Some Stats: Mwanza-Muscat Part 18
Before I head off on another adventure I thought it would be interesting to post some statistics from my recent tour, alongside a few comments and reflections:
Duration of tour: 238 days
Total distance cycled:10,375 km
Total distance on unpaved roads:2071 km. In northern Kenya and South Sudan I had no other option but to ride on dirt tracks. In other countries - Uganda, Ethiopia and Oman for example, I sometimes chose to take dirt tracks as a more adventurous/quieter alternative to the paved roads.
Number of non-cycling days:106. I spent 3 weeks working in Tanzania (not in the original plan when I planned the trip) and took long rest stops in Kampala and Addis Ababa. Fortunately I was not bound by time constraints, so had the luxury to tour slowly and take as many rest days as I liked.
Mean daily distance cycled:78 km.People often ask how far I cycle each day. My reply is an average of 80-100km. On this particular tour I did plenty of short days.
Longest day:144 km in eastern Ethiopia. I was riding until late hoping to find somewhere to camp - never easy in Ethiopia as so much of the roadside was cultivated and populated. I ended up in a cheap Guest House.
Highest altitude cycled:3300m ineastern Ethiopia.
Cost of visas: £410.Visas in Africa are almost always paid in US $ and the cost of mine as the trip progressed goes as follows: Kenya - $50 (3-month on arrival), Uganda - $100 (3-month on arrival), South Sudan - $100 (applied and paid for in Uganda), Ethiopia visa extension for 3 months - $150. (I already had an original visa for Ethiopia that I had bought in London - £60 for a 6-month multiple entry - this needed extending when I was in Ethiopia as it was already 4 months old when I entered the country) Somaliland - $70(1-month visa bought in Ethiopia), Oman $50 (1-month on arrival which I extended by another 1 month for an additional $50).
Total cost of tour (including visas):£2450.When I left Tanzania for the final time I emptied my local bank account and changed all the remaining Tanzanian shillings into US $ ($2200 worth to be precise). Carrying more cash than necessary is never really recommended, but this kept me going for some months before I relied on my UK debit card to make cash withdrawals. I expected Oman would be the most costly country to tour through, but I camped almost every night during my time here. This meant daily costs were kept to a minimum, particularly as I wasn't drinking alcohol and tourist attractions were very cheap.
Mean cost per day:£10.29.By camping or staying in simple lodgings, eating local food and avoiding expensive tourist activities, my daily costs were relatively modest on this tour.
Total spent on accommodation: £637.50. Most nights in Africa I stayed in local lodgings, ranging in price from bed-bug ridden £1 Guest Houses in Ethiopia, to more comfortable rooms costing £8-12+ (the highest I paid was £18 in Kenya). During the 3 weeks I worked in Tanzania accommodation was paid for. I was also invited as a guest in several places and used the Warmshowers website when there were hosts on my route.
Number of nights spent in tent:59.Most of my camping was done in Oman where I slept in the tent on 41 nights. Only on 1 of these 59 nights was I in a campsite where I paid to sleep (Murchinson Falls National Park in Uganda). I mostly wild camped in Oman because camping here was so safe, easy and scenic. Accommodation in Oman, when it did exist, was also relatively expensive (typically £30 upwards).
Total number of beers consumed:361.This number is about 90% accurate; the 10% uncertainty owing to the days when I drank too many beers to remember. Bottled beer is easily available throughout East Africa. I consumed more beers in Ethiopia than anywhere else, which is partly because the bottles were generally smaller (often 330ml instead of 500ml like Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda) and also because they were so easily available. Beer in Ethiopia was also cheaper than anywhere else (around £0.30 for a bottle) and the hardship of my days cycling here usually demanded I drink at least 2 every night.
Mean number of beers consumed per day before arriving in Somaliland:2.2.Once I left Ethiopia and continued through Somaliland and Oman I went without a drop of alcohol for well over 2 months.
Number of punctures:8 (2 in Tanzania 4 in Uganda, 1 in Ethiopia, 1 in Oman).
Hardest country to cycle through:Ethiopia(by far). Almost every day presented a battle with people (mostly children) who took great delight in chasing and taunting me from the roadside.
Easiest country to cycle through:Oman. Safe, friendly, easy to camp, scenic, great roads (some can be steep!) - the list could go on. A fantastic winter cycle-touring destination.
Most pleasant surprise: Being able to cycle freely in Somaliland without an armed escort, which I'd heard might be necessary.
Country I would most like to return to:South Sudan. For reasons that puzzled me a little at the time, I was deported from the country on a remote road that felt as adventurous as anywhere else I've toured on the continent. Several months after leaving I read of another foreign cyclist who was robbed and left badly beaten at the roadside. Looking back, perhaps my desire for adventure had been sensibly curtailed by the police who found me. South Sudan was, and remains, far less secure than most of the other places I toured on this journey, but I'd seen so little of a country that looked like it had so much more to offer.
Highlight of the tour:Spending 4 days at sea crossing from Somaliland to Oman with a crew of 15 Indians and a cargo of 500 cows. This was a timeless journey; detached from so many of the World's problems one is witness to when on terra firma with an Internet connection.
