It is people.

There is much gained from our four month cycle safari. During the ride I thought more than once of the Maori proverb:

He aha te mea nui?
He tangata.
He tangata.
He tangata.

What is the most important thing?  It is people, it is people, it is people.

I would like to thank every one of the riders, TDA and Indaba staff for bringing their all to the party. We did well. I look forward to our future adventures.

Antony and Davis ride with us into Nairobi

Tour d'Afrique organised vehicular transport into Nairobi. Rather than break our line of cycling Tori and I decided to ride in on the new highway and engage local riders as support. Both Antony Murke and Davis Kiniuttias ride trials compeditively along the stretch of motorway we covered, and provided us with great company and local knowledge. Antony and Davis are true gentlemen and great riders. They have raced in many African countries and would rip it up in Europe given the chance. They rode with us through Kenya and when they decided to win they blew our fastest cyclists out of the water.

Bike Donations in Gondor

We made our first bike donations today. It was a high point in a difficult time for many of the TDA riders, with pretty much the entire crew being taken down with gastro problems around Gondor.

You can read about the donations here: http://www.tourdafrique.com/blog/tourdafrique/first-tda-foundation-donations

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank all of the people that donated to the Tour D'Afrique Foundation and made these donations possible. In particular the Gilbert family who donated an entire bike as part of their Christmas gifts to friends and family. Good work guys. It does make a difference. Also I am thinking of you and your relatives in Christchurch. It's a tough time.

I will be posting more information about bike donations as they happen.

Thanks again.

Girl riders from Addis Abbaba

We rolled into the rest day in Addis Abbaba yesterday - it had seem like a long time coming, primarily because as a group we had probably collectively answered the ubiquitous "Where are you go?" question thousands of times with "Addis Abbaba". It's great to finally be here.

One of the delights of the ride into Abbaba was the opportunity to spend some time with a couple of the local female cyclists. Mulu and Tuk - these two girls have an excessive of hill climbing ability, enthusiasm and personality. Mulu made time to introduce me to her coach and also to take interested TDA riders to the local bike shop the afternoon of our arrival. Aside from the cycling side Mulu and Tuk also bonded with some of the TDA girls over an hour long game destroying rock towers by throwing stones - a favourite from the rocky shores of my seaside childhood in far away New Zealand.

I learnt a little about how the racing scene works in Abbaba: there are four sponsored cycling clubs. I forget all the sponsors but the co-operative dairy company that seems economically important regionally, and an electronics company name two of the groups. Each club as mainly male riders but each has at least one girl. There are seven girls that race competitively in Abbaba, and competition is fierce. Sponsorship does not mean what it does back home - the girls were not decked out in in full named cycling kit. In fact the presence of one cycling jersey was the only evidence of cycling kit I saw. No helmets, no gloves: heaps of ability.

Mulu was a runner who was spotted by her coach as a potential cyclist and encouraged into the sport. She is 19 and trains three times a week. She will be riding with the TDA crew on tomorrow as we leave Addis Abbaba. I hope that Tory, our fastest female cyclist, can give her some competition.

 

 

2000km down

We have covered around 2000 km since we set out from Cairo. We have a great crew and set of riders. It would be fair to say that everyone knows each other pretty well now and is happy with what they have found. It's quite special to be given the opportunity to have fun with so many like minded and interesting people.

The terrain has been varied in paces - the great swarthes of the Nubian deset broken up by the occasional day riding the more populated greener areas of the Nile. In the more fertile areas there are bouganivilla brightly pointing out the way on the roadsides and excited children urging you to ride faster.

We have seen very few signs of any unrest in peaceful Sudan although it was a place to watch before we crossed the border. Peculiarly I had smiles and waves from the drivers of a convoy of trucks carrying tanks northward likely due to the current troubles in Egypt. We slip smoothly south.

Abou El Goukh

Yesterday 'Mike without a bike' had his tour saved by Mohamed Abou El Goukh. Mike's Moots never arrived in Cairo, luckily we found the one shop in Cairo that could make it all better.

Mohamed came up with a really great deal for a Orbea, helped with the customisations, threw in a bunch of things for free and even organised us a ute ride home.

You can find Mohamed at 76 El Gomhoria St, which is about 300 metres from the Mubarak Metro stop. One key thing to know about Cairo bike shops, and we saw this more than once is that there is often a street shop with kids bikes and a more expensive shop hidden away out back. Ask for Orbea in the street shop and you will find Mohammed.

You can call Mohammed on 002 02 25932087 or Mobile 002 0101635780. Email: abouelgoukh@hotmail.com , check out the website: http://www.abouelgoukh.com/

Here's Mohammed's business card in Arabic. That should help get you there.

Sudanese election starts today.

Voting started today in the election on whether to split the largest country in Africa.

In other news I rode a camel around the Sphinx today.

velour pants suit

I discovered the single ladies carriages on the metro today which are a wonder of beautiful ladies in brightly coloured cloth. I have received a surprising number of marriage proposals today and it makes a nice change to be in the company of women.

Below are few examples of the exciting Egyptain tendancy to window dress their shops in an extreme way filling every available space with a clothes model. Very cool.

 I don't need a velour pants suit. I just want one.

Christmas in Cairo

It's Christmas in Egypt today. I can't explain that.

I'm listening to the best of Cindy Lauper. As well as paying a hotel level per rate fee to get on the internet there was also a certain level of tech support I had to provide. All signs point to me being at the very beginning of a Kafka-esk mission to get my Sudanese visa.

I might see if I can find an Egyptian santa as a part of my day's activities.

Ooo! and here's a piccy of Captain's first Egyptian outing, note the sand; will be seeing a bit more of that in the upcoming months.

Yeah - I know I've got a strange tire combination going on at the mo.  I'm going for that hybrid motley look.

On the way

Penny here reporting a successful departure, complete with photo of Captain, all boxed up and waiting to find out the excess baggage fee (steep but worth it). The more observant among you may notice the several layers of clothing being worn- in order to cut down on the baggage weight. Next stop Cairo!

Revolve love

I'm on the plane to Cairo tomorrow, excess baggage and all.  Part of the reason I'm so confident heading off to Africa is the boundless enthusiam, support and coaching of the inspiring Ashley and Marjolein of of Revolve, and of all the awesome women that they have pulled together into a great road and mountain bike riding, cake eating community.  Wellington is richer for you guys.

Thanks to revolve also for the generous donation to the Tour D'Afrique Foundation to get bikes to charities in Africa!

If there are any women out there cycling in Wellington, or thinking about it who haven't yet had the pleasure - you couldn't do better than to go for a ride with these guys.

Freeload fitted.

The freeload is now snuggly fitted above my front wheel. Looks and works great. Pictures below - including some cat focused shots. This is after all the internet.

I'll be removing the freeload again shortly and boxing up Captain ready to fly.