Tour d’Afrique

Duration: 4 mos of prep

KilometersTraveled: 0

Hey Everyone,

Next week Katya and I head out to Kenya to start a bicycle trek through Africa. We decided to start a blog to share the experience with our friends so that’s why you are receiving this link. If you are not interested, let us know and we’ll remove your address.

Trying this on your own is bit too dicey so we found an outfitter that runs trips through Africa, TDA Global Cycling. This expedition from TDA is called Tour d’Afrique. The full tour starts in Cairo and runs to Cape Town. However, they break it up into eight sections and we will ride the last five sections. Which means next week we fly to Nairobi, Kenya and meet the rest of the group. From there we ride through seven countries and finish, hopefully 😊 in Cape Town in mid-May. From Kenya we ride to Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Botswana, Namibia and finally South Africa. That tally’s up to 7,500 km. We have seen some of these parts of Africa before. Back in ’03 we both traveled through Botswana and a bit of South Africa. I climbed Kilimanjaro back in the 90’s so saw some of Kenya and Tanzania. But nothing like this. Nothing like being outside all day riding a bicycle thought the countryside. And being able to take it all in, at the pace of a bike.

The routes are on roads, but in Africa this can mean a lot of things, from new asphalt to gravel, sand, mud, or a nice combination of all the worst of the above. So bike selection was a key decision. Too freaking far for a fully-suspended mountain bike and not feasible on a pure road bike. So we settled on “gravel bikes” (cross bikes) which are very trendy here in Boulder these days. Of course we did not own gravel bikes, so had to purchase new for the trip. We settled on Scott Gravel Addicts, see attached. These are like beefy-frame road bikes with disc brakes, geared lower like a mountain bike and with more wheel clearance for fatter tires. The Addicts are a carbon frame. For this trip we’re taking two sets of tires, 28mm width for surfaced roads and 38mm for dirt. You aren’t allowed an extra set of rims, so just have to change the tires back and forth for conditions. I’m sure that will be fun. Finally you need to kit the bike out to carry daily items, see attached. The SAG trucks carry all the bags but you need enough with you during the day to survive weather, heat, hydration, breakdowns, photos, and the lack of bathrooms and toilet paper ☹. Also need to mention that the TDA required list of spare bike parts is huge. You really can’t buy any parts in Africa so need to be prepared for breaking and wearing out most things on your bike.

After getting the cycling part sorted out, then you need to tend to the camping part of the trip. We basically camp the entire way, except for a few days at start and finish. We have to provide our own tent, bags, pads and misc. stuff for camping. TDA supports, cooks, has a medic and mechanic, etc. but does not set up your camping site each day. You get to do that when you arrive in camp. I thought we were good to go here with most of this stuff until we tried to pack. Everything you take needs to fit into two 90 liter duffle bags (per person) and weigh less than 23 kilos per abg, except your bike, which you take in a bike box. Turns out we needed lots of new stuff: sleeping bags were too warm, tent was too big, pads were too bulky, duffels from previous trips were too large, etc. Ended up buying almost all new stuff! Then add in everything you will need for 70 days in Africa and you end up with a ton of shit, see the attached. I won’t bore you with all the details, but if anyone ever decides to do something like this, I can share the packing list with you.

Finally you need to deal with all the normal travel things and the particular travel things for Africa. These include flights, visas, vaccines (yellow fever, typhoid, meningitis, HEP A, HEB B, diphtheria, whooping cough, malaria), international travel insurance with emergency medical evac, safaris or outings on some scheduled rest days, money, credit cards, etc. And did I mention training? It’s best to show up somewhat fit. Which has been somewhat of a challenge this year since we decided on the trip only a few months ago and Colorado has, of course, decided to provide a good snow year, unlike last year, making the majority of riding indoor on the trainer.  Then automate your like in the States for a few months and you are good to go! I can’t say that I have enjoyed this planning and prep phase of the trip immensely. Buying things and stressing over packing kind of sucks. And now I’m feeling guilty to show up in Africa, where a lot of people don’t own shoes, with all this high-tech kit. But getting sick in Africa is no fun either. Been there, done that.

I guess that’s it for now. Hopefully this is somewhat interesting and gives you a broad brush view of this type of trip. We are looking forward to finally getting there and starting to ride. After all, that’s what it’s all about. Not to turn into some totally obnoxious bike-nerd. I just checked the weather in Nairobi, situated nicely on the equator, and it will be sunny and 87F tomorrow! Yea, summertime!

And hey, if all else fails, I’ll just draft behind Katya the whole way to Cape Town!

Cheers,

Clint