We've arrived in Cape Town! After a long eight days on the road making the run from Nairobi to Joburg we took a day's rest. We then climbed into the Kingdom of Lesotho for a night. After that it was two days of racing through some of the most beautiful countryside I've ever imagined, let alone seen. And then last night, after a pass, Table Mountain in the distance. We've not yet made the trip to Cape Point, but our trip has reached it's effective end. We've achieved our goal.
This has been a trip full of great moments. Watching the surf in Alexandria and waiting for our bikes; racing through the heat in Aswan to catch a ferry to the Sudan; digging our bikes out of that talcum sand in the desert along the Nile; crashing in the same sand, it was all great. Racing through a canyon in southern Tanzania was worth a lifetime of straight roads across repeating plains. And coming over the mountains in the Eastern Cape at night and seeing massive forest fires burn in massive circles was like seeing another world. All of these things were worth a trip alone, and we'd be rich men to have experienced any of them. But to finish it in such beauty and to do it despite some hardships and challenge makes it all better. So, we're much richer men to have made it to Cape Town. Now we celebrate, which we'll be sure to document fully in the coming days. And we do so with many thoughts of friends and family at home and abroad.
As a final note, if you've been inspired by our trip, we'd love it if you made a donation to the cause we are supporting, Spread the Net. Many people have been very generous, but we're still some way from our ambitious goal, so no donation is too small (and none is certainly too large). You can read about the cause here and make a donation here.
Showing posts with label The Trip. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Trip. Show all posts
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Gonder Show
This post is now ten days old. We've only now been able to send it up.
I write from Gonder, a beautiful Ethiopian city at the southern end of the Simian mountains. It's quite a place and we've had a great day so far. We can't say the same about last night.
When we last wrote we had arrive in Khartoum. I was nursing some sore ribs and a wounded pride and the desert had taken something out of Sam, too. Still, we departed from Kharmtoum with high hopes the next afternoon and we had a simply amazing ride to Gedaref. The change in landscape, housing, and people as you head towards the eastern border of Sudan is simply amazing. This is a country too complex to understand after one visit and we should hope to return someday.
We found a hotel that night with some great Italians we've been crossing paths with along the way. They deserve a post of their own. It is enough for now to say that we would not be writing from Gonder today if not for them.
After having dinner we returned to our hotel to find the proprietor dozing on a couch while two police officers insisted we reregister for the hotel. This is how two-bit police states work: you are asked to give your "fire" and "sure" names, these are put on a form, and then the form is most surely lost and never used again. But you must be careful not to balk too much at such a silly request. People here are jailed for taking pictures, for saying the wrong thing, for refusing to turn over passports to uninformed men without identification. So, this is the riddle of the Sudan: it's full of kind and honest people, it's blessed with a rich and diverse topography and no shortage of natural resources. But it's eating itself from the inside out and its President has been indicted for war crimes. It's a strange place.
We left the next day and crossed the border into Ethiopia. The change in wealth -- a steep drop, to be sure -- is striking. So is the bizarrely intense curiosity of the children and their habit of yelling "you, you, you" while asking for money, touching your bike, clamouring at your jacket and on and on. Don't take me as a person who does not understand the sources of this behaviour. I do, and I appreciate them. But it's quite a test of patience when one is changing a tire or one has just completed 20 hours on the road and is desperate for a tea and nothing else. Our day would include many such events.
Let me leave the description of our crossing to Gonder to short form, first because time is short and second because someone has donated good money to Spread the Net to get the first full account. But as I do, keep in mind that Gonder is only 210 kms from the Sudan border.
1.) We leave the Metema border station at 11 am.
2.) We clear customs 30 kms down the road by noon and finish lunch at 1.
3.) Sam soon notices he has a leaky back tire. It is not until 8 pm that it is fixed. The local tire guy and his crew of helpers do the job incorrectly several times. The Italians come and fix it.
4.) We begin the climb into and over the mountains to Gonder. It is dark and the dirt road climbs into another world. Our high beams tell us the mountains are green. Our ears tell us they are filled with animals. And some empty feeling in the stomach tells you not to ponder the edge. It is raining harder than I have ever experienced.
5.) I lose a ratchet strap which wraps in my back wheel getting into the brake and breaking three spokes.
6.) The Italian's truck breaks down. We take close to an hour to fix it on the side of the mountain.
7.) I get a flat tire in some muddy clay.
8.) We fix the tire, but no one can get out of the clay. It takes us some four hours to travel less than a kilometer. There is a breakdown in communication and I ride ahead three kilometers after I get going. The Italians stop to camp. Sam catches up with me and we pitch a tent on the road marking our spots with our bags. All of our warm clothes are on the truck. We freeze the night away. It must be 3 am.
9.) We wake up at 7 am to the roar of passing trucks. I leave the tent and find three sheperds staring at us. We pack and begin the ride again. The road has dried somewhat and the tracks passing by our tent have packed a trail. We head for Gonder, 30 kms down the road.
10.) Sam gets another flat. The patch from the local job didn't hold. We put his bike on a pop bottle truck and I follow them into Gonder. We arrive at 10 am.
11.) We find a local bike shop and a hotel. We share beer and pizzas with other overlanders we've met. The long day ends and we count ourselves lucky men to have seen and done such things.
We leave tomorrow for Addis Abeba. Keep well and keep looking ahead.
I write from Gonder, a beautiful Ethiopian city at the southern end of the Simian mountains. It's quite a place and we've had a great day so far. We can't say the same about last night.
When we last wrote we had arrive in Khartoum. I was nursing some sore ribs and a wounded pride and the desert had taken something out of Sam, too. Still, we departed from Kharmtoum with high hopes the next afternoon and we had a simply amazing ride to Gedaref. The change in landscape, housing, and people as you head towards the eastern border of Sudan is simply amazing. This is a country too complex to understand after one visit and we should hope to return someday.
We found a hotel that night with some great Italians we've been crossing paths with along the way. They deserve a post of their own. It is enough for now to say that we would not be writing from Gonder today if not for them.
After having dinner we returned to our hotel to find the proprietor dozing on a couch while two police officers insisted we reregister for the hotel. This is how two-bit police states work: you are asked to give your "fire" and "sure" names, these are put on a form, and then the form is most surely lost and never used again. But you must be careful not to balk too much at such a silly request. People here are jailed for taking pictures, for saying the wrong thing, for refusing to turn over passports to uninformed men without identification. So, this is the riddle of the Sudan: it's full of kind and honest people, it's blessed with a rich and diverse topography and no shortage of natural resources. But it's eating itself from the inside out and its President has been indicted for war crimes. It's a strange place.
We left the next day and crossed the border into Ethiopia. The change in wealth -- a steep drop, to be sure -- is striking. So is the bizarrely intense curiosity of the children and their habit of yelling "you, you, you" while asking for money, touching your bike, clamouring at your jacket and on and on. Don't take me as a person who does not understand the sources of this behaviour. I do, and I appreciate them. But it's quite a test of patience when one is changing a tire or one has just completed 20 hours on the road and is desperate for a tea and nothing else. Our day would include many such events.
Let me leave the description of our crossing to Gonder to short form, first because time is short and second because someone has donated good money to Spread the Net to get the first full account. But as I do, keep in mind that Gonder is only 210 kms from the Sudan border.
1.) We leave the Metema border station at 11 am.
2.) We clear customs 30 kms down the road by noon and finish lunch at 1.
3.) Sam soon notices he has a leaky back tire. It is not until 8 pm that it is fixed. The local tire guy and his crew of helpers do the job incorrectly several times. The Italians come and fix it.
4.) We begin the climb into and over the mountains to Gonder. It is dark and the dirt road climbs into another world. Our high beams tell us the mountains are green. Our ears tell us they are filled with animals. And some empty feeling in the stomach tells you not to ponder the edge. It is raining harder than I have ever experienced.
5.) I lose a ratchet strap which wraps in my back wheel getting into the brake and breaking three spokes.
6.) The Italian's truck breaks down. We take close to an hour to fix it on the side of the mountain.
7.) I get a flat tire in some muddy clay.
8.) We fix the tire, but no one can get out of the clay. It takes us some four hours to travel less than a kilometer. There is a breakdown in communication and I ride ahead three kilometers after I get going. The Italians stop to camp. Sam catches up with me and we pitch a tent on the road marking our spots with our bags. All of our warm clothes are on the truck. We freeze the night away. It must be 3 am.
9.) We wake up at 7 am to the roar of passing trucks. I leave the tent and find three sheperds staring at us. We pack and begin the ride again. The road has dried somewhat and the tracks passing by our tent have packed a trail. We head for Gonder, 30 kms down the road.
10.) Sam gets another flat. The patch from the local job didn't hold. We put his bike on a pop bottle truck and I follow them into Gonder. We arrive at 10 am.
11.) We find a local bike shop and a hotel. We share beer and pizzas with other overlanders we've met. The long day ends and we count ourselves lucky men to have seen and done such things.
We leave tomorrow for Addis Abeba. Keep well and keep looking ahead.
Saturday, July 19, 2008
One road, one desert, one rib
Hello All, We write from Khartoum where we've just received a message from the Canadian government advising all citizens to leave the country. No matter, we planned to depart anyway!
What a week it's been. We finally loosed the bikes from customs in Alexandia on Saturday, July 15. We raced into the desert that night and camped by the side of the road. When we woke up we saw the remains of a rather horrible bus crash. One can only imagine it had something to do with the Egyptian habit of driving at night without headlights. The next day we rode 18 hours to Aswan at the bottom of Egypt. We were slowed by a popped tire and by police convoys which insisted on escorting us, often at half the speed we normally ride. We made the ferry the next day, but not before having to swear a false oath to the police that we lost our front license plates, which we were never given, "while walking around Aswan." Absurdity and bureacracy walk hand in hand.
We arrived in the Sudan on Tuesday and waited until Wednesday for our bikes to arrive on another boat. We then left late afternoon to begin the long ride to Khartoum. The ride across the Sudanese Sahara is something to behold. It begins like a moonscape, all round black mountains and large rocks and occassion patches of sand. And deep washboard. This is best ridden at speed, but it takes some nerve. We camped after 150 kms with some other folks we'd met on the ferry.
We set out Thursday to make the 250 km run to Dongola, after which it is 500 kms of pavement to Khartoum. We had hoped to do it in a day. Here's a summation of why we did not:
1.) Heat approaching 50 degrees.
2.) Deep sand everywhere.
3.) Peter goes over his handlebars and crashes hard on his side.
4.) Peter gets taped up by a local doctor type who makes a clack with his tongue and a chicken-bone-breaking motion with his hands everytime he points to Peter's ribs.
5.) Sam rides Peter's bike to Dongola and hitches a taxi back.
6.) Peter hitches a taxi to Dongola while Sam and Steffan (a German we met) ride the last 30 kms of sand in the dark.
7.) Peter gets an x-ray in Dongola and the doctor assures him he sees no fracture. Unfortunately, the x-ray doesn't include the rib in question.
8.) Sam and Steffan find Peter sleeping in the hospital. He was taken back in after the police kicked him out from outside and a local attendant took pity.
We rode to Khartoum yesterday on a road built by Osama bin Laden. He's a builder, you know. And last night we stayed at the Blue Nile Sailing Club. Now, we live for Ethiopia. It's really been something so far and we're short on words and time to describe it all. But we will in good time.
Keep looking ahead.
What a week it's been. We finally loosed the bikes from customs in Alexandia on Saturday, July 15. We raced into the desert that night and camped by the side of the road. When we woke up we saw the remains of a rather horrible bus crash. One can only imagine it had something to do with the Egyptian habit of driving at night without headlights. The next day we rode 18 hours to Aswan at the bottom of Egypt. We were slowed by a popped tire and by police convoys which insisted on escorting us, often at half the speed we normally ride. We made the ferry the next day, but not before having to swear a false oath to the police that we lost our front license plates, which we were never given, "while walking around Aswan." Absurdity and bureacracy walk hand in hand.
We arrived in the Sudan on Tuesday and waited until Wednesday for our bikes to arrive on another boat. We then left late afternoon to begin the long ride to Khartoum. The ride across the Sudanese Sahara is something to behold. It begins like a moonscape, all round black mountains and large rocks and occassion patches of sand. And deep washboard. This is best ridden at speed, but it takes some nerve. We camped after 150 kms with some other folks we'd met on the ferry.
We set out Thursday to make the 250 km run to Dongola, after which it is 500 kms of pavement to Khartoum. We had hoped to do it in a day. Here's a summation of why we did not:
1.) Heat approaching 50 degrees.
2.) Deep sand everywhere.
3.) Peter goes over his handlebars and crashes hard on his side.
4.) Peter gets taped up by a local doctor type who makes a clack with his tongue and a chicken-bone-breaking motion with his hands everytime he points to Peter's ribs.
5.) Sam rides Peter's bike to Dongola and hitches a taxi back.
6.) Peter hitches a taxi to Dongola while Sam and Steffan (a German we met) ride the last 30 kms of sand in the dark.
7.) Peter gets an x-ray in Dongola and the doctor assures him he sees no fracture. Unfortunately, the x-ray doesn't include the rib in question.
8.) Sam and Steffan find Peter sleeping in the hospital. He was taken back in after the police kicked him out from outside and a local attendant took pity.
We rode to Khartoum yesterday on a road built by Osama bin Laden. He's a builder, you know. And last night we stayed at the Blue Nile Sailing Club. Now, we live for Ethiopia. It's really been something so far and we're short on words and time to describe it all. But we will in good time.
Keep looking ahead.
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Cairo to Alexandria to Cairo
After a few days in Manchester and London, I flew into Cairo on Saturday afternoon. Sam, without his bags, arrived a few hours later. We negotiated a taxi to Alexandria on the coast and arrived just before midnight. We checked into a hotel on the ocean and then set out for some food and water and sheesha.
We woke up this morning and left for the shipping agent. With high hopes. As it turns out we have to wait for a few days before they'll be released from customs. It's a long story about how we kicked around Alex today and then arrived back in Cairo tonight. It's enough to say that it was a lot of fun, not a little frustrating, but overall an interesting start to the trip.
More to come in the next couple of days.
We woke up this morning and left for the shipping agent. With high hopes. As it turns out we have to wait for a few days before they'll be released from customs. It's a long story about how we kicked around Alex today and then arrived back in Cairo tonight. It's enough to say that it was a lot of fun, not a little frustrating, but overall an interesting start to the trip.
More to come in the next couple of days.
Thursday, June 5, 2008
The North Bay Nugget
The North Bay Nugget (my hometown paper) was kind enough to write an article about our trip. You can read it here. It captures our motivation pretty well, I think.
Monday, May 19, 2008
Crate Expectations
We are about to crate the bikes. Save a few last minute additions everything has been done. By the end of Wednesday the bikes will be in a container ready to cross the Atlantic to Alexandria. After that, it's six weeks of waiting, also known as the longest Christmas Eve ever.
Later in the day I'll be posting pictures of all of our preparations. In the meantime, here is a great video to watch. It's a roll of highlights from the Dakar Rally over the years set to "Smokers Outside the Hospital Door" by the Editors. It gets great around 3:30.
Later in the day I'll be posting pictures of all of our preparations. In the meantime, here is a great video to watch. It's a roll of highlights from the Dakar Rally over the years set to "Smokers Outside the Hospital Door" by the Editors. It gets great around 3:30.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
CBC Points North
To all interested, I'll be doing a bit on CBC Points North today at around 5:40. They've been asking about favourite road songs all week, so I'll be chatting about mine and talking about the trip. You can stream it live here.
Keep looking ahead!
Keep looking ahead!
Saturday, May 3, 2008
To Zim or not to Zim?
One of my secret desires for the trip is that the situation in Zimbabwe stabilises sufficiently and in time for us to enter the country. Visiting Zim as it emerges from a prolonged period of self-inflicted chaos (Christopher Hitchens’s recent piece is worth a read) would be exhilarating. Based on the latest news, however, I’m not holding my breath. Mugabe has, seemingly from a position of weakness, wrong-footed the MDC by engineering a run-off election as well as by deploying his usual cocktail of dirty tricks, guile and preying on the weak. International/regional inaction and MDC indecision haven't helped. The MDC’s chances cannot be considered good.
If Zimbabwe’s situation were, however, to improve, our route would see us shoot down Zim’s western highway from Vic Falls to Bulawayo. Once in Bulawayo, we would head west and join up with our route through south eastern Botswana and, if time permits, backtrack a little to ensure we experience the Kalahari proper.
I lived in Zim for the better part of a year over 2001-02 (including during the previous presidential election in March 2002) when things were, while not exactly good at least relatively stable. Bread and petrol were available in the shops and inflation was only around 100 per cent. In retrospect, that stability seems barely skin deep; nor would stablility have been the adjective of choice for average Zimbabweans describing their lives. But it is true that in the intervening years Mugabe’s regime has done a lot to worsen the situation (like this, this and this).
As part of my work for the International Red Cross I visited Bulawayo a handful of times and always marvelled at the wide boulevards, fine urban planning and distinct Ndebele culture. In all my travels one of the biggest ever disappointments was failing to visit Victoria Falls during that year. In any case, we will certainly rectify that omission in August (from the Zambian side at a minimum), but it sure would be nice to witness Zimbabwe as it enters a new period of hope. Given its historical experience and current characteristics, Bulawayo would surely be the epicentre of a Zimbabwean recovery. Wishful thinking… perhaps.
Speaking of complicated places to visit… Does anyone have any up to date information for Canadians seeking to get Sudanese transit/tourism visas? We’d really appreciate any advice or information folks may have. Thanks!
If Zimbabwe’s situation were, however, to improve, our route would see us shoot down Zim’s western highway from Vic Falls to Bulawayo. Once in Bulawayo, we would head west and join up with our route through south eastern Botswana and, if time permits, backtrack a little to ensure we experience the Kalahari proper.
I lived in Zim for the better part of a year over 2001-02 (including during the previous presidential election in March 2002) when things were, while not exactly good at least relatively stable. Bread and petrol were available in the shops and inflation was only around 100 per cent. In retrospect, that stability seems barely skin deep; nor would stablility have been the adjective of choice for average Zimbabweans describing their lives. But it is true that in the intervening years Mugabe’s regime has done a lot to worsen the situation (like this, this and this).
As part of my work for the International Red Cross I visited Bulawayo a handful of times and always marvelled at the wide boulevards, fine urban planning and distinct Ndebele culture. In all my travels one of the biggest ever disappointments was failing to visit Victoria Falls during that year. In any case, we will certainly rectify that omission in August (from the Zambian side at a minimum), but it sure would be nice to witness Zimbabwe as it enters a new period of hope. Given its historical experience and current characteristics, Bulawayo would surely be the epicentre of a Zimbabwean recovery. Wishful thinking… perhaps.
Speaking of complicated places to visit… Does anyone have any up to date information for Canadians seeking to get Sudanese transit/tourism visas? We’d really appreciate any advice or information folks may have. Thanks!
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Find Me in a Mountain of Papers
I've spent the last couple of days getting together paper work for our trip while Sam nails down the final shipping details. To say that there's a lot of documents involved in putting together a trip like this is an understatement. But it's coming together.
My father and I are carting my bike back to North Bay on Saturday. It will spend two or three days in the shop, and then we'll spend the last week in garage tuning them up, adding a few new parts, and then putting them in a crate. As of May 15, the bikes will be in a crate on their way to Cairo. In short, things are coming together. I can't wait to get it started as soon as I get out from under this pile of paper...
My father and I are carting my bike back to North Bay on Saturday. It will spend two or three days in the shop, and then we'll spend the last week in garage tuning them up, adding a few new parts, and then putting them in a crate. As of May 15, the bikes will be in a crate on their way to Cairo. In short, things are coming together. I can't wait to get it started as soon as I get out from under this pile of paper...
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Choose a Day to Spread the Net
As you all know, we're raising money for Spread the Net during our trip. So far we've had great success in fundraising, having received close to $8000 in donations (of which, of course, we do not take a penny).
To increase our fundraising efforts, we are now selling days of our trip. The idea is quite simple. For a $150 donation to Spread the Net, you can buy any day of the trip. You'll be the only person who gets that day. When we return from our trip we'll send you some pictures from that day, a written account, and perhaps some momento like the map section from that day or something we pick up along the way. It will be a way for you to share in our trip and to support a great cause at the same time. To get an idea of what our trip reports are like, feel free to read one here, or here, or here.
In total, we'll spend 43 days on the continent. If you'd like to buy a day and you have a preference for one, please send me an email and let me know. Roughly, we will spend:
five days in Egypt
five days in Sudan
five days in Ethopia
four days in Kenya
four days in Uganda and Rwanda
three days in Tanzania
four days in Malawi
three days in Zambia
three days in Botswana
seven days in South Africa.
You can make donations here. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to be in touch. You can also be in touch if you want to tell us we're crazy, but we likely won't listen!
Keep well and keep looking ahead!
UPDATE: A reminder of how generous our great friends are: we've already sold 9 days!
UPDATE2: As of this morning (March 28), we've sold 14 days!
UPDATE3: As of this afternoon (March 30), we've sold 18 days! The good news keeps coming!
UPDATE4: As of April 22, we've sold 22 days.
To increase our fundraising efforts, we are now selling days of our trip. The idea is quite simple. For a $150 donation to Spread the Net, you can buy any day of the trip. You'll be the only person who gets that day. When we return from our trip we'll send you some pictures from that day, a written account, and perhaps some momento like the map section from that day or something we pick up along the way. It will be a way for you to share in our trip and to support a great cause at the same time. To get an idea of what our trip reports are like, feel free to read one here, or here, or here.
In total, we'll spend 43 days on the continent. If you'd like to buy a day and you have a preference for one, please send me an email and let me know. Roughly, we will spend:
five days in Egypt
five days in Sudan
five days in Ethopia
four days in Kenya
four days in Uganda and Rwanda
three days in Tanzania
four days in Malawi
three days in Zambia
three days in Botswana
seven days in South Africa.
You can make donations here. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to be in touch. You can also be in touch if you want to tell us we're crazy, but we likely won't listen!
Keep well and keep looking ahead!
UPDATE: A reminder of how generous our great friends are: we've already sold 9 days!
UPDATE2: As of this morning (March 28), we've sold 14 days!
UPDATE3: As of this afternoon (March 30), we've sold 18 days! The good news keeps coming!
UPDATE4: As of April 22, we've sold 22 days.
Saturday, March 1, 2008
The Soundtrack of Our Lives
The Great Anamitra Deb is going to put together a soundtrack for our trip. But in case he doesn't, I'd like you, the faithful reader, to do so. We'll call it Volume 2.
I remember my life through music. I associate songs with friends, places I've lived, meals I've eaten, even the most precisely recalled but meaningless moments. I've taken to listening to my iPod when I ride. As a consequence, I can recall the precise moment in LCD Soundsystem's "All My Friends" when Sam and I came upon a long line of cyclists along Route 138, just east of Forestville on our way to the Trans-Lab highway.
I can remember, too, exactly what it was like riding out of Labrador City at 7 am, in a cold rain, and seeing a sign declaring it was prohibited to shoot caribou within 50 metres of the highway. I was listening to the Arcade Fire's "Keep the Car Running":
If some night I don't come home
Please don't think I've left you alone
The same place animals go when they die.
You can't climb across a mountain so high
Those lyrics will for a long time be tied to my trepidation that morning . If caribou could be shot on the road then they could also certainly come into our path. But they also remind me of how great was my feeling when we arrived for the ferry on time on a route others were convinced we couldn't beat the clock.
So, what songs are going to make the trip this time? They need only meet a few conditions. They should have a good beat, clever lyrics, and maybe geographic or travel references. You can email your suggestions and reasons at pjlwn@mta.ca, and I'll post all suggestions on the site.
I remember my life through music. I associate songs with friends, places I've lived, meals I've eaten, even the most precisely recalled but meaningless moments. I've taken to listening to my iPod when I ride. As a consequence, I can recall the precise moment in LCD Soundsystem's "All My Friends" when Sam and I came upon a long line of cyclists along Route 138, just east of Forestville on our way to the Trans-Lab highway.
I can remember, too, exactly what it was like riding out of Labrador City at 7 am, in a cold rain, and seeing a sign declaring it was prohibited to shoot caribou within 50 metres of the highway. I was listening to the Arcade Fire's "Keep the Car Running":
If some night I don't come home
Please don't think I've left you alone
The same place animals go when they die.
You can't climb across a mountain so high
Those lyrics will for a long time be tied to my trepidation that morning . If caribou could be shot on the road then they could also certainly come into our path. But they also remind me of how great was my feeling when we arrived for the ferry on time on a route others were convinced we couldn't beat the clock.
So, what songs are going to make the trip this time? They need only meet a few conditions. They should have a good beat, clever lyrics, and maybe geographic or travel references. You can email your suggestions and reasons at pjlwn@mta.ca, and I'll post all suggestions on the site.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
If the trip doesn't work out....
...we can always start a beer company. Chris Tucker, of Mount A and now Montreal Mirror fame, has made us this great logo. It should find its way onto a t-shirt soon.
Saturday, February 9, 2008
What's to Come
When I review our to do list of things to be done before out trip, it sometimes seems more daunting than the trip itself. It doesn’t help, of course, that Sam is soon off to Afghanistan and I am jamming to finish up my dissertation. But half of the adventure is in the preparation and the other half is in figuring out how to handle what you forgot to prepare for.
We certainly plan to update this site regularly. We hope you’ll stop by frequently or even add it to your feeds. To give you a sneak peek of what’s to come, we’ll be dividing the posts up into several sections:
The Trip. This is our most general section and will mostly be articles about the trip as a whole, i.e. why we’re doing it, what decisions we are making, and our general reflections on the adventure.
The Cause. We will be raising money for a quite worthy cause during our ride. We are excited to share news about this soon and we’ll be excited to get your support. This section will host articles and entries about this cause.
The Route. We are keen to learn about our route before we track it and to inform our readers about it as well. So this section will contain some technical information about the route, but also some more country reports about the places we’re visiting.
The Gear. We have a lot of gear to bring and a lot to leave behind. We’ll discuss it here, as well as some product testing we’ll be doing along the way.
The Bikes. Same as the gear, except we won’t be testing any new bikes on this trip!
Old Stories. This isn’t our first adventure. We’ll post some stories about old adventures here.
So, that’s what’s to come. We’ll have something for everyone. Please come back often and tell your friends about the site. And keep looking ahead.
We certainly plan to update this site regularly. We hope you’ll stop by frequently or even add it to your feeds. To give you a sneak peek of what’s to come, we’ll be dividing the posts up into several sections:
The Trip. This is our most general section and will mostly be articles about the trip as a whole, i.e. why we’re doing it, what decisions we are making, and our general reflections on the adventure.
The Cause. We will be raising money for a quite worthy cause during our ride. We are excited to share news about this soon and we’ll be excited to get your support. This section will host articles and entries about this cause.
The Route. We are keen to learn about our route before we track it and to inform our readers about it as well. So this section will contain some technical information about the route, but also some more country reports about the places we’re visiting.
The Gear. We have a lot of gear to bring and a lot to leave behind. We’ll discuss it here, as well as some product testing we’ll be doing along the way.
The Bikes. Same as the gear, except we won’t be testing any new bikes on this trip!
Old Stories. This isn’t our first adventure. We’ll post some stories about old adventures here.
So, that’s what’s to come. We’ll have something for everyone. Please come back often and tell your friends about the site. And keep looking ahead.
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Cairo to the Cape
There is no romance or history or revenge in this. Only challenge. We’ll ride our motorcycles from Cairo to Cape Town in six weeks. We will trace the Nile to Khartoum, cross the mountains into Ethiopia, and then run a long, winding route over the top of Lake Victoria, down to Malawi, across Zambia to Botswana and down to the Cape.
We don’t plan to take much or to leave with anything but our panniers and pictures. But given the pace of our past trips and the time for this one, we cannot even promise that we’ll even have many of those. Maybe we’ll just leave with recollections and stories and a new scar or two.
We are using this site to tell those interested about our preparations for the trip, to share some of our stories of past bike trips, to review the gear and equipment we’ll be bringing, and to give you information about the countries we’ll be visiting and the cause we’ll be helping along the way. We also want to let you know how you can help.
We leave in July and return in August. We hope to hear from all of you before, during and, of course, after.
In the meantime, here’s pictures of us at the end of a couple of great rides. The top picture is at Andrew Black’s place in Halifax after a run through the Gaspesie and New Brunswick last May. The bottom one is at Red Bay at the end of the Trans-Labrador Highway at the start of September. We covered 2200 kms in a little over two days, the majority on gravel. Neither of these trips were hard. This one will be. Stay tuned and stay in touch. And keep looking ahead.
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