Shadow of the Silk Road - Colin Thubron

“Sometimes a journey arises out of hope and instinct, the heady conviction, as your finger travels along the map: Yes, here and here… and here. These are the nerve endings of the world…
A Hundred reasons clamour for your going. You go to touch on human identities, to people an empty map. You have a notion that this is the world’s heart.”

After reading just the first few pages into prolific travel writer, Colin Thubron’s journey along the Silk Road, I guarantee you will be captivated. It is part travelogue, part historical re-exploration and anthropology, written in a somewhat poetic philosophical style that is easily accessible and a great read. Especially if you are planning on exploring this route by bicycle on the 2014 Silk Route Bicycle Expedition.

Thubron chose the easy way out, kind off: he hopped on buses, donkey carts, trains, jeeps and camels through the drifts of the first great trade route, the heart of China into the mountains of Central Asia, across northern Afghanistan and the plains of Iran into Kurdish Turkey. And even then it is a harrowing journey, filled with incredible adventures. I wonder if he could do it all over again, on a bicycle, if he could sign up? After all the TDA’s Silk Route Bicycle Tour has been described as “The longest, hardest, highest, hottest, coldest bicycle expedition on the planet.”

As you read Thubron’s tale your eyes will stumble over names like Xian, Lanzhou, Anxi, Charklik, Cherchen and Kashgar and many times I had to go back to the map to try to figure out just where I am.  Perhaps it is just me, coming from a sunny country like South Africa with mostly easy to pronounce names and not too many vast and curious stretches of lands still whispering of arduous journeys and ill-fated travelers. Yet he makes the journey accessible by his interactions with the locals, his honest curiosity and all the research he prepared. His description of the silk moth’s life span is as funny as it is chilling. He spends time to speak to strangers, visit mosques and even did a stretch being incarcerated in a Chinese cell. He encounters Hunan traders, Uzbek prostitutes and volatile Kurdish Turks. There is also that bit about him receiving root canal treatment without anesthetic in Iran which should serve as a serious reminder for anybody taking on this journey to visit the dentist prior.  Perhaps one criticism is that he gets somewhat nostalgic and too literary as he explores some of the people and places he meets. However his writing is filled with compassion as he attends burials and speaks to the relatives which reveal as much of the history of the locals as of their modern adaptations to an ever-changing world.

I would not take this book along on your journey as a light-hearted recount of the Silk Route but would rather recommend that you read it well in advance and let his evocative, poetic explorations sink into your psyche and hopefully, when you do get the chance to do this incredible journey, you will in part see it through his sage like eyes, which is what any decent travel writer should aspire too.

Keen to explore his journey by bike? The Silk Route is a 12,100 kilometer self-powered caravan that begins at Shanghai, China, the bustling center of China’s economic rise, and follows the classic Silk Route across fiery deserts and forbidding mountains. Eighteen weeks later you will arrive in faraway Istanbul, the majestic capital of Byzantium, the Roman Empire.

One of the riders of the 2007 Silk Route, Aussie Jo Demmler, says it best: “Beautiful sunsets, early morning sunrises, days of biking heaven, days of biking chaos, extreme temperatures , different cultures, headwinds, hills, heat, a cold beer at the end of the day, sharing tea, vodka & beer with generous locals, desert camps, sore bum, bike maintenance, snow, ice and yurts, kids on the streets, high fives, rough and smooth roads, long days, history, culture, architecture, generosity, markets, food, life long friendships”

A few years ago we purchased a Mercedes Sprinter as a support vehicle for the 2008 Orient Express and Silk Route Bicycle Expeditions. It has proven to be a true workhorse and very reliable. As a result, we recently bought 2 new Sprinters to use on this year’s North American Epic and Doomsday Ride Bicycle Expeditions. They have just left Toronto and are heading west to the start line in Anchorage, Alaska.

The Tour d’Afrique is the only one of our expeditions currently with a race componnent. Ninety-six stages ranging from 60-207kms. Almost 12,000kms. Through lava rock deserts, tropical downpours, red, sticky mud, blazing Sudanese heat, the Blue Nile Gorge, sandstorms – this really is the world’s longest and toughest cycling race.

And the winners are (times in hours/minutes/seconds):

1     Pascal Duquette – Canada (right)       325:44:12
2     Philip Howard – Ireland (centre)         343:18:40
3     John Faulkner – New Zealand (left)    352:38:11

1     Bridget O’Meara – South Africa (centre)  413:26:04
2     Rosi Winn – Australia (right)                    436:09:13
3     Marie-Claire Oziem – UK (left)                 474:58:02

Congratulations to the top three men and women (who were also EFI!) but also to all the other TDA 2013 cyclists who took part in this, the real Amazing Race.

Each year a number of TDA riders manage to achieve EFI (Every Fucking Inch) status. This means that they cycled the entire distance – camp to camp – each and every riding day and never got onto the support vehicles during the entire 12,000km ride. Congrats!!

Back from left – Bridget O’Meara (South Africa), Vince Langford (New Zealand), Wayne Gaudet (Canada), Allan Knight (Canada), Pascal Duquette (Canada), Freek de Haas (Netherlands), Marie-Claire Oziem (UK), Kurt Schwietzke (Germany), Jared Lester (Canada), Alexandre Costa Nascimento (Brazil), Philip Howard (Ireland)

Front from left – James Campbell (Australia), Darraugh O’Riordan (Ireland), Mike Lantz (USA), Rosi Winn (Australia), John Faulkner (New Zealand), Marco Panebianco (Italy), Alexandre Morier (Canada)

The 2013 Tour d’Afrique marked the 11th time we had cycled from Cairo to Cape Town. And each year the TDA Foundation has donated bicycles along the way. Initially the bikes were given to health-care workers to assist in the battle against HIV/AIDS but in recent years the focus has expanded to schoolchildren and other worthy individuals and organizations. In 2012 the Foundation lent money to a Kenyan organization, Wheels of Africa, so that they could set up a bike shop that re-furbishes donated bicycles shipped from the USA & other countries and sells and services them in the Nairobi area. And the loan was promptly repaid this year. In addition, 5 bikes were given to SIFE (Students in Free Enterprise, Kenya) to assist them in setting up Nairobi’s first bicycle hire business. Here is some more info on the bike hire program that we donated 5 bikes to – http://www.strathmore.edu/News.php?NewsID=1094

In Nairobi, Kenya 50 bicycles were donated. Details here.

In Arusha, Tanzania, 30 bicycles were donated. Details here.

In Livingstone, Zambia, 50 bicycles were donated. Details here.

Finally, in Cape Town South Africa 15 bicycles were donated to Songo, a local organization striving to improve the lives of children living in townships by providing them a safe place to play, grow and develop.

If you are interested in helping out the Foundation, please consider making a donation of any amount here. 100% of monies received go to the purchase of the bicycles. Tour d’Afrique Ltd covers all administrative costs.

Having spent the past few days working a sports event in Denmark, I have joined the countless others who have been wowed by Copenhagen’s cycling infrastructure. Not only do all the main roads have dedicated cycling lanes, most of which are segregated from the traffic, but many residential side streets do as well, not to mention the network of paved paths that criss-cross the city’s green areas.

The result is cyclists and bikes everywhere, by and large old fashioned single speeds (which work great since the land is flat), plus every kind of kids, pets and groceries carrier imaginable. The commuter trains and subways also have dedicated areas for bicycles. Moreover all this infrastructure appears to have been completed years ago.

Compare this to the so-called world class city of Toronto, home to the TdA office, where relatively few streets have bike lanes, and every proposal by advocates to enhance cycling infrastructure is turned into a bureaucratic quagmire by the decision makers at City Hall.

Small wonder that the Danes are one of the healthiest nations in the world. Maybe we should start a Tour of Denmark and waive the entry fee for our local politicians…

And that’s a wrap! The incredible journey is over for yet another year. The cyclists have arrived at the V & A Waterfront in Cape Town and the celebrations are about to begin. Congratulations to all the riders and staff. This is an experience that you will never forget! See more pictures of the finish here.

And now the dream starts for another group – the riders signed up for the 2014 Tour d’Afrique. Want to come along? Register now.

Last Friday & Saturday, I was honoured to man our booth at the 2nd Annual  Bike Expo New York which is part of the immensely popular 5 Boros Bike Tour.  Over 32,000 cyclists take part in this event and most of them had to walk by our display to pick up their 5 Boros registration packages. It was hilarious to watch them glance at our display map from across the aisle and then do a double take. Then they would talk amongst themselves and start pointing out the various tours to each other. Finally, they would walk over and usually say “Those aren’t all really cycling tours are they?” Over the two days we fielded any number of questions and ran out of brochures. The people who stopped by were completely intrigued by what we do and where we cycle although the occasional one would simply shake their head sadly as if we were completely insane…

We had some alumni from the New York area stop in to say hello and even had someone drop off 2 registration payments. I was staying with friends in Brooklyn and each morning would hop on my bike and follow some of the many bike lanes in New York filled with commuters and cross the Manhattan Bridge into the city and the Bike Expo location on the East River. Unlike my cycling life in Toronto, New York is most certainly making an effort to encourage cycling.

We look forward to returning to the show in 2014.

As our great expedition comes to an end, it would be impossible to say that we could have done this alone. Not without the help of each other; not without the help of the staff; and without a doubt, we would not have moved an inch without the fearless leadership of Sir Ciaran Orion Haranahanyahan Powers.

Like any true leader, he refuses any fame, any glory, nor any special treatment and, in fact, specifically requested that I kindly not write any blogs about him whatsoever. Right. Here I have for you – a summary of what we have learnt about Ciaran over the past 4 months in Africa.

For starters, this is this trip will officially mark the longest stretch of his life that he has spent OFF (Off his bike). While many cyclists turn up to the TDA having never ridden a bike or very little in comparison, Ciaran has spent nearly all of his life riding a bike, working in the cycling industry and following cycling events worldwide – only for all of that to grind to a halt in Cairo, Egypt.

Being tour leader unfortunately means spending most of one’s days behind the wheel of the Toyota Hi-Lux checking in to make sure everyone is more or less still alive. It’s a rough life. I mean the air-con is half-broken from a previous trip across the African continent and only comes out of the vents by your feet. The hardship. The suffering. While everyone else is sweating their brains out of their ears, half dead across the Sahara desert, Ciaran is there – rustling around in his back pack for his wool socks, reaching across to the drink holder (found only on the passenger side, ugh) for his diet soda water, while checking his smart phone for live stream updates on Giro d’Italia bike race. The multi-tasking is impressive.

The man runs a tight ship however. You can tell by the trim of his neck beard or more accurately, the laser-beams carved into the side of his head. Cleanliness IS a sign of godliness and Ciaran doesn’t let Africa get in the way. Did you know that this man has gotten himself a roadside/ally-way/ backyard hair cut in every country that we’ve gone through? That’s right. With the ease of cross language communication we’ve seen just about  everything from the tour-leader bowl cut to tour leader buzz cut and every other creative expression as to what a ‘good’ hair cut should look like. Out latest addition was a camp-cut done by a rider who shall not be named, the result of which was a request from Mr  Henry Gold himself to please “fix that” before Cape Town.

Now I know what you’re all thinking by now, the ladies must be a-running. You’re right, they are. The ladies have never run so fast and so hard, in the opposite direction. But hey now, he’s actually the perfect catch.  Listen up. He’s highly qualified in listening attentively to any complaint you might have about absolutely anything. I mean, even if there is nothing within his power he could actually do it change it, he will try. Why?  Because he has to. He will wake up hours before you every day and make sure your days starts as seamlessly as it did the day before. He will even drive you thousands of kms in any direction to deal with your personal problems. The only catch is that at the end of the day, you’ll be living in a blue Marmot tent with half broken zippers and, if he’s anything like the rest of us, sleeping on a theramarest with a slow leak.

Luckily if you haven’t had the pleasure of meeting the one and only Ciaran HP on this African adventure, perhaps you’re one of the fortunate few joining the Bamboo Route this fall where you will be charmed by this guy’s endless zest  and obsessive-compulsive tour leading.

If eating is the prize for long distance cyclists then you haven’t really won the race till you’ve cycled in Mexico. Imagine cycling 120km of rolling hills through the dry near desert climate and as you pass through towns along the road you see these…

You continue cycling and enter another village where a street vendor is serving up some impossible goodness…

With 50km still remaining in the day you cycle on though through a street market and smell the divine chilies that are the complex heart of Mexican cuisine…

Arriving to camp you find yourself dreaming of…

you look for a chair to put in the shade here…

and you start devouring this…

If you want to experience one of the grand cuisines of the world from the seat of your bike then don’t miss out on the North American Epic’s 2 Mexican sections – Baja California & Conquistadores.

Your soul will be happy.