Comments on: 5 Reasons We Are Excited about the New African Route (and Why You Should be Too)

By: Shanny Hill

Shanny Hill — Mon, 28 Nov 2016 19:26:33 +0000

Hi Simon,

Thanks for the note and sorry if it wasn’t clear. The participants will be flying over Ethiopia from Khartoum to Nairobi. So they will not be cycling in South Sudan which, as you rightly point out, would not be a safe option. The tour never travels via South Sudan even on years where we do go to Ethiopia.

Once they arrive to Nairobi, they will be well ahead of the originally intended schedule. So to fill that time, we created this exciting new route thru Uganda and Rwanda – it is nearly a complete loop – starting in Nairobi and ending in Arusha. We have timed it so that when they arrive back to Arusha, they are also back on schedule – so the tour will still arrive to Cape Town as initially planned for May 13.

Hope that helps to clarify!
Shanny

By: Simon Fordham

Simon Fordham — Sat, 26 Nov 2016 08:16:01 +0000

It’s not clear from this where the route from Khartoum to Nairobi goes. This would have to be through South Sudan, surely? Reports are of graver security issues there than in Ethiopia. The latter has not attracted much attention in the international press, but does have an established reputation for low level harassment of overland travellers. Is the real reason reluctance by Ethiopian officials to issue visas for the whole team?
If going to Uganda and Rwanda from Khartoum, Nairobi is a >1,000km detour, so it’s also rather unclear why this is planned, other than the popular tourist destinations in Kenya. These are well worth visiting I know (DOI: brought up in Kenya), but those in Uganda and Rwanda arguably more unusual and exiting.
I can’t help feeling some clarification is called for…