When I first heard about Tour d’Afrique (TDA) over a year ago, I was instantly hooked. It sounded like exactly the kind of challenge I’d been waiting for—to ride Every F***ing Inch (EFI) from Cairo to Cape Town. However, I was an unlikely candidate for that challenge: I had no particular cycling experience—even just pumping...
Day 120: Don’t drink and ride
Today has been a mostly enjoyable ride, with heaps of opportunities to stop for a drink and/or snack. Everyone has been in a good mood, knowing that we’ve done it and nothing can stop us now. I joined Liz and her friends (who joined Liz yesterday to cheer her on and cycle into Cape Town...
Day 119: Accomplishing something extremely difficult is highly rewarding
Yesterday was a very difficult riding day, today was expected to be even harder—the make or break day for our EFI. “Don’t take long breaks”, Rupert had advised me. “Last year, even the best riders only reached camp at 4.30 p.m.” Tough climbing, dirt, and expectation of headwind in the afternoon would make today...
Day 118: We cannot control whether people like us, only our own thoughts and actions
We generally have quite a good group dynamic. Tallis had commented several times about our group being particularly positive and tolerant of each other. Apparently, in prior years, there had been instances of people openly fighting with each other. Well, we certainly have tribes and sub-groups, people who share more similar interests and thus tend...
117: Focus, focus, focus
This morning has been a difficult start: deep sand, heavy corrugation, and downhill right out of camp against freezing air. My fingers had become so frozen that it was painful to pull my breaks or shift my gears. Before TDA, there’s no way I’d have cycled under these conditions, and if, there’s no way I’d...
Day 116: Air resistance is an exponential function of speed
Last afternoon, Rupert announced that he had to watch his diet. Because he wasn’t cycling that fast anymore, he wasn’t burning the same amount of calories. That didn’t make any sense to me. Wouldn’t cycling from A to B always require the same amount of energy, no matter whether we’re going faster over shorter...
Day 115: Never mess with border officials
This morning, we’ve crossed the border from Namibia into South Africa—our 11th and final country. Both countries being relatively well developed (neither of them requiring a visa, at least not for most of us), this should have been a quick and easy procedure. By the way, if you’ve read my blog entry for day 3...
Day 114: Our last rest day—preparing for a tough home-run
Today has been our last rest day on the tour. Next time we wake up and don’t need to ride a bike, we’ll already be in Cape Town! Where has the time gone!? It’s also been our laziest rest day of the entire tour. We’re camping directly at the Orange River, which forms the...
Day 113: Tourists hardly ever get to see the full picture of local realities
It’s not all just touristy glamour in Namibia, as this photo of vineyards in Aussenkehr might suggest. This is where the workers live that support the local economy, right next to a top-notch Western style supermarket for tourists—shanty town nicely decorated with straw/wood to fit into the landscape and please our eyes? NB: I...
Day 112: Speak up and take action to implement your ideas
Given I’m writing this blog with the theme of one lesson a day, I’ve had the following idea very early on (already in Sudan, I think): Wouldn’t it be nice to have a video in which each of us tour participants shares one lesson we’ve learnt on this trip? It should be a great souvenir for...
