We were excited to visit Khartoum, Sudan, and to see cultural highlights like the National Museum and the Sufi Dervish sunset ceremony. But our enjoyment was tempered when the Ethiopian Embassy in Khartoum refused to process our visa application. It would take several more days of riding through increasingly oppressive heat to reach the city of Qadarif and re-apply. We started to wonder, would they ever let us into Ethiopia?

As we begin our adventure of cycling across Africa, one of the first orders of business is to get permission to be here. The visa application process can vary quite a lot among countries. As a result, it was really helpful to do some research in advance, to have some idea about how to secure the required visas before jumping on our bikes and pedaling towards the horizon. We’ve now secured our first two visas, and the processes could hardly have been more different.