TDA Founder, Henry Gold with Masai friend in Tanzania. 2003

I'd like to congratulate Ralph Tuijn for breaking the Guinness World Record for the fastest human powered crossing of Africa - a record we established in 2003. 

This occasion brings back a lot of memories.

When Michael de Jong and I first thought of doing a bicycle crossing of Africa from Cairo to Cape Town, we were mostly discouraged by friends and acquaintances from doing this. It seemed 'crazy', 'not doable' - both for the challenges real and imagined, as well as for the geopolitics involved.

There were sections in certain countries that governments simply did not allow individual vehicles, let alone cyclists, to travel through. In Southern Egypt and Northern Kenya, vehicles were only allowed to travel in convoys once or twice a day. I can still see the shocked faces of those 40 busloads of tourists on a 250km section from Aswan to Abu Simble (yes, that was part of the tour Ralph did not cycle) gawking at us on the road as they passed each and every one of us, merrily cycling on an eerily silent ride through the Sahara - silent, except for the rumble of the convoy.

Back then, other areas such as Northern Sudan were mostly sandy roads, if you could call them that. Doing 60 km on those roads was like doing 200-300km on a paved road. One could only describe the road from Gedaref in Sudan to Addis Ababa as anguish. Today of course, these sections have beautiful new pavement.

More important was the psychological barrier. When we first announced the tour in The Globe and Mail we received a spate of outraged emails accusing us of being charlatans (who just wanted to grab peoples' money and run) and irresponsible adventurists who, bordering on suicidal, would at best need rescuing

So it's a great pleasure now to see that we were neither mad nor irresponsible and to watch others, desiring to stretch themselves, have an adventure and break their own limits, follow in our tracks. Because to me that is what crossing continents is all about. It's not about records. It's about testing yourself, getting out of your comfort zone, experiencing the unknown challenges, stopping and chatting  
with the locals when you take a wrong turn. It is about tasting new foods, meeting new people, discovering new cultures and yes, pushing yourself when you think you can't anymore.

We went for the original Guinness Record because we had set ourselves a goal to cover Africa in 120 days and thought it would be fun. And while we accomplished that, we accomplished much, much more.

Ralph did the same. He gave himself a goal and he accomplished it.

I invite everyone to get on a bike, cross a continent, cross a country, cross a state or province or simply crisscross your own city. You and the rest of the world will be better for it.  

Congratulations to Ralph, but congratulations to everyone who takes the time to see the world from a seat of a bike.

Cheers and thanks too Ralph, for reminding those of us who have done the Tour d'Afrique, what wonderful adventures we've all had crossing Africa.

I confess: I am a cyclist. A
steadfast bipedal animal
who believes that the best
way to get from point A to
point B in our cities — the
best for satisfaction, health
benefits, for the planet —
is to use one’s own muscular
wherewithal.

A Dedicated Cyclist

Thus, rain or shine, heat or cold, I
commute to my office, to the market,
to visit friends. Though as my friends
observe, I am somewhat more fanatical
than most cyclists. In the past, I
have bicycled from Cairo to Cape
Town, a journey of 12,000 kilometers,
and from Paris to Istanbul, a trip
of 4,000 kilometers. Last summer,
along with a group of about 45, I
biked from Istanbul to Beijing on the
inaugural Silk Route Bicycle Tour – another
more than 10,000 kilometer trip.
I do this mainly for adventure, but also
to demonstrate that yes, if you will it,
you can cross an entire continent on a
bicycle in 100 days or less.
For this thankless endeavor, to
quote the comedian Rodney Dangerfield,
“I don’t get no respect.” Of
course, I am not alone; all cyclists
belong to the same much-abused club.
Although we pollute less, and spew
fewer climate-warming gasses into the
atmosphere, we are often treated with
contempt and ridicule.

Just Asking for Respect

I understand this. After all, what
normal person prefers to cycle to work
when the temperature is minus ten?
What normal person wants to deal
with drivers that insist on proving they
can get to the next corner faster than
you and, in the process, force you to
slam on your brakes just to stay alive?
What sane person would ride in a city
that says it wants to reduce smog and
congestion, but never bothers to clean
the miserably few bike lanes set up for
us, the third-class citizens?
On occasion, while thanking the
Almighty for helping me avoid being
hit by another oblivious driver talking
on a cell phone, I muse: What would it
take for the non-cycling world to grant
us a modicum of respect?
Perhaps if cycling accidents killed
a few pedestrians every year, as thousands
of cars do ... or if we created a
major threat to the planet, like climate
warming ... or if we organized annual
trade shows with sinewy, semi-naked
models posing on the handle bars, and
major media outlets sent journalists
to review the latest human-powered
vehicles ... perhaps then we’d get some
respect.
As it is, we exist at the margins.
Several years ago, the international
community of cyclists met in Cape
Town and drafted a document calling
safe cycling a basic human right, equal
in importance to freedom of expression
and the right to clean water. Of course,
not one major media outlet
bothered to mention the event.

After Transforming My Life

Truth to be told, I was not always
thus committed to being abused. Two
decades ago, as a young engineer, I
owned a small sporty automobile and
was known to zoom from my apartment
to my workplace in 90 seconds
flat, traffic permitting. I had to deal
with the odd irate policeman and visited
the traffic court once or twice, but
the sheer exhilaration of burning tire
was worth it.
What changed me? The CBC — a
local radio station. There was nothing
unusual about the day: It was a day like
any other. After work, I went to the
gym to work out my frustrations, came
home and ran a warm bath to relax
my aching muscles. I set the radio to
CBC’s Ideas program and sank into
the steaming water.
A man I had never heard of, Ivan
Illich, was being interviewed. He explained
that the automobile, far from
being a vehicle that frees an individual,
in fact is a machine that enslaves him
and controls his life.
And there in the bathtub, with my
skin shriveling, with my ancestors who
fled slavery thousands of years ago
whispering in my ear, “go, break the
shackles,” I resolved to become a free
man.
Not long after, I submitted my letter
of resignation, moved downtown,
and started working for a not-for profit
organization, earning a third
of the money I had made before and
enjoying my new-found freedoms. It
was the same time when I began to
appreciate cycling for everything that it
has to offer.
Lately, with all the hoopla about
the polar icecap melting, and the
corner ice pond refusing to freeze,
even my once skeptical friends are
beginning to listen to me. Indeed, I am
beginning to think that we cyclists may
be on the brink of a new era.

Dreaming of a Transformed
World

Last night, I awoke, sweating,
from a dream in which I was cycling
through my hometown of Toronto.
There were no cars or trucks around,
only pedestrians, cyclists and streetcars
in their dedicated lanes. I saw many elderly
people and children on bicycles,
streets vendors of every size and color
with items for sale from all around the
world. There were crowds sitting outdoors,
drinking lattes and watching the
passing scene. The most amazing thing
was that even though it was blistering
hot, the air was crystal clear — no
smog to be smelled or seen.
I got up and took a cold shower.
After all, I know what reality is. Bicycling
to work this morning, like every
morning, was likely to be a life-threatening
adventure.


- an article in American Bicyclist Magazine November/December 2008

http://www.bikeleague.org/members/pdfs/american_bicyclist_nov-dec_2008.pdf

Tour d'Afrique was conceived, in part, to champion the bicycle as an alternative to the automobile. The Expedition points out that a group of individuals can cross a continent like Africa in 100 days. By biking and by delivering the message for a rational approach to transportation, we hope to make an impact both on decision makers and on the people around the world. When TDA began in 2002 scientists generally agreed that fossil fuel combustion was one of the primary reasons for the increased concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and for the phenomena we now call climate warming. Now there is general agreement that Global warming is happening faster than expected. There is ample evidence that climate change hits one group disproportionately and unfairly and that is the poorest of the poor. Some companies and individuals are now buying carbon credits to reduce their carbon footprints. We have decided to go beyond this approach and invest in a whole community. We plan to support a community in Ethiopia with a project called TREES FOR HEALTH & WEALTH. This project will plant trees (including bamboo which produces 35% more oxygen than other trees) and prevent the indiscriminate burning of bamboo, vegetation and indigenous forests. It will teach soil conservation, water harvesting, improved agricultural methods & income generation as well as promoting measures to improve health, sanitation and water accessibility. We will begin in 2009 by planting 5000 trees, the result of which will make our company, including participants on this year tour, carbon neutral. Our goal, however, is to plant 10,000 trees so we hope that TdA riders, their families and friends will join us and make a donation to the Tour d'Afrique Foundation, specifying our Carbon Neutral Plus Plan.

Henry Gold and Team will be hosting an Info Evening in Cape Town.  If you’re interested in knowing more about Tour d’Afrique, Orient Express, Silk Route and Vuelta Sudamericana meet up with the team to hear more.

Wednesday 14th May, 18:30 for 19:00

Lecture Theatre 6
Breakwater Lodge
Portswood Road
V&A Waterfront

Please call 084 353 1975 to reserve a seat.