#24

Africa, coast-to-coast

A tour in Africa, Swakopmund to Durban, Atlantic Ocean to Indian Ocean and the last continent to be conquered with the same bike. A nice, relatively easy, and, in the end, a beautiful tour.

General information

ROUTE: I started cycling in Windhoek airport and ended cycling in Durban airport. In between, I went on #B1 and #B2 from Windhoek to Swakopmund and Valvisbay, back to Windhoek on #C24 and #C14, on #B1 to Botswana border. In Botswana I took roads #A3 and #A2 and #A1 through Kang, Jwaneng and Kanye to Gaborone. Crossed the border into Soth Africa, cycled on some minor roads through Zeerust, Lichtenburs, Blutfontain and Bluemfontain to Lesotho border near Maseru. In Lesotho I took #A5 and #A3 going through Thaba Tseka, joining #A1 near Mokhotlong, then turned right on #A14 to Sani pass. Then down the Sani pass, more or less straight to the Indian Ocean, and about 50 km along the coast to Durban.

ROADS: There was 700 km of gravel roads and 2800 km of paved roads. Gravel roads are 350 km on #C24 and #C14 between Valvisbay and Windhoek, about 250 km in Lesotho, mostly between Taba Tseka and Sani pass and few more kms after Sani pass. Paved roads are excellent, althou they could be a bit wider in Namibia and South Africa. On Trans Kalahari HWY in Botswana (as well as few roads in South Africa) there is excellent paved shoulder, separated by a yellow line. Edge of some roads in South Africa is ruined by potholes.

MAPS: I planned the trip by Google maps. As is usual now, I didn't carry the maps with me - just a card with riding directions: see it here. For details see my digital map approach. I had a map in Lesotho, got it in a tourist office in Maseru. Although it was not detailed enough to use it as a reference, it had village names, which helped me when asking directions.

TRAFFIC: The traffic is not dense, but it tends to be fast. Most of the drivers would leave me enough room when overtaking, but because of their speed it felt a bit scary. I fixed a tent pole to my rear rack, sticking about half meter into the road, to prevent the cars to come too close.

PUBLIC TRANSPORT: I flew with Lufthansa and South African Airlines. Lufthansa now charges outrageous 150 EUR one way for a bike - regardless of how much it, or your luggage, weighs. I encourage you to boycot Lufthansa, whenever you can.

ACCOMMODATION: I wild-camped 12 times, camped in campgrounds 5 times, slept in gusthouses/hotels 11 times and 6 times in a hostel.

FOOD AND WATER: I ate mostly uncooked food bought in supermarkets, in hostels I cooked my lunch and dinner. I ate at the restorants just a couple of times. I never bought bottled water but got it from the petrol stations and in places where I slept or ate.

COSTS: I paid between 10 and 40 EUR for a room, 6 to 10 EUR for camping. A meal in a restorant is 5 to 8 EUR, a beer is 1 to 1.5 EUR. I spent 21 EUR/day.

VISAS: I needed visas for Namibia and South Africa. Got them by a travel agency in Ljubljana. Very expensive, almost 100 EUR each. I entered to Botswana and Lesotho without visas.

WEATHER: Clear skies all the way. Just two cloudy days in Durban and a bit of rain on one of them. Temperatures were 28 C up to 38 C at midday, at night it dropped on one occasion down to -6 C in South Africa near Bultfontain, but the nights in other places were warmer, around 5 to 7 C. Daylight from 6:00 to 17:30.

SITES: Lesotho was undoubtly the jewel of this tour. Second best was Namibia, epecially the road from the Atlantic coast to Windhoek.

ANNOYANCES: Nothing, really nothing!

EQUIPMENT: Road bike and very little more. Click the bike icon above for details.

REPAIRS: 1 puncture, probably because of underpressure. The exterior part of the thread on the rear tire started to fall apart in Lesotho. It was not something a duck tape could not fix.

LINKS: I didn't find much reports on this part of the world. There are few on CGOAB.

Afrika, od oceana do oceana
Od Swakopmunda do Durbana, od Atlantskega do Indijskega oceana. Luštna, relativno lahka in na koncu izjemno lepa tura.
Splošne informacije
POT: Štartal sem na letališču v Windhoeku in končal na letališču v Durbanu. Vmes sem vozil v Namibiji po #B1 in #B2 od Windhoeka do Swakopmunda in Valvisbaya, nazaj do Windhoeka po #C24 in #C14, in po #B1 do meje z Bocvano. V Bocvni sem vzel ceste #A3, #A2 in #A1 skozi Kang, Jwaneng in Kanye do Gaboroneja. Prestopil mejo v Južnoafriško republiko, in kolesaril po nekih manjših cestah skozi Zeerust, Lichtenburg, Blutfontain in Bluemfontain do meje z Lesotom pri Maseru. V Lesotu sem krenil po #A5 in #A3 skozi Thaba Tseka, do križišča z #A1 pri Mokhotlongu, nato pa zavil desno po #A14 do Sani pasa. Potem dol po Sani pasu, več ali manj naravnost do Indijskega oceana, in ob njem do Durbana

CESTE: Bilo je okoli 700 km makadama in 2800 km asfalta. Makadam je: 350 km na #C24 in #C14 med Valvisbayem in Windhoekom, okoli 250 km v Lesotu, večinoma med Thaba Tseko in Sani pasom in še nekaj kilometrop po Sani pasu. Asfaltirane ceste so odlične, čeprav bi lahko bile nekoliko širše. Na Trans-Kalahari cesti v Bocvani (kot tudi na nekaj cestah v JAR) je odlična banika ločena z rumeno črto. Robovi na nekaterih odsekih v JAR so uničeni z velikimi luknjami.

ZEMLJEVID: Pot sem planiral po Google zemljevidih. Kot že ponavadi, nisem nosil zemljevidov s sabo, temveč samo kartico z navigacijski napotki - lahko jo vidiš tule. Za podrobnosti o tem pristopu glej digitalne mape. V Lesotu sem imel karto, ki sem jo dobil v turisičnem središču v Maseru. Čeprav ni bila zadosti natančna, je bila uporabna, ko sem spraševal domačine za pot.

PROMET: Promet ni posebno gost, je pa kar hiter. Večina voznikov mi je pustila dovolj prostora pri prehitevanju, toda zaradi njihove hitrosti je vse zgledalo veliko bolj nevarno. Na koncu sem na zadnji del bicikla montiral palico od šotora, tako da je štrlela ven kake pol metra, in je kar pomagalo.

JAVNI TRANSPORT: Letel sem z Lufthanso in South African Airlines. Lufthansa sedaj zaračunava za bicikel neverjetnih 150 EUR v eno smer - in ne glede na to koliko (ali če sploh kaj) ostale prtljage imaš! Priporočam bojkotiranje Lufthansa, kadarkoli je to mogoče.

PRENOČIŠČA: Kampiral sem na divje 12x, 5x v kampih, v hotelih/guesthouses 11x in v hostelih 6x.

HRANA IN VODA: Jedel sem večinoma suho hrano kupljeno v supermarketih. V hostlih sem si skuhal hrano v skupni kuhinji, v restoranih sem jedel le nekajkrat. Nikoli nisem kupoval flaširane vode, temveč jo dobival na benciskih pumpah in tam kjer sem spal.

STROŠKI: Plačal sem med 10 in 40 EUR za sobo, in med 6 in 10 EUR za kampiranje. Kosilo v restoranu je 5 do 8 EUR, pivo je 1 do 1.5 EUR. Porabil sem 21 EUR na dan.

VIZE: Vizo za Namibijo in JAR sem dobil preko Kompasa v Ljubljani. Je zelo drago - 100 EUR za vsako. Za Bocvano in Lesoto nisem potreboval vize.

VREME: Jasno nebo vseskozi. Samo dva oblačna dneva na koncu poti v Durbanu in malo dežja v enem od njih. Čez dan so temperature bile 28 C do največ 38 C, ponoči pa se je v centralni JAR, okoli Bultfointaina, enkrat temperatura spustila do neverjetnih -6 C. Čeprav so noči ponavadi bile toplejše, 5 do 7 C. Dnevna svetloba od 6:00 do 17:30.

KRAJI: Lesoto je brez dvoma bil dragulj tele turneje. Druga najboljša je bila puščavska pokrajina v Namibiji, zlasti pot od Atlantika do Windhoeka.

NEVŠEČNOSTI: Nič, zares nič!

OPREMA: Cestno kolo z minimalno prtljage. Klikni ikono bicikla za podrobnosti.

POPRAVKI: Imel sem eno predrto zračnico, verjetno zaradi prenizkega pritiska. Zunaji sloj zadnjega plašča je začel razpadati v Lesotu, toda to ni bilo nekaj kar duck-tape ne bi mogel rešiti.

POVEZAVE: Nisem našel veliko poročil o kolesarjenju na tem koncu sveta. Nekaj jih je na CGOAB.

Stuff

Aluminium road bike with carbon fork, triple chainring (52/42/30), 8 speed cassette (12-26) and tyres 700x25. Ultralight, as always, in fact with 4.9 kg of stuff, 15.3 kg including the bike. It was the least so far for a camping tour. See further details. The tent and the stuff bag with most of things wrapped in bubble wrap was on the rear rack, digital camera and few other things in a saddlebag attached to the handlebar. Note that this was not a 'credit card' trip - I had a tent and sleeping bag, and used them 50 % of the nights.

Stvari
Cestno kolo št. 8, ki je sedaj moje standardno potovalno kolo. Ima aluminijasti okvir, karbonsko vilico, trojno šajbo (52/42/30) in 8-prestavno kaseto (12-26). Gume so bile 700x25c. Ultralahko, kot vedno, pravzaprav najlažje doslej. Z 4.9 kg za stvari in 15.3 kg vključujoč kolo za skoraj 1 kg potolkel (svoj) dosedanji rekord za turo s kamping opremo. Za podrobnosti poglej tudi stran ultralight cycling. Šotor in pakirna vreča z večino stvari zavitih v "bubble-wrap" folijo sta bila na zadnjem prtljažniku, digitalni fotoaparat in nekaj pogosto rabljenih stvari pa v majhni torbici na balanci. Pozor: to ni bila "credit-card" tura; imel sem šotor in spalno vrečo, in ju rabil 50 % noči.

Cycling data


Day Date Trip Time   Speed  Total Climb Accom Notes (daily end-stop) ***
                    Avr Max            
    d/m   km  h:m  km/h km/h  km      m
0  16/8    0  0:0   0.0  0     0      0  a   Ljubljana-Windhoek
1  17/8   48  2:12 21.8 55    48    430  h   Windhoek
2  18/8  185  8:16 22.3 59   233    538  c   Karibib
3  19/8  183  7:49 23.4 66   416    414  H   Swakopmund
4  20/8  138  8:13 16.7 62   554    946  w   Nakluft
5  21/8  108  8:49 12.2 60   662   1218  w   Weissenfels - 40km
6  22/8   92  8:19 11.0 56   754   1380  w   Weissenfels +50km
7  23/8   61  4:16 14.2 55   815    664  c   Windhoek
8  24/8  158  7:09 22.1 46   973    610  f   Witvlei
9  25/8  160  7:29 21.4 66  1133    232  H   Border post
10 26/8  159  7:40 20.7 60  1292     72  w   Ganzy/Kang crossroad - 5km
11 27/8  230 10:25 22.0 50  1522    172  c   Kang
12 28/8  188  9:02 20.8 45  1710    100  w   Jwaneng -50km
13 29/8  148  8:13 18.0 51  1858    479  c   Kanye
14 30/8   97  5:26 17.8 28  1955    371  H   Gaborone
15 31/8  111  5:27 20.3 25  2066    657  w   Zeerust -10km
16  1/9  106  5:11 20.3 57  2172    761  H   Lichtenburg
17  2/9  159  7:44 20.6 38  2331    538  w   Bloemhof -25km
18  3/9  129  6:16 20.5 32  2460    304  c   Bultfontain
19  4/9  103  4:44 21.6 36  2563    430  H   Bluemfontain
20  5/9  135  6:11 21.7 53  2698   1066  H   Ladybrand
21  6/9  102  6:33 16.3 71  2800   2539  w   Likalaneng +5km
22  7/9   87  7:13 12.0 74  2887   2635  H   Thaba Tseka
23  8/9   54  6:20  8.5 22  2941   1366  w   Thaba Tseka +54km
24  9/9   43  5:23  7.7 24  2984   1259  h   Rafalatsana
25 10/9   46  5:40  8.1 24  3030   1362  H   Sani top
26 11/9   69  5:38 12.1 51  3099    869  w   Bulwer -10km
27 12/9  130  6:50 19.0 57  3229   1437  w   Umzinto -35km
28 13/9   64  3:29 18.3 54  3293    646  H   Durban
29 14/9    0  0:0   0    0  3293      0  H   Durban
30 15/9    0  0:0   0    0  3293      0  H   Durban
31 16/9   39  2:35 15.2 43  3332    407  h   Durban
32 17/9    0  0:0   0    0  3332      0  h   Durban
33 18/9    0  0:0   0    0  3332      0  h   Durban
34 19/9   75  4:28 16.8 48  3407    639  w   Durban
35 20/9    0  0:0   0    0  3407      0  a   Durban-Ljubljana
36 21/9   29  1:22 21.5 42  3435     80  a   Ljubljana

Days   Trip   Time   Speed   Climb
                    Avr Max
         km   h:m  km/h km/h     m
36     3435 194:22   -   -   24620    Sum
28     3293 185:57   -   -   23494    Sum, cycling days
 -      230  10:25 23.4 74    2635    MAX, cycling days
 -       43   2:12  7.7 22      72    min, cycling days
36       95   5:24   -   -     684    average per day
28      118   6:38 17.7 49     839    average per cycling day

*** Legend
12 10/7 - cycling day
38  5/8 - non cycling or rest day
Trip    - daily cycling distance
Time    - daily cycling time (while in motion)
Speed   - daily cycling speed (while in motion): Avr - average; Max - maximal.
Total   - cumulative distance
Accom   - accommodation: a: airplane; m: motel; H(h): ho(s)tel; c: camp; w: wild camping

#23:

Africa, coast-to-coast

General information

Afrika, od oceana do oceana

Splošne informacije

Stuff

Stvari

Cycling data

Travelogue

Potopis