TOTAL DISTANCE: 5000+ km's

AVERAGE DAILY DISTANCE: 40 - 49 km's

TERRAIN: Main Roads | Country Lanes | Trails | Off-road | Cycle Paths

ACCOMMODATION: Hostel | Bed and Breakfast / Guest Houses | Camping | AirBnB | Couchsurfing | Hotel | Staying with friends / family | Warmshowers

COUNTRIES: Belgium | Botswana | Egypt | Ethiopia | France | Italy | Kenya | Lesotho | Malawi | Mozambique | Rwanda | South Africa | Spain | Sudan | Tanzania | Uganda | Zambia | Zimbabwe |

STARTING POINT ADDRESS: Brussels

ENDING POINT: Cape Town

DESCRIPTION: ITINERARY - See red thread on the map for a general idea. I will start the journey in September 2017 from Brussels and cycle towards the Mediterranean (Marseille, Valencia or Naples) where I will embark on a container ship heading to Alexandria or Suez in Egypt. In Egypt, I will cycle along the Red Sea before heading inland towards Qena, Luxor and Aswan. From Aswan I will take the ferry on Lake Nasser to enter Sudan and pass through Dongola on my way to Khartoum and Gondar in Ethiopia. Once in Gondar I might leave my bicycle to rest for a few days to visit places on foot or by local buses (Semien Mountains, Danakil, etc...) before recuperating it to cycle towards Addis Ababa and the Southern Nations Region.

I will then enter Kenya through Moyale or along lake Turkana. In Kenya I will cycle towards Nairobi (not necessarily entering the city) and head towards Uganda to cycle around lake Victoria to Reach Rwanda. I will probably stay a few weeks in Rwanda as it is my childhood country.

After Rwanda I will cycle towards Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar, probably via a couple of national parks and, why not, attempt an ascension of the Kilimanjaro?

From Dar es Salaam I will probably take a train towards Malawi where I will be cycling along lake Malawi before entering Zimbabwe via a short stretch across Mozambique. After Zim, I will cycle towards Pretoria and Jo'burg (maybe via Botswana?) before cycling across Lesotho to reach Durban and finally Cape Town.

TIMING: Being diabetic, temperature is a constraint I have to take into account for the conservation of my insulin. Hence the following timing: September 2017 - start cycling from Brussels. Mid/end October 2017 - arrival in Alexandria or Suez. From there, I have 3 months to cover 4000 km to reach the cooler mountains of Ethiopia. Temperatures on the rest of the journey will be less of an issue. This said, I plan to cycle an average of 5 days/week and 40km/day. This average figure allows me to cycle more certain weeks and less others to visit places, meet people etc...

GOAL OF THE PROJECT: As explained on www.bikewithdiabetes.com one of the goals of my project is to raise awareness about type 1 diabetes in Africa. To do so, I will interview doctors, patients and local organizations about the challenges they have to face and which are the solutions they come up with.

If you would like to join me on this bike tour, please get in touch.