Life changes fast these days. The day after The Nedbank Desert Dash in Namibia I hopped a flight through Ethiopia over to Tanzania in East Africa . For whatever reason whoever makes up the often random travel rules, considers Tanzania a covid safe country, so after 2 weeks here I would be free to return home to Canada without having to quarantine. I did have a flight Dec 13 through Amsterdam to Calgary but due to Canada not accepting South African PCR tests at that time I couldn’t take it. Apparently Tanzanian PCR tests or having travellers go into a civil war torn country like Ethiopia to get a pcr test is a better option🧐?Sometimes I wonder who comes up with some of these decisions and if they have ever been out into the real World.
Wrapping up racing the back to back BC Bike races in early October I was keen to use the built up fitness from the 12 days of intense racing, so fired out some emails. To my surprise all the pieces randomly fell into place, and with support from Kona, I was headed off to South Africa to take part in the Cape Epic, the Tour De France of mountain biking. This had been a lifelong dream. With no time to go home, I packed whatever I had with me in my van, and was soon on a flight to basically the farthest corner of the World from the land of the True North 🍁 . This is basically what has transpired since then…
Expectations vs Reality since Mid October:
Expectations: Oct 13th: Fly to South Africa, race Cape Epic with Christiaan Janse van Rensburg , stay one week longer to enjoy Cape Town, catch up on dental work, fly home November 1st.
Reality: Oct 13th, fly to South Africa, 1st ride together Christiaan crashes out, Craig Boyes steps up, we race Cape Epic. The week after I enjoyed the hiking and beaches of Cape Town, picked the wrong dentist and started delaying the trip home as a result of 4 rough dental appointments with 2 x infections and 2x week long doses of antibiotics. Mid November I was invited to race Wines2Whales with Adi Enthoven as his teammate crashed out just days before the race. Adi was supposed to race the 50+ category, but due to my age we were put in the 30-40 Sub Vet category. Adi and I would win the Wines2Whales sub-vet division by a slim margin. It was one of the highlights of the trip hanging out with Adi . After the race Adi set me up in his historic Cape Town residence, originally built in the late 1700’s. I would switch dentists and started another 3 appointments at Enamel Dental with Dr. Brand. He was a real a pro and did a great job, although fixing the infection from the last place delayed treatments.
Late November the World panicked and blocked all travel from South Africa due to the Omicron variant. Déjà vu to Nepal in 2020 . Lachlan Morton and I were on a training ride together when this all came down. He was quick on his feet and was able to find a round about way through Ethiopia back to the USA. By the time I got out of the dentist that afternoon, all the options to return to Canada had dried up. As a nice gesture, Lachlan offered his entry to The Munga, December 1-5th. With just 2 days to prepare, and coming of a bit off an offseason, this turned into the toughest thing I have ever done on a bike, racing 1155km non stop across the South African Karoo from Bloemfountain to Wellington, nearby to Capetown. It was a struggle with heatstroke, chest problems, and a sputtering system but still one hell of an unforgettable ride. Dec 8-12, I joined the Realty Dynamix p/b PowerBar Cycling team in Namibia to fill in for their solo rider for the 393 km Nedbank Desert Dash
. After having a good ride on Thursday, I would wake up in a bad state on race day and suffered, but still enjoyed the experience of riding across the Namibian desert . Dec 13th, I had a flight home on KLM, it was cancelled due to Canada not accepting South African PCR tests. Instead, Dec 13, I opted to fly to Tanzania for 14 days of beach “quarantine”, to be allowed freely back into Canada afterwards.
Landing in Dar es Salaam things were well looked after as Adi organized a vip welcoming to the country via Beyond travel agency, wisking me through the covid and entry protocols and straight to a hotel for 2 days of hibernation to rekindle some energy. From there it was on a boat to Zanzibar, to go on a chill bike tour, rest up, and check out the beaches and eat tropical fruits for a few weeks to take care of the “quarantine” period before going home December 28th . 2 days after landing on the island, Canada suddenly removed all the travel restrictions. At this point I said Hakuna Matata. Travel plans had already been made and I likely wouldn’t be back anytime soon, so I decided to stick around and enjoy the East African Island lifestyle for a while. Being a puppet to whoever makes up the often illogical Covid rules gets tiring after a while.
The first week on Zanzibar I wanted to see the lay of the land, so spent two nights in the party hot spot of Paje on the east coast, then rode 100 km north to Nungwi for a full moon party. These parties are intense. After a day of recovery, drinking ginger tea with my friend Kunta Kanta from South Africa, I would ride back south to the east coast. This time landing in Jambiani, a small relaxing village, 7 km south of the party town of Paje. Here was the perfect setup for the next 9 days, staying in a beach hut hostel with a sand floor, enjoying the pool, hamocks and ocean frontage of a true paradise. It was a great place to meet other travellers, spending the days swimming in the ocean, slack lining and visiting with the other backpackers.
Time was spent split here and in Paje, where I noticed 2 other Kona bikes,Unit X’s, which belonged to a couple of cool spanish guys, Pello and Jon who were taking gap year to ride from South Africa to Spain. They were settling into Zanzibar for 3 weeks of recovery. We immediately became best friends. The days at the beach front hostel at Drifters were spent eating street food, having siestas on the ocean front terrace, enjoying 2 for 1 Konyagis (mixture of ginger, lime and the local sugar cane liquor), and practicing Spanish as a group of 6 Spaniards would quickly form with myself being the token Canadian. It was great to be able to enjoy the party atmosphere in Paje, but to just be a 20 minute bike ride away from the tranquility of Jambiani to get a good nights rest. Being in Zanzibar, I was suckered into a few close to all nighters, spending a few nights with the party animals. When in Rome.. 😉
Christmas is always tough to be away from friends and family in Canada, but we would have a great time enjoying seafood buffets and the tropical atmosphere with our little clan of travellers. At this point Zanzibar had been amazing, relaxing and meeting travellers from around the World was the highlight. When it was time to start thinking about going home Dec 28th, the temperature was -30 Celsius in Canada and new covid restrictions were emerging every day. Tanzania seems to be a bubble in the Covid restricted World we live in, with no masks, no social distancing and only a few rules in place. It was surprising most countries consider Tanzania a safe country, as their only covid tactic seems to be Hakuna Matata, to not worry about it. Talking to the locals it seems Covid hit lightly here and they just continued on living, likely getting herd immunity the natural way. The people seem happy, and it seems to make sense especially in these 3rd world countries as the people really can’t afford endless lockdowns which would crush their livelyhoods and make it virtually impossible to eat. Yes, covid did go around here, some travellers I met were feeling a bit ill for a day or 2, but it was nothing abnormal from what I have experienced in 15 years of travelling. The relaxed atmosphere of the locals and travellers enjoying the freedoms in an ever tightening World, had alot of travellers extending their trips. With the frigid weather and the covid lockdowns back home, the pro move seemed to be to do the same. Thus I refunded the December 28th flight and have decided to kick off training for 2022 here in Africa. With the travel bans now removed, I will be free to head back to South Africa at some point (if new travel bans don’t emerge) to catch my original return ticket with KLM back to Calgary.
After 2 weeks of enjoying the Island life, the body was showing solid signs of recovery, so I decided to slowly start on the bike again, but to still enjoy another week of the rejuvenating Island life. Our clan of travellers would find great street food, relaxing siesta spots, and every day we’d try to do one touristy thing to help remember the day.
The days before New Years were especially quiet, basically the calm before the storm, as the New Years Eve in Zanzibar was one for the history books. It would start with a seafood buffet, fireworks, and beach huts burning down and end with a morning sunrise swim, followed up with a few siestas to kick off 2022. January 1st was sort of MIA. January 2nd, training officially kicked off with a nice motorpace session back from the south coast behind Joannes and Marias scooter. The next day I would ride with Jon and Pello as they headed off to Nungwi to continue their journey, while I would explore some backroads on the south tip of the island. For training Zanzibar has a bunch of quiet flat roads but the 35 degree weather with an intense humidity, makes it like biking in a sauna. Early morning starts when it’s just 27 degrees helps, but its not long before it’s scorching.
Sitting in Stone Town, plans were made to head off yonder. The goal was to find some cooler temperatures up in the Usambara mountains or around Kilimanjaro. There is lots to explore down here, the first move was to fly up to Pemba island just north of Zanzibar to check out the often forgotten island and get in a few days of training.
Pemba Island was awesome, staying in a jungle lodge on the Northern tip. The island was very quiet, lots of lush rolling hills, secluded beaches, amazing snorkeling and friendly locals all over the place. The heat/humidity was to much to properly train in though, so after a couple days I caught a boat to Tanga on the mainland and headed off towards Kilimanjaro. I’m now in the Usambara mountains, sitting in a bungalow at 1900 meters, hanging off a cliff overlooking the African plains below and Kilimanjaro in the distance. The cooler temperature is a relief and the training grounds are unreal with endless dirt roads and trails with virtually no traffic and again very welcoming locals. It reminds me a lot of the riding in the foothills of the Nepali Himalayas.
Who knows where or how long this journey will be, but the goal is to train 22-30 hours a week, explore some new lands, soak in the culture and meet some new people. I don’t have much with me, am out of regular training food and powders from Canada, there are no bike shops around if my bike has trouble, but we will roll with it as long as we are making progress and having fun. When I chose, or destiny choses, it will be back to South Africa, and maybe even hit up a race or two. Until then I can be found riding my Kona Hei Hei around Tanzania, enjoying process of putting some base miles in as the 2022 race season is just around the corner!
Over and out from East Africa! Hakuna Matata.