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A New Year for Africa




"All news out of Africa is bad. It made me want to go there,” Paul Theroux once wrote.

Well, as Bob Dylan also once sang "The times they are a changing".

Check out these stories from Africa in 2011


Posted December 28, 2011 by Tour d'Afrique Ltd.
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Canada sucks




TDA 2010 rider Tim Thomas weighs in on Canada and the climate crisis...


"Canada was clearly the bad guy during COP17. Why, because they decided early in the conference to leak their impending withdrawal from the Kyoto protocol. This news overshadowed the stale reality that the worlds' biggest emitters have never been part of Kyoto.

So where did that leave us? The conference was a success because everyone agreed to agree to continue negotiations. Oey vey!

Canada's bailout seems to highlight a deeper more important factor that is being overlooked. Canada doesnt really suck because Governments and Corporations will never compromise their clients' needs. We are their clients. So as long as we continue to demand a certain level of economic growth, coupled with the comfort of not having to endure change, our governments and the corporations of the world will never come to an agreement on how to adjust their policy and procedures for the good of the environment.

" We must remember that the real threat to democracy is not radicalism but stagnation, inertia and habit" - Wilmot James. We seem to spend our lives resisting and protecting ourselves from radicals, but fail to see that radicals prey on our fear of change. We also forget that we have comfortable and opportunistic lives because of our forefathers' willingness to change. I think the latter is true of anyone in the world who has the freedom to be able to read this.

Earlier this year I popped in an out of the Occupy Wall Street demonstration. I was proud to stand up to everything that was wrong with capitalism, until I looked down and saw a Venti Latte in my one hand and an IPhone in the other...what I hypocrite I am, I thought, as I slunk out of the demonstration.

I invite those of us who point our fingers at governments and corporations for their lack of environmental responsibility to first closely examine our own habits. The real threat to human economic growth is not those radical tree huggers, and the real threat to our environment is not actions of capitalist pigs...the real threat to both growth and our environment is our unwillingness as individuals to change.

Rather then take the approach of "Why should I change if my neighbor won't change"...rather Be the change and perhaps your neighbor will change."


Posted December 27, 2011 by Tour d'Afrique Ltd.
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Happy Holidays from Tour d'Afrique!




All of us here at Tour d'Afrique Ltd wish you and yours a happy and safe Holiday Season!!

Posted December 25, 2011 by Tour d'Afrique Ltd.
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Unconventional Travel Advice


4 Pieces of Unconventional Travel Advice from an Unconventional Guy:



With the end of the year coming I’ve made a pre-emptive New Years resolution.  I am going to better the world.  How?  By sharing some travel wisdom accrued over the last 20 years as a traveller and as Tour Guide for Tour d'Afrique. 

It pains me to part with this wisdom, but in the end the knowledge is greater than any one person and should be shared. 

On Speaking the Language:



If you don't understand what someone is saying to you in a foreign language, just smile and nod your head as if you do understand, and reply in your own language about whatever you think they may be saying.  Never admit that you don't understand.

On Getting Lost:



If you have arrived somewhere you never planned to go simply pretend that it was always your destination and act relaxed.  Never admit that you don't know where you are.

On Eating:



If you are unsure of cultural norms while sitting to eat with locals, simply say you are not hungry and refuse to eat.  Never admit that you do not know the local customs.

On Meeting other Travelers:



If another foreigner asks you for information, pretend you are a local and that you do not understand them.  Never admit that you are a foreigner.

Some people may think there should be at least 10 tips above, and if you’re one of those people, I suggest you add your own travel tips to the list and re-post this. 

Miles

Posted December 22, 2011 by Miles MacDonald
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Uncle Paul's Tour d'Afrique Gift Guide




I've never written a gift guide before.  It's a little intimidating to be honest. Buying gear for a cyclist is comparable to buying shoes for your girlfriend.  You are almost guaranteed to get it wrong.  But if you have a friend or loved one joining us on an expedition I can promise you that what gear to bring has kept them awake at night more than once.  Prepping for a 4 month bike tour is expensive and the list of gear is long.  With the exception of the North Face tent, I've used and continue to use all the products I recommend here.  I'm hoping Santa brings me the tent this year, otherwise I'll have to dig deep and buy it for myself.

The TdA Gift Guide:

Essential Gear:

Schwalbe Marathon Mondial Tires - $50 to $90 each tire (did I mention preparing for tour can be expensive?) Anyone joining us on tour will need at least two sets of tires, some times 3. Year in and year out Schwalbe tires out perform any other tire on tour.  You'll need to find out what size wheels your cyclists will be using. The choices are 26" or 29" (aka 700c).  Once you know that you can buy the appropriate width tire.  I recommend a 35mm tire for 29" / 700c wheels and a 2.0 width tire for 26" wheels. Guaranteed to put a smile on any cyclist face.  

North Face Minibus Tent - $359 Living in a tent for 4 months changes the way you think about tents.  This is compounded by the fact that the tent will be used in deserts as a well as mountains and in more than a few rainstorms.  The Minibus tent covers all the bases well.  It looks to pitch quickly and tautly, has great head room for a two man tent, two doors, lots of pockets for gear and allows for 'fly only' pitching, a feature that I personally love for those hot desert days. 

Nice to have Gear:

Luxury Lite Cot - $220 Sleeping on the ground gets old.  Especially when that ground is rocky or rough.  The Lite Cot eliminates the problem by providing a lightweight sleeping cot that packs down to the size of a therm-a-rest.  I no longer bring a sleeping pad on tour, just a lite cot.  Takes an extra 5 minutes to set up / break down but totally worth it for the comfort.  

Kindle E Reader - $79 I wouldn't travel without this anymore.  The battery lasts forever and you can carry hundreds and hundreds of books in a 6 oz package.  Since the kindle also allows you to store PDFs you can also store anything from any website using services like Readability.

Arkel Tail Rider Rack Bag -  $115 Arkel made a few of these for us in 2010 with the TdA name and logo on them.  Hands down the best rack back I have ever used.  Of course you’ll need a rear rack to put the bag on.  Arkel has you covered there too. 

Schwalbe Tubes - $9 eachI've mentioned that I am a big fan a Schwalbe tires.  Well same goes for their tubes.  They cost close to 3 times as much as their chinese or Korean counterparts though.  But I can vouch for the durability of the SV-17, their touring tube. Especially in scorching hot conditions where I've seen cheaper tubes spontaneously explode.  Riders are going to need 6 to 8 spare tubes on one of our trips.  Note that tubes, like tires, come in different widths and sizes.  The SV-17s fit a wide variety of widths and come in 26" and 29" / 700c sizes.  They also come with two different types of valve and the valves come in different lengths.  A 40 mm presta valve will work for most cyclists on tour. 

Stocking Stuffers

Tire levers - big surprise, Schwalbe makes some great ones. 

Rim Tape  - few people bring spare rim tape on tour, they should.  Pedros and Schwalbe make the best.

Multi Tool - a good multi tool is a life saver.  The Park Tool IB-2 or Park Rescue Tool are my favorites.

Seat bag - A place to keep essential items like tools and a spare tube.   Lots of options here. 

Kickstand - Its hard to overstate how great a kickstand is to have on tour.  Racers might disagree though.  

So there you go. 

The first ever TdA Gift Guide (and I didn't even plug our new book - ... ahem ... available on amazon.com).  Let me know in the comments if you found this guide useful or have other suggestions. 

Happy Holidays!

Posted December 20, 2011 by Paul McManus
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Introducing our new Fleet!




We are proud to announce that Tour d'Afrique Ltd. has made our biggest investment to date in the future of the Tour d'Afrique cycling expedition. For the first time in our history, we will be running the expedition with our own fleet of custom built trucks - designed specifically for the challenges of this route.



Having subcontracted vehicles from various overland companies since 2003, we began by buying two vehicles last year and then purchased two more this year, giving us the full capability we need to be self contained. These vehicles are a symbol of our desire to strive for better, safer and more reliably run tours across Africa in the years ahead.



Our large overland Isuzu truck comes complete with water and kitchen storage, 51 lockers, access doors, passenger seating area with reinforced frame and seatbelts, bicycle racks and roof tire rack. These, along with many other safety and convenience features, will enhance the experience for the riders and the work environment for the staff. We look forward to having you join us and our new fleet in the years ahead.

Past riders and staff will look back, perhaps with a tinge of regret, to the days of Af-Routes trucks...



...and their support staff...



and, of course, the legendary red boxes.

Lockers are nice but the red boxes did have their advantages:

Having a beer...



...having a nap...



...or two...



...laundry...



...reading...



...eating...



...Yes, we will miss them. Now I need to lie down...












 

Posted December 14, 2011 by Tour d'Afrique Ltd.
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Gadling loves our new book.




Gadling reviewer Kraig Becker loves our 10th Anniversary Book!

Buy it now.

Posted December 13, 2011 by Tour d'Afrique Ltd.
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Book review




The Adventure Blog loves our new book. You will too.

Order yours today!

Posted December 09, 2011 by Tour d'Afrique Ltd.
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Take up the Challenge!





Check this out and tell me you don't want to bike across Africa!

Posted December 07, 2011 by Tour d'Afrique Ltd.
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Our book is one of the Toronto Globe & Mail's 100 top coffee table books!



The Toronto Globe & Mail, Canada's national newspaper, has just named - 10: Celebrating Ten Years of the Tour d'Afrique Bicycle Race & Expedition - one of the top 100 coffee table books of 2011.

"If you want to know what is required to undertake the gruelling, 4½-month bike trip from Cairo to Cape Town, this is the book for you: stunning photographs taken by the decade’s worth of explorers who have essayed the event, as well as quotes that document the life-transforming consequences riders have experienced. Introduction by Tour d’Afrique founder Henry Gold, whose once-madcap idea has been more than validated."

Check it out here.

Order your copy here.

Posted December 05, 2011 by Tour d'Afrique Ltd.
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