Finishing a long distance tour, as you can imagine, comes with mixed emotions. While you
may be more than ready to be finished with sleeping in a tent surrounded by snoring, burping, farting riders and you
may have grown tired of having to stick to someone else's intinerary there are alw...
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Posted August 25, 2010 in Amber Route Blog
Preparing for a long distance tour is a unique process. Over the years we at Tour d’Afrique have developed a few tips and strategies that help our clients prepare for and deal with some of the things they will experience on long tour. Here are 3 tips that cover three different cate...
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Posted August 19, 2010 in News Blog Blog
There is nothing quite like waking up in the middle of the night to the sounds and actions of a fierce thunderstorm. At first you're groggy and confused. Then as you realize what is happening and why the side of your tents seems to be collapsing inward you begin the slow, internal...
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Posted August 16, 2010 in Amber Route Blog
Only 1 week left! We just crossed in to Slovenia in the middle of our longest stretch between rest days. Six days of cycling from Bratislava to Ljubljana (Lou bee ah na). The first few days we rode along the border between Austria and Hungary. Fifteen years ago it would ha...
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Posted August 16, 2010 in Amber Route Blog
One exciting part of this adventure will be cycling the Konkan Coast. We will depart Bombay, not on its crowded roads, but by pushing our bikes onto a ferry near the Gate of India and sailing across the harbour, landing at a small village on the Konkan Coast. For the following week we will be pe...
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Posted August 12, 2010 in An Indian Adventure Blog
At the end of May I wanted to do a "Century Ride" (100 miles not 100 kms), to celebrate turning 60. Today I did it. Although the ride was supposed to be 140km.
I missed a turn and went for a bonus tour (we never get lost, we go for bonus tours). At first I was told that s...
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Posted August 11, 2010 in Amber Route Blog
The Back Nine Take a Break
Excitement and trepidation, these were the two emotions that best described how we felt cycling out of St. Petersburg 2200 kms ago. Stella and I had not done any serious long distance cycling prior to signing up for two section of this Amber Route. We hoped that...
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Posted August 10, 2010 in Amber Route Blog
Ron and Nini
Today is rest day. Today is also exactly the mid point of the tour. We arrived in Warsaw yesterday and today is exactly three weeks from the start of the Amber Route. We have so far traveled in Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and few days in Poland. In 21 days of travel we have had on...
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Posted July 31, 2010 in Amber Route Blog
A whirlwind of activity has slowly settled into a daily routine of constant small tasks. Managable tasks that allow the odd moment to relax, have a beer, and maybe even ride my bike. Yes, cycling for the tour staff is never a given, but an occassional reprieve from the daily routine of ensurin...
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Posted July 22, 2010 in Amber Route Blog
Ron rolled into the lunch stop and announced “ At the risk of sounding overly critical, I’m really getting tired of these stretches of sucker pavement”
For the past two days our route has included 20 – 30 kms of gravel road which, at times, has been corrugated and r...
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Posted July 20, 2010 in Amber Route Blog
