Andrew & Judy's Tour d'Afrique Cycling Expedition

Finished!!! Cape Town, South Africa - 12 000km

2009-05-10T07:27:00.001-07:00

Hello from Cape Town!!!

After 120 days and 12000 kilometres, we are writing from Cape Town, South Africa. We have finished the 2009 Tour d'Afrique. We will send a "last update" when we get back home to Canada and have had time to really put it all into perspective, but we just wanted to let everyone know that we are safe and sound and quite ready to not get on a bicycle for a while. The tour ended with a 30km convoy to the waterfront area of Cape Town. We were accompanied by the Acting Executive Mayor of the city who is quite a cycling enthusiast. Upon our arrival, there was a marching band parade, a whole medal ceremony with national flags and bottles of champagne and even a VIP tent with as much food and champagne as we could fill ourselves with. We were not expecting such a huge welcome, but it certainly added to the feeling of accomplishment. Even the Consul Generals from all our contries were there! The city of Cape Town has a population that is very active and into sports, especially cycling, so they really made a big deal out of it.

We will be flying back home to Edmonton on the 13th/14th and will get back to our "regular life" pretty much right away. Again, you can expect a more full update of the last section and the tour as a whole when we get back (hopefully with lots of pictures).

See you soon!

Judy & Andrew

Windhoek, Namibia - 10 000km

2009-04-24T05:16:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!

We have concluded a very long section of the tour from Livingstone, Zambia to Windhoek, Namibia. In just 10 riding days, we covered approx. 1500km so if you do the math, that is an average of 150km per day which is a long time to spend on a bicycle seat, especially day after day and with uncooperative winds. This section also included the longest day of the tour, a whopping 207km. They told us that in the past there is most surely a tailwind for this day...there was not. The last riders got into camp JUST before sunset. BUT, we made it safe and sound to Windhoek and are enjoying what is essentially the "first world" again.

On our last update, we told the story of how our cameras were stolen and our adventure with going to the police, etc. so we just thought we would update further on this. The morning that we got all the police report sorted out, we had been planning on going to Victoria Falls in the afternoon and to do so without a camera would have been a bit of a downer, and we could not find a camera to buy in town either. Luckily, a fellow rider, Allen, lent us his camera so that we could go take many beautiful shots of the falls and ourselves there, which was very kind of him. If that wasn't generous enough, a different rider, Peter happend to bring two cameras on the trip so he lent us one of them indefinately until we can find another one. This has turned out to be an absolutely invaluable act of kindness considering all the things there were to take pictures of along this section.

On the day we left Livingstone, we crossed the border (by ferry) into Botswana. Interestingly, because the countries of Botswana, Zambia, Namibia and Zimbabwe all converge at this one spot, we actually crossed into Zimbabwe while on the ferry. We were not expecting to go to that country, but we can now say we did. We are even bringing home a 100 Trillion Zimbabwean dollar bill which is worth essentially nothing. In fact, the Zimbabwe government redenominated the ZWD again on February 2, 2009 at a rate of 1,000,000,000,000 old ZWD to 1 new ZWD and the rate is still 279 ZWD to 1 USD. Crazy. On the night we got into Botswana, we went on a river safari on the Chobe River. It was a very incredible experience. In just 2 short hours, we saw an elephant bathing in the water, two familes of 10 and 2o hippos respectively, a crocodile and many beautiful birds and ungulates. It ended with a spectacular African sunset which we probably took about 20 pictures of. The next day, we saw about 6 elephants on the side of the road while riding and sadly, a little further on, we saw a dead elephant that had been poached (its leg had been snared and the whole face had been cut away). You do not want me to try and describe the smell of that experience...Judy almost vomited. The NEXT day, we saw 3 giraffes crossing the road but they were very timid and ran incredibly fast into the forest. And don't worry, we are coming home with pictures of all of this (thanks to the generosity previously mentioned). So, as you can see, Botswana offered us all the sites of animals that we could have wanted and one of the reasons is because there are almost NO people. It was an incredible contrast from most of the trip so far, as ever since Ethiopia (which was the worst) we have been going through heavily populated countires. It was a nice break to never see any people, anywhere...just animals.

Near the end of our time in Botswana, we both (again) developed a bit of a sickness. This time, it was nothing that affected our GI tract, which was nice because that is what has been happening off and on since Eithiopia. We just had some high fevers and aches, but nothing that Tylenol couldn't fix. Judy had it a bit worse, so they did a Malaria test on her, but it was negative...phew. At the same time we developed this feverish sickness, Judy also happened to pick up a worm infestation in her belly. Yes, worms. Actually, a few of the people on our trip had worm troubles throughout Botswana, some in their bellies, some just under the surface of their skin. Judy affectionatly named hers Harold and Josephine and then took "Worm Stop 500" and killed them and their offspring off. The effects of taking the worm medication were incredibly swift and as soon as she had, the aching belly went away. These sicknesses did keep us from riding a few days, the most dissapointing of which was the 207km day, but that is just how it goes sometimes.

Since getting into Namibia, we have spent most of the days crossing the Kalahari Desert. I am not sure what it is with our group and getting bad luck with rain and deserts, but two nights ago, we had an incredibly rain and wind storm overnight while camping in Witvlei. We ended up tying our tent to a tree in the middle of the night so that it didn't collaps/blow away. This was very effective, and luckily, even after 102 days of camping, we and all our stuff were 100% dry inside. Seriously, we think this tent is magic. If anyone is looking into buying a tent right now, buy a Kelty. Yesterday, while riding into Windhoek, we saw more animals! Just after passing the international airport, we saw about 30 monkies sitting on the fence along the side of the road and not long after that, 3 warthogs (or as we call them, "Pumba"s) crossed in front of us. We sang "Hakuna Matata" for about a half hour after that. It then rained AGAIN on the last few km into the city and we got a little wet. The terrain in the Kalahari desert and around Windhoek looks a lot like interior BC near Kamloops and the rolling hills as we went into the city, really brought us back to Canada.

Well, after 10 000km, we are getting ready for the last section of our tour: Windhoek to Cape Town. We leave here tomorrow (April 25) and ride over to the Namib desert and then south to South Africa and should arrive in Cape Town on May 9th. We can't believe it is almost coming to a close but after four and a half months travelling, we are pretty excited and quite ready to get home. We look forward to seeing you all when we do!

Lastly, you can read a newspaper article about us that was in the local Canmore newspaper here: http://www.albertalocalnews.com/rockymountainoutlook/news/42760627.html

Victoria Falls - The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

2009-04-12T03:45:00.000-07:00

Well, more days of travelling across Africa, and many more interesting stories. Last week we had a rest day in Lusaka, Zambia and spent the days there enjoying a lot of western amenities. We even went to the cinema and saw a movie ("Slumdog Millionaire", which I would deffinately recomend as a must see for everyone. After having spent some time in India this year, it really hit home.) We enjoyed some great western foods and went out to celebrate our friend Mark's birthday. All in all it was a great few days of pampering and relaxation. Andrew & decided (for our sanity & so our butts could have a break) to not ride our bikes for the three days between Lusaka and Victoria Falls. Turns out it was a wonderful 3 days of relaxation and book reading, which is good, because early yesterday morning (April 11th, the first of our two rest days in Vi Falls) our cameras were stolen out of our tent while we were eating breakfast. Quite unlucky really, but also our luck was that we had decided to inventory our money & charge my iPod, so those were not in the tent at the time. Could have been much worse, so we have spent all of yesterday and most of this morning sorting out our insurance claim, trying to get ahold of new cameras (unfortunately to no avail). We also went to the village which is a stones throw from our Lodge with one of the local security guys to plan a 'sting' opperation. He posed as our guide, and we bought a few locals some beers (and by beer I mean the local fermented corn mulch, which smells and tastes awful, kind of like a mix between bad beer and the early fermenting stages of rye). And found a guy in the village who sold cameras. Unfortunately, he did not have ours, but knew a guy who had a few and would meet us later. I think he caught wind of what we were doing however, because he didn't show up at the designated time. Today we spent all morning with the Zambian police, which really was an adventure all unto itself. We went to the police station, only to find out that police reports are only written up on Tuesdays, typical Africa. But after pleading with the guy behind the desk (who did not at all look like a police officer in his boardshorts and hawaii print shirt, except for the army boots he was wearing), he consented to call his boss, who sometimes came in on Sundays anyways, so the boss shows up, looking even less like a cop in a blue jumpsuit and sandals and they chat and so they call in the guy (who's name is Kelvin) that writes the police reports. So he interviews us, calls his partner (named Andrew) and they tell us that they can write a report for us today, but its going to cost 50,000 kwacha (about $10) to write the report, plus the costs of the internet cafe and printing because their police station doesn't own a computor. So off we go with them to the "crime scene" and they interview the security guards at the Livingstone Safari Lodge and nothing surfaces except what we already know, that often cameras and cell phones are stolen from tourists & then sold on the black market. (Infact just outside our internet cafe a guy approached us asking if we wanted to buy a camera, so we questioned him about the brand, but alas they were not our cameras. But I digress.) After that we spend some time with the police officers getting our story straight and they write up a report. Next we hop in a cab to the nearest internet cafe and there Andrew & I type up our own police report (only on account that Kelvin started typing it up, but I anticipated that it would take about an hour for him to do as his keyboard skills were slightly lacking). So we typed our report, correcting the spelling mistakes and making it look a little more eloquent in english, printed it they stamped it with their Zambian Police Service stamp, signed it, we handed over the K50,000 and then we were on our way. We stopped at a few placed and tried to buy cameras (from a store so as not to support tourist camera thieving) but couldn't find anything, so we've resorted to borrowing one from our friend Allan on the tour so we can (finally!) go to the falls this afternoon & enjoy the last few hours of our rest days (which were not so restfull). All in all, it could have been worse, we still have our money and passports and credit cards, and we've contacted our travel insurance company (hence needing police reports), which should cover the cost of our cameras. The sad part is that we lost the last 2 weeks worth of our pictures, which really is the part we are missing the most. Fortunately however, we are travelling with 50 other people who all have taken pictures over the last 2 weeks, so we can always get those. Also quite fortunately we changed out our memory cards 2 weeks ago, so we're lucky we didn't lose more. All in all, we both agree that we still love Africa, and have vowed not to let a few bad experiences ruin our trip. (think back to our days of stone throwing, stick wielding children in Ethiopia, it now seems almost a cute distant memory. *almost*) We're planning on taking a picnic to the falls this afternoon & enjoying the day. Other than that, we're less than a month from Cape Town & will be back on Canadian soil in 31 days. Quite exciting as we are starting to miss home a bit (we've been on the road for exactly 4 months today) and can't wait to see everyone.

Malawi!!

2009-03-31T02:16:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone!

We are now in Lilongwe, Malawi and enjoying the beautiful scenery. Our first day into Malawi was an explosion of humidity and heat as well as immense beauty! We learned a few days ago that Malawi is sometimes called the "Warm Heart of Africa", because of the kindness of the people. All along the roads kids are waving and smiling, shouting "Azungu" (which literally translated from Chichewa is "white person") trying to get our attention. We were a little bit disapointed when kids started shouting what we thought was 'money', turns out the Chichewa greeting for 'hello' is 'moni'. That lifted our spirits! To further exemplify how kindhearted people here are I'll tell a little story of what happened to us yesterday (although I'm sure my mom will kill me for this!) While riding yesterday into a strong headwind in the hot, sticky afternoon Andrew & I decided that we were sick of riding out bikes. We have two support trucks that come with us, but one was gone ahead to scout the campsite, and we knew the other was still at the lunch stop and wouldn't be along for another 2 hours or so, our end result was that we decided to hitchhike. Neither of us having done this before, we were a little short of knowledge about how to hail down a vehicle, and secondly we needed one that would accomoade not only us, but both of our bikes. Fortunately for us, around the next corner was one of many police checkpoints. Just our luck as well, a huge flatbed truck was stopped there. We promptly rolled up, knocked on the drivers window and asked if we could hop in the back. The driver spoke very little english, but quite kindly the police officer offered to be our translator. So here we are in the middle of a Malawian highway asking a cop to translate for us so that we can hitch a ride. Once the driver caught on to what we were doing he immediately smiled and gestured that we should throw our bikes up to one of the other people hitching a ride in the back & then hop up. We told him where we were headed & he promised to drop us off as close as he could to our destination. Half an hour later the truck pulled into a gas station and they helped us unload our bikes & asked us what the heck we were doing riding our bikes across Africa (it is a bit of a crazy endeavour!) so we told them about the TDA & our fundraising & where we were from, what we did back home and so on. It was at this point that the drivers assistant spoke up and in immaculate english started asking us about Canadian unversities. He expressed his desire to us that he one day wanted to go to Canada and go to school. We swapped e-mail adressess and promised to send him whatever info we could about schools back home once we got there. Then we said goodbye and were on our merry way to camp. - Now for my mothers sake (and Andrew's too) let me elaborate on how safe it is to hitch a ride in Africa and how it differs from Canada. Here, very few people can afford vehicles but still need to get places further than walking or biking distance. Most people who have vehicles drive trucks of one sort or another, so the natural thing to do is pull over an offer anyone (& often their multitudes of stuff) a lift, I mean you're going in the same direction anyways. Everyone here hithes rides, mothers with tiny babies slung on their backs, old men with canes, children on their way to and from school...the list goes on. Now, back in Canada, I would likely never hitchhike, because no one in their right mind does it at home, and no one in their right mind picks up a stranger wandering down the side of the road, but the culture here is different, and I really like it. Everyone is your brother or your sister, and it seems that although in extreme poverty (especially here in Malawi) someone would give you the shirt off their back if you needed it. Anyhow, this long meanering ramble is to express the kind hearts of people here.

On to the trip; we spent as beautiful day relaxing on Chitimba Beach, on Laka Malawi and were supposed to spend the next 4 days riding along Lake Malawi into Lilongwe, however plans change. The rains have been excessive here this year, and as a result the road we were supposed to take had been partially washed away and a bridge was destroyed, so we stayed inland & got to Lilongwe a day early, so now we get two rest days here instead of one.

In other 'exciting' news, Madonna is here in Lilongwe. We had some greasy paparazzi guy staying at our campsite last night. I've never seen camera lenses so big! I guess she's here to "adopt" another baby, clearly at a great personal cost. I guess money can buy anything these days. So far we haven't seen her, (that being said, we're not really looking to either, we have much better things to do, like wash laundry and oil our bikes).

We're off to Zambia next, and will be back on Canadian soil in 6 weeks; which brings the point that if you are still interested in donating, you still have time! We are continuing to fundraise until we get back home. The easiest way to donate (since you are reading this you are already at a computor) is online at www.tourdafrique.com/donate - please put "In support of Judy Garnier & Andrew McLellan's Fundrasing" in the comments box. Every penny helps and we've been to a couple of bike donation ceremonies and its amazing to hear the stories from local hospitals and aid organizations of the bikes help and what it really means for them! We just passed day 80 of the tour, and despite torrential rains our little tent has managed to stay intact. We had an ant invation of it this morning, it seems overnight a colony of sugar ants (the teeny tiny ones) decided to build a next under our tent, and so this morning we found they had chewed holes through the floor and were invading. We wiped them out with about half a bottle of mosquito spray and patched the holes in true Canadian fashion with seam-sealewr and duct-tape. Mission accomplised!

Judy & Andrew

Iringa, Tanzania - 6000km

2009-03-20T05:09:00.001-07:00

Hello!

Well, what a week we just had! There were ups and downs (perhaps more downs for some people). For starters, some good stuff: We passed the halfway point in terms of distance of the trip a few days ago (On St. Patrick’s Day) and right now in Iringa, Tanzania, we have come approx. 6000km. We looked it up on Google maps and that is about the equivalent of going from Vancouver to Halifax! Crazy! These last seven days of cycling has probably been the most consistently enjoyable days of riding that the two of us have had this trip. Only 1 of the 7 days was pavement and the rest was a combination of dirt, gravel and sand. We didn’t really mind though because that is what our bikes are built for and we have fun doing it. The other thing that made it very enjoyable is that we often only rode half days meaning we took the truck in the morning and read and then cycled the afternoon. We have found that we have a lot more fun this way because (especially on the rough terrain) a 50-60km ride is just the right amount for us, as oppose to a 90-110km ride. There has been a bit of rain recently, but it is quite predictable (late afternoon storms) so it hasn’t caused too many problems. Now for a bit of the negative side…one of the trucks has been consistently breaking down and has been limping through Tanzania getting make-shift repairs along the way. This has led to a few delays on meals and people getting their equipment at camp. Luckily, all our stuff is on the truck that is working fine so we have not felt the brunt of this too badly. The worst part about the week was that one of our fellow riders (a really good guy) had a pretty bad fall on some of the rocky gravel and ended up severely breaking his ulna and also clipping a vein. This was two days ago, and he had to get rushed to Iringa where he had some surgery to clean and repair the vein. Unfortunately, his tour is done and he left to go back home to the United States yesterday for more surgery to repair the break. Up to this point, he had cycled EFI for the whole trip and was an incredibly strong racer. It was a bit of a shock, and we all feel very, very bad for him.

We thought we would take some time to do something a little different on this update and that is to give everyone a bit of a “day in the life of TDA” sort of thing. So, if you are interested, keep reading and you’ll find out about some of our routines and how we are living on the trip.

First of all, here is a typical daily schedule for a riding day:

0600hrs: Wake up
0600hrs-0610hrs: Snooze Time
0610hrs-0645hrs: Dress, pack, put away tent, etc.
0645hrs-0705hrs: Breakfast
0705hrs-0715hrs: Put packs in truck, brush teeth, wash dishes
0715hrs: Start riding
Approx. 1100hrs: Lunch
1145hrs-1500hrs (Approx): Afternoon riding
1500hrs-1600hrs: Set up camp, change, wash
1600hrs-1800hrs: Relax, read, eat soup, socialize, bike maintenance
1800hrs: Rider meeting (briefing on the next day of riding)
1830hrs-1900hrs: Dinner
1900hrs-2000hrs: Get ready for bed
2000hrs: Go to sleep

So, there is a typical day for us! The times vary a bit depending on whether we are riding a full day or half day and what the distances are and road conditions, etc.

Another thing we thought people might be interested in is water usage. Between the two trucks, they can carry 2000L of purified water that we use for drinking and cooking and (sometimes) washing. As a whole group, we go through about 900L a day, which means that they pretty much have to find a water source every two days, which in some of the places we have been, is very difficult. As a result, we are always on some sort of water ration. Either water is ONLY for drinking (and cooking) or we are allowed one 750ml bottle of water to clean with in addition to drinking. We tend to use a lot less than this though because of the great expandable cloths that our good friend gave us. Besides, in our mind, we are always on the highest water restriction because the more water we use, the less there is for the people that actually live here and there isn’t much to go around.

Okay, that is all we are going to update everyone on for the time being. We have 5 days of riding ahead of us before our next rest day in Chitemba Beach, Malawi and it is all paved!

Pictures

2009-03-12T05:35:00.001-07:00

We want to share some more pictures with everyone instead of just a few that we can get on the blog. So, we have created a facebook album which you can click on the link to below. You do not have to be a member of facebook to view it, so it is available to anyone. We are adding a few pictures every once and a while as we are able with the internet connections we encounter. Enjoy!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2147871&id=120402081&l=36cfb

Arusha, Tanzania - Three Days Off the Bike

2009-03-11T01:53:00.000-07:00

Greetings!

We are now in Arusha, Tanzania only 2 days riding from Nairobi. We have reached our offical halfway mark...in days anyways. We have 59 days to go out of 120, so yesterday was the actual halfway. We are currently enjoying three whole days off from riding, which is a special treat as normally we only get one day off every week or so. To update since our last post, we crossed into Tanzania and it is every bit as beautiful as we thought. We are now getting to the part of Africa that looks like the stereotypical "Africa" one might see in a National Geographic. Endless plains filled with grazing herds of zebra (yes we have seen those) as well as a few giraffe off in the distance. I also had a race with an ostrich, he of course won. (actually, there just happened to be an ostrich running in the same direction as me so I tried to keep up...it failed). When we first crossed into Tanzania we could also see the outline of Kilimanjaro in the distance, although we've been told that its a bad season to see it from afar as the air is too moist. What that means is that we've hit the rainy season, so we're keeping our raincoats on standby.
Arusha, the town we are staying in is a huge tourist capital. This is the place where everyone comes to start safaris, so there are what I call tourist shops everywhere, and if can manage to avoid them, hundereds of people on the streets selling anything you could ever want from sunglasses, to wood carvings, handmade sandals, gloabl newspapers and cellphone accessories. They are pretty respectful if you politely say no thank-you though. Every country is a little different. That being said there are a lot of similarities between Kenya and Tanzania, one of the obvious is that the language is the same - Swahili, which very conveniently Andrew took as his second language at university so he has a basic understanding and I am slowly learning a few words. English however is incredibly prominent here, but we will see how it is in some smaller villages as continue south on our journey. As we get further south we have noticed that things have become a lot more westernized. In Nairobi we found a fantastic pizza place (oh how good it was to eat some 'normal' food) and plenty of shopping centres. As well its becoming easier to find access to internet, banks and for the first time since we left, we were actually able to use a credit card to buy groceries! Its the little things in life!

Thats all for now, hopefully internet will continue to be a comodity for the second half of the trip!

Judy & Andrew

Nairobi - 5000km and counting...

2009-03-07T01:36:00.000-08:00

Hello Everyone!

We realize that it has been over a month since our last blog update, but we've been having some blogger troubles with the computors/internet in Ethiopia. Mostly we were unable to actually upload to the site, so many of you probably received our e-mail updates...But now that we are in Kenya, where internet it abundant and works at a reasonable speed the blog is back!

We will also be trying to upload some of our blogs we wrote while in Ethiopia, so watch for those coming soon.

Where to start...So much has happened! First off we crossed into another country (Kenya) and are currently in Nairobi, the capital for a rest day. This city is incredibly modern, and for that matter so is this whole country. The roads are actual roads with sidewalks and curbs, there are fixed prices in stores (no more "tourist prices" for us) and our campsite two days ago had a swimming pool at it. So nice for those 35+ days! There is such a huge contrast between Ethiopia and Kenya, I think there are two big things that make this so; the first being that Kenyans value education more than anything, and boats an 85% literacy rate. (Pretty impresive if you ask me) The second being that Kenyans have so much pride in their country. There is little garbage on the grounds and people are incredibly friendly, more than willing to help if they can. Just this morning Andrew & I were running around trying to find a place that we could scan some documents that we needed to e-mail back home. Where we are staying there are only a few internet cafes and we had a hard time. We eventually walked into a store that sold computors and asked the woman there if she knew of a place where we could accomplish what we needed done. She was like "well lets just do it right now for you guys, you can use my work computor". Then she called another store that did scanning and charged us half of what they were and didn't charge us for the internet time. Incredibly generous and kind. But people in Kenya are like that, so far we have found that like in small towns in Canada people go out of their way to be helpful. A huge contrast to Ethiopia, as well as all the other African countries we have been to.

That being said Kenya hasn't been without hardship and frustration. The first few days in Kenya were on the worst roads we have ever seen. Picture a combination of deep sand and six-inch deep corrugations, intermixed with loose gravel and boulders. The only reason we knew we were on a road was that it was built up 4 feet higher than the surrounding area. As well, we spent a night in "lava rock camp" which I'm pretty sure everyone renamed "Mud Bath Camp" as we got our first big hit of rain there, and man did it pour! Incredible amount of water descended from the heavens and literally slaughtered our campsite. We were in an area that hadn't seen rain in about a year, and it turned into a complete watering hole, filled with inches of H2O. And the winds that whipped and brought the storm in were ferocious! Nearly everyones tents were flat on the ground and we thought for sure that everything inside was going to be soaked. I have to say, we love our tent! After 2 hours of rain beating down and winds blowing there were 2 drops of water inside. We were delighted.

We had some other hartimes when bad news from home made us realise how very fortunate we are. We learned on Feb 15th that a dear friend of ours, Teri Murray had passed away in a tragic car accident. Driving on winter roads from Canmore to Calgary. I think what made it so difficult for us was that we were the ones travelling the globe supposedly doing high-risk things and someone we loved was at home doing a normal thing that we do often. It hit so close to home. The other part of course was being unable to be at home with her friends and family to say our last goodbyes.

On a happier note, although both Andrew and I suffered some scores of illness, we are both now very healthy and back on our bikes. Nothing too serious just local food wreaking havoc on our bodies, there was something that went around our group througout Ethiopia and it seemed that as soon as you got healthy it had mutated in other people and came right back for you. We've belittled and berated whatever it was into submission though and are back in the full swing or riding. In a few days we will be crossing into Tanzania which will mark our official "half-way" through the trip. We have three whole days off from riding in Arusha there, and are looking forward to vegging out a little bit and enjoying our time away from everything!

Thats all for now, we will try posting our previous blogs soon!

Judy & Andrew

2009-01-30T06:28:00.000-08:00

Hello AGAIN!

It seems like we are sending a LOT of updates lately...way more than we anticipated. Internet is just way too easy and cheap in the areas we are travelling to, which was a surprise. Right now, we are in Khartoum, Sudan enjoying a rest day before heading into the hardest week of the tour. We spend 3 days getting to the Ethiopian border and then 3 days in Ethiopia climbing up and over a huge mountain range. We are told that day 2 in Ethiopia is the hardest day of the tour. The past 4 days since Dongola have all merged into one long stretch of desert in our minds. We are getting stops and camp sites mixed up in our heads because they all looked pretty much the same. A tent and thousands of square kilometers of Sahara desert. When we crossed the Nile River in Dongola, we went from the Nubian Desert to the Sahara. It is strange thinking that when looking West, there is nothing but sand all the way to the Atlantic Ocean. The cycling has become slightly mind-numbing as a result of this very barren landscape. In the Nubian Desert, there were a lot more hills and entertaining terrain, but here, it is nothing but flat, newly paved roads and sand. We kept our sanity on the long rides (142km, 142km, 157km and 105km over the past 4 days) by talking a lot. In fact, in order to ensure we have stuff to talk about, we have made a rule of not having any interesting conversations at camp but instead writing the topic down and discussing it the next day while riding. It worked to get us to Khartoum, though there were some times when we felt like just getting on the truck to make the sand go by faster.

We have noticed people getting slightly less friendly the more we move South, and instead of always being eagerly waved at, we usually have to initiate the wave. It is an interesting spectrum to see change slowly while we go by at our pace. Khartoum is a very big city that reminded us a lot of Delhi, but with slightly less people and traffic congestion. The air is very dry and today was the hottest day of the week, reaching 50 degrees. The heat is actually quite bearable until you start to move but the sun feels like someone is holding a hot plate to your arms.

Last night was a very enjoyable one in Khartoum and it involved bowling and then watching and taking part in a dance-off with some local police cadets that are housed in the same grounds as we are. They played a game where one person stamps their foot to a certain beat, then challented someone else to that beat. Whoever loses the beat first is disqualified. It was a lot of fun and we were not too bad either!!! Today, we took a bus to a YMCA compound which houses some IDP (all children) from the South and the West of Sudan. One of our riders works with the German YMCA which is quite close to the one in Sudan. We were all able to help hand out some mosquito nets to about 300 children (mostly orphans) that were purchased as a result of the fundraising and the joint YMCA efforts. We are still taking in and going over everything that we saw and how it made us feel and we will most likely write more about this in the future. It was quite something...

Lastly, we wish would could get more pictures up, but we are having a hard time getting around the size of the pictures as well as the internet connection speed. If there are any travel savvy or tech savvy people out there who have a suggestion for getting more pictures up, please let us know.

Our next rest day is on February 6 in Gondor, Ethiopia where we hope to update once more!

Ciao!

Judy & Andrew

1400km - Dongola, Sudan

2009-01-25T03:28:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone!

So we are in Sudan safe and sound. The hype in the media really throws you off about this place, at least the part we are in. People are incredibly friendly and welcoming, everyone says hello when you are walking down the street (without trying to sell you something or asking you for money) and no one tries to rip you off when you are buying something from their little shop! So much different from Egypt. Sudan is evolving everyday, which is why although we were told that there would be no internet access we found some and it is the fastest yet. They are even running Pentium 4s here! All for a cost of about CAD $0.75 per hour.

Cycling is getting a little tougher as the weather gets hotter and hotter, and we still have 2 more countries until we hit the equator. Not only did Sudan bring hotter weather, it also brought the first non-paved roads meaning we have to exert ourselves much more to get the same distance. Imagine trying to cycle 100km through a beautiful sandy beach...when its 40 degrees...minus the water to cool off in. Subsequently we've had our first bout of sickness, quite likely caused by minor heat stroke and missed one day of riding. We are all better now though and looking after ourselves, enjoying a rest day in Dongola.

We have gone over 1400km now and have 4 more days of cycling before reaching Khartoum and then we should cross the Ethiopian border on February 3rd. The food continues to be delicious everywhere we go, and nothing beats a giant bag of falafel from a roadside vendor (for CAD $0.60)!

If there is any aspect of our trip that you are curious about (ie. the people, food, technology, etc.) let us know and we will try and include some info on that topic in our next update.

Andrew & Judy

Greetings From Luxor

2009-01-16T06:00:00.000-08:00

Hello Everyone!

I know we keep saying that we are trying to do updates as often as we can because internet will be scarce, but this time it is pretty likely. We are just about to end the part of our journey through Egypt, as in three days time we will be entering Sudan. We spend the next two days riding to the border, and then hop on a 10+hour boat ride across Lake Nasser to Wadi Halfa, Sudan. Should be an interesting ride for sure! We're pretty excited to be getting close to our second country!

We have very little to update since our last blog in Safaga, the road conditions between here and there were phenominal! And the heat hasn't been too extreme so far, though as we are constantly riding south, the right sides of our bodies are distinctly more tanned than the left! Right now we are staying at Rezeiky Camp in Luxor, which is really just a hotel whose grounds have been invaded by 50 tents. We had the option to pay and stay in the hotel, but we figured we've only been camping for a week and a half, so it wasn't time for that yet. We spent our first rest day doing laundry, maintaining our bikes and preparing for Sudan. Stew, so far, Judy and I have had some of the least amount of issues with our bikes...seems that we got some good quality parts, equipment and advice from you, thanks a lot!

One thing that was interesting was that in cycling from Safaga to Qena, we were heading towards the Nile and as we got closer, things got greener and people started appearing along the roads (the desert was very sparsely populated). It is amazing how water changes everything. In Qena, there were SOOO many people everywhere, especially children who knew very little English. "Hello" and "Money" were the most common things that we heard. Almost all of them were very friendly though and we felt like celebrities waving to either side as we rode through packs of children.

We have added a few pictures here as well, so enjoy! As we mentioned briefly, we have no idea what internet is going to be like in Sudan, but we will try to get another update as soon as possible.

Judy & Andrew

500km Down...11 400km to Go!

2009-01-13T05:35:00.000-08:00

Hello!

Well, we just completed Day 4 of our journey and are in a small little town right on the Red Sea called Safaga. Our tent is set up literally on the beach 20 feet from the water. We have travelled just over 500km over the past 4 days and are happy to say that as a team, at least one of us has cycled every kilometer so far (not necessarily both of us, but fatigue and soreness does get in the way). We don't have much to report on stuff that we have seen as it has pretty much been all sandy desert on the trip so far. We were very happy to be cycling right along the Red Sea for the past 3 days, it has been beautiful. For those that want to figure out our route, we went from Cairo to Hurghada and are now in Safaga. Our first day of cycling was very tough...not only did we have to deal with the hectic traffic in Cairo heading out, but as soon as we were out of the city we were on a long uphill out of the Nile valley...with a headwind. Even the most experienced riders said it was quite the challenge. BUT, we both managed to cycle the entire 130km to camp, just before the sun set. It was tough. The worst part was that day two was 168km. Luckily, when we woke up, the winds had changed and we had a tailwind for the whole thing. We met up with the Red Sea on Day 2 and camped within walking distance of the water. We didn't get a chance to take a dip, however, as we were exhausted and went to bed at 8pm. On day 3, it was another 133km, but again, the tailwind was a life-saver. We were in to camp by 2pm and had enough time to go for a swim this time! Today (Day 4), was only 100km and we were into camp before noon (hence having time to search for an internet cafe in town). Went for a swim again and had a chance to have a shower at a local hotel as well (and a beer).

So far, we have adjusted well. The cycling was difficult at first, but we are getting stronger and more settled into our saddles and shorts as we go along. The food so far has been absolutely amazing. The chef they have on the tour is incredible. We were thinking about going out to a restaurant for a "real" meal tonight, but decided not to as the camp food has been just as delicious.

We can't upload any pictures where we are so far, but if you are interested in what we have seen, just google "Egypt - desert", nothing much else.

In two days we will be in Luxor where we will have our first official rest day and might sent another update then. Then we are off to Sudan on a boat...it is all going so fast!

Thats all for now, ciao!

Andrew & Judy

And so it Begins...

2009-01-09T07:38:00.000-08:00

We don't have much time to write right now as we are madly packing the truck and getting ready to start cycling tomorrow. We just want to let everyone know that we have enjoyed our time in Cairo and have stayed healthy and are 100% ready to go riding tomorrow morning (at 6:30am). We have gone on three practice rides just to get used to our bikes and the traffic, etc...just 20-25km. All went well.

We are riding 128km tomorrow starting at the Pyramids and going to a camp in the middle of the desert. We are really excited and ready to go. Hopefully, that spirit can be maintained after a few days of hard riding (the day after tomorrow is 168km!)

We might not have internet for at least 5 or 6 days (or more) but if you want daily updates, go to www.tourdafrique.com. They will put an update up daily with pictures when possible so you can know how everything is going or if there are any setbacks etc.

Our internet is about to run out, so that is all for now. Sorry we could not write more. Hopefully on our next rest day we'll find a nice cheap internet cafe and have a good amount of time to write lots and put up pictures.

Ciao for now!

Andrew & Judy

Happy New Year

2009-01-01T23:42:00.000-08:00

Firstly, a huge Happy New Year to everyone! Hopefully everyone enjoyed some new years parties, the Sheikh here in Dubai cancelled "all" new years celebrations as an act of solidarity to the Palestinian cause. That being said, a lot of places got around that by having loopholes, and I think a lot more private parties were held. That and Abu Dhabi, which is only an hour away must have made a killing off of all the last minute plans from the people of Dubai.
Over the last few days we have crammed in a bunch of sight seeing, and had a few good laughs over Dubai. They seem to want to have the biggest and best of everything in the world:
Burj Tower - World's Tallest Man Made Structure
Dubai Mall - World's Largest Mall
Dubal Mall Aquarium - World's Largest Single Pane of Glass
Dubai Mall - World's Largest Indoor Christmas Tree (its 4 stories tall!)
I'm sure the list goes on...but thats all we saw.
Today marks our last day in Dubai, and the start of our journey to Africa. In 3 hours we catch a plane to Cairo, and from there, the biking starts which is the real point of the trip. We finally finished packing, and how we did it is beyond me. We started out from Canada with 4 checked bags, 2 carry-ons and Andrew's parents carrying tons of our stuff in their bags. We shipped our bikes to Dubai in advance. Now as we depart for Cairo we miraculously have only 2 checked bags and our bikes, plus carry-on. I guess over the course of the past 3 weeks we have become somewhat of packing experts! We have yet to see if the airline deems our bags to be overweight, as we weighed them with a bathroom scale, and they are always off! As it stands right now, our two bags as well as both bike boxes weight between 22.5 and 23.5 kg...the max is 23...so hopefully the airport scale is kind to us!

A few more donors to add to our list!
Heather Shonoski
Pat Griffith & Family
Carol-Ann Beson
Colin McLellan
Asha Padmanabhan

We also want to thank the entire Padmanabhan family here in Dubai for the generous hospitality and kindness. They made the final moments before Africa comfortable, and being away from our families so much easier.

So we are off, we are just going to load everything into the car and head to airport. We're not sure how reliable the internet will be throughout Africa, so this may be the last post for a couple of weeks. We hope everyone is well, and we promise to be safe. Happy New Year to everyone, and remember to enjoy the ride!

Judy & Andrew

More supporters

2008-12-28T21:50:00.000-08:00

We would like to add a few more names to our list of supporters that was previously posted. People just keep coming up and donating money or supporting us in other ways and we'd like to thank them very much.

Brian Garnier
Paul Kirvan
Hans Smits
Andrea Rogers

For those that are still wanting to donate, please know that we are fund raising throughout the entire trip, so there is lots of time. You can donate online at http://www.tourdafrique.com/donate or by sending a cheque payable to "The Tour d'Afrique Foundation" to:

Tour d'Afrique Ltd.
196 Spadina Avenue, Suite 407
Toronto, Ontario
M5T 2C2 CANADA

In either case, please be sure to state "In support of Andrew McLellan's student fund raising discount" or "In support of Judy Garnier's student fund raising discount" (depending on your preference) in the comments box/memo line. Since we are no longer around, we can no longer accept cash donations.

Thanks once again to the new supporters and to all previous supporters. So far we have raised enough money to buy 50 bikes for healthcare workers in Africa which has exceeded our expectations.

We are in Dubai enjoying our last bit of "vacation" and having Andrew's brother's wedding reception (and doing any last minute cycling preparation) before heading to Cairo soon.

Thats all for now!

2008-12-25T02:44:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas!!!

We hope everyone is having a festive day back home and, as we understand it, a very white Christmas for everyone! Not quite the case here...it is sunny and 35 degrees. Sorry to break the news...

Well, Colin and Asha are now officially married. For those that don't know, the wedding date was December 25th. The main part of the cermony was this morning and we are leaving for the reception in about an hour. We are 12.5 hours ahead of mountain time in Canada so most of you are still sleeping or just getting up to open some presents and stockings depending on where you reside.

We had a little taste of Christmas a few days ago when we attended the Christmas party for the Madras Boat Club. It was a strange experience sitting on a patio in the warmth having a full turkey dinner and listening to Christmas carols being sung in English by a male quartet with thick Indian accents. Adds a new twist to some of our old favourite carols. It was nice to get a bit of Christmas though and it made us miss our usual Christmas celebrations.

But, there were other celebrations that were equally joyous at the wedding. It was an amazing experience being at an Indian wedding. There will be pictures coming at some point since literally thousands were taken and there was also a film crew, so be patient and I am sure numerous people will start posting pictures on facebook and other places shortly. It is hard to really explain what went on at the wedding, and we weren't sure what was happening sometimes. But, they ended up married at the end of it, and everyone was exceedingly happy.

We leave for Dubai in two days for another wedding reception and we will be there for new years before heading off to Africa on the 2nd of January.

Once again, best holliday wishes to all and a Happy New Year!!!

Thank you to those that have sent us back little emails, it is great to hear what is going on in your neck of the woods.

Bye for now!

Andrew & Judy

People...Everywhere!

2008-12-21T04:49:00.000-08:00

I guess we will start this off with why exactly we are in India in the first place (for those that are perhaps wondering why our "African Cycling Expedition" is in India)
Andrew's older brother is getting married in Southern India, so we are here as a little pre-Africa vacation. On December 27th we leave for Dubai (for part 2 of the wedding) and then pff to Cairo on January 2nd for the start of the cycling. So for all of you that donated, no we didn't just take off with your money on an elaborate vacation!

So India is crowded! There are litrally people everywhere, doing everything from farming, sleeping and of course trying to sell everything under the sun. We've visited two more cities along our way, the first was Agra; home to the famous Taj Mahal, which really does deserve to be one of the wonders of the world. Its beauty is truly mesmorizing.The city of Agra itself is also quite beautiful, and my favourite part is that there were rhesus monkeys everywhere!
Now we are in Jaipur staying at a really cool hotel which used to be the home of the Maharaja. Its called the Bissau Palace if you are inclined to google it. This evening was one of the most fun filled that we have had so far. We went up to the roof of our hotel, and to our astonishment, the sky was filled with hundreds of kites! From every rooftop as far as we could see families were flying kites, it was such a magnificent sight! A few kites came loose and landed naer us, so we tried our hand at it, much more difficult than we thought! When we were done, we gave the kites we found to some little boys on the next rooftop. We didn't think something could top the elephant ride that we also took today, but it did! Overall a fantastic trip so far. Tomorrow we fly to Chennai for the wedding!

Still having some trouble uploading pictures, although we hope that we will be able to put some up in Chennai or Dubai! At the very least we will have some up for the Africa trip.

That's all for now! Ciao!

Here we are in Delhi, India

2008-12-16T20:05:00.000-08:00

We finally arrived in India! Our flight out of Edmonton was delayed by 8 hours, there was a problem with an engine sensor (likely due to the fact that it was -30) so they had to fly in another airplane for us from Vancouver. After a quick stop for a day in London, where we went to Trafalgar Square, Buckingham Palace and the National Gallery, we were on our way again. We stayed in a fantastically quaint little hotel in London, and had a delicious dinner at a little Italian place right down the street. Lunch was at "The Cafe in the Crypt" in the basement of St-Marten's-in-the-Field. (a little morbid, but absolutely delicious!)

Now we are in Old Delhi, we toured the Red Fort last night, which is monstrous, and today we are off to tour New Delhi. Our hotel is magnificent, and the service is out of the world! The people here take such pride in their jobs!

Thats all for now, my half hour of computor time is almost up!

Judy & andrew

Thank you!

2008-12-11T12:34:00.000-08:00

We set off in just 2 days for the first stage of our trip (my brother's wedding in India) and before we go, we would like to thank all of our donors and sponsors (so far!) for all of their support! We are just $200 shy of our $8000 fundraising goal, thanks to everyone listed below.

395 RCACS Parents Association
Alf & Trish Conradi
Alvina Mardhani
Amanda Vella
Amy Jenkins
Andres Sepa
Andrew Fichtner
Angela Comer
Blaine Beaven
Bob Edmiston
Bruce McLellan
Carl Conradi
Carla Costuros
Carol Marshall
Catriona Misfeldt
Cindy Hurtig & Ron Burrow
Cloe Whittaker
Councillor Ben Henderson
Dale Bawol
Dale McLean
Darryle Noble
David Jackson
Dave Northam
David Sykes
Deb & Vince Macintyre
Disa Simonar
Dolf & Nancy Ryks
Don & Margaret Ste-Croix
Donna Fong
Donna Staszenski
Dorothy Constable
Earls restaurants
Elzabeth McAfee
Elphida Trio
Erica Bullwinkle
Michael Weinfeld
Ernst & Young
Gib Kostiuk
Hannah Dux
Hans Smits
Ian & Charlotte McLellan
Jane Green
Jane Leaper
Jeanette Hofman
Jeni X
Jesse Skwaruk
Jessica Reimann
Joe Hill
John & Avery Stobbe
K. Zaychuk
Karen & Kevin Peters
Karen Rowswell
Keith Krueger
Kevin Richards
Kevin & Sue Garnier
Lera Jacobs
Lian Chang
Lida Somchynsky
Linda Duncan
Margaret & Richard Plain
Mark Lawless
Matt Hoffart
McEwan's Esso Avitat
Melissa Baron
Mildred Thill
Neil LeGrandeur
Nicole & Michael Bownes
Pat Griffith
Patricia Hughes
Paul Simmonds
Phi Delta Theta
Pleasantview Physiotherapy
RGS (Pra) Personnel
Richard and Margaret Plain
Rocky Mountain Soap Company
Ron & Kelly Millham
Runway 29 Pub
Sarah Foster-Stubbs
Scott Wright
Selena Boyle
Shannon Collum
Sharon Riley
Sophie Lee
Steve Judge
Strathcona Community League
Tamara Sutherland
Teague McGinitie
Tegan Hurst
Tim Challen
TPI-Janus Travel
United Cycle
Valerie Phillps-Boyle & Stephen Boyle
Venta Kabzems

2008-12-04T13:42:00.000-08:00

First off, welcome! And thanks for visiting, this is to be the first of many updates of our trip to Africa. Whether you're here just to make sure we're still alive, or wanting to see the first updates of pictures, thanks for supporting us!

Andrew and I are taking part in a 11,900km long trek from Cairo, Egypt to Cape Town, South Africa. We leave Cairo on January 10th, 2009 and finish (somewhat more tanned) 4 months later in Cape Town. We are taking this trip for various reasons. On one hand, although some may call us crazy, to us this is a vacation. On another level it is a journey to experience the vast world in which we live. Another motivation behind this trip was to fundraise. The Tour d'Afrique Cycling Company that we are going with is associated with a foundation; the Tour d'Afrique Foundation. The foundation purchases bicycles for healthcare workers in Africa. One of the major downfalls of African healthcare is not what you might suspect, a lack of medical professionals, but rather it is a lack of transportation. Getting the doctors and nurses to the people proves difficult in a world where even us "wealthy" North Americans can bearly afford fuel for our cars, not to mention the roads which range from packed sand, to old lava flows to some super brand new roads that would rival ours. Bicycles are the most reliable way in Africa! To date we have raised $7,272.97; so close to our goal of $8,000! None of this would have been possible without the generous support of all of our friends and family! A huge thank you to everyone who has already donated! Andrew and I will actually have the honour of being at two bike presentation ceremonies throughout the course of our trip, which is very exciting! If anyone is interested in making a donation, either contact Andrew or, I or visit http://www.tourdafrique.com/donate/index.html In the comments box simply put Andrew McLellan & Judy Garnier's Student Fundraising.

Right now we are madly packing, trying to get last minute visas (who knew that a Sudanese tourist visa would be so hard to get) and say our so longs to all of our friends. We leave Canada December 13 if all goes well. On our way to Africa is a pit stop in Southern India (don't worry its the safe part of India) for Andrew's brother Colin's wedding and a stop in Dubai and the way back across the globe to Africa. More to come...

Andrew & Judy