The Odyssey is three days in and I’ve already experienced so much. This is my first time traveling on a TDA Global Cycling tour and only my second(ish) time traveling in Europe. While I’ve been prepping to be the content creator for this trip for months, there is still so much that is new to me now that I’m actually immersed in it. It is a culture all of its own. Talking with seasoned riders, I’m starting to see how each tour offers its own specialties that add to the overall worldwide presence that TDA creates, no matter the continent.

I can’t help but compare TDA to my time at summer camp. I worked four consecutive summers at a camp on an island in the Pacific Northwest of the United States that focused on developing outdoor living skills, co-opting an inclusive and resourceful community, and crafting a thirst for bold adventure within children. And, really, how is TDA any different? Sure, they’re primarily bike-oriented, their participants a tad bit older, and their reach a bit wider than the PNW, but the essentials are the same. The kids at summer camp would usually be quite timid and reluctant to embrace such a drastic departure from their cozy home life but with each passing day they would ease into the reality that they were stuck there for a month – whether they liked it or not. More often than not, even if by a bit of force, each child would slowly start to embrace, even love, camp. The riders are not too different.

I find it incredibly refreshing to meet older folks that voluntarily choose to remove themselves from their comfort zone in order to broaden their personal horizons. Too often, I’ve encountered people who expect life to go a certain way because that’s what they’re used to, and for some youngster like me to hold new perspectives on the world was inconceivable. At 24, I may still be quite young, but even I am beginning to feel small aspects of life as if it were a cage closing in on me – that as my palette expands, as I get promoted, or as I make more extravagant purchases, that the world therefore owes me a certain quality of life.

And in these 3 short days, I’ve begun to revert back to the basics with the group, remembering that we are all just searching for that same flare of life, and more often than not, that is found in the least expected of places. It’s humbling to know that life doesn’t have to be a cage, that humans are capable of retaining their childlike wonder for the foreign, the unexpected, and the adventurous parts of life well past childhood.

The real difference, though, between kids at camp and adults on this ride is their mindfulness. TDA riders seem to understand that we’re all in this together, that everyone is working their hardest, and that no trip ever goes exactly as planned. There are, of course, certain things that are expected of the team, but they are more based on common sense and courtesy than they are on expectations of creature comforts. Whether the coffee is too weak, the wind is too strong, or there’s a freak rainstorm along the highway, they just carry on as if it was entirely meant to be part of the experience all along, and don’t resort to reprimanding the staff for not controlling the weather well enough. I guess it boils down to humility, a trait that many of us tend to lose touch with as we develop and age, but there’s clearly something about these riders that diverts from that mindset.

For the kids, summer camp was all about challenging themselves in every capacity, whether they knew they needed it or not, so they could develop into their best selves. As I watched those kids grow through some of their most pivotal teenage years, the adventurous influence of camp on their spirits was palpable to their character. The trajectory for these kids was so clear – enjoy camp to the fullest as a camper and pass the baton onto them possibly becoming staff. But for me, I guess that’s where the trajectory usually stopped. I never really wondered where these kids and their wild spirits would go as they entered their 30s, 40s and 50s. Now I know – they go to TDA.

When someone mentions Sicily, what do you think of? I suppose that it largely depends on your predilections. More specifically, given that you are a cyclist, why go to Sicily for ride? Cyclists, of course, may have many other interests. They can be film buffs or literature lovers, amateur archaeologists or architecture devotees. They can be interested in history, nature or local culture. Keeping this in mind here are seven reasons why one, no matter what their interests, should absolutely cycle Sicily.

1. Sicily Is A Place Like No Other In The World

Sicily, being an island situated in the middle of the Mediterranean, has had, over  thousands of years, many visitors. Some, mostly uninvited, stayed for long periods. The Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Greeks, Romans, Vandals, Ostrogoths, Byzantine Greeks, Muslims, Normans, Aragonese and Spanish were instrumental in creating the cultural fabric of Sicily.  The best way to seek out their influence on this enchanted isle is by bicycle.

2. Cycle In The Footsteps Of The Godfather – An Offer That Can’t Be Refused

If you are baby boomer, than you will likely be familiar with the quote “I will make him an offer that he can’t refuse” from the classic movie, The Godfather. In 2007 The American Film institute ranked it as the 2nd best film ever made. Parts of the Godfather trilogy were filmed in Sicily and to many of us Sicily is, in fact, synonymous with the Godfather but it is not the only great movie that was made there. Classics like ‘Il Postino’ (The Postman) about exiled Pablo Neruda, ‘Il Gattopardo’ (The Leopard) with Burt Lancaster and Claudia Cardinale and modern films such as Palermo Shooting and Oceans Twelve were all filmed on Sicily. You can visit all the location of these film sets by, you guessed it, bicycle. Is that really an offer that you can refuse?

3. Cycle In The Footsteps Of Great Sicilian Books

The Godfather saga was based on a book by Mario Puzzo and ‘The Leopard’ was penned by Giuseppe di Lampedusa. Amongst other good books set in Sicily are ‘The Potter’s Field’ by Andrea Camilleri, which has been made into a successful TV series, ‘Sweet Honey, Bitter Lemons: Travels in Sicily on a Vespa’ by Matthew Fort, ‘Siracusa’ by Delia Ephron and ‘Cavalleria Rusticana and Other Stories’ by Giovanni Verga which is about life in 19th century Sicily.

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4. Watch History Flash By As You Ride

It doesn’t matter whether you are interested in ancient, medieval or modern times, you are bound to come across something that will make you pause and pique your curiosity. The Greek & Roman interludes, the Punic wars, the German and Byzantine periods, the Arab conquest and the coming of the Vikings, the Spanish and Bourbon times – there is something for every historical interest. After stopping to explore, you may have a hard time getting back on your bicycle.

5. Cycle To Exquisite Manmade & Natural Wonders

Sicily is full of wonders. Some are natural – the highest active volcano in Europe, Mount Etna and the island’s fabulous coastline. Some are manmade – the UNESCO heritage site Villa Romana del Casale, home to one of the richest, largest, and varied collections of Roman mosaics in the world or the Arab-Norman architecture in Palermo. As a matter of fact UNESCO, which list seven sites in Sicily, has this to say about the architecture in Palermo – “an outstanding example of a socio-cultural syncretism between Western, Islamic, and Byzantine cultures. This interchange gave rise to an architectural and artistic expression based on novel concepts of space, structure, and decoration that spread widely throughout the Mediterranean region…”

6. Food, Wine, Art & Cycling

There is a movie called “The Cook, The Thief, The Wife & Her Lover” which has nothing to do with Sicily. However, I do think ‘Food, Wine, Art & Cycling’ could be a hit for the island. I suggest that the Sicily Department of Tourism use it in their promotional materials. Why, you ask? When you have a cuisine that is a fusion of Italian, Spanish, Greek French, North African and a wide variety of wines from the foothills of Mount Etna and when there is such exquisite art covering several millennia and all of this can be enjoyed sustainably by bicycle, well, I think that is great material for a movie. Now all they need is Francis Ford Coppola, the man behind the Godfather saga, to write the script. After all, he has done it already for his vineyards in California.

7. When You Cycle Sicily, You Will Make Great Friends

The Godfather, Don Corleone, put it this way: “Friendship is everything. Friendship is more than talent. It is more than the government. It is almost the equal of family.” You don’t believe it? Well, then it is certainly time to join a cycling tour through Sicily and discover the truth.

2019 is a big year for our small company. For the first time ever we are running 9 tours during the 12 months of 2019. They pass through 45 different countries on 4 continents covering 50,965 kms. In fact, we could call it the TDA Year of Adventure as all 4 of our Adventure Tours are running this year – Hippie Trail, Magical Madagascar, Trans-Himalaya & Bamboo Road!

Here are 5 important dates for TDA Global Cycling that will take place during 2019:

May 12th – Tour d’Afrique Arrives in Cape Town – Crazy Is As Crazy Does

On May 12th, the riders on the 2019 Tour d’Afrique will spin into Cape Town, completing their 4 month cycling odyssey from Cairo. It will mark the 17th time our flagship cycling expedition has crossed the African continent. After so many successful trips, it is easy to become blasé about the whole thing but, really, think about it. Riding your bicycle across Africa. How crazy does that sound? As a former rider once put it “I’m going to ride my bike across Africa. Sounds pretty great, doesn’t it? Rolls easily off the tongue. Gets a positive reaction at a cocktail party. But there’s only one problem: You actually have to ride your bike across Africa.”

July 4th – North American Epic Begins In Tuktoyaktuk – If You Build It, They Will Cycle it

On July 4th, in the small Canadian Arctic hamlet of Tuktoyaktuk (pop. 898), 33 riders will dip their tires in the Arctic Ocean and pedal out onto the recently opened Highway 10, the Tuktoyaktuk – Inuvik Highway (ITH), thus becoming the first organized group to cycle south on the new road. This 2 lane gravel road replaces the Tuktoyaktuk Winter Road, an ice road, that connected Inuvik with Tuktoyaktuk (TUK) during the winter months across the frozen Mackenzie River delta channels and the frozen Arctic Ocean. In the summer months, the only way to Tuk was on a plane.

September 14th – Viva Italia Starts In Rome – What Goes Around, Comes Around…

Our tours usually start in one city and end in a different one, many, many thousands of kilometres away. For example, Beijing to Istanbul are separated by almost 13,000 kms and Cartagena and Ushuaia are 13,400 kms from each other. So what sets our newest tour apart? Well, the Viva Italia begins and ends in the same location – Rome, the Eternal City. Pretty handy if you forget to check out the Coliseum first time around…

September 22nd – Bamboo Road Starts in Taipei – Round And Round We Go

Not satisfied with our work on the circular route design for the Viva Italia, we decided to replicate that effort on a smaller scale. The Bamboo Road now starts in Taiwan’s capital city of Taipei and, after 11 days and 1,075 kms circumnavigating the island formally known as Formosa on the Taiwan Coastal Loop section, the riders will cycle back to the very place they began before flying to Hong Kong and continuing their ride to Singapore.

December 5th – North American Epic – The Longest TDA Tour Ever

At some point in Costa Rica, specifically on Thursday, December 5th, during stage 124 from Tamarindo to Puntarenas, the North American Epic will become the longest TDA Global Cycling Tour ever at 13,406 kms. Mind you, at that point the riders will still have 1109 kms still to go before they arrive in Panama City.

Popular TDA Global Cycling Tour Leader Özgür Karataş recently finished scouting the route of the Viva Italia Cycling Tour which he will be leading later this year. We asked him for his impressions on the roads, the food, the wine and much more.

Özgür, Now that you had an opportunity to scout this latest TDA cycling adventure let us ask you a few questions. Italy is popular with cyclists from all over the world but this trip is different. Can you tell us why?

As you know, being from Turkey and the Mediterranean, my answers may be biased! For many days we will be riding along the stunning coastlines of Italy, Corsica, Sardinia and Sicily where you can swim. In the middle of your ride you can just dive, cool off and then sun yourself on a warm, sandy beach. The only problem may be convincing your body to get back on the bike. There will also be quite a few rest days (Bonifacio, Calvi, Cala Gonone, Maratea) where the riders can explore the water by boat.

The tour starts in Rome and heads to the hills of Tuscany. Tell us more about what will the cyclists experience in Tuscany.

The gentle rolling hills of Tuscany will be a nice warm up for the more challenging climbs in Corsica! After leaving Rome we will pedal through a number of picturesque Tuscan towns – Orvieto, Bagnoregio, Ficulle, Pienza, Castelmuzio, Chisure, Mucigliani & Siena. The region features stunning landscapes, living history, incredible food and exquisite art.

Italy of course is famous for its wines. Tell us which were the vineyards that most impressed you and why?

The vineyards in Chianti are incredible. Surrounded by olive groves, ancient castles, stone farmhouses and lush forests, these grapes produce some of the world’s best and unrecognizable wines. Our route also follows parts of the famous Via Chiantigiana which follows the ridges between the Val d’Elsa and the Valdarno, wandering from one farmhouse and villa to another, passing through charming villages and historic towns.

In order to make this a circular tour the riders will be cycling in Corsica which is part of modern day France. Their culture, however, is more Italian then French. Belonging to France does has its advantages. In 2013 Corsica had the opportunity to host part of the 2013 Tour de France. Are the cyclists going to cycle any of the stages of that Tour?

Having been to different parts of France and Italy, I have to say that Corsica is really something different. Along the islands western coast from Calvi to Ajaccio we will be cycling the same route that the 2013 Tour took, just in reverse. This route is certainly one of hardest on the tour but also one of the most scenic. No worries. We divided the stage into two. That way the riders can enjoy the ride and, as a bonus, spend a night in beautiful Porto.

Can you tell us something about your favourite climbs and descents?

Wow. There were so many. Spinning up and down undulating hills in Tuscany. The marvellous climb out of Cala Gonone on Sardinia. Climbing through Sicily’s timeless landscape to the hilltop town of Enna. Speeding downhill in Corsica from Zonza past dramatic granite mountains. However, I think nothing on this tour compares to the day where the riders climb up 800m from the Amalfi Coast before coasting downhill to ill-fated Pompei, complete with a stunning view of with Mount Vesuvius off in the distance.

Another thing that one always thinks of about Italy is cycling the Amalfi Coast and visiting Pompeii. Are the cyclists going to cycle to Pompeii? What’s Amalfi coast like?

The riders will absolutely have the opportunity to cycle the Amalfi Coast, deemed an outstanding example of the Mediterranean landscape by UNESCO, on the their stage ride from Agropoli to Pompeii. The road along the water is rolling and windy, bracketed by plunging mountains and turquoise seas, and sprinkled with pastel-coloured houses seemingly hanging impossibly from the cliffs. They will also have a rest day to explore the haunting and well-preserved ruins of Pompeii, one of Europe’s most famous archeological sites.

Do you have any other recommendations for the riders taking part in the Viva Italia?

Well, be sure to bring granny gears with at least 36 teeth in the back and at least 34 teeth in the front. Pack 3 sets of brake pads. Oh, and before the tour, you may not want to eat pasta and pizza for about 3 months!

After some time on the Tour d’Afrique, or any of our other tours for that matter, you get comfortable. You fall into a routine. It doesn’t feel weird to wake up at 5am, ride 130 kilometres and be in your tent by 8pm. In fact, it feels normal. Your normal life, the 9 to 5, hustle and bustle that we’re all so used to, fades away.

As you settle into the TDA routine, challenges become your daily norm. Everything from a tough climb, to pushing through blistering heat or even convincing yourself to get on the bike for the seventh day in a row despite your legs telling you it’s a bad idea.

We’re now three and a half months into the Tour d’Afrique, so it’s safe to say we’ve encountered our fair share of challenges. In some ways we’ve been quite lucky. One of the biggest challenges, the rainy season, well, we seemed to skip right past it. We had a downpour in Ethiopia, another while climbing out of Chitimba Beach in Malawi and a few days of tough rain in Zambia, but for the most part it’s been dry. Does this mean we’ve had an easy Tour d’Afrique? Not at all. The lack of rain this year has actually reminded us of all the other challenges we’ve faced.

Thinking back, it is easy for things to get blurry, to only remember the awesome rides, the locals we met and the friendships formed along the way. However there were some crazy challenges as well. Big ones. Here’s a reminder of a few of those.

We faced the wrath of the Sudanese desert. Long hot days on the bike, cross winds and sand storms. It was tough.

We spent days climbing what seemed like endless hills in Ethiopia, at serious altitude.

We pushed through the rough, sandy roads of Tanzania.

We endured back to back climbs in the humidity of Malawi.

We cycled 208km in a day in Botswana. Impressive. Even more so given we did 157km and 144km the two days before that ride and then followed it up with 162km and 159km over the next two days. With strong headwinds.

That’s merely the tip of the iceberg. The list doesn’t stop there, it’s ever growing. We’ve just crossed into Namibia, our 9th country on tour, and are about to cycle 1000km on some tough dirt roads.

Sometimes it feels that the only way to describe the Tour d’Afrique is  as ‘relentless’. While it’s immensely tough, there are a lot of rewards to be had. Each challenge presents another opportunity for growth and learning, for pushing yourself beyond where you think you can go, and expanding your comfort zone. So, while it might feel like the worst idea in the world to keep pushing the pedals forward, we’ll keep doing it. After all, isn’t that what travelling is all about?

Are you a runner with knee problems? Have you ever thought that running was wearing out your body?

I used to be a runner, or rather a jogger, but pain in my knees put an end to my running. Not right away. At first I tried to solve the problem with a variety of methods. My doctor suggested I see a podiatrist who, as soon as he saw me, diagnosed the problem. The solution? For a mere $350 I was going to be  jogging again in no time. Several years later, with a wide variety of orthotic insoles idly sitting in my closet, I gave up on jogging.

I was thinking about this while I was reading one of the current Tour d’Afrique 2019 participants, Tom Perlmutter’s blog. In his introduction Tom writes; “I had been running for about 25 years, going for long, solitary runs. As I was getting older, I couldn’t run as I used to. I looked around for something else that would give me the same combination of endorphin rush and meditative distance from daily life.”

Tom is not the only former long distance runner on this year’s Tour d’Afrique. There is also Shirley Frye, who at one point qualified for the trials for the US Olympic marathon team. Her husband Dan, who is with Shirley riding across Africa, at one point held the US record for the mile in the over 40 age category. Several years ago when I chatted with Dan and Shirley over a beer, I asked what prompted them to join one of our tours.  The answer was the same. The body can only take so much of the pounding that is a part of running.

Dan & Shirley Frye

On the first ever Tour d’Afrique in 2003, one of the participants (whose biggest frustrations was that he did not become a standup comedian in spite of his great comedic talents), had finished 13 Ironman triathlons. One day while cycling beside him I asked him what the difference was between doing an Ironman triathlon and the Tour d’Afrique. He said that you spend months to prepare for an Ironman and then the one day of reckoning is on you, whereas the Tour d’Afrique is impossible to prepare for. Instead of one day of reckoning, there are over 100.

It made me laugh because I recalled the story of the creation of the original Ironman triathlon when members of a runners club and a swim club in Hawaii were discussing which athletes were in better shape. In the room was a US Navy Commander who pointed out an issue of Sports Illustrated that mentioned that it was the champion cyclist Eddy Merckx who had the highest oxygen intake ever measured, so that maybe it was cyclists who were the best athletes.

I do not know if the Ironman competition has settled the argument of who are  the best athletes but I do know that although I gave up running in my late thirties, I am now, at the age of 67, happily cycling centuries – when the tour schedule requires it! Maybe not as happily as Shirley but then again, I was never an Olympic caliber runner.

Tom staying focused in Malawi

In his latest blog from the 2019 Tour d’Afrique Tom, who is now 70 years old, writes; “I am surprised by the distances I can now cover. I am no longer daunted by days in succession that might exceed 170 kilometres. The other week I was exhilarated to do a double century (100 miles) back to back.”

So what does all of this mean? Well, it is quite simple. If you are a runner and are wondering what you will do when your body tells you – no more running – do not despair. There is life after running. It is called long distance cycling.

What is it about travel that is so fulfilling? Is it taking a break from the 9 to 5 routine and getting away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life? Experiencing a new culture? Challenging yourself?

Usually it is a mix of all these things and more. In chasing the sense of release that travel often brings, it’s quite easy to get caught up in the new world you’re exploring and forget all about the stress of life back home.

The Tour d’Afrique has been on the road for quite a while now, 78 days to be exact. As with all long-term travel, emotions go up and down. There are times when you are on top of the world and others when you are likely thinking “why am I doing this crazy thing?” This can be amplified on a cycling expedition like the Tour d’Afrique. As you are travelling, experiencing and learning, you are also being physically and mentally challenged, not to mention riding an average of 130km each day.

It’s all worth it in the end, of course. We’ve met some incredible people on our journey from Cairo to Cape Town; from the owners of coffee shops and restaurants that we use for a well-deserved break to local fishermen using nothing but a canoe and a line to feed their families on Lake Malawi. We’ve explored the smallest of small towns that tourists never see and gotten an insight into what day to day life is really like in East Africa. ‘Life changing’ is the only way to summarize this experience.

Sometimes when we try to convey these feelings to family and friends back home, things get lost in translation. It’s difficult to explain what it’s like to have your daily life stripped away and your priorities rearranged. One needs to embrace the sense of freedom and curiosity that surround you when you embark on a tour like this. When you’re not at home thinking about work or the next bill you have to pay or what you’re cooking for dinner that night, the highlight of your day suddenly becomes the thought provoking conversation you had with refugees from the Congo. Things certainly change.

One of our riders went back home for a day a few weeks ago. While she was there she caught up with a friend for coffee and, naturally, was asked ‘How’s Africa?’ Realizing how impossible it would be to explain over coffee, she simply replied ‘good’ and the conversation moved on.

The tour has been constant reminder to all of our riders of what travel can do. Getting outside of your comfort zone and learning about new cultures forces you to challenge yourself and find out what’s on the other side.

Here’s to more of that!

Madagascar has been called the 8th continent. What is it about this island that would earn it such a distinction? After all, there are three islands on the planet that are bigger then Madagascar – Greenland, New Guinea and Borneo – but there are no suggestions that any of them should be labelled as a separate continent. So why is this island, separated from mainland Africa by the Mozambique Channel, often thought of as the 8th continent? Perhaps it’s the magic. Read on and decide…

The Elephant Bird – Just 1 Egg In My Omelette Please

Once, not that long ago, perhaps just before seafaring Europeans landed on Madagascar, a big bird, called Aepyornis Maximus ( ‘largest tall bird’) still roamed Madagascar. This elephant bird (so-called due to its enormous elephantine legs) was over three metres high and weighed over half a ton. Its existence is so recent that flooding occasionally reveals old egg deposits. One elephant bird egg is equivalent to 150 chicken eggs! Even if you are just a visitor and find yourself in southern Madagascar you may still find the broken shells of this large egg. . This big bird is not the only animal that disappeared fairly recently. Other fossils of creatures that lived until recent times reveal a Pygmy hippocampus the size of a dog and a giant lemur the size of a pony.

Lemurs – Speaking In Tongues

Modern Madagascar is home to 33 different species of the unique trapeze artists called lemurs. According to National Geographic these animals “resemble creatures put together from odds and ends of the animal kingdom: rodent’s teeth, bat’s ears, monkey’s hand and feet and a flowing fox tail”. Some lemur species dance and others sing. According to Wikipedia, all lemurs have two tongues; a main tongue used for eating and a second tongue hidden under the first that is used for cleaning each other. Here are 8 other things you may not have known about lemurs.

Tenrecs & Fossa – Not Your Mother’s Menagerie

Lemurs are not the only unique animals that roam the unusual landscape of Madagascar. The Tenrec (Hemicentetes Semispinous) bristles like a hedgehog. When it rubs its spines together, it makes ultrasonic vibrations that are possibly a means of communication. Another strange creature is the tree lizard. According to wildmadagascar.org, there are more than 210 species of this lizard. One takes on the colour of bark when the need arises and disguises itself as bumps on the tree, making it invisible to predators while another one (Calumma Crypticum) is a hallucinogenic mix of brown, blue, green, orange and white. Additional unique animals include the tortoise (Testudo Radiate) whose painted armour unfortunately often ends up in Malagasy jewelry, the colourful Painted Mantella frog, the Madagascar Long-Eared Owl, a nocturnal primate called Aye-Aye, the striking Madagascar Fogy, the Fossa (a relative of  the mongoose), the Comet Moth and many, many others.

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Baobabs & Orchids – An Enchanted Garden

Madagascar’s flora is as magical as its fauna, starting with six species of baobabs (whereas Africa has only two). How about a tangled forest of thorn-studded Didierea? There are an incredible 900 hundred species of orchids, 85% of them endemic to the island. There are also 200 species of palms and, lest we forget, the Madagascar periwinkle which is a source of the drugs vincristine and vinblastine, used to treat cancer. There are unique plants for each region: humid forests, dry forests and thickets, grasslands, woodlands and bushlands as well as wetlands. There are colourful plants as well as weird plants like the Ravenala tree, the symbol of Madagascar, medicinal plants and poisonous plants.

Tsingy – Not A (Barefoot) Walk In The Park

For the curious, or should I say the adventurous, who feel that the unique flora and fauna is not enough, Madagascar offers the Tsingy – meaning ‘the place when one cannot walk barefoot’. These geological formations, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, are made of needle shaped limestone formations which can easily cut through equipment and flesh and thus discourages any human activity. For those who dare, however, the rewards can be magical.

Ylang-Ylang – Just Lie Back And Relax…

Have you ever heard of a magical tree called the ylang-ylang which produces a yellow/green flower? ‘Cananga Odorata’ is valued for the perfume extracted from its flowers and for the essential oils that are used in aromatherapy. According to Wikipedia “the fragrance of ylang-ylang is rich and deep with notes of rubber and custard, and bright with hints of jasmine and neroli”. Just imagine that smell! One internet site states, “Ylang ylang is known primarily as an aphrodisiac. It is also known for its use in treating sexual dysfunction such as impotence and frigidity. Its aroma is heady, deeply relaxing and euphoric. Ylang ylang is also indicated for use in nervous tension, in the case of frustration, restlessness, anger, anxiety, depression and stress. It is also the essential oil to use in the case of shock and trauma to body or mind”.

Malagasy Culture – Rum, Zebus & The Turning Of The Bones

Perhaps the most magical aspect of Madagascar is its culture. It reflects the origins of the Malagasy people – originally from South East Asia and East Africa but more recently followed by the arrival of Arabs, Indians, British, French and Chinese. Traditional practices such as zebu sacrifices, emphasize the links between the ancestors and the living, as does the famadihana, a ‘turning of the bones’ reburial ceremony. According to Wikipedia “the famadihana is an occasion to celebrate the beloved ancestor’s memory, reunite with family and community, and enjoy a festive atmosphere. Across the island, many Malagasy make offerings out of respect to the ancestors, such as by pouring the first cap-full of each newly opened bottle of rum into the northeastern corner of the room”.

Ah, Italy! La Dolce Vita – the sweet life.

Consider the pizzas, the pasta, the wines, the history, the sights, the sea, the sun, the culture, the markets, the mountains, the valleys, the lakes, the medieval towns and the many, many other hidden gems. What other reasons could a cyclist possibly need to hop on their bicycle and explore this amazing country on the Viva Italia Cycling Tour?

It’s A Circular, One Of A Kind Trip – Like A Pizza Pie

Sure, you could take a one week holiday and cycle a part of Italy. If you are really serious, maybe take two weeks and cycle twice as much. When you cycle the Viva Italia, however, you will complete a full circle and experience not only the south, the north and the middle but Sicily and Sardinia as well. We even threw in a place called Corsica, which is kind of Italian even though one of the most famous Frenchmen, Napoleon, was born there.

Ride In The Footsteps Of A One Of A Kind Cyclist

There are a lot of great cyclists who have won the Giro and La Tour but there is only one, Gino Bartali, who, when interrogated and threatened by the Gestapo and Italian fascists, responded “I do what I feel [in my heart]”. You will cycle in the same area where he smuggled messages and false identity papers while supposedly training for his next bicycle race. When Gino died in 1990 Romano Prodi, President of the European Commission, called him “a symbol of the most noble sportsmanship”,  the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI) called for two days of mourning and a minute’s silence was observed before all sporting events.

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La Dolce Vita – The Sweet Life

I have already mentioned La Dolce Vita – the sweet life. If you are my age or older, you probably remember the great filmmaker, Fredrico Fellini, and the classic scene in his movie La Dolce Vita, with Marcelo Mastroianni and Elka Ekberg at the Trevi Fountain in Rome. Of course, you will have an opportunity to visit the Fountain at the beginning and, if you wish, again at the end of the tour but I am actually thinking of the incredible desserts of Italy that you will have an opportunity to taste. The Canadian Food network even came up with a blog called 21 Italian Desserts You Need to Try Before You Die. What better way to do that than after a full day of cycling. On the other hand, if you are brave and decide to take a market food tour on your rest day in Palermo and are still standing by the end of it, you will be the recipient of the Passaporto del Mangione (Glutton’s Passport).

Where Else Would A Bicycle Be The Hero Of A Movie?

There are many movies that have something to do with bicycles or people that ride bikes but there is only one movie that is regarded as a masterpiece of Italian Neorealism and that is Ladri di Biciclette – The Bicycle Thief. If you have not yet seen it, be sure to watch it. It may just convince you to go to Rome. Considered as one of the 10 best movies ever made, the film will give you a sense of post-WWII Italy and recent Italian history. Another great film to see is called Il Postino – The Postman. This is about an exiled Pablo Neruda, the great Chilean poet, and a local postman who learns to write love poetry and is set on an Italian island. The postman, of course, delivers the mail by bicycle.

Fifty Reasons In One Paragraph

When one decides to write why anyone, and not just cyclists, should do a tour like Viva Italia, one does not know where to begin. Therefore I will now pretend to be James Joyce (think Ulysses) and let my stream of consciousness pour out on paper, or at least on my computer screen…Botticelli, have to go to the gallery in Uffizi in Florence, Caravagio, Rafaello, why is Italian government giving away free castles, I want to see them, want to walk where Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo walked, I wonder where Caesar was stabbed, gladiators (Russell Crowe) in the Coliseum facing lions that must have been pretty gory, Al Pacino the future Godfather, I wonder where it was filmed, would be cool to go there, was Nicolo Machiavelli so cold blooded or is the Prince a ‘how to’, I really should have finished that book, maybe I will do it when I am in Florence, the Medici’s one hell of family, they financed Michelangelo I think at least some of his works, what a great book Agony and Ecstasy, boy was I young then when I read it, 14 maybe 15 and still remember it now. I like to have a Chianti now, I wonder which part of Italy they come from, what did they drink in Pompeii, got to see that place, and those penises on the walls, crazy, what the heck were they obsessed with, palaces, gardens, cathedrals, operas, fishing villages, Naples should be cool, heard so much about it from my mom when she visited, when the commies allowed her to go for a visit, I was ten, man these memories sure surface, she brought home some Italian coffee, can’t wait to have real espresso, these Italian they invented it, ah cappuccino at mid morning stops, and than gelato for the afternoon stops with a tiramisu and they tell me cycling in Italy is great, the Italians just love cycling and fashion and their mothers, they sure make some great bikes, though I am not sure about towers, though I gather the Pisa tower is now stabilized. Can’t wait!

What I am really suggesting is that you turn off your cell phone, close your eyes and let your own stream of consciousness take you cycling in Italy. I am certain you will easily come up with 50 of your own reasons why you should open your eyes and sign up for the Viva Italia.

As the Romans used to say, ‘Carpe Diem’  – ‘Seize The Day!’

When the years of breastfeeding, and the cream-soups and mashed vegetables are over, and a child starts to eat solid food, there are so many first time experiences to come. As a father of a four year old boy, I know it happens literally day-by-day,  having something for the very first time. Fun times!

Then we learn what to expect. We get used to the tastes. We have our favourite ones and the ones we prefer to avoid. These preferences may change over time.

Then we learn how to prepare, how to cook, how to use different spices, how to match ingredients, how to utilize the heat – extreme high or really low – to get more complex flavours. We learn that timing is everything. There are failures for sure, there are trials and errors, but there are many successes and joys related to cooking. Especially cooking for, or cooking with the loved one.

It can easily develop into a passion; hunting for new ways to eat fine food, exploring restaurants, exchanging recipes with friends and family members, “reverse-engineering” the secret recipe of the specialty of your favourite restaurant at home, or just trying to reconstruct Granny’s apple pie.

Then we start traveling and we begin to realize there is a whole new world of culinary experience out there. You can go to eat out in your home town, to have Greek, Italian, Chinese, or Indian food, but nothing compares to local, traditionally prepared dishes.

There will be surprises. I remember my first real Italian pizza in Italy. It was great, but not at all what I expected. The crust way too thin compared to what I had experienced before. I learned in Italy I can get super crispy, smoky pizza. I love it and I am not afraid to order 25 of them for our cycling group on the day we arrive in Italy on Trans-Europa tour.

When I arrived in India – for the first time in my life – to participate on the Hippie Trail, I had no idea I would be eating delicious, unique, surprising meals every single day.

This culinary real world experience began in Delhi when our Indian friends took us out to a place where they make the best ‘dosa’. Wow, what a treat! Dosa just kept coming in all different forms, with chutney and all sorts of vegetables and sauces. We learned to use our hands (*right hand only, please!) instead of cutlery to handle the food. It is part of the “tasting” process. The touch of the naan, dosa or chapati, the pinch of the curry or dal, to feel its temperature, consistency or density is also part of enjoying the food. Some people say they can also feel the spices with their fingertips! (I’m not there yet.)

Cycling through the different regions of India – while riding more or less one hundred kilometres a day – it looks like we are crawling slowly south on the map, making frequent stops. Our daily hosts want to treat us as well as they can. We appreciate their best efforts, regardless of whether we are staying in a roadside, state-run hotel or in the Maharaja’s palace. There are surprises every day. And they are good ones.

To pick just two: at the Umaid Lake Palace, they were waiting us with homegrown organic ingredients, a brief Tandoori cooking lesson, and – of course – it was all served for dinner. Then the other day at Fort Dhamli in Rajasthan, our host went out hunting at dawn to bag a wild boar for our group dinner. He hired two experts, who accurately prepared the meat, spent the entire afternoon carefully feeding the fire under the copper pot and continuously stirred the stew so it would be ready and tender for dinner.

Meanwhile, some of our riders were hanging out with two women who were making chapati in the backyard. What an experience! Tomorrow the tour crosses a state border from Madhya Pradesh to Maharashtra. I can’t wait for our next dinner there!

If I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting you on tour, my name is Miles, and I’ve been working at TDA since 2006. I started off working as a Chef on the tours, which was great preparation for becoming the Operations Manager, as multi-tasking is definitely key to both roles. While I still head out on our tours once or twice a year, the majority of my time is spent in front of my computer, overseeing the overall logistics of our tours. Below are some of the more common tasks that I work on.

One of the most common activities is communicating with the tour leaders, both on tour and before and after the tours. We discuss tour morale, upcoming route challenges, administration tasks, security updates, accommodation information, and a broad list of other items. Sometimes it can be discombobulating when there are multiple tours occurring!

To facilitate this communication there are a few key apps on my phone. What’sApp is always working on my phone, and there are days where messages are coming to me at all hours of the day and night from 3 or 4 continents. Skype is probably the busiest app overall, allowing me to communicate both with our tour leaders across the globe and with our head office in Toronto (as oddly enough I am based in Victoria, B.C., running a remote office)

Another important part of my day is reviewing staffing applications we receive and interviewing candidates for future staff positions, then trying to piece the staffing puzzle together for each tour. It’s inspiring to read of so many people who have a passion for working in the adventure tourism industry, and as many great staff as we have had, there are also many we haven’t had a chance to work with yet.

There is also time devoted to the overall style and framework of our tours and how we can improve our service. An important part of that involves carefully reviewing the rider questionnaires after each tour. Here we learn what worked well, what could use improvement, and what people’s future interests are as well. These are then discussed by the whole TDA team, and then over time we make adjustments to routes, accommodations, how we present information on our website and in many other areas.

Another group of people I am often communicating with across the globe is our local partners. At TDA we are running tours in over 80 countries, and in many of them we have local partners who are assisting with the fine details; accommodations, sub-contracted vehicles, supplying translators on tour, arranging security and updating us to any local news we need to be aware of. It is truly one of the great pleasures of this work to have had the chance to develop so many professional relationships around the world, and have made some excellent friendships in the process.

While there are many daily tasks that come up, the last one I’ll mention for now is regarding vehicles. Oddly enough as a bicycle tour company, I mostly think about diesel-powered vehicles and not bicycles when it comes to our tours. TDA now has a fleet of vehicles on 4 continents, and we use them across 5 continents. At times there are vehicles transiting across a continent to the starting point of a tour, being shipped across an ocean to return to their base, or working on the tours that are in progress. They can be our best friends and also our worst enemies☺ Luckily there are many mechanically gifted staff at TDA who take care of them and also arrange or assist with all the planning that goes into their readiness and care.

Finding the perfect pace is tough. Push too hard and you’ll find yourself exhausted. Leave too much in the tank and you’ll find yourself wishing you went a little harder or rode a little longer. Finding your rhythm is the key. Oddly enough, a good pace isn’t just about how fast you ride. Riding itself is a pace.

Moving 100-150 km a day really allows you to take in what’s happening around you. That awareness is stepped up to another level on a bike. The simplest of things catch your attention; from a sugar cane truck passing to a local selling a national dish on the side of the road. Travelling so slowly allows you to see small things like this and take the time to think about how different it is to life back home. It is the same with the landscapes. Cycling through the Sudanese desert and riding past the Nile, you really have time to take it all in. Stop, take a photo, chat to a local. It takes a long time for a landscape to change when you are on a bike, so when it does, you really notice it, you really appreciate it.

When travelling by car, train or plane, things move so fast you really don’t appreciate the vast landscape you’re in or the little town you’re passing through, often, because you’re distracted by everyday norms like social media, email & work. That may feel normal, until you experience life on the road on a bicycle.

Undertaking a human powered adventure requires focus. Can you imagine trying to reply to your boss while pedalling up a hill in Ethiopia? Probably not. That forced separation is what really differentiates life on a cycling tour from any other kind of travel. For the majority of your day, it’s just you and your bike. Sometimes you’ll cycle in a group while at others you’ll stop at a local cafe and spend half an hour chatting to someone about what you’re doing cycling across Africa and why you’re doing it. For most of the day, it’s just you, your bike and the road.

We live a life where we love to be busy. We always seem to have a million things to do; work, grocery shopping, chores – the list goes on and on. Being on tour, all that is stripped away. Life gets simpler and there’s a lot of time to fill. When you’ve got an epic road to cycle, a new city to explore or new friends from different parts of the world to chat with, having that extra time is everything.

Travelling like this allows you to stop and breathe, to appreciate the small things and embrace simplicity.

Life on tour is like nothing else.

When I landed the opportunity to shoot tourism content in Africa for four months with TDA it’s safe to say I was over the moon.

Since I started making videos a few years ago all I wanted to do was travel and make films. I looked up to Youtube travel vloggers like Ben Brown and Louis Cole and thought if I could get paid to do anything, it’d be that. So I started a Youtube channel and made a bunch of random videos. I mean no one really watched them, but that’s how filmmaking started for me.

From there I moved to the UK on a study abroad year and made a bunch of travel films. They picked up a few thousand views and the university I was studying at asked me to make some promotional content for their study abroad program. Then I started freelancing online to build my portfolio. A few months later I left university to make videos full time.

At the time, it felt like a massive risk, a big leap, but now looking back I can’t believe I considered not doing it. Interestingly, the same thing happened the first time I rode a bike. I don’t mean the time when I was like 3 and had training wheels on. I mean that stretch in Egypt, that beautiful stretch of desert between Ain Sokhna and Ras Ghareb; the first time I had a go at being a cyclist.

When Shanny, TDA’s Marketing Manager told me the night before that I’d be cycling 70km, my first thought was ‘nope, that’s not going to happen’. I haven’t cycled more than 10k in my life and the last time I rode a bike was four years ago.

Shanny said that getting in the saddle was a great way to build relationships with the riders, understand what they’re doing, and why they’re doing it, so I could make the best videos possible. I saw his point, it’s a very smart thing to do, but on a 70km morning? Surely it’d be better to ride a 30km afternoon or something to ease myself in. But it was the first week of the tour, I couldn’t back down and come up with excuses.

So, I nervously headed up to my room and prepped all my gear so I could leave as early as possible. I had everything packed except for a pair of chamois, a t shirt and my runners. I woke up extra early, butterflies galore, thinking I’d be the laughing stock of everyone by lunch. I headed downstairs, put my bag in the truck, and waited in line for breakfast. The plan was to leave with the first rider and just cycle my heart out so I wasn’t last in at lunch.

I wolfed down breakfast and made a peanut butter sandwich for the road. Nervously I mounted my ride and started pedalling. About five minutes in, one of the fastest riders was on my tail, as she rode up I could see the puzzled look in her face – “you’re riding today?”, nervously I replied “I guess so”. She put her hand out for a high five and said “just remember to have fun”, before passing me and upping the pace.

After that all my nerves faded away, and as I rode into the sunrise I felt this immense sense of calm. But there was still 65km to go. Slowly but surely I found my rhythm. Other riders swished passed but it hardly bothered me, all I cared about was enjoying being on a bike in the middle of no where. It was almost meditative. Unable to think about any of life’s stresses I simply focused on pumping my legs and looking around once in a while. A few picture stops and incredibly tasty peanut butter snacks later, I came to the crest of the last hill, I saw the lunch truck and a massive grin emerged. I remember thinking ‘is that it? Is that 70km? Let’s do some more!’

Getting on the bike reminded me of the time I took that massive leap and left university. Full of nerves & worry I jumped off the cliff and it was the best thing I ever did. To me, this trip is quickly become less about filmmaking, and more about trying new things, pushing myself and seeing what’s on the other side. I think I’m doing ok so far, I backed up my 70km with a 110km a day later, shaved my head for fun and tried slacking just because. As I’m writing this all I can think is, ‘I can’t believe it’s been two days since I’ve been on the bike, I feel like it’s been a year.’ Oh how things change hey?

One of the smallest, yet most intriguing, changes to the Bamboo Road Cycling Expedition in 2019 is the route change from Siam Reap to Bangkok. Fresh from a couple days exploring the incredible temple complex at Angkor Wat, the cyclists now head south, skirting the vast expanse of the Tonle Sap and crossing some of Cambodia’s most productive rice fields before arriving in laid-back Battambang.

The town has an interesting history. Legend has it that it is the ‘City of the Lost Stick’. The story goes that eleven hundred years ago a farmhand, while caring for his cows, found a magic staff. He used its powers to depose the current King and then ruled over the area for many years as King Dambong. Eventually, the deposed King’s son returned to confront Dambong who fled the city with his magic stick which had been neutralized by some mystical intervention. Both he and the stick were never seen again although the staff is said to be hidden somewhere on the banks of a nearby river. Many locals honour his memory and have nicknamed him Ta Dambong (Grandpa Stick). Villagers often place incense at the foot of a large statue of him which greets travellers as they arrive in Battambang on the Phnom Penh road.

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Bamboo Road

Many of us have criss-crossed the countries of South-East Asia on a ‘shoestring’ over the years, returning home with fond memories. Now we invite...

In the late 18th century, Siam (now Thailand) swallowed up much of north-western Cambodia, including Battambang, at the time an important trading hub. It wasn’t until 1907 that it was returned to Cambodia, although this took place under French colonial rule as part of their grand plans for Indochinese colonies. During the reign of the Khmer Rouge, the local population suffered horribly as evidenced by the Killing Caves of Phnom Sampeau, about 11km southwest of the town or the gruesome memorial to the genocide’s victims, the Well of Shadows, on the banks of the Sangkar River, 6kms north of Battambang.

Today Battambang, with its atmospheric French colonial architecture, is, according to Lonely Planet, “the perfect blend of relatively urban modernity and small town friendliness.” While the cyclists on the Bamboo Road will only have an afternoon to explore the area, there are a couple things not to be missed.

Bamboo Train

Although the renewal of the Cambodian Railway system has meant that this experience is not as ‘authentic’ as it used to be, it is still worth trying. In the past, local transport, especially in small, rural villages was virtually non-existent. Locals decided to use the many abandoned rail lines instead. They built bamboo rail cars, or ‘norries’. Simple but brilliant engineering. “The body of a norry consists of a single queen-size platform, often made of bamboo, which lies on a metal undercarriage. Steel wheels on a pair of axles lie underneath. A belt wraps around the rear axle and is connected to a lawn mower or boat engine mounted on the rear of the platform. The driver yanks a cord to start it up, the engine emits its mosquito-on-steroids whine, and down the tracks it goes.” (Atlas Obscura) Looks like fun.

Battambang Bat Cave

About a 30 minute tuk-tuk ride south of Battambang and close to the Killing Caves of Phnom Sampeau is the Battambang Bat Cave.  Each night, literally millions of bats emerge in an incredible spectacle lasting about 20 minutes. You can sit by the side of the road and enjoy a cold beer and some street food while you watch the bats streak across the sky while the sun sets behind them. Or, if you are feeling a little more adventurous, you can hike up to the mouth of the cave and get up close and personal as the bats swarm out into the darkening sky. Either way, it is a sight you will not soon forget.

We’ve been known to talk about the off the beaten track places our tours take our cycling clients. Here at TDA, we aren’t shy to explore the world in some of the planet’s less popular areas. There is, however, a reason why some destinations draw so many people. The world is full of incredible sites and monuments – both natural, and man-made – that are justifiably famous. Our 2019 cycling adventures can bring you right to their doorstep.

>>See all our 2019 tour options

1. Tour d’Afrique – The Great Pyramids of Giza

2. Hippie Trail – The Taj Mahal

3. The Odyssey – The Acropolis

4. Madagascar – Avenue of the Baobabs

5. Orient Express – The Mighty Danube River

6. North American Epic – The Grand Canyon

7. Orient Express – The Blue Mosque

8. Bamboo Road – Angkor Wat

9. Trans-Himalaya – Mighty Mountain Ranges

10. Viva Italia – The Colosseum

Every year TDA Global Cycling, through its Foundation, donates 1 bicycle per full tour rider to a variety of individuals and organizations in Africa. We encourage our riders to consider using their incredible ride across Africa to benefit a number of worthy causes, including the TDA Foundation. In 2019 a number of Tour d’Afrique riders have taken up the challenge and one anonymous cyclist has already made a substantial donation to the Foundation. We wish them all the best in both their journey and their fundraising.

Vikas Patel (Canada) – BC Cancer Foundation

“I am hoping to use this bike ride to raise awareness and money to support the BC Cancer Foundation. The BC Cancer Foundation hosts the Ride to Conquer Cancer, and it was there where I first learned of the tremendous work the foundation does. Most of us have had too many good friends and family taken away too soon because of this very ugly disease, and I would like to help bring an end to it. I know the road to success in this is not a short one, and it may not even come in our lifetime, however each journey begins with one step and this is mine.“

Frederic Antille (Germany) – Lessons For Life Foundation

“I strongly believe that education is the most important factor to raise people out of poverty. This is why I chose to support “LessonsforLife”, an organization that is doing a fantastic job funding education in Africa.“

Paul Bullen-Smith (UK) – Médecins Sans Frontières

“I will be raising funds for Médecins Sans Frontières (www.msf.org) an international, independent medical humanitarian organisation. They provide medical assistance to people affected by conflict, epidemics, disasters, or exclusion from healthcare.“

Alexander Harling (UK) – Douglas Macmillan Hospice

“The Douglas Macmillan Hospice, better known as Dougie Mac, is the only adult hospice in North Staffordshire. They were one of the few things that lifted my dad’s (and mum’s) spirits and energized him in his incredibly tough final months in 2017 and 2018, battling cancer. He was better on Dougie Mac days. They are wonderful.“

Peter Cox (Canada) – Transforming Faces

“From January – May 2019, Peter will be biking from Cairo to Cape Town – covering nearly 12,000 km across 11 countries. His motivation? Fulfilling a dream and, at the same time, raising life-changing funds for children born with cleft lip and palate and their families in Africa.“

Lucy Preece (UK) – Medecins Sans Frontieres & Mission Rabies

“Whilst I am lucky enough to be able to go on this challenge, there are many people in Africa and beyond who are nowhere near as lucky. Please sponsor me to help raise money for Medecins sans frontieres, a non-discriminatory charity offering medical care to those in need. Their work in the ebola crisis is well known, but they work in remote, dangerous environments in Africa and around the world. MSF workers put themselves in danger every day for their fellow human beings- they need our money to continue this amazing work.“

“Mission Rabies is part of a concerted effort to reduce human rabies deaths to 0 by 2030. Please donate to help fund this ambitious target and help both human and animals from needless suffering and death.“

Tom Perlmutter & Jackie Silverberg (Canada) – WaterAid

“We are two friends who’ve signed up to cycle across eastern Africa. We’re asking you to support us in our epic cycling journey by donating to WaterAid. Worldwide, 844 million people have no access to clean drinking water and a further 2.3 billion lack access to basic sanitation, like toilets and latrines. Not only does this crisis severely hinder the fight against global poverty, it is also the world’s greatest cause of illness. At any given time, half of the world’s hospital beds are occupied by people suffering needlessly from water- and sanitation-related diseases.“

Timothy Forde (Australia) – The Lion & Tusk Museum

“Tim is generously donating all the funds that he raises on this ride to the Rhodesian Services Association – a New Zealand registered charity whose focus is the preservation of Rhodesian military history from 1890 to 1980 through The Lion & Tusk Museum and associated digital archive projects.“

Andrew Brink (Canada) – TDA Foundation

“The Foundation was created with two main goals: To give something back to the people and the communities of the areas that we pass through on our cycling tours and to raise consciousness about bicycles as an alternative and, in many ways, better and more beneficial means of transport. To fulfill these objectives the Foundation focused on three areas: donating bikes to individuals and organizations in Africa, supporting bicycle advocacy and promoting projects that protect the environment.”

]]> https://tdaglobalcycling.com/2019/01/doing-good-well-2019-tour-dafrique-rider-fundraising/feed/ 0 https://tdaglobalcycling.com/2019/01/follow-the-riders-on-the-2019-tour-dafrique/ https://tdaglobalcycling.com/2019/01/follow-the-riders-on-the-2019-tour-dafrique/#comments Tue, 08 Jan 2019 16:26:51 +0000 https://tdaglobalcycling.com/?p=36070 Each year a number of cyclists decide to blog about their adventures on their ride from Cairo to Cape Town]]>

Each year a number of cyclists decide to blog about their adventures on their ride from Cairo to Cape Town and 2019 is no exception. We encourage you to follow the adventures 2019 Tour d’Afrique through the eyes and ears of these riders.

>>Don’t forget to follow #tourdafrique on Instagram too

Updates From The Road

“We are only ten days away from the start date on January 17th. Between packing and training, the adventure is starting to feel real!” – Peter Cox (Canada)

Tom’s TDA

“This is a story about crossing boundaries, literal and metaphorical. It is about the reasons we travel: every voyage is a voyage of discovery, of the other and of oneself. These voyages have no age expiry date. At seventy, one can be as captivated by wonder as at seven. It takes the magic of place to turn the key of wonder. As with any true voyage, the challenges will be many and there are no guarantees. Regardless of how far I manage this, the important thing is setting out.” – Tom Perlmutter (Canada)

Tourdefred

“Doing this tour has been on my mind for many years but I never found the time (who said courage ??) to do it…This changed beginning of 2018 as I decided to step out of my comfort zone and to go for this amazing trans-African bike tour.” – Frederic Antille (Germany)

Cycling Tour d’Afrique 2019

“I have not been into long-distance cycling for that long yet. Of course, the bicycle has always had a prominent place in my life: Chasing after my friends on my bike after school. Discovering the area around my hometown. Cycling to Delft every day when I was still in university. But it was not until 2014 that I discovered that it is quite easy to push your limits on a bicycle. It started with trips of 30k, which within some months gradually increased to a 100k, venturing further and further away until I even rode 100k rides two days in a row.” – Romy B (Netherlands)

Cairo to Cape Town on Bicycles

“On January 17th Lenore and Gerry will set off past the Great Pyramid of Giza in Cairo on the most ambitious journey of their lives. Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Botswana, Namibia and South Africa. The continent from top to bottom. 12,000 kilometres. On bicycles. Camping. We can’t predict to what degree time, energy and technology will impact what emerges in this blog. We can definitely commit to keeping it interesting.” – Gerald van der Weyden & Lenore Lewis (Canada)

Look back at the blogs of the 2018 Tour d’Afrique.

“In order to understand West Africa you need to feel it.” – Man in a bar to Robert Gex ,West Africa en Velo rider

Guinea was a surprise, perhaps because we all had no idea what to expect or maybe because Guinea is just such a unique place on our route. A country of 13 million people, it is considered one of the poorest countries in the world and sees few visitors. It is because of this and the route, which we took, that our Zimbabwean staff member Noah would often mutter, “we are in deep Africa now”.

Deep, indeed. Luscious green, a country of great natural beauty and many rivers. It is rich in minerals, culture and history. Deep also are its problems from having to deal with refuges from the troubled past of neighbouring countries, from a failed experiment with socialism, from two years of military rule and from its ethnic divisions. Yet this country now has an elected civilian government and one can feel just from seeing the roads being build that efforts are being made to improve the lot of its people.

If there is one thing we end up doing a lot on a trip through West Africa on a bike is ‘feel’ West Africa. Robert, an American cyclist living in Thailand, stopped for a drink in a local bar in Sierra Leone while waiting for a ferry that would bring him to Freetown. When a man asked him what he was doing here, Robert responded that he was part of a group are cycling from Morocco to Ghana. The man responded that in order to understand West Africa, you need to feel it and that there is no better way of doing this than by bicycle.

One night in Guinea, just before we were to cross the border into Sierra Leone we were staying in a village typical of many that we had seen on the trip. It was situated close to a small river where I went to wash myself after cycling in the hot and humid conditions. Refreshed and clean, I went back to our campsite which was located on the village soccer field.  Our staff was busy preparing dinner and a short distance from them was a group of local elders, sitting and watching the ‘goings ons’ of a group of foreigners – cooking, setting up camp, washing themselves and their clothes. In front of them there was table filled with local produce – bananas, coconuts, oranges, cucumbers – a welcoming offering to the guests in the village. The coconuts were particularly popular.

After I set up my tent I walked over to the elders with our local fixer and sat down to chat. We exchanged pleasantries, than chatted about their lives, how they make their living, what we are doing here and so on until our scheduled daily rider’s meeting. I asked them if one of them would like to say something to our riders. They picked a young man, who spoke to us about their lives in the village and explained their problem with fresh clean water and their need for a village well.

After the meeting, Michael Howard, one of the riders and a successful businessman came over and started talking to the elders. By the end of the evening, Michael had committed himself to funding a well project for the village and another well project for the village of our local fixer. Michael later explained that he felt touched by the needs of the villagers but was also motivated by the need for actions and for others who, like him, could afford to make contribution, to be an example and to contribute to the lives of those whose current circumstances were not as favourable.

Michael’s words reverberated in my mind because one of the goals for setting up the original Tour d’Afrique was to provide an alternative way for people to visit Africa, something other than the usual safari or holiday on the beach. So on behalf of the villagers, I want to thank Michael and the many others over the years who went beyond the cycling and made valuable contributions, either through the TDA Foundation or through projects of their own. Examples include Tim Padmore and Ronda Green who set up ceramic workshop on Zanzibar and Jason Becker who supported the college education of a young man he had met cycling through Kenya. There are many, many others – too many to name – but in the end, it is people like them, like you, who we at TDA take a particular delight in introducing to Africa.

Wherever you were to meet Hanne, you would immediately notice her wide smile and entrenched laugh lines. She speaks eloquently, even when exhausted, with a thick Norwegian accent. In any conversation about her personal life, she will quickly bring up her children and grandchildren, proud to be their role model.

So, what is she doing here, cycling the backroads of West Africa? Hanne says that she is in her third life – and we’re not talking reincarnation. Hanne sees her life as being lived in three different parts. The first was her childhood, raised in a fishing village in Norway. The second, her family life – becoming a mother and raising two sons and a daughter. The third, the one she lives today, is one she gets to live for herself. She can choose whatever she wants. This means doing psychology work all over the world, running an education project in Tanzania that was founded by her late father, and doing the Tour d’Afrique in 2017. All of these choices led her to TDA West Africa.

There were a few things that made Hanne want to join this tour. The most prominent was her desire to return to Sierra Leone after working with MSF there in 2007/2008. After the civil war, there were many victims who survived the war with unseen wounds. She worked with a local team for 8 months, training them in counselling and therapy. After 10 years, she looked forward to the prospect of coming back. Hanne was also intrigued to see the similarities and differences of the surrounding countries. From her own time in West Africa, she had heard about how much the countries and the people have in common, and how they depend on each other for trade, employment, and shared knowledge.

Hanne is drawn to the simple life – One that she experienced on her self-supported kayak trip around the Island of Senja in Norway, the 2017 Tour d’Afrique, and her solo bike tour of Tanzania, post-TDA. She enjoys expeditions that push her to her limits, helping her discover what those are. More than that though, she enjoys a life where time just goes beside you, instead of having to chase after it. As we sat under the shade of a tree in a bush camp in Sierra Leone, she shared a proverb of the Norwegian Sami people that gave me chills: “Time is not going, it is coming.” This is how Hanne wants to live this third life of hers, and TDA is a place where she can realize that lifestyle.

If you want to check out Hanne’s project in Tanzania, you can find the website here and their Facebook page here.

The past 12 months have seen our office staff, our field crews and our guest bloggers create some pretty amazing content. Here are our favourites for each month of 2018.

January – Once Again

TDA Global Cycling’s Operation Manager, Miles MacDonald, reflected on his numerous experiences in the Sudan over the years.

“Nomadic motion has become home like, and yet in the last weeks while surrounded by the same desert sands, under the same mesmerizing nights of stars and against the same frigid morning winds, it is not the feeling of home I know from 13 years ago, or from more recent years on the tour, it is unique and a separate experience unto itself. Given definition by the local inhabitants whom chance allows myself to encounter, by the individual participants and the stories they bring to the tour, and by the staff who set the tone and direction of the journey.” Read more.

February – 9 Surprising Reasons To Cycle Southern Africa

Cycling in Southern Africa can bring you to some of the world’s most iconic sights – Lake Malawi, Victoria Falls, the towering Red Dunes at Sossusvlei and Cape Town’s Table Mountain. Over the years our riders and staff have discovered some lesser-known but equally interesting attractions.

“If you are cycling south towards Mzuzu, your route will begin with with a stunning, if challenging 1000m climb up onto the country plateau. Congratulating yourself on making it to the top, you might just miss one of Malawi’s, if not Africa’s, hidden gems – a bamboo bridge first constructed in 1904. WTF – that makes it 114 years old. Each year the local villagers get together and make the needed repairs, ensuring it lasts for another century or so.” Read more.

March – The Water Shuffle

Tour d’Afrique Assistant Tour Director, Stephanie Thornton wrote a nice piece from Nairobi about how her experience cycling through Africa was a wake-up call, pointedly reminding her about how fortunate those of us that have access to safe drinking water at all times really are.

“Men, women, and children populate the shoulders of the roads in Ethiopia. Donkeys and horse carts carry litres and litres of water daily. In the vast rolling hills of Ethiopia it’s almost impossible to imagine where families might get water. Now in the arid Northern Kenya, watering holes seem scarce and local herding boys shout for “maji” – the Kiswahili word for water – instead of money or sweets.” Read more.

April – The Beers Of The Pub Ride: Little-Known, Weird, Unexpected & Occasionally Appalling

Michael, our resident TDA Global Cycling beer expert, put together a collection of brews for the riders on the inaugural Pub Ride to keep an eye out for….for better or worse.

“(I)n 1777, Frederick the Great banned coffee, stating “It is disgusting to notice the increase in the quantity of coffee used by my subjects… My people must drink beer. His Majesty was brought up on beer, and so were his ancestors.” Read more.

May – Bamboo Road 2019 – 5 Exciting Changes To The Route

The innovative and restless minds at TDA Global Cycling rarely rest. We are always looking for changes that will make our cycling adventures even better.

“Taiwan. This compact island has it all – colourful temples, vibrant night markets, soothing hot springs and friendly people. The scenery is outstanding – tropical rainforests, stunning gorges, rumbling volcanoes, towering sea cliffs and incredible ocean views. Our route will circumnavigate the island, including the unspoiled east coast with its picturesque fishing villages and endless beaches and coastline.” Read more.

June – A Waffle And A Tipple With The Ancestors

Veteran TDA Global Cycling master mechanic Doug Percival has practiced his trade in many far-flung corners of the globe but here he returns to his family’s homeland in search of his ancestors.

“Oddly enough, the castle was a gift to the daughter of the Earl of Dunbar in 1214, and Dunbar is a name on my fathers side, dating back to the 1100’s… Standing on the hill, where some small original walls still exist, with a 360 degree view of Scotland to the north and England to the south was a strange experience, and certainly had me pondering on the millennia of family that had stood in the same place, with the same view…how the World has changed, what those walls have seen!” Read more.

July – Fashion On The Silk Route

Silk Route Communications Officer and Gaelic Fashionista, Elaina O’Brien took the opportunity to remind us that while cycling is important, cycling in style is even more so.

“With the summer in full swing, our riders have been sporting their favourite seasonal looks on the bike, and we’re loving the variety of trends and styles. The fashion in the field throughout the Silk Route has been funky, chic, and classy.” Read more.

August – 5 Reflections On My Unsupported Bike Trip In Grizzly Country

Long-time TDA Global Cycling staffer Shanny Hill took some time off this summer to remind himself what unsupported bike touring was like. And to deal with his fear of bears…

“I followed the recommended advice: carry bear spray and make a lot of noise. If you ask my brother I might have followed that advice a bit too closely. With images of grizzlies in mind, I got in the habit of blowing my whistle frequently. Really frequently. Every minute or two. Every day. For 10 days straight from Banff, Alberta to Whitefish, Montana.” Read more.

September – Cycling In Iran As A Woman

Our Silk Route Communications Officer, Elaina, took a closer look at what it was really like pedalling through the Islamic Republic of Iran as a female cyclist.

“Although there are strict formal guidelines for locals and tourists alike, there is indeed some wiggle room for tourists. Authorities will generally leave you be unless you’re clearly pushing the cultural boundaries. Locals are more than happy to see foreigners travelling in their country so they are more understanding.” Read more.

October – Four Things You’ll Never Know About Madagascar From Watching The Movie ‘Madagascar’

Our good friend David Houghton, who cycled the inaugural Magical Madagascar trip in 2017 contributed a guest blog highlighting 4 reasons for anyone to consider cycling Madagascar…instead of watching the Pixar film.

“Is Madagascar more than four bumbling animals who escape from a zoo and meet up with a ring-tailed lemur named King Julien XIII? Hell yeah. Is Madagascar, located off the southeastern corner of the African continent, a challenging place to get to? Hell yeah. Is Madagascar one of the most unique and rewarding places in the world to ride your bike, an island that’s a microcosm of our world that’s also home to vegetation and animals you’ll see nowhere else on the planet? Hell yeah.” Read more.

November – Objects In The Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear…

Our West Africa en Vélo staff member Sophie DeGroot penned a wonderful essay on how cycling can help you become an active participant in your travels instead of a passive spectator.

“Too often tourism is a one-sided affair. A bicycle is a fantastic mechanism to shift the power dynamic between the tourist and the local. Literally removing yourself from a spectator’s box makes you more approachable and evens the playing field in which interactions take place. The people you meet, the places you see are not just closer than your mirror suggests, they are a part of your everyday experience.” Read more.

December – On The Shores Of The Arctic: Pingos, Metallica & MukTuk

It is a rare thing, indeed, when we suddenly find ourselves able to include a destination, previously inaccessible to cyclists, in one of our expeditions. When we heard that the remote town of Tuktoyaktuk had recently been linked to the rest of the world by road, we knew we had to make it the starting point for the 2019 North American Epic.

“On September 3, 1995, Metallica and other popular bands flew into Tuk, putting the little village in the international news. The bands played a concert in Tuk as a publicity event for Molson Brewing Company promoting their new ice-brewed beer. Dubbed The Molson Ice Polar Beach Party, it featured Hole, Metallica, Moist, Cake and Veruca Salt. Canadian film-maker Albert Nerenberg made a documentary about this concert entitled ‘Invasion of the Beer People‘.” Read more.

The second section of the 2019 Trans-Himalaya Cycling Expedition runs from Manali to Rishikesh and is aptly named – Heavenly Hill Stations. Our route will take us through 3 of India’s most beautiful colonial hill stations. They were established as high-altitude towns to be used as a place of refuge to escape the blistering summer heat and dust of plains during the British Raj and were designed to, as much as possible, replicate the climactic conditions back in the British Isles. However, after the 1857 Mutiny, these towns also served as vital centres of political and military power.

Manali

The small town of Manali is situated in the Kullu Valley, often referred to as the ‘Valley of the Gods’. The story of its founding goes like this – One day Vaivasvata, the seventh incarnation of Manu found a tiny fish in his bathing water. The fish told him to look after him with devotion for one day it would do him a great service. Vaivasvatatava cared for the fish till the day it grew so huge that he released it into the sea. Before departing the fish warned Manu of an impending deluge when the entire world would be submerged and bade him to build a sea-worthy ark. When the flood came, Vaivasvata and the Seven Sages were towed to safety by Matsya the fish – which is regarded as the first avatar of Lord Vishnu. As the waters subsided, Manu’s ark came to rest on a hillside and the place was named Manali.

Its location marks the beginning of an ancient trade route to Ladakh and from there over the Karakoram Pass on to Yarkand and Khotan. The British made it into one of their hill stations in the 1800’s. During their rule, they introduced apple trees to the area and to this day, the fruit remains the best source of income for the majority of the locals, although tourism is growing quickly. The Brits also introduced rainbow and brown trout into the nearby lakes and streams.

Today, the town is a popular adventure destination with trekking, paragliding and whitewater rafting all available. A pleasant 2km walk out of Manali will take one to the sacred Hadimba Temple (1553) where pilgrims come to honour Hadimba, the demon wife of the Pandava Bhima from the Sanskrit epic, the Mahabharata.  Nearby Gatothkach, the warrior son of the Pandava Bhima and his demon wife Hadimba, is worshipped in the form of a sacred tree. Old Manali is worth exploring with its ancient stone and wood houses and is the location of the Manu Maharish Temple, the alleged site where Manu’s ark came to rest after the great flood. The Manali Gompa is world famous for its large statue of Buddha and sublime wall paintings. Finally, one can relax at the Vashist Hot Water Springs and Temple, dedicated to the local patron saint, which is 3km from Manali, across the Beas river.

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Shimla

Shimla, the capital of the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh, is named after a Hindu goddess, Shyamala Devi, an incarnation of Kali. Attracted by the dense forest of pine, deodar, oak and rhododendron and its cool climate (it stands at 2200m) the British took control of the area in 1815. Prior to that there was only a temple and a few scattered houses. As more and more British officers and bureaucrats decided to spend their summers in the area, it became famous for balls, parties and other festivities. Rudyard Kipling wrote that it had a reputation for “frivolity, gossip and intrigue”. In fact, the writer used the town as the setting for his books, Kim & Plain Tales From The Hills. In 1864, Shimla was officially made the ‘summer capital’ of British India.

The railway route from Kalka to Shimla was completed in 1903 and, with more than 806 bridges and 103 tunnels, was touted as an engineering feat, known as the “British Jewel of the Orient”. In 2008 the line became a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is definitely worth a ride. It has a ruling gradient of three percent and 917 curves, the sharpest of which is 48 degrees. One interesting story is that during its construction, British Colonel Barog miscalculated tunnel construction and the ends failed to meet in the middle. Humiliated, he shot his dog, then himself and is buried at the entrance to his mistake. A new tunnel was successfully completed with the help of a local ascetic Bhalku who used a long and solid wooden staff to hit the ground and divine the correct alignment! He also helped with the alignment of several other tunnels on the line and was eventually awarded a medal and turban by the British Viceroy.

The town is home to a number of buildings in the Mock Tudor and Neo-Gothic styles of architecture dating from the colonial era, as well as multiple temples and churches. The centre of Shimla is the Mall, which meanders along the mountain ridge for 7kms. There is no traffic and a walk along its length will allow one to take in sights like the Viceregal Lodge (LP describes it as “a cross between Harry Potter’s Hogwarts and a Scottish baronial castle’), the Town Hall and the Neo-Gothic Gorton Castle. At the east end one can make the strenuous 30 minute hike up to Jakhu Temple for some incredible views of the snow-capped Himalaya. The temple itself is dedicated to the Monkey God, Hanuman. Appropriately there are hundred of monkeys in the area as well as a 33m statue of Hanuman, in pink, no less.

Mussoorie

Known as the ‘Queen of the Hills’ for its spectacular views of snow-covered Himalayan peaks as well as over the Doon valley, Mussoorie was established by the British in 1823 after Lt. Frederick Young of the East India Company, who came to the are to shoot game, decided to build a hunting lodge there. Its name appears to be a derivation of ‘mansoor’, a shrub which is indigenous to the area. Mussoorie was the intended terminus of the Great Trigonometric Survey of India in 1832 that began at the southern tip of India. It was also known for spirits. In 1832, Sir Henry Bohle started ‘The Olde Brewery’ on the outskirts of town. However, he argued with the aforementioned Lt. Young about licensing and in 1834 the facility was shut down. It was reopened in 1850 when Sir John McKinnon, the brother-in-law of Sir Henry Bohle, restarted the brewery, being the first in British India. It is said that the famous Indian poet, Mirza Ghalib, was a big fan. Shipping the big barrels of beer to their destinations on carts gave name to the town’s Cart MacKenzie Road which still exists today.

Under British rule, Mussoorie, in 1827, became a convalescent centre for soldiers. It was also the temporary home to the last Maharaja of Punjab, the child King, Maharaja Duleep Singh, son of the great Maharaja Ranjeet Singh. After the two Anglo-Sikh wars, the Punjab was ready for annexation by the British and Duleep Singh was forced to sign away his kingdom and wealth, including the famous Koh-i-noor diamond, to the Governor General of India, Lord Dalhousie. Before he left for England, the Maharaja was kept at the Castle Hill Estate near Landour Bazaar in Mussoorie. His days there came to an end on April 19, 1854 when he was deported to England where he lived in exile for the rest of his life. During the 1959 Tibetan Rebellion, the Central Tibetan Administration of the 14th Dalai Lama was at first established in Mussoorie while the first Tibetan school was established in Mussoorie in 1960. Today, some 5,000 Tibetans live in Mussoorie.

Considered by many to be the honeymoon capital of India, one can enjoy a 3km walk along Camel’s Back Road from Kulri Bazaar to Gandhi Chowk, passing a rocky outcrop in the shape of a camel’s hump. Gun Hill is a wonderful place to look out over the Indian plains and can be reached by cable car from the Mall Road. There is also the opportunity to visit the remains of the building and laboratory of Sir George Everest, the Surveyor-General of India from 1830 to 1843. Mount Everest, the world’s highest peak is named for him. The renown Landour Language School offers classes in Hindi, Urdu, Sanskrit and the local dialect of Garhwali.

We last ran the North American Epic in 2015. It started in Anchorage, Alaska and finished in Mexico City, Mexico. It was a pretty epic ride – 10,000 km, 116 days & 3 countries. No need to change anything, right? Well, somehow we got word that the Canadian government was building a new road between the Arctic hamlet of Tuktoyaktuk and Inuvik, thereby connecting the rest of the North American road system with the shores of the Arctic Ocean. A lightbulb went off in our collective TDA hive mind and before you could say, let’s think this over, we had sketched out a new North American Epic route, one that would start in Tuktoyaktuk and continue south, all the way past Mexico City, to Panama City – 14,500 km, 165 days & 9 countries.

Tuktoyaktuk

To us, as Canadians, one of the coolest things about the new route was the starting point in Tuktoyaktuk (commonly known as ‘Tuk’), a tiny village of about 900 people. The name translates as ‘resembling a caribou’. According to local legend, in ancient times a woman looked on as some caribou (Tuktu), common at the site, waded into the water and as a result turned into stone. Reefs resembling these petrified caribou are said to be still visible at low tide along the shore of the town. Our riders will have to check that out. They will have time. There is only 1 gas station and 2 food markets (just wait until you see the prices!) although the first sit-down restaurant, Tyson’s Burgers, opened last summer. You might think such a small town might not be that interesting but please, read on.

History

Tuktoyaktuk, set on Kugmallit Bay, was used for centuries by the Inuit to harvest Beluga whales and caribou. Its natural harbour, located conveniently near the Mackenzie River Delta and sheltered from the winds and waves of the Arctic Ocean, made it a perfect setting. Interestingly, the fact that it was situated so closely to the outflow of the MacKenzie (Canada’s longest river) meant that its people developed a permanent rather than nomadic culture. Driftwood floating down the MacKenzie gave the locals wood to build houses rather than igloos. It even influenced their diet as they were able to cook food.

Most of these whale-hunting Inuit died during epidemics that swept through the area in the early 1900’s. The diseases were brought by American whalers. However, in the 1930’s the Hudson Bay Company built a trading post there which attracted local Inuit to the area. Known at that time as Port Brabant, it was the first place in Canada to revert to its indigenous roots in 1950, reclaiming the name – Tuktoyaktuk. In the 1950’s, the town was an important staging point for DEW (Distant Early Warning Line), part of the North American missile defence system. The 1970’s briefly brought oil and gas exploration in the nearby Beaufort Sea during the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries 1973 oil embargo and 1979 summertime fuel shortage and, indeed, that explains the large industrial buildings around the town.

The completion of the all-season Inuvik – Tuktoyaktuk Highway (ITH) in November 2017 will likely have an even larger impact than these previous events. It makes it Canada’s only community on the Arctic Ocean to be connected by road to the rest of the country. Tourism, as illustrated by our own cycling adventure, will soon be a large presence in the community. The 137 km 2 lane gravel road took 3 1/2 years to build (that is 40 km/year) and cost over $300 million. It has to withstand temperatures from as low as -40C in the winter to +20C in the summer when the sun never sets. Unlike some remote roads like the virtually straight Eyre Highway that crosses the Nullarbor Plain in Australia, the ITH winds endlessly through a collection of brackish estuarine basins, locally known as the ‘Eskimo lakes’, requiring eight bridges and 359 culverts.

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North American Epic

This incredible expedition is the only cycling tour that covers the entire North American continent, from the shores of the icy Arctic Ocean to the...

Things To Do in Tuk

You may not have time to do all of these on your all too brief visit with the North American Epic but we know you’ll be back.

• Look for pods of Beluga whales.
• Talk to the village elders
• Explore the Pingos. These are Ice Dome Hills – layers of soil over an ice core. The Tuk area contains more than 1/4 of the world’s 1350 pingos. The nearby Pingo National Landmark has 8 Pingos including the world’s second highest, the Ibyuk Pingo, at 49m high and 330m wide. It is the size of a 15 story building and creates a striking contrast to the surrounding pancake-flat tundra. You can hike to the summit for a great view.

• Try the local delicacies – Muktuk (raw Beluga whale meat) & Caribou soup
• Take a polar plunge in the Arctic waters.
• Visit the ‘Our Lady of Lourdes Ship’ sitting in the middle of town next to the Catholic Mission. This 60′ vessel was donated to Canada’s Northern Missions by Pope Pious XI in the 1930’s. The schooner delivered supplies to far-flung Catholic missions in the Arctic, from Tuktoyaktuk to Cambridge Bay in what is now western Nunavut, in the 1930s and ’40s, braving storms and shifting ice floes. It arrived in Tuk in 1940 and was an important link to the rest of the world. Unfortunately, it is also a reminder of the sad history of Canada’s residential schools. While it carried vital supplies out to the missions in the spring, it returned in the fall with Inuit children who were then sent to residential schools across the country. These children were kept from their parents for years. Some never returned. In 1955 the ship was pulled from service and beached near the town. In 1967 a DEW Line helicopter moved it to a storage pad and in 1978 Dome Petroleum workers painted the ship and added a historical plaque. In 2008 local volunteers repainted it and resealed the holds.
• Go boating with a local guide to the commercial whaling ghost town of Herschel Island.

• Visit the Icehouse – a natural freezer dug into the permafrost where villagers keep their catch.
• Check out 2 replica sod houses.

Tuk Fun Facts

• Tuk is referenced numerous times in Canadian legendary songwriter Stompin’ Tom Connors’ song, “Mukluk Shoe“.
• On September 3, 1995, Metallica and other popular bands flew into Tuk, putting the little village in the international news. The bands played a concert in Tuk as a publicity event for Molson Brewing Company promoting their new ice-brewed beer. Dubbed The Molson Ice Polar Beach Party, it featured Hole, Metallica, Moist, Cake and Veruca Salt. Canadian film-maker Albert Nerenberg made a documentary about this concert entitled ‘Invasion of the Beer People‘.
• In July the mean temperature is 10C. The average high is 15C and the average low is 7C. The record high is 30C and the record low is -2C. The precipitation rate is lower than most deserts. So be prepared for anything.
• In the summer of 2018, Tuk hosted its first destination wedding.
• One Beluga whale will feed 4 families for almost 1 year.

It all started rather innocently. I was having breakfast listening vaguely to a conversation behind me about projects and donations when Mateo, our cartoonist extraordinaire, showed me a cartoon of a mosquito asking for a blood donation. “Just one little drop can save a life”. It made me laugh.

I turned to the gentleman behind me and said that he might also appreciate the cartoon. He turned out to be Peter Penfold, the former British High Commissioner to Sierra Leone during its fairly recent tragic past.  As a person who played a key role in restoring democracy in the country, the High Commissioner had written a book about the time – Atrocities, Diamonds and Diplomacy.

I was so fascinated by his stories that I asked if he would be open to giving a talk the same evening to our cycling group in order to give them a context to the country, the people and the culture they were experiencing from the seat of the bicycle. The Commissioner, to my delight, agreed.

Inspired by the talk, I decided to wander the streets, the places he mentioned, to make his words come alive with images. Looking at the Google map of the city, I noticed a nearby destination, the Peace Museum, that I thought would be a good place to start. I set off in a straight line towards my target, crossing one shantytown after another. Here, as in the other ‘Lonely Places’ that I have written about, places where foreigners tend not wander, no one bothered me, in fact quite the opposite. If I was paid any attention at all, it was a smile or a friendly greeting. The places themselves seemed liked scenes from a Hollywood blockbuster disaster movie.  Unfortunately, in reality, the civil war and the Ebola epidemic were calamities that had helped create the present reality and there were no gofers around to provide a large latte to the technical crew behind the scenes.

The Peace Museum was not obviously marked in any way so I walked into the UN compound to ask where it was. Several more ‘asks’ led me to a small building which, upon entering, I found empty. One room seemed to have previously contained abandoned archives, another some covered exhibition tables, yet another some exposed displays. As I wandered around a man approached me, pointed to a chair and explained that this was the former rebel leader’s favourite seat. Next he pointed to some amulets the rebels wore that they believed protected them from bullets. It was not long however before another man saw me, started yelling that the museum is going through renovations and shuffled me out of the building.

Once outside I noticed a modern building a couple of hundreds meters from me that turned out to be the ‘Special Court for Sierra Leone’. This court, set up to try war criminals, was mentioned by the Commissioner in his book as something that he thought was a mistake and ended up costing in the vicinity of a quarter billion dollars. The court, before it shut down, convicted nine men, so about $26 million dollars per prisoner: ‘not something that a poor country should be spending money on, especially as the criminals were not high ranking individuals’. Upon closer examination I found out that the building was handed over to the government in 2013 and now sits empty, beginning to fall apart. Seems like the High Commissioner may have been right. From the High Court, I headed to the place where Freetown was established, the famous cotton tree where returning former slaves sat down and contemplated their new freedom.

If the side streets did not look as carefree (and car free) in Freetown Christiania, Copenhagen (where I happened to be walking in July after the end of the inaugural Pub Ride), the Freetown streets leading to the core of the city were a raucous mix of traffic, blaring horns, and the miscellaneous noise of people working and trading – doing what they do every day. We had a pleasure of riding this way on the way from the port to the other side of town upon our arrival in Freetown and for me, having cycled in India on our Hippie Trail, the only thing that was missing were the sacred cows. The resulting chaos is not without its charms and though scary at first, in many ways it is safer than cycling the main streets of Toronto where cars are able to speed at over 60km an hour and blasting away at the few daring cyclists.

I found the cotton tree, proudly standing and recording everything that it sees. One day human beings will likely invent an app that will be able to hook up to the tree and tell one very long human saga, of hope, wars, disasters, reconciliations, rebuilding and more hope. I say more hope because if you look at enormity of the rebuilding challenge of Sierra Leone, without hope there is no future. And the people of Sierra Leone believe in the future.

Since we posted ‘10 Things That Will Never Happen On The Tour d’Afrique‘, we feel obliged to post a list of 10 things that we guarantee will happen on the Tour d’Afrique.

1. YOU WILL DISCOVER HIDDEN WONDERS

2. YOU WILL GET HUNGRY

3. AND YOU WILL EXPAND YOUR CULINARY HORIZONS

4. YOU WILL LEARN TO LIVE WITHOUT A WASHER/DRYER

5. YOU WILL QUESTION YOUR SANITY

6. YOU WILL LEARN TO WORK TOGETHER LIKE A WELL-OILED MACHINE

7. YOU WILL SEE AN ELEPHANT

8. YOU WILL MAKE FRIENDSHIPS THAT WILL LAST A LIFETIME

9. YOU WILL SEE INCREDIBLE SCENERY

10. YOU WILL LEARN TO ASK FOR DIRECTIONS IN SWAHILI

Arriving in Sierra Leone just two days ago, we met Abdulai, our local guide, in the ferry terminal on our route to Freetown. Amongst the hectic nature of the terminal, he kept his calm and helped riders navigate the crowded beach to get onto the boats into Freetown. A situation that would stress out most people was made easier by having someone who could help us navigate the back alleys, translate the many people screaming, and suggest which local sweet to choose.

As many may know, Sierra Leone has faced many hardships in the last few decades. Between a civil war that tore apart the country and the Ebola outbreak that reminded everyone again how fragile life can be, the country lovingly nicknamed ‘Salone’ by locals is making huge leaps forward. One thing they are focusing on is allowing tourism to thrive again. Amongst the beautiful beaches and rolling hills, there are people and places that are alive with drum beats and colourful cloths. Abdulai is a part of that movement here in Salone. He experienced both atrocities first hand, but still finds immense beauty in his country – one that he would trade for no other. Anyone can read about a country in Lonely Planet or on Wikipedia and learn the facts, but staying up after dinner over a cup of tea with someone who is willing to answer questions and share their stories is an opportunity to learn in a way you never could from the seat of your couch.

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In each country we ride through we hire local guides to help us navigate not only unseen road blocks and police checkpoints, but important cultural norms and language barriers. As I suppose those who work in tourism often are, they are colourful people with many stories to tell. On West Africa en Vélo alone we have already had six local support guides. They are a vital part of the staff team and provide a wonderfully unique and personal window into their home countries.

Though Radouan, our Moroccan guide didn’t speak English, only French and Arabic, his smile made us all feel welcome. The language barrier never stopped him from educating us on what we saw or heard, even if some of it was lost in translation. Through Southern Morocco, Hamdi shared his Berber heritage through glasses of sweet tea, boiled straight over hot coals. Mohammed’s loud personality clashed against the sepia deserts of Mauritania. Colourful enough to keep us all entertained on desert nights with wild stories of camel caravans and more of that never-ending tea.

Phillipe, our Senegalese guide, became a crowd favourite when he arranged for cold beer to be brought to our first camp in Senegal. It arrived to our bush camp on the back of a motorbike from 30 kilometres away and was received with applause.

Hassan, who between headstands would find us local Guinea dishes along our cycling route. As unique as the country’s they represent, they leave individual marks on the tour. Not only are we lucky enough to have memories of road conditions or chance meetings on the side of the road across 7 different countries on this trip, but we are given the chance to get to know someone who will answer the questions you might be afraid to ask, nudge us when we cross cultural norms, and offer sound advice on how to say hello or where best to spend a rest day.

We all know that cycling is the answer to many of life’s problems – from climate change to depression to obesity to traffic gridlock. As HG Wells once admitted “Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race.” Looking to the future we can perceive “bicycles as rideable art that can just about save the world” (Grant Peterson – Bicycle Designer) but bikes have also had an incredible impact on human history in the past 200 years. As our perceptive West African Assistant Tour Leader, Sophie DeGroot, recently pointed out “A bicycle is a fantastic mechanism to shift the power dynamic”, be it between tourists and locals or men and women. The 1900 United States Census Report noted, “Few articles ever used…have created so great a revolution in social conditions as the bicycle.”

Here are 5 excellent examples of the ways in which the bicycle has shaped our world.

1. Women’s Liberation – You’ve Come A Long Way, Bicycle

Susan B. Anthony, the American social reformer and women’s rights activist, wrote in 1896 that she thought the bicycle “has done more to emancipate women than any one thing in the world,” and that she “rejoices every time I see a woman ride by on a bike.” As JR Thorpe writes “In ways both explicit and subtle, the invention and popularization of the humble two-wheeled bicycle in the 19th century helped move the cause of female equality and freedom forward in the modern world; even today, there is no more feminist way to get around.” After centuries of being severely limited in their freedoms it is hard for us to imagine just how liberating it was for women to simply get on a bicycle and ride as far as they liked in whatever direction they chose. The bicycle also had practical applications in the struggle for equal rights. English suffragettes would ride around on bicycles with “Votes For Women” banners in the 1910s and regularly blocked Winston Churchill’s motorcades with bicycles. They even had their own special bike designed with the colours of the suffrage movement.

Recommended Reading:

The Feminist History Of Bicycles

How the Bicycle Paved the Way for Women’s Rights

How the Bicycle Emancipated Women

2. Creation of the Road Network in America – Take The Lane, Hell, Take The Road

“Roads were not built for cars.” This assertion may come as a complete surprise to most drivers on the roads today but there is solid evidence to back it up. In America, roads were originally built for stage-coach travel but the construction of vast networks of rail lines effectively killed off that mode of transportation. Roads fell into disrepair and were mainly used for local travel. It was the growing popularity of the bicycle for local travel in the mid-1800’s that led to the demand for paved roads and later the interstate system. Groups like the Roads Improvement Association – a lobbying group created by the Cyclists’ Touring Club in 1886  and the Good Roads movement organized by the League of American Wheelmen were instrumental in pressuring governments to respond to these requests. Without the efforts of cyclists, motorists would not have as many roads to drive on. Unfortunately, the debt owed to cyclists by motorists is long forgotten. The bicycle movement, however, is reemerging as a potent political force, demanding more space on the roads for cyclists and even their very own infrastructure like cycling superhighways.

Recommended Reading:

Roads Were Not Built For Cars

History of Roads in America and First Federal Highway

19th Century Cyclists Paved The Way For Modern Motorists’ Roads

3. The Invention of Flight – Bike Mechanics Rock’N’Fly

Without the bicycle, the airplane may never have existed. In the early 20th century, most members of the scientific establishment were convinced that human flight was impossible. Thankfully, not everyone agreed. In fact, a Binghamton newspaper editor in 1896 presciently wrote “The flying machine problem is liable to be solved by bicycle inventors. The flying machine will not be in the same shape, or at all in the style of the numerous kinds of cycles, but the study to produce a light, swift machine is likely to lead to an evolution in which wings will play a conspicuous part.” As it turned out, many aviation pioneers were also avid cyclists. In 1895, the Wright Brothers began manufacturing bicycles, the “Van Cleve” and the “St. Clair.” Later they they used the equipment in their bike repair shop to make glider and airplane parts. Their experience provided perhaps the most important insight that led to the invention of the airplane, that a plane didn’t need to be stable. Like a bicycle, it could be inherently unstable and could be flown in the same way a bicycle is “flown”: by a rider making constant, tiny, unconscious adjustments. The Wright bothers later revealed that “our idea was to secure a machine which, with a little practice, could be balanced and steered semi-automatically, by reflex action, just as a bicycle is.”

Recommended Reading:

The Untold Story Of How Bicycle Design Led To The Invention Of The Airplane

A Bike Ride Through Wright Brothers Territory

The Bicycle That Flew At Kitty Hawk

4. The Idea of Radler Beer – Cycling’s Cooling Culinary Contribution

Beer and cycling goes together like peanut butter and jam, like Sonny and Cher. Nothing tastes better than a cold beer after a long, challenging ride. The invention of Radler has been widely attributed to the Munich innkeeper Franz Xaver Kugler in 1922 although some believe that it existed for about a decade prior to that. In any case, the legend goes like this – Kugler apparently built a bike path from the city to his beerhall, the Kugleralm. One weekend a large group of thirsty riders arrived Kugler’s bar. The bartender (Herr Kugler himself), realized that he was almost out of beer. In order not to disappoint his customers (thirsty cyclists are not to be trifled with), he mixed what beer he had left with lemon fizzy water, ingeniously claiming that he was preventing the cyclists from getting too drunk to ride. The resulting drink was so well-received by the refreshed riders that it grew to become incredibly popular in beer gardens in Munich and beyond. In honour of the riders that had forced him to come up with this new beverage, he named the concoction “radler”—which translates to ‘cyclist’ in German. In fact, Kugler’s Beerhall still exists today for those cyclists eager to recreate this refreshing legend.

Recommended Reading:

What The  Hell Is A Radler

Radler Beers Celebrate Cycling and Summer

Etymology of a Radler

5. The 2003 Tour d’Afrique – Part Expedition, Part Social Experiment, Part Madness

Prior to 2003, there were certainly a number of long-distance cyclists such as Annie Londonderry who rode around the world in 1894-95 but it was not until early 2002 when Henry Gold began preparations to create a cycling expedition from Cairo to Cape Town that long distance cycling really took off. He was undaunted by the enormous skepticism and a mountain of logistical challenges. Henry wrote at the time that “We’re off. Thirty three cyclists, followed by two supply trucks, carrying everything from spare parts to a nurse, roll away from a shadow of the Sphinx on the first leg of an 11,000 km adventure. Foolish or courageous – I am not sure which. We’re planning to ride the length of Africa in 100 days of biking.” The first group of riders arrived safely in Cape Town in May 2003, coincidentally establishing the Guinness World Record for the fastest human powered crossing of Africa. This success helped with the the popularization and democratization of long distance cycle touring, bringing with it the rise of the bike packing movement as well as a host of cycling companies offering supported tours ranging from a few days to many months. The 2003 event proved that just about anyone could cross a continent on a bike. I should know – I did the 2006 Tour d’Afrique having never cycled more than 60kms at a time – and that was just once! In addition, the Tour d’Afrique and its sister Foundation pioneered the idea of donating bikes to Africa, inspiring other organizations to do the same.

Recommended Reading:

10: Celebrating 10 Years of the Tour d’Afrique Bicycle Race & Expedition

Tour d’Afrique: By the Books

Cycling Across Africa: Then & Now

After seven days and almost 1000 km of cycling from Dakar we have arrived in Labé, the main city and administrative capital of the Fouta Djalon region of Guinea, where we are having a rest day. Even though Labé is a city at a crossroads for commercial traffic and trading between Senegal, Mali, Sierra Leone and Liberia and onwards to Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana, I personally have never heard of it. However, I had also never heard of the beautiful high plateau region of Fouta Djalon, parts of it we had the opportunity to cycle through over the last couple of days.

There is a reason that even well travelled people like myself have never heard of this place and that is that, similar to the rest day in Boujdour in Morocco over a month ago, Labé is a ‘lonely place’. Don’t get me wrong, people are not lonely, it is just that tourists and travellers are not interested in places where hundreds of thousands of people struggle day after day, trying to put food on their tables. The central market which I strolled through must have had, and I am not exaggerating, thousands of stalls and small shops, each selling something.

In a way, it is a pity that tourists do not come here because if they did they would discover what is it like to live in a place that doesn’t even have a dry food store the size of small 7-11 in New York City, never mind a super market. They would discover what is it to live in a place that not only has no Starbucks but in fact no Internet cafe of any kind. If they are running a cycling tour, they would discover what an effort it takes to shop for 50 hungry people, going from stall to stall to stall to buy supplies for a few days.

Of course, being a ‘lonely city’ doesn’t mean that nothing happens here. In fact, to our surprise, this morning when we were on our way to the city centre we found the road was being cleared for a Tour de Guinea stage that was about to end in Labé. The organizers were so excited that three of our own cyclists found themselves being led by a car with flashing lights. Now that is what I call VIP treatment. It was a great pleasure to observe the racers zooming by, in particular when bunch of goats and one cow decided that they too would like to take a closer look. The racers did not know whether they should worry about the pot holes in the road or the animals in their way.

There was also the university students’ strike, though I am not sure what their grievances were. While this all was going on our staff, who needed to buy food for the next few days and get the vehicles fixed after some rough terrain had no choice but sit, stuck in the cars waiting for the end of all the excitement in the city.

If you do not own a car in Labé, you will need to use motorcycle taxis, of which there are thousands roaming the city. The owner/driver usually wears an orange west and you simply tell them your destination, climb on the back of the motorcycle and off you go. That is unless you are Lezinda, our incomparable lunch maker, driver and barbecue chef extraordinaire. On the way back from our last night’s dinner she walked over to a motorcycle taxi driver, negotiated a rate to take her to our hotel, then asked the driver to move to passenger seat so she could drive while the rest of us looked on with a mix of laughter, disbelief and apprehension. And so it goes – another day on the West Africa en Vélo.

Riding a bicycle through West Africa isn’t all rainbows and butterflies, especially without rearview mirrors, tinted windows or air conditioning. As we leave the desert and begin to make our way into the jungle, everything is changing. Crossing from Mauritania into Senegal revealed not just a cultural border, but an environmental one. The humidity is as thick as the sand under our tires. The vast horizon lines of the Sahara to our East and the Atlantic to our West are increasingly becoming speckled with baobabs, rice fields and people in colourful attire moving at a rapid pace through a village market. These changes make cycling more difficult, but they are also the reasons we are here.

Imagine cycling early one morning through the Senegalese foothills – rolling hills with Acacia trees lining the shoulder, their thorns just aching to get stuck in your tire. A quiet morning, you are not surprised to see a young boy herding goats towards you down the middle of the road. Attempting to repeat the local greeting in Wolof, you are cut off by the surprise of a machete waving through the air as you roll past him. There are many ways that you could respond – shock, fear, anger. Yet in this moment it is important to realize that you are currently cycling through a culture where a work commute can mean a 9-year-old boy herding cattle down the road with a machete in one hand and a stick in the other. With no free hands, he waves the shorter of the two utensils in greeting. The same surprise might come from a grown man running at you with a spear attached to the end of a long stick. Despite his age, he shares the same enthusiasm as the boy for a lycra wearing circus-act riding through his home town. His own safety is less of a concern than getting to fist bump every rider coming through town.

These moments can be terrifying, but they also define the experience you have in your travels, along with the experience that the locals have with you. As a tourist traveling in a privately hired car, you are physically caging yourself off from the outside world. You become a spectator looking out of a window, enjoying the view but closing yourself off from the landscape and people you have come all this way to see.

On a bicycle, the experience is inherently different. You have less control over the narrative of your travel, unable to roll the windows up to ignore a vendor or curious child. If you came to a place to experience it, why not do so fully? Just as you want to ooh and aah at what you are seeing, taking pictures along the way, the people you are passing are doing the same. They might giggle at your clothes or peel with laughter at your attempts to speak their language, but at least you are giving them a chance to interact with you, not armoured in a way that restricts nearly all interaction. Yes, you may have your arms or legs touched as you pass by or even have rock thrown at you from a child. However much more often you will be applauded by crowds, offered shade in a vendor’s hut, or receive a friendly push up a seemingly endless hill. Making ourselves vulnerable to people, climate, and culture can seem like a big step out of a tourist car, but its rewards are greater than its risk.

Too often tourism is a one-sided affair. A bicycle is a fantastic mechanism to shift the power dynamic between the tourist and the local. Literally removing yourself from a spectator’s box makes you more approachable and evens the playing field in which interactions take place. The people you meet, the places you see are not just closer than your mirror suggests, they are a part of your everyday experience. On TDA, we will always choose the bicycle.

It was only a couple of weeks ago that our little company announced a new tour, Viva Italia, inspired by the idea that ‘all roads lead to Rome’. Strangely enough, I am now sitting in a coffee shop in Dakar where, according to Lonely Planet, ‘all roads in Senegal truly lead to Dakar’.

150 years ago Dakar had 300 residents. Now it is home to over 3 million people. It is a place that in my mind – and I assume many others of my generation – is associated with the, now defunct, Paris-Dakar off-road car rally.

Now that I have spent three days cycling, walking and traversing this big, cosmopolitan city, I ask myself, how is it that a city of this size, stature and history was for years in my mind simply an exotic place. A place where a crazy car rally, that tested man’s ability to built fast, durable, monstrous cars and motorcycles, traversed the Sahara desert, destroying sand dunes and spitting vast amounts carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Ironically this rally, simply called ‘Dakar’, continues to run in South America.

Dakar is situated on a small peninsula on the westernmost edge of this huge and marvelous continent. No matter where you are standing, sleeping, walking or driving, you are at most 3 km from the coast where you can enjoy all the enjoyment that the ocean provides, from wonderful cooling winds, to beaches, to football games on the sand, to surfing or simply dining or sipping your drinks and watching the world go by.

It is also a city where commerce of every sort and kind is encountered no matter where you are. Hawkers, hustlers, street vendors and assorted other characters can spring up at any moment particularly in areas where there are tourists. Interestingly, two days ago I took a 15 km walk across the middle of the peninsula from north to south and I was not accosted even once. For that matter, on my walk I did not encounter any expats or tourists.

Some of my friends and readers will now probably think that I am being reckless and endangering my life by walking alone in an unknown city, full of who knows what kind of shady characters. Fortunately for me, when we arrived in our hotel on the first day my hotel room was not ready. It gave me time to sit down in the lobby read some of the local press. One of the newspapers had a big screaming headline; ‘50 murders in Senegal in 2018!’ This headline was of interest to me because I live in Toronto with a population of around 3 million people. The number of homicides in my hometown so far in 2018 is around 90. So Senegal, with a population of over 16 million has less murders than Toronto. Quite a surprise.

The truth is that I, for one, should not have been surprised. Ever since I started this company I have been asked over and over, again and again, is it safe to cross Africa on a bike? Most of the time I have answered the question simply by saying that the most dangerous part of cycling in Africa is the same all over the world and that is dangerous drivers. I have written blogs such as ‘I Have More Fear of Cycling in Toronto Then Anywhere Else in the World‘ and I have talked about this to the media. Yet even I was surprised that the rate of homicides and dangerous crime in a poor country such as Senegal is significantly lower than in a place I call home.

What is one to make of this? Yesterday, I took a boat to Ile de Goree, a place where thousands of Africans were held awaiting their transportation and enslavement – that is if they survived their horrific conditions and passage to the new world. When one walks on the cobblestones among the old buildings in this now very tranquil place one wonders how any mind can perceive that it is ok to enslave another human being, not to mention a child. Even the slave traders all knew that enslaving human beings for profit was not acceptable to any religion.

What I realize from my days here in Dakar is that what we all need to do, and do continuously, is to expose ourselves to a different world than the one we already know so that we can see the world differently, so that what we see forces us to see the world from another perspective. Dakar from now on you are no longer the place where the Paris-Dakar rally ended. From now on, in my mind, you are a lively place with millions of people going on with their daily struggle and on Sundays, having fun exercising on one of its many beaches.

“The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind” – Bob Dylan

Dylan, as often was the case, got it right. While cycling the west coast of Africa from Morocco to Nouakchott, the capital of Mauritania, the answer is indeed ‘in the wind’. If anything, besides the fact that one is cycling in the spectacular grand Sahara, it is the wind that will make the day either pure joy or pure hell. Well, I may be exaggerating a bit, but ask any of the participants on the West Africa en Vélo, how one day they can easily reach the point of breaking down and start crying, only to feel an immense exhilaration 24 hours later.

Of course, this could also be because the desert has a way of heightening one’s own senses, allowing them to wander in every which direction. In my opinion, it is no coincidence that all the monotheistic religions have origins in the desert and those deserts have played such a key role in their evolution. The silence of the desert can bring out the best and the worst in us.

Perhaps it is the sand that does that. The sand can just lie there and look romantic and be a perfect backdrop for another majestic sunrise or sunset. One can luxuriously walk barefoot through it, feeling the sand sensually caressing one’s soles. However, when it joins forces with the wind, the sand will torture you, penetrating every pore of your skin. If that were not enough,  combined with the velocity of an oncoming truck, it will sandblast you with such force that you will feel like your skin is peeling off.

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So, are these elements the reason the desert attracts some of us while others find it repellent? Or is it because, in the desert, one can look at the night sky and wonder about Little Princes on other planets? Perhaps it is simply because in the desert we can test whether we are the rare individuals, who like the bushman of the Kalahari, have the ability to listen to the stars singing.

When Laurens van der Post one night
In the Kalihari Desert told the Bushmen
He couldn’t hear the stars
Singing, they didn’t believe him.
They looked at him,
Half-smiling. They examined his face
To see whether he was joking
Or deceiving them. Then two of those small men
Who plant nothing, who have almost
Nothing to hunt, who live
On almost nothing, and with no one
But themselves, led him away
From the crackling thorn-scrub fire
And stood with him under the night sky
And listened. One of them whispered,
Do you not hear them now?
And van der Post listened, not wanting
To disbelieve, but had to answer,
No. They walked him slowly
Like a sick man to the small dim
Circle of firelight and told him
They were terribly sorry,
And he felt even sorrier
For himself and blamed his ancestors
For their strange loss of hearing,
Which was his loss now…

David Wagoner wrote this poem about the desert and the man who authored such books as the ‘Lost world of the Kalahari’. Like van der Post, I, no matter how hard I try, know that I can not hear the stars singing. On the other hand, I do have 13 reasons why you should pick a desert and cycle across it.

In the last 15 years I have biked through the Sahara a couple of times, the Atacama desert, the Stuart Highway’s deserts, the Turkmenistan desert, the Gobi desert and many others. As long as I can keep cycling, I will look for more deserts to pedal across, always listening for those elusive singing stars.