East Africa around Lake Victoria

Myself and 3 Companions are setting out to cycle around Lake Victoria, starting and finishing in Dar Es Salaam.
From there we are travelling north through Burundi, Rwanda, DRC and Uganda and Kenya.
If anyone has any information they think would be useful to us, we would be very greatful if you can post your past experiences if you have been in this area before. As well if you have any recommendations of were we should stay or sights we could see, again feel free to post :-)
We start in the beginning of November and finish in the end of January.
If anyone is in the area when we are there it may be possible to team up for a while - feel free to post!
Thanks for reading and happy cycling !!!

DRC

Isn't there a renewed round of conflict in NE DRC with refugees and that at the moment?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23302890
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23511801

A friend of mine went to NE DRC for anthropological reasons a little while ago when things were a bit quieter. She doesn't recommend it, she says there's nothing for the tourist there any more, adventurous or otherwise. This from a woman who likes doing things like jungle trekking in PNG for her holidays.

Maybe I'm misjudging you, but this sounds like a pretty casual trip. Make no mistake - cycling in the DRC has been done, but it's a very unstable and dangerous place. You need to be extremely clued up (and lucky) to do it. I'm afraid vague queries here really don't cut it - you need to make contacts with people on the ground who can give you info which is both current and accurate. You should also bear in mind that there's little left in the way of roads after decades of chaos.

My advice is not to go there. If you think you're up to it, you could try tracking down Peter Gostelow. He rode through a couple of years back.

cycling in the DRC has been done

A few people have cycled in the W and S of late, which is a long way away from where the wars are going on. But it is still an Awfully Big Adventure to do that.

I see Peter Gostelow did cycle in the NE DRC, which was quite an adventure. He came in from the western CAR, and then mostly used riverboats to get upriver to fairly close to Bukavu and then cycled over that gap, ie keeping south of Goma. And it does look very beautiful round there. You can read about it here. http://petergostelow.com/thebigafricacycle/ But an important factor is that it was in 2011 when things were quietened down a bit around there - and he didn't cycle direct from Kisangani to Bukavu which would have been through more worrisome territory. Though the thought of going via Goma was clearly in his mind. He had a lot more trouble with corrupt officials than those who went through the SW. That's a very rare adventure.

Glad to have read this post before it disappears onto another page. Starting and finishing in Dar means you will have a lot of cycling away from Lake Victoria. I live beside the lake in Mwanza, which is about 850km from Dar. You will have a long stretch from there to reach Burundi. I recently returned from a short tour of Burundi and Rwanda - both are very scenic, pleasant and mostly safe to cycle.

Cycling through DRC is really another matter. The route you have in mind based on what you have written will take you through the most dangerous part of the country. I steered clear of north Kivu 2 years ago and the problems there have become worse. Uganda and Kenya you will be mostly fine.

A safer option would be to cycle up the eastern shores of Lake Kivu (Rwanda) and cross into Uganda from there. Its a very scenic and challenging ride and you won't have the security concerns that exist on the other side of the Lake.

Unless you are planning to stick as close as possible to Lake Victoria in Uganda and Kenya, as well as on your return to Tanzania, you aren't going to see all that much of Africa's biggest lake. It's very scenic, although I've yet to swim in it (fear of crocs and bilharzia). Three months is ample time to cover the likely distance. Look me up if you are likely to be coming through Mwanza.