Cycling adventure from Cairo Egypt to Cape Town South Africa
It’s sad to write that our African Cycling adventure has ended. Due to the outbreak of Covid-19 TDA Global (the tour company) made the difficult and never before decision to cancel a tour, mid-tour. While the epidemic in Africa has so far been minimal, testing and treating the virus in rural Africa will be difficult. …
Wash clothes, clean the bike chain, and eat ice cream are the important chores of the day. Btw, it is actually March 13 and we are in Arusha Tanzania and I’m slowly catching up on my postings. Erika and I want to let all our friends know all around the world that we are concerned …
Addis Ababa is a town of 4 million people and is at 2,326 meters. The elevation of Addis is not important other than to note that we We caravaned into town mostly in the highway and I could not develop an impression of the town. We stayed at a golf course but most of us …
Feb 17: Bus ride from Bahir Dar to Debre Markos (AKA forest camp). 6 long hours cooped up on a bus There was another bus ride out of Bahir Dar to Debre Markos, a 6 hour 254km bus ride. We are both feeling well but another day of rest was good for us since we …
Continue reading Bahir Dar to Addis Ababa: Feb 17 – 20 (281km/4,215m)
We were all looking forward to two rest days in Bahir Dar mainly so we could recooperate. Everyone else was looking forward to eating Ethiopian food. Though we like it we had to play it safe and eat food that we are familiar with and avoid any street food. We stayed at a hotel and …
We arrived to Gondar a day early since we skipped the first two planned rides in Ethiopia and we stayed for two nights instead of one. Erika was not well and the hotel had no availability the first night so we were planning on camping out. Peter from Portland came to the rescue and gave …
Feb 7: Khartoum to Rufaa (141km/415m) Cycling out of Khartoum was very interesting. The streets were mostly empty except some side show activity. Young groups on men spinning out and racing their cars down the street. What was interesting to see was the sheep and goat herds that were on the side of the road …
Continue reading Khartoum to Gondola Feb 7 – 11 (773km/5,277m)
Rest day implies that you kick up your feet maybe sleep in and relax. However when you’re in Sudan on tour the call to prayers still happen before sunrise at 5:00am and sunrise at 6:00am. It’s not one call to prayers it’s every mosque in the city that amplifies a message via a megaphone. I …
Dongola to Dead Camel Camp (149km/532m) The ride today should be described as Dongola to Dead Camel camp via Dead Camel Highway. Unfortunately we saw more dead camels than lives ones. The highway which we rode on intersected the historic route 40. The Bedouins who are a nomadic tribe who have their own language and …
Continue reading Dongola to Kahrtoum Feb 2 – Feb 5 (523/1,679m)
Jan 28: Abu Simbel to Wadi Halfa Part 2 (74km/449m) Today we leave Egypt and cross the border into Sudan. The border between the two countries is disputed and there is tension at the land crossing. Instead we take a ferry to an undisputed border crossing and enter Sudan. It’s sad to leave Egypt as …
Continue reading Jan 28 – Feb 1, 2020: Abu Simbel, Egypt to Dhongola, Sudan: (483 km/2,630m)
Abu Simbel Temple There is not much in Abu Simbel. It is south near the Sudanese border (though it is referred to as being in the Upper Egypt area because at one time Sudan was known as lower Egypt) and if the temple did not exist it would be a small town along Lake Nassar. …
Jan 23 - Luxor to Idfu (113km/207m) I am sorry the blog has few to no pictures. We are in Sudan and the cell and Internet connection is very slow and it takes too much time to upload photos. There are so many photos I’d love to share some I took and many from others …
Continue reading Luxor to Abu Simbel: Jan 23 – 27 (509km/1,662m)
Day 1 Jan 16 - Cairo to Ain Sokhna113 KM/445M (picture credit to: Sarah Fonger Official Photographer TDA Global Cycling Tour D’ Afrique) Day 1 the morning sounded a bit hectic. Wake up and wait for police escort and cycle 5k to the Great Pyramids and the Sphinx at sunrise. After board a bus and …
Continue reading Cairo to Luxor Jan 16 – 22 (731 KM/3,464 M)
It’s been difficult to upload pics to WordPress. I have taken many and I would like to share the splendors of the trip. I am working mostly from a cellular connection to upload the photos and WiFi when we have access and when it’s fast enough. We cross into Sudan tomorrow and it may become …
Let’s not forget that we are here to ride across Africa, We have spent six days enjoying greater Cairo but with each passing day our trip begins to take shape. We put our bikes together, we sorted our gear, and we reviewed the maps and the daily schedule. Finally, we met the staff of TDA …
We planned a two day tour of Cairo with a tour guide. Her name is Seham Gabr and she is very knowledgeable about Egyptian history. She presented Egyptian history in chronological order Old, Middle and the New Dynasty and tied the history together all the way to the present. We all learned a lot and …
When I thought about Egypt I thought about the dessert, pyramids and King Tut. Recently it was replaced by images of the Arab Spring and Tahir Square. Old images were replaced with new ones but I did not have a complete picture of Egypt. Perhaps you cannot from afar. To know a place and a …
The first leg of our flight was San Francisco to Munich and it took 12 hours. Time went by quickly since our flight left at 9:50 PM and after watching 3 movies I fell asleep. By the time I awoke breakfast was served and we had only two hours left. The last leg from Munich …
Thank you to all of our friends for sending us well wishes via email, text, and in person. We had a special visitor last night from a 2019 PBP finisher (Paris Brest Paris), Tara Flanagan our neighbor to wish us bon voyage. We finished packing our bikes and bags and cleaning our house last night. …
It’s Saturday January 4 and we leave for Cairo in four days. My bike is at Eden Cyclery getting a power meter installed. I decided that in addition to miles, heart rate, speed, cadence, and elevation gain over four months of riding, I should also collect data on watts. Watts is the power that is …
This year Erika and I spent 3.5 weeks in Japan in November and had a wonderful time. We went with our friends Isako and Roy and spent 10 days cycling in Shikoku and then visited Kyoto together. After that Erika and I went to Hokkodate, Fujisawa, and Yokohama. My mother is from Niigata Japan and …
Cycling Map of the Tour D' Afrique When you look at the route on the map above, the trip looks daunting. Especially when you look at the big number, 7,000 miles. However, if you break down the mileage and the climbing by country (see below) it becomes 10 stages. And if you further break it …
Continue reading Getting Ready for an Epic African Adventure
Mountains R Calling 