Jim Cavanaugh’s Tour d’Afrique

5.10

 We left Namibia first thing in the morning, and crossed the border into South Africa.  It was very simple and quick – much quicker, I am sure, than going into the good Ol’ USA.  (Btw, it is worth noting that many of the Europeans have told me that they don’t want to come to the USA and deal with the immigration issues, the security issues, etc  Which is not a good thing for a country that needs tourists.  I think that the USA needs to review its security issues, and accept that a lot fewer people have been killed by terrorists cumulatively over the years than are killed on our highways each year – one it just more dramatic than the other.  Besides, America can’t continue to be arrogant in its outlook on the world , and act like folks from other countries don’t matter.)

 The day started out with a 30 km climb, it was fairly steep early on, and then leveled out, but continued as a gradual climb.  It took a long while to summit, and it got colder as we climbed, as the wind picked up.  We had a headwind for most of the day, and the 133 km and 5,000+ feet of elevation gain ended up being a hard and cold day.  Very few of us were dressed for such a cold day, I certainly was not.  We ended up in the town of Springbok, which was just a small Afrikaans town.  Hot drinks were a must!!!!

 After having a lot of English since Kenya, this part of South Africa is very Afrikan, and English is clearly not the language of choice.  Fortunately, most South Africans are at least bi-lingual, but for many of them their English is fairly weak.  Yesterday we stopped at a coffee shop in a small town, and the owner’s English was somewhat painful, and she was very happy to have Andre, an Afrikaner rider from Capetown, show up and speak her language.

 5.10

 Today was a very cold day, and I started out with 3 layers on my chest, including a wool baselayer and a heavy wool jersey.  And was still a bit cold.  I wore socks for the first time since Cairo, if that tells you anything.  Am not sure the temps, but it was COLD.  Part of the issue might be that I have acclimatized to the African temps, but fortunately, this cold weather is helping me to be able to acclimatize to the Portland weather that I will likely be facing when I get home.  We got some rain as well, to add to our final challenges.

 I started the day out slowly, and rode with American Dan (from Reno), not to be confused with Big Dan, a big guy from Australia. American Dan has ridden almost every mile of the trip, but does them very slowly – he has amazing endurance, but can’t seem to increase his speed at all.  When we were chatting, I asked him if he had gone into Springbok to have lunch and check out the town, and he responded with a look of incredulous that I could say something so dumb – he responded by saying “Lunch?  I barely made it to camp by sundown.”  I acknowledged that obvious fact, and moved on to another topic.  Dan has had a challenging trip – before replacing his real wheel in Windhoek, he broke 23 spokes on his rear wheel since Capetown, and one day alone had 7 punctures, and yet continued to maintain a positive outlook at all times.

 The scenery is mostly high desert, not many trees, and rolling.  Lots of ups and downs, not many towns.  It is very similar to rural America, in that the costs are much lower than urban areas, the food is pretty basic, hotels are funky, etc.

 We ended the day at Garies, a funky little town full of guest houses and some grocery stores, in the middle of flower-growing country.  Apparently, this part of South Africa generates a lot of tourist revenue in June and July, when the flowers are blooming.  Am not sure how that works out given that it is the height of their winter, but so it goes.

 5.13

 Today was another tough day, 148 km, a lot of climbing, cold in the morning, a cross wind for much of the middle part of the ride, it warmed up during the day, and we ended with a tailwind.

 As I was riding to our destination, Vanrhynsdorp (what a country -  it is full of towns with names this big), I was running low on water.  We continued to see long stretches of two lane highways run as far as the eye could see, and it was a bit demoralizing, particularly low on water.  Anyway, I spotted what I thought had to be town, and drank the rest of my water, as I figured I could get something in a few km.  But, then I saw the road angle away from the town that I had seen, and my heart sank, as I could not see anything off in that direction.  But, as I went over a rise and went down a hill, I saw a Shell gas station sign and realized that town was in a valley;  For me, the Shell sign was an oasis in the desert, as was the shop that it had.

 Sometime back, I blogged bout the fact that when the Dutch play Germany in soccer, they sing a song called “Bring Back My Bicycle,” referring to WW II when the Germans stole the Dutch’s bikes.  A Dutch dude named Pim told me that story, and this morning I told Marcel, another Dutch guy, bout our conversation and how funny I thought it was.  Marcel told me that once when he got a ticket for a traffic violation in Germany, when the cop gave him the ticket, he backtalked the cop by saying “Tell your Dad to bring back my bicycle.”  Notwithstanding the EU, there is still a lot of history and rivalries between all of these countries, which are always in the background.

 We only have 3 riding days to Capetown, which is amazing to me after being gone more than 4 months.  I am anxious to get there, and put a fork into this trip, as I am ready to call it done.

 There are 3 Brits on the trip, and they are all different ages and backgrounds, and yet they all agree that Gordon Brown was a poor leader, and that it was time for him to go.  Given the anti-Brown feelings in the UK, it is amazing to me that his ego did not permit him to withdraw from the race, and put a fresh face in for Labour.  The lure of power……………….

 I am scheduled to fly from Capetown to London on British Air, and I have been reading that BA might go on strike shortly.  And that the Iceland volcano has continued to close some European airports.  Just my luck……………..

 By the way, a few contributions to Project Rwanda and Community Cycling Center have recently arrived, thanks for doing so.  And for those of you that have not yet given and thought it was perhaps too late – rest assured that it is never too late to give to good charities.  I think that we might cross the $45k level, and I sincerely thank each and every donor for their generous contributions.  It is a great reminder of the power of a few when they put their mind to doing something, particularly something positive.

 5.14

 When we left camp this morning, it was sunny and warm, and looked to be a nice day.  I was forcing some oatmeal down (that and porridge and weet-a-bix have become the breakfast bane of my life), when I learned that there was a Wimpy’s in 25 km.  My spoon stopped on the way to my mouth, I threw away the rest of the oatmeal, and focused my energy towards paradise, aka Wimpy’s, a hamburger joint with a decent breakfast, particularly a good waffle, and good coffee drinks.  Wimpy’s does not disappoint – they are a very standardized fast food.   A good portion of our group stopped there for breakfast, or at least for some good breakfast drinks. From Wimpy’s we continued towards the Atlantic Ocean, via a dirt road.  Not my preferred choice of road surface, but apparently the only choice in that hood. 

 Although the day started out warm and sunny, clouds moved in, it got colder and colder, and eventually the wind picked up and the rain started.  We reached Lambert Bay, which was full of hotels and restaurants, but in its wisdom, TDA kept us moving on to Elands Bay (sp?), which has one hotel, and a few apartments.  Given that it is winter, and it can rain and be miserable at the South African coast in winter (think the Oregon coast), one would think that TDA would logically choose the town to stay in with the most hotel options, but I suspect that the campground was cheaper in Elands Bay than Lambert Bay.  I think that they need some competition to kick them in the ass.  By the time that I got to the designated town today, and given that it was pouring rain when I arrived, I opted for lodging rather than my tent.  But, the hotel was fully booked.  However, the hotel had a trailer with a bed available.  I checked out the trailer – it was probably older than me, and in at least as bad shape, with no shower or toilet.  As it turns out, Team Norway, Knut and Hilde, two Norweigans who hang together, had rented an apartment, and American Dan and I joined them.  The apartment included a hot shower, kitchen and satellite TV – paradise found once again.

 I have stumbled onto Aljazeera News while in Africa, and think that it is the absolute best news station – it just covers the news with objective coverage.  CNN international is truly a joke, and BBC is not much better.  But, Aljazeera, which is made up of former BBC and other competent news hounds, covers the world’s events as they should be covered.  For example, where CNN gave Tiger Woods hours and hours of coverage bout absolutely nothing, Aljazeera gave him the 2 minutes that his story deserved.  Hopefully, Comcast carries Aljazeera so that I can continue to watch it when I get home.

 We have a number of South Africans on the trip, and it is interesting to watch them wrestle with the post-Apartheid South Africa.  One thing that the ANC has implemented is affirmative action.  I don’t think that it worked very well in the States, and the folks on this trip have told me repeated horror stories of qualified people (typically white) getting passed over for unqualified people (typically non-white).  I always thought that for starters, affirmative action should be economic based, rather than race based, but have recognized that ultimately, the best candidate should always get the job.  In South Africa, the affirmative action rules don’t apply to small employers, so many folks are becoming self-employed in small businesses and doing contract work for former employers, etc.

 While in Capetown, it was hard not to easily notice the bad vibe from whites towards blacks.  The whites view South Africa as being at a fork in the road, and wonder if South Africa will continue to prosper, or if it will go the way of Zimbawe, a formerly rich country, and decline.  Many white South Africans have already emigrated out of there, and one on our trip was doing a lot of soul-searching on the same.  His concern was not for himself, but rather for his kids’ future.  The dialogues that I had with him on this subject were very similar to the discussions that I have had with folks emigrating from former Soviet Republics.

 It is hard for me to describe this trip in a few words.  I might simply say that it was a great adventure that was enjoyable most of the time, challenging some of the time, always interesting, mostly fun – it was an adventure – and knowing what I know now, would still do it, and would recommend it to others, including doing it with TDA.  I thought that our company, TDA, did a reasonably good job, but recognize that they could do better, if they opt to do so.  Many of the things that they could do better are no-brainers, and no doubt have been previously raised by prior riders, and it is a bit disappointing that they continue to repeat the same mistakes – isn’t that a definition of insanity? 

 I can not reconcile the simple fact that Henry Gold, the founder of TDA, whose heart seems absolutely in the right place, has set this tour up as part expedition and part race.  Sadly, at the end of the trip, it seemed apparent that the race had priority over the expedition.  Put simply, Henry set up TDA to allow folks to experience Africa on bikes, and yet set up a race that minimizes the racers’ exposure to Africa.  Go figure.

 I learned a lot bout Africa, but in many ways have so many contradictory thoughts in my head on Africa that I can not reconcile them.  I would recommend this trip to anyone that wants to ride across Africa with a tour company.  It is also possible to see Africa self-supported on a bike, but that will take some energy and effort.  I would strongly encourage folks to visit Africa and see it for themselves.  In particular, folks can visit much of Southern Africa without the need of any tour company, and simply rent a car and go for it.

 As I type this last part, I am now in Portland.  My flight home went very well, I was not affected by the BA strike or volcanic ash, made all of my flight connections, and slept a fair amount on the way home.  I am still getting over jet-lag, but that will take care of itself.

 Thanks for sharing my trip with me!!

we arrived in capetown yesterday, and this ride is done!!!!

my bike is packed, and am hanging in capetown.  am scheduled to fly through london on british airways, which should be interesting given the potential upcoming strike by BA, as well as the volcanic ash that is closing airports in northern england today.  oh well, capetown is a beautiful city to wait in, if necessary.

more to follow………..

it is winter here, and has been chilly on the bike, as in yesterday for a while i had 5 layers on, including 3 layers of wool.

but, today was sunny and got warm in the afternoon, but started out chilly this morning.

3 days until capetown……

we are riding thru a high desert sort of terrain, very pretty, but pretty sparse country out here.

will write more later………

4.30

 It is really hard to imagine that tomorrow is May 1, May Day, my aunt Catherine’s favorite holiday.  I left Portland January 9, and have been through January, February, March, April in a little over 5 hours, and will start in on May.  What a long, strange trip it has been.

 Namibia runs primarily on tourism and diamonds.  It seems to have plenty of both.  I am not sure the population, but it runs very sparse in the countryside.  Which is ok by me, there are no You You You, give me money, etc.  Riding into Namibia, it was flat in a Botswana sort of way.  It has a very modern airport, bout 40 km outside of Windhoek, as that was the only flat spot around mountainous Windhoek. 

 As we rode into Windhoek, I noticed that there were soldiers randomly along both sides of the road.  I did not know if that was just an anxious president (not uncommon in Africa, or elsewhere – also applies to prime ministers such as Gordon Brown).  As I got into town, I realized that the roads were closed off, and a policeman finally waved me off the road, as there was a presidential motorcade coming.  It was the president of Burundi, and his motorcade was comparable to that of a US president.  I imagine that he is just another African despot, trying to hustle Namibia for something.

 It is interesting to me that we have seen many beautiful buildings built in Africa to house governmental ministries.  Am sure that a lot of corrupt cash is included in that construction, and that the buildings are not that necessary, certainly not on the scale that they are built.  I shutter to think of the aid dollars that are whittled away to secret bank accounts in Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and other institutional money laundry operations. 

 Windhoek is a beautiful and modern city, at least what we saw of it.  I stayed downtown, and it was a terrific downtown, with a lot of action going on, good coffee shops, lots of people, hustle and bustle.  But, at 6 pm, it was deader than a cemetery, with no shops open, and no people around.  I wish that I could have spent more time in the city to check it out.

 When Namibia obtained its independence, its then president named streets in Windhoek (and probably other cities) after political leaders that he admired, such as Fidel, Kabila and Mugabe – am sure that other despots are also remembered, but those are the names that I saw.  It is worth noting that no subsequent leader has changed the street names.

 Namibia is probably 97%+ black, but there are still whites that are natives that live here.  It is interesting to interact with them.  They speak good English, and also tend to speak Afrikaans, the South African language.  There seems to be a peaceful coexistence, but I did read in the local paper comments by a governmental official noting that whites have done pretty good in Namibia, even though they participated in apartheid before Namibia gained its independence.  That tells me that there are still a lot of tensions bubbling just under the surface.

 It has continued to rain in Namibia, even though we are on the cusp of the Namib Desert.  What is up with all of this rain?  Big time lightening and thunderstorms, much like we had growing up in Kansas.

 In Botswana, we had many long rides, and probably averaged bout 160 km per day, or a century almost every day.  Our longest day was when we crossed into Namibia, as we did 207 km that day.  We get an early start each day, the miles seem to pass by the wayside, and we reach our destination.  On the 207 km day, I hooked up with 2 other riders for the last 50 km, and we hammered that ride, through some headwinds, rain, etc.  It is great to be in good shape and have the endurance to do those rides.

 Today, we rode out of Windhoek, and after 11 km of pavement, turned onto gravel.  Fortunately, it was an ok road, there was grading going on today, and most importantly, the scenery was spectacular.  It was rolling hills, much like the classic scenes from the American West.  It felt like Oregon does in places.  It felt like home.  It was a really nice day of cycling, even on gravel.

 Namibia is much more civilized and organized than other countries that we have been in, and “bush camp” no longer appears to be a permitted option.  Instead, we will stay at a variety of campgrounds, some with rooms, some without, but all seem to have showers and toilets, so a daily shower is great, even if the shower is not always hot.  Tonite we are staying at a very interesting place run by New Agers, who do healing, horse training, yoga, and run a pretty nice campground and hotel.  I talked with the owner for a while tonite, and he is a very interesting guy.  Sadly, we have to hit the road tomorrow, as it would be interesting to hang with him for longer.

 5.6

 Time has flown by since I last worked on the word part of this blog, but I have been busy on photos.  We have pretty much been on dirt since we left Windhoek, although today we rode bout 100 km on pavement.  Ironically, because of the grading done on the dirt roads, they were smoother than the chip seal paved surface.  We are fortunate that Namibia sends out graders to keep its dirt roads in good shape, a fairly novel concept in Africa based on our random surveys. 

 The scenery has continued to be amazing, by and large just like the Ol’ West of America, although a South African informed me that the Ol’ West is really like Namibia.  The scenery has been a mixture of cattle country like we have in central Oregon, mesas and high desert similar to Arizona, with some rock scenes similar to Utah.  Simply spectacular scenery every single day.  And the gravel roads, which are not my favorite, have been ok.  We continued to have rain for a few days, including a very cold rain on one day’s ride.  However, as we left Solitaire and headed to the Namib Desert, the rain ended and the blue skies returned. 

 The Namib Desert is the oldest desert in the world, with some of the highest dunes.  The sand has iron ore in it, so it has a pink coloration, which is beautiful in early morning and late afternoon sun, along with the shadows.  I took a lot of photos, and hopefully you will think that the ones that I posted are ok – I am not big on landscapes, and prefer to photograph people, but that ain’t happening in Namibia. 

 As we ride down this gravel road, we continually pass various types of guest farms and lodges, many of them really nice.  I can’t emphasize enough what a beautiful country Namibia is, and how easy it would be to travel here on your own.  Just rent a car, and pretend you are in Arizona.  There are good game parks in Northern Namibia, and we have seen a fair amount of game on our ride, particularly in the Namib Desert Park.  Lots of Springboks, Onyxes, and Ostriches. Some folks saw some zebras – am not sure what other game is around here.  And I hear that the coast is also incredibly beautiful. 

 If you prefer to do some sort of tour, there are many overland truck tours going on – we see at least one truck every day.  It is not necessary to use them, unless you feel more comfortable, or want a group to hang with.  Otherwise, just do it on your own.

 Namibia and Botswana have taken the approach of getting higher-end tourists, as opposed to getting the big crowds more common in Kenya and Tanzania – sort of Bhutan’s approach as opposed to the come one, come all in Nepal.  Namibia and Botswana don’t require tourists to spend a minimum daily amount like Bhutan, but their emphasis is on more dollars per day per tourist.  And their nice lodges reflect that.  This is Africa, but it feels very civilized and comfortable.  But, there are plenty of campgrounds with cheap camping facilities, including toilets and showers.  This place is made for visiting.

 We have 8 more days of riding, and 1 more rest day, until we arrive in Capetown on May 15.  Time has really flown by.  Sudan remains my favorite country for the people, but Namibia is the prettiest, although all of the countries were very beautiful.  It is like a beauty pageant, all of the countries are beautiful, but one of them must win, and that is Namibia.  Although South Africa will also be very beautiful.

 Many of the white folks in Namibia are of South African descent, and they have its food and drink, which is very tasty in many cases.  But, there is a healthy mix of German influence from its days as a colony.  Hence, we got a mixture of interesting names for stuff, German, Namibian and Afrikaans.

Yesterday, we did 154 km on dirt, the morning was very tough with a lot of climbing and deep sand and rough road, but the road improved in the afternoon, and the afternoon was pretty easy, particularly with a tail wind.  Even so, 154 km on dirt was a long day.  Today was only 126 km, with much of it paved, and we ended at this funky hotel that looks like a castle, but has plenty of cold drinks.

As you can tell, I don’t do an outline before I start typing; this blog is simply a stream of consciousness, or unconsciousness, depending on your point of view.  But, I have plenty of time on the road to think bout what I want to say.

There are some interesting group dynamics bubbling to the surface, a small cadre of folks have apparently annoyed various other folks, and the latter are starting to openly so note their feelings.  I doubt that it will get confrontational, but am glad that I am only a spectator, and will remain so.

It is getting chilly at nite, it was 49 F in my tent this morning when I woke up, 51F yesterday morning.  The rides are cold when we get started at 6:30 am, and don’t warm up for 45+ minutes.  It is winter in the Southern Hemisphere, and may get colder as we go south.  It was interesting to see leaves changing in Botswana, and will probably see some of that in South Africa.  Out here in the high desert, we got safe brush and cactus.

 5.7

 Today, we stopped in a roadhouse full of American cars from the 50s, and memorabilia from both the States and South Africa from that time period.  It looked like it belonged on Route 66, rather than stuck out in the middle of Namibia.

Once we arrived at camp, and got settled in, a few of us rode our bikes bout 10 km out to Fish Canyon, which is the 2^nd ‘biggest” canyon in the world, presumably after the Grand Canyon, and presumably that the size is based on the square kilometers that the canyon takes up.   Fish Canyon did not have the minerals that the Grand Canyon has, and therefore did not have the great colors of the GC, but it was still spectacular to see.

We have a rider, Ted, who has generated a lot of curiosity among the riders.  Ted is not really a cyclist, and we are unsure why he signed up for this trip.  But, he arrived in Cairo with a beautiful Surly all decked out, including a Rohloff hub, but with Shimano cabling, that did not always work so well.  Bout Addis, Ted started to take time off from the tour, and we reckon that he has ridden bout 2 days since Addis, or 2 days in the last 2.5 months.  Ted rejoined us in Lilongwe, Malawi, and sort of hung on for a few days not riding.  One morning, he rode the truck and talked with another rider bout how much he loved to camp and ride, but when he got to camp, he took one look around, caught a ride to Lusaka, and we have not seen or heard from him since, which was close to 6 weeks ago.  TDA emailed Ted and confirmed that he is alive, but Ted did not share much info with them.  But, one of our riders met a gal that had met Ted on the Namibian coast, put two and two together, and realized that our rider was on the same trip as Ted.  She indicated that Ted had led her to believe that he was riding most of the trip, and called him “cheeky” when she heard the rest of the story.  But, Ted is a good guy and interesting to talk with, so hopefully he will rejoin us before Capetown, or at least at Capetown.  Besides, he left gear in the truck, and we still have his bike, although people are starting to bastardize parts off of his bike as he is not needing them.  Ted, please call home!

Another gal, who does not like camping at all, and who will probably never be in a tent again after this trip, told me this funny story of going out into the bush to do her business, coming back into her tent wearing her shoes, and realized that she had stepped into someone else’s business, and had that business all over her tent.  That happened a few months ago, and she can laugh bout it now. 

Our surgeon rider, Bill, who I think is highly renowned in his field, particularly as he did the first lung transplant, and who is 71 and a nice guy that we all enjoy, has been hanging out with a 19 year old, Michael, who is in a gap year, and will be starting his medical studies in the UK next year.  They make an interesting couple, but I really like both of them, and it is fun to watch.  Michael simply acts himself, uses his normal profanity, and they engage as pals.  Am not sure who appreciates the relationship more, Bill or Michael.

Michael and Bill’s relationship started when Michael crashed his bike, and needed his lip sewn up, which Bill did.  Michael has some dental issues to resolve, and he stayed on in Windhoek for a day to see some dentists and get a checkup.  He left all of his bags by our trucks, and when he came back, the trucks were gone, and so were his bags.  He reasonably  presumed that they got loaded on the truck, so he proceeded to head on to catch up with the trucks.  But, alas, the bags were not loaded, and Michael has lost all of his bags and belongings, other than his passport, and a few basic items, all of which he has taken to carrying in a plastic bag, referred to as his hobo bag.  To date, we have not learned what happened to his stuff.  TIA.  But, he has been borrowing sleeping bags from folks who get rooms, has slept on the floor a few times, and well, Ted is not using his camping gear………………….

5.8

Today we rode 174 km, the first 128 on pretty good dirt and gravel, and the last portion on pavement.  We had favorable winds all day, and many of us thumped the ride all day long, which was pretty fun.  We rode to the Orange River, which is the border between Namibia and South Africa.  We are staying on the Namibia side at a place called Felix Unite, which is some sort of funky river adventure place that has evolved into a pretty nice resort with rooms and camping.  Although the river is class 1+ at the moment, the scenery is great.

1 week from tonite, we will be in Capetown celebrating the end of the tour, amazing enough.  Tomorrow is our last rest day, the last of I think 24 rest days.  Before I came on this trip, I thought that number was excessive, but given the camping, the long miles on the bike, etc, I could have taken an extra rest day virtually every stop.  We have 96 days of riding total, and after doing 90, we have 6 riding days left.  I have not seen the miles for the upcoming week, but suspect that we will cover some ground the first 5 days, but that the last day will be fairly easy, so that we can get into Capetown fairly early.  Most of us are ready to arrive there.

At dinner tonite, someone observed that out of all of the various languages spoken on the trip, the French speakers seem to be the only ones that speak French in front of non-French speakers, even during a conversation that is otherwise in English.  Last nite I was sitting with 3 Dutch, and even though a good part of the conversation was bout runs and bike rides in Holland, the Dutch all spoke English so as to be inclusive.