The rest day in Lilongwe is one of those typical ones where most of your time is occupied with arranging things like laundry, bike repairs, napping, eating, et cetera, instead of site seeing, which is not a real issue as there is not much to see in this town. The campsite is nice, with even a swimming pool to cool off. At the end of the day we have a bike handover ceremony; part of the TDA entry fee goes to bike donations, and as the ceremony is partly sponsored by Castle (the south African beer brand), it becomes an enjoyable evening. At lunch I was able to stack three enormous Dutch pancakes in a hotel downtown, concluded with an ice-cream; how wonderful life can be with a full stomach. At the supermarket I buy a kilo of chocolate to keep me going the coming few days. Yes, It’s all about food! The new section takes us across the ‘Great Eastern Road’ (I am not really sure why as we are moving mostly westwards trying to cross the continent to the coast of Namibia), and starts with a stretch of 5 days to Lusaka, the capital of Zambia. The distances per day are getting longer, because it slightly flattens out, and the winds are pre-dominantly east winds. I guess this is because the TDA assumes a higher fitness level. The first day is 152km and involves crossing the border into Zambia, with the usual exit and entry stamps and the money changing, which involves some sharp head calculations and negotiation tactics as the street money changers are real scam artists. The second day is the toughest, and therefore the Mando day, with 197km and 1200 meters of climbing. Added to that the temperature quickly rises to 35 degrees and a humidity of 90%. It becomes a brutal day in many aspects, and for me mentally the toughest. The scenery of the ‘true Africa’, as Zambia is called, is not as spectacular as I imagined, but it is also partly invisible for us cyclists due to the high grass on the sides of the road. All the Mando days so far had some special elements like astounding scenery, dirt, heavy rains, big climbs, et cetera, but this is just a straight paved road with rolling hills, and it seems to go on forever.

At the end of the day I have ridden 207km, burnt 4850 calories, sat on the bike for 6h:21m, and I am completely stretched, all my energy is gone, and I have to sit down to prevent falling over! Next to riding fast on your bike, you can also carry stuff on it, and the African people take this a step further. I have shot a couple of pictures, I already had a few Miss Piggy’s, and added to that I have seen large piles of wood, stacks of charcoal, huge plastic tons, and even a big size goat who was stuck in a special constructed wooden rack on the back of the bike.

It was a though week, I can't really tell why because it was all pavement, but my heart rate monitor does give an indication: 17.000 calories burnt on the bike in 6 riding days, that is more then the dirt section we have done or the Kenya lava rock. And racing for more than 200km doesn't help it. But there are always these nice surprise, small little treats when you least expect them. For instance after a long and hot day of riding a nice cold beer in the local cafe, followed by an excellent african shower under the water pump!

By the way: somehow I made it to the newspaper, the Volkskrant, a few people pointed it out to me. It was in the travel section of last weekend’s edition, about long distance cycling, and there is a small snippet about the tour d'afrique.

   -- Frans Smit

Past TdA rider on the Elephant Highway

With only 3042 kilometres remaining on the world’s longest bike race and after enjoy two days of rest in Victoria Falls the tourism capital of Zambia the riders are ready to take on the last month of our journey across Africa. Many riders took the opportunity to rest and relax while the more adventuresome of the crew choose to take in the spectacular scenery of the falls upside down. Not content enough to simply ride across Africa these adrenalin junkies bungeed and the gorge swing and any other heart rate raising activity Victoria Falls had to offer.    

Jethro de Decker continues his dominance of the last half of the race across Africa. The self-proclaimed off road junkie appears to becoming a lover of the road. The Zambezi Zone is 916 km of pure pavement.  Gisela Giartmar continues her dominance of the women’s race. Not only winning the Zambezi Zone but Gartmair is currently third overall for the race. Giartmar now chooses to race purely against the boys. A friendly competition has arisen between her and current race leader Australian Stuart Briggs. Only 2 hours separated the two during the Zambezi Zone section and the battle is getting fierce. 

Next up is the Elephant Highway section - a stretch of mostly paved roads and an average daily distance of 158 km. The section takes them from Vic Falls, Zambia to Windhoek, Namibia.

For the latest stage times, you can visit our race results page here. The current race standings at the end of the Zambezi Zone are as follows:

Stuart Briggs	Australia	291:14:00
Tim Thomas	United States	297:24:00
Gisela Gartmair	Germany	298:06:00
Frans Smit	Netherlands	305:27:00
Jethro de Decker	South Africa	307:06:00
Daniel Spasojevic	Australia	316:22:00
Rod Atkinson	Canada	329:23:00
Juliana Austin-Olson	Canada	329:25:00
Sunil Shah	United Kingdom	343:29:00
Eric Dufour	Canada	375:47:00
Ruban von Furstenberg	Germany	382:13:00
Jenn Crake	Canada	396:32:00

The other night I was walking down the road with a friend and a funny thing happened.  But a little background first. 

Ethiopia. Three weeks in a country filled with a chaotic uncontrollable energy, some good, some bad.  Three weeks of people running at you from all sides, frantically, even desperately screaming at you.  Screaming things like “where are you go”, “You, you, you, you, you”, “give me birr” and “give me money”, screaming, laughing and dancing as you cycle past.  Add to this kids throwing rocks at you, or pretending to throw rocks at you and chasing you and trying to grab things off your bike.  After two weeks of this with frayed nerves and temper shortened thoughts of violent retaliations slowly begin to creep into your brain.  I personally became so agitated that it opened me up to a realization of how the soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan must feel driving around waiting to be blown up by a IED. And I was only dealing with mischievous children.

So back to my walk with my friend the other night.  A local person rode by on a bike and my friend, without thinking yelled “you, you , you , you, you!” and I yelled out “where are you go?” then we started cackling like crazy people.  Suddenly we looked at each other and realized we were perpetrating what people do to us everyday as we ride.  And it was fun!

So I guess what I finally came to in my own head was a place of forgiveness and understanding and even appreciation for what we all went thru in Ethiopia.  We might as well have been from another planet to a lot of the people there.  So anyone still harboring any ill will don’t take it to personally because it is what it is.


   -- Chris Van Waning

Officially the pontoon ferry across the Zambezi River at Kazungula, about 75 km west of Victoria Falls, that the Tour d’Afrique takes each year, is the crossing between the Zambia and Botswana borders. But in fact the midstream point of this sometimes treacherous ride marks the only spot in the world where 4 countries meet, namely Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe. In doing so a ferry passenger “visits” all 4 countries as the ferry struggles and smokes from one side to the other during the 8-15 minute crossing. At one point the boat does an upstream push towards an island that is in Namibia before drifting downstream to the other side. Moreover the landing on the Botswana side happens on a spur that is actually Zimbabwean soil – the Zimbabwe border fence just happens to have been moved very slightly east so that once off the boat traffic can proceed unhindered over the last 400 yards to Botswana border control.

This fascinating legacy from the colonial scramble for Africa has had a most colorful history. For the past 60 years the four countries have laboured to reach agreement over the construction of a bridge. Given the relatively limited width and depth of the river at this point this would not require a particularly challenging engineering design. But they continue to fail, most recently because Zimbabwean President Mugabe insists on huge payments for use of “his water.”

During the Zimbabwean War of Independence, the “rebel” ZANU-PF fighters used the ferry to smuggle arms into then Southern Rhodesia. In response the Prime Minister of the pariah Rhodesian state, Ian Smith, had his air force bomb and sink one of the ferries in mid-stream, in order to discourage this practice. More recently, in 2006, a ferry flipped while carrying a brand new Volvo semi trailer cattle truck, which incidentally was built in South Africa by the father of TdA Tour Leader Sharita. 16 people died, trapped under the wreckage while other clung to the banisters on the top side and didn’t even get wet. Until recently one could still see the wreck of this boat and the truck on the Zambian shore.

There are 3 pontoon boats typically in operation today, one that carries passengers, cars, regional buses, as well as tourists on excursions from Vic Falls to Chobe National Park. For these customers the wait to cross is typically no more than an hour. The other two somewhat larger pontoons slowly shuttles the literally hundreds of transport trucks lined up on either side across the Zambezi. In fact by googling “Kazungula ferry” you’ll find that this crossing is now best known for being the major bottleneck in the southern African transport network. One of the reasons for this again involves the notorious Zimbabwean regime of Robert Mugabe. Many trucks travelling between South Africa and the copper mine belt of northern Zambia and the Congo’s Katanga province used to use two Zambia/Zimbabwe border crossings – the bridges at Vic Falls and Siavonga . But when Mugabe raised the tariffs on trucks transiting through Zimbabwe astronomically, the trucking companies decided it was cheaper to pay their drivers to wait as long as 7-10 days at Kazungula and avoid Zimbabwe altogether.

All we can say is wow … and good luck to all who clamber aboard. This is indeed a most fascinating and funky ferry.

Written by Brian Hoeniger with consultation from Tjisse Kamstra (Owner, Livingstone Safari Lodge)

1.) What are your thoughts on the Zambezi Zone so far?

Long distances and a lot of paved roads. I like unpaved roads so I miss them a little bit but the people are nice.

2.) What is the first thing you purchase when you get to a rest day?

Fruits. Juicy fruits with a lot of water inside. Watermelons, oranges, but not bananas. And internet.

3.) What is the first thing you hear when you wake up in the morning? What’s the first thing you think about?

Sometimes I hear Eric Olverson putting down his tent at half past four. I think about my bike and look to see if it’s there and when it is, I am happy.

4.) Aside from your bicycle, what item can you not live without on tour?

The trucks and the kitchen. And James’s cooking.  

5.) What is your favourite meal or thing to eat on tour?

Spaghetti Bolognaise.

6.) Complete this sentence: Tour d’Afrique makes me feel…

Tired. Tired but happy. And free.

1.) What are your thoughts on the Zambezi Zone so far?

The stages have been very long and the people very friendly here in Zambia. I am looking forward to Livingstone. I think it is going to be the absolute highlight of the section.  It was a quiet section until now, not a lot of change in the landscape. But we are coming more and more to the highlight. It is easy living in Zambia with the nice people, and the ladies are happy when you take their picture.

2.) What is the first thing you purchase when you get to a rest day?

Internet. I look forward to reading my emails and having contact with my family. And in Lusaka I enjoyed ice cream and chocolate for the first time, and good coffee, cappuccino and cake.

3.) What is the first thing you hear when you wake up in the morning?

I hear Ronel in the kitchen; I know the water is cooking and coffee is coming soon. Then I hear my alarm clock. Normally I wake up very early. I look very forward to the coffee in the morning.

4.) Aside from your bicycle, what item can you not live without on tour?

I really enjoy having the option of using my MP3 player. My notebook is also very important.

5.) What is your favourite meal or thing to eat on tour?

Absolutely this is an easy question. The salad with the feta cheese. I like feta very much.

6.) Complete this sentence: Tour d’Afrique makes me feel…

Happy.

"But your soup ladle makes a perfect tire lever"

Cyclists. They eat a lot. They need to. While individual caloric needs vary, it is not unusual for an average cyclist to burn 6000 calories during a single ride. This is on top of the base requirements for day to day living.

With such huge requirements common sense should tell you that every rider should aspire to be on the kitchen crew’s good side. Do remember, not only do we cook your food, we serve it too. Ever wonder why you got the scraggly chicken wing, when the guy next to you got the nice plump breast? Luck of the draw is rarely the answer.

In the interest of everyone’s happiness in the years to come here at TDA I have compiled a short list for all future cyclists. Read it, memorize it — then put what you’ve learned into action. Remember — “He who controls your breakfast, controls your destiny.”

Top 7 Ways to Piss off the Kitchen Crew:

1) Sit in the kitchen. If you ever find yourself asking us, “am I in your way here?” The answer is yes.
2) Ask “What’s for dinner?”
3) Leave your bicycle anywhere near the kitchen.
4) Ask “Where’s the soup?” The soup is in the same pot everyday. That pot is in the same spot everyday. Try to memorize that spot.
5) Ask “Is the soup ready yet?” If the soup pot isn’t in the soup spot, it’s not ready yet.
6) Ask us questions regarding bicycles. Our favourite: “Do you know where the good bike pump is?” We don’t ride bikes. We don’t touch bike pumps. We have no idea what the good bike pump looks like.
7) Leave your dish kit lying around the kitchen. I’m sorry. I haven’t seen your spoon. The next time I see your mug I’m throwing it in the bush.

But fear not. It’s not all piss and vinegar on this side of the stove. Remember that guy who got that nice chunk of chicken? He got a choice cut yesterday too. If you’re looking for a more generous scoop tomorrow, here are a few simple and surefire tips.

1) Help out in the kitchen.
(A) Peel garlic: we all love the stuff. But if you think we’re gonna spend all day peeling for a group of 80 you’re sadly mistaken. Dan S. has earned a permanent spot in the good books for his efforts in this department.
(B) Mix milk: mixing milk is not something that gets more fun with time. We’re a little over it to be honest. Eric D. is the milk mixing champion.
(C) Chop onions, scrub potatoes, ‘tip and tail’ beans — it’s not all glory jobs in this kitchen. In fact, there’s no shortage of menial tasks. Help is always welcome. There are a few usual suspects in this department; Rod, Julianna, Marcel, Stuart all come to mind, but I have missed many.
2) Do a good job when your turn for dish duty arrives. Don’t whine. If you can’t do a good job, hire Steve.
3) Say thanks.
4) Buy us a beer.

-James McKerricher

The cuisine of Zambia shares a lot of similarities with the east African countries we’ve cycled and digested our way through so far, particularly in rural areas. But since Zambia is also one of the most urbanized countries in Africa the availability of fast-food and the influence of the western diet becomes more pronounced, especially in the larger cities. Zambia even has a Subway sandwich chain… for those of you who have been dying for a foot-log assorted.
 
But traditional foods like maize, cassava, peanuts, beans and greens like spinach, pumpkin and sweet potato leaves continue to play a large role in the diet of most Zambians. This is especially true amongst those who still consider fast-food and meat a major luxury.
 
Staple Foods:
 
Nshima: Regardless of wealth or social class, the central focus of the population’s diet is Nshima,which permeates deep into the cultural pulse of Zambia. More than just white lumps of bland, taste bud-shunning maize meal, nshima plays a role in the folklore, rituals, hospitality and social customs of the country. There are up to 20 different terms for nshima depending on temperature, texture, colour, who cooked it, how it was cooked…etc etc. There’s even a term for nshima left over from the night before: nshima ya cimbala – which men are advised not to eat since it is believed to cause weakness of the joints and to usurp his sexual prowess!
 
Relishes/Ndiwo: Thank goodness nshima invited its tastier friend the relish to the party. Relishes made with beef, chicken, goat, fish, vegetables or beans add some desperately needed zip to the predominantly bland flavour soiree.
 
Fish: Tilapia (or Bream), Tiger fish, Nile Perch and frightening Giant Catfish the size of small children are common. I should clarify that while I personally find them terrifying - you might find them deliciously unscary. Dried Kapenta (those tiny silvery sardine-like fishes) are also popular in Zambia, and typically served partially reconstituted in a sauce of tomato and onions.
 
It’s worth mentioning that Zambia shares part of Lake Tanganyika, which is another stunning example of biodiversity. The lake is regarded as one of the most biologically unique habitats on earth - home to at least 400 different species of fish. Just like Lake Malawi, Lake Tanganyika is extremely old, and its age, combined with its ecological isolation has led to the evolution of several unique fish species found no where else in the world (98% of its cichlids); most of these are concentrated in the Zambian waters of the lake.
 
Fruit: Zambia offers more fruit-lover nirvana, with all the wondrous fruit favourites: mango, guava, papaya (pawpaw), oranges, apples, watermelon and bananas (among others).
 
Street Foods:
 
Mopani Worm: The Mopani or Mopane Worm is not exclusively a street food and not really a worm but a caterpillar, which lays its eggs on the leaves of the Mopane tree; if given the chance, it will grow into the attractive Emperor moth. They are hand harvested in the wild using the pick/squeeze/toss method: Pick the largest ones from the Mopane tree, squeeze them like a tube of toothpaste to rupture the innards and expel the bright yellow-green contents of the gut in a slimy pop, and toss them into a bucket. The worms are then boiled in salty water and sun-dried. Mopane worms play a vital role in the booming edible insect trade. As a food source, these plump caterpillars are a body-builders dream: less fat than an egg and nearly three times the protein content of beef! Depending on who you ask, their flavour profile ranges from, “not bad when fresh, but when stale like a cheesy, but without the cheese or the flavour,” to, “very earthy and rock-like,” or “like eating dried wood,” and finally, “tastes like a dog biscuit.” So it sounds like you’ll just have to try one for yourself to decide.
 
Other Zambian street foods include the ever-popular chicken and chips and an increased appearance of boiled egg vendors – kids who wander the streets with hard boiled eggs and a tray of salt, and if you’re lucky, pepper and hot sauce for seasoning.
 
Beer/Alcohol:
 
Shake Shake: Shake Shake is a highly unusual and inexpensive beer sold in tetrapak-style containers. It gets its name because it needs to be shaken vigorously before drinking. Shake Shake has a thick layer of sediment that collects on the bottom, giving the beer a grainy, milky texture that coats the mouth. The brew is made from sorghum and maize and has a powerful sour yeast flavour with a lemony tang – if it’s sweet, it hasn’t matured properly. The funniest description I've read called its flavour: “sour green apples and barnyard.” But some people love it, so you be the judge.
 
Mosi: Mosi is the beer of Zambia and gets its name from Victoria Falls, which was originally called Mosi-oa-Tunya (the smoke that thunders). Mosi’s slogan "Great Nights, Great Mornings, Great Beer,” stems from the claim that the beer won’t give you a hangover. Please don’t yell at me if this turns out to be a clever marketing ploy.

Tipping: Tipping in Zambia is not customary, but is appreciated. In restaurants a service charge is often added, but if not, 10% is appropriate.

As I was enjoying a dip in Mama Rula’s swimming pool in Chipata earlier this week, I thought for a split second that the more beaten paths of Southern Africa might offer TDA riders some creature comforts in between our long, hot rides.  We have certainly seen more showers, supermarkets and Snickers bars south of the Equator, but as James the cook warned me, the Tour never really gets easier and we will continue to face both expected challenges and unexpected curveballs as we progress through each section.  James’ infinite wisdom must be the secret ingredient in his perennially popular TDA dinner dish, Spaghetti Bolognese.

For the past five days, the Tour d’Afrique has cycled from the border town of Chipata deep into the heart of Zambia, following the path of “the Great Eastern Road.”  We cycled westward on the Great Eastern Road, and I’m pretty sure there’s a metaphor somewhere in there about going against the grain and taking the road less traveled by.  This mentality sums up the type of person who embarks on the Tour d’Afrique. 

In just five days, Zambia’s sporadic thatched huts, football-loving children and lush, green horizons have left us more speechless than our longest distance yet, 197 kilometers, and days with 1-2,000 meters of ascent.  The mileage, temperature and currency are inflated in Zambia, but we have not been without TDA-style creature comforts along the way.  At a school camp, we celebrated British Tony and Australian Juliana’s birthdays with cold beer and dessert.  At a very warm bush camp, we all took the best showers of the Tour (since the garden hose at the Dongola zoo that is) under a “mysterious, magical water pump.”  The unexpected curveball wasn’t until our last bush camp before our rest day in Lusaka.

The day before the day before the rest day is always the toughest mentally for me, and we faced 148 HILLY kilometers along the Great Eastern Road, with legs deadened by the dehydrating effects of the week’s mileage and heat.  I finally rolled into camp around 3pm, and threw up my tent to allow time to enjoy James’ best Spaghetti Bolognese yet and a TDA Foundation bike donation ceremony.  As I fell asleep with a full heart and fuller belly under the stars, I felt comfortable and peaceful in my tent.

A few hours later, I woke up to the unsettling sensation that something was crawling up my arm.  This is never a pleasant realization in Africa, so I decided to give it a flick and keep my headlamp off.  A few minutes later, it sounded like it was raining…under my tent, and I felt something crawling up my other arm.  I reluctantly turned on my headlamp to investigate and gasped in utter horror at the sight of hundreds of ants crawling up, down and around every part of the inside of my tent.  I jumped out of the tent and put on my shoes, only to find that they too were full of biting, stinging ants that started crawling up my legs and latched on harder as I tried to flick them off.  I hopped around in my underwear yelping at 2am (a generally common occurrence unfortunately for various reasons), flicking off fire ants for about ten minutes, before deciding what to do about the more serious tent situation.

Armed with a headlamp, DEET bugspray and a book, I waged World War Three on the Zambian ant army for the rest of the night.  I vaguely noticed a few other lights on in tents and wondered at the status of other riders, but didn’t have time or the DEET weaponry to fight a multiple-front war.  The next morning at breakfast, I saw several other riders with the same battle-weary bite-wounds covering their legs and bags under their eyes.  Apparently our tents were stationed in some sort of migratory insect path, and ants invaded at least six rider tents.  Two riders went out to use the facilities, and left the bushes with ants in their pants!  Canadian Steph (an outdoor guide) described it as one of the most intense nights of camping in her life.  American Paul cut his losses early and went to sleep in the truck.  German Gisi said something about her night in German, but we all got the gist.  Ants in our pants and tents certainly fall into the category of unexpected and in retrospect hilarious TDA curveballs.  We will rest in Lusaka tomorrow, and then face more challenges, curveballs and comforts along the road to Victoria Falls.  

   -- Erin Sprague