elljaysa

I admire what you're doing, so please don't take this the wrong way, but you sound incredibly naive.

Africa is not like the rest of world in as much as "If I get robbed I'll report it at the next police station". Even in South Africa, your starting destination (and arguably most westernised of the countries you'll be cycling through), the chances of the police doing anything, as in even filling in a report over a stolen bicycle are low. I have so many questions which related to you being a target:

• Are you carrying cash?
• Is your route published anywhere?
• Are you meeting anyone along the way?
• Do you have Visas for every country?
• Do you have any means of getting home in the event of a mechanical failure? Who will you call? How will you get picked up?
• How are you charging electronic devices?
• Do you have medical insurance (which in the majority of cases will be of little use anyway considering the level of care available).

The reason I ask some of the above:

• Cash obviously makes you a target, as does being a white guy with loads of shiny kit. Travelling alone in remote areas, I know it can be hard to get around, but I'd certainly try my very best to conceal what I had.
• Carrying a taser will not help you. I can't help but feel you're filling yourself with a misguided sense of security. I'd be compliant in any robbery and try to explain your way out of it. Never take a taser to a potential gunfight.
• Having to charge electronic devices (other than your own solar chargers) will attract people to you. Again, it makes you a target.
• Just being alone makes you a target, I'd be at least telling people that there were others with me, or waiting for me at the next stop, or that the car is coming a few miles behind to watch me etc. Don't let people know how vulnerable you are if questioned.
• Avoid Algeria, northern Nigeria (all Nigeria if possible), the entire horn of Africa and Mali to name but a few. Anti-western Islamic groups (Boko Haram etc) would pay good money to kidnap a westerner. If your route is published online, you are literally giving them instructions on how to do this.
• Remember that this is Africa and that bribery is common amongst officials, including the police. Don't trust anyone but yourself and follow your first instinct. If you feel some shit is going down, give them what they want and get away as fast as possible.
  
• Following on from that, queues at border crossings and the crossings themselves can be notoriously difficult to navigate due to the expectation of bribes and the inefficiency of the systems etc. This down time is again vulnerable time.
• Talk to other visitors as often as possible, see if they're going to other places that you'll be going, let them know what you're doing, if they're heading to a destination, get them to let people there know inns or camping spots you're coming etc. Not only will this keep you in the right peoples minds, it'll mean your seen with others a lot and may make you less of a target.
• Most dangerous wild animals avoid loud noise and chase things that run. In the unlikely event you're accosted by one, I'd have a strategy in mind (the taser might be good here)!

I'm (as you can tell) the world's most pessimistic person when it comes to Africa, but I am genuinely really in awe of what you're trying to do. Wish you all the best, stay safe!

edit: a word (thanks u/WhaleMeatFantasy)

That only works if you pick "population" as the arbitrary scale. Why about GDP per capita, for example, where Norway far exceeds the U.K. I don't have a strong opinion either way as to the merits of adopting a Norway type stance in bargaining, I do believe however that using population alone is a nonsensical metric.

OK, that makes sense. I didn't see your prior experience, I only saw responses where you said you'd done absolutely no prep whatsoever. I thought it was crazy for someone to just get off a plane and start cycling! It sounds like you've planned it better than I was led to believe! Good luck.

Where is Johannsburg? At first I thought this was a typo, but having seen the letter in the proof, it refers to the same city. Never heard of it or seen Johannesburg written this way and I've lived in Johannesburg and Pretoria.

That really is a striking resemblance. You not worried about the lawyer train arriving?