Costs

It’s hard before a trip like this to estimate how much the whole thing will cost. We had some idea from previous travels, but having never done bike travelling, or been to Africa, there were naturally a lot of uncertainties. We set ourselves a budget of around €1000 each per month, and whilst we were under that for our travelling expenses, factoring in flights and insurance we came to just slightly over at €1052pppm. In total we spent around €21800 for both of us, including flights and insurance, not including the bikes and equipment (except for repairs and shared equipment that we replaced during the journey).

Since we usually got cash in each country and didn’t record what it was spent on, we don’t have a detailed breakdown of how much was spent on accommodation vs food vs tourism. However, we have a rough idea of how much we spent in each country, and how long we were there, so we can show which were the most and least expensive countries on our trip.

Rank	Country	Total (us both)	Days	Per Day (per person)
1.	Tanzania	€943	31	€15.21
2.	Rwanda	€612	16	€19.13
3.	Mozambique	€544	14	€19.41
4.	Uganda	€1180	29	€20.34
5.	Malawi	€2026	49	€20.68
6.	Zambia	€1393	32	€21.77
7.	Burundi	€559	9	€31.06
8.	South Africa	€1956	31	€31.55
9.	Botswana	€1278	20	€31.95
10.	Zimbabwe	€3021	43	€35.13
11.	Namibia	€4330	60	€36.08
12.	Kenya	€3398	36	€47.18

Some comments on the table above:

• Whilst Malawi isn’t at the bottom of our list, it probably was the cheapest regarding value for money. We lived very well there, doing a lot of activities and staying in nicer places.
• In East Africa we were mostly staying in guesthouses that cost around €2-10 for a room, whereas in the Southern African countries (Botswana, Namibia, South Africa) we were mostly staying in tourist campsites which were usually €10 per person.
• Street food in East Africa started at about 50¢, up to maybe €2. In Southern Africa we were more often treating ourselves to lunch in nice cafes, where the quality was usually comparable to Europe, for much less money (€4-8).
• Although Kenya was a little more expensive than some other East African countries, our numbers are largely inflated by our 5 day hike on Mt Kenya, which was the most expensive “thing” we did on the whole trip and was around $100 per day per person.

Other costs

• Our bikes and equipment that we bought specifically for this trip probably comes to around €3000 each.
• After capsizing with a camera in Zimbabwe, Ben bought a replacement for around €700, which also ended up in the water after capsizing…

We could have saved a good amount from asking to camp at schools and churches more often, but we liked having our space and privacy. All in all, a great way to spend some of our savings, and from what we can tell we were certainly living on the more luxurious side (we probably spent more on average than almost all the other cyclists that we met). Feel free to ask about any other costs or expenses and we’ll see what we can remember.