Lean, mean and a fighting machine: Cycling 25.000+ km from Denmark to South Africa. - ready to get chased by lions?

How do you even prepare for such an adventure beforehand? In all honesty you don't. You accept that things are gonna go wrong a long the way. Your bike parts will break, you will realize putting up a tent in a storm ain't easy and even at times when it feels like everything comes on down you, you will be feeling home sick. In April 2018 I will go on my second major cycling adventure from the very doorstep of my childhood home in Denmark to Cape town in South Africa. But for the first time I will not be doing it completely alone. This time I will have Steemit along with me from the very start! Taking you through all the popular countries but also those we barely knew existed. But why did I choose Africa as a continent to cycle through?

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Cycling for me is not just a hobby, it's more of a lifestyle

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Lets be real here, cycling this far isn't just something you do over a week.. we are talking about months and even years here. It's not about challenging yourself, it is about achieving a certain lifestyle where you feel the most alive and free. In this long period there is no way in hell you can or should predict what is going to happen, you just let it happen and go with it if feels right. I spend a great deal of my life trying to get a good education(and even finished it) and some well paid job, it never really was me, it never really felt right.

So I decided to live the nomadic life and go down to the basics

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The things you own end up owning you. It's only after letting go of it you will feel the freedom

Living a life where you don't have the same tedious responsibilities that just don't make sense when you think about them. Consuming and buying all kind of beautiful stuff in your beautiful apartment that you now feeling so attached to you can never let go of it. All I wanna feel attached to is my bike and what I can carry in my panniers, no more, no less. I only carry what I think will make my life a bit better on the road but with certain limits to what I allow myself to bring. (Although a mini fridge for some beers could have been something)

Why Africa, is your dream to get chased by a lion?

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I have always wanted to see if I could out cycle a fully grown desperate hungry lion.

In case you have no humor whatsoever, yes I was just joking. In fact the real reason I wanna go to Africa is because it is unknown to me AND I hate the cold. Of course this is subject to change, I wonder when I'm down there how much steem I would pay to get a snowball thrown at me.

But Africa is a bit frighting and that's why I think it is perfect. Inside of Europe I am starting to feel a secure and I think it is a good warm up to cycling through countries likes France and Spain to get into the groove again. When I eventually will be hitting Africa it is gonna be a different story of course. Just like on my first bike trip I also thought going through some countries inside of Europe would be scary but when it all came to it i felt completely safe. This is what I hope to discover about Africa as well. I am not a pioneer here by the way, a lot of people have been cycling through Africa so I don't go in completely blind and suicidal. I might be brave but I am not stupid.

Africa seems like an amazing continent to cycle through and so different from what I know. The nature, the culture and its people are all very attractive reasons for why I wanna go and explorer these parts of the world.

I am ready and scared at the same time, does that make sense?

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I am not trying to pretend being all cool here. I almost shit my pants just thinking about what challenges might lay ahead. But I am ready to take it on, I will give my bike a few extra goodies on it to give me a good start and look back on my previous trip to see what I could have done better. I am not gonna prepare myself for every single bad scenario that can happen, but I will be preparing myself for WHEN(not if) it happens I will have the right mindset to keep going.

The easy way is always to quit, but I am not even gonna let that be a possibility.

See you on the road!

-holm