Take a shared taxi to Tashkent, where I’ll apply for the visas to Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, plus visit an English-speaking doctor to get remedy for my bad left knee.

Information on Visa to Tajikistan
Hand in passport and application (100 USD) on Tuesday at 09.00, as well as an LOI (35 USD) from a local tour agent. Receive passport with visa by 16.00 the next day.

Information on Visa to Kyrgyzstan
Hand in passport and application on Monday at 09.30. Receive passport with visa at 16.30 the same day.

I’d heard beforehand that the road to Salalah would be hilly – but gosh it was steep! Not engineered for bicycles for sure – not even dated trucks would manage it. And the view of the ocean – visible even from the highest passes at 1,000 meters – was swindling. Climate was perfect though, with clouds closing in from Saudi – and the Omani people are just wonderful.
Sleep with some Bengali fishermen in Mughsayl. Kumenaso? Baloasi, donovad!*
*How are you? Fine, thank you!

Information on Visa to Oman
Visa, by the way, I got at the border for 6 Omani Riyal (about 12 euro). For those planning the same route: be sure to exchange your Yemeni cash before you cross the border, since the Omanis don’t want them. ‘They fluctuate too much (i.e. downwards)’, said one border official.

After two days of cycling in the bare desert landscapes – not sand, but instead stones of all shapes and colors – I finally reach Djibouti City by the sea. I hitchhiked some 40 kilometers because of a bad stomach. I’ll stay in Djibouti City for a few days to rest up, treat my belly (fifth time on this trip) and obtain the visa to Yemen before I finally hike with one of the dhows across the sea.

I stay with French Francine who works here as a teacher – I got in touch with her via another Swedish cyclist. Her kids are on a visit, too, so I camp in the garden right next to the apartment building in which she stays.

Information on Visa to Yemen
I applied for visa at Yemen Embassy (tel 352975/356680) in Djibouti . 08.30-11.30 Sunday-Thursday. One photo, one passport copy and 7150 DF (about 35 euro). Got it the next day, but might be possible to receive same day.

Information on Boat to Yemen
Started asking for boat at Port International on the 4th of January and finally got it on the 8th. Just before the main gate, to the left is the so called Surveyors Office, with the boss Abdul Karim(tel 870284), who is very friendly. Office is officially open 08.00-14:30.
On the 8th, I paid 7,000 Djibouti Franc (DJF) (bicycle was free of charge), received a ticket in the morning and was asked to come back at 15:00 to board the boat. It was said to depart at 16:00 and if the weather was good reach Aden 14 hours later. Destination Aden is unusual though – a friend of mine got to the more usual Al Mokha last March (reached within 16 hours). My friend had to wait ten (!) days to find a boat. I’ve been told that there are only some 5-6 boats that accept passengers.

Finally reach Aswan – again after having been escorted by police most of the day. From here, I hope to be let aboard the ferry come Monday, so that I can reach Wadi Halfa in Sudan on Tuesday. Insha’Allah. Stay at Noorhan Hotel.

Border details
Boat from Aswan (Egypt) to Wadi Halfa (Sudan): 320/286/262 Egyptian Pounds (Second class). 450/454 Egyptian Pounds (First class).
On board prices: dinner 10 EP, soda 2 EP.

In Cairo, I’m greatly hosted by German cycling friend Sebastian (whom I first met on the road in Angola together with Japanese Mitch, when I was biking with Lina). I’ll stay here a few days to arrange visas for several countries ahead, then continue along the Nile River.

Seeing the pyramids was the one must-do in Cairo, I guess. It takes an hour to get there by bus – they’re located just where suburb Giza ends, with the vast desert landscape to the southwest.

Have a look at Sebastian’s website for his photos and writing from the cycling tour to South Africa (including a boat-trip along the Congo River!): www.vom-wind-getragen.de.

Information on Visa to Eritrea
6 El-Fallah, Mohandiseen
Referred me to their embassy in Khartoum, Sudan, although after finding out that the border Eritrea/Djibouti is closed, I’ve given this country up for good)

Information on Visa to Ethiopia
6 Abdel Rahman Hussein, Dokki
1 photo, 30 US dollar (no other currency accepted), 1 filled-in form. Got it the next day; valid for three months.

Information on Visa to Djibouti
15 Doctor Mohamed Abdou El-Said/near Doctor Mishi Bakhum/Nadi al-Sid intersection, Dokki
3 photos, 3 filled-in forms, one passport copy, 148 Egyptian pound. Got it after three working-days after much waiting at the embassy; valid for three months.

Information on Visa to Sudan
3 El-Ibrahimi, Garden City
2 photos, x filled-in forms, 100 US dollar.

The ferry to Nuweiba is a steep 52 dinar (around 70 euro), but at least the bike is free of charge. After a two-hour boat ride and about the same time spent waiting at each port, I’m finally in Egypt; back in Africa. I need rest and decide to treat myself with a two-day stay in a cheap bungalow at one of several touristic but surprisingly calm camps that line the beach.

A week-long journey cross the Sinai – under the Suez Canal and across the desert to Cairo – lies ahead.

Border details
Out of Jordan: 5 dinar.
Ferry to Aqaba (Jordan) – Nuweiba (Egypt): 52 dinar (around 70 euro).
Visa to Egypt: 85 Egyptian Pounds (about 15 US dollars); bought at the bank in Nuweiba harbor.

Easy border crossing, a ten euro visa, but then once again police that ruin my day. After getting some new pills at the local hospital in Jarash (my stomach still hasn’t bettered completely), police (at least in uniform this time) arrives to check passport and then like yesterday force me to stay in hotel. The city hotel was way too expensive, so they take me out west to another one some five kilometers away. Again too expensive, the police has already left (tired at my bargaining), and I can at least continue and find a local to stay with. But they’d forced me out of the town and its ancient ruins that I had come to see, so that’s for the ‘for your own sake’ part of the police squabble.

A gentle man, deeply devoted to his Muslim faith, hosts me in his house. His wife’s face is covered in a black hood through-out the evening; her sweet, kind voice at contrast. Great dinner, great sleep. Wonderful people. Seven kilometers after Jarash. Twoeters before Al Monsoura.

Border details
Stamp out of Syria, 500 lira.
Visa to Jordan at the border, 10 dinar.

I used a total of about 4,200 euro (5,500 USD). That includes a good insurance (don’t go without), visas and the air ticket back home, but excludes costs for equipment as it differs depending on ones needs. I usually budget for about 10 euro per day for running costs (including insurance and visas) and to that the cost of an air-ticket back home.

Bicycle
A more than ten years old CyclePro – a Swedish brand that only lasted for a few years before the manufacturer went bankrupt (the brand might still be there, but not the quality). The frame is made of steel – easier to weld than alumunium would it break. I added a Tubus steel front-rack, but kept the original aluminum back-rack. The latter broke after some 17,000 kilometers.

Bags
Ortlieb (www.ortlieb.de) Back-Roller and Front-Roller Plus, a sack on top of the back-rack and a small handlebar-bag. All of them water and dust proof and with roll-top closure. All of them lasted well – nothing broke. Another well-established manufacturer is Vaude (www.vaude.de).

Tent
Ferrino Lighttent 2 (www.ferrino.it). It did break a lot – both the zippers and the fabric itself – but only after some 200 nights’ use. In any case, I was able to receive a completely new tent on the warranty, and the new version seems to have been reinforced on the very weak points on which mine broke.

What I look at in a tent for warm climates is that it is possible to pitch without the canvas/rain-cover. Not only will you get the cooling breeze/fresh air during the night, but you can also admire the stars above! Another practical detail is the possibility to pitch the tent without neither pegs nor strings – perfect when one gets to camp indoor, but still want to protect oneself from e.g. mosquitoes.

Cooking
Optimus Nova+ (www.optimus.se). A multi-fuel camping stove that can use anything from white gas to kerosene, diesel and petrol. We actually never used white gas which is recommended but difficult to find in Africa, but instead used petrol or sometimes aviation fuel (a kind of kerosene).

Lina used a MSR (Mountain Safety Research) XGK EX (www.msrgear.com). It felt more rigid than the Optimus, but was difficult to use economically (and ecologically) – it was impossible to keep the flame small enough to just let water simmer under lid without it boiling over.

Because both our kitchens were easily choked by carbon/soot, and they weren’t very easy to clean, it is close to essential to purchase the extra maintenance- and reparation kit that is available.

A third alternative brand for multi-fuel camping stoves is Primus (www.primus.se). They also have one kitchen which can use not only all different kinds of liquid fuel, but also gas.

Photography and data storage
I bought a secondhand Canon 20D with two lenses: a 17-85 mm f/4-5,6 IS USM zoom lens and a 50 mm f/1,8 standard lens. I used the latter mostly for portraits. I also bought five extra batteries – none original/brand from the internet. They worked flawless, but costed only a fifth of what the original batteries would have costed.

For storage of pictures, I had two 2 GB memory cards, which was enough for my 8 MP camera (I shot all photos in RAW+JPG). When we passed through a larger town, I copied the pictures to DVD discs (or, if not available, CDs). I made one copy that I kept with me in my luggage, and one that I posted home as backup. This worked flawless for me, but I also felt very dependent in finding good internet cafés which had DVD burners. We sometimes ended up spending a whole day just looking for such one. Next time, I will probably look to the possibilities of bringing an external hard drive, a laptop or a stand-alone DVD burner which doesn’t need a computer to function.

To extend our visas took longer than we’d ever imagined (read more below), but in company of Maria and Juan Carlos, we were far from bored. They took us with to friends and through town: Movie night with a gathering of Swedish expats, traditional Swedish Easter dinner, lazy beach days at the Ilha (an island in central Luanda) and barbeque at Prédio Suéco. It was all a stark contrasts against the previous days’ camping life. Huge thanks to Maria and Juan Carlos for hosting us so comfortably, helping us with the immigration and above all keeping us in such great company. Imagine all embassy staff being as kind as you?

To Extend a Visa
On Thursday, we visit the immigration first thing in the morning. In hope of getting our applications considered within 24 hours, we buy the application forms and fill them in. Despite being intended for non-citizens, four of five forms are in Portuguese, so it takes quite some time. And only when we are about to hand in our application at the office, we’re informed that application days are Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays only. We couldn’t have had less luck.

Come Monday, we return and arrive just past seven in the morning. Once again a surprise awaits us – one has to arrive by five in the morning to be able to get one of the forty desirable tickets that are handed out each day. Only with one such ticket, which resemble those by a supermarket meat counter, one is allowed to enter the office and hand in ones application.

But just like past Thursday we start discussing the issue with the staff. We try to make us seen and heard amongst as many of the immigration staff as possible. The immigration consists of a number of single-floor buildings that enclose an inner yard on which we wait with a hundred or so other hopeful. Each house hosts different departments of the immigration. One counter sells the application forms, another helps citizens to apply for a new passport and yet another assists those looking for a work permit. On the yard, staff runs back and forth occasionally, and it is them that we try to halt to ask for assistance; beg to help us review our applications.

We are lucky – by two p.m., we’re finally let inside the office in which we can hand in our application despite having no valid ticket. But even after being let inside, we have to yet again attract the attention of someone in the staff – someone on the other side of the counter – whom can accept our application. Just that takes us two, three hours. Another 45 minutes later, we’ve received our receipts.

While waiting, we got the less conventional tip from one of the staff to simply continue to the border of Namibia without visa and once there pay the official fine of seven dollars per day of illegal stay in the country. But the fact that one official here say so doesn’t mean that the police officers along the road will agree, we thought.

I also spoke with a French man who had been working in Angola for a decade. Not even then, he had the sufficient contacts to get his working permit in time. After having waited for nine months he still hadn’t received his permit. He said that the ‘regular’ application fee is 5,000 kwanza (about 70 USD), but if you pay 5,000 USD under the table, you can receive you permit in just a few days.

Thursday, we return once again to the immigration to mingle with the staff, hour after hour, but without receiving any news. It seems as if our applications has yet to be considered. Come Friday, we do the same thing – inquire and complain – and finally get promised that our visas will be there for us to receive come Monday.

The immigration is, to say the least, disordered and messy. Another group of tourists applied the same day as we did and got their new visas Friday. But then they’d been there each day from four a.m. until 6.30 p.m. – close to 52 hours during five days. Probably more than most staff.

Monday so, we finally receive our visas, and we leave the capital the next day after almost two weeks’ rest.

Angolan Visa Extension Details
Address: Serviços de Migração e Estrangeiros (SME), nearby the British Embassy.
You need: Three photos, five filled-in forms, which you buy at the office, and your passport.
You come: On Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday to apply and on Thursday or Friday to receive your visa/permit. The day that you come to apply, you need to be there at five a.m. latest if to get one of the 40 tickets that gives you admission to the office. To speed things up, it might be worth asking for Balthazar who is the boss at the office, or trying to get even higher up in the ‘food chain.’ You need to ask a lot, chat and complain. Spend at least five hours a day there if you’re in a hurry to get your application considered.

In Calabar, we meet American Amy who drove past us the day before. She invites us to stay in her guest room in town, and in the evening we’re taken with on a pizza party that her German boyfriend Alex has set up with various friends. Could we get a better birthday present (both I and Lina were born on the 14th)?

Visa to Cameroon
Address: Cameroon Consulate / 21 Ndidem Usang Iso Road / Po box 863 / Calabar / NIGERIA
Phone: 00234-(0)87-222782
We show up at nine a.m. and are let inside half an hour later. Two filled in forms, one letter to the consul (something like “Dear Excellency, please give us a visa…”), three passport sized photos and 51,000 CFA give us a visa valid for a month (‘short stay’). We had to wait inside the consulate until four p.m., and were only allowed outside to get lunch at noon. Fortunately there was a toilet. We didn’t need any passport photocopy, reference in Cameroon, letter of invitation or proof of hotel booking.

Summary Nigeria
Entering this country, I was prepared for the worst. Rumors of extensive corruption and armed banditry leaves little good to read. Besides, I made the mistake of reading the US Department of State’s list of travel warnings, with Nigeria on top: “Violent crime committed by ordinary criminals, as well as by persons in police and military uniforms, can occur throughout the country. Road travel is dangerous. Robberies by armed gangs have been reported on rural roads and within major cities.” There were also particular warnings on traveling overland from Benin. And even though it was easy to grow tire of the border police whom worked slow on purpose in hope of being bribed – finally asking straight out for a dash of 1,700 naira – I never got any actual problems. In fact that bribe request was the only one during my whole visit in the country, and in the end I didn’t have to give way to it.

After a few days in the country, Lina joined in again after almost two months vacation, and we continued together southeast towards the border of Cameroon. Along the road, we mostly met caring and welcoming authority officials at the several roadblocks we passed through each day – both police and military. They were there for our security, and simply wished for our journey to be as good as possible. At the immigration in Abuja, it was no problem to get my visa extended – the staff even invited us for soft drinks. In the end we probably had a dozen or so addresses and phone numbers to officials who wished to keep in touch, or who gave us their numbers to for us to call would we need them. Our only bad experience was actually our meeting with the Nigerian Security Service (Feb 9th), but they too turned out to obstruct us only for the sake of our safety.

Accommodation at hotels and hostels was cheap (except in Cross River State where that and everything else was more expensive), so we only camped or stayed at peoples’ homes a few times. Besides, we often cycled between 80 to 120 kilometers a day – sometimes on really terrible roads – and didn’t have much time left during which to meet and socialize with a possible host.

The biggest difference from the rest of West Africa was the people. They were incredibly welcoming and friendly. When people in Senegal and Mali shouted “Give me money” or “Give me your bicycle,” the Nigerians greeted us by “Well done,” “You try,” “Master” or “Patron.” Amusingly, they also took pride in guessing our nationality, but often didn’t get it quite right with greetings such as “Chinaman,” “From Japan,” “Indian” or “From Afghanistan.” When we told them that we were from Sweden, they usually first replied, “Aha – Switzerland.” After having repeated Sweden a few times, they continued, “Aha – Sudan.” Then, after they’d finally understood we said Sweden, they asked, “Is that in Asia?”

Nigeria has by far been the most pleasant surprise so far on the journey. And even without considering the bad expectations from rumors of corruption and violence, the country is a favorite in the region. It seems as if the government – at least from a tourist’s point of view – has been successful in its fight against corruption during the past few years, but that the picture of the country will take many more years to change.

Last but not least something about the upcoming election in April. It is an almost compulsory topic of conversation between people here, and it was quite easy to get a picture on peoples’ general opinion. Everyone that we discussed it with – and we did with most people we met – gave the impression that president Obassanjo and his PDP (People’s Democratic Party) have done little good during the past few years. Far from their slogan on huge billboards throughout the country: “We’ve done good things – let us do more!” Everyone told us that they would vote for change. Unfortunately, quite some also said that they might not vote at all in disbelief that their vote would ever be counted. A few said that whatever the actual result, it will be altered in favor of the PDP. The picture we got was so unanimous that I’d be very doubtful towards a result through which the PDP would remain in power. Guess who won?

We catch an early taxi and travel the one and a half hour’s drive to Abuja. Upon reaching, we first have to find accommodation. We ask about for a cheap hotel, but soon understand how difficult it is to find cheap hotels in Abuja. There are no budget options – the least expensive one would cost us about 50 euro each, and that would be in a far-off suburb. So instead of putting up at a hotel, we use the Hospitality Club (www.hospitalityclub.org) and are lucky to get in contact with Alphonsus. He is kind to host us despite our short notice, and even give us a quick tour around town in his car.

We are also able to locate the Angola embassy, but applying for a visa is only possible on Wednesdays. So Tuesday, we instead head to the immigration to extend my visa. In fact, my actual visa is valid until the 28th, but the entry stamp that I was given at the border is only good until the 15th. Fortunately, the police is really kind, and even though it takes four hours to arrange the extension, it doesn’t cost me anything. We are even invited for each a soft drink.

So on Wednesday, we apply for the visa to Angola. Our taxi driver tells us that he’s been in queue since half past seven in the morning to get petrol. Only after four hours could he leave the station with full tank, but then just five minutes after picking up I and Lina he gets a puncture. He kindly fetches us a new taxi so that we can reach the embassy in time, and then wait himself on the highway for a breakdown lorry. We get our visa after just a couple of hours’ time, and are able to return to Gigu the following day.

Visa to Angola
Address: Embassy of Angola / 31 Pope John Paul Street / Matama Area / Abuja / NIGERIA
Phone: 00234-(0)9-41341645 / Fax: 00234-(0)9-4134082
Opening hours for applying: Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays 09:30 – 12:00.
The visa application fee was 60 USD (cash only, no change) and it took about three hours to get it considered. Two passport sized photos, two filled in forms (free of charge from the embassy) and one passport photocopy was also needed. We didn’t need any invitation letter, address to friend/relative or proof of hotel booking in Angola.