The Tour d’Afrique Cycling Expedition: The Next 10 Years

Every January we get a spike in website visits, increased views of our Cairo to Cape Town documentary and lots of social media engagement as people from around the world tune in to watch the start of our iconic Cairo to Cape Town cycling expedition. Doing the Tour d’Afrique has become shorthand for people cycling from Cairo to Cape Town – whether it’s with us or independently. It remains our most popular tour and the one that started it all.

In 2003,  the Cairo to Cape Town adventure set off for the first time and was surrounded by great uncertainty about whether it would be feasible, reasonable… or even sensible to cycle across the African continent. Would it even be fun? While some would still say it’s not sensible, it has proven year after year to be feasible and extremely rewarding… and a certain kind of fun. It has never been exactly the same route. It remains an expedition crossing international borders with geo-political, environmental and infrastructure challenges. ‘This is not a cycling tour of Provence,’ as Founder Henry Gold once told to a rider (though we do offer that too).

A Unique Experience Every Year

So what’s in store for the next 10 years and beyond for our Tour d’Afrique Cycling Expedition?

Change! That’s about the only thing I feel confident to proclaim.

I was in Cairo this year for the start of the expedition. As before, I was there to help the crew settle into their roles, to address any hiccups and to meet the riders and get them pointed towards Cape Town. I always love this experience. The Tour d’Afrique is usually full of first-timers who are eager, anxious and at a moment in their life where they are open to trying something entirely new and different… and a bit odd.

What was different about this group was the size. It was a smaller group than previous years. While registrations look to be increasing for 2026, it appeared that some are bidding their time and waiting for the day when the ‘full’ Tour d’Afrique is possible again. This hope is misplaced. The world has changed, is changing, and we must adapt. I would argue that there is no such thing as one complete, traditional  Tour d’Afrique route from Cairo to Cape Town. Each expedition is its own unique experience with different highlights and challenges.

The different version of the route over the years

Here are just some of the changes we have made to the Tour d’Afrique in the past:

• 2004 – 2015: The tour had to take a 24 hour ferry transfer down Lake Nasser as the land border into Sudan was inaccessible
• 2008: The group flew over Kenya after post-election violence broke out
• 2014: The tour started in Khartoum after the revolution in Egypt
• 2017: More unrest, this time in Ethiopia, meant a mid-tour flight, restarting the expedition in Nairobi
• 2020: The tour was cut short as COVID-19 lockdowns took hold
• 2024: Sudan’s civil war and continued instability in Ethiopia meant the group flew from Egypt to East Africa

Sometimes these changes happened months in advance, sometimes at short notice as emergencies or unrest arose unexpectedly. None of them changed the fact that the riders reached the end of their Tour d’Afrique expedition and felt a huge sense of accomplishment and were left to remember an enriching and potentially transformative experience.

What will the route look like in 2026 and beyond?

Therefore we believe the route will continue to change and evolve. Two of the largest challenges we face in Africa are traffic and war/unrest. What do we expect?

• While Sudan will be off limits for at least a few more years, we are watching as the security situations in Ethiopia and northern Kenya closely as those show signs of improving.
• Traffic volumes in Zambia have continued to increase as a result of a new bridge that opened in 2021
  (READ: Kazungula: A Bridge Too Far?)

With these issues in mind, we have continued to adapt to the realities on the ground. The 2026 tour will now fly from Egypt direct to Nairobi avoiding the unrest in Sudan, Ethiopia and northern Kenya altogether. Further south, we will divert into Zimbabwe to avoid some heavy traffic in Zambia. With every change, we lose something but also gain something. The mid-tour flight adds an extra step and the new route in Zimbabwe creates some new logistical challenges for the crew but what we get in its place is what every Tour d’Afrique rider since 2003 has had the pleasure of experiencing – a cycling expedition unlike anything they have ever done before. Never the same. Never without challenges and struggles, but each day you wake up in a new place and set out to experience the unknown with a group of like-minded riders and dedicated and experienced staff to support you.

I asked Tour d’Afrique founder, Henry Gold, what he thought the Tour d’Afrique Cycling Expedition really was:

“Cycling the Tour d’Afrique isn’t a route or crossing a continent. It is a life event. It is one of those things that makes an indelible impact on your life, on the way you experience the world, on the way you think of Africa, on the way it changes you for the better. Just ask anyone who has done it.”

RELATED
TOUR

Tour d'Afrique

The trans-African crossing from Cairo to Cape Town has long been one of the world’s epic journeys and an iconic goal for global adventurers. Over...