Cycling in the Central African Republic

Cheer up, Will. It could be worse!

I forget just how tough some parts of our journey were ss we cycled through Africa. It was not until I dug this photo out and scanned it to upload to Flickr that I remembered why I was looking so terrible. 

Dan and I had been cycling along some incredibly dusty and corrugated roads from the border with Cameroon to the capital of the Central African Republic, Bangui. The corrugations were impossible to avoid and jarred us for each of the eight hours we cycled every day. 

To make matters worse, the logging lorries that came along the roads, and which caused the corrugations, threw up great clouds of orange dust. The dust covered us head to foot and tyre to saddle. It was hot, humid and not much fun. 

But, then, suddenly, as we neared Bangui, we came onto a stretch of tarmac road. The sensation was was weird. Moments before, we had been fighting along every inch of the road. But, now, we felt as though we were gliding along effortlessly. 

It was a moment to record. We got our cameras out and shot a photo of each other. The looks on our faces say it all. Our clothes were filthy. Our faces were caked with dirt. Our bikes and kit had turned colour from black to orange. 

A little further on, the tarmac stopped and it went back to dirt until we get to Bangui. 

But, it was a great experience and it was all part of adventure travelling. 

---

Dan looking shattered in the CAR