Cycling The Globe

Distance: 81.6 km
Ride time: 5:04:14
Average: 16.1 km/h
Max speed: 50.4 km/h
Total: 50512 km

Since I had been sleeping a few kilometers to the south of the equator I was crossing the magic line again this morning – in fact I had breakfast right on it 🙂

Finally, being on the northern hemisphere again I was cycling towards Kampala, the capital city of Uganda where I’m planning a break. In the beginning of the day things were however still very rural as I passed typical villages with their small kiosks where I could buy a drink and a small snack.

Slowly the traffic would get more and more dense before it reached rather insane levels as I entered downtown Kampala. The traffic and the chaos is what most travellers have talked about when I asked them about Kampala. For me this is something very new, as I have been in very remote parts of Africa until now. What a change!

I was happy to make it to my cheap downtown hotel in one piece.

A main objective for my stay in Kampala would be to try to get a visa for Ethiopia. This turned out to be easier said than done. “You can fly to Addis Ababa and get a visa on arrival, or you can apply in your home country” was the rather firm and inflexible message at the Ethiopian embassy. Oh well, better luck in Nairobi then…

I then had a chance to check out the city and a bit of the night life in this chaotic yet friendly capital of Uganda – one of my favourite countries in Africa.

On my last night in town I was meeting with Dada Swami – an Indian monk from the Ananda Marga organization who runs an orphanage a day’s ride out of Kampala. Dada invited me out for a visit, so that’s where I will be heading tomorrow!