Soon after completing a 6,000 km solo cycling trip from Vladivostok in the east to Moscow in 2005, Vancouver writer Miranda Huron turned her sights on Africa.
“Friends and family finally put their foot down on the idea of going solo,” says Huron, who also cycled solo across Canada in 2002. “So I’ll be riding with 60 other cyclists in Tour d’Afrique.”
In January, Huron will land in Cairo to begin a 10,800 km odyssey south over four months through Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Botswana, Namibia and ending in Cape Town, South Africa.
Participants can choose to race the entire way, just a segment, or take it at their own pace.
Huron is choosing to race through Ethopia.
“I’ve heard that kids throw stones at you there. It’s not malicious. It’s just to get your attention.”
In Kenya, she’s planning to slow down. “The wildlife there is amazing and I want to visit the parks. That leg of the expedition was cancelled last year because of the political uprising so I’m glad to be going through this year, even if it is during monsoon season.”
The expedition isn’t only an exercise in sweat and sights. The Tour d’Afrique Foundation dedicates each tour to give back to the communities that its riders pedal through. The foundation also puts a portion of the fees that it collects towards distributing bikes — this year the focus is on providing “bike ambulances” for use by medical workers serving AIDS patients.
Since the inception of the tour six years ago, riders have also personally raised about $700,000 US for various international charities and projects in African communities.
Huron hopes to draw donations for the Foundation’s work by blogging during the Africa trip and using the notes for a book proposal tentatively titled “African Peddler.” It not all about her. “It’s more about the place of the bicycle in Africa, its importance. More of a cultural book. Anecdotal.”
There’s a film in the works. The camera company Lens & Shutter has donated three small video cameras to mount on her bike. “I’ll edit it when I get back and submit it to the Mountain Film Festival and various bike film festivals.”
Huron, who spent her early years in the small Northern Ontario of Warren (pop. 100) and moved “all over” before landing in Vancouver at age 12.
At the University of British Columbia she earned a degree in linguistics. She has a special interest in First Nations culture, and Cree and Musqueam are among the 14 languages she speaks.
“I’m working on my fifteenth now — Swahili.”
Africa offers some tough landscapes, cultural hardships and sometimes political instability that leads to violence but Huron says her only fear is of getting sick. She says cycling offers some safety.
“People treat you really well when you’re on a bike. It’s different than if you are a tourist looking at them out of a bus window. I think it’s because cycling is something that they can do as well — or at least it’s in the realm of possibility. They see that you have to work hard to do it. And you’re not taking from the land, you’re just passing through.”
Follow Miranda Huron’s adventures and read her writing for such magazines as Bust, Momentum, Skiers and Outpost at www.mirandahuron.com
LINKS:
www.tourdafrique.com
“Friends and family finally put their foot down on the idea of going solo,” says Huron, who also cycled solo across Canada in 2002. “So I’ll be riding with 60 other cyclists in Tour d’Afrique.”
In January, Huron will land in Cairo to begin a 10,800 km odyssey south over four months through Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Botswana, Namibia and ending in Cape Town, South Africa.
Participants can choose to race the entire way, just a segment, or take it at their own pace.
Huron is choosing to race through Ethopia.
“I’ve heard that kids throw stones at you there. It’s not malicious. It’s just to get your attention.”
In Kenya, she’s planning to slow down. “The wildlife there is amazing and I want to visit the parks. That leg of the expedition was cancelled last year because of the political uprising so I’m glad to be going through this year, even if it is during monsoon season.”
The expedition isn’t only an exercise in sweat and sights. The Tour d’Afrique Foundation dedicates each tour to give back to the communities that its riders pedal through. The foundation also puts a portion of the fees that it collects towards distributing bikes — this year the focus is on providing “bike ambulances” for use by medical workers serving AIDS patients.
Since the inception of the tour six years ago, riders have also personally raised about $700,000 US for various international charities and projects in African communities.
Huron hopes to draw donations for the Foundation’s work by blogging during the Africa trip and using the notes for a book proposal tentatively titled “African Peddler.” It not all about her. “It’s more about the place of the bicycle in Africa, its importance. More of a cultural book. Anecdotal.”
There’s a film in the works. The camera company Lens & Shutter has donated three small video cameras to mount on her bike. “I’ll edit it when I get back and submit it to the Mountain Film Festival and various bike film festivals.”
Huron, who spent her early years in the small Northern Ontario of Warren (pop. 100) and moved “all over” before landing in Vancouver at age 12.
At the University of British Columbia she earned a degree in linguistics. She has a special interest in First Nations culture, and Cree and Musqueam are among the 14 languages she speaks.
“I’m working on my fifteenth now — Swahili.”
Africa offers some tough landscapes, cultural hardships and sometimes political instability that leads to violence but Huron says her only fear is of getting sick. She says cycling offers some safety.
“People treat you really well when you’re on a bike. It’s different than if you are a tourist looking at them out of a bus window. I think it’s because cycling is something that they can do as well — or at least it’s in the realm of possibility. They see that you have to work hard to do it. And you’re not taking from the land, you’re just passing through.”
Follow Miranda Huron’s adventures and read her writing for such magazines as Bust, Momentum, Skiers and Outpost at www.mirandahuron.com
LINKS:
www.tourdafrique.com
