Lush green, heat and red gravel – Journey around Rwanda

With lush landscapes, warm and friendly people, breathtaking wildlife and plenty of smooth tarmac roads, the Journey around Rwanda bikepacking adventure challenged my preconceptions of Africa. Far from being dry and dusty, Rwanda is green, vibrant and one of the most welcoming places I have visited.

When I received an email from Simon, the organizer, last December, it didn’t take long to convince me to take part in the event. It was very last minute, I had four weeks between my sign-up and the event itself, so there wasn't much time for preparation. But since it wasn't my first long distance event, I knew what to expect and knew that my body was capable of doing it.

The second Journey around Rwanda took place at the end of January 2021. Due to local Covid restrictions and curfews, the organizers skipped the race and transformed it into a bikepacking event. The course took the riders all around Rwanda; on smooth tarmac roads, dusty gravel tracks, technical single trails and—thanks to frequent thunderstorms—into some mudfests.

On the six-day ride, participants got to enjoy the amazing scenery Rwanda has to offer, spent time with locals and spotted many different monkeys. The main challenge: ride every day without breaking the local curfew that was in place between 6pm and 4am.

I knew that Rwanda is called "Land of a 1,000 hills" (or “Le Pays des Mille Collines” in French,) so I was very minimalist about the things I brought with me: I had a small saddle bag and a small toptube bag—that’s it. My key item was definitely the sunscreen! Other than that, I brought a repair kit, a spare bibshort, arm and leg warmers, a rain jacket, some underwear for the night, a toothbrush and some toothpaste.

Riding in the heat was one of the main challenges for me. On most days I left very early in the morning to have enough time for a very long lunch break where I was avoiding the heat.

Sometimes I felt like a superstar; cycling through small villages with children running after me, cheering me on and trying to race me as they ran. But I was quickly thrown back into reality whenever a local passed me uphill, on one of the typical single speed bikes, loaded with an extra 20 kilograms (44 lbs) of corn. During one of the climbs, I had a local riding beside me acting as my pacemaker. After about 5 kilometers (3 m) of climbing up the hill together, he said, "Hey Sista. Good bike, but you slow!"

Read more about Eleonora's journey on our blog: blog.komoot.com/race-around-rwanda-2021/18836.
For more information about the event visit racearoundrwanda.com.
All pictures by Nils Laengner | nilslaengner.de