I’ve been struggling the past few days to compose an overview of our experience cycling through Africa. I’m just not quite sure how to put it down in words. There are so many facets to it.
First of all, there is Africa itself; beautiful, mysterious, complex Africa. For us, at this point in our lives, it had to be Africa. She didn’t disappoint. Africa is absolutely stunning. Gorgeous mountains ranges, desolate deserts, stark yet beautiful in their own right, brilliantly lush rainforests and powerful coastline. The people of Africa are kind, friendly, gracious and gregarious. The wildlife is incredible. Of course, it’s not all pleasant and beautiful. We witnessed extreme poverty, incredible hardships and at times begging but these things need to be seen if they are to be changed. They need to be changed. There is an incredible spirit, a rhythm about Africa that is hard to describe. I can’t do it justice but I can tell you that I have memories I will cherish for the rest of my life.
Cycling through Africa was challenging, fun, eye-opening, difficult, at times frustrating, and glorious. We’ve traveled by car, by bus, by train…nothing compares to cycling. There is just something about traveling by bike that engages other people. This was particularly true in Africa. I’d be struggling up a steep hill and suddenly people would be clapping and cheering me on. I’d be casually cycling along, a local biker would come up; we’d look at each other, smile and spontaneously start racing…no words necessary. I loved cycling down a road and being greeted with a huge smile and a “hello”, or a “jambo sista”. It’s true that they were only split second encounters but there was something so genuine about it that it gave me goose bumps. How does the saying go? “It’s not the number of breaths you take, but the number of moments that take your breath away”.
The pace of the tour is quite fast, it is a race afterall. We would have loved to slow things down, to have more time to explore each country. In all honesty, we prefer independent travel because of the flexibility it allows you. We don’t like fixed schedules, hardly ever book anything in advance and prefer to be able to change the plan on a whim. No doubt, your opportunity to interact with locals and be spontaneous is hampered when you are traveling in a group of 80 and by someone else’s schedule. This is not a condemnation of the TDA, just a reality of group travel. Even so, the opportunities were there if you were open to them.
Whether you are an expedition rider or racer, this is a very demanding undertaking. There were only a few very difficult days, but the effect of such high mileage day after day is what takes its toll. It is one thing to cycle over 120 km back home, it is an entirely different thing to do it almost daily for 4 months. With that said, the most challenging think in our opinion wasn’t the physical or mental challenge of doing these distances; it wasn’t even dealing with the injuries. The most difficult thing of a trip like this, is making the decision to do it…having enough faith to jump off the cliff. As a society, we’ve become so paralyzed with fear of failure that we’ve forgotten to cherish the struggle. It’s almost as if “not trying” is better then “trying and failing” because then at least nobody could accuse us of “failing”. Sad that, don’t you think? Imagine how many poets will go unheard, how many dreams will go unrealized because of it.
There is no shortage of inspiration on a trip like this; whether it was the kindness and generosity we experienced from people who literally have nothing, or watching a 68 year old cycle his way through Africa. Many people we met on this journey have challenged us to think differently, act differently. There were lessons everywhere we looked. Africa is a great teacher.
Years ago, I thought cycling through Africa would be too crazy, too dangerous. Now, I have cycled through countries I didn’t even dream of cycling through before, experienced things I couldn’t have imagined. Where their frustrations with the tour? Things that could and perhaps should have been done better?…yeah. At the end of the day though, the Tour D’Afrique gave me the opportunity to do something I could only imagine doing before. It’s opened our eyes to new opportunities and new challenges. Now, we think “When we cycle through South America” instead of “Wouldn’t it be nice?”. For that, I am eternally grateful.
We wanted to experience Africa: we did. We wanted to cycle through amazing landscapes; we did. We wanted to step out of the routine, the expected; we certainly did that. The Tour D’Afrique has been an incredible journey. Now we are looking forward to the next chapter.
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