In 2008 I am joining a group of some 30 people to cycle from Cairo to Cape Town. The tour is organised by a Canadian company who use the income from the trip to buy bicycles for Africa. See www.tourdafrique.com. The ride leaves Cairo on 12 January and arrives in Cape Town on 10 May after some 12000kms of cycling. My every intention is to keep a record of my trip but before I start on Africa I have set out a few (well, a lot actually) of pages on my trip last year across Canada.
First, a bit of background. Retired after 32 years in the RAF, mostly spent on and around Hercules at Lyneham, I find the itch to travel is still there. With some 67 years on this planet, I am now 40 years (happily) married. We have travelled a lot around this world of ours. I have lived in Zimbabwe and Zambia, spent time in Ethiopia, Europe and South Africa. Jan and I have lived in and back-packed around South America, spent 3 years in India where we travelled North to South and East to West sleeping in some pretty down market places. But this good lady of mine draws the line at sitting on a bicycle saddle for 4 months and so I am leaving her at home to continue her Open University studies while I go look for some sun to replace the cold, dark days of January and February in UK. It is also a good opportunity to take a break from a daily media diet of politics. Doesn't it just depress you?? As I mentioned, last year I cycled across Canada in Jun/July from Vancouver to St John's, a distance of 7000kms, and I have added some notes about this ride on the site. So, I have had a practice go, but Africa is a different level of challenge, and they don't serve ice cold root beer, nor Labatt's Blue.
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