Sad news from Goma

Yesterday the rebel group M23 took control of the town of Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo. This is a place I have been to when I went to climb the Nyiragongo volcano. It looks like the town was taken without much of a fight. Which in a way is a good thing. The civilian population of the city was largely spared. That doesn't mean that people were killed or injured however.

Even worse it means more instability in that part of DRC. The government in Kinshasa is far away and in recent years has been increasingly ineffective. I am not sure that the rebel forces holding the town will be any better. Especially considering the leaders of the group are wanted for war crimes. The rebel group is associated with and possibly supported by the government of Rwanda. This attack is similar to what happened 15 years ago which led to the First and Second Congo wars.

I am sad for the people in eastern Congo, because it looks like they will have more years of bloodshed and starvation to endure.

New Blog

Hello to all my readers out there. I realize that I haven't posted much in a while. My life has been boring and stable recently. So I haven't had any new adventures to post here.

Most of what I have to say now is about my life cycling around Seattle, and not in far off places of the world. I have created a new blog at www.bikequestrian.org to post thoughts and ideas about the world of cycling. I have already added a few things in there. My plan is to move some of my non-touring related posts there as well. The writing will be about more mundane issues of what I am doing and bicycle polotics. I hope you enjoy the new blog.

Fear not, I have no plans to get rid of this blog. For now it will remain a place where you can go back and read up on some odd destination or weird adventure. When I get ready to go on my next big trip, I will be sure to post it here.

-Dravis

Tour Videos

I have new videos of my tour up online. Right now I have just a few from various parts of Africa. Remember, for the ones where I am biking, that is me holding the camera with one hand while riding along. One of these days I will put in an outtakes reel with all the times I ended up dropping the camera or nearly crashing...

For now enjoy: www.youtube.com/DravisBixel

-Dravis

Washington D.C. to Bridgton

Date: November 1st, 2010
Song of the Day: Drive - R.E.M

Left the capitol and drove straight on up to Maine. Nothing too exciting about the drive. I guess I have just gotten used to drive 12 hours or more at a stretch.

Got to the family home up in Bridgton, Maine. My aunt and uncle live up here. Their son Adam put me up in Indiana, and I stayed with their other son Allen way back in Morocco.

I plan on sticking up here for a few weeks. Hopefully I will get some writing done. I have far too many ideas kicking around in my head. I want them out and on paper. Of course I thought of two more ideas on the way out. So it doesn't bode well for actually having less ideas floating around my mind than when I started. Oh well.

The Lakes Region of Maine is a good place for writing though. I guess Steven King has a house about 12 miles away. It is quiet and calm. Frankly, not a lot of night life or distractions around here. So with any luck I will get a few things written.

-Dravis

West Lafayette to Washington D.C.

Date: October 28th-31st, 2010
Song of the Day: Woke up in a Car - Something Corporate

Left Indiana this morning. Went through Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and back to West Virginia. Spent the night in Maryland. Drove into D.C. in the morning.

When I got to the city, my friend Sarah wasn't off work yet. So I rode around through the city. I really love the capitol mall. The monuments. The Smithsonian. With all the people though, it makes it a bit hard to bike through. Getting out onto the Potomac and some of the other places was less crowded and a lot more fun for real biking.

The next day I went to the Rally to Restore Sanity. That was a lot of fun. For some idiotic reason though I decided to take the metro instead of walk. That was a dumb idea. I couldn't get on in the right direction, so I had to head all the way to the end of the line in Virginia and wait until the train turned around to come back. The crowds were just crazy. It took me a good 30 minutes of walking through to get to a place I could even hear anything. I only saw a little bit of the performance on one of the screens when the person in front of me would move a little bit. Still, it was a lot of fun. Really I went to be there and see people. The signs were great. I will post a few of my favorites below.

Spent Halloween quietly with my Sarah and some of her friends. Had "lunch" with them, which lasted all afternoon. Played some games and generally had a good time. Thanks Sarah for letting me stay at you place. See you at Christmas.

-Dravis

Denver to West Lafayette

Date: October 25th-28th, 2010
Song of the Day: MFC - Pearl Jam

Left Denver this morning. Drove straight through to Iowa, two miles from the Illinois border, before stopping to rest for the night. The next day it was crazy windy driving into Indiana.

In West Lafayette I met up with my cousin Adam and his wife Sarah. They are great. Plus they have two big dogs (boxers) Rusty and Daisy. Sweet dogs, but a little slobbery. Adam is working on his P.h.D. So that was a lot of fun to talk with him about what he was working on. Adam also took me around Purdue, and told me all the news that was going on there. Sarah worked until fairly late, but would be by for dinner. So we would have a good dinner together. It was great to catch up with them. Thanks guys.

-Dravis

Portland to Denver

Date: October 22nd-25th, 2010
Song of the Day: A Life of Arctic Sounds - Modest Mouse

The trip from Portland to Denver was a hell of a drive. I did about sixteen hours from Oregon into Wyoming before crashing at a rest stop there. Woke up the next morning and continued on. I got a bit of snow through Wyoming over Medicine Bow, but nothing too bad. The drivers actually seemed to be pretty good. Slowed down to keep it safe.

Colorodo was a different story. The drivers had a wicked habit of speeding up to 75 then slamming on the breaks! The first time that happened I was just a couple of feet from hitting the car in front of me. Not something nice to do to a guy who had just driven a thousand miles. I was just saved by the space that I normally keep between me and the car ahead. But idiots kept using that space to cut in front of me and then slam on their breaks. So annoying.

I did get into Denver without serious bodily harm. I met up with my friend Ryan who was with me on the last road trip. He is now living with his brother in Denver and showed me around downtown a bit. We had a pretty good time. There was also a Zombie Walk going on.

The next day I went for a bike ride. Denver has a great system of intra city trails. I did 30 miles through the city. It was quite a bit of fun. I like my new bike a lot. Though I did have one clip out fail. It feels pretty stupid to just fall over sideways. I will try to avoid that in the future.

That evening Ryan' brother Sean and his wife Thanvee came back. We had a good evening hanging out. Ryan cooked a great dinner. Thanks to all of them for letting me stay.

-Dravis

Seattle to Portland

Date: October 21st, 2010
Song of the Day: 405 - Death Cab for Cutie

The first stop on my trip is just a short jump away to Portland, Oregon. I went down to see my cousins, James and Erika, in Portland and their kids. Plus I got to see their menagerie, 2 dogs and three cats. I also got to see their new place. Thanks guys for a hearty meal. I will try to stop by again on my way back through in December.

-Dravis

Road Trip - 2010

Yep, that is right, I am off on another road trip. This time I am heading out alone. I am using my old '96 Plymouth Voyager. Oh yeah. With 183,000 miles on it, well, I hope it doesn't strand me, but so far, so well. The other good things about this particular car, I can fit a mattress in the back to crash at rest stops along the way. I can also put my new bike in there. So I can get some riding in while I am on the road. With a rack of Mt. Dew, I am all set.

More updates to come.

-Dravis

New Bike

Since I have been back I haven't done much biking. I did steal my younger brother's bike for a bit. It didn't really fit well as he is half a foot taller than I am. (Really, the kid is huge. Towering over the rest of the family.) My Africa bike "Molly" was in pretty bad shape with the frame crack and all. So I decided to get myself something new.

I decided to go with a cyclocross/commuter bike. I got a Jake the Snake frame from Kona as the base. From there it was all a custom build. First, I only wanted a rear derailer. In my normal style of biking I almost never shift out of the largest chainring. Having the extra gears and derailer is just more weight and more to maintain. I am also not one of those guys who is trying to get perfect cadence and crap. Instead, I went with a mountain cassette that had a big gear ratio (11-34). Also, I never liked the drop handlebars on road bikes. I went with the pursuit bars, which I think look better. I thought the bar end shifter would fit into the time trial levers I got though. Nope. I had to grind out some of the shifter mount to make it work. Remember my motto: "Anything worth owning is worth modifying."
Now that it is all together, it is beautiful. Everything works and it is a dream to ride. Plus, coming in under 20 pounds it feels like a feather compared to any other bike I have ever ridden.

So here are the specs:

• Frameset: Kona - Jake the Snake 2010 frame and fork (49cm).
• Wheels: Mavic Ksyriam Equipe
• Crank: Sram S100 1.1 crank and chaninring
• Shifter: Shimano Dura-Ace SL BS77 9 speed bar end shifter. (Rear only.)
  
• Rear Derailer: Shimano RD-M772-GS
  
• Rear Cassette: Shimano Deore XT-M770 9 speed cassette (11-34)
• Brakes: Cane Creek 200TT levers and Cane Creek SCX-5 cantilever brakes

-Dravis

Rock'n Horse 2.0 - Fail

So, this didn't actually happen. Everyone who said they were going to come ended up ditching out on me at the last minute. I must give Jonn-E and Erin the Leaky Bucket award for bailing last. They also picked me up later in the afternoon to ride some of the trails on Tiger Mountain. Not quite what I had planned, but still fun.

This won't be the end of the Rock'n Horse though. I don't know when, but I am sure to come service pack 1 at some point. So stay tuned for more details.

-Dravis

Rock'n Horse 2.0

It's Back! The fantastic ride from last year is coming around again. I thought I would include an open invitation to all reading this to the second annual Rock'n Horse ride. This is a trail ride and camping trip for those who missed it last year. This year the date has been moved out and the section of the Iron Horse trail will be a little different. If anyone out there would like to go and wants more information, please e-mail me.

This year also has a new emblem. I hope you enjoy it.

When: Saturday October 2nd to Sunday October 3rd.
Where: The route will be on the Iron horse trail from Hyak to Lake Easton.
What: Bring a bike, mountain style preferred. Also, camping gear would be good. Plus clothing for the climate. (Remember, it just might rain.) Anything else you want, like trail snacks, bring that too. I will provide both dinner and firewood.
Who: You, if you are reading this. Or anyone else you want to invite along.

-Dravs

My Trip - By the Numbers

I thought I would wrap up my trip with a review of the numbers. I hope to combine some of the bigger numbers, but also some of the funny stuff as well. I hope you enjoy it. Also, please ask me if you want the numbers on anything else...

Total Distance: 18,459 kilometers/ 11,470 miles
Days on the Road: 353
Countries Visited: 31 (Iceland, England, France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Italy, Vatican City, Monaco, Spain, Morocco, Mauritania, Senegal, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Mali, Burkina Faso, Benin, Togo, Ghana, Ethiopia, Uganda, Rwanda, Congo, Burundi, Tanzania, Kenya, Qatar)
Major Crashes: 3 (days 120, 215 & 308)
Watches Busted: 2 (days 120 & 308)
Hit by Cars: 2 times (days 59 & 166)
Uses of Cipro: 3
Tires Used: 4
Most Water in a Day: 8 Liters (day 190)
Longest Day: 119 miles (192 kilometers) - Hastings to Gosport (day 39)
Toughest Day: Keflavik to Hveragerði (day 1)

-Dravis

Doha to Seattle - Day 353

Date: August 6th, 2010
Distance: Flying Home!
Country: U.S.A.
Song of the Day: Silver Jet - The Tragically Hip

I woke up a really early this morning. (Only 2 hours of sleep.) I just wanted to see a bit more of the city. Like nearby Dubai, Doha has build some really neat stuff in the last five years. (Though not the tallest building in the world.) So I wanted to get a look at that. Of course that was in the new part of the city, and I was stuck in the old part. I could walk down to the bay and look across the Indian Ocean at it. That was nice. (Sadly because of dust or humidity in the air, the pictures do appear a bit blurry.)

Then it was back on another plane. I had a 13 hour flight to D.C. Actually I can't complain much. The flight was great. I didn't get any sleep though. That was a bummer.

Once in Dulles I got all checked through customs and immigrations. The people at customs sent me the wrong way though. I ended up out in the terminal with all my baggage (including my bike) and had to check in again. I ended up missing my connecting flight. For a guy on 2 hours of sleep and almost 20 hours of flying, that was quite frustrating. Eventually, after 30 minutes of being ingored by the airline (United) they booked me on the next flight.

Even more frustrating was the fact that I wasn't able to contact anyone to let them know I missed the flight. I had a phone, but the SIM card was for Tanzania. That wasn't going to work. Dulles does have free wi-fi throughout the airport. But that system was down. I finally had to resort to using a payphone. (Yep, those still exist.) That worked. Sometimes you have to give it to those old technologies.

I did make the next flight, so I didn't have to camp out in the airport overnight. That still meant I would make it back too late for the party my friends were going to throw for me. I even slept almost all the way. Didn't wake up until we were about to land.

Instead my parents and younger brother met me at the airport. It was great to see them. It was nice to be home.

-Dravis

Dar es Salaam to Doha - Day 352

Date: August 5th, 2010
Distance: Flying Home!
Country: Qatar
Song of the Day: Take Me Home - Phil Collins

Left Africa today. Got on a flight that took me to the Middle East, so technically Asia. I am feeling a little bit ambivalent about it. I am very happy to be going home. I have missed my family and friends a great deal. At the same time I have very much enjoyed the trip through the "Dark Continent". The strange places I have seen. The weird situations I have gotten into. The wonderful people I have met. The sense of ultimate freedom. It makes me a little sad.

I got to Doha after dark, but it was still amazingly hot and humid. Frankly, I wasn't used to it. For being on the equator, East Africa is generally much cooler. The Middle East, no so much. The temperature here had me sweating. Not that it helped much as it was so humid. Did I mention that it was after dark?

The airline did put me up in a (thankfully air conditioned) hotel over night. That included a buffet dinner which I ate a huge amount of.

After dinner I went up to my room and got on the internet. I had sent a few people on Couch Surfing an e-mail asking for cool things to do. I may have mentioned it before, but when I go to a place, I really want to see it. Sure, I only had 13 hours in Doha, but I still wanted to see as much of it as I could. No one had responded though, so I thought I might go to bed. Just then I got an e-mail reply from a guy named Tom. He just got back from Oman Jordan, but wanted to hang out. How cool is that?

So Tom and a girl he worked with picked me up. (Of course I immediately forgot her name. I have a bad habit of forgetting the names of attractive young women. I don't know why. I can't imagine that trait is genetically selected for...) The three of us headed out to the old souk. If you remember from Morocco, that is the market. It was nothing like the markets in Morocco though. It was surprisingly clean. It still did have a bit of the winding alley ways. These were generally pretty wide, well paved and lit. Most of them were lined with cafes and high end craft shops.

We stopped at a cafe and got a seat up on the roof. I had a cold coke while Tom could somehow stand to drink warm tea in the heat. They did have air conditioning on the roof, but that seemed a bit silly. How are you going to cool the outside? I guess it might make something locally cooler. Anyway, we had a good time. I guess my companions both work for Qatar airlines. The company has apparently expanded quite a bit in the last ten years. It was a fun night and a good way to see at least some of the city. I didn't get back to the hotel until after 2:00 AM.

-Dravis

Dar es Salaam - Day 351

Date: August 4th, 2010
Distance: 14km around the city
Country: Tanzania
Song of the Day: Mama, I'm Coming Home - Ozzy Osbourne

I spent the day getting ready for my flight tomorrow. Found a large box and got my bike taken apart and packed away. Just two weeks shy of a hear on the road. I have seen 30 countries. Seen big cities in Europe. Slept in mud huts in Africa. I have had so many experiences stored in my little chemical computer as memories. But now it is time to return. I can't wait to be home.

-Dravis

??? to Dar es Salaam - Day 350

Date: August 3rd, 2010
Distance: 11km plus cheating by trucks.
Country: Tanzania
Song of the Day: Ship My Body Home - Ben Lee

It was more than a couple of hours of sleep. We didn't get on the road until almost 8:00 AM. I was hoping to get into Dar by noon so that I could get the cheap/slow ferry to Zanzibar. I shouldn't have worried. We weren't making fast time anyway.

The trucks here really don't race around like the buses do. We took our time. The guys also stopped to pick up a load of corn (14 bales). After that, because of the extra weight, we really weren't going that fast. You can't complain really. I figured I could take the last ferry around 3:00 PM.

That dream was shattered about 6km out of Chanlinze. The truck started making a noise and bumping a bit. I thought one of the tires was flat. Instead 4 of the 5 lug nuts had come off the rear wheel. That was because the bolts on the axle had snicked off. The truck would need a new axle. Crap. I gave Joseph a bit of money and headed off to Chanlinze. I figured I could easily get a truck from there to Dar es Salaam.

When I got there I did find one, but it took a bit. The thing they didn't tell me was that the fuel pump on the truck was dead. We kept having to stop and the guys would manually pressurize the pump. That would get us down the road a bit. In the end, the 100 kilometers took about 4 hours. So I got into town after dark, or about 12 hours late. Double crap.

So no Zanzibar for me. Life is full of its little disappointments though. You can't have everything and sometimes you just have to accept that.

-Dravis

Barjamot to ??? - Day 349

Date: August 2nd, 2010
Distance: 12km plus cheating by truck(s).
Country: Tanzania

Left Barjamot early in the morning. Megan, thanks for letting me stay. I had such a wonderful time. I'll have some good food here for you.

I was taking a dala-dala (bigger than a van but smaller than a bus, also 4WD) to Babati. It was supposed to leave at 4:30 AM. When I got there it was me, a couple of women and a bunch of school kids getting a ride to the next town. I think it would have been out on time if the battery wasn't dead. We tried to push start the thing for a bit, but 6 kids one woman and me wasn't enough. So the driver ran off for a bit, I thought he was getting a mechanic. Instead he came back with a tractor. Even that took a couple of tries as the rope kept coming loose. (I was afraid that they were going to pull the bumper of the dala-dala.) On the third try the thing started and we were on our way.

I stopped in Babati for some breakfast and then went out to look for a truck to Arusha. I didn't want to take another bus. The last bus trip was that bad. Eventually I found a truck was happy to take me. I was glad for the ride but it was slow. It was only a couple of hours before dark when we got to Arusha.

I rode through town and got around most of the traffic. On the other side I found a driver who was going to Moshi. I thought I could take a bus from there. As it turned out the driver was taking his little truck all the way to Dar. So I figured I would go along with him. In talking with Joseph, the driver, I learned that he takes chickens to Arusha just about every week. On the return trip though he is always looking for cargo. He also had his own complaints about the speed bumps. It really doesn't matter what speed you go at, they rattle the vehicle way too much.

We did pick up some cargo in a little town along the route. It was just two bags of fish though and it wasn't going very far. After we dropped that off we stopped at a little place outside of Same for food. After dinner Joseph said he and his mechanic were going to rest for a couple of hours. I wasn't quite sure where they were going to stay. It turns out they were going to sleep in the truck. So I unrolled my sleeping pad and slept in the bed of the truck. It wasn't bad actually. Life brings you to weird places.

-Dravis

Barjamot - Day 348

Date: August 1st, 2010
Distance: None
Country: Tanzania

I was thinking of leaving Barjamot today and heading back to Dar, I just never got around to it. Plus, I had a good time seeing hanging out with Megan. We spent a bit of time walking around Barjamot. When we went out a "crowd" as Megan described it formed around me. (It was only about six people.) I guess everyone here is excited by someone new. Then we had lunch at Megan's mama's house.

Afterward Megan showed me some of the projects the village was working on. They had a new health clinic, but no one was working there. There ins't a house for the doctor to stay at. (Right now that is literally just a pile of bricks.) There is also a new secondary school being built, but again, nowhere in the village for the teachers to stay. I didn't think housing in Africa was much of a problem. In little villages every family has a house or compound. If one mud hut is destroyed or melts in the monsoon rains, well they just squeeze into the huts that remain. I now see the problem is more with outsiders coming in to work in the village. How do you get a doctor to stay in a village when they have to cram into a mud hut with six other people?

From there Megan and I hiked up the hill behind the village. (This is apparently where she gets the best cellphone reception.) It had a good view of the village with its corn and hay fields. There is also the mountain. It is quite something. From my map I think it is about 11,105 feet tall. So it dominates the surrounding area. It really was a pretty afternoon.

In the evening I helped Megan cook some dinner. I am amazed at how quiet it is out here. No cars. No trucks. No kids running around. Just a few bugs chirping and the occasional bleating of goats. This really is "away from it all". I can understand how she said that it would be weird to go back to the U.S. after this. Everything moving and making noise.

Then again we also talked a lot about food. That is really the big thing you miss when you are away. At first you think it would be your friends and family you miss. But you can e-mail you family. You can Skype with your friends. You could even send a postcard if you feel like it. You never get a call from a cheeseburger though. Pizza never sends you a text message. Tacos don't friend you on Facebook.

Plus the food out here gets boring. It is usually Ugali (corn paste), Wali (rice), or Ndizi (banana). Usually this is served with a bit of Nyama (beef) in a broth and a side of overcooked spinach. Day after day. Every day. It doesn't take much time to long for the variety you get back home. I felt bad for leaving for home in a few days. I will get all the pizza and burgers and tacos I could want. Megan's own homecoming is a year away.

-Dravis

Babati to Barjamot - Day 347

Date: July 31st, 2010
Distance: 93km
Country: Tanzania

Since I missed the climb, I thought I would just bike into Megan's village Barjamot. It was actually good, I got another precious day of long distance biking in. What a day though. The road out there is just a rough dirt road. A lot of it is uphill too.

I ended up spending a lot of time riding along the goat path to the side of the road. That was a lot smoother in general. It did get exciting at some points. Like when the path ended in a ravine. I had to skid to a halt before that one. The path also had a tendency to stop and begin a bit further down on the opposite side of the road. So keeping up with it was a bit hard. That said, it was much better than bouncing over the corduroy road.

After Endasak I made great time into Katesh. The wind was at my back again and I was feeling great. There a some moments on the road you feel like anything is possible. I got there well before sunset.

Sadly, I had missed the turn to Megan's village witch was actually just past Endasak. So now I had to go back 20km as it was getting close to dark. Eysh. Still I was dying to get there, so I turned around and started going. I made another 10km before finding a truck that would take me back.

I found the right turn, but I didn't really know how far it was to Barjamot. Asking the people about distance is worse than useless. How would they know how many kilometers it was? Instead I found a guy on a bicycle and he told me it was 20 minutes away. It was only about 20 minutes before sunset, and I figured it would actually be more like 40 minutes so I decided to go for it. Turns out, it was more like an hour and 20 minutes.

By the time I got to Barjamot it was pitch black. Actually, I rode through town the first time. (There are no lights and the village is pretty spread out.) I did see some buildings and asked if this was Barjamot, but the ids I asked told me to keep going. After going another kilometer I asked another guy. Fortunately he spoke decent English and said he could take me back there. I had run out of minutes on my phone so I couldn't call Megan. But once in town I found another guy who knew where she lived. So I ended up getting there after all. It was a long tough day, but one that feels so good and satisfying once it is over.

Megan was great to. We had a great time sitting around and talking. I probably spent most of the time jawing away as I have a tendency to do. Telling stories of my adventures. We also discussed what life was like in her village. Plus little things like the corruption in the country. There are no police out there. If you were to call in police, they would just request bribes and would only try to beat a confession out of suspects. So the villagers have to take care of everything on there own. It was fascinating. I didn't turn in until well after midnight.

-Dravis