Merry Christmas from Botswana!

Just a short note to say Merry Christmas to everyone at home. We are in Botswana, near the Okavango delta. If anyone needs a last minute gift idea, we would encourage you to think about donating on someone's behalf to World Bicycle Relief, which provides bicycles to children in Africa so they can get to school: http://www.worldbicyclerelief.org/

Here is some info on the program:

Bicycles for Educational Empowerment Program
In June 2009, we launched The Bicycles for Educational Empowerment Program, an innovative project that is providing 50,000 bicycles to improve rural Zambian children's access to education. These children are especially at risk for extreme poverty and high HIV/ AIDS infection rates; safe, reliable transportation to school will enable them to have better health and economic outcomes as a result of completing their secondary education. More than 7,000 bicycles have been distributed to date, and initial reports indicate dramatically increased school attendance.

Expansion to Kenya and Zimbabwe
In 2009, World Bicycle Relief began expanding operations in Zimbabwe and Kenya in response to growing demand for a higher quality bicycle and comprehensive service program. In less than a year, we have sold more than 3,000 bicycles to organizations such as the World Health Organization, Catholic Relief Services and Care International. We are committed to providing the highest quality service and to working with organizations to solve their transportation needs.

FUTURE

World Bicycle Relief will continue to work with NGOs and community based organizations to respond to crisis situations where simple, sustainable transportation will improve the health, education and economic situation of people in need. We will meet these urgent transportation needs with the manufacture and distribution of bicycles for areas of the world in crisis. We have begun plans with World Vision and other NGOs to provide comprehensive bicycle programs as part of economic development and relief efforts in Kenya, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Malawi, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Botswana and Lesotho.

Biking begins! And amazing African animals

Two days ago, we zeroed our odometers, put everything in our panniers, and hit the road north out of Joburg. Yesterday we arrived in Rustenberg, and today took a tour of the Pilanesberg National Park. You aren't allowed to ride bicycles in the park, or even get out of your vehicle, and we learned why when we saw three lions ripping apart an animal they had just killed. It was really spectacular to watch in real life. We also saw elephants, impalas, wildebeest and their new babies (some still with umbilical cords attached), a jackal, guinea fowl, giraffes (my personal favourite), zebras, and hippos. It was really mindblowing to see all these animals I'd only ever seen images of, all in the same place, and so close to us!
The other highlight of our trip so far, though it shouldn't really surprise me anymore, is just how nice and generous people have been to us - when you're on your bicycle, people just really want to help you out: with information, places to camp/stay, and food... so much food! We have been introduced to many tasty South African delicacies - bilatong (like beef jerky), pannakoeken (Afrikaan crepes), and one generous camping neighbour gave us an entire coil of wild kudu (an African antelope) sausages.

Soweto and apartheid

We´ve been in Johannesburg now for three days, and learned a bit about South Africa. We visited the Apartheid Museum (their motto is "where apartheid belongs") and headed out to Soweto. If you haven´t heard of Soweto, it is short for "south west township" and is where millions of black South Africans were forcibly moved to during apartheid. If they wanted to travel into Joburg (which most of them had to, for work) they had to carry an identity card and they had permission to travel only during certain hours and days. This was only one tiny piece of a larger picture of keeping different races seperate (apartheid literally means "apart-hood" in Afrikaans), providing many more privileges to white folks, and literally treating blacks as though they were not people. I know this type of history is not unique to South Africa but what shocks me is how recently this was happening - up until the early nineties, you may remember. I know that I had heard about apartheid then and watched "artists against apartheid" rock concerts and even boycotted my favourite soap brand because it supported apartheid according to a friend that was studying international relations, but it all seems so much more real being here and hard to understand what took the international community so long to get outraged.

This is a famous photo of a young schoolboy who was shot in the back by police (along with hundreds of others) during a protest by students in Soweto in 1976. We visited the scene of this incident, as well as one of the places that Nelson Mandela lived in the township. I have started reading his autobiography (thanks Rob and Amy!).

We don´t have any of our own pictures because we were warned not to take our camera with us, as it was likely to get stolen. We were also told by many people that Soweto was very dangerous, as was going downtown, especially in the shared taxis that the black people use, which we did and had a wonderful experience. We´ve decided that fear can be used to keep different groups of people apart as effectively as legislation and walls do and that is important to think about who the information is coming from. Fortunately, we have been staying with and befriended by some really amazing guys who were brave enough, as white people, to take the shared taxis and go to Soweto and knew that they were as safe as any other city. This one neighbourhood in Soweto, near the Regina Mundi churce, which served as a refuge for many activists, was the most peaceful and friendly place I´ve been to so far in South Africa.

Things have gotten a lot better in South Africa, but almost everyone I´ve met agrees that there is still a long way to go. I guess in the same way that the US electing a black president is a major step forward, but doesn´t mean that racism has suddenly vanished in north america. There are images of Barack Obama here alongside Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, and other heroes of the people. Suddenly it doesn´t seem as bad to be mistaken for American - although I did still put Canadian flag handlebar tape on my bike!

We ride north tomorrow towards Botswana...

Africa bound!

We're off tomorrow for a cycling trip in South and East Africa. We land in Johannesburg, and fly out of Dar Es Salaam 11 weeks later, with more kilometres in between than we can possibly cycle, so we already know we will be making use of a few trains, trucks, busses, boats, or whatever other forms of transportation present themselves to us.

How did you decide where to cycle in Africa? This question has been asked of us a few times.
Well, we looked at some maps and dreamt a bit. Then we used the internet to see if anyone else has done anything like this. We found the website of Amaya and Eric, who have been cycling the world for years, and have over 85,000 km under their bike tires. They have a great article posted debunking some of the myths about the continent: www.worldbiking.info/resources/Top_Ten_Myths_Cycling_Africa_Bike_Touring_Resources.html Coincidentally, they are currently in Argentina and cycling some of the same places that Chris and I went.

We asked them about their favourite places in Africa, then planned a route going through many of them, doing a lot of reading of websites and guidebooks. You can see our potential route in the two maps here. The google map shows more details, but it makes it look like we are biking through the Congo, which is not true - I didn't know how to make google let us take a boat up the lake between Tanzania and the Congo, or a boat across Lake Victoria, both of which are good possibilities.

How do you prepare for such a trip? is another question we've been asked. Besides the research and buying our flights, most of the work has been in getting vaccinations and medications and getting our bikes ready.

I am bringing my trusty bike, protagonist of earlier adventures in this blog, who now has a name: Mo (after its new moustache handlebar - not to be confused with Nelson's handlebar moustache). Nelson didn't have a bike that would be appropriate, so we contacted Kona who does wonderful work supporting the use of bicycles in Africa through their AfricaBikes program: www.konaafricabike.com . They gave Nelson a great deal on a new bike, for which we are very grateful. More at: konaworld.com

We also have the good fortune of being friends with the Bike Doctor in Vancouver, who let us use his bike shop and gave us tons of advice and help, plus a skookum deal on everything we needed. Thanks Pol! Please see: www.thebikedr.com

How do you take three months off to do a trip like this? is probably the question we've been asked the most, though. What can I say? We are very fortunate to work with and for people who understand the importance of doing stuff like this. As for affording it, Eric and Amaya probably say it best in their article about financing a world biking tour: http://www.worldbiking.info/resources/Financing-Bike-Tours.html Not buying a vehicle when we moved to Nelson was certainly a key ingredient, plus lots of DIY (do-it-yourself) fun.

North to the Yukon

I was invited to speak at a conference in Whitehorse at the end of September, so went a week early and headed out to Haines Junction to do a little exploring. It was pretty interesting for me to be so far up the Alaska Highway, having grown up at Mile Zero.

I stayed with some wonderful folks, right next to the church made out of a culvert, and even ran into an old friend from university. It was still autumn according to the leaves on the trees, but the snow had snuck down the mountainsides and into the valleys, surprising them a little. The snow was great for seeing lots of animal tracks, including: wolf, grizzly, and mountain (Dall) sheep. I even saw a tree chewed by a beaver, which felt very Canadian, especially in the same day as seeing Sam McGee's cabin and reading Robert Service poetry.

Biking East: Niagara, PEI & the Iles de la Madelaine

In May, I headed east for a conference in Toronto and, naturally, brought my bicycle. I convinced Sarah and Alli, who I’ve biked with in Argentina and Cuba, respectively, to take a few days off work and studying and go on a little trip. We cycled in the Niagara region, tasting wonderful wines, and ending our trip at the falls.

Then I jumped on a train to Montreal, picked up Diane, and we headed even further east, to PEI. Of course, we had to visit ‘Green Gables’ and see the red sandy roads. Like many cycling adventures, though, the best things were not the landmarks but the people – like the family who saw that we were going to camp in the rain and convinced us (it wasn’t that hard!) to come and stay the night with them in their beautiful, historic summer home.

From PEI, we jumped on a little ferry and visited the Iles de la Madelaine, small islands north of PEI that are part of Quebec. The winds there rivaled those of Patagonia, but the people were warm and friendly and the microbrewed beer, homemade cheese and smoked fish delicious. We even got to see the fish being smoked, hanging from the rafters in an old building, with small piles of burning ashes