DAY 1: JULY 27th Kigali(RW) to Bujumbura (BU)

Kigali, Rwanda. After a long night party in Nerea, Catheryn and Diane’s house in Kimihurura, Kigali, where some of the riders forgot to finish the kitchen cleaning works, we wake up at 6:00.  Well, everyone except Darth Vader, one of the riders who surprinsigly showed to the rest of the riders his capability to imitate the breathing sound of the Star Wars famous character by hiding his face with a simple sheet in the bed. 

Of course, the plan was to start the trip as soon as possible, but the hangover and the last preparations, which have not helped us to think faster, we finally start the EAST AFRICAN RIDERS ADVENTURE near 8.00 am.

The are two bikes to be ridden by African Cowboy and African Pirate who are experienced drivers, but the third bike must find its own rider. Final explications are given to Mohammed, the choosen one from pilipili lover, laughing muzungu and Indian photographer, he never drove TVS star before, but he is going to ride from Kigali to Bujumbura. We wish you Good Luck Mohammed!

We have decided the best day to start our trip, Rwanda is having UMUGANDA, the activity that makes the whole country to do community works once monthly. This means that the roads are almost desert and we can ride the country as we want.

After passing through some morning controls, where the police has nothing to say but to stop us to know more about our convoy of 3 bikes and an old car, we finally start the first stage.

The morning starts with Pilipili lover and Indian Photographer in the old ex-military car, we discover that the tyres are prepared for non-asphalt road, and today we have mainly asphalt roads, which means trying to follow the bikes gets more difficult whenever we are going through climbing roads or really curved road. Just after that we have discovered the capacity of American Cowboy to give us sings from the other side of the vehicle to be overtaken and use them to correctly pass the vehicle.

Once everything is going on and we do nor have to worry, pilipili lover discovers that Indian Photographer has a little videocamera called GOPRO. Without knowing it, he starts the WANNAGOPRO moments of the trip when Indian Photographer gives him a camera while recording. 

We reach Rwandan/Burundi border enjoying the people faces in the little villages we pass by, helping the increasingly experienced rider to reach every new step on its way to TVS Star sport controlling and learning to blow the “boat” horn we have in the old car.

We enter into Burundi after an hour in the border, we have decided to cross through the less crowded border point, GASENYI.  We are ready to leave, but suddenly a Burundian customs agent decides to stop us. We have to show her all the content of our bags and passports. After 20 minutes of looking for something we do not know, she openly says to Emmanuel (our Rwandan trip colleague until Bujumbura) she is looking for some USD. We diplomatically solve the matter after recovering Indian photographer passport, which had been in her pocket for the last 20 minutes.

Once we have realized we were starting our trip, after the first border crossing, we have started to enjoy Burundian roads and its drivers.

However, whenever pilipili lover was the driver the before mentioned signs of American Cowboy to overtake, become mere orientations. We have learnt to respect Tanzanian truck drivers, whose driving skills almost costed us to need to be reborn, well, us and the ciclyst who was carrying some banana kg.  Once we have started to overtake the Tanzanian truck, he has decided to turn to his left, causing the road to become narrower and narrower to us, and the cyclist coming from the opposite direction, who has became white for some seconds.

Another outstanding moment of the journey has been when African Pirate and Laughing Muzungu have decided to stop in a curve in order to buy some fresh fruit. This situation has caused Mohamed to stop in the ditch of the road and finding really difficult to recover the position in the road. This has made him to be surrounded by 30 curious Burundians until African Pirate and Indian Photographer have gone to rescue him. When Indian Photographer has returned to the car has seen Pilipili lover with some carrots he has bought. When I.P. has tried to advice him about not eating without washing them, he has realized P.L. has already eaten.

Once arrived to Ngozi, we have decided to stop for lunch, where Laughing Muzungu has officially started our dance. We will prepare a special video with all the spots where we have done our official dancing ceremony. Special mention to Emmanuel, our choreographer, you will see him in our firsts videos, as he is coming back to Kigali on Monday.

Finally, after our first 312 km we arrive to Bujumbura, We choose l’Hotel de l’Amitie, where we can park our vehicles and have a rest. We decide to have dinner, together with PRIMUS and AMSTEL BOCK (official beers of this first part of the adventure), and rest after our long and full of experiences.

Tomorrow we will visit Bujumbura and will continue the trip on Monday.

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