My name is Anna and I’m from Gothenburg, Sweden.
Like most people that sign up for a trip like this, I enjoy traveling and meeting new people. Doing it on a bike makes it even better!
I used to bike quite a bit a few years ago, but lately I have gotten out of shape, partly due to my time consuming job as a doctor in anesthesia and intensive care. Long night shifts and long bike rides simply don’t match, at least not for me, since I want both to be enjoyable. I have, however, come to miss my devoted bike rides, not to mention my former shape, and therefore decided I’d better do some thing about it. What better way could there possibly be to relax from work, focus on bike riding and get back in shape, than traveling across the African continent by bicycle?
My greatest achievements as far as bike touring goes are probably my cross country ride from California to New Hampshire with “America by Bicycle” in 2001 and my self-supported tour from Sweden to Spain the following year.
Even if I do like to challenge myself now and then and have done so on many levels in the past, I suspect this might just be the greatest challenge of them all, which makes me feel both excited and anxious at the same time. Not only does the biking itself seem to be more than anyone can ask for, but camping with little luggage in the middle of African wild life, without showers and proper toilets, having sparse meals with limited ingredients, basically for four months, will certainly mean stretching my own comfort zone more than ever before.
Why would any sane person expose themselves to something like this? Well, either I’m not sane or maybe that’s what life (my life?) is all about; stretching personal comfort zones in order to develop as a human being, gathering new experiences and living life to its fullest potential?
Or, maybe I ought to answer that question after the trip, if I’m still sane that is…?!