The adventure begins!
Around 7:00am on the 7th January 2018, the Tour d’Afrique officially started. That is when the rubber hit the road - literally.
Preparation
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| My last day at Datacom |
Laying the groundwork for this epic journey has two parts, internal and external.
Internally,
in my heart I have a desire to cycle from the top to the bottom of Africa.
"Why?" people ask.
"Why not?" I say.
Having worked the last 25 years for a NZ IT
industry giant called Datacom, what better way to change my life, challenge myself and experience new things, than to go on an
African adventure?
Another driver was
that I’m now 55 and I have seen too many colleagues, friends and mates pass away
before they have lived out their dreams.
I want to push myself and follow my dream while I'm fit and able to do so.
Shaping up
Externally,
getting physically fit has certainly been the priority. I need to be able to ride, on
average, 120km a day for 100 days. It is
around 12,000km from the top of Cairo to Cape town. The shortest
riding day is 61km and longest is 208km. The short days do not cover much distance but have large hill climbs,
while the big distance days are along straight flat roads of widely varying quality.
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| Workout indeed |
I gave myself 6 months to get ready and bike
fit for this. On the 4 July I weighed in at 116kg and did my first serious training
ride - 29.7km, from Khandallah in the suburbs of Wellington where I live, to to top of
Kenepuru Hill and back again in 1 hour 24 minutes, averaging 21.1km/h. This showed I had some serious work to
do. Over the next 6 months I
trained on the bike and walked up Mt Kaukau, the highest peak in the Wellington region dominated by a massive radio tower, to lose weight and get fit.
Over 2000km were racked up on the bike and many more kilometres walking around the hills of
Wellington.
Gearing up
Externally,
getting together the equipment necessary to complete the tour. The Tour
d’Afrique provide a recommended
packing list. It covers everything
necessary to support yourself on a 4 month cycle camping expedition. This involves taking your own bike, tent,
sleeping bag, bike parts, medical supplies and personal items necessary to get
yourself through for 4 months on the road.
Externally,
getting all the health checks done.
Blood test, Ophthalmologists, Dentists,
Dermatologist, Podiatry, Physio, Vaccinations and ears cleaned. All came back OK so there was nothing
stopping me from this adventure.
Externally, well this one ended up internal. My preparations for departure were disrupted one night when I experienced a searing pain in my ear. I thought I may have burst an eardrum or come down with some sort of nasty ear infection. A rush to the emergency clinic revealed I had something in my ear - the bug pictured below (left). It was removed before it did any serious damage that could have rendered me unable to fly - or bike!
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| My sneaky stowaway and me about to have it removed from my ear. |
Externally, getting all my personal affairs in order. Yes sorting out a new Will, Enduring Power of Attorney for personal property and welfare, bank accounts and many other small things that I can’t do when I’m on the other side of the world in Africa and need Caroline to sort for me.
Travel logistics
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| Everything I'll need... I hope! |
For the Ethiopian visa, I had to courier my courier passport and visa
application to Canberra just before Christmas and a Masonic Lodge friend who was
working in the capital collected it and brought it back to New Zealand for me. The Sudanese visa
requires that you lose a day of your life waiting outside the Sudanese Embassy
in Cairo for officials to process your visa.
With everything packed and checked - 40kgs of luggage and two 7kg carry-on bags, I was ready to face the 33 hours of air travel and layovers to get me from Wellington to Cairo (in case you are interested: Wellington-Melbourne-Dubai-Cario).
Farewells
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| Winging my way |
It was really hard to say goodbye to Caroline, the love of my life, at
the airport. To leave my best friend, girlfriend, lover, wife,
for a 5 month adventure was very emotional to say the least. It reminded me of how much
she means to me and what I have too often taken for granted. Never have we
been separated for such a long period of time. I'll suspect I'll be in a hell of a
lot of trouble if I raise the prospect of doing something like this again.
I'm now on the road and loving the ride with my new cycling partners. It is hot and dry and I'm surrounded by amazing treasures of antiquity. It is shaping up to be the ride of a lifetime!
I'll be posting photos and trip reports here on the blog over the coming months. You can also track my progress on Strava and Facebook.
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| Safe arrival |
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