Reflecting On Africa

I remember back to December 2008 when I first saw the Tour D’Afrique website. I was sitting in front of my computer contemplating doing something big for myself…You know maybe an ironman, maybe a vacation to a long lost dive site, maybe a volunteer job somewhere. When I came across the website after several random google searches, I knew I had found it. I immediately pulled out my credit card and paid the 100 Euro fee to save a spot. I thought to myself that if I just paid the deposit it would be enough of an incentive to do the trip without further ado. Biking across Africa seems to be a “do-able” challenge when you are warm and sitting on your couch 16000km away…The problem is, Africa is big, really really big. When I told my friends and family of the plan, they fully knew I was going to undertake this, as I rarely say I am going to do something that I don’t follow up on. Everyone was supportive but thought this was a crazy undertaking. I am not so sure exactly when I decided also that it was indeed a crazy undertaking. Maybe it was in Cairo when I heard the distances for the first week. Maybe it was on day two at 165km when the truck picked me up in the dark and I couldn’t make the last 3 kilometers because of the headwinds… Maybe it was in Dinder with the corrugation or when the kids were throwing rocks at me for the hundredth time in Ethiopia… or during the 22km climb out of the Blue Nile Gorge…or on the lava rocks in Northern Kenya or the aweful dirt roads in Tanzania or during the hail storm in Botswana. I don’t know exactly when it was, but there was a point I realized biking across Africa was not as easy as I had thought it would be.

Reflecting on the trip is difficult. Four months is a long time to remember. Not only is it long, we have been through a lot, on a personal level, as a group and as an expedition. We crossed through 10 countries, each one being so incredibly different and unique that each country felt like a trip in itself. We changed money and languages and terrain so often that each day felt fresh and exotic and new despite the fact that our routine was so ingrained in us. We would wake up and pedal and pedal and eat and pedal and sleep and then wake up and do it all again. Each day a new distance, new coke stops and new vistas. The constants of this trip for me were the familiar faces that I saw each day on the road, at lunch and at camp and the amazing friends that helped me get through each day no matter how long it was or how hard it was. The days I will never forget are the ones that seemed the hardest at the time, biking out of the blue nile gorge with Mark and Georgie, riding through the headwinds with Sam and Steve on day 2, having Dave make me a cheese sandwich as I changed a flat tire at 90km into Dinder at 5pm, my 11 hour day through Tanzania with Captain Erin, The non race day that my racer friends Rod and Juliana rode with me and days and days that Dan and Jenn painfully rode my speed and supported me even though they could have been in camp with their feet up.

Africa has changed each and everyone of us on this trip whether we wanted the change or not. We have seen and felt things we may or may not have been prepared for, we have pushed ourselves harder than we may have wanted to but at the end of the day we are coming back to our lives a little bit more knowledgeable and a little bit stronger for what we have experienced. The simplicity of this life we have lived for four months is refreshing and helps us to see we can live with so little and still have happiness.

This has been the hardest blog that I have written because I am sad it is over. My body is certainly glad it is over but this trip has changed my life in so many ways. I think that Dave Arman wrapped up the trip the best in his blog for the TDA, entitled “Looking Back” so I will copy and paste that blog post here, because no one can articulate it better than him!

Thank you Africa, for all you have taught me about myself. Thank you to the communities and villages that opened us with welcome arms. Thank you to the many people who stood along side the rode to cheer on strangers as we biked through your home towns. Thank you to my countless friends and family that have supported me along the way with emails and letters and packing help and drives to the airport and picking up bikes and spares. Thanks to my mom and sister who flew to Capetown to see me cross the finish line of this epic journey. Thank you to the other TDA riders with special thanks to those that rode with me and supported me through the tough times, as I passed over the laugh/cry barrier, as I struggled over the lava rocks and dirt and up and down the hills of Ethiopia and biked more than I ever dreamt was possible. Thank you to those who rode in the rain and wind with me and thank you to all the adventurers who shared this journey with me. Thank you to the staff of TDA and Indaba for the food and support and hard work and laughs.

And the last thank you is to my body for holding up despite the constant abuse and struggle I put you through- we did it, body soul and mind, we biked across Africa!

Looking Back
How do you describe the best/worst/most intense 4 months of your life? I’ve been asked to write up a little thing about the Tour D’Afrique, a four month-long bike ride from the top of Africa to the bottom. Ever since I was a boy I’ve dreamed of going to Egypt. Pictures of pyramids and mummies and The Sphinx captured my imagination. Now not only was I going, I was going to begin a huge journey there. On a chilly January morning, myself and about 60 other riders were taking off on the adventure of a lifetime. Bicycling from Cairo to Cape Town seemed like a good idea at the time. How hard can it be to ride a bike down a continent? Why do I do things like this?



Earlier today another rider and I were discussing the fact that we only have 747 more kilometres to go. This used to seem like a pretty big number to me. Now I’m not even remotely fazed by it. It almost seems too easy; is there a catch somewhere? There always is. We’ve ridden over every type of terrain imaginable: sand, loosely packed gravel, corrugated dirt roads, lava rocks, and occasionally even paved roads in good repair. We’ve ridden on bright sunny days, horrendous thunderstorms, bitter cold mornings, and I even got hailed on once (hail? Aren’t I in friggin’ Africa?). We’ve ridden through the deserts of Sudan where there wasn’t another soul on the road (I was listening to my ipod one day and forgot about the folks on the lunch truck that drove by; they had a good laugh at my expense when they caught me dancing whilst riding). We’ve ridden through Ethiopia where each and every child in every single village expects you to smile and wave at them (they’ll pelt you with rocks whether you wave or not). We’ve ridden past the pyramids of Egypt, the waterfalls in Malawi (life doesn’t get much better than getting off the bike and soaking yourself under a waterfall on a blisteringly hot day), and the barren wasteland that seems to compose most of Botswana. We’ve seen elephants, zebra, giraffe, springbok, and an entire barrel full of monkeys. We’ve met starving children in Zambia (I tried to give them my broccoli... Mom, they didn’t want it either). We’ve gotten rides in tuk tuks, cabs, backs of pickup trucks, matatus, the odd dump truck, and a few guys even rode camels for a bit. We bungee jumped from Victoria Falls (well I didn’t, I’m far too much of a coward to do something like that), climbed Kilimanjaro, visited monasteries in Ethiopia, went swimming in the Nile (never try to skip a stone when you’re wearing your keys around your wrist; swimming isn’t always just for fun) . We went on safari at the Ngorogoro Crater, and stayed in tiny villages where everyone who lived there was at least distantly related. We went from huge cities where no one noticed us, to small towns where all the people would come out and watch us stop and drink Fanta, and rode through the suburbs of Nairobi which look identical to suburbs everywhere. We’ve suffered from diarrhea, saddle sores, broken bones, back pain, leg cramps, and daily exhaustion. We’ve complained about poor service in restaurants, long days, each other, people watching your every move, each other, overly inquisitive children, mobs of unruly boys, and each other. Yet each day we’re up and ready to start again. Every day on this trip has brought some new adventure, which is kind of amazing since every day is fairly similar: wake up far too early, eat breakfast, ride your bike a ridiculously long distance, eat lunch, ride even further, eat dinner, then go to bed.



The one thing that has made this trip truly unforgettable is the people, individuals from 20 or so countries with nothing in common other than being idiotic enough to sign up for a trip like this. It sounds like the tag line to a bad reality show. People that you normally wouldn’t acknowledge if you passed them on the street suddenly become you’re best friend. I now know more about many people on this trip than their own relatives do. When you have a 6 hour day ahead of you, with nothing to occupy your time other than pedal and repeat, you start talking to folks quite a bit. You discover their dreams and aspirations. You discuss what really matters, because there is no TV. You also discuss your favourite episode of MASH and why Dick Sergent was better than Dick York. These are people and conversations that will stick with you for life. However, these same people wouldn’t recognize you if you were to get a different shirt, because they only know you in the three you wear every day.



I’ve been asked if I’d do this trip again, the answer never varies, “Not in a million years!” However would I recommend this trip to others, without a moment’s hesitation. This trip will make you appreciate what you have at home. It’ll also make you realize what your life has been lacking. It will make you weep with both joy and sorrow (occasionally at the same time). You will feel more alive than you’ve ever felt, often when wishing you were dead. You will be ecstatic to crawl into your tent every night and eating oatmeal in the morning will be the best thing you’ve ever tasted. You will never want to go home, but miss it with all your heart. I could never do this again, but in my head, and for the rest of my life I will be doing it daily.



-- Dave Arman

South Africa Gives us the Final Test

I’m not sure what I expected as I crossed the border from Namibia into South Africa but whatever I was thinking I was very wrong.  Maybe I thought there would be a 3% downhill grade with tailwinds to Capetown, or maybe a conveyor belt that you get on and put your bike on too and it would magically transport you to Capetown. What South Africa really is to a tired biker is a lot (A LOT) of uphill climbing. We have been averaging 1000 meters up per day, with some descents too, but a whole lot of uphills. My legs are tired, my mind is tired and I feel over the whole biking 100+++kilometers per day thing. I think four months of this lifestyle could quite possibly be my breaking point, but finally Capetown appears like a long lost friend on the road signs. The first time we saw it “Capetown 611km”, it required a double take, as if the place we have been biking towards for the last four months actually exists? Amazing. Definitely picture worthy. Hilarious though that even at this point, so close to the final destination the 611km, is truly just a joke to us, as we have a few more kilometers to go as we have to detour off of the main highway onto more (yes you guessed it-DIRT roads) because bikers are not allowed on this next busy stretch of highway. In two riding days we will be ready to begin the final convoy into the finish line in Capetown. 

There is a mix of anxiety and excitement and exhaustion amongst the riders and a lot of nervousness about returning to regular, real life after this, whatever “real” life is anyways. I am looking forward to seeing my mom and sister at the finish line. 

Newest CBC Radio Interview

Link to second radio interview podcast.

Read the Globe and Mail article about the trip and my glowing description by the reporter:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/travel/across-africa-by-bike/article1552488/

Entering the Home Stretch

It has been a tough week. Actually a tough country, Namibia has challenged me mentally and physically in the final days of the tour. Maybe you could say that Namibia was my “lowest low” (thank goodness I still had some “travelling beans” (Thanks Chris Hatton) to get me through. Not that the dirt was “THAT” hard, but with the combination of the weather, rain, wind, sun and long long days. There were definitely some tears shed. The landscapes were mind-blowing and the country was awe-inspiring however some days the fatigue in my legs and the exhaustion of knowing that camp was still another 9 hours of riding away made the views less impressive. We rode near to the Fish River Canyon (the second largest dry canyon in the world next to the Grand Canyon) and then some riders rode their bikes, I opted for a ride in the jeep to the edge. It was amazing.

The good news about reaching the "lowest low" already is that everything can only get better from there. Therefore I am assured the "highest high" is just around the corner in Capetown on May 15...Yesterday I tried to change my mindset, which was easy to do with the morning vista of riders riding over the crest of a hill with the sunset coming up behind them. The day was our last “mando day” and for good reason with 128km of dirt followed by 46km of pavement against a horrendous headwind. My legs felt tired from the beginning of the day, which is a common thing these days. However I thought that once we got off our final off road stretch things would get easier…Nope. The headwind started and it was late in the afternoon and I could feel the hot Namibian desert sun burning the back of my calf and my lips. I arrived at the junction with the gas station and fast food place (8km from camp…) and a friend had rode back here to wait for me. We had a quick burger and fries and lots of coke and rode the final stretch. Even though it was a very tough day and I rolled into camp as “the slowest rider that rides” as the sun went down minutes later I felt very privileged… Privileged that I was riding my bike from sunrise to sunset, privileged that I had just got the opportunity to see Africa in a way that not many people do and privileged that I could take enough time off of work to get to do these things.

I am anxious and nervous for the end but at the same time ready for the next life adventure and whatever that holds. We still have six riding days into Capetown with some difficult days due to the prevailing headwinds from the coast. Energy levels around camp are low although spirits are high with the end approaching. Winter has definitely made an appearance this last week as long pants, and fingered gloves have again come out of riders bags for the first time since Egypt and Sudan. It no longer feels so hot and humid like Africa and I am looking forward to going back to the summer in Canada. Unlucky for the people from the Southern Hemisphere who have to go back to winter… We are hoping for nice weather in Capetown as then there will be a lot of spectators there to see the finish line.

Unrecoverable Exhaustion Meets the Last Offroad Dirt Section: Welcome to the Namib Desert

The rest day seemed to come and go this time and left me wondering, “When do we get to rest?”… We have to deal with the final offroad dirt section. For the road riders this is daunting at this stage in the game, the mountain bikers may be looking forward to it, however they are also tired. Day one of the offroad proved to not be that difficult, but long and very very hilly. I arrived to camp after 8 hours very tired and my legs were very sore. Day two ended in tears I hate to say, as headwinds and downpours just finally broke my spirit. How I was going to get up and ride another day before the rest day was unknown to me. I am lucky that I have made some very very good friends on this trip. People helped me with setting up my tent, cleaning my bike and trying to rejuvenate my spirit all at once. Thank god for that, because it help bring my day today, “from tears to beers” as my friend Jenn rode all day with me despite her excellent placement in the race and the fact that she lost hours. We had a bit of a tailwind today and I actually got to Sousseveli before noon which gave me a day and a half of rest day instead of only the one day which is what usually happens.

We now are on the Home Stretch. It is unbelievable when I think that in a little under two weeks I will have biked myself from Cairo to Capetown. We have 5 days on dirt (with really long days) and 6 days on pavement into Capetown where my mom and sister will be waiting at the finish line. My body is ready to be done, but I am not sure how the rest of me feels. I am really going to miss these new friends and this amazing adventure that I have been so privileged to get to come on.

Sousseveli is in the Namib desert, literally in the middle of nowhere. It has unbelievable scenery and the kind of sanddunes that you imagine when you think “sanddunes…” It will be great to see

Last day of Riding into “the Windhoek Rest Day”

Today was one final test of the “century week” and what we were actually mentally and physically capable of. It was one of my hardest days on tour thus far. I was up most of the night with a headache, not a migraine, but a headache brought on by a massive knot in my neck of stiff muscles. This didn’t make getting up any easier, especially since I have reached the part of the tour that I have entered a zone of unrecoverable exhaustion. The team time trial was this morning, which I had to skip out on, I just decided to get on my bike and ride and *hopefully* make it through the day. Some of the fast racers, my friends decided to take it easy today and ride with me which was really nice because I generally never see them unless it is at camp. We goofed around in the morning and had a good time riding together. At lunch the headwind had become much stronger. We carried on , as the day was 160 again. At 110km we rolled into the Windhoek International Airport for a “coke stop” and then as we pulled out we were facing very difficult hills and headwinds. My body was still very tired from the last four days of intense, difficult riding so every minute felt like it hurt me. At one point I got off my bike and sat on the side of the road feeling sorry for myself. We had started to pass large estate homes and it has been the first time in a while that it was evident that there is some money in this area and the “culture shock” of the trip is coming to an end. The difficult riding began to take a toll on my psyche and I started to feel like I wish the end was more in sight that it is. I got on my bike again and finished off the day, ending in the beautiful, but modern and “developed” city of Windhoek. This city is beautiful but could have been in North America or Europe or anywhere for that matter. It didn’t feel like Africa anymore…

When we arrived at camp to see many other tired, spent riders it was evident that this day had not only challenged me, but others too and the last dirt section is just around the corner, where were we going to muster up the energy to pull that off? Well we had a whole day of mall trips etc. to figure that out, oh yeah, but only after we had changed our tires and done our laundry and multiple other “rest day chores..”

Four months is a long long time.

Reflections on Botswana and The Okavango Delta

Wow. Botswana - Over 1000km of the most boring, straight LONG LONG biking days imaginable with mixed in rain and headwinds to boot. The Elephant highway tested all of the bikers ability to get through long 160+ days of riding with nothing to look at or do, but spin your legs over and over again. Almost every night we were treated to thunder and lightening storms and torrential downpours. Our poor tents were tested to their maximum as we lay vulnerable hoping and praying to get a good night’s sleep before the next riding day….

Our “Mando day” was 207km (our longest ride) following the previous days being 156 and then 140km. Waking up already tired and then getting on the bike for a day that long is daunting for the best riders and even more daunting for me, hoping there would be enough daylight to finish the day. We would be riding our way into Namibia so we had to reach the Namibian border before it closed. I made sure both Ipods were charged and I loaded my handlebar bag with lots of snacks for the day. My legs spun and spun and spun. My body was tired, and the day started off with pouring rain, so many people opted out from the minute they got out of their tent in the morning…(because if 207km isn’t hard enough, throw in some rain and headwinds and it quickly weeds people out). I rode the first 150km by myself, through the rain and wind. At the refresh stop (where the staff fills water bottles and gives extra snack bars I ran into Lani. Lani is a Canadian woman who just turned 59 years old. She started out the trip finishing half days most days. She had already rode her bike across Canada in 2008 and is one of the strongest, most inspirational women I have ever met. Since Tanzania she has rode every single inch. She gets on her bike no matter the weather or how tough the day is going to be… While some of the riders half her age are clambering onto the truck at any chance they get, Lani gets on her bike early and goes. She has become much faster at me at this point and she encourages me in my rides on the days that we ride together. We arrived at the gas station at 200km around 5pm. We loaded up on some drinks and candy and rode towards the border. On our way we were treated to a hail storm and a torrential downpour. This was miserable to end the already long day with. At that point the bucky came by, Paul (Race director) gave us a thumbs up to see how we were doing… not sure how to respond to that at that point… Hard to say. We did the thumbs up back and rode through to clear out of Botswana and into Namibia. At the Namibian border (205km) I began to fill out my customs sheet. Small drips of water came off my soaking wet sleeves and helmet and dripped onto the paper. Also my passport was soaking wet from being in my handlebar bag all day long…The woman informed me that I would have to fill out another form because she couldn’t accept wet forms AND I should put my passport in a ziplock bag next time. I informed her that I was not interested in her suggestions after the day I had just had. Lani and I finished up and rode the last three kilometers to camp. At camp, we arrived to “rider’s meeting” being called and a flooded campsite. Dinner was late for us and we finally got dried off into our tents where it poured rain all night long. Botswana was a test of patience, and the ability to spend countless hours with yourself. Looking forward to Namibia and the desert AGAIN.. Weird it feels like we are going full circle to where we began. Even though the weather is a little colder now.

Reflections on Zambia and Zimbabwe

We are now biking through countries so fast I am having a hard time keeping up with doing my “reflections” blogs. All I can remember about Zambia is Victoria Falls, I guess if that is the only thing that I remember that is not so bad. The road surface in Zambia was seal coat which made for a long week or so, or however long we were there…

I really like the bugs in these tropical countries… This first one is a dung beetle. They spend there days crawling around in piles of poo. I just couldn’t wait to get my hands on him… The other one is just a really cool beetle, maybe they will give me a job at the Victoria Bug Zoo when I get home with all my experience…

Botswana and “The Elephant Highway”

Arriving in Botswana involves taking a small ferry from Zambia into Botswana. The ferry is only about 500m and there is an island half way across which has a point which is on four borders, Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana. This is also a bottleneck for all of the semi trucks that are transporting things across Africa, as only one truck will fit on each ferry and there was only two truck ferries and one people/car ferry. The trucks were lined up for miles on either side of the “border”. Botswana has a lot of kilometers waiting for us. Although this section is mainly flat and straight, we are making up for our shorter dirt days in this section through our “century week” where we do 160 + kilometers everyday… Next week we will do our 207km day (our longest day on tour). Yesterday we went into Chobe National Park on a River Safari. We were on the Chobe river which is a tributary to the Zambezi river which is the river that feeds Victoria Falls. We saw a tonne of hippos and large lizards and even a lion that was chasing a warthog and then the lion came down really close to the river. I thought that this safari was much better than the truck safari because I didn’t feel so crammed in.

The Elephant Highway is in an area which has thousands of wild elephants. They are extremely dangerous animals and we have been advised that if we see elephants on the side of the road we need to stop and wait for the elephant to pass by or move very carefully past the elephant. Most of the day today was just long and there were no animals but just a lot of elephant poo. Later this afternoon, just before camp there was an elephant. I was glad that I ran into a couple of other riders so that I wasn’t close to the elephant on my own. We waited for awhile until the elephant would pass, but he was pretty content to just be hanging out on the side. We finally decided to bike pass the elephant. It made me really nervous like when I used to be nervous around bears before I lived in Alaska for awhile. The elephant defiantly took a look at us as we passed by, but we made it by safely. You have to look closely in the photo to see the elephant in the distance... At camp tonight at our bush camp everyone was trying to set up their tents off of the elephant pathways just in case they tromp through our camp at night…

We have three more long days until our rest day in Maun. 154km, 182km, and 136km. We are now at less than a month count down… My legs are very tired and I feel like I am in overtraining mode… But with only a few weeks left I feel like I can persevere.

Victoria Falls Zimbabwe

We arrived in Livingstone and a bunch of us went across the border (which cost Canadians $75US and everyone else $30) to Zimbabwe to stay at the world famous Victoria Falls Hotel. It is a colonial hotel and reminds me alot of Victoria BC. It is really nice. At check in they bring you a eucalyptus cool facecloth and a "welcome drink" in a champagne glass. The hotel is right overlooking the bridge and the gorge. Really worth it. I guess the Zambian side is much more expensive as the rooms here are around $250 and the rooms on the Zambian side go for $600!! Crazy to think of paying these prices in Africa. We walked the length of the falls today, which make Niagra Falls seem like a baby version of these falls... As you walk along you get soaked, like it is pouring rain. We opted for one found umbrella and no rain jackets. It was so awesome. You can get way closer to the falls then they would let you get in North America, some sections had no barriers against falling into the falls. Apparently, occasionally an elephant goes over the falls who accidently fell into the Zambezi river upstream and can't get out. Even though that would be sad it would be pretty cool to see...

The river is at its peak right now so there is no chance of rafting which is kinda sad, I guess it just means I will have to come back at some point. There are monkeys and baboons and warthogs in the yard outside the window of the hotel room which is a nice reminder that we are in Africa and very delicious food. This is probably the first time on the trip so far that I feel like I am on vacation and not at some sort of crazy biking everyday job. It will be hard to get back to the riding as we have our "century week" coming up in Botswana where we ride 160km + everyday.... Ugh. You would think I had an iron butt by now, but alas my butt seems to be taking alot of abuse lately, especially after getting a small piece of grass in my shorts after peeing the other day and getting a grass shaped saddle sore. Then the next day getting some small thorns in my chamois from peeing and having to pick them out of my shorts while riding, oh man the things that can happen out here, I tell you... Just when you think 150km days are hard, it can get harder.... Someone even got their bike stolen at a camp the other night... They found it, but it took some serious Sherlock Holmes techniques...

The Long Road to Victoria Falls

We have arrived at Victoria Falls, which for most of us feels like Christmas. It is TWO whole days of rest and relaxation! The most we have had since Arusha (where we were lucky enough to get three!) This is the last stacked rest day until the end, almost exactly one month away. The week was long, the milege continues to increase and we have a whole lotta riding left to do. Exhaustion, a bad chest cold and seriously long days tried to stop me from riding this week, but alas I woke up every morning, got on the bike and spun my legs and cranked those pedals to camp everyday. Even as countless others got on the truck, went ahead to Vic Falls and often led me to being the last into camp each day. The milege this week was long, 152km, 185km and 152km. I was really sick so this didn't make the week easier. It did help me to move the congestion in my chest, as the riding caused me to cough a whole lot. We had a campsite last week that got invaded by ants and everyone woke up in the night covered in biting ants inside the tents...I was really sick so I remember waking up in a sort of feverish dream and having a tonne of ants embedded in my armpit and all over my arms and legs. A couple of riders even left their tents and went to sleep on the truck. It was a long night.

We found this cute little cameleon on the road to Vic Falls and played with him for a little while. It made my riding day, especially since we had some dirt riding to do due to the construction that was going on.

200km riding day

There is nothing more daunting than waking up after a 152km day, knowing that you have a 200km riding day. For a lot of riders on the tour, this riding day will be the longest any of us have ever biked consecutively, however I am sure for many it won’t be the last. We woke up at “Mama Rules” campsite which was a nice overlander campsite with a pool (although I never saw it) and showers and and a bar and restaurant, pretty nice campsite for our first day in Zambia. Since passing over the border the landscape has changed (again) and the roads have become a little less maintained. They are bumpier and watching for large potholes in the road is essential to not have an accident. Plus the bike riders in this country seem to ride on the wrong side of the road. While it took some of us long enough to get used to riding on the left hand side of the road (since Kenya), now we need to get used to riding with other bikers coming directly at us.

The riding day began pretty good however at 40km I had my 21 flat tire in the form of a blow out. I quickly changed this out as I have become quite good at changing tires now and continued the ride. Lunch arrived at 84km and when I rode into lunch I realized I had a second flat tire (my 22 of the trip…)It was frustrating but Sam said that I could use his front wheel because he didn’t want to ride anymore. It worked out quite well because I didn’t want to change anymore tires for the day. The day went on and on kilometer after kilometer. I was lucky because I loaded a lot of podcasts and audio tapes onto my ipod shuffle. It is a long long way to ride on your own. I rode *almost* all day on my own which is a long ways and a lot of thinking time. At around 185 km one of my friends biked back to see if I was okay, he had already been to camp and then camp out to find me, it was really nice to have someone to ride with the last 15km. Camp actually ended up to be at 195, which was great for my legs but disappointing for the fact that I could have carried on to make the 200km. A very satisfying day, with a party waiting at camp for Tony’s 50th birthday and Juliana’s birthday… Drinks for all and a good rest before the rest of the week’s riding days of 124km, 152km and 108km respectively before reaching Lusaka (where there is apparently a Subway). Since our halfway mark for time and distance did not happen at the same time, we now have a lot of ground to cover to get to Capetown by May 15. The good news is that Botswana is very flat, the bad news is we have a lot of miles to cover within that time…

The last 5 days have taken a toll on riders. In five days we rode 720km and now we have another 500km to ride in the next three days to arrive in Victoria Falls for our double day off. A bunch of us are going to go into Zimbabwe to go to the world famous Vic Falls Hotel to rest. We have so many kilometers to cover still and people’s bodies.are getting tired.

Reflections on Malawi

Wow, another country completed. They have started to fly by at this point now… Malawi was beautiful and welcoming. There were a lot of children but they were relatively tame compared to what we are used to… The things I will remember of this country is the humidity, Lake Malawi (which I unfortunately did not get to dive in due to logistics), climbing the escarpment out of the Lake, and the difficult hilly days (not as bad as Ethiopia for climbing but close).There were also stark reminders that we are in a very poor country in Africa, the dozens of coffin shops at any area where there are shops, the dozens of AIDS signs and reminders of that and the children in ripped clothing lining the sides of the roads. Malawi defiantly gave Ethiopia a run for its money with the beautiful vistas and lush vegetation, it would have been nice to stay a few more days in this country. There will be lots of places I will need to come back and visit later on in my life when I am not so focused on biking. I will also remember Malawi as the country that we had to change the clocks. We now wake up at 4:20ish and are riding by 6:15. This usually means that we are at lunch by 9:00am. This really messes with your mind when you are so hungry again by like 2:00pm.

Malawi Mando Day

I am finally feeling better after a long day of riding yesterday feeling really sick climbing the escarpment (650m) out of the lake. I spent my rest day throwing up, not really sure why but it was unfortunate because there was a pig roast that night and I was not able to participate. That was April fools day. Someone thought that it was a good idea to put my bike in a tree, and take the wheels off and put them in a tree also. Luckily my friend Jenn is always around to help and told everyone that it wasn’t funny because I am so sick and she got it out of tree for me! Climbing the escarpment, I was sweating more than I usually sweat in a Bikram yoga class and it was 7:30 in the morning. It was even hard to keep my sunglasses on because the sweat was pouring of my face so quickly.. I think this worked to my advantage as it sweated out whatever was wrong with me. About half way up the climb there was a small waterfall pouring off of the rocks, so I took the opportunity to pull over and take a shower under the water. It felt so great and helped me make it up the rest of the day. After the 10km ride up the climb we had another 120km ride to camp, which is a long ride when you are feeling terrible. Malawi is proving to be just as hilly as Ethiopia. But maybe some of the most beautiful riding we have done. It is absolutely stunning and refreshing to see so much undeveloped land. Yesterday’s total climb was 1600m and today’s ride was almost 1900m. As if the climbing wasn’t enough to make the day brutal and difficult, mix in rain and the occasional headwind and that equals another difficult mando riding day. One of the woman in the group counted the number of the hills and came up with 41… and these were not small hills either. By lunch (at 70km) I decided if I saw one more hill, I might not be able to continue. The day went on and on and on, hill after hill after hill and finally we arrived at camp. So far on the trip we have climbed 46000m!!! My legs will defiantly agree with this number. I haven’t really been stretching and when I arrived at camp from the day, my hamstring was really tight, I moved quickly and tore a little bit of my hamstring. That should make riding easier… Tomorrow is supposed to be an easier day, and I am thankful for that…Two more days until the next day off… In Lilongwe (the capital of Malawi).

So far we have seen some crazy things in Malawi, A pig being carried on a bike, an eighteen month old baby holding (clinging) on to the back of his dad riding on a bicycle, not strapped on in any manner. We saw an older woman carrying an old fashion Singer sewing machine on her head up a hill, pretty impressive.

We have arrived in Lilongwe the capital and unfortunately unless I miss several days of riding I will not be able to dive in Lake Malawi which is a bit of a bummer. We are at altitude here and the lake is now a 4 hour drive away and we cannot drive back to altitude until 6 hours after the last dive. I guess I will just have to return to Lake Malawi another time. We only have one more riding day in Malawi and then onto our seventh country of Zambia. We have a really long (175km day) coming up the day after tomorrow so I am chilling out on this rest day and doing minimal amounts of things to prepare my body for the grind.  

Into Malawi

The roads that took us out of Tanzania and into Malawi were amazing. Malawi has brought back flashbacks and déjà views of Ethiopia as children line the streets shouting, the only bonus is the fact that the children do not throw things. The views have turned to more lush rainforest type landscapes, with banana trees and leafy greens. It is very very humid and hot which makes riding a bit more of a challenge. Sleeping is also difficult as it has been storming in the night so we have to have our tent flys on, which makes it like a sauna in the tents.

We saw this “End of the Dangerous Zone” sign along side the road as we left Tanzania however at no point was there a sign that told us we were “Entering the Dangerous Zone” so we were quite surprised to see this sign as we rolled by… Well thankfully we made it out of the Dangerous Zone, with no problems. We are on our day off beside Lake Malawi which is a massive freshwater lake. There is a chance of the parasite Bilharzia in the water (a small microscopic snail that swims up your ureter and causes you to excrete small amounts of blood in the urine until you are anemic and it can only be gotten rid of with a special antibiotic), also my toe is questionably infected right now from where the nail came off, but alas I could not resist the turquoise water and it was such an amazing swim that I decided I would be okay with getting the parasite for the cost of the amazing swim. I got another bout of sickness this morning and spent half of my rest day throwing up. We now have a lot of climbing (uphill) to do, to get out of the valley that Lake Malawi is in, up to Lilongwe in 4 days, just over 650km to our next rest day where I am hoping to do some scuba diving if all goes well. I just booked my next hotel break in Victoria Falls which we will stay in the Zimbabwe side, hopefully logistically it all works out, it is our last two day rest days in a row before the end of the trip,  

Half Way To Capetown!! 5850km to GO!

Reflections on Tanzania

The countries seem to be flying by at this point, just as we get our money changed into one currency we are crossing another border, getting ready to change into a different currency. Tanzania gave us a run for our money with difficult dirt roads and long days, but is wrapping up with some nice paved roads with short days (110km and under)..We have had several days of rain but have been lucky because it is the rainy season in Tanzania and we haven’t had as much we could have. Tanzania has been so beautiful. It is lush and green and rainforesty. There are huge fields of sunflower crops which remind me of my friend Jess Kayser. It is definitely a welcome relief from the desert landscape that we have gotten used to. The rest day in Iringa was a chance for most people to overhaul the drive trains on their bikes if they hadn’t already done it at some point on the trip. New handlebar tape, cassettes, chains, cables will make the second half of the trip more enjoyable and ensure that the bikes actually make it to Capetown. In a couple of days we will be crossing the border into Malawi (our 6th country). We will be staying on a beach on Lake Malawi for our first rest day. I have been getting more and more tired as the trip has been going by. I have slowed on my blog updates to allow myself more time to actually “rest” on rest days as our “rest days” are already filled with mile long lists of errands to prepare for the next week of riding. By the time that hand laundry, bike maintenance, and snack shopping is done, the actual “rest time“ is minimal. So I apologize for the lack of communication at this point and thank everyone for the support that I have been getting.

Tanzanian Dirt Roads ALMOST broke my body and spirit, ALMOST (50 hour bike week)

Where The Pavement Begins....Heaven

Iringa, Tanzania AT LAST!! The last seven days have been the most difficult days for me on the trip thus far… Having logged almost 50 hours on my bike this week, this is the most hard earned rest day that I have gotten to. The dirt in Tanzania is a mixture of thick sand, chunky rocks and dirt and clay making the rides very long. Mix in a lot of up hill climbing (a lot) and difficult tedious downhill sections on the dirt and I would have to say this might have been more difficult for me than Northern Kenya. Two days this week I arrived at camp after 6pm which is disheartening because you change out of your biking clothes, baby wipe and then go to rider’s meeting, wipe the bike down and prepare for the next day of riding. No real time to recoup. I have also been plagued lately with an incurable case of insomnia which on top of the hours and hours in the saddle is slowly killing me. I The nerves in my right hand have also decided they have had enough of the endless banging around on the dirt and they are not allowing my fingers to function properly anymore. My index finger and middle finger on my right hand are stuck together and will not separate independently of me pulling them apart. It is not painful, but it makes handwriting and typing next to impossible… Hopefully this will go away when I stop riding every day. Obviously that would have to happen in my right hand. There were defiantly a few days this week I wanted to pack the trip in, but it seems that when things get really low something cool happens to remind us where we are, like twenty monkeys walking out on the road in front of us or a chameleon crossing to the road.

My rest day turned out to be very eventful as I have been having problems with my big toe on my right foot ever since Dinder Park, My bike shoe is a little tight and it has given me a black toe and I took bets around camp for everyone to put in a date when they thought that the toe nail would fall off for good. It seemed like a fun game at the time…However today the fun game turned to be not so enjoyable when I snagged the toe nail on the ground when I bent down and it tore the nail off and now it is dangling by a thread. There was a lot of blood and a lot of pain and now I am trying to devise a plan to squeeze this painful mess into my bike shoe tomorrow. After I stopped crying, one of the riders asked me who one the bet…I guess I had that coming… Luckily one of the other girls on the trip had gotten an infected ingrown toenail on her same big toe and has been in the hospital twice on the trip, once to have it removed and once when it got infected so I have an expert to help me through the pain of this less than enjoyable injury….And thus I didn’t get on the internet to post this blog and all that will have to wait until the next rest day in Malawi…

A new one to add to the mix – Tar!!

So our last day in Kenya had to be nothing less than epic to end off our journey through this country. It was a 160km day, which is the first century ride that we have done in quite a while, actually since February 17. Our legs and bodies have taken a break from the long distances and with my bruised hip I wasn’t really looking so forward to the day. Early on, a man on the road looked bewildered at me and said “Aren’t you going to church?”… This statement made me panic because I knew that nothing good could come from the fact that- No, in fact I wasn’t going to church- instead I am riding my bike through Africa… I said to the person I was riding with, “nothing good will come of that statement, in fact something bad is going to happen today…” Not 20km later, I had my 16th flat tire of the trip, the tube exploded going downhill and blew my rear tire off…. Luckily (again) I wasn’t going fast enough for this to cause me to crash. I got the tire changed and continued on this incredibly long day. At around 95km, the road construction started. There was a clear diversion road, which was dirt and then the road that they were working on… We started to ride onto the dirt road, when the road worker waved at us to go on the “closed road” It looked much smoother and better than the dirt road so we opted for this. Little did we know it had “just” been newly tared. YIKES. I thought dirt roads were bad. Within 3km, we were riding on freshly wet tared roads, with the tar flicking all over our drive trains, cables, bodies and faces… and it was slippery, very slippery. We had to get off. Just then we saw two riders on the side of the road, one had just crashed and was covered head to toe in tar, with cuts underneath. What a nightmare. We sorted this situation and cleaned our bike and bodies the best we could with diesel from the truck when it stopped to get the injured rider. We carried our bikes across the way back onto the dirt road. The road construction continued for kilometers and kilometers… we now rode on the dirt. It was a long long hot day covered head to toe in tar. When we finally did arrive at camp it was a hectic mess of petrol and rags and riders covered with tar. This is a lot harder of a clean up job than mud. This is the kind of clean up job I would have loved to pay someone $200 shillings to clean for me. Yet Another epic Kenyan day. We will cross the border tomorrow morning and have our first riding day into Tanzania. I cannot even begin to imagine what Tanzania has in store for us. We just need to pray to the rain gods not to give us rain, apparently it makes the dirt roads of Tanzania an absolute nightmare.

Into Nairobi- My Crash

Ahhh. Kenya was supposed to get easier after the Northern Section but today didn’t feel easier. The convoy that needs to happen to “safely” get a group of 60 bike riders into a major city is pretty intense as we have now experienced it in Cairo, Khartoum and Addis Ababa, But Nairobi is a lot more difficult. To eliminate this, the TDA did a search for a new route to get us to the Indaba camp on the southern side of the city without having to go through the middle of the city and without having to do a 3-4 hour convoy. The plan was to ride 65km to lunch, then as riders arrived, to separate into three convoys based on riding speeds. We arrived to lunch only about 10mins after the middle convoy left. That meant an hour and a half wait until the next convoy left. This is a long rest when you still have another 75km to ride. The ride all day was very very hilly, it was really hot and people are starting to feel pretty tired. We had about 1500m of climbing, which was another reminder of Ethiopia. We got into the convoy with the remaining riders, which was only about 10 people because, again a bunch of riders had either gone ahead to Nairobi or had gotten on the truck to avoid the day. The convoy felt dangerous due to the crazy drivers and the fact there was a lot of road construction, etc. After a 30km convoy on the highway, we were again released on our own to complete the last 40ish kilometers to camp…Hills, hills, hills. Two of the Kenyan riders rode with us to ensure we wouldn’t miss the turns and a TDA staff was also positioned at all the turns (there were a few). I imagine finding lost riders in Nairobi would be a bit of a nightmare. We approached Karen (a small suburb of Nairobi) where most of the ex-pats live, and the embassies and consulates are all around here. After the Ex-pat mall the traffic became an absolute nightmare, especially because it was after 5pm at this point. I was riding with American Dan and Rick at this point. Sharita (tour director) stopped and told us the traffic was too dangerous, and there had already been an accident and that we should ride on the dirt shoulder. I rode in front for a bit and then told Dan he should go ahead. He did, and Rick and I continued to ride. Just outside the hospital, there was a section of the shoulder that ended and we had to get onto the sidewalk, I misjudged the curb and hit it on an edge going very fast, instead of head on. I went down hard, cleared the sidewalk (although my bike and derailleur hit the sidewalk very nicely and very hard) and I landed in the road- with the traffic!!! A minibus had to swerve to miss hitting me. When I opened my eyes, I saw Rick’s face and thought that it must have been bad because he looked really worried. I lucked out and had put my jacket on just before we left the mall, so I only got a small cut on my elbow and didn’t get the usual roadrash that people have been getting, but landed with my entire weight onto my hip. Tonight, my entire right side feels very stiff like I was in an accident (probably because I was). There is also a very large baseball sized contusion on the hip bone. Good thing I have a rest day to recover, fix my brakes and relax before our two riding days into Arusha, Tanzania and our half way mark. My body definitely did not need this, but it could have been MUCH MUCH worse. I guess it is only my second crash in almost 50 days of riding which is very good odds. I am counting my lucky stars that the minibus did not run over me… :)

Everything is Relative

In each country that we ride through, we are lucky enough to have a small number of local riders and racers join the tour to ride with us. It has been really cool because not only have they been a nice change to the group, they also know where they are going and are able to speak the language. In Ethiopia our riders helped protect us from the rock-wielding children and now in Kenya our local riders were able to help lead our convoy into Nairobi. One of the local riders here in Kenya has only one leg, he is an amputee from the waist down. The crazy thing is, he is faster than almost all of the riders that are on this tour with two legs. It has been incredibly humbling and an honor to ride with him, he is also famous in Kenya and people that see him want to take his picture and meet him. While we complain and talk about our shortcomings, this man has taken his and become an elite athlete and makes due with what he has in nothing but an amazing way. It has opened my eyes to the power of the human spirit and what it is to have resolve.

Northern Kenya- In like a lion, Out like a Lamb

Today was our last day on “dirt”. The first 7km were on the smoothest, flattest dirt known to man, and then suddenly at 7km, we hit the new pavement!! Freedom, for the first time in days, no matter what was to come on this pavement, we were all in heaven.

This afternoon rolling into Isiolo Kenya, we stopped at the shell station where the local “entrepreneurs” had taken advantage of our dirty dirty bikes and were charging 200 shillings to wash our bikes and bike shoes (about 2.50) Best $2.50 I have ever spent in my life! They rolled the bikes into a puddle and cleaned cleaned away. My shoes have never been so white! And my bike has never been so happy, it was like a little spa day for her since she has worked so so hard over the last two months.

Now we are on our way to Mount Kenya (where I will be thinking about my dear friend Chris Hatton- who has stood on this summit twice!) and to Nunyuki (the equator), where I will also get the privilege of meeting Chris’s dear friend Mathoni who has agreed to come meet me! I am looking forward to this so so much.

Northern Kenya- Day Five- WET WET WET

We woke up this morning to a torrential thunder storm and crazy pouring rain. It was interesting to see a bunch of people not used to the rain packing up their tents and organizing themselves…Some “hardy souls” or better yet, ignorant people chose to sleep in the “dry” river bed, Not a great idea when the night before looks like rain, luckily the rain didn’t start until this morning. It was no real use trying to stay dry, as the rain was so heavy and we were all clad in our biking gear. I ate a very quick breakfast and rolled out to get the day underway. Many, many people opted to not ride right from the beginning (riding in the rain is uncomfortable and it has become a theme for several people that if it is “uncomfortable” it is better off to get in the truck. Interesting concept when riding across Africa as there are parts of everyday that are “uncomfortable”). As I got about 2km down the road, I realized that I had forgotten my water bottles (full) that I had neatly stacked beside my bike. So this is the kind of day it is going to be, I thought. I rode back and got them and started biking. I rode the first 30 km by myself, a very slow process, averaging about 11km an hour over sandy, sopping wet, extremely corrugated terrain. An 87km ride in soaking bike shorts over corrugation doesn’t help for chafing and saddle sores let me tell you.. It is a lesson in patience and distraction of the discomfort. After about the first 10km it was obvious it was going to be a day of riding through puddle after puddle after puddle. Soaking wet socks, shoes, shorts, and shirts… This is the day. Today is about the most abusive day that I could imagine for our bikes. The bikes were in water up to our knees every few kilometers as we had to ride through all this water. The bike shop (where the One bike mechanic can help with bikes) went well into the darkness. My bike sounded horrendous all day long and after lunch I lost both my front and rear disk brakes… I met up with Australian Dan who wasn’t feeling well (he is generally one of the fast riders) and we rode the rest of the day together. It poured on and off all day long. Dripping wet and extremely muddy we rolled into lunch, a quick stop as it was very cold to stop for very long due to the fact that we were all dripping wet. Northern Kenya again lived up to it’s legendary difficulty as 24 riders rode the truck to camp… Several other riders have opted after our rest day to go ahead to Isiolo, Kenya to bypass the “dirt section”. There are construction crews starting on paving the road so this afternoon we found a section of road under construction without corrugation, a welcome break for our battered bodies… With all this road paving the “Tour D’Afrique “ is drastically changing, maybe The Infamous Northern Kenya Dirt section will be completely paved over by next year. A sad thought, I think they might have to do some reconnaissance of a new route to maintain the difficulty of this race as it has already changed so drastically since it began in 2003. Tomorrow is our last day on the dirt until after Arusha, Tanzania where we start with dirt all over again. Apparently tomorrow the pavement will start after a mere 10km, we are all very excited to see the pavement again! I don’t know who will be more excited, me or my bike! I went to the mechanic tonight, and found out that both my disk brake pads (front and rear) are done. Unluckily I only ended up bringing one set, hard to decide whether I want front brakes or rear brakes… It is funny how we bring so much stuff to prepare for anything that could happen, but then when you really really need something, you don’t have it and it becomes an absolute logistical, stressful dilemma. I am trying to arrange with one of the sectional riders to get some disk brake pads brought in, hopefully in Nairobi but we will see. So many things that I wished I had more of, tire tubes, brake pads, chamois cream and of course wine gums… because I am in withdrawl everyday.

We are seeing on and off several groups driving from Cairo to Capetown. We have met two dudes from England, driving their souped up landcruiser down, a guy on a motorcycle from Germany. The craziest girls, two Spanish girls that are driving their Minivan from Spain to Capetown. We see them all the time on these roads as daily, something else breaks on their Minivan… It is absolutely the craziest thing I have ever seen as this is CLEARLY a road for 4 wheel drives only. Their minivan would probably not even get them across Canada, let alone Africa! Even our overland trucks barely make it some days…. We will see how far they get. They had problems with their drive shaft yesterday and blew a hole in their aluminum oil pan. Nuts.

Day Six tomorrow. I am almost EFI for the Northern Kenya section, which I am super stoked about because less than half the people so far have rode all these horribly wonderful days… One last day and then the day after tomorrow we will reach the equator!

Muddy Mayhem

Day Four- Northern Kenya

Northern Kenya is working us with all its magic. After an overnight storm in Marsabit, we were faced with a morning of crazy strong swirly winds (mainly headwinds and crosswinds though, obviously- No tail winds in Northern Kenya!). The Indaba (truck crew) were very concerned about the state of the roads mainly for getting the trucks to camp without getting them stuck. Riders were also concerned knowing that the roads were bound to be thick clay mud and corrugated loose sand. We are giving these last few days of this our all because we only (sigh) have five and a half total days of the hellish Northern Kenya roads before we get our long deserved pavement for a little while until we reach the dirt roads again in Tanzania. Today was tough- mentally maybe tougher for me than our day four mando race day. It was 97km with at least 85% of it seriously corrugated. There were sections that the mud was so thick it became difficult to ride as the mud collected on the bike tires making it like biking through molasses. This morning we were told to make sure we ask the locals before we take photos. They are now decorated in beautiful jewelry and very colorful. It seems that some of the front riders were taking photos but potentially not asking, which led to major problems for us riders in the back, or maybe there was just a group of crazy knife wielding women who were just crazy. One group of riders got stopped with a chain of locals, when the riders slowed down, One rider got a Machete held to her chest in a threatening way. Another rider was in a stand off with (possibly?) the same crazy woman who wielded her machete then tried to throw a large rock. When myself and Analise reached this woman, she was shaking the machete at Analise in a crazy manner, I shouted at the woman , what was she doing, as I rode by she did the same to me, and then as I passed by she threw the machete at my back hard, it hit me just below my neck and luckily the handle, not the blade hit me. It is the first time I have actually feared my safety since being in Africa. I am not even sure this woman had any idea the implications this machete throwing incident could have caused. CRAZY.

We arrived at lunch to learn that our truck that had been rescued from Gondor, Ethiopia was stuck in a huge mud puddle and our trucks had to help him and then get through themselves. As we approached, the one truck was finally out after 2 solid hours of effort and then one of our trucks made it through. At this point, myself and Rick, Analise, Dana and myself started to make our way through “the puddle”, riding through was questionable so we opted to walk our bikes through. It meant wet socks and shoes, but at least no problems. At points the puddle came up to my mid thighs and almost to the top tube on the bike. It was super deep. The trucks drove through next and it was very exciting, they all made it through, thank goodness because without our trucks, we have not got our equipment.

The afternoon was another battle with this equatorial sun. We are two days away now from crossing the equator on our bikes (the equator is in a town called Nanyuki). The sun, the temperature, the doxycycline (for malaria) and the long long long days on the bike are messing with my body and I am suffering from extreme heat rash on the backs of my ankles, upper thighs and arms. It is very uncomfortable and making the days even more difficult than they already are….

Two more days till pavement- oh boy will my body and bike be happy to see that pavement… You cannot appreciate it as much as when you are riding on the most questionable “roads” you have ever seen. Kenya is definitely one of my favorite countries so far for the shear beauty of the landscape here. It is stunning.

The Infamous Northern Kenya

Day One

I have been hearing about the infamous Northern Kenya since I signed up for this tour last year, so today I finally got my first taste of what this place has to offer. This is the most remote stretch of the bike ride that we will do. It feels very very remote, maybe due to the fact that the roads are not paved, or just the small numbers of people and vehicles on the road. Every once in a while you would see a soldier dressed in military fatigues come out of the bush next to the road. In 2008 this stretch was too dangerous so the riders had to fly over. We got lucky ( I guess depending on how you look at it) that we get to ride it! Today was supposed to be the easy day of the four unpaved, which it was, luckily. We got lucky because we have Dinder to compare everything to at this point and Dinder (I reckon) was much harder than today was. Tomorrow is supposed to be the beginning of the difficult roads. I have to prepare myself. It will be a double bike short day, this is my strategy to prevent saddle sores when there will clearly be some seriously bad roads and one pair of bike shorts will not even begin to protect my butt. Next, I have decided to tape my forearms to prevent the swollen painful arms I had the last time. I am well prepared now having been through Dinder, I have traded my 32mm tires for 2.1 inch mountain bike tires, my thudbuster seatpost for a little bit of suspension. The infamous washboard, unpaved, lava rock roads are very beautiful to look at however they were never designed to be used by bikes or vehicles for that matter, the trucks have just as hard of a time to maneuver over the roads as us. The trucks are able to drive approximately 10-12km/hr, so just about as fast as the bikes. Kenya is gorgeous so far, with mountains in the distance and savanna in the forefront.

We are entering the areas where animals are likely to be seen. Today we saw baboons, tomorrow there is the chance of seeing giraffes in the wild which would be very very cool. The weather is getting warm again, which is good and bad. It is sticky humid hot now though. It makes sleeping somewhat difficult. There are also starting to be a lot of bugs of all sorts and we get “snake warnings” at camp now so that we don’t go out to dig a hole at night and get a snake surprise.

Day Two

Started out “easy”, and then after lunch became a Northern Kenyan Road (see below). There were hundreds of large millipedes walking across the road today. I had to stop and pick one up and get a picture with it to show my nephews. They were the same kind of millipedes that they have at the bug zoo. Oh yeah, we didn’t see any giraffes either. 

Day Three

Close your eyes for a minute; now imagine the worst road you can think of off the top of your head (this is a hard activity for people that live in the city). Next, cover this road in loose lava rock (from the size of small gravel to grapefruit size) add some loose deep sand and deep tire ruts, the occasional thick clay and kilometers and kilometers of washboard corrugation and then imagine the temperature hovering around 40C with 45% humidity and now imagine that you are riding this on a touring bike with no shocks instead of a mountain bike- Welcome to Northern Kenya. It is some of the most difficult riding that I have ever done in my life. It requires an insane amount of patience and a crazy amount of concentration or you will come off your bike. Several people took spills today, mainly just scrapes and cuts but luckily, no real big accidents. Today was our mando riding day for Northern Kenya, 88km. When push comes to shove, today is the kind of day that shows you what you are made of. At last night’s rider meeting, Kelsey announced that today’s riding day would be one of the three hardest days on tour. This morning, 16 riders, got on the trucks without even getting on their bikes. I was excited to get the chance to try the infamous riding and just push as hard as I could and if worse came to worse I would get on the truck. The morning was slow and I was riding alone. Time seemed to go on forever and it was really really hot, My face was sweating from the time I left the camp. By the time I got to lunch, several more people were on the truck. The afternoon was spent riding with Rick and then we were joined by Dave (who I rode Dinder with) and Laura. It was so hot that I could feel my skin burning. I actually even got blisters, I kept putting sunscreen on but it didn’t help. The day just seemed to go on and on and on. After lunch we came on a bunch of riders sitting under trees along the route waiting for the lunch truck to pick them up. As the day heated up it was very tempting to get on the truck. That is the difficult part of this trip, it is entirely you vs. you. There is always a truck you can get on eventually if you want to, but it is hard for stubborn people like me, I would rather take my time and eventually get to camp then to quit and have to deal with my own anger about that. Also we are here to ride across Africa on our bikes, not the trucks. I can only really get on the truck when I am not feeling well. By the time we rolled into camp at 6:30pm we were four of the last riders to make it to camp. Out of the 61 riders, 31 riders finished the mando day today. I am sore and really tired but really glad that I did it. We are now at our rest day in Marsibit, Kenya. Then we have two more days of unpaved Northern Kenya roads before we reach Isiolo and are on our way to Nairobi. In 9 days we will arrive in Arusha, the half way point for distance and time of the trip. Crazy to think that I have almost ridden halfway across Africa already. Crazy.

“Welcome to Yabello”

Yabello, Ethiopia- a small town (Very Small) on the way to the border town of Moyale, Ethiopia (our last day off in Ethiopia after a long three week stint). This is the smallest place that we have had a day off in thus far on the tour, with no internet, no restaurants and no real shops. The one shop in the town was sold out of virtually all the chocolate and biscuits that they had within a 100km radius after only a short time. After a few days of moderate rain, some (a lot) of spirits (not mine :) ) were dampened and people were struggling to see the positives of this more “typical” African village. It is really interesting what rain does to a group that is not used to rain and not used to camping in the rain. Luckily I think if anything is my expertise on this trip, camping in the rain is it. We were put up in the Yabello motel, essentially a gas station that they have adapted into a rustic motel (with some interesting fancy rooms with “rain shower head showers”…those of us that were still interested in “roughing it” fought over spots on the small sections of lawn and dirt out front of the hotel and those that were lucky enough to reach the hotel in time (some riders skipped out on the ride to ensure their hotel room…which is definitely a questionable act, but at this point in the game people are showing their true colors) were able to camp in “relatively” dry rooms. The rain came down hard, virtually all day and night. It was definitely a good test for people’s gear and patience. Gear and patience failed for several people as a result. Some riders tried to do laundry or gave it to the hotel to get cleaned. I opted for dry dirty laundry compared to the riders that at the end of the rest day were stuck with clean wet riding clothes… 100% humidity makes it hard to line dry things. On the road to Yabello the terrain started to drastically change, with red soil, termite mounds and camels everywhere. It was beautiful. The people also started to look differently. Darker skin, much more colorful clothing and way more subdued than the people in other areas along the way. Actually even the people started to thin out considerably as we approach the Kenyan border. The northern part of Kenya is probably the most remote and politically dangerous section along the whole route. Moyale (the bordertown is the biggest town to the north) and Isiolo to the south with Marsabit (the next day off) in between.It is also the most difficult riding we will face on the entire tour. We are nervous as this entire section is unpaved, with difficult lava rock and dirt and corrugation along the entire route. Even the trucks will have a difficult time to get through this section. Storms and rain are predicted throughout the week will make this section even more difficult if that is even possible. But once we overcome this section we will be almost half way done the tour and through the worst (hopefully) that we will face. We are at around 4300km with 24710meters of climbing completed thus far. Of that I have rode just over 4000km. We are all getting stronger despite the fact that the day to day kilometers are wearing us down. We arrived in Kenya today. We start the difficult riding tomorrow.

Reflections On Ethiopia

As we enter our final three days of riding in Ethiopia I have definitely spent some time reflecting on the l time that we have spent here, which will be the longest time that we will spend in any one country on our tour across Africa (23 days total). Ethiopia was a test both physically and mentally and some days it was more a test of patience than anything else. Ethiopia is one of the poorest countries in the world and one of the most populated. With 75 million people in this tiny country, there seems to be people everywhere. This was evident on a daily basis as it was a rare time to stop along the side of the road and within minutes be surrounded by locals of all ages. Riding in pairs became necessary for the ability to deal with a flat tire or to take a pee stop without having your bike taken or stuff stolen from it. Lunch stops and campsites became a well monitored event as hundreds of villagers from nearby would stand around the thin string line put up watching our every detailed move. I imagine this is as close as I will ever feel to being a star in Hollywood being followed by the paparazzi. It is an overwhelming and claustrophobic feeling when you are always being watched. I think if I could describe Ethiopia in one word “claustrophobic” would be that word. It was amazing how the thin string line actually tended to keep the locals out, and the bizarre feeling of both being “inside” the line and the local people (in there own country) observing us from “outside” the line. Occasionally one of the locals would break through the line, only to be whipped or hit by whom ever was being paid to be security at the time. Only a few things were ever stolen from camp as people are on the top of their game at this point for monitoring our stuff. I think we can all say pretty surely that we are glad Ethiopia is coming to a close. I am ashamed to say that some days my empathy and compassion were tested by anger and frustration with the actions of locals. Stone throwing, shouting of “you you you” “give me money” “give me water” “ Ferengi (foreigner)” throwing dirt, whipping riders with sticks, and spitting on riders were a constant battle. Everything I have learned in my life has come in handy and been important to help me get through this country, even my military training was put to the test, observing the level of threat at all times from the hundreds of children and adults along side the road, checking for weapons and deciding how to respond… My patience was put to the ultimate test and I tried on a daily basis to find something I was thankful for and something that made me appreciate the people of this country. Ethiopia was also the ultimate test on people’s GI tracts as nearly every rider was stricken down at some point in the last three weeks with some form of stomach flu. Mine was particularly bad and took me out of riding for two days.

Ethiopia is definitely one of the most beautiful places I have ever been, rolling hills (mountains) and lush vegetation. Even on the worst day of biking all that was necessary was to look off to either side of the road, past the children and locals and an amazing viewpoint was always there to change the mood of the day. Today an Ethiopian runner ran along side my bike for around 20km, at one point I clocked him on my odometer as running 26km/hr. Amazing and humbling. The last few days have given us some serious climbing, with some hills looking like they were impossible to even fathom the possibility of getting your bike up, but it somehow seemed that every hill was eventually climbed and legs were tired later on. Over the 23 days we have had thousands of meters of climbing on our bikes. Some days felt like we were spinning our legs over and over again, going nowhere, but after enough effort and time we would eventually arrive at our destination, set up our tents, eat some food and go back to bed awaiting another day of the same.

My favorite things about Ethiopia have been the amazing triple, and quadruple layered juices. The copious amounts of livestock everywhere, in the road, in the fields, in the yards. Also the fact that I can now very accurately judge the speed of both cattle and goats so I don't hit them while biking by.

Ignorance isn’t Bliss, it is just embarrassing

Understandably some days here in Ethiopia are tough, people have been pushed to their max, with hills, altitude, rain, children, rocks, and more people around than anyone is used to in their lives back home. However within this frustration I feel like it is important to remember how fortunate we are to have been born in a developed country and just by that fortune to have the things we do and to not take these things for granted, especially health care and education. These are two of the things that if you look close enough, past the rock throwing and shouting; that is evident that this country is lacking. It has been frustrating for me at time to see how some of the riders have retaliated from the rock throwing and their ability to show compassion and empathy towards a country that we are guests in. I am not claiming to have not been frustrated at times, especially on days that I have been punched, had dirt thrown point blank in my eye, been whipped with sticks, been spit on in my face and laughed and mocked. However despite all of these things I can honestly say I do not feel ashamed of anything I have done in return, as I rarely do anything, except slow down and try and help them to understand why this is not okay.

Some riders I have heard have stolen children’s school books or shoes and rode ahead and dumped them. Some riders have thrown rocks back, or threatened them. Today one of the more educated riders, came into lunch very frustrated and said that we should “firebomb this whole country” because clearly it is a “sess pool”. I was shocked at this unbelievable and very offensive comment. To say such a thing about a country that we all chose to ride through, knowing the risks ahead of time of what we might face is a clear example of ignorance and the cause of so many of the injustices in the world. At times things like this make me embarrassed that I am a part of a group that has members that believe this type of behavior is acceptable.

When things have gotten me down or stressed me out I remember how lucky I am for the opportunity to see this part of the world. I remember that a lot of people in the world do not have the freedom to cross the borders and see other parts of the world. I feel incredibly blessed that I have had the opportunity to quality health care and that my life expectancy is more than 43 years old, and that I did not have to do manual labor at the age of five. I remember that I got the opportunity to go to university and high school and junior high and elementary school for that matter. I feel privileged that I go to bed every night with enough food to eat and I can drink the water out of the taps and I don’t have to worry that I might get diarrhea that will eventually kill me. I feel privileged that I was not pregnant and expecting my first baby when I was 12 years old or raising my 5th child before I was twenty years old. I think being in Africa has opened my eyes to the incredible injustices that we face every day in the world, and a lot of them occur solely based on where people are born. I always think about the poem “if the world was only 100 people” it is eye opening. We have enough, a lot of the world does not and that is an important reminder that Africa gives us on a daily basis. I want to thank Ethiopia for opening its arms to us in the ways it has. Although not all the interactions were great, in fact some of them were very difficult and frustrating, for every rock I had thrown at me, someone else said “welcome” or showed interest in my trip through their country. For every aggressive tone, there was a smiling face waving and cheering on the side of the road. Ethiopia has taught every rider on this tour a little something about themselves, their tolerance, their resolve and their ability to pick themselves back up when the going gets tough and keep going, this is something that I believe every Ethiopian does every day of their lives. If this is all Ethiopia has been for some people on this tour, let it be, but they do have this place to thank.