Route from Nairobi to Capetown over five months |
After the near-death experience in India something changed--I stopped journaling, took less photos and my correspondence with family decreased. I didn't really notice these things at the time, only in retrospect...
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| After six months in the Himalayas, this does not qualify as "climbing" |
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| Kilimanjaro |
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| These sharp seeds (Texas jaggers) lined the road through part of Tanzania which led to endless hours fixing flats |
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40°c sun = boiling skin |
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| Four months after the accident and still with half-a-face |
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| The electrotherapy machine I'd bought in India stopped working in Tanzania, so I would just practice flexing facial muscles while cycling |
Constant trouble with my bike: flat tires every day, inability to find tires and tubes that fit my bike, and finally my rear hub shat the bed--my rear wheel was built by a legendary bike mechanic in Saigon and it lasted nearly two years.
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| Bike mechanics in Lusaka |
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| Broken spokes |
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| Texas jaggers everywhere! Instant flat tires |
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| The hot roads tore through these cheap tires from India |
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| I wish I got a better photo of these four guys. They were from the UK and cycling north to raise money against rhino poaching. We camped together for a night and drank a bottle of whisky, it was such a great time, they gave me lots of advice and helped me plan a good route through southern Africa. |
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| charred and shucked crickets are surprisingly tasty with salt |
Spirituality
Down through Zambia and into Botswana was incredible. To be alone in the middle of nowhere and suddenly you're sucked out of your daydream by a dusty herd of zebras pounding across the road... deep breaths, calm down... scan the horizon for bigcats... You can feel it in your soul: you're an animal among others, an earthling with instincts woven into your genes. All of the imaginary human bullshit--laws, cultural taboos, religion, money, borders, social status, pondering the distant past or distant future--it all vanishes and you find yourself here, right now, in the world of your ancestors. You're not separate from nature, you're part of it--you're home, you belong...
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| Squatting in a field one morning I looked up and saw this giant stickbug right in front of my face... |
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| Victoria falls |
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| A dying bird that didn't panic, just looked at me calmly |
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| Wait a minute, that's not from a cow... |
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| Magic |
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| Some antelopes watching me set up camp, probably thinking 'should we tell him that his species usually sleeps in groups for safety?' |
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| Flooded roads through a national park in Botswana |
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| Termite nest |
A Horrifying Night
One night I was beginning to panic because the sun was setting and the roads were flooded. I was hoping to make it to a police checkpoint where I could camp, but I didn't. I was alone and very nervous about lions, which hunt at night. I set up camp on the side of the road and then got nervous and tore it down and kept cycling. Finally I found this tower, but there were no people to let me in. I had to climb the fence and got all cut up and tore my clothes on the barbed wire.
After stringing up my net near the base of the tower I noticed two newlydead mice about a meter away. Then I noticed a poisonous spider just behind me. I tried to relax and stay strong... but what killed those mice and left the bodies? Then a couple hours after sundown I was lying there and I heard a rustling of metal that sounded like a large mammal scaling the fence. It was probably the most scared I've ever been in all my life. I just lay frozen clutching my knife. "Lions don't hunt people in mosquito nets" or "the flashlight will surely scare them away" --I kept telling myself things like this. After a couple tense hours I heard the metal rustling again and this time I realized that it was the generator behind the building I was camping next to... "Ahhh, you're fine, get some sleep you knucklehead."
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| A horrifying night |
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| A giant lizard befaced by a car |
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| These bugs get hit by cars and leave pink-white tire streaks down the road, then their compatriots walk slowly out to the road to feed on the corpses and they themselves get hit and ad infinitum until the road is painted with pink strips |
Namibia
I crossed into Namibia and had a huge argument with a border official on the Botswana side who was trying to hassle me about overstaying my visa, which I didn't. Because it was so cold at night, I decided to buy a tent and retire the homemade mosquito net that had been with me since Hanoi. I also got a sim card for the nokia and called my family for the first time in over a month. I asked my sister to go on social media and look up Yvette, a close friend I used to work with in Vietnam to ask her if she were in South Africa. It turned out that she was currently working in the Namib desert on a farm that took tourists on hot-air balloon rides over the dunes. It was so great to see Yvette and spend time on the farm. I was fortunate to experience a balloon flight and it was absolutely amazing.
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| It was about 2 weeks of unpaved desert road to reach the balloon farm |
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| The wind was so strong this night I had to collapse the tent and lay wrapped in it |
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| Hanging out with Tuli in Deadvlei |
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| The underside of a giant swallow nest, where the birds enter/exit |
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| I thought it would be nice to camp under one of these enormous nests so that I would awake to their song in the morning, but I quickly learned that it is very foolish because wherever these nests are, so are many snakes... |
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| I was looking for a place to camp in southern Namib and I met one of the kindest, most wonderful people on earth |
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| Trying to escape the wind by sleeping under a bridge, but the wind was even stronger down here |
I noticed the closer I got to South Africa the stranger the vibe. At the border crossing I saw drug addicts and a sense of "crime" was in the air. I quickly learned that it was no longer safe to camp on the side of the road. And the roads were lined with neverending fences demarcating "private property". I slept at police stations or construction sites where there was security. This was a big shift from the rest of my experience in Africa--where it is much safer and people are generally trusting and friendly. How is it possible that the "richest" country in Africa is also the least safe and teeming with racial hatred? This quesion has been on my mind for the last five years.
Anyhow, I had been planning on trying to find work in Capetown, maybe as a cook; but I got such a bad vibe that I wasn't sure I wanted to. Suddenly I was no longer a traveler, but a "white person" and that carried lots of stigma. I would stop and eat at all-black roadside foodstalls and the people would be very uncomfortable until they found out I was a foreigner, then they would relax and be natural.
In the end I decided to break my 27-month internet ban and fly back to Vietnam, where I could spend time with my girlfriend and save up some money at the same time. Since then I've read a lot of Coetzee and some Afrikaner history and I'm starting to get a grasp on that mysterious country, which in many ways is similar to America. Now I have enough money saved and I really want to return to Capetown and get back on the road but Covid is making it very difficult...
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| A fallen comrade |
Alright all set up—can finally lie down. It’s now night and
wind’s bringing some sand through the netting. Many miles from the nearest
person; today saw less than a dozen vehicles on the road. It’s getting chilly,
the bike is laid flat in the sand with nothing to lean on. Plenty of
water, even a little whiskey. My oh my look at that sky … wow … just imagine how
long it took that stardust to reach my eye … amazing. If you really focus you can feel the
earth spinning, milling the void.
And then the scape inverts; I am now in my own mind zooming
out fast. I exit through the right eye and see myself lying there in the barren
desert, which melds into the rest of Africa and now comprises the darkside of earth. The earth recedes, the sun grows tiny and then other suns... an entire galaxy—swirling
inward—disappears among many. I’m speeding up, the whole universe gets so
small that it disappears… a blip of energy. From my vantage such sparks begin
and end so fast that they’d be imperceptible if not for their abundance.
Suddenly a sense of pure fear... I hope I can find my way
back.
