A few lessons Learned

• My Equipment List page has been annotated with reflections of what equipment worked for me, what was broken and what I might bring differently if doing the trip again.
• Africa has lots of thorns.  While my Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires had only two flats on entire trip.  This was lower than average.  Bring good tires, particularly for off-road with good thorn protection (e.g. some riders had more than 10 flats on the first off-road day).  What I did find was that my thermarest developed a leak after camping on thorns on day #30.  People who brought a small foldable cot seemed to avoid this.
• Africa has sand.  I went through three basic point-n-shoot cameras that each got jammed due to sand.  Next time, My tent zippers also failed through the trip.  Next time I would bring a more dust-proof camera and be a little more careful taking photos of sand storms.
• Africa doesn’t have much in way of “real” bicycle shops prior to Namibia or at least we didn’t find them.  Sectional riders joining later were helpful to bring extra parts (e.g. for me a spare rim to Nairobi).  Riders that sent parts via DHL or other courier services sometimes encountered very high fees for parts.
• Electronics.  I and other riders had our share of electronic toys including laptop, kindle, cell phone and GPS odometers.
  • Solar chargers such as Goal Zero worked pretty well at keeping small pieces charged.  With so many phones and other toys – outlets were frequently at a premium when we did encounter them.
  • Wifi was sporadic and 60 riders can quickly clog up simple systems we encountered (particularly if some riders skype or video skype).  SIM cards and cell phones worked at least as well in some situations.  See also web updating below.
• Weather.  Africa surprised me that most days were is reasonable temperate ranges.  It got particularly hot (>40C) in the desert of Sudan and next time more re-hydration salts are in order.  It also got to ~3-4C once in Ethiopia and at end of the trip in Namibia/South Africa.  I ended up buying more warm weather gear in Windhoek, which was very helpful at end of the trip.  Rains we had were mostly all warm rains in areas such as Tanzania.  Otherwise surprising amount of time with daytime highs between 25C-35C and overnight lows ~10C-~25C and generally reasonable for cycling.
• Budget; one of the TDA mailings suggests approximately $100 per week as spending money with  perhaps some more if you plan extra accommodations or excursions.  What I found was:
  • Most on-the-road days are inexpensive.  Coke stops are a dollar here or there and there just isn’t much place to spend money during most riding days.  Instead it is more rest days and cities.
  • Visa fees in the first countries (Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi,…) come in cash and can be $50-$100 here and there, an expense I hadn’t factored into the equation.
  • Kenya onwards seem to have ATMs in border towns or soon thereafter.  Some folks had issues with their home banks freezing accounts or more difficulty with Mastercard linked accounts, but with some patience this works.  There also are much more limited places north of the equator to use credit cards such as visa cards (even in hotels).  This got easier as we went further south.
• Web page updating.  I received feedback that my web site was among those most kept up to date.  I did that with combination approach including (a) bought a local SIM card in each country.  Used a cell phone and WordPress for Android to provide a short two or three sentence update most cycling days (b) brought a laptop to edit photos and including more complete text when I could, e.g. at rest days (c) organized the site in advance with photos/categories/links so structure/navigation was all set up.
• Favorites. A common but strange question since part of what makes a trip like this interesting is the variety in cycling from one place to the next. However, if I were to list countries in order of my most to least favorites, it would be as follows:
  1. Namibia – beautiful off-road cycling through the desert
  2. Tanzania – off-road cycling through smaller villages on clay/mud/sand/gravel road, challenging but beautiful. Taking a safari was a nice change of pace.
  3. Ethiopia – intense and challenging in its own way. Different than countries either before or after.
  4. Sudan – friendly people, hard to get to. Initial route bypassed most towns on excellent roads and later route went through countryside but on awful off-road. Too bad there wasn’t a mix between the two
  5. Botswana – longest riding, flat stretches of road, but chances to see elephants and good weather
  6. Zambia – Victoria falls, good roads and slightly rolling hills
  7. South Africa – excitement of finishing the trip and some off-road cycling. However, highway riding was longer stretches without many places to stop.
  8. Kenya – wish we’d been able to ride more, good riding but elections this year meant we couldn’t do as much
  9. Malawi – Infected/swollen leg, caused me to miss some riding
  10. Egypt – Nice desert riding and excitement of starting the trip, but enjoyed other areas more. Assertive people selling things.

Now a few photos from trips looking around Cape Town.

Large waterfront statue
[See image gallery at bike2013.com]

Waterfront
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Eat or we’ll both starve
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Took a trip to Robben Island. Nelson Mandela was imprisoned on this island for 18 of his 27 years. Overall an informative half day trip and well worth the visit.
[See image gallery at bike2013.com]
[See image gallery at bike2013.com]

Hike up Table Mountain gave nice views of Cape Town and the coast
[See image gallery at bike2013.com]
[See image gallery at bike2013.com]
[See image gallery at bike2013.com]

Visiting the district 6 museum. Described an interesting and recent history. District 6 was name of a neighborhood in central Cape Town. In 1966 under apartheid laws, the government made it a white-only neighborhood and after that point 60,000 people were forcibly resettled in other areas and building also torn down. This continued until early 1980s when laws were reversed.
[See image gallery at bike2013.com]
[See image gallery at bike2013.com]
[See image gallery at bike2013.com]

It was a fun ride today. First 61 km of highway to a beach where we assembled, had lunch and took photos. Next almost 30km of convoy that became progressively more interesting as we used dedicated bus lanes and police were stopping traffic as we went through heart of the city. Finally into waterfront district, on a path and under a finish banner. We celebrated and gave well deserved awards for race winners and efi. Tonight a dinner and then will be complete.

Below some photos of the participants.

Those who cycled EFI
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Winners of the women’s race
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Winners of the men’s race
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Staff
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Our ceremony in at the waterfront in Cape Town
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However, before arrival we still had a 140km stage ride today. We started from Elands Bay and went out to the peninsula on dirt for 7.5km. After this a mixture of small roads including another 10km along a gravel toll road along the railway. This time did see a long train with engines both at front and two places in middle of the train.
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Velddrif was nice town at 60km and stopped here at the bakery. After this we turned right onto R27 road and saw our Cape Town 140km sign. Apparently, we hadn’t originally gotten a permit for the R27 which would have meant a lot tougher riding on gravel. This was a bit strange since the R27 had widest shoulders of any road we had in South Africa. Those shoulders were occasionally used for cars to get out of way for passing traffic – but sight lines were good and was otherwise good smooth cycling.
[See image gallery at bike2013.com]
We stopped for lunch at 75km and after this the winds also picked up more. Crosswinds sometimes became headwinds. Not enought to seriously slow things, but enough to keep being a reminder that riding wasn’t yet done. This made the afternoon a bit more of a slog, particularly over a long slow hill and then down the other side.
[See image gallery at bike2013.com]
In the distance we could start to see a mesa that was table mountain and backdrop to Cape Town. Yeah! Our last kilometers we turned the corner and went to our last beach town. Here we had extended riding meeting including riders being given informal “awards”. I was given one for always asking if folks were having fun and otherwise being cheerful. It got cold in the evening so into the tent.

I’m excited that we have just another 94km to go and will reach our goal for past four months.

We started with fog on the road and it wasn’t until 9:30am two hours into the ride that first could see a shadow. I climbed back up from Strandfontein and went slow on the road since my glasses would fog up and I could see less. At 10km we switched onto a toll road next to the railway. This road was private and was gravel. This took us through back areas and into next beach town of Lamberts Bay. The road once we past the toll gates was somewhat smoother cycling. A few trucks passed but didn’t see any trains this morning.
[See image gallery at bike2013.com]

Lamberts Bay at 45km was back to pavement and had a nice coffee shop. At 48km back onto gravel and stop for lunch. The gravel after lunch started rougher again but once past toll gates at better as well. The fog did reappear for a while until almost Elands Bay.

At Elands Bay I clocked in for last official race timing. I’ve been near bottom of race standings and some of those formerly timing there also stopped being part of the race. However, figured I’d started this timing so might as well finish into Cape Town. It does add some interesting dynamics both with the fastest riders pushing to race – but also with others keep riding without stopping. I mostly didn’t worry about that nor my race times but instead used it more like a time card to punch in and out and somebody could see, “yes he is still riding”.
[See image gallery at bike2013.com]

Elands Bay was nice small beach town. It definitely feels like the trip is winding down as folks are thinking ahead to Cape Town and beyond. Still two days of cycling though in South Africa.

At Elands Bay, JJ and Catalin dug a huge hole in the sand. Apparently to be used as a sauna.
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We had a great sunset.
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The rest of afternoon was getting long with cross winds that sometimes were slight headwinds. At Koekenaap at 126km was good chance for coke stop and then a second coke stop at 134km in Lutzville. After this headed more into the wind and towards the beach. Slightly less wind but onshore fog got heavier by 145km. I switched to higher visibility jacket and then last kilometer had good descent down to the beach.

It is great to be camped right next to the beach and hear the roar of the ocean.

I was on the road early and fortunately it was warmer than the day before. We started right away with a climb and then several descents on the N7 highway. My brakes continued making some noise and that increased through the day. Trucks came past and with just a few exceptions gave us reasonable room. There was a bright yellow truck that honked and passed awfully close and remember as being rather rude.

There were few towns along the road and these were well separated from the N7 through highway. So one needed to make a concious choice of whether to go into town or not. The largest was at 69km but I’d just had lunch at 64km before that. Had some good descents near 30km and a good climb near 50km.

After lunch some more rolling hills. You could often see several bumps ahead. Coming into Garies we had a good 6km descent and my brakes definitely made noise then. Fortunately after the ride, JJ replaced my brake pads (third set, good thing I brought these along) and much better after that.

Garies is a small town with a few shops on the main street. I could however find a SIM card and get the phone updated to make some web updates. While doing that noticed that we had crossed the 30th parallel of latitude today and hence are now further from equator than both Cairo and Austin.
[See image gallery at bike2013.com]

Goodbye Namibia, hello South Africa! This morning we had our last border crossing. They get easier and less expensive as you go along. Otherwise it was a day on well paved highways with some climbing and more tailwinds than headwinds.
[See image gallery at bike2013.com]
Our first 10km were along the Orange River. Workers were out walking on the road on way to jobs in the vineyards. At 12km we went through the Namibia exit station. We cycled across the bridge and then came to South Africa for entry. Yeah!
[See image gallery at bike2013.com]

South Africa started similar to Namibia with a well-paved highway going through the desert. Trucks and cars drive reasonably fast but all still pretty easy. From 15km to 50km we had a long gradual ascent. It started going through canyon areas but then opened up to tilted open country. Time to put things in lower gear and slowly ride up the hill.
[See image gallery at bike2013.com]

After 50km the terrain was more rolling hills. We briefly turned west shortly before lunch and were treated to both tailwinds and downhill into our lunch stop. After lunch, it kept with rolling terrain and I was a bit slower riding this stretch. My brakes started making interesting noises. First when I applied the rear brake and then even when I didn’t. Last bit into Springbok was down a hill and into a caravan park. Happy to get into camp.